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Rise up, America!
Rise up, America!
Today we hoist the black flag of anarchy… and plot illicit acts.
For the spirit of sedition steals over us. And passion overmasters our typical Olympian serenity.
We may be declared infamous and set down as an insurrectionist. We may be sent to the gallows.
Yet the time for meek submission is gone. And the time for bald defiance is here.
Do we break heads? Do we holler against the police?
Do we incite our fellow Americans to thieving, to arson, to bedlam?
We do none of it, no.
We are as peaceful as a napping baby, as peaceful as grazing sheep.
Instead we beseech Americans to reclaim their ancient and God-granted liberties.
That is, we beseech Americans to defy the government freezes that imprison them in their homes… and wreck their livelihoods.
All About Saving Lives?
We issue today’s war cry for one central because:
The government authorities that mandated these “lockdowns” clearly do not take them heavily.
Their enforcement has proven selective. Capricious. Nonsensical. Idiotic.
That is to say, predictable.
These gushers of human compassion assured us the public health was their highest thought, that they had no thought beyond the preservation of life.
In consequence… they mandated the self-incarceration of perhaps 300 million Americans.
Yes, it would comatize the economy, they conceded. Yes, stores, restaurants, alehouses, theaters, schools, worship houses, beaches, parks and other places of public resort would be locked.
Yes, millions and millions of Americans would be thrown from their jobs.
Yet these unprecedented, egregious and breath-stealing measures were necessary… else the pandemic would overwhelm us. We were denied all choice.
This is what our jailors told us.
And they sobbed the saltiest tears that ever streamed down cheeks…
“If it saves one life,” sniffled Gov. Cuomo, the incalculable expense was worth the sacrifice.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Collapse of Main Street and Local Tax Revenues Cannot Be Reversed
The Collapse of Main Street and Local Tax Revenues Cannot Be Reversed
The core problem is the U.S. economy has been fully financialized, and so costs are unaffordable.
To understand the long-term consequences of the pandemic on Main Street and local tax revenues, we need to consider first and second order effects. The immediate consequences of lockdowns and changes in consumer behavior are first-order effects: closures of Main Street, job losses, massive Federal Reserve bailouts of the top 0.1%, loan programs for small businesses, stimulus checks to households that earned less than $200,000 last year, and so on.
The second-order effects cannot be bailed out or controlled by central authorities. Second-order effects are the result of consequences have their own consequences.
Gordon Long and I look at two highly correlated second-order effects: the collapse of Main Street and local tax revenues.
The first-order effects of the pandemic on Main Street are painfully obvious: small businesses that have barely kept their heads above water as costs have soared have laid off employees as they’ve closed their doors.
The second-order effects are still spooling out: how many businesses will close for good because the owners don’t want to risk losing everything by chancing re-opening? How many will give it the old college try and close a few weeks later as they conclude they can’t survive on 60% of their previous revenues? How many enjoy a brief spurt of business as everyone rushes back, but then reality kicks in and business starts sliding after the initial burst wears off?
How many will be unable to hire back everyone who was laid off?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The lockdown air-freshener?
The lockdown air-freshener?
The Covid-19 pandemic has cleared the city streets. But who foresaw that it would dramatically clean the urban air?
One unexpected consequence of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic has been the extraordinary reduction in urban air pollution in cities where the majority of the population have been required to stay home. This level of clean city air—clean enough to breathe freely without fear of eventually damaging one’s health and that of one’s children, is unprecedented in the modern era. Urban residents have marveled at the clarity of distant mountains rarely seen or imagined. Cities that used to be shrouded in a grey-brown blanket of smog, now seem newly minted against a background of sparkling blue sky.
Urban air pollution in major cities has been a scandal for centuries. The air pollution in London, England, has been atrocious since the 17th Century when the poet Sir William Davenport complained about the ‘canopy of smoke’ that covered the city. We might have imagined that London’s air quality had improved over the last three centuries as the burning of coal in the city has been replaced by cleaner fuels, but we would be wrong. A report released in 2017 found that all Londoners are exposed to concentrations of particulate matter higher than WHO air quality guidelines. In central London, about 8 million people breathe in air that exceeds the guidelines by a whopping 50 percent or more.
