“A variety of investors provided capital to financial companies, with which they made irresponsible loans and took excessive risks. These activities resulted in real losses, which have largely wiped out the shareholder equity of the companies. But behind that shareholder equity is bondholder money, and so much of it that neither depositors of the institution nor the public ever need to take a penny of losses. Citigroup, for example, has $2 trillion in assets, but also has $600 billion owed to its own bondholders. From an ethical perspective, the lenders who took the risk to finance the activities of these companies are the ones that should directly bear the cost of the losses.” – John Hussman – May 2009
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Wall Street/Fed/Treasury created financial disaster of 2008/2009. What should have happened was an orderly liquidation of the criminal Wall Street banks who committed the greatest control fraud in world history and the disposition of their good assets to non-criminal banks who did not recklessly leverage their assets by 30 to 1, while fraudulently issuing worthless loans to deadbeats and criminals. But we know that did not happen.
You, the taxpayer, bailed the criminal bankers out and have been screwed for the last decade with negative real interest rates and stagnant real wages, while the Wall Street scum have raked in risk free billions in profits provided by their captured puppets at the Federal Reserve. The criminal CEOs and their executive teams of henchmen have rewarded themselves with billions in bonuses while risk averse grandmas “earn” .10% on their money market accounts while acquiring a taste for Fancy Feast savory salmon cat food.
I find the cognitive dissonance and normalcy bias regarding what has actually happened over the last ten years to be at astounding levels. As someone who views the world based upon a factual assessment of financial, economic and global data, I’m flabbergasted at the willful ignorance of the populace and the ease with which the ruling class has used their propaganda machine to convince people our current situation is normal, improving, and eternally sustainable.
When confronted by unequivocal facts, historically accurate comparisons, and proof our economic system is unsustainable and headed for a crash, the average person somehow is able to ignore the facts and believe all will be well because some “experts” in the propaganda media said not to worry. Those who present factual arguments are declared doomers or conspiracy theorists. They are scorned and ridiculed for being wrong for the last ten years.
The vast majority of math challenged citizens in this country don’t understand the concepts of real interest rates, real wages, debt to GDP, deficits, national debt, or unfunded liabilities. As long as their credit cards are accepted and they can get that pack of smokes with their debit card, all is well with the world. They’ve been convinced by the propagandist corporate media machine that acquiring stuff on credit makes them wealthier. They think their wages are increasing when they get a 2.5% raise, when they are falling further behind because true inflation exceeds 5%.
Their normalcy bias keeps them from grasping why their credit card balance rises even though they have slightly higher pay. They actually believe bloviating politicians when they declare we have the best jobs market in history. Suddenly, formerly skeptical conservatives who rightly believed the government drones at the BLS and BEA cooked the books to make the economy appear better than it really is, believe Trump’s declarations based on the same data. Root, root, root for your home team. Why let facts get in the way of a good story?
“The President says this is the best economy in “15 years”. Kudlow says we’re in a “boom”. But in the first 18 months of the Trump presidency, private nonfarm payrolls averaged 190k, the same rate of job creation in the last 18 months of the Obama tenure.” – David Rosenberg
The unemployment rate was falling during Obama’s entire presidency and has continued to fall under Trump. It’s the same story. In order to keep up with the demographic growth of the labor market we need to generate 200k new jobs per month. But even though we’ve added less than 200k per month for the last three years, the unemployment rate has fallen because the BLS drones say a few million more working age stiffs have willingly left the labor force, bringing that total to just below 96 million people with their feet up on the couch watching The View.
They must be living off their non-existent savings and accumulated wealth. The cognitive dissonant masses, who believe the BS peddled by CNBC, etc., don’t seem to question why their real wage increases have ranged between 0% and 1% since the Trump reign began (it was 2% during Obama’s last two years). Real wages couldn’t be falling if the unemployment rate was really 3.9%. But, why spoil a good narrative with inconvenient truth.
With stagnant real wages since the Wall Street created financial crisis, a critical thinking person might wonder how an economy whose GDP is 70% dependent on consumer spending could grow for the last nine years, with corporate profits at all-time highs, consumer confidence at record highs, and the stock market at record highs. The Deep State/Ruling Class/Powers That Be or whatever you want to call the real people pulling the strings behind the curtain boldly assumed their propaganda machine and the years of dumbing down the populace through their public education system could convince the American public to utilize cheap plentiful debt to re-inflate a new bubble to replace their last criminal enterprise.
You would think after being burned with 50% losses twice in the space of eight years, the average American would have learned their lesson. Debt kills. Consumer debt, which collapsed under an avalanche of Wall Street write-offs (paid for by you the taxpayer) in 2009/2010, has regained all-time high levels and is accelerating as we enter this final phase of blow-off top euphoria. When the next inevitable financial collapse occurs these heavily indebted suckers will be blind-sided with a baseball bat to the skull again. It seems Americans never learn.
Total household debt topped out at $14.5 trillion in 2008 and proceeded to fall by almost $1 trillion as a tsunami of foreclosures swept across the land. But a funny thing happened on the way towards Americans approaching debt with the appropriate caution – QE1, QE2, QE3 and propped up Wall Street banks doling out loans to anyone capable of fogging a mirror and scratching an X on a loan document. The Deep State oligarchs realized the only way to keep their ponzi scheme economy afloat was to lure in more suckers with debt that could be re-circulated to make the economy appear solvent.
College students, after over a decade of government school indoctrination, were the perfect dupes. From 2009 until today the government has doubled student loan debt from $750 billion to over $1.5 trillion. Everyone likes a shiny new car, so the financial industry took auto lending from $700 billion to over $1.1 trillion over the same time frame. The re-ignition of the housing bubble, through Wall Street engineered supply suppression, has driven prices far above the 2005 peak in most major markets.
With household debt at record levels, real wages stagnant and being in the ninth year of economic recovery a positive sign for the future? Do you believe the Fed has conquered economic cycles and have eliminated recessions? Have we entered a new permanent prosperity paradigm? We’ve also heard about how corporations are swimming in profits (turbocharged in the last nine months by the Trump tax cuts). This narrative is used to resolve the excess stock valuation dilemma.
If corporations were swimming in profits, why have they added $2.5 trillion of debt above the pre-collapse high in 2008? It seems they have been incentivized to take on mountains of debt because the Fed inflicted ZIRP upon the economy. Did American companies use this debt to expand facilities, invest in new capital projects, or raise wages for their workers? Don’t be silly. They had a better idea.
In what passes for the normal exercise of crony capitalism in this warped deviant shitshow we call America, the biggest corporations in the world took the free money created by the Federal Reserve and proceeded to “invest” it in their own stock rather than investing it in their operations and workers. Borrowing at near zero rates and using the proceeds to buy back hundreds of billions of your own stock had multiple benefits for greedy feckless Harvard MBA CEOs. Reducing shares outstanding juiced their earnings per share, resulting in a false profit picture to investors, who bid their stock prices higher.
Corporate executives tied their compensation to stock performance and reaped extravagant salaries and bonuses. This same scenario played itself out in 2007 – 2009. These brilliant CEOs bought back a record amount of stock just before the financial collapse. Using their borrowings, along with Trump’s tax cut windfall, current day S&P 500 company CEOs are saying “Hold My Beer”. They are on pace to buy back $1.2 trillion of their stock at all-time highs. When stock prices are cut in half again, these greed monkeys will pay no price for their reckless stupidity. All of this idiocy has been aided and abetted by the Fed with their near zero interest rates a decade after the crisis supposedly ended.
The messengers for the Deep State, put forth on the propaganda news networks, are paid to spin the narrative that debt is under control, GDP is soaring, inflation is non-existent, unemployment is at record lows, and America’s economy has never been better. Despite retro-active upward adjustments to GDP and personal income by government drone agencies to obscure the truth, even the fake data reveals debt levels at extremely dangerous heights. U.S. corporate debt as a percentage of GDP is currently the highest in history.
Previous peaks occurred at the bubble peaks in 1990, 2001 and 2008, just before recessions hit. Due to Fed monetary recklessness, irresponsibility, and enslavement to Wall Street bankers, we now have an “Everything Bubble” consisting of stocks, bonds, commercial real estate, and housing market. With corporate and personal debt at record levels, rising interest rates, and a slowing global economy, the dominoes are lined up once again. If you don’t know what happens next, you’re the dupe.
If you think corporations and consumers have been on debt binge, check out what the rest of the world has done since 2007. There should be no disagreement the global financial catastrophe of 2008/2009 was caused by excessive un-payable debt creation by global financial institutions in conspiracy with the Federal Reserve, Washington politicians, and corporate America. Trillions in faux wealth was obliterated in a matter of months. Rather than learn a useful lesson from this orgy gone wrong, the shadowy figures in smoky back rooms decided the solution was ramping debt to levels never imagined.
Using “Big Lie” propaganda and central bank printing presses across the globe, they have managed to add $71 trillion of global debt in the last ten years, up 43% from pre-crisis levels. And the most mind-boggling aspect of this growth is that $42 trillion of the new debt was in emerging markets, up 200%. Venezuela, Argentina, and Turkey are considered emerging markets. No risk of contagion there. Right? Trying to solve a debt problem by creating far more un-payable debt is like trying to cure stomach cancer with a gunshot to the scrotum. How the average person can not see the insanity of these actions by their political and financial leaders is beyond my comprehension. Or am I the crazy one for questioning our ruling oligarchs?
In order to prop up the criminal banking cabal, the Fed, ECB and Bank of Japan took their balance sheets from less than $4 trillion in 2008 to over $14 trillion today – and still rising. Make no mistake, this “money” (debt) was created out of thin air by captured bureaucrats doing the bidding of bankers, billionaires and the rest of their Deep State cronies. Believing the false narrative this was done for Main Street USA is a sign of willful ignorance or pure stupidity, as proven by the following chart.
While central bankers have more than tripled their balance sheets and funneled the fantasy bucks to Wall Street banks and mega-corporations, virtually none of it trickled down to Main Street. The only trickle is the piss running down our backs from the ruling elite. The massive debt creation has been nothing more than a last-ditch effort to prop up the crumbling financial/political paradigm. The current state of affairs is unsustainable. It is failing. And it will fail. This turkey will ultimately hit the ground like a wet sack of cement.
“Instead of doing the right thing and fund the tax cut through spending restraint, government expenditures have ballooned 10% in the past year. Treasury borrowing in July at $130 billion was the most ever outside the 2008/09 recession.” – David Rosenberg
I voted for Donald Trump in 2016 because he wasn’t Hillary and he had voiced what I considered positive stances on economic and global issues. He ridiculed the government data regarding unemployment and inflation. He trashed Yellen and the Federal Reserve for creating bubbles with their recklessly low interest rates. He railed against excess government spending and deficits. He declared the stock market was a bubble (7,500 Dow points lower than today). He had criticized our military involvement in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
As we know, he got elected and proceeded to forget all of his positions from the campaign. His Supreme Court choices have been stellar. Reducing regulations and taxes is a good thing. Fighting the Deep State and his own intelligence agencies takes balls. And his contempt and ridicule of the fake news media is to be applauded. But his 180 degree reversal on rational economic stances and feeding the war machine has been disappointing and will ultimately contribute to the next financial crisis.
