investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--The Outlines of a Better World Are Emerging

Once the government ’ s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes , the entire order vanishes along with it .
The era of waste , greed , fraud and living on borrowed money is dying , and those who ’ ve known no other way of living are mourning its passing .
Its passing was inevitable , for any society that squanders its resources is unsustainable .
Any society that makes private greed the primary motivator and priority is unsustainable .
Any society that rewards fraud above all else is unsustainable .
Any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the future and other forms of phantom capital is unsustainable .
We know this in our bones , but we fear the future because we know no other arrangement other than the unsustainable present .
And so we hear the faint echo of the cries of alarm filling the streets of ancient Rome when the Bread and Circuses stopped : what do we do now ?
When the free bread and entertainments disappeared , people found new arrangements .
They left Rome .
The greatest private fortunes in history vanished as Rome unraveled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the gold and all the other treasures were no protection against the collapse of the system that institutionalized corruption as the ultimate protector of concentrated wealth .
The most zealously guarded power of government is the creation of money , for without money the government can not pay the soldiers , police , courts and administrators needed to enforce its rule .
Western Rome created money by controlling silver mines ; in the current era , governments create money ( currency ) out of thin air .
Once the government ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collapses .
And so in the final stages of Rome ’ s decline , Imperial orders still flowed to distant legions , but the legions no longer existed ; they were only phantom entries on Imperial ledgers .
Our “ money ” is also nothing but phantom entries on digital ledgers , and so its complete loss of purchasing power is inevitable .
Without “ money , ” the government can no longer enforce the will of its self-serving elites : orders will still flow in a furious flood to every corner of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enforce the institutional corruption will be nothing but phantom entries on Imperial ledgers .
Once the government ’ s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes , the entire order vanishes along with it .
The destruction of the value of central bank-created “ money ” is already ordained , for there is no limit on human greed and the desire to maintain control , and so governments will create their “ money ” in ever-increasing amounts until the value has been completely leached from the phantom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better world are emerging , an arrangement that prioritizes something more than maximizing private gain and institutionalizing the corruption needed to protect those gains .
We will relearn to live within our means , and relearn how to institutionalize opportunity rather than corruption designed to protect elites .
We will come to a new understanding of the teleology of centralized power , that centralized power only knows how to extend its power and so the only possible outcome is collapse .
( I explain these dynamics in my book Resistance , Revolution , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . )
We will come to understand technology need not serve only monopolies , cartels and the state , that it could serve a sustainable , decentralized economy that does more with less , i.e .
a DeGrowth economy .
The Federal Reserve will fail , just as the Roman gods failed to sustain the corrupt and bankrupt Roman elites .
A host of decentralized , transparently priced non-state currencies will compete on the open market , just like goods , services and commodities .
The Fed ’ s essential role– serving the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , under the cover of creating currency out of thin air–will be repudiated by the implosion of the economy as all the Fed ’ s phantom “ wealth ” evaporates .
The outlines of a better world are emerging .
Do you discern them through the smoke as the last frantic phantoms of an unsustainable system issue orders to reverse the tides of history as they dissipate into thin air ?