The last ICE age
Coal is no longer the primary culprit. It is now the unbridled use of the internal combustion engine (ICE) for urban transport and the combustion of huge quantities of hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline and diesel in the urban environment.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Second Wave? China Orders ‘Partial Lockdown’ Of Border City; Seoul’s Newest Cluster Explodes To 120 Cases: Live Updates
Second Wave? China Orders ‘Partial Lockdown’ Of Border City; Seoul’s Newest Cluster Explodes To 120 Cases: Live Updates
Summary:
- VW ‘pauses’ manufacturing of VW Golf, SUVs
- China imposes ‘partial lockdown’ on northeastern border city
- SK’s ‘Itaewon’ cluster climbs to 120
- Germany, Austria agree to reopen mutual border
- Global cases: 4.22 million
- Global deaths: 291,519
- Poland reports record jump in new cases
- Russia sees numbers start to slow after shocking record run of confirmations
* * *
Update (0745ET): After reopening the largest auto factory in the world, Volkswagen is reportedly ‘pausing’ production of the Volkswagen Golf (a compact model more popular in Europe), as well as its SUVs, due to ‘poor sales’.
What, exactly, was the point of reopening factories and potentially exposing workers to SARS-CoV-2, just to shut down operations again? Also, given that VW is the world’s largest carmaker, this is just the latest headline to undermine the “V-shaped” thesis/“fantasy”.
* * *
As we reported last night, news that LA County suspects its reopening will take up to 3 months – a month longer than previously expected – sent markets lower into the close. That news, combined with Dr. Fauci’s warning about states rushing to reopen, cemented the impression that the reopening of the American economy would probably be much more fraught with delays. And for a brief moment, it seemed like fun-durr-mentals almost mattered again…
Anyway, European markets wobbled Wednesday following reports that the latest cluster of cases in Seoul had climbed to 119, the latest increase of dozens of cases as contact-tracers scramble to test as many people as possible. More than 14k people have been tested so far. To be sure, investigators have made some discoveries that undermined the theory that all of these cases are connected to one “super-spreader”. Rather, it’s believed that most of these cases were likely individuals who were asymptomatically infected elsewhere. The cases have been linked to multiple cases.
“Black Mirror” Creator Abandons Writing Because We’re ‘Already In A Dystopia’
“Black Mirror” Creator Abandons Writing Because We’re ‘Already In A Dystopia’
Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker told UK’s Radio Times that his audience might not be able to “stomach” another season of his dystopian Netflix series. He said the public mood is not suited for another season considering the world has been thrown into dystopia via the virus pandemic.
When Brooker was asked for an update on the writing of season 6; he responded by saying:
“I’ve been busy doing things,” he said. “I don’t know what I can say about what I’m doing and not doing. At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on any of those [Black Mirror episodes]. I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.”
Black Mirror, which airs on Netflix, has produced five seasons so far. The last season was released in June 2019 and consisted of just three episodes. The Emmy-winning series plunges its audience into a nightmarish dystopia where technology is making people’s lives living hell.
With the world caught in the middle of a pandemic, economic crash, and geopolitical tensions soaring between superpowers, as a surveillance state is being erected across the world under cover of the virus outbreak, Brooker does not want to give his audience any more negative ideas.
Quarantines and an economic crash have resulted in isolation and anxiety for many. This is a recipe for substance abuse and mental illness as a byproduct of today’s chaos could trigger a wave of suicides.
Brooker is moving away from death and despair to a comedy special on BBC titled “Antiviral Wipe” will air in the UK on May 14. The world needs hope and light amid these unprecedented times…
It’s Only Paper
IT’S ONLY PAPER
The response to the virus has added a new mechanism of capital consumption to the many we have documented over the years. Businesses are shut down, yet they continue to incur expenses. There is a popular misconception out there that this is merely a paper loss. One can almost picture a neutron bomb that somehow wipes out only paper, leaving all the physical assets and plant unscathed. It’s a pleasant fantasy. And it’s quite a popular one—not only amongst all the usual suspects, but even an Austrian school economist of our acquaintance asserted it.
As an aside, this illustrates that, too often, economists are unfamiliar with business. The economist looks at a closed restaurant and thinks there’s no reason why this restaurant can’t be mothballed for a day, a week, a month, or a year. The owner of the restaurant would object that he’s still paying certain expenses, even if he’s laid off all of his staff. And the economist retorts, “That’s just paper!”