Does every new president get brought into a room where they are told what to say about the economy, or else? Mr. Concerned about government spending and deficits signed one of the largest tax cuts in history (mostly to corporate America) while simultaneously ramping up military spending and cutting absolutely nothing. The result is trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see. The fake government data he once scorned, he now boasts about on a daily basis. It seems he now loves low interest rates and bubbles.
He threatens the Federal Reserve Chairman about raising rates. Even though the stock market is 45% higher than when he declared it a bubble, he takes credit for its ascension to record highs. Saber rattling and threatening war around the globe is now par for the course. It seems Trump thinks he can run our economy like a NYC real estate mogul. He does have experience with bankruptcies. That may come in handy.
As a country, we’ve allowed our elected and unelected rulers to do the exact opposite of what should have been done in 2009. We allowed criminal banks who were too big in 2008 to get bigger and now, Too Big To Control. Not one criminal banker was jailed, despite proof of the greatest financial fraud in history. We allowed ourselves to become addicted to low interest rate debt. We now view $1 trillion deficits as normal, when the highest annual deficit in history prior to 2008 had been $413 billion.
Ivy League educated intellectual yet idiot financial experts argue a negative real Federal Funds rate during a “booming” economy is logical. Everything about our economic system and financial markets is abnormal. And whenever a sober minded person questions this insanity, the spokesmodels for the establishment point to the record stock market as their proof all is well.
The arrogance and hubris of those who have benefited from Fed handouts and rigged market gains has reached epic levels. They’ve now convinced average Joes and Janes to venture into the markets at all-time highs. Equity exposure was only higher at the Dot.com peak. Consumer confidence is the highest since 2001. Irrational exuberance abounds. Whenever forthright honest financial analysts use factual historical data to prove stock valuations are at excessive levels, they are attacked and ridiculed for being wrong for the last decade. The old Wall Street adage that “being right but early is the same as being wrong” applies.
What the hubristic MBA stock trading savants fail to acknowledge is the longer this nine- year bull market goes, the closer to its demise. The unsustainable will not be sustained. Back in 2008 only 20% of market assets were passively managed through Index and ETF funds. That number now stands at 40%. This works well on the way up. It will create a cascading crescendo of selling on the way down.
I wonder how the 30-year-old big swinging dicks will handle that situation. To be confident about substantial upside at these levels is not rational, but whoever claimed Wall Street traders were rational? Reason and rationality will eventually assert themselves. Dark humor will have to sustain honest men for now.
“If margins are 2x the norm, valuations are 2x the norm, and mean regression is still a force of nature, we are looking at an 80% correction. Of course, if an 80% correction whacks revenues, then it could start to get ugly.” – Dave Collum
Warren Buffet’s favorite indicator of stock market valuations now exceeds the Dot.com peak.
Shiller’s cyclically adjusted P/E ratio is far above 1929 and 2007 crash levels. Only the Dot.com bubble saw a higher level.
Those who continue to point out inconvenient facts about our economy and financial markets will continue to be branded doomers and conspiracy theorists. Scorn and ridicule will be the weapons used by the Deep State to undermine confidence in reality- based analysis. Newsletter writers and money managers will be accused of fear mongering to attract subscribers and investors. I’m neither a newsletter peddler or investment professional. I’m just a dude who gets up every morning and drives to my job to support my family. I benefit in no way financially by taking a stand against the corrupt, lying, propaganda peddlers for the establishment.
The entire purpose of creating The Burning Platform was to inform those who wanted to hear the truth about our unsustainable financial, social and political systems. I’ve tried to do that to the best of my limited abilities for the last ten years. I’m frustrated because the majority have learned no lessons from the 2008/2009 catastrophe. The ruling class has double downed on the same policies and actions which created the disaster. Those in control may have successfully delayed the day of reckoning, but they have insured it will be far worse than it needed to be.
We are only halfway through this Fourth Turning and the coming financial collapse will be the catalyst for the looming conflicts and clashes which will determine the future course of our country. If you choose not to acknowledge the inevitability of financial collapse and imminent conflict, you haven’t been paying attention. Lessons not learned in the past decade will be learned the hard way in the next decade. To paraphrase Mencken, they deserve to get it good and hard, and they will.
“Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning – 1997
If you feel you’ve received some value from this article and this blog dedicated to free speech and truth in the face of lies, corruption and fake news, feel free to make a Donation to keep the lights on at The Burning Platform.
It’s not too late to edit. Savory salmon is Fancy Feast
“From 2009 until today the government has doubled student loan debt from $750 billion to over $1.5 trillion.” Even if we get back the base of our economy, mining, manufacturing, farming, when we stop paying these over credentialed, and not too particularly bright bulbs not to enter the workforce, there will never be a place for them, particularly if we start paring back government, which has been their landing zone for the last 10 years. Those diplomas, if they even got them, are going to be worthless. With a very expensive debt to maintain attached
Star.
Gerold Celente called the Degrees in Uselessness.
One other note-the armed forces is no longer a last resort. They are picky about who they take and a majority of these people couldn’t qualify. It’s going to be quite interesting to see where they are in a few more years after reality slaps them in the face.
Depends on the specialty. Right now the USAF is ~2000 pilots short of its mission needs, and massive retention bonuses have done little good. Last year’s talk of stop-loss went nowhere, most likely because just the threat accelerated the exodus. Now the talk is of recalling retired pilots to do admin duty. One big reason those pilots left was to get away from the mountains of paperwork so they could actually fly planes!
In third world countries, in just about ANY other country, people protest and rise up to defend their rights. Not in America. The people are slaves and prefer it that way. The most selfish, narcissistic, lazy, indifferent, shallow, corrupt yet ‘entitled’ folks on the planet. Their leaders reflect them. The problem is not in the politicians they continue to elect to swindle them, it is in THEY, themselves. A True wasteland. America is finished.
Protests have not changed anything in this country for 40 years. The protesters get to FEEL like they did something, so they are satisfied, and the PTB does what it wanted to do anyway.
Jim, I am a little peeved you posted this just as I’m supposed to lay still and rest quietly for two hours. Now, how am I supposed to do that when I want to tell you how resistant I once was to Strauss and Howe’s Fourth Turning Theory. Oh, I “accepted” it as a valid opinion about economic cycles, but I didn’t grasp that it was going on all around us, with or without our participation.
So, at least you know I want to jump into the fray again. Just can’t right now.
Getting warmed up and will edit this until the hour runs out, so check back 12:31, when it will either be revised and finished or time ran out and I won’t waste anyone’s time, especially mine.
First edit:
In 2008 I was still a financial data analysts at a large military maintenance facility in Oklahoma. Mostly I just ran the reports as programmed and sent out the data with as little of my own analysis as possible. However, I could read between the lines, especially when the sum totals were bleeding red all day long.
I was part of a Program Management Team which was supposed to provide the OIC of the place with the tools to run all the airframe repairs efficiently. We had a bunch of database analysis tools but I was put in charge of the mother of all databases created by a very clever guy out in Utah whom I will leave unnamed.
The data stream was from Utah through Nevada through Nebraska through OKC through South Carolina through Pennsylvania though Andrews through and to the Pentagon where all the data got smushed together and sent back out in nice little packets to each of our database connections for distribution to supervisors and managers along the line. (Ideally of course… things never do go smoothly in government, do they? Am being very careful with wording here, so if I don’t get it finished in the next ten, I’ll add just a bit to clarify.)
My job was to identify problems with labor overruns, parts overruns, overhead extravagance and any other issues which might be impeding the efficiency of the maintenance facility.
I’d just gotten an upgrade to the efficiency tools and noticed something very odd in the labor tracking section/segment of the data base. I noticed a very large pool of employees were logged on to miscellaneous tasks and duties (say a job requires a hazard sign and rope… a fifteen minute task (.25 hours) would be set aside for someone to place that sign and rope.) I was seeing hundreds of workers assigned and doing that rope placing job for days at a time. You can see you really don’t want me working for you if I’m bored.
So, I popped off the question to the programmer in Utah, who jumped right on and took a look at what I was seeing. He got kind of upset because that had been his compromise to the “union” bosses regarding employee anonymity and the very real issue of running out of work before the employees could “officially” be reassigned to other jobs. As long as there was the possibility of overtime, there could be no shifting of employees to new platforms for work. Unions create a real barrier to getting jobs done early.
He told me how to run a SQL query (admit I was shaky at best with SQL, but the extensive report I managed to download that next Saturday morning (the database was independent of the IT network, having its own line. IT hated me and all I did was turn it on/off and run the reports for distribution. Taught button pushing classes.
The report printed out neatly, as he’d promised. I’d had no problem getting in to enter the SQL code… how many times had I seen him open his own back door right in front of me? So, with the report both saved on CDROM and in hard copy, locked in my car parked just outside the office (on Saturdays, rules about parking were relaxed, especially for us corner office people.)
Let’s see what I was working on… I copied to paste here to try to finish in the next 20 minutes.
I ran a couple of routine reports while printing the enormous document (several hundred pages of numbers that kinda sorta meant something to me, but I was just so excited about possibly identifying something really helpful to efficiency, I didn’t mind being there Saturday when I was a salaried employee. I thought I might actually be helping identify a problem that would help “efficiency.” For a young(er) woman who loved getting employee awards and bonuses (at an earler job, Boeing Bucks; another Arinc Attaboys (and no that is NOT sexist.) I am a big kid. I like winning prizes. Is why I get into the whole “100th/200th/X00th comment nonsense.” I’m working with my therapist on that one.
I left before noon, after making sure all scraps and unused papers were shredded or marked for burn, taking my briefcase with me. I was always careful with classified data and I had a reasonable understanding of what I had in that bag. At home, I put the briefcase aside and we went out for dinner and a movie. My son being in junior high then, still tolerating our company for a free dinner and a movie as long as we paid. When we got home, a message from MY Program Team Manager directed me to call him at home.
He told me I was NOT to run that report and that I should hold off on doing anything until the programmer came and made his case to the General’s Financial Office Managers that the data was something to which he should be given access. I told him I’d gone in earlier to make sure I could access all the data lines the programmer had indicated and asked him if that was a problem. He said it wasn’t since “our” line was secure and private, but that I should NOT do another thing until cleared from HQ. Since HQ was at the Pentagon and the request came from the Pentagon, I figured no big deal. Monday, they will talk to the programmer and he will take the odious report from my hand and that will be the end of that.
The programmer called me and told me the Pentagon’s request had been denied.
I stared at my briefcase and decided to just burn the whole thing right there, since I was supposed to not run the report.
And, then, I really jumped into the Family of Families ideas about leaving the ‘burbs and finding another way. One thing led me to another thing and I ended up reading one of your 30 blocker articles on the Silver Bear Cafe, jumped here and read an enormous amount of really good advice from some really smart people who follow your blog. If you are known by the company you keep, sir, then you have kept some very smart people around for a very long time. You’ve got some asses here too, but we all have things that get our goat from time to time.
We’d already started the Crash Course with the “group” but at that time, I became almost panicked about getting prepared for what I could only see as a giant wave of debt hidden by hundreds and perhaps thousands of miscellaneous task codes set up to provide a labor cushion for union employees to hide their sick, lazy and lame. The codes for placing a sign and rope were real, but since they were “extraneous” to the actual repair, the programmer did not see a need to sum them into total labor. Kind of their own unfunded liability, those extraneous task codes to prevent union discord.