by Charles Hugh-Smith
Once the government’s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes, the entire order vanishes along with it.
The era of waste, greed, fraud and living on borrowed money is dying, and those who’ve known no other way of living are mourning its passing. Its passing was inevitable, for any society that squanders its resources is unsustainable. Any society that makes private greed the primary motivator and priority is unsustainable. Any society that rewards fraud above all else is unsustainable. Any society which lives on money borrowed from the future and other forms of phantom capital is unsustainable.
We know this in our bones, but we fear the future because we know no other arrangement other than the unsustainable present. And so we hear the faint echo of the cries of alarm filling the streets of ancient Rome when the Bread and Circuses stopped: what do we do now?
When the free bread and entertainments disappeared, people found new arrangements. They left Rome.
The greatest private fortunes in history vanished as Rome unraveled. All the land, the palaces, the gold and all the other treasures were no protection against the collapse of the system that institutionalized corruption as the ultimate protector of concentrated wealth.
The most zealously guarded power of government is the creation of money, for without money the government cannot pay the soldiers, police, courts and administrators needed to enforce its rule. Western Rome created money by controlling silver mines; in the current era, governments create money (currency) out of thin air.
Once the government’s money loses purchasing power, the system collapses. And so in the final stages of Rome’s decline, Imperial orders still flowed to distant legions, but the legions no longer existed; they were only phantom entries on Imperial ledgers.
We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!
Our “money” is also nothing but phantom entries on digital ledgers, and so its complete loss of purchasing power is inevitable.
Without “money,” the government can no longer enforce the will of its self-serving elites: orders will still flow in a furious flood to every corner of the land, but the legions to enforce the institutional corruption will be nothing but phantom entries on Imperial ledgers.
Once the government’s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes, the entire order vanishes along with it. The destruction of the value of central bank-created “money” is already ordained, for there is no limit on human greed and the desire to maintain control, and so governments will create their “money” in ever-increasing amounts until the value has been completely leached from the phantom digital entries.
The outlines of a better world are emerging, an arrangement that prioritizes something more than maximizing private gain and institutionalizing the corruption needed to protect those gains. We will relearn to live within our means, and relearn how to institutionalize opportunity rather than corruption designed to protect elites.
We will come to a new understanding of the teleology of centralized power, that centralized power only knows how to extend its power and so the only possible outcome is collapse. (I explain these dynamics in my book Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change.)
We will come to understand technology need not serve only monopolies, cartels and the state, that it could serve a sustainable, decentralized economy that does more with less, i.e. a DeGrowth economy.
The Federal Reserve will fail, just as the Roman gods failed to sustain the corrupt and bankrupt Roman elites. A host of decentralized, transparently priced non-state currencies will compete on the open market, just like goods, services and commodities. The Fed’s essential role– serving the few at the expense of the many, under the cover of creating currency out of thin air–will be repudiated by the implosion of the economy as all the Fed’s phantom “wealth” evaporates.
The outlines of a better world are emerging. Do you discern them through the smoke as the last frantic phantoms of an unsustainable system issue orders to reverse the tides of history as they dissipate into thin air?


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--Beware Of The Bear – He Is Soon Back