The economist—and politicians—are tempted to think that the government and its central bank can restore the lost paper capital by extending a loan, or even doling out free money. This is simply not true.
One thing should be bloody clear: whatever expenses this restaurant pays, is a transfer of real resources from the restaurant to the recipients. Those recipients are buying food, fuel, clothing, shelter, etc. It’s not just paper.
Looking deeper into the restaurant, we see that, even when it’s closed, it’s still burning some electricity (even if not as much as when it’s operating). There’s insurance premiums. And building maintenance. Over time, exposure to sun, wind, rain, and snow damages the roof, windows, and even the walls.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The State of the American Debt Slaves, Q1 2020
The State of the American Debt Slaves, Q1 2020
How are consumers positioned going into the crisis?
Most of the first quarter was still the Good Times, but in later February and early March it hit the fan, as markets were crashing. In mid-March lockdowns started to roll across the country, and the layoffs by the tens of millions commenced. So how were consumers positioned going into this crisis? Many of them, up to their eyeballs in debt.
Consumer debt – student loans, auto loans, and revolving credit such as credit cards and personal loans but excluding housing-related debts such as mortgages and HELOCs – jumped by $153 billion at the end of the first quarter, compared to Q1 a year earlier, or by 3.8%, to $4.15 trillion (not seasonally adjusted), according to Federal Reserve data:
In March, the problems already became apparent. On a seasonally adjusted basis (the above is not seasonally adjusted), consumer credit fell 0.3% in March from February, and except for December 2015, when a large statistical adjustment was made, this was the first month-to-month decline since the Great Recession.
OK, we know consumer credit is going to plunge. Balances of auto loans and credit loans will come down not because consumers are suddenly more prudent, but because they have lost their jobs and will default on their credit cards and auto loans. Those defaults were already happening going into the crisis, and they’re now accelerating. When lenders write those loans off, the consumer credit balances come down. Nothing to do with prudence of consumers but with losses at lenders.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Bankrupt Cities And States Get The National Disaster They’ve Been Hoping For
Bankrupt Cities And States Get The National Disaster They’ve Been Hoping For
The people running states like New Jersey and cities like Chicago know they’re broke. Ridiculously generous public employee pensions – concocted by elected officials and union leaders who had to have understood that they were writing checks their taxpayers couldn’t cover – are bleeding them dry, with no political solution in sight.
They also know that they have only two possible outs: bankruptcy, or some form of federal bailout. Since the former means a disgraceful end to local political careers while the latter requires some kind of massive crisis to push Washington into a place where a multi-trillion dollar state/city bailout is the least bad option, it’s safe to assume that mayors and governors – along with public sector union leaders – have been hoping for such a crisis to save their bacon.
And this year they got their wish. The country is on lockdown, unemployment is skyrocketing and mayors and governors now have a plausible way to rebrand their criminal mismanagement as a “natural disaster” deserving of outside help.
Here, for instance, is an estimate of how high unemployment will spike for various states. Note that overall it’s brutal, but the distribution isn’t what you might expect:
And here’s a table of state rainy day funds (i.e., cash on hand). To their credit, oil-producing states had the discipline to save against that commodity’s inevitable price fluctuations. Other states apparently didn’t see the need:
Illinois, which has the most underfunded pensions but, interestingly, a relatively healthy labor market, apparently had its natural disaster bailout plan prepped and printed before COVID-19 was invented and released. Because governor Gov. J.B. Pritzker almost instantly had his hand out for – get this – $41 billion, a sum equal to three times the state’s estimated pandemic-related revenue loss in the coming year. Overall, governors have asked for about $500 billion in aid.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
We Need to Shut Them Down
We Need to Shut Them Down
We need to shut them down. Governments that is. At least the ones that cannot pay their bills because of unnecessary economic lockdown orders.
I have tried just about everything in these pages to induce politicians to see that they are pushing the worst policies since at least the New Deal and are not going to get reelected if they continue their lockdown policies, which could end in bloody revolt if the power or another essential system goes out.
I’ve also tried to induce Americans to sue for their freedom on both civil and Constitutional grounds. I’ve tried to stir their patriotism, and to shame them into rising above the status of mindless test subjects or medieval peasants. I’ve tried to get “Progressives” to see that they can’t have both Social Security and government health insurance simultaneously without increasing the probability of future fiascos.
