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The Future of Money
The Future of Money The cartels and state organs are frantically trying to co-op, outlaw, corral or control this disruptive technology. To say that the future of money is blockchain-based crypto-currencies and payment platforms is to state the obvious nowadays. If this wasn’t the case, then why are Goldman Sachs et al. (i.e. the global too […]
What Killed the Middle Class?
What Killed the Middle Class? If the four structural trends highlighted below don’t reverse, the middle class is heading for extinction. Everyone knows the middle class is fading fast. I’ve covered this issue in depth for years, for example: Honey, I Shrunk the Middle Class: Perhaps 1/3 of Households Qualify (December 28, 2015) and What Does It Take To […]
Recipe for Collapse: Rising Military and Social Welfare Spending
Recipe for Collapse: Rising Military and Social Welfare Spending Leaders faced with unrest, rising demands and dwindling coffers always debauch their currency as the politically expedient “solution.” Whatever you think of former Fed chair Alan Greenspan, he is one of the few public voices identifying runaway entitlement costs as a structural threat to the economy […]
Wait a Minute–Who’s Fascist?
Wait a Minute–Who’s Fascist? The core belief of the Establishment is the central state should run everything. If you’re an Establishment insider, the mainstream media will give you plenty of column inches and airtime to label Donald Trump a “dangerous” fascist: for example, Democratic insider Robert Reich’s fear-mongering frenzy Donald Trump is a 21st century American fascist, […]
Why Our Financial System Is Like the Titanic
Why Our Financial System Is Like the Titanic The “unsinkable” global financial system is rushing headlong toward its encounter with the iceberg. Why did the Titanic sink, despite being considered unsinkable? The conventional answer is the design of its watertight compartments was flawed: the watertight bulkheads were limited in height to a few feet above the […]
2016, The Year Of The Red Monkey: Expect Wild, Unending Volatility
2016, The Year Of The Red Monkey: Expect Wild, Unending Volatility The past 25 years of “growth” and brief recessions may not be a good guide to the next few years. In the lunar calendar that started February 8, this is the Year of the Red Monkey. I found this description of the Red Monkey […]
Do Any of the Current Rallies Pass “The Sniff Test”? No.
Do Any of the Current Rallies Pass “The Sniff Test”? No. But you can’t tame the monster of speculative, legalized looting and financialization. Everything from iron ore to copper to the Baltic Dry Index to stocks to bat guano is rallying. The problem is not a single rally passes “the sniff test:” is the rally the […]
Cheap Oil, the U.S. Dollar and the Deep State
Cheap Oil, the U.S. Dollar and the Deep State March 9, 2016 All this is to suggest that those expecting a major weakening in the USD to push oil higher shouldn’t hold their breath awaiting this outcome. That oil fell off a cliff once the U.S. dollar (USD) began its liftoff in mid-2014 is, well, […]
America’s Ruling Classes: No Fear, No Caution, No Prudence
America’s Ruling Classes: No Fear, No Caution, No Prudence Could it be that America’s ruling classes, its Imperial state and the Federal Reserve, no longer rule their own destiny? America’s smug ruling classes are supremely confident: they feel no fear, no caution, and exhibit no prudence. I outlined the five ruling classes in America’s Nine Classes: The […]
America’s Ruling Classes: No Fear, No Caution, No Prudence
America’s Ruling Classes: No Fear, No Caution, No Prudence Could it be that America’s ruling classes, its Imperial state and the Federal Reserve, no longer rule their own destiny? America’s smug ruling classes are supremely confident: they feel no fear, no caution, and exhibit no prudence. I outlined the five ruling classes in America’s Nine Classes: The […]
How The Seeds Of Revolution Take Root
Seita/Shutterstock How The Seeds Of Revolution Take Root What motivates a populace to rebel against a regime? That the dramatic upheavals of war, pestilence and environmental collapse can trigger social disorder and revolution is well-established. Indeed, this dynamic can be viewed as the standard model of social disorder/revolution: a large-scale crisis—often a bolt-from-the-blue externality—upends the […]
When Currency Pegs Break, Global Dominoes Fall
When Currency Pegs Break, Global Dominoes Fall When a currency peg breaks, it unleashes shock waves of uncertainty and repricing that hit the global financial system like a tsunami. The U.S. dollar has risen by more than 35% against other major trading currencies since mid-2014: If all currencies floated freely on the global foreign exchange […]
The System Has Failed
The System Has Failed No wonder we’re devolving into a society of a few privileged haves and a vast populace of marginalized have-nots. American culture contextualizes failure in individualistic terms: the system didn’t fail–you failed. Never mind the system is set up to fail many (if not most) participants: the cultural narrative is that failure to […]
Think Another Crash Is “Impossible”? Think Again
Think Another Crash Is “Impossible”? Think Again The confidence that risk can be quantified and mitigated is misplaced. If there are limits on what we can know of the future–and clearly there are–this sets limits on our ability to quantify and mitigate risk. Longtime correspondent Lew G. submitted this thought-provoking riff on the system’s intrinsic capacity […]
If Zero Interest Rates Fixed What’s Broken, We’d Be in Paradise
If Zero Interest Rates Fixed What’s Broken, We’d Be in Paradise Rather than fix what’s broken with the real economy, ZIRP/NIRP has added problems that only collapse can solve. The fundamental premise of global central bank policy is simple: whatever’s broken in the economy can be fixed with zero interest rates (ZIRP). And the linear extension […]