Having hundreds of employees being paid under those tasks for hours, days and even, in some cases, weeks at a time added up. To a very large red number. You can only imagine the other types of extraneous ways government workers can hide their sloth. I don’t have to imagine. I saw.
That is all I remember. I never really studied the report before I burned it, but remember watching it burn, then melting the CDROM into a charred ball in my fireplace. I’d seen enough to convince me the world was just about to end. Then TARP and all that jazz.
Yes, I burned the report and convinced my husband we really COULD retire early. Really.
Thanks for putting up with me because I’ve really learned a lot from you and your big dogs and monkeys. I’ve been quite ill for quite some time, but didn’t realize it until I went critical. I’m better now.
Now, if any of you double ought spy types think there is any information of a sensitive nature here, please point it out to Admin and I will kindly ask that Admin delete it if certain folks think something awkward appears here.
Oh, and the next month the programmer flew in from Utah, Pentagon dudes showed up and the Big Brass from the Financial Management Office came to my little corner office in the 135 Engine storage hangar, kicked me out, ran the report and left with it locked into a briefcase chained to a Pentagon dude’s arm. When the programmer gave me a quizzical look as he passed by, I flicked my lighter and lit a cigarette. He grinned at me and we never mentioned it again.
I was let go about three months later, part of a reduction in overhead. The inefficiency of the maintenance facility seemed to prove the Program Management Team wasn’t helping. And, obviously, if I was noticing things like 37 people spending hours placing ropes and hazard signs, then there wasn’t enough of that efficiency work to keep me gainfully employed.
That last three months was rather stressful. IT took over the database from me and began a full scale war with the privately contracted programmer in Utah. I was glad when layoff day got there. I scheduled myself for eye surgery I’d been putting off for a while, since the company continued my health insurance for 90 days.
Reviewing my middle of the night composition, and am wondering something about my actions that long ago Saturday.
“…a message from MY Program Team Manager directed me to call him at home.
He told me I was NOT to run that report and that I should hold off on doing anything until the programmer came and made his case to the General’s Financial Office Managers that the data was something to which he should be given access. ”
Why didn’t I say “OMG Tom, I already ran the report and it is right here on my fireplace in my cool little laptop bag?”
Because his tone on the answering machine told me I was in big trouble for trying to be helpful without his permission. He was one of those “it should have been me” types and if there was going to be Pentagon involvement, he was not going to do anything to make waves. I told my husband after listening to it that I was probably going to lose my cushy little data analyst job.
I believe this essay is next… it involves another Tinker General named Fedder who was trying to stop the flow of red ink in a federal employee union dominated cesspool. She and I had a chat about the true nature of fraud. Another smart woman who chose career and chose well.
Didn’t she end up at the Pentagon too?
JQ, if this gets too distracting without me present to clarify anything I mentioned, please remove my comment until I am better able to discuss the topic with WIP or others. I think it is time to face these sorts of things head-on, shoulders squared. Am just not feeling too shoulders squared right now.
Place a little side bet on me though. I really do believe God is not finished with me and that brings me back to the table every single time.
I’ll be praying for you Mags.
oh, my wip…that is the kindest thing anyone has said to me here for a long time. I’m all choked up. Verklempf, I think. Thank you thank you thank you
I still think you’re one of the baddest ass people on TBP. I’d bet there’s lots of posuers here.
You can see them and smell them from their time rolling in shit on the Q Anon Exposed post. I freaking LOVE it.
email on its way
C’mon,you free speech hating pathetic curdogs, get your hate glands up and going. I’ve rested and I’ve got some more to say.
When I was 14, just a little martha tagging along with aunt martha as she travelled from arts fair to arts fair around the Virginia Beach area, we always waved at the hitchhikers making their way here, there and everywhere along the roadways. She had been widowed in her 20s, decided one good man was all she needed and made a living and a life out of being an artist in America at a time when being a travelling calligrapher paid enough dollars at an arts fair for the next trip to the next arts fair. I’ll tell you this, for a little country gal from flyover country it was all very exciting.
I used to toss sandwich bags filled with ice from our ice chest out the window to them closed with bread ties with a note attached.
We know you are thirsty
We know its hot
Our car is packed
But ice we got!
I don’t know if any of them ever actually read my little poems I devised along the way, but I like to think that they at least understood the goodwill intended.
Sometimes she and I discussed alternative ways of looking at connections between members of humanity.
How We Were: The Years of Hitchhiking: Recollectons of the Social Cryogenian
By Fred Reed
September 7, 2018
The big roads were safe then, or we thought they were. Many of us, the more adventurous, poured onto the highways, just going, moving, looking. We were devotees of the long-haul thumb, crossing and recrossing the continent, dropping into Mexico, whatever.
A camaraderie held. There were rules. On an onramp it was first come first served, no butting in line and anybody with his thumb out was taken as a friend, or at least friendly. “Hey, man, got any shit?” was a common question. This meant grass, pot, ganja, herb, and good manners was to share.
A theme of the age was that “Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.” This makes more sense than might seem today.
Well, then. The wound care nurse just left. She was very nice and glad she was able to pop right down here to take care of my wound vac from St. Louis.
Thank you, Lord. Again.
Great article on this trainwreck of economy running on fumes, debt and misplaced hope… But putting all that aside and in the face of these facts, folks should not be worried. See some dude named Q is promising that just around the corner the cards are getting reshuffled and the bad guys are gonna get fleeced. This time the poor folks and Joe Six Pack ain’t getting fucked over…
This world is gonna be saved by some LARP on 8chan.
Its gonna be great….
Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act
“was included in the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2017”
-Wikipedia
“Qanon is a conspiracy theory which began with an October 2017 post on the anonymous imageboard 4chan”
-Wikipedia
Admin…. obviously you have not heard about “Trust The Plan”.
Watching the criminals over my life, I can tell you that they always pop the bubbles when John Q. Dumbass public least expects it and remember that Larry Kudblow and his ilk work for the elite bubble poppers. Your information is correct but the Foxx News watchers think we are in HIGH, HIGH cotton (they truly believe the propaganda). My clients parrot this crap to me daily, I just smile and nod. Never let them see it coming, right? BUT, Kudblow works for Trump and Trump does nothing to turn that false information around on his watch.
Nice article and I hope a great many people will read this and take it to heart because this administration is in bed with the elite pirates just as past puppets were their minions. You can at least sleep at night knowing you rang the warning bell ahead of the disaster.
“…Warren Buffet’s favorite indicator of stock market valuations now exceeds the Dot.com peak…”
“…Shiller’s cyclically adjusted P/E ratio is far above 1929 and 2007 crash levels. Only the Dot.com bubble saw a higher level…”
The light is always brightest just before it goes out…
Excellent summary of where the economy stands. The thing is, you could’ve written this in 2011, 2012 . . . and maybe you did. If you didn’t, several others, like Schiff, Stockman, Greyerz, Celente, etc., have. I’ve thought the entire world economy was going to crash since 2011, and lost a fair bit betting against the stock/bond markets and on gold. It’s come to the point that I’ll be every bit as shocked as the vast majority of people who’ve slept through the entire period when it finally does come crashing down. I’m guessing you’ll be writing something similar next summer, with the Dow over 30 grand and debt trillions higher.
Just after the rain started, Bob P. mocked the weatherman and cast an envious glance to the swimmers below. “It’s another false alarm!”, Bob exclaimed, “Let me off this damn boat, Noah, before it’s too late. I will wait no more!” ?
It had never rained before!
Gen 2:6… “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”
Bob’s comment presents an interesting scenario however. I remember back when Reagan was president the national debt was +/- 500 billion (please correct me if I’m wrong). No one in a million (as if…) years thought it could possibly reach a trillion dollars. The number was unheard of. Where are we now? 21 trillion, plus how many trillion promised? The money does not exist in reality. Yet, more and more is being printed out of thin air. Govt checks are still being mailed.
What I’m honestly wondering is, how far can “they” ride this out? Is 100 trillion out of the question, 200, 500? Decades ago 1 trillion certainly was… and look where we are. From a financial standpoint, a point I know very little about, who or what is to stop the balloon from continuous inflation? Is the premise that “that which is unsustainable can not be sustained” actually true? Can this massive creation of wealth somehow be sustained indefinitely by the powers that be? At least until those powers decide to pop the balloon intentionally and for their own selfish reasons…
Will our children and grandchildren be typing on TBP in a few decades wondering how the national debt could have possibly gone from a measly 21 trillion to 300 gobazillion? Ugh. Makes the head spin… Best go back to simple things like Bible study.
Interest on the debt must be paid. It is probably $600 billion or so this year. That is 14% of the total Federal budget when rates are near the lowest in history. By end of an 8 year Trump presidency the national debt will be $30 trillion. If interest rates rose to 5% (normal before 2008), that would be $1.5 trillion of interest on a total budget of approx. $5.4 trillion, or 28% of the budget. As the interest burden grows, the situation becomes untenable because most Federal spending is on automatic pilot and is rising.
We survived since Reagan because interest rates went from 18% to 2%. That can’t be duplicated.
“Interest on the debt must be paid.” ——– Admin
Says who? It’s not like it’s in the Constitution, ya know.
But Yo! Dem Keynnies say Debt don’t matter! How’s the Federal Reserve DV01 doing so far on thier bonds?
I think you should state debt service as % of Tax Revenues… the way you stated it, the higher the deficit, a lower debt service % is implied. Not being snarky, just sayin’.
They floated the idea of negative interest rates. That seems like half-stepping towards default or less politely, jubilee.
Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
And nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free – Kris Kristofferson
Learning from Japan: Zirp, nirp. The games are just beginning.
Untedious, if you had read closely, the story says it had never rained. Evah! Folks thought old Noah was a bit tetched for constructing a vessel that had no wheels. In the painting above, the folks in the water ought to be level with the top of the boat, it was more of a submarine. The Ark is a sort of image of heaven, lots of folks on the outside looking in after they scorned it.
Plus the rainbow in Genesis 9 indicates rain occurred (even if for the first time) during the flood to be followed by rainbows evermore.
And all of the pictures of Noah’s flood on the internet show rain.
The point was that Bob P. affirmed the title of Jim’s article. Even when the signs ahead are clear as day:
OK, you must be reading the Muslim bible. I understood that the new phenomenon called rain is what caused the flood, I mean, 40 days and nights of rain…Have you seen what a few days of rain from a hurricane causes in Peoria?
I also have been expecting an economic downturn for a long time. The power of dark money (debt) created by central banks is mind boggling.
A crash will happen!
They are a regular occurrence, happening naturally about every seven years.
We are way overdue for a serious downturn in the world economy.
“LESSONS LEARNED” – are you kidding me?! Does anyone really believe the int’l financial [D]elites/PTB (Psychopaths That Bugger) give a rat’s ass about “educating” how the “Game” is played?
There is the stealth crash option. Valuations remain steady or slightly increasing, on paper it looks OK, but the actual value of the currency drops sharply – severe inflation.
With increasing trouble in the ’emerging markets,’ I’m half-expecting a flight to the imagined safety of the American market – with a stronger dollar in the short term because of it, the Wall Street crowd unloads whatever crap they are holding onto the foreigners and buy distressed foreign assets with the proceeds for some fraction of their value, followed by significant dollar inflation to assrape the foreign investors.
Just a guess.