Beware Of The Bear – He Is Soon Back

As the world economy is about to implode , very few investors realise what will hit them .
The dip buyers of stocks don ’ t understand that it really is different this time as the world is now facing the biggest destruction of wealth in history .
Stocks , bonds , and property are likely to decline by at least 95 % in real terms in the next few years .
With both sovereign and private defaults , many bonds will go to zero and interest rates to infinity .
We are not just talking about the US and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China , Japan , and emerging markets .
This will clearly involve a very unpleasant and disorderly reset leading to great suffering .
But there is no other way of solving a gigantic debt problem caused by central banks .
What these central banks are now doing is obviously a travesty .
A debt problem of the proportions the world is facing can never be solved by issuing more debt which is the fallacious solution central banks around the world are again embarking on .
As 30 million Americans are unemployed and US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % in Q2 , the Dow Jones has rallied almost 6,000 points in the last 5 weeks .
And the FAANG stocks ( Facebook , Amazon , Apple , Netflix , and Google ) have surpassed their all-time high .
Appears like happy days are here again , at least for the permanently optimistic stock market investors who believe that all the money printed by the world ’ s central banks will again create another 10-year bull market .
Investors are already looking past the Coronavirus .
Few realise that CV is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world economy but only the trigger .
And for investors who clearly believe that there will soon be an end to this horrible pandemic , they sadly don ’ t understand that it is likely to affect the world for many years .
And the hope of an effective vaccine for a virus that has so many different mutations seems overly optimistic .
History confirms this .
It normally takes years to develop a vaccine but even then , flu vaccines in recent years have only had a success rate as low @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reminds me of my 85-year-old aunt in Florida .
According to her sister my aunt was so successful in buying tech stocks that she in 1999 also taught her cleaning lady how to make money in stocks .
Before the tech boom , my aunt had never invested in stocks but now she was an expert like everybody else at the time .
Well , this was a real epiphany for me watching the blind leading the blind to the stock market .
This was the clearest sign of the end of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boy giving you stock tips .
At the same time a friend of mine had built up a successful tech business I was involved in .
This was the time when these companies made no profit but were still valued at 10x sales .
I sensed that the tech bubble would end in tears .
So I told my friend that we must sell the business and take cash only or stock that we could sell immediately .
So we did sell the business to a Hong Kong based Nasdaq company and got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Two years later , the Nasdaq had lost 80 % and the company we sold to was bust .
No boom or bubble is the same .
But what is clear is that global debt has grown from $ 80 trillion in 1999 to $ 125T in 2006 ( at the beginning of the Great Financial Crisis ) and more than $ 270T today .
The acceleration in money printing taking place now is likely to take global debt to over $ 300T in the next couple of years .
But that would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we add bank failures as well as corporate bankruptcies , global debt could rise to in excess of $ 1/2 quadrillion .
And once the derivatives bubble bursts , the world could face a debt in the $ quadrillions .
So what we are seeing now is in my view a suckers ’ rally in stocks that will end in tears for the dip buyers as well as for the perma-bulls .
But this is normally how a bull market ends .
A first fall with panic and then a strong rally that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is what we have just seen in the last 5 weeks .
This corrective rally probably ended on April 29th or it might last another few days .
But the risk is to the downside and the next fall is likely to be devastating and a massive shock for investors .
We saw the same in 1929 when the Dow plunged from 381 to 190 and then rallied 50 % to 300 before crashing to 40 in 1932 .
The long term Dow chart below shows a recent turn in the quarterly MACD @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been two previous downturns in this indicator this century .
The first one was at the end of the tech stock bubble in 2000 which led to a 40 % fall in the Dow .
The second one was during the subprime crisis in 2007 with a 55 % fall .
Today the MACD has turned from a much higher level and the fall is likely to be much greater .
Since I believe we are now at the end of a major 300-year cycle or possibly even longer , the fall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1929-32 fall of 90 % , at least in real terms , measured against gold .
During the coming hyperinflationary depression , the Dow might not decline > 90 % in nominal terms , especially if gold has a price with many zeros which is likely .
For example gold in Venezuela is now VEF425 million ( Bolivars ) .
But since I expect that the relatively brief hyperinflationary period , maybe 1.5 to 3 years , will be followed by a deflationary implosion of assets and debt , we could very well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 500 to 1,000 level where it was in the 1970s until the early 1980s .
That would be a 98 % fall from here .
It is not only Americans who use the dollar as a measuring stick but it is also used in many areas like commodities or in countries that don ’ t have a hard currency .
It is of course a fallacy to measure anything in a currency that has declined continuously for 50 years .
I showed in my article 2 weeks ago that the dollar is down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1970 .
Since 1971 the dollar is down 98 % against gold , which is the only money that has survived in history .
And just in this century , the dollar is down 83 % vs gold .
In February 2019 I wrote about what I called the Gold Maginot Line which gold had held below $ 1,350 since 2013 .
At the time gold was $ 1,320 and I forecast that this 6-year old resistance would break within 3 months .
Gold broke out in early June 2019 and hasn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the signal that the gold uptrend would resume also in dollars .
In all other currencies , the uptrend was already confirmed .
So just under a year later gold has gained $ 350 and is now $ 1,700 .
We are now likely to see a relatively fast move up to $ 2,000 and beyond .
Technically gold has looked extremely strong for a while and has been due for a bigger move .
When the technical picture predicts a move , there is normally always some trigger or fundamental factor that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ printing by the world ’ s central banks provides the perfect backdrop for the accelerated debasement of the currencies and the rise of gold .
Many people are asking what I am forecasting regarding the gold price for this year and coming years .
Since we have been invested in gold for 18 years , we have never worried about the price .
It was always clear to me that money printing was going to accelerate and that the financial system would come under enormous pressure .
Even to the extent that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
With that background , it is totally irrelevant what the gold price will be tomorrow or in 6 or 12 months time .
We are holding physical gold to protect against a rotten financial system and currencies which will be printed to death .
Why then does it matter if gold goes to $ 10,000 or $ 100,000 in today ’ s money or billions or trillions in hyperinflationary money ?
The alternative of not owning gold is not worth thinking about .
And if we after the hyperinflation get a deflationary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only real money and will do a lot better than any other means of payment .
So my advice is to not look at gold as a conventional investment and worry about where it is going or try to finesse the entry price .
Also , it is totally irrelevant to measure gold in worthless printed money .
Physical gold is critical life insurance and protection against the worst financial storm in history .
That should be your only consideration .
So don ’ t wait for the storm to pass but learn @ @ @ @ @ @

