risk – The Burning Platform

IF YOU BELIEVE

If you believed they put a man on the moon

Man on the moon

If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve

Then nothing is cool

REM – Man on the Moon

The REM song Man on the Moon, released in 1992, is a haunting melancholy tune, with Andy Kaufmann and his life and death as the focal point. For me, the lyrics always bring me back to the simpler time of my youth, when our antenna TV could get about eight channels, we had one rotary phone, one old used station wagon, lived in a row home, and a family of five could be raised on a truck driver’s income, with a stay-at-home mom.

It’s the references to the Game of Life, Risk, Monopoly, Twister, checkers, and chess, which invoke what we did for fun when we weren’t out riding bikes, playing stick-ball, roller hockey, or touch football in the streets. Were bad things going on in the world? Sure. The Vietnam War, Watergate, gasoline shortages and rationing, stagflation, and a myriad of other damaging challenges confronted the country, just as they always have throughout history.

Continue reading “IF YOU BELIEVE”

Mike Rowe: Americans Are Realizing “The Price Of Safety Is Devastating”

Via ZeroHedge

More than a year after the coronavirus arrived in the United States, American are “starting to understand the importance of balance again,” Mike Rowe told “The Story” Friday.

Fox News’ Michael Quinlan reports on the ‘Dirty Jobs’ host’s reality check for all Americans:

“Several months ago, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said no measure, no matter how draconian, could be deemed unwise if it saves but a single life,” the “Six Degrees with Mike Rowe” host told Martha MacCallum.

“I got a lot of flak when he said that, because I said, ‘That is a safety-first way of thinking’, and deep down we’re not a safety-first society.”

“Now we’re starting to see the price of safety is devastating,” Rowe added.

“What is happening right now in the energy industry is really the thing that I think we ought to be focused on, because there feels to me, and feels to a lot of people I talk to on a day-to-day basis, like a concerted effort to wage a kind of war against energy. It’s not a war we can win, especially with regard to fossil fuels and all of the jobs that are wrapped up in that industry. I don’t mean to sound like an apologist, but I know of no greater investor in alternative energy than the fossil fuel industry.”

MacCallum brought the discussion back to the issue of safety, saying, “We’re a country that was built on risk-taking. We want to take wise risks, we don’t want to be reckless, but that element of being strong and fighting through is something that I think is such an American value.

“Risk is the only four-letter word that matters,” Rowe agreed.

“It impacts and informs every decision we make, from driving a car to walking around without a mask or wearing one mask or two masks.”

“We’re starting to see,” Rowe concluded, “if you elevate the business of staying alive to the very, very top of all things, then the only thing you’ll ever do is stay alive. You won’t go anywhere. You won’t try anything or build anything.”

Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise

DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?

As I write this, the U.S. 10 Year Treasury bond is yielding 2.31%. It’s currently at a 16 month low. The Fed has been manipulating interest rates lower since 2010, but they have been dramatically reducing their purchases of Treasuries and Mortgage bonds. The 10 year Treasury yield should be rising, if the economy is truly improving. Instead it is plunging, indicating a recession. Real short term interest rates are already Negative. The entire financial system in the United States is manipulated, warped, and false. The free market does not exist. Everything is controlled and rigged by the Federal Reserve and their Wall Street owners.

Interest rates in a free market are supposed to reflect risk, debt levels and economic growth. Look at the bullet points below. Ireland’s debt levels are off the charts. Their economy is still in a shambles. In a free market only a fool would buy their government bonds. I wouldn’t buy their debt if it was yielding 10%. How could it possibly be yielding 1.63%, far lower than U.S. bonds? Spain is on the verge of revolution. Youth unemployment exceeds 40%. Their economy is a joke. Their debt load is unsustainable. How can their bonds be yielding 2.038%?

Is Ireland, Spain, France and Italy really a safer investment than the U.S.? Of course not. Europe is disintegrating before our very eyes. Germany is plunging into recession. The economic sanctions on Russia are backfiring. Not selling stuff to Russia hurts your economy. It’s going to be a cold winter in Europe, especially when Russia turns off the natural gas. The EU has papered over their insolvency with trillions of new debt. Pretending there is no risk, doesn’t mean there is no risk.

Interests rates across the globe do not reflect reality. Central Bankers and politicians think they can pull levers and control the global economy. They are sadly mistaken. The unintended consequences of their reckless actions will destroy the world. When all the bubbles implode simultaneously, the anger, discontent, disillusionment, and seeking of the culprits will lead to riots, revolution, and ultimately to war.

None of this makes sense, but the consequences of what these bankers have done will be dire. This will not end well.