” With increasing trouble in the ’emerging markets,’ I’m half-expecting a flight to the imagined safety of the American market – with a stronger dollar in the short term because of it, the Wall Street crowd unloads whatever crap they are holding onto the foreigners and buy distressed foreign assets with the proceeds for some fraction of their value, followed by significant dollar inflation to assrape the foreign investors.” Great post, AC. Think Japan and Saudi Arabia in the 80s
Sounds plausible and highly likely.
Ponzi would be proud of the job done by the .000 whatever percent. They have kept a 100 year plus fleecing going in spite of everything that has been revealed. Do all you TBPer’s ever think you might just be happier if you were still part of the great un-informed hordes? I was happily ignorant for the first 48 years of my life and the last 10 has been a trip filled with dis-belief and a very painful at times learning curve. Can you hear the winds of history beginning to stir? We are in for a storm for all ages and races that is going to playout on a world wide basis. I may long for blissful ignorance past, but am glad for the awakening. May all weather the coming storm as best as possible. FOOT
That’s right foot, it’s hard to graze outside of the sheep pen. Not a bad thing as it gives you an advantage to bolt before the shearing starts. Life is tough out here in the great wide open, rebels without a clue.
Foot in the forest,
Cypher from the Matrix summizes just how you and others Awakened feel. It is the price we pay for being vigilant and aware.
“I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.”
Stucky, have you “met” PlatoPlubius? I’d just gotten used to seeing him comment and haven’t seen you around. Have you two had one of your very special discussions?
(I’m talking about the type of discussion where you start out attacking on general principle then narrow it down to a couple of ideas you can agree on and then, the beat goes on.)
Plato, I’m not picking on you for entertainment ideas, but I really have been looking forward to yours and Stuckmeister’s philosophical discussion that is ahead of us, like the proverbial sacred cow dead ahead in the road.
Yes, MagMag, I’ve met PlatoPlubius.
He’s been nice to me for quite some time now. But, there was a time, times, and half a time when he treated me badly … even with contempt. I DO forgive, but I never forget. Although I suspect PlatoPlubius will be in denial … mostly, I suspect, from his dementia — as, it is my impression that he is, as they say, “old as the hills”.
Did you see my “emerging markets” question/concern to Admin above? Here, let me bring it here for your perusal and contemplation.
And perhaps, since I know you and I have some areas of disagreement on the topic, we can show a few people just how adult discussion and debate is held.
Until you piss me off and I threaten to snap your neck like a rooster and then you complain to Admin I’ve taken another jab at your hand in your pants. Then, we will part with a tense FU and reassemble on the back 9 with cold one, congratulating ourselves on being smart enough to know who the real enemy is and stop fighting one another.
I’m ready to tell the story, Stucky. Did you see my exchange with Holly O?
DUCT TAPE, does anyone have roll of duct tape?
I did see your exchange with Holly O. Nice of you to be Frau Welcome Wagon! It truly is good to see her here again …. hopefully truly not being hounded by the Gestapo this time.
I MUST go girl. We only had a small yogurt and peach for breakfast. Ms Freud is pretty damned cranky and wants lunch NOW.
Be back tomorrow.
Stop right there big guy. She and I corresponded via email when she (and I) were going through our ordeals regarding the right to have and hold opinions. In fact, if the wound nurse clears me today, I will be “moving” downstairs where I can check that email account and post articles directly to the page again. (My account is set up on the desktop down in my music laundritorium and I have been emailing my article ideas to Admin, which you KNOW he loves.)
Inviting the vultures and hateful odious little peckered turdballs here to start calling me names like Frau Welcome Wagon! was mean. I’m hurt now and will be in my safe space.
Crying like a little girl.
And sharpening my knives. I gots bunnies that need killing.
Now, here is the “emerging markets and AVON calling” question I put together for when Admin has a few moments and might read my comment/question and answer my concerns. If he, and you, think it is not worthy of further discussion, I will not bring it up again, but I really do see some relevance to the macroeconomic issues Admin reviews in his article and the microeconomic issues regarding emerging markets and exploitation of the poor suggested in my scenario and question below.
From magsinrags to Admin:
JQ, I would eally appreciate your thoughts and comments about the following marketing scenario discussed in a PR class I took in the 1990s. LLPOH, I would love your perspective and thoughts as well. If you think you have an interesting point of view, please share. But please do not turn it into a pissing contest.
It is actually from a 1998 class I took in Public Relations at the University of Oklahoma after separating from the USAF in the late 1990s.
The case study was about Avon international sales and marketing , which had seen huge increases in sales and growth in a couple of countries in South and Central America. The Public Relations people were ecstatic showing images of Brazillian / Columbian / Peruvian women bundled into uncomfortable looking blazers, makeup kit and bag over the shoulder, all ready to invade the small hamlets and villages in the pristine mountains of South America to sell that AVON makeup to the women there so they could sell it to and everyone’s life would be greatly improved.
Those insane women in my class at OU (and a few boys, if you know what I mean) really thought those poor women’s lives were improved by selling each other AVON. See? No more peasant dresses for them. They were AVON representatives!
Let’s not discuss whether only women are gullible enough to invest so much of their family’s fortune into AVON, but please help me analyze why this study of a successful PR campaign on an international scale bothered me so.
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Reply
September 5, 2018 2:28 am
Now, about that scenario above, JQ.
What sort of evil morality play did our Main Stream Media join to have my Public Relations professor of some distinguished background and success spewing the good news about how Public Relations professionals were hard at work in South America improving all those women’s lives through AVON sales? What the hell?
Does AVON have a moral compass? I never bought another AVON product. Not. One.
It was a class I was required to take while working toward my Masters degree, never finished. Can you see why I never bothered to finish that distinguished credential?
Maggie,
Ever watch the documentary, “The Corporation?”
I highly recommend it and believe it will answer your excellent question above.
The whole documentary psychoanalizes corporations since corporations are considered individuals with respect to the legal system developed over the past 100 years or so.
The findings might not shock you, corporations can be viewed as having the majority of characteristics necessary to be labeled Psychopaths
Since you are mending I would suggest watching it with the open mind that you seem to possess.
It’s about 2.5 hours long but there are countless nuggets of knowledge in it.
Okay, I placed my questions for Admin/LLPOH/YOU below. Here is my assessment.
Advertising is the whore which corrupts all branches of media, without fail. Some of them just take more time.
PR and Advertising people know how to manipulate our thoughts and convictions. Should they? No. Do they?
Well, hmmm. How many Avon ladies do you think were needed in South America in the 1990s? You know… to improve their lives down there?
Mary Christine? Are you around? could you think about this for me?
Admin, last time I promise.
Will you discuss this with me or is it something you do not find worth the time and effort?
Because the reason I have stayed on your blog all these years is because you have such smart people who are your intellectual equal and I have benefitted greatly from going through your archives and extracting an enormous amount of information and understanding of the world by reading your comments and their comments.
I really am bored with your trolls and the pompous asses hanging around. I hope they recognize when a loss is a loss and skulk off like curs should do after having boiling water poured on their genitals as my mother taught me to do when I was a kid and the stray dogs found their way to our chicken coop and turkey enclave. They may have been out there hating me, but they didn’t approach any more. Eventually, my father occasionally did have to kill them, though he insisted that even curs serve their purpose on a farm.
If they stay out of sight.
No time. I have a full time job that consumes most of my day.
I gotcha… maybe Stucky will post it for me as a general question this weekend, so the curdogs don’t shit on it as soon as it is posted.
I was wide eyed and young when we first crossed paths and Smokey was top dog…
Reverse Engineer’s articles were where we would flamewar it out often. All the pussy doppelganging bullshit always pissed me off. I thought it was a chicken shit way to derail serious conversation.
I must admit Stucky, I have noticed a kinder more considerate Stuck these days. I believe you even said as much on a different thread…
Something about thinking you were always right up until your 50s….HAHAHA
Anyways, I know we’ve had our differences and will probably not see eye to eye on different things in future threads,
But can honestly say this place TBP has toughened me up and honed my arguments and style, and much of that can be credited to admin and many of the commentors like Stucky, Smokey and even LLPOH that cocky old fart.
Much Love and Peace
Another win for Jim.
I was kinda sorta in an almost ok mood. Always count on Captain Quinn and The Burning Platform to bring me back to sanity!
Its a bit like those credit card offers to transfer your balance and get a 6 month introductory rate. People would do this over and over again to just buy time.It works too until the credit card offers end.
What does anyone think would happen to a politician who was honest about our situation. That social security must be cut, that sick people on medicaid and medicare would have to pay for their medical care or die? That poor kids just have to do without college. Better to finance these programs with debt than face the facts.
Is any Wall St. investment banker going to go to his CEOs office and admit that the work he is doing is a swindle and that, for the sake of the country, he should be terminated? How about a college professor living a comfortable life teaching worthless classes. Is he going to go to the school president and admit he is screwing gullible students and that his department should be shut down.
As Jim Kuntsler noted in his piece on this website today, there are millions of Americans engaged in ‘work’ that produces nothing of value and can only be paid for by creating more IOUs. It won’t stop until there are no more people willing to trade real wealth for paper promises
Unit- Noticed you left out MIC expenses and bloated cost of the useless government drones and minions with their big pension outlays and who are not helping to pay for the healthcare mess we are in as they are exempt. Why does every “woe is me” ramble only talk about social security and medicare/medicaid expense. What does Fed interest cost us each year…..Hhummm?
Well those are the big ‘entitlement’ programs so they matter more. As to ‘defense’ you have to spend enough to deter others or you invite conflict.
When the USSR collapsed NATO moved right up to Russia’s borders ( despite a promise not to do so) because they were weak and this would prevent Russia from recreating the Warsaw Pact once they stabilized their nation. We can’t withdraw without risking Russia moving in. Strategic shifts happen whether you want them to or not and they can happen fast and violently if you are unable to deter others.
Unit :
https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_fed_spending_pie_chart
Pensions, defense and .gov = 47%
Sorry Unit , forgot FED interest at 7%. Adding that in you have 54% for the items I brought up.
You might be interested to know that defense alone was 55% of Federal spending in 1960!
Unit-The entire federal outlay for all expenses was 92bn and healthcare was just 5.5% of budget. That was prior to big pharma and big healthcare brought about by socialist BS like medicare/medicaid which drove costs to the moon.
I think the fy budget now is 4.2 TRILLION dollars so that is a huge jump and now defense is 28% which in dollars is much higher than in 1960.
It’s a Hollywood economy. A show for the ignorant American voter. Logically, it would have to collapse. But sometimes I think that the elite have finally reached the point where their victims have reached the level of stupidity virtually guaranteeing the success of their perpetual con. And anyone with a brain can only watch, ridiculed by the idiots whose own savings have become an illusion.
Get out of debt. Get out of the city. Get beans. Get bullets.
Another great piece, Admin. Glad you’re still fighting the good fight. We need to keep all this bullshit we’re experiencing right now in perspective. This is a Fourth-Turning we’re going through; don’t be surprised by anything and question everything. Bummer is, some of us will never see the end of this Fourth Turning.
As Chief Brody said, “you’re gonna need a bigger boat”. Eventually all excursions to catch a shark end badly.
You obviously do not know how to catch shark. You need big, big hooks, and a big, big gaff. A thunderstick or shotgun comes in handy, too.
Pretty sure that would work on land sharks, as well.
I was going through some old photo albums to pass the sleepless night and came upon one of my cousin in Australia after his first trip huntin’ roos with his son. His son was 12 and looked every bit as proud as mine during deer season long ago when he took his first buck.