by Egon von Greyerz
As the world economy is about to implode, very few investors realise what will hit them. The dip buyers of stocks don’t understand that it really is different this time as the world is now facing the biggest destruction of wealth in history. Stocks, bonds, and property are likely to decline by at least 95% in real terms in the next few years. With both sovereign and private defaults, many bonds will go to zero and interest rates to infinity.
We are not just talking about the US and Europe but the whole world, including China, Japan, and emerging markets. This will clearly involve a very unpleasant and disorderly reset leading to great suffering. But there is no other way of solving a gigantic debt problem caused by central banks. What these central banks are now doing is obviously a travesty. A debt problem of the proportions the world is facing can never be solved by issuing more debt which is the fallacious solution central banks around the world are again embarking on.
IRRATIONAL EUPHORIA PREVAILS
As 30 million Americans are unemployed and US GDP is expected to decline by 40% in Q2, the Dow Jones has rallied almost 6,000 points in the last 5 weeks. And the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) have surpassed their all-time high. Appears like happy days are here again, at least for the permanently optimistic stock market investors who believe that all the money printed by the world’s central banks will again create another 10-year bull market.
Investors are already looking past the Coronavirus. Few realise that CV is not the underlying reason for the collapse of the world economy but only the trigger. And for investors who clearly believe that there will soon be an end to this horrible pandemic, they sadly don’t understand that it is likely to affect the world for many years. And the hope of an effective vaccine for a virus that has so many different mutations seems overly optimistic. History confirms this. It normally takes years to develop a vaccine but even then, flu vaccines in recent years have only had a success rate as low as 30%.
MY 1999 EPIPHANY
This market optimism reminds me of my 85-year-old aunt in Florida. According to her sister my aunt was so successful in buying tech stocks that she in 1999 also taught her cleaning lady how to make money in stocks. Before the tech boom, my aunt had never invested in stocks but now she was an expert like everybody else at the time. Well, this was a real epiphany for me watching the blind leading the blind to the stock market. This was the clearest sign of the end of a stock market bubble, like the shoeshine boy giving you stock tips.
At the same time a friend of mine had built up a successful tech business I was involved in. This was the time when these companies made no profit but were still valued at 10x sales. I sensed that the tech bubble would end in tears. So I told my friend that we must sell the business and take cash only or stock that we could sell immediately. So we did sell the business to a Hong Kong based Nasdaq company and got rid of our shares straight away. Two years later, the Nasdaq had lost 80% and the company we sold to was bust.
GALLOPING GLOBAL DEBT
No boom or bubble is the same. But what is clear is that global debt has grown from $80 trillion in 1999 to $125T in 2006 (at the beginning of the Great Financial Crisis) and more than $270T today. The acceleration in money printing taking place now is likely to take global debt to over $300T in the next couple of years. But that would be an optimistic base case. If we add bank failures as well as corporate bankruptcies, global debt could rise to in excess of $1/2 quadrillion. And once the derivatives bubble bursts, the world could face a debt in the $quadrillions.
STOCKS – SUCKERS’ RALLY
So what we are seeing now is in my view a suckers’ rally in stocks that will end in tears for the dip buyers as well as for the perma-bulls. But this is normally how a bull market ends. A first fall with panic and then a strong rally that sucks everyone back in. And this is what we have just seen in the last 5 weeks. This corrective rally probably ended on April 29th or it might last another few days. But the risk is to the downside and the next fall is likely to be devastating and a massive shock for investors.
1929 VS TODAY
We saw the same in 1929 when the Dow plunged from 381 to 190 and then rallied 50% to 300 before crashing to 40 in 1932.
The long term Dow chart below shows a recent turn in the quarterly MACD. This is very significant. There have been two previous downturns in this indicator this century. The first one was at the end of the tech stock bubble in 2000 which led to a 40% fall in the Dow. The second one was during the subprime crisis in 2007 with a 55% fall. Today the MACD has turned from a much higher level and the fall is likely to be much greater.
We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!
Since I believe we are now at the end of a major 300-year cycle or possibly even longer, the fall this time will be greater than the 1929-32 fall of 90%, at least in real terms, measured against gold. During the coming hyperinflationary depression, the Dow might not decline >90% in nominal terms, especially if gold has a price with many zeros which is likely. For example gold in Venezuela is now VEF425 million (Bolivars). But since I expect that the relatively brief hyperinflationary period, maybe 1.5 to 3 years, will be followed by a deflationary implosion of assets and debt, we could very well see the Dow going down to the 500 to 1,000 level where it was in the 1970s until the early 1980s. That would be a 98% fall from here.
US DOLLAR
It is not only Americans who use the dollar as a measuring stick but it is also used in many areas like commodities or in countries that don’t have a hard currency. It is of course a fallacy to measure anything in a currency that has declined continuously for 50 years. I showed in my article 2 weeks ago that the dollar is down 78% against the Swiss franc since 1970.
Since 1971 the dollar is down 98% against gold, which is the only money that has survived in history. And just in this century, the dollar is down 83% vs gold.
GOLD
In February 2019 I wrote about what I called the Gold Maginot Line which gold had held below $1,350 since 2013. At the time gold was $1,320 and I forecast that this 6-year old resistance would break within 3 months. Gold broke out in early June 2019 and hasn’t looked back since. This was the signal that the gold uptrend would resume also in dollars. In all other currencies, the uptrend was already confirmed. So just under a year later gold has gained $350 and is now $1,700. We are now likely to see a relatively fast move up to $2,000 and beyond.
Technically gold has looked extremely strong for a while and has been due for a bigger move. When the technical picture predicts a move, there is normally always some trigger or fundamental factor that causes the move. The massive money printing by the world’s central banks provides the perfect backdrop for the accelerated debasement of the currencies and the rise of gold.
Many people are asking what I am forecasting regarding the gold price for this year and coming years. Since we have been invested in gold for 18 years, we have never worried about the price. It was always clear to me that money printing was going to accelerate and that the financial system would come under enormous pressure. Even to the extent that it might not survive in its present form.
With that background, it is totally irrelevant what the gold price will be tomorrow or in 6 or 12 months time. We are holding physical gold to protect against a rotten financial system and currencies which will be printed to death. Why then does it matter if gold goes to $10,000 or $100,000 in today’s money or billions or trillions in hyperinflationary money?
The alternative of not owning gold is not worth thinking about.
And if we after the hyperinflation get a deflationary collapse, gold will still be the only real money and will do a lot better than any other means of payment.
So my advice is to not look at gold as a conventional investment and worry about where it is going or try to finesse the entry price. Also, it is totally irrelevant to measure gold in worthless printed money. Physical gold is critical life insurance and protection against the worst financial storm in history. That should be your only consideration.
So don’t wait for the storm to pass but learn to dance in the rain.


