Tag: Economy

But profit (sort of) matters

Submitted by: aka.attrition

The notable – but largely unacknowledged in the mainstream – feature of the recent (failing) attempt to revive the pre-1972 moon landing project is the way in which modern rockets have proved susceptible to all of the problems which beset the Saturn V in the 1960s. Nor is this a mere technicality. The reason that the Apollo programme was brought to a premature end in December 1972 was that it had run into an invisible economic limit. To people – including most economists – who have learned to think of the economy as a purely financial system, this sounds mean. We can always find the money to fight wars and bail out banks, so why shouldn’t we divert money into a scientific endeavour which might (it won’t) act as a launch pad for humanity’s journey to the stars?

Continue reading “But profit (sort of) matters”

How American Millionaires Are Outsmarting the Collapsing Economy

Via Birch Gold Group

From Peter Reagan

President Joe Biden has made a few public speeches this year in which he has claimed that the economy is in good shape.

For example, in one June appearance on Jimmy Kimmel live he claimed:

We have the fastest growing economy in the world, the world, the world.

He went on to claim success in GDP growth, trade deficit reduction, and unemployment. Like most politicians from both sides of the aisle, his position is more spin than fact.

Case in point: official GDP declined sharply, reversing our economic momentum for the first two quarters of 2022. Fortunately, third-quarter numbers showed a modest recovery. Currently, the consensus among economists for fourth quarter GDP is around 1% — in other words, stagnation at best. Continue reading “How American Millionaires Are Outsmarting the Collapsing Economy”

The Western-System is More Fragile Than Ever… Here’s What Comes Next

Guest Post by Chris MacIntosh

Two things I want to point out.

One is that John Locke was right.

Government has no other end than the preservation of property. Tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right… there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.” -John Locke

If ever there was a catalyst to galvanize and accelerate an alternate system or systems to provide relief from the tsunami of oppression coming at us, then surely this is it.

And secondly… the galvanizing of current existing alternative systems, which, if I’m even half right, will morph during the course of the decade resulting in something that will be unrecognizable from its current state.

Continue reading “The Western-System is More Fragile Than Ever… Here’s What Comes Next”

David Stockman on Why the Mirage of Lowflation Era Is Coming to an End

Guest post by David Stockman

To paraphrase Milton Friedman, everywhere and always deflationary commodity outages and shortfalls are turned into general price inflation by the foolish monetary “accommodation” policies of the central banks. And the present pot-boiler inflation is no exception.

Y/Y Change In PPI for All Commodities, 1947-2022

Continue reading “David Stockman on Why the Mirage of Lowflation Era Is Coming to an End”

Ron Paul Reveals Exactly How Much the Federal Reserve Has Already Robbed You

Guest Post by Ron Paul

Even after decades educating Americans on economics and liberty, I’m still amazed by the number of people who have no idea what the Federal Reserve is or what they do.

Sometimes, if put on the spot, folks will hazard a guess.

“They’re a bank, right?” Sort of, but not really.

“They’re the ones who make the stock market go up.” While that’s true, it’s not actually their job to pull the strings on Wall Street.

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Here’s What the Government Should Really Do in the Greater Depression

Guest Post by Doug Casey

It’s hard to have a conversation today, or even overhear one, without being exposed to moronic – and I now use that word in its colloquial as well as its clinical sense – opinions about what “we” should do.

“We,” of course, is the government. Everyone believes it should “Do Something.” And it is.

But why deal in half-measures?

Continue reading “Here’s What the Government Should Really Do in the Greater Depression”

Suicide by Monetary and Energy Policy

Guest Post by Chris MacIntosh

The war — and it is a war — between the Western-led economic, social and political system and that of the East becomes more visible weekly.

Doug Casey recently said it well:

“We’re now undergoing our own Great Cultural Revolution. It’s much more serious than what the Chinese attempted in the ’60s. Why? Because a whole complex of destructive ideas have now captured the apparatus of most governments, academia, media, entertainment, charities, and large corporations. The public has been both subtlety and overtly indoctrinated for generations. It’s not easy to reverse a trend this large.”

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Uber Clueless

Via TownHall

The media’s ignorance about basic economics is galling.

I expect it from politicians. I expect it from The New York Times. But it’s sad to see in the New York Post, my town’s rare alternative to Democrat media.

Recently the tabloid freaked out over higher prices imposed by ride-share companies. “New Yorkers are fed up with forking over excessive amounts for Uber and Lyft rides.”

Excessive? Just what is “excessive?” Who decides?

Prices were already up because gasoline costs more, NYC keeps imposing new taxes and regulations, and the federal government pays so many people not to work that there’s now a shortage of drivers.

That day, unusually high “surge” prices were in effect because there had been a horrible shooting on the subway. Commuters, fearful of another subway shooting, turned to ride-share services.

Continue reading “Uber Clueless”

We may be entering the ‘down phase’ of the economic cycle

Via Sovereign Man

On June 29, 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary sat quietly while his ‘experts’ debated what to do next.

The Emperor’s son and heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, had just been assassinated the previous morning in Sarajevo. And there was still much they didn’t know.

Some of the Emperor’s ministers suggested they demand a criminal investigation into the assassination in order to gather all the facts.