I have also proffered two separate ways out of this mess, one recently implicitly endorsed by Elon Musk, and another that no self-respecting social scientist could dispute. And I suggested that COVID-19 life insurance would help Americans to face death more like their brave ancestors, or younger selves, did at Woodstock.
But oh the powers that be, be a mighty whale some doth call Leviathan, with the magical power of creating something out of nothing, or rather, like the Wizard of Oz, appearing to create something out of nothing! So the money doth spew forth from the whale’s blow hole in mighty bursts to assuage and calm those who might wish it ill. And worked so far it has.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
WILL IT TAKE FOOD SHORTAGES TO END SUPPORT FOR THE SHUTDOWN?
Will It Take Food Shortages to End Support for the Shutdown?
Americans are uniquely privileged, to the point of simply imagining they can stay home for months and months without suffering severe economic hardship as a result. Our unique privilege is delusion, the mentality that America is rich and will remain rich without particular effort on our part. Abundance simply materializes around us, regardless of incentives, and the job of politicians is to rearrange this abundance more equitably.
Polls such as this one showing widespread American support for quarantines and business shutdowns are evidence of this American privilege. Eighty percent of respondents think shutdowns by various state governors are justified as a response to the COVID-19 virus, and one-third support extending closure for another six months!
This reflexive and unthinking complicity from the American public is partially explained by media hype, of course, over an illness which at this writing has killed fewer than sixty thousand Americans. Fear and hysteria always sell. The press clearly wants the coronavirus to be a major event, one that unseats Trump in the fall. (For its part, the administration is doing a terrible job, starting with the awful Dr. Fauci, whom the president should have sacked months ago.) And clearly the various governors’ responses are wildly out of proportion to the actual public health threat, even if initially well intentioned due to sheer uncertainty of the virus’s lethality.
But something far more fundamental is at work here. Americans simply fail to understand, or even much think about, the fragility of distribution chains and the goods and services we rely on. Earlier this week the chairman of conglomerate Tyson Foods warned that disruptions at processing plants could create very serious shortages of beef, chicken, and pork in US grocery stores, and decimate livestock farmers. And of course this was bound to happen as the dominos fell: the shutdowns would not only impact “nonessential” goods, but everything.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“I Want My Life Back” – German Anti-Lockdown Protests Worsen
“I Want My Life Back” – German Anti-Lockdown Protests Worsen
More than a thousand anti-quarantine protesters turned out for a rally in the German capital, Berlin, on Saturday, resulting in dozens of arrests. This is a continuation from last weekend as social decay worsens.
Saturday’s protest saw mainly leftist activist but also a mix of right-wing folks. Police were armed with riot gear and weapons, posted up around Rosa Luxemburg square.
Protesters yelled, “I want my life back” and displayed signs that said, “Protect constitutional rights,” “Freedom isn’t everything, but without freedom, everything is nothing,” and “Daddy, what is a kiss?” reported Reuters.
Protesters handed out flyers entitled “Democratic Resistance,” which stated the COVID-19 pandemic is ushering in the surveillance state as the government seizes power by spreading fear.
Police spokesman Thilo Cablitz said the city approved an event where people were to hand out flyers and follow social distancing rules — but it eventually transformed into a protest that got out of hand.
“During coronavirus times and according to containment regulations, we are obliged to prevent a gathering,” Cablitz said.
Some protesters abided by social distancing rules while others blatantly ignored, and were visibly upset, calling for an end of the government lockdown. Here are some of the scenes that unfolded in Berlin on Saturday:
People in #Berlin (pictures) Stuttgart have taken to the streets to protest against a loss of freedoms amid the #coronavirus pandemic. #Germany has enacted a series of restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of #COVID19.#lockdown #Covid_19 #Merkel
GERMANY – The police in Berlin give a speech against the protest of citizens against the lockdown measures.
People reply: “We are the masses, we are the masses …” #Germany #Berlin #lockdown #Covid_19 #coronavirus
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
David Stockman on the Real Reason Why the Government Shutdown Caused an Economic Collapse
David Stockman on the Real Reason Why the Government Shutdown Caused an Economic Collapse
International Man: Is the government’s reaction to COVID-19 worse than the virus itself? What are your thoughts?
David Stockman: I think for once, Donald Trump was right when he worried out loud the other day that the cure may be far worse than the disease.
