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Tag Archives: of two minds
Once the Bubbles Pop, We’re Broke
Once the Bubbles Pop, We’re Broke I hate to break it to you, but the everything bubble isn’t permanent. OK, I get it–the Bull Market in stocks is permanent. Bulls will be chortling in 2030 that skeptics have been wrong for 22 years–an entire generation. Bonds will also be higher, thanks to negative interest rates, and housing will […]
Why Is Productivity Dead in the Water?
Why Is Productivity Dead in the Water? The only possible output of this system is extortion as a way of life. As the accompanying chart shows, productivity in the U.S. has been declining since the early 2000s. This trend mystifies economists, as the tremendous investments in software, robotics, networks and mobile computing would be expected […]
Here’s How We Ended Up with Predatory, Parasitic Elites
Here’s How We Ended Up with Predatory, Parasitic Elites Combine financialization, neoliberalism and moral bankruptcy, and you end up with predatory, parasitic elites. How did our financial and political elites become predatory parasites? Some will answer that elites have always been predatory parasites; as tempting as it may be to offer a blanket denunciation of […]
To Understand America’s Neofeudal Economy, Start with Extortion
To Understand America’s Neofeudal Economy, Start with Extortion Here is the result of America’s neofeudalism: soaring wealth and income inequality. Let’s spin the time machine back to the late Middle Ages, at the height of feudalism, and imagine we’re trying to get a boatload of goods to the nearest city to sell. As we drift […]
How “Wealthy” Would We Be If We Stopped Borrowing Trillions Every Year?
How “Wealthy” Would We Be If We Stopped Borrowing Trillions Every Year? These charts reflect a linear system that is wobbling into the first stages of non-linear destabilization. The widespread presumption is the U.S. is wealthy beyond words, and will remain so as far as the eye can see: wealthy enough to fund trillion-dollar weapons […]
The Telltale Signs of Imperial Decline
The Telltale Signs of Imperial Decline Nothing is as permanent as we imagine–especially super-complex, super-costly, super-asymmetric and super-debt-dependent systems. Check which signs of Imperial decline you see around you: The hubris of an increasingly incestuous and out-of-touch leadership; dismaying extremes of wealth inequality; self-serving, avaricious Elites; rising dependency of the lower classes on free Bread […]
Our “Prosperity” Is Now Dependent on Predatory Globalization
Our “Prosperity” Is Now Dependent on Predatory Globalization Nowadays, trade and “prosperity” are dependent on currencies that are created out of thin air via borrowing or printing. So here’s the story explaining why “free” trade and globalization create so much wonderful prosperity for all of us: I find a nation with cheap labor and no […]
We’ll Pay All Those Future Obligations by Impoverishing Everyone (How to Destroy Our Currency In One Easy Lesson)
We’ll Pay All Those Future Obligations by Impoverishing Everyone (How to Destroy Our Currency In One Easy Lesson) The only way to pay all these future obligations is by creating new money. I’ve been focusing on inflation, which is more properly understood as the loss of purchasing power of a currency, which when taken to extremes destroys […]
Here’s Why Rip-Roaring Inflation Is Inevitable
Here’s Why Rip-Roaring Inflation Is Inevitable The stability of America’s status quo is illusory. One of the enduring mysteries of the past decade is why inflation has remained tame while the central bank and government have pumped trillions of dollars of newly created money into the economy. Millions of words have been written about this, […]
Here’s What We’ve Lost in the Past Decade
Here’s What We’ve Lost in the Past Decade The confidence and hubris of those directing the rest of us to race off the cliff while they watch from a safe distance is off the charts. The past decade of “recovery” and “growth” has actually been a decade of catastrophic losses for our society and nation. […]
Here’s How Systems (and Nations) Fail
Here’s How Systems (and Nations) Fail These embedded processes strip away autonomy, equating compliance with effectiveness even as the processes become increasingly counter-productive and wasteful. Would any sane person choose America’s broken healthcare system over a cheaper, more effective alternative? Let’s see: the current system costs twice as much per person as the healthcare systems […]
When Long-Brewing Instability Finally Reaches Crisis
When Long-Brewing Instability Finally Reaches Crisis Keep an eye on the system’s buffers. They look fine until they suddenly collapse. The doom-and-gloomers among us who have been predicting the unraveling of an inherently unstable financial system appear to have been disproved by the reflation of yet another credit-asset bubble. But inherently unstable / imbalanced systems can […]
The Schizophrenic Deep State is a Symptom, Not the Disease
The Schizophrenic Deep State is a Symptom, Not the Disease If we understand the profound political disunity fracturing the nation and its Imperial Project, we understand the Deep State must also fracture along the same fault lines. If we consider the state of the nation from 40,000 feet, several key indicators of profound political disunity within […]
Our Institutions Are Failing
Our Institutions Are Failing Our institutional failure reminds me of the phantom legions of Rome’s final days. The mainstream media and its well-paid army of “authorities” / pundits would have us believe the decline in our collective trust in our institutions is the result of fake news, i.e. false narratives and data presented as factual. […]
The USA Is Now a 3rd World Nation
The USA Is Now a 3rd World Nation I know it hurts, but the reality is painfully obvious: the USA is now a 3rd World nation. Dividing the Earth’s nations into 1st, 2nd and 3rd world has fallen out of favor;apparently it offended sensibilities. It has been replaced by the politically correctdeveloped and developing nations, […]