Are kangaroos someting people, um, eat? Is wallaby stew a real thing?
Mags, thank you for your exposure of gov waste.
Am not done.
If Jim is on board, I will be following the trail of the billing of this little wound vac and its service to all forms of bleeding including government debt. I think we all might come to see how all the ludicrous regulations and bizarre behavior by our Congress Critters and our government bureaucratic overlords has led us into the demoralizing condition we find ourselves in at this time.
My wound vac has become symbolic of our entire failed system to me. I am enraged. It was about time, eh?
I have decided I will never let someone tell me what they think I ought to think again. I have let far too many people convince me their fancy degree was worth more than a lifetime I’ve spent actually COPING.
This one is for HSF, who will really appreciate the double entendre present in the message, which is the medium too.
LOL, farmer friend, when the shit hits the fan, most of us turn the fan OFF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f713tLbdlu4
At one time, I recall Wendy,s was unknowingly buying beef from Australia and found some roo meat mixed in.
That was jack-in-the-Box
Roo is delicious. Perhaps the healthiest if all meat to eat. Very low fat and high protein. Deelishus!
I resemble that remark.
The REAL reason Llpoh loves kangaroo meat …. they have so much in common!
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Size is over-rated. Function is everything.
Btw – when did you sneak a peak? I try hard to keep my little secret secret.
You made me laugh and that caused my abs to cramp! I am under strict orders to NOT irritate my abs.
However, since Nurse Amy has saved the day and “reinstalled” the wound vac, I forgive you because, like Maya said:
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
You make me laugh and smile, Stuck. I can handle a cramp or two to temper the good feeling.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/maya_angelou_392897
My cousin, who now lives in Prescott, Az on Thumb Butte, selling metal detectors he got expert on using in the Outback thirty something years ago, said he prefers venision, but it was similar in texture and density. I understand what he means. I was worried it was a bit, well, squirrelly.
Rabbit is really tender, espcecially these domestic giants. But, squirrel is stringy and I was afraid Kangaroo was probably more like a rodent than a bunny wabbit.
Pete from Queensland here , Roo and Wallaby as food?
Very much so, Roo is like lean rump steak, Wallaby very similar to veal.
Australia would be a different place if our first settlers had found away to hobble them and raise them for meat, Roo leather is very high quality tough leather as well.
Fancy Feast is good, but personally, I’ll take the Meow Mix with Saltines any day…
Years ago some guy lived on cat food out of his station wagon parked on state land. There isn’t any more to my story except that this stuff happens and cat food probably doesn’t taste good. Better to try the different varieties out prior to the big one.
You haven’t been doing this for nothing. Some people have taken heed. Paying off debt as fast as possible and building a stronger cash position. Yes, the debt most people carry these days will sink them when this game turns real. Wise folks have gotten out of debt as hard as that may have been and have prepared for a different world. Life is hard, It’s a lot harder when you are stupid. Not realizing that the whole financial ,medical, and educational criminal enterprise has one purpose and that is to grab every last nickle on the table before the fat lady sings.
As usual, Mr. Quinn, spot on article attempting to wake up the herd. I have two additional points to add: 1) I believe the Dodd – Frank abomination created a “bail-in”, meaning that anybody with savings will help finance the implosion via a percentage ‘haircut”. No more TARP needed – they will go directly to the working class dogs and steal their deposits, and 2) wallstreet works hard to suppress commodities’ value with short selling and paper. That should not be a deterrent, it’s actually a gift, because when SHTF, commodity prices will move up. One can still buy silver and gold fairly cheap in relative terms.
PS: Why don’t conservatives start quoting Milton Friedman to counter this Keynesian nightmare??
Miller,
I whole heartily agree with the direct simplicity of your post as I feel exactly the same and have removed most of my assets from the possibility of a Bail-In as well as topping off regularly on bargain basement PMs.
ADMIN: Thanks for the bucket of cold water…it has led to yet another list in many years of lists. I forwarded your post to some loved ones who are extremely successful but have 100% in stocks and real estate advising them of acquiring at least a 5% to 10% hedge of PMs in their hands to protect themselves from the inevitable.
Milton Friedman Quotes:
http://www.great-quotes.com/quotes/author/Milton/Friedman
Thanks Mark! The Friedman quotes were great. One of my favorites is: “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
One thing that has me confused is who is doing all the lending. 10+ years ago it had been the banks, through the miracle of fractional reserve lending, that were responsible for most of the credit creation. The Central Banks through QE sought to get this motor running again but US banks, at least, never did.
Now it seems credit creation has migrated elsewhere, to the so called Shadow Banking system. It is this more opaque financing system that would seem to be where the next crack up will emerge. The big banks don’t do near as much mortgage lending as they once did but somebody is holding all those loans. Wonder who it is?
Good question, who is Mr. Cooper/Nationstar and other non-bank lenders?
https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/mr-cooper-mortgage-review/
Edit: Unit, I know Irish pension plans are backing some shadow mortgage lending in Europe.
Bea, Nationstar is an old mortgage lender like Ocwen and the former TBW. They advertise as Mr. Cooper.
EC_ Did YOU READ THE LINK??? It clearly states that Nationstar/ Mr. Cooper is a NON-BANK lender. The legal documents in my work plainly state (Mr. Cooper ) as the lender within the legal description/ mortgage clause. I have dealt with OCWEN for years, not sure if OCWEN is solely a service company for first positions.
Excellent post Jim. Your observations about the good and bad of the Trump presidency are spot on. I just sent a message to the White House this morning asking him to pull out of Syria and bring the troops home. I asked, “what happened to America first?”. Yeah he’s proud of the bubbles now that they are “his”. I agree with the accomplishments you’ve laid out but the 180 on the rest concerns me greatly. If something isn’t done to purge the government of the deep state swamp characters there will be no further hope for the ship righting itself. If that be the case then I welcome the pending collapse. The sooner the better. Thanks for the re-dose of economic reality… Chip
Great article, Jim.
Nice rant, but sadly another example of economic illiteracy.
The problem right now is that we have the combination of rising debt and flat wages/no inflation.
It isn’t debt itself.
Historically, debt is a problem for governments only in 2 situations:
1) The debt is owed in some other countries’ currency (not applicable to the US)
2) The debt is coupled with low inflation to deflation
Examining the US’ economic performance from 1930 to 1968 is an excellent tutorial.
From 1930 to 1940 – US debt increased dramatically. But economically, it was a disaster because inflation was negative (deflation).
From 1941 to 1945 – US debt increased even more. But economically, it was fantastic because there was massive inflation.
From 1945 to roughly 1968 – US debt was fairly flat but there was both inflation and economic growth
1968 to 1978 – no growth, with high inflation particularly 1972 onwards (stagflation)
The actual numbers:
US debt growth from 1930 to 1940: 104.19% debt increase (10.42% per year)
Primary driver in above period was 1931-1936: 75.46% debt increase (15.09% per year)
1931-1936 was, of course, the Great Depression.
Now contrast with 1941-1950: 226.06% debt increase (22.61% per year)
Primary driver in above period was 1941-1945: 212.40% debt increase (53.10% per year)
The difference between 1930/1940 and 1941/1950? deflation vs. massive inflation.
The fight today isn’t about debt per se. The fight is about inflation.
Inflation helps regular people because wages rise and debt is devalued.
The wealthy hate inflation, however, because it forces them to pay more for their servants and labor, and devalues the hoards of cash they already have and the debt owed to them.
Note how debt – both government and private – has increased dramatically since 2000 – it was going up long before the Global Financial Crisis although the GFC accelerated it. However, inflation has been low the entire time.
The beauty of American idiocy is that the regular people have been propagandized into believing that inflation is bad for them – so that they vote against their own interests.
It is like the French peasants proclaiming that they should eat cake…
Illiterate is right. If you think inflation has been low since 2000 you are one dumb motherfucker. Are you one of those non-thinking zombies who actually believe the inflation numbers put out by the government? You write paragraphs of facts but are too dense to grasp reality. Get a c1ue dumbass.
And not just inflation numbers -all numbers, including total federal debt. There is very strong evidence that the US debt is double what they publish, as the analysis by the Michigan State economist, Mark Skidmore, revealed. His accounting review of two agencies, the DOD and HUD, showed adjustments totaling more than $21 trillion. As is common these days, this research never saw any mainstream coverage – sort of disappeared. Can you imagine what a forensic examination of the Federal Reserve books would reveal? They are obviously creating trillions off-book from thin air.
The inflation numbers from the government are low, but they’re not high in any historical context.
Certainly not compared to the 1940s or even the 1970s.
Your grasp of reality thus is the one that needs reinforcement.
Moreover, you utterly failed to understand that wages go up with official inflation – which is one of the reasons why government numbers are incentivized to be low.
Inflation, measured as it was in the 1940s has averaged about 10% since 2000, on par with inflation levels in the 1940s.
?hl=ad&t=1533912783
Krugman is that you!
Oh, my, I was reading the comments yesterday afternoon and had to stop right at C1ue’s comment. I thought to myself “Admin is going to reply to this one and it will be epic!”
I wasn’t disappointed.
“Inflation helps regular people because wages rise and debt is devalued. The wealthy hate inflation, however, because it forces them to pay more for their servants and labor, and devalues the hoards of cash they already have and the debt owed to them.” This is ass backwards. inflation eats your average person alive. they can buy less with their dollars. Inflation raises the value of the assets you hold. The more inflation, the more your net worth. Deflation is the best possible thing for an average person. Your money buys more. It crushes asset holders. Their holdings decline in value. somebody needs to study a little bit. And it’s not Jim Quinn
I will just stick to first point. Others can handle the rest..
1) The debt is owed in some other countries’ currency (not applicable to the US)
Not Applicable… yeah right.
Except there is one fly in the ointment.. The US can today print to its heart’s content because it is the reserve currency for the world. . Increasing deficits on to what seems stratospheric levels doesn’t seem to matter right now but for how long… as it is a fool errand that ignores history.
Those fiats have return springs and every dollar created needs to buy real things.
If that reserve status ceases then all those dollars have to come back home. Deflating the pool of assets that can be bought and triggering inflation and economic stagnation. If even part of the world decides to move to another medium for trade then those dollars start a rush for the door. Chasing an ever smaller slice of pie. And before you say it can’t happen remember…
The Sun never set on the British Empire, until it did…
“How did you go bankrupt?”
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
As for inflation being a force for good, well I beg to differ. From what I see those that really get fucked over are the ones just getting by..
Rins,
Excellent points.
You said,
“If that reserve status ceases then all those dollars have to come back home.”
This is what I refer to the game of Hot Potato, the potatoes being the soon to be worthless FRNs once the Dollar loses its reserve currency status.
Look at the Phoenix on the back of the Dollar bill for a clue of what will happen to our currency.
MUST WATCH documentary
The dollars that are out there are not actually for trade purposes – there is a sum needed for that but it is a small fraction of what is out there.
The primary purpose is to keep US bombers away (China) or US bombers on standby (Japan, Saudi Arabia).
The phoenix nonsense – were that to occur, the banksters in charge now would have to be overthrown first.
Checking…nope, no sign of that happening.
The banksters wouldn’t have to be overthrown since they are the ones who have set this plan in motion and are squeezing and ringing out everything of value they can before the plug is pulled on the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. dollar.
The banksters are of the motto,
order out of chaos
The new system will be introduced when the banksters say it’s time.