Governors—mostly Democratic governors and mayors of major areas of the country—have imposed Lockdown Nation. It’s a complete economic disaster.
It’s a wrong policy from a public health point of view and an economic point of view.
It is hitting, like a ton of bricks, a highly fragile and vulnerable economy that was living hand to mouth anyway because of the kind of highly counterproductive monetary and fiscal policies and debt build-up we’ve had over the last 30 years.
If you look at the data for New York—which is the epicenter of the whole COVID-19 pandemic—it is abundantly clear that COVID is not some kind of latter-day Black Death plague that takes down the young, the old, the healthy, the sick, and everyone in between.
It is a kind of super winter flu that strikes fatally, almost entirely, the elderly population that is already afflicted with many life-threatening medical conditions—or what the technicians call comorbidities.
The shutdown, which I call the “plenary lockdown policy,” is wrong. Closing all the businesses except a tiny, arbitrary set of essential operations is courting disaster for no good reason.
Here’s what the New York data showed us recently.
New York is ground zero and the epicenter. But if you look at the breakdown of that number by age and by medical condition, it’s startling.
For those under 50 years of age in the state of New York, the death rate is slightly under 5 per 100,000.
That isn’t a disaster. That isn’t a plague or a calamity.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
A Handful of Cops Are Standing Up To Tyranny With the People
A HANDFUL OF COPS ARE STANDING UP TO TYRANNY WITH THE PEOPLE
Some police officers have awoken to the world they are leaving for their children and are standing with the people against tyranny. While these instances are still few and far between, it’s a good sign that at least a few may be realizing what kind of world they are enforcing at this point in human history.
For a long time, police officers and the military have done nothing more than blindly obey the commands of politicians and enforce even the most immoral of laws on the public. That seems to be changing, and we can always hope it will change more rapidly in the coming days.
David Icke To LEOs & Military: “Look Your Children In The Eye” & Tell Them YOU Enforced Tyranny
According to a report from the Federalist, police chiefs from Texas to Washington are standing up against the draconian orders from local power-hunger tyrants demanding strict adherence to extreme social distancing measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Even with manipulated statics designed to strike fear into the masses being blasted all over the news, there is no excuse for the tyranny we are seeing spread all over the planet at a much more rapid rate than this virus could ever hope to achieve. People, by and large, have started looking beyond the falsified “facts” provided by those who don’t care about your health, only about controlling you.
Lies & Data Manipulation: NYC Adds 3,700 Who Never Tested Positive To COVID-19 Death Toll
Anit-Body Study Shows COVID-19 Is Already “Widespread” & Death Toll Much Lower Than We Were Told
The following are examples of police standing against tyranny:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Blain’s Morning Porridge – April 23 2002 – Avoiding Pension Crash
Blain’s Morning Porridge – April 23 2002 – Avoiding Pension Crash
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act”
Trump is not a complete fool. He knows enough to move oil prices up. Threaten to start a war in the Middle East. Works every time..! Sure enough stocks followed higher.
But, even St George would struggle to slay the microscopic dragon at the core of this unfolding crisis. Just a few months ago none of us foresaw just how deep the downturn the COVID virus triggered could possibly go. In early Feb I suggested we faced an economic hit similar to the SARs epidemic – a $40 bln hit to the global economy, and a 16% slide in markets. I massively underestimated.
There are a number of brutal realities:
1) We still don’t know how much deeper the Virus will dig. The news is very mixed – the first wave is apparently passing in Europe and US, but there are still doubts on subsequent waves, and uncertainty about renewed infections around the globe. Lockdowns are being extended. The social distancing and lockdowns that have trounced the global economy in the short-term aren’t going to end overnight. They are set to continue with only limited easing – for months, maybe through the year. We just don’t know – which means the real economic damage continues to escalate.
2) Don’t look to Global Markets for guidance – they are detached from the economic reality because of renewed financial distortions from QEI (QE Infinity) govt supports and bailouts. There is still an element of denial in markets – but sentiment is beginning to shift as the evidence mounts. A host of indicators such as the rate of downgrades to upgrades being nearly 10/1, central banks buying Fallen Angel junk, and mandatory dividend cuts – all point to rising crisis. (There are still sound investment opportunities out there – but prices are seriously distorted.) The number of recommendations to buy gold is soaring – a sure sign of trouble.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