Others recommended immediate military mobilization. Other advisors argued that Austria-Hungary should seek support from its allies, and others suggested they deliver a firm ultimatum.

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Russia Just Made the One Announcement the Fed Has Always Feared

Via Birch Gold Group

Public domain photo (CC0 1.0) courtesy of Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest top stories involving gold and the overall economy. Stories include: Demystifying Russia’s plans for gold, gold in-between inflation and geopolitical tensions, and gold emerges as real money once again. Continue reading “Russia Just Made the One Announcement the Fed Has Always Feared”

An End to Progress

By Jeff Thomas via International Man

“Progress may have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.”

I’ve always been fond of that quote. Back when Ogden Nash wrote it, it was quite clever. Today, the quote is a bit less entertaining, as we are living in a period when, more and more, world leaders seem to be headed in the wrong direction – away from progress. As the Great Unravelling plays out, people are coming to the conclusion that the directions taken by their leaders are, in Doug Casey’s well-chosen words, not only the wrong thing to do, but the exact opposite of the right thing to do.

The first category in which this seems to be true is economics. Most world leaders are quite committed to the idea that Keynesian economics will provide all the answers to solve any economic problem. However, the further each country goes down the Keynesian road, the clearer it becomes that Keynesian theory simply does not work. In fact, many countries that have followed it are on the brink of economic collapse, yet they are charging forward all the more determinedly with solutions that are based upon the very theories that caused the problems. Continue reading “An End to Progress”

Petrodollar System Flirts With Collapse… What It Means for Gold, Oil, and the Dollar

Via International Man

It’s been rightly said that “he who holds the gold makes the rules.”

After World War 2, the US had the largest gold reserves in the world, by far. Along with winning the war, this let the US reconstruct the global monetary system around the dollar.

The new system, created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, tied the currencies of virtually every country in the world to the US dollar through a fixed exchange rate. It also tied the US dollar to gold at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce.

The dollar was said to be “as good as gold.”

Continue reading “Petrodollar System Flirts With Collapse… What It Means for Gold, Oil, and the Dollar”

On the Cusp of an Economic Singularity

Submitted by Dan From WY

Doomberg

On the Cusp of an Economic Singularity

“One mustn’t look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us.” – Gustave Flaubert

In 1988, Stephen Hawking published one of the best-selling science books of all time. In A Brief History of Time, Hawking made the impossibly complex topics of astronomy and modern physics accessible to a lay audience, inspiring countless young students (and at least one green chicken) to pursue a career in the sciences. It is estimated that the book has sold an incredible 25 million copies worldwide.

*A Brief History of Time | photo credit: BBC*

In Chapter 3 of the book, Hawking introduces the reader to the Big Bang Theory and the concept of a gravitational singularity, which Wikipedia describes as “a condition in which gravity is so intense that spacetime itself breaks down catastrophically.” Essentially, since the laws of physics are eviscerated at a singularity, what happened before it is both irrelevant and unknowable, and one could consider such an event as having reset the universe’s clock. Here’s how Hawking describes it in his book (emphasis added throughout):

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The Necessity of Human Action

Via International Man

In 1987, Levon Helm, a former cotton farmer from Arkansas, sat brooding in his yard, trying to describe why his apparent success had turned to near-bankruptcy:

“Well, it’s hard to put your finger on. You get behind financially and once you get behind financially, you seem to get behind spiritually. And your luck turns against you.”

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A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Systemic Collapse and Pandemic Simulation

Submitted by Backstopper

Great summary of our current predicament.

The Philosophical Salon

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Systemic Collapse and Pandemic Simulation

A year and a half after the arrival of Virus, some may have started wondering why the usually unscrupulous ruling elites decided to freeze the global profit-making machine in the face of a pathogen that targets almost exclusively the unproductive (over 80s). Why all the humanitarian zeal? Cui bono? Only those who are unfamiliar with the wondrous adventures of GloboCap can delude themselves into thinking that the system chose to shut down out of compassion. Let us be clear from the start: the big predators of oil, arms, and vaccines could not care less about humanity.

Follow the money

In pre-Covid times, the world economy was on the verge of another colossal meltdown. Here is a brief chronicle of how the pressure was building up:

June 2019: In its Annual Economic Report, the Swiss-based Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the ‘Central Bank of all central banks’, sets the international alarm bells ringing. The document highlights “overheating […] in the leveraged loan market”, where “credit standards have been deteriorating” and “collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) have surged – reminiscent of the steep rise in collateralized debt obligations [CDOs] that amplified the subprime crisis [in 2008].” Simply stated, the belly of the financial industry is once again full of junk.

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EVERYTHING IS FINE

Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer

Zerohedge

Tyson Foods Soars To Record After Hiking Beef, Chicken And Pork Prices By Double Digits

Stock of Tyson Foods, the world’s second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after Brazil’s JBS S.A., is soaring 9%, hitting an all time high and is one of the S&P’s best companies this morning…

… after the company reported blowout earnings (thanks to passing on surging food prices) and announced that it is raising prices even more as it grapples with a tight labor market and smaller livestock herds. According to the report, beef prices jumped by 32% in the quarter, with chicken up ~20% and pork 13%.

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