This won’t be before the plummeting of value of the purchasing power of U.S. dollars…
All part of the Masonic “Great Plan” and move towards a one world government.
Morons like to point to Zimbabwe or Weimar Germany, but sadly the reality is that Weimar hyperinflation was precisely due to Versailles treaty debts – an external debt.
Zimbabwe in turn is a banana republic with no real trade, no industry, nor much interaction with the outside world.
The British not only went off the gold standard, they also went back on. Their sunset occurred not because of inflation or not-inflation, but because the UK is ultimately a very small population nation – and accelerated by World War 1 debts to the US which were not forgiven as occurred in past wars. Yep, another external debt.
C1ue
“Zimbabwe in turn is a banana republic with no real trade, no industry…”
Sounds like you are describing the United States of America there…
This bankruptcy has panned out over the course of decades and generations of Americans…
It’s too big for most to admit since they feel like they were taught adequate knowledge at the public indoctrination centers.
Inflation is a money supply issue – i.e. that more money is issued than is required by demand so the value of it falls (and things cost more). We’ve had a massive increase in money supply over the last 10 years which has caused a dramatic increase in inflation. That has shown itself mainly in the increase of “asset” prices, which tells you precisely where the new money has been flowing – i.e. to the very wealthy/banking industry and into the things that they buy, but also into real-world prices for normal people. The fact that this hasn’t shown up as 5%++ inflation in the official figures is because these figures are calculated in a way that understates them (which helps government, but not you or me). Do you really think that your personal expenses have only risen at 2-3% per year for the last 10 years? Try one of the reputable statistic sites for some credible figures and prepare for a shock.
Inflation is a form of taxation (theft). It reduces the value of any savings (capital) by reducing its purchasing power. Most people work hard in their 30s to 50s to save for their retirement. With 5% inflation the efforts of their labour is reduced by half every 14 years, at 10% it halves every 7 years. I suspect your attitude to inflation not being a bad thing will likely change as you approach retirement! Inflation debases a currency; it undermines the fundamental purpose of money. The only functions of money are as a means of exchange and as a store of value. If you undermine the “store of value” role too badly then sooner or later you find out that people will no longer accept it as a means of exchange either.
Where does the value of capital go which is eroded by inflation? It goes to the people issuing the extra money! If you, as a saver, owned half the money supply and I owned the other half, then we would own 50% each. If I own the printing press and then double the total money supply (by printing as much again) I will end up with 75% of all the money and you with just 25%. The value of any unit of it will fall by a half (inflation) and your loss is my gain. Inflation is stealth taxation, theft by another name.
The only people who like inflation are (some) debtors. The reason we have inflation at all is because the government (especially ones which are struggling/failing) are the biggest debtors! Many individuals are debtors but they are rarely in the fortunate position of having extremely low borrowing costs. It typically means that their interest costs rise more than the relief they get from inflation. I am struggling to think of a single practical example of how inflation is good for people (especially when it is understated)? In inflationary periods wages rarely keep up with inflation. The thing that typically drives wage inflation is a shortage of labour, something we do not currently have (apart from in select sectors like trucking).
Btw, your end point is wrong. In the run up to the French Revolution it was Marie Antoinette (the Queen!) who is alleged to have said “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” – i.e. “Let them (the peasants) eat cake”. It was used to highlight the indifference of royalty to the plight of the working man when she was told they had no bread (i.e. they were starving). She thought that if they had no basic food then they should simply eat cake instead (brioche, a very expensive enriched bread/cake). The story is almost certainly apochryphal but the reality is that the peasants did rise up and overthrow their rulers – the royalty were abolished and executed by guillotine. You can only take so much from the working classes before they say enough is enough.
1913 people, 1913.
Worth repeating: the post script:
“If you feel you’ve received some value from this article and this blog dedicated to free speech and truth in the face of lies, corruption and fake news, feel free to make a donation to keep the lights on at The Burning Platform.”
-> Last check, on the funding meter: 18.4 toward 25k for the year. On track to meet the goal, but not there yet.
Forget not, or know this: that the major ad revenue generators pulled out on this site’s Administrator, in a form of financial punishment for opinions deemed politically incorrect. So, to hell with Amazon, to name just one.
Sooooo, especially to lurkers and newbies, I’ll take a cue from Yoji & Maggie, and ask again, to consider sending a contribution to Admin for the enlightenment, lessons, comraderie, and uncensored rantings and other humorous entertainment his efforts provide. {edit: didn’t see your prompt, Yo, before wording mine; no biggy}
Every little bit helps. A Jackson, or better yet, a C-note. Or more. Something.
For simpletons or privacy fanatics, here’s a How To:
1. Take some cash to a party / convenience store.
2. Ask to purchase a Western Union money order.
3. Decide how much to give. (don’t be stingy. Stretch)
4. Pay the proprietor that amount + $1.00 more for using that type of payment.
5. In the “Payable To:” line, write in: Jim Quinn.
6. Drop it in an envelope, addressed to PO Box 1520, Kulpsville, PA 19443.
7. Put a stamp on it, especially if you don’t include a return address on the envelope.
8. Mail it.
9. Smile and feel good about yourself for helping the cause.
FoBo, one dude said you can just mail the cash. I protested but he said he does it all the time. I looked it up and sho’nuff, it’s legit. So, save that dollar and send it in.
Is it safe to mail cash?
The biggest problem with sending cash is that the recipient may claim he never received anything. … Every day, banks all over the country ship millions of dollars in cash through the US Postal Service. The Postal Service is very safe. However, please don’t send coins through the mail unless you pack them properly.
Outstanding financial report! The 2009 economic fall was over a little cliff compared to 1929 but the 2019 (?) fall will be from a much higher and frigid cliff. To the problems created by Banksters, Controlled Fake News, Useless Idiot Voters and Feckless Profligate Politicians, add the growing Little Ice Age (The Eddy Minimum) which the MSM has been Censoring. The FSA believes Politicians can provide generous helpings of pie from the sky; Idiots believe the Fake Media, the Fake Scientist and Fake Economists; but they don’t believe an Ice Age is beginning that will eclipse other problems or that God’s Son and Judgement will ever return.
If I may summarize this thoroughly gloomy doomy yet enjoyable article ….. is Admin saying Emperor Trump has no clothes???
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MAGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is this guy talking about? Fancy Feast is good eating!
Winnie, do you have any good recipes for dogfood or catfood? I’m just curious because I see people at Walmarts buying these big bags of dogfood. Unless, could it be they are fattening up Fido for tacos?
Dear Mr. Quinn,
Great Article, The Rarest Commodity in this World is Truth. You are one of the few voices of Truth. Our job as Watchmen is to warn the people and for those who listen they will be blessed. Keep up the great work!
Below is an email I’ve sent to investors & money managers for those who will listen.
The Rarest Commodity in this World is Truth.
I hope you keep a open heart and mind when reading this email.
The Central Banks have distorted the Markets, which has put a veil on the true economic reality. The Corporations have purchased $5.1 Trillion in Stock Buy Backs and Engineered Accounting to show profits when their revenues have been declining. The Government’s economic data is also manipulated to create an illusion that the US Economy is great.
My mission is to warn retail investors and Fund Managers to help them preserve their wealth from the coming collapse. I understand our human nature is to rely on Normalcy Bias. “The normalcy bias, is a belief people hold when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the likelihood of a disaster and its possible effects, because people believe that things will always function the way things normally have functioned.”
I hope you keep a open heart and mind when reading this email.
My name is Weston Whitham I had an epiphany that the economic fundamentals no longer apply, because any asset price can be manipulated using the Derivatives Market. It has inspired me to create a blog to warn investors. The Watchman Letter: https://steemit.com/@skipweston. The title comes from Ezekiel 33 in the Bible.
below are some questions from my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to email: [email protected] or Cell Phone: 941-412-6198
In the 2008 Market Crash my 401k Portfolio lost 46% of its value. I promised myself that I would learn everything about Macro Economics and how the system works to protect my family’s financial future. In 2012 I had come to a realization that the global financial system is going to collapse. When Brexit occurred the Central Banks and US Treasury were able to save the day by injecting billions into the system using shadow banking.
After Brexit the Central Banks change their policies of purchasing not only their own Bonds through QE but also other assets. The ECB began purchasing Corporate Bonds and ETF’s for the first time. This was a breach of their monetary authority. The Central Banks only authority is monetary policy and Sovereign Bond Interest Rates. No one is questioning this over reach because the Government and Media are covering up the fact that the economy is not growing. The real 10 year average of the GDP is the same as the post Great Depression GDP under 2%.
Questions:
Why did Morgan Stanley receive 7 Trillion in US Treasury Interest bearing Credit Swaps between 2009 to 2010 ?
Why did the FED Bailout the Wall street Banks and Deutsche Bank in 2008?
Why did the FED purchase 4.5 Trillion in assets/ toxic mortgages for the first time in its history ?
Why has JP Morgan Chase accumulated 750 million ounces of Silver since 2011?
In 2016 why did the ECB start purchasing corporate bonds & ETF’s ?
Why is Deutsche Bank’s real value -480 Billion, yet it still exists ?
Why is the 275 Trillion Global Debt the highest in History ?
Why are Interest Rates the lowest in 5000 years ?
Why does the Central Banking System and US Treasury use Derivatives to suppress Gold & Silver prices ?
Why has the Derivatives Market exploded to $2.4 Quadrillion ?
Answer these questions and you will know the Economic Truth
The Private Central Banks and the US Treasury are propping up the Markets so Retail Investors, Pension Funds, Foundations, and Hedge funds get suck into the record breaking Stock Market. In 2018 the Central Banks will collapse the system and implement a Monetary Reset per their game plan on more centralized power using the IMF and BIS. The largest wealth transfer in history will destroy millions of Investors Wealth.
“Gold is Money everything else is Credit” JP Morgan
God Bless You and Your Family,
Weston Whitham
Weston Whitman
Nice!
Please consider commenting more often on these topics maybe even contribute an original piece to Admin.
Weston,
I ‘m with Plato…lets hear more…I am all about learning from sharper knives in the same drawer.
I agree with Plato…
Please consider becoming a contributor. Those are great questions to be asking….
Trump said he is proud that unemployment is at a 44 year low. Is he correct Admin and is that just part time, low wage jobs?
It’s a record low according to the BLS. When there are 156 million Americans working (26 million part-time) and there are 97 million working Age Americans not working, is your unemployment rate really 3.9%? The participation rate hasn’t budged from 62.9% in the last year – that is near the lowest level since the 1970s.
If unemployment was really 3.9%, wages would be soaring at a 4% to 5% annual rate.
Booger,
Good question to ask.
John Williams at shadowstats keeps track of the more realistic Unemployment numbers, the broader U-6 unemployment figures defined “The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.”
You’ll find the above excerpt and a graph here
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
So, yes, Trump is full of shit. He knows very well the more realistic economic reality but is playing his part.
Plato, Trump has to be the most confusing, mixed signal sending president we have ever had. We can only speculate as to why. Why did he tell his supporters everything they wanted to hear only to reverse course on much of what he promised? What is his motivation when he could have just sat back and enjoyed his last few years in luxury?
If someone throws Q at me, just don’t bother, I will skip right over your comment. Something else much more sinister is going on.
Mary Christine,
I think much of your answer lies in his personality particularly his Big Ego.
Pride comes before the fall.
Donald Trump, a former reality star cut throat vukture real estate mogul, is the spokesman for Brand Trump and his handlers present him…
Take for instance what the recent op ed WH insider wrote in the NYT…
Much of his talking points are scripted.
And then there is always ehat happens in American politics…
The campaign promises by President elect (fill in the blank) and actual follow through with the Presidents once they are in office.
Same shit with Obama, Dubya, Slickwilly and Daddy Bush.
“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.” Andrew Mellon.
I had a professor that worked for the Fed shortly before the collapse. She told us how no one knew how to value the CDO’s. Basically, they made up a rating and stamped the bundle. Problem was, the underlying assets were worth far less than their rating. Eventually, their true value came through…it always does.
Another thing to remember is that the “bailout” could have been done without our tax dollars very easily. They could have sold “M” bonds or some other name/letter. If those bonds were tax free like municpals the cash would have poured in because everyone was looking for a safe haven. Those funds, after Uncle’s cut of course, could have been loaned to the bankers. If they didn’t pay, Uncle still got his cut and the value of the underlying assets would pay the bondholders back in liquidation.
Without sounding ghoulish, I look forward to the next reckoning. We are nearly debt free (mortgage will be gone soon enough) and have cash ready to scoop assets like real estate on the cheap. I will gladly buy the right assets for pennies on the dollar.
Steve,
Scooping assets like real estate on the cheap and other sitting in the cat bird seat buying opportunities has crossed my mind as well, but so has sitting all night long in one of my camouflaged tarp covered fighting positions, gulping caffeine pills every two hours, desperately protecting my home with my night scoped M1A that is threatened by starving masses from the golden horde, roving gangs, and grasshopper locals all eyeing my house, chicken coop, garden and fruit orchard.
Either way there will be a lot of liquidation.
I don’t worry about the doomsday stuff. Faith and God have carried me through some really bad times before. Not saying everything will be roses, but I have faith that me and my family will be OK. I will also help those who I can that cannot help themselves.
Steve,
I didn’t mean to come off flippant, that’s a great clarification/attitude, but we differ, I do worry about the potentially brutal and ugly side of what is coming.
Scooping assets up may come along…I pray that is the end game, but I fear that will be after the proverbial river of blood stops flowing.
I wish you and yours well and God’s protection.
I didn’t think you were flippant at all. I have many friends that are full on doomsday types.
I suppose I understand them because I was raised by depression-era grandparents. We garden, can, have chickens, bees, an orchard,waste very little, and don’t borrow money just like I learned from them. I see it as two side of the same coin, just motivated by different reasons. Heck, I probably have more canned food in my pantry that a majority of the doomsday crowd.
Thanks you for the kind wishes and I send the same to you and yours.
Thanks Steve…
I guess one man’s doomsday ceiling is another man’s “purging the rottenness out of the system” floor!
Either way both of us are living similar lifestyles which will give us a huge advantage during the coming doomsday/purge! (Although I prefer the generic SHTF Aficionado over the chick-little Doomsday label).
I was born and lived in PA until 5 (Mt. Carmel), raised in NJ, came of age in Nam, and settled in rural NC…I think the coming of age experience is where I get the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach on the impending “liquidation” potential.
That’s too funny. I’m sitting in my living room 45 minutes from Mount Carmel and have a lot of family over there. We, original family, got off the boat and settled in Centralia/Numidia area. All were miners.
Family story is that my great-great grandfather was one of 13 kids. He worked the mines and saved enough to buy a farm somewhere around Numidia. Worked the mines and farmed full time. He used the mine mules when they were washed up and were going to be dispatched. They had no value to the mine and weren’t worth the bullet to put down to them.
When the mine strikes came his brothers/sisters who drank and gambled all their money away expected him to take care of them. He told them to pound sand and that was the break in the family. His immediate family was the only one to stay all the rest moved away.
I guess being prepared is in my DNA.
I remember visiting the farm when I was very young. It was sold and is a housing development now.
Edit: I forgot to save as Steve in PA and thank you for your service.
Admin, you gotta praise me. I sat here for the past half hour and let that 100th comment prize for posting the 100th comment just slip through my fingers.
I have been trying to find a comment I skimmed earlier and have been thinking through, but finally, I said Fuckit because I’m going to say what I’m going to say (we all know that right?) and if you disagree you can call me names, poke fun at my belief system and even pat yourself on the back for being so much smarter than that hillbilly hick Admin lets post drivel on his blog. That is a dedication to the principles of free speech it is rare to find in a white boy from Philly. My Cleveland born husband loathes Pittsburg, but tolerates Philly comments due to our old friend, Lamar, who once was president of a little club in the ghetto there which he claimed was called “MANOR BORNE AND BRED”, which he painted on a white posterboard with great big letters, using lots of them capitals to accommodate the wishes of his team members.
I have a true economic question I want to present here for your discussion, if you would be so kind as to humor me with that huge head full of all things pragmatic and economically sensical.
I will be walking a bit to organize thoughts and then will compose my question for you to address, if you will. Others, of course, are free to comment as they want/dare, but it is YOUR most refined opinion I hope to get.
It is 9 p.m. here. I will reply to my own comment for my own convenience and hope you will give me a few minutes of your time and help pass a few more hours between midnight and first light.
Now, the image I am posting is one I made for my best friend who died of breast cancer in 2012. I bought all kinds of curative oils, tinctures, herbs and minerals hoping something might activate some enzyme on some strand of DNA in her completely devastated immune system and I posted pictures on facebook to make her smile, make her daughters smile and make the larger Bootheel community remember to keep her in their prayers. It is a PR shot for the upcoming question I am presenting to you and LLPOH for open and brutal discussion which I want to be completely honest, disregarding any bias or opinion I may suggest holding when I phrase my question to you.
Don’t worry about hurting my delicate feelings. I’ve really got to try and toughen up.
Looks like JWirth’s mom. Evil money hungry witch used to leave him at the soccer field while she chased after ruby slippers.
JQ, I would eally appreciate your thoughts and comments about the following marketing scenario discussed in a PR class I took in the 1990s. LLPOH, I would love your perspective and thoughts as well. If you think you have an interesting point of view, please share. But please do not turn it into apissing contest.
Ut is actually from a 1998 class I took in Public Relations at the University of Oklahoma after separating from the USAF in the late 1990s.
The case study was about Avon international sales and marketing , which had seen huge increases in sales and growth in a couple of countries in South and Central America. The Public Relations people were ecstatic showing images of Brazillian or Columbian or Peruvian women bundled into uncomfortable looking blazers, makeup kit and bag over the shoulder, all ready to invade the small hamlets and villages in the pristine mountains of South America to sell that AVON makeup to the women there so they could sell it to and everyone’s life would be greatly improved.
Those insane women (and a few boys, if you know what I mean) really thought those poor women’s lives were improved by selling each other AVON.
Let’s not discuss whether only women are gullible enough to invest so much of their family’s fortune into AVON, but please help me analyze why this study of a successful PR campaign on an international scale bothered me so.
I am so thrilled to see HollyO here. I will get down to the “big” computer desktop soon, I hope. The wound vac is “holding” but the sense of burning and irritation is worrisome. Usually, I get pumped full of antibiotics to pre-medicate against infection in my brain drain, but this time… no antibiotics, which has made me painfully aware of just how raw and open this wound has been for several long days with only Nick and to care for it.
Remind me to thank my husband, once again, for being a complete and total ass that day when I was being manhandled by a bunch of police pussies with handcuffs capable of stinging my wrists from some remote position in the wall of copfuks around me. Nick told all sorts of whoppers to convince them I was potential critical and needed a doctor and emergency room.
He refused to listen to me, just as the cops did, but he did what he could to protect me;.
Now, about that scenario above, JQ.
What sort of evil morality play did our Main Stream Media join to have my Public Relations professor of some distinguished background and success spewing the good news about how Public Relations professionals were hard at work in South America improving all those women’s lives through AVON sales? What the hell?
Does AVON have a moral compass? I never bought another AVON product. Not. One.
It was a class I was required to take while working toward my Masters degree, never finished. Can you see why I never bothered to finish that distinguished credential?
I will hope to see your reply to this after I finish the Wound article. IF not, I will not badger you. I know you are a busy man in a busy world with so many things on your plate answering one of my rhetorical questions doesn’t make the short list. But, I do believe what I saw in the attitudes of the marketing professionals in that Public Relations Introductory class offers great insight into what has happened to our country since then.
I just don’t know what to make of that insight.
James – There is not one thing in that article I would disagree with! Have you been evesdropping on the conversations I have?!
The thing that constantly amazes me is how few people see it, or have any strength of feeling about it? People seem willfully ignorant, and are likely to remain so until the SHTF. The two things that most astonish me (and you touched on both) are –
1) just how many people seem immune to clear facts. For example, people have their own experience of the money they spend each year going up substantially, yet many will not accept that the official inflation figures are wrong (understated, and for good reason). I’ve had people laugh at me or dismiss sites like ShadowStats as being a conspiracy theory(!), false news(!) Or how about that the unemployment figures constantly go down even though labour force participation figures remain horrendous? My experience is, sadly, that many people simply have no curiousity about the financial world (a world which dominates their life btw). When presented with even simple facts that they should be able to relate to they would rather spend energy to avoid thinking than even remotely engage with it. (The inflation one is always a bellweather for me in any conversation with someone to tell how intellectually open they are. It should be something they can easily connect with, assuming they have any sense of their spending patterns, and from it flows so much about just how broken everything is – e.g. if you understate inflation then you overstate GDP growth, and may be able to avoid having to accept that an economy may actually be in recession).
2) the second thing which astonishes me is just how flexible people’s belief systems are once politics (or personalities!) start getting involved! Looking into the US from outside it seems you have two parties who are basically the same on the big issues (both parties seem to be pro-war, pro-MIC, pro-surveilance, pro-debt, pro-corporate kleptocracy, pro-big government, etc). Yet even though they’re basically the same many people pledge unquestioning loyalty to one party or the other, and then completely reframe their thinking according to which party is in power! People who rationally accept that the US wastes huge amount of money in needless wars overseas when Party X does it will suddenly adopt the opposite view when Party Y does precisely the same thing! Sadly for a lot of people party allegiance triumphs any rationality. When asked whether a paticular policy might be a good or bad thing people will actively avoid having an opinion until they know which party (or, shockingly, which personality) supports it. People absolve themselves of the responsibility for thinking and delegate it to others.
For me, thinking critically, independently and objectively is a philosophical behaviour we should all aspire to. The fact that so few people do it may be due to (i) a lack of curiousity, (ii) a lack of experience, (iii) lack of confidence, (iv) lazyness/dogmatism?! Sadly, that will likely remain the status quo until the masses are forced to face some very uncomfortable consequences that will likely arise from trends which are clearly unsustainable.
Great points! Your observations about the political parties are SPOT ON! BOTH are the parties of BIG GOVERNMENT!! Chip
The Circle Jerk that is Wall Street to K-Street to Capitol Street are still cruising along on auto pilot . The your shit is shit but our shit is stuff attitude is as strong as ever . Narcissism reigns supreme and all the great unwashed will continue to be pissed on and handed the bill for the clean up .
What event will break the system down into an absolute chaotic state with extreme violence in the streets is unknown . However when the grocery stores are empty and EBT cards have nothing to buy it will get ugly fast . Those who feel insulated from the rabble in the streets will be astonished how quickly their little wall of protection collapses and desperate people may quite literally be eating their collective asses . No one will escape this totally the players are in place . Prepare to defend yourselves !
Mark H
You said,
“When asked whether a paticular policy might be a good or bad thing people will actively avoid having an opinion until they know which party (or, shockingly, which personality) supports it.”
This is a subtle yet powerful ploy being used by the day miners attached to whichever candidate or politician. I haven’t had cable t.v. for over 12 years and don’t follow any of the MSM….
Years back when Sarah Palin was in the news I had a conversation with someone in person and used the term, “lamestream media” to describe the MSM ….
The person was revolted by my use of this term simply because Palin had apparently used it in one of her interviews. This individual completely shut down and wouldn’t listen to any of the Truths I had to share simply because some douchebag politician hijacked a word from the depths of the internet, probably from this site if the truth be known.
Obama, Clinton, Trump are all doing the same shit so they can cull public opinion…
Alex Jones is right about this,
There is a war on for each of our minds.
Stupid autocorrect….in my first sentence
day miners = data miners
I don’t know why everyone is so “shocked”… the end game is to collapse all the currencies… historically the dollar has been too resilient to collapse with the other currencies, that is now changing…with the introduction of SDRs and gold backed oil contracts, systems are in place and expanded to facilitate a new system/ currency that will be accepted globally… no not accepted… exuberantly accepted… but in order to get that kind of buy in, you have to have a period of extreme pain, so the “solution” is universally accepted with whole hearted enthusiasm. Typical globalist process… create a crisis to implement the “solution”… Its all part of the process… understand that and everything else “makes sense”
I quit being a “taxpayer” long ago and am no longer affected by the financial crimes of government and its bankster owners. My savings is in hard silver, my home is free and clear and removed from the tax rolls. It is much easier to say screw them than it is to let them keep screwing you.
How do you get your “free and clear” home off the tax rolls?
Last word Lucy here. (Maybe, we will see)
‘I’m flabbergasted at the willful ignorance of the populace”
Doesn’t that say it all? People believe what they want to believe and it will stay that way until we hit the wall. Then they will walk around like zombies complaining that no one warned them. Should I ignore them? Laugh at them? Scorn them?
Anyways, thank you for your hard work. There are people listening so all is not in vain. I will send you a donation. I wish I could be as generous as Yo but something is better than nothing.
I don’t think we have long to wait for the pain to begin. It’s like the first contractions when you are going into labor. Your not always positive it’s begun because you have false contractions beforehand. I think we are feeling the beginnings of true contractions.
I’m going to just leave this right here
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-global-financial-system-is.html
“The Global Financial System Is Unraveling, And No, the U.S. Is Not immune
Currencies don’t melt down randomly. This is only the first stage of a complete re-ordering of the global financial system.
The illusion that the U.S. is immune to the unraveling of debt and asset valuations won’t last. When the defaults start piling up, so will the losses, and when asset bubbles pop, incomes and spending decline. Although few seem to notice, almost half the profits of the S&P 500 corporations are earned overseas.
The belief that U.S. markets are somehow disconnected from global markets and immune to the repricing of risk, debt, assets and currencies is magical thinking.”
MC
Read that article the other day,
Another great one from CHS!!
Great Article. The Banksters will always have theirs and will continue to have theirs… To the little people – nothing. If the economy crashes – and it will soon – the Banksters will still have theirs and the rest of us will still have nothing.
Great rant. Feel better ? Those of us out here that do realize the problem can’t do much about it. Personally, I have no debt, lot of metals (including jacketed type), small homestead with plenty of food stored, ability to produce more, solar power so if the grid goes, we still have some, and so on. We live our life to be as independent of ‘the man’ as possible, that’s my answer.
I would say some major lessons have been learned over the last 10 years. Central banks can paper over the grand canyon, as long as the dumbed down sheeple accept that all that new money that funnels into Bezos and Zuckerpig comes right out of their asses in the form of massive currency and wage devaluation. The most important lesson of all is the knowledge that people will sit on their ass and let all this happen all the way up until the nation is fully transformed into Venezuela.
While I understand Admin’s distress at much of what Trump has done, he needs to realize that Trump can do only so much on his own, and must very carefully play the long game. The Deep State is a wounded and cornered animal, which makes it all the more dangerous. History tells us what happened when JFK tried to dial down the Cold War a few notches and abolish the CIA.
During the campaign Trump accurately called NATO “obsolete.” He is now following up on that, playing the other members off against each other and demanding they pay their fair share (which they can’t without jeopardizing their lavish welfare states or imposing even higher taxes). He can’t suddenly withdraw the US, but if he can get NATO to self-destruct the end result is the same — at least a partial starving of the war machine.
Baby, if you’ve ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me…. WKRP. Classic..
Great read!!
The question is – what do sheeple do with a couple hundred grand in savings and their debt under control? Park the funds in a Money Market until the crash and burn? Earn zero, lock in the gains, and ride the storm out?
Do I know you?
Jim, I know you are a very busy man. It is why I am putting this here. I am calling it a night and plan to add a bit to the wound maintenance piece tomorrow. If you do not have time for this post, just read the last paragraph at the bottom, grasp the implication of 2.491 TRILLION estimated future payment and ask yourself if you feel lucky. Well, do you?
After I finish this discussion with DRUD or he indicates he is finished, I will return to WIP’s and my discussion on another thread, in case others are following that discussion about the VA and government wasteful practices as I saw them.
So, WIP has mentioned the theft of his/taxpayer monies to give to a bunch of veterans like me. Well, it is the law that I’ve got a service-connected semi-disabling condition from an unfortunate series of events associated with military service. Hospitals are the worst sort of bureaucracies. Military, and by logical extension (but you can argue if you want to drud ;)), the Veterans hospitals and homes are terribly inefficient and the focus on procedure and process over patient and care is frightening when you are 57 years old and haven’t been inside a hospital for ten years and can SEE how process has taken over the hospital just like I watched it take over the Air Depot at Tinker. So, if WIP wants to return to that discussion, we will continue it. If not, not.
We just had a sudden storm and lost the signal.
As far as real name, family issues, location, well, duh. Have you not been paying attention? Everyone can track down everyone these days. There’s a little bug flying around your head which may or may not be a Russian drone gathering intel for Hillary. Good grief, of course I am aware I’m letting a few too many people know I’m about to talk. My son is helping me purge my online presence and I’m going to fade off soon.
Try to keep up. I am going to tell my story. I will tell it here if Jim Quinn will continue to give me a platform. I want my son to know that after he got settled into his life, I stood up and told the truth. And that’s all I did. What little truth I know, I blabbed. If someone can use that truth to grasp some understanding of how big the debt issue really is, good. If not, well, I tried. I am not going to make accusations or suggest criminal behavior. I am going to explain a few things about words that say something they can’t possibly mean. Entitled. That’s a really powerful word.
I figure if someone shows up here telling me I have to shut up like they came to Holly O’s place, then it might be a good thing for you all to know that too. I don’t see how pretending you pose a threat is supposed to frighten me after what I just went through. Pause here for implied insult, then move on.
Now, this I copied from some site I search on Start Page before the storm hit. When it passes I’m just going to paste this on the page and get off of here for the night. I am writing again and I come online very little. I’ve got a lot of stuff to finish and there is a vast chasm in the level of intelligent discussion on this site over the past couple of years. It is a shame, but true lovers of liberty do grow very tired of defending their position.
I have my own theory of TBP, which is that Jim Quinn is the fireman in Fahrenheit 451, collecting the books (thinkers) secretly but having no real use for them other than to collect them. But he doesn’t mind collecting them if they will just get out there and be read and leave him to figure out how to stomach one more detour through that depressing 30 blocks. And, he doesn’t want to keep the damn things, just give them a platform to be read. He’s got his own problems at home. The wife of the fireman in the book nags at him relentlessly because she wants the fourth wall to be a complete television screen so she can finally be at the level of viewer where she will get lines in her own virtual life. And I know good and well Avalon has a wonderful life as mother of some pretty awesome kids. Good on you. I’ve got two sons of my own, if you count Vinny. And I do.
So, the TBP fireman really doesn’t have the time nor the desire to moderate who wants to read who on his blog. If the pieces his guest writers post are popular, great. If not, so what. Move on. There’s a lot more to the book than that, but for now, that’s all you are getting out of me. Cognitive Dissonance, try some. It’s an eye opener.
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a federal Cabinet-level agency that provides near-comprehensive healthcare services to eligible military veterans at VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country; several non-healthcare benefits including disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance; and provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries.
While veterans benefits have been provided since the American Revolutionary War, an exclusively veteran-focused federal agency, the Veterans Administration, was not established until 1930, and became the Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs in 1989.
The VA employs 377,805 people[1] at hundreds of Veterans Affairs medical facilities, clinics, benefits offices, and cemeteries. In Fiscal Year 2016 (1 Oct 2015 – 30 Sep 2016), net program costs for the department were $273 billion, which includes VBA Actuarial Cost of $106.5 billion for compensation benefits.[2][3]
***
The long-term actuarial accrued liability (total estimated future payments for veterans and their family members) is $2.491 trillion for compensation benefits; $59.6 billion for education benefits; and $4.6 billion for burial benefits.[4]
If you determine it is a worthwhile effort to maintain my own platform with wound maintenance, you kindly ask TMWNN to hide what is probably a load of crap on my post. I know you do not censor, but I would like that to sit in passive detection mode for another day, if possible. After that, perhaps you can just remove it from Feature.
I like having little letters tucked away here in your archive. It is a bit like walking the streets of Mayberry from time to time.
Oh,and did you know that every single honorably discharged veteran is entitled to that health care benefit established when Reagan elevated the Veteran’s Administration to Cabinet Status. that is why that 2.5 trillion in estimated future compensation to vets and their families is bogus.
How many wounded warriors (excellent propaganda campaign on that alliterative term) do you think the military is discharging honorably these days? I think I saw the sleight of hand when I was doing volunteer work in the records office after the Murrah Building bombing.
I don’t remember the Fireman’s name in 451. But before I go quietly into that good night, I wanted to tell you the big plot I drew around the fasinating cast of characters you had assembled here at TBP. Then life moves on and so do some of us too soon, while others, myself included need to get on with it.
I tried to make amends with HR on his post but I think he may have crapped on me just because you don’t censor. I don’t need it censored more than a day.
I looked. It isn’t that bad a ihit. Just a suggestion that my walking is somehow incongruent with my surgerical wound status. Anyway who has ever had surgery knows that someone is coming to make you get up and walk, at least stand, sooner than you want them to. Wise people, like me, who’ve lived this horror for years just grit their teeth and stand up and walk, ten steps, then twenty, then to the driveway and then back as many times daily as one can.
If there is any particularly nasty comment left in response to my recent comment, please hide it. I’m expecting decdent company today.
“There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.”
The International Jew – The World’s Foremost Problem by Henry Ford (1920).
Judas-ism: it’s NOT a religion, it’s a satanic, criminal conspiracy/cult.
If you really want to make a difference, EXPOSE judas-ism’s bible, the talmud.
Show regular Americans what satan’s rats are all about.
That’s all you need to do.
EXPOSE the talmud!
MUST read:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130605010616/https://stopcg.wordpress.com/the-talmud-and-the-jew-world-order/