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--Fed Cuts QE Helicopter Money for Wall Street Further. Still Hasn’t Bought Junk Bonds or ETFs. Was Ju

Fed Cuts QE Helicopter Money for Wall Street Further. Still Hasn’t Bought Junk Bonds or ETFs. Was Just Jawboning. Loans to “SPVs” Declined to Lowest Dince March 25.

Total assets on the Fed ’ s balance sheet rose by $ 65 billion during the week ended May 6 — the smallest weekly increase since the week of February 26 , when assets fell by $ 13 billion .
And it was down 89 % from peak-bailout in the week ended March 25 .
The chart depicts the weekly changes of total assets on Fed ’ s balance sheet : The chart below of the Fed ’ s total assets , now at $ 6.72 trillion , shows the effect of the reduced weekly QE binges : a flattening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the week ended March 25 : The Fed slashed its purchases of Treasury securities .
Mortgage-backed securities ( MBS ) and commercial mortgage-backed securities ( CMBS ) , last week , remained flat .
Repurchase agreements ( repos ) remained essentially flat .
Lending to Special Purpose Vehicles ( SPVs ) – through which the Fed said it would buy bonds , junk bonds , bond ETFs , etc .
– , as the Fed still hasn ’ t bought any bonds or ETFs , junk or otherwise .
But foreign central @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the increase being with the Bank of Japan , which now accounts for half of them .
The Fed added only $ 49 billion of Treasury securities to its balance sheet during the week , the smallest amount since the market bailout began , down 86 % from the $ 362 billion peak .
The chart depicts the weekly changes of Treasury securities on the Fed ’ s balance sheet : And the curve of Treasury securities has been flattening .
The total is now $ 4.02 trillion : The Fed has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( “ Agency MBS ” ) over the past six weeks ( New York Fed transaction summary , net purchases , for the weeks ended ) : The Fed is also buying government-backed multi-family “ Agency CMBS ” ( mortgages for apartment buildings ) , but only in small amounts by Fed standards .
It started doing this to bail out the CMBS market that had been thrown into turmoil when renters stopped making rent payments .
According to the New York Fed , which does these operations , total CMBS purchased in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3.4 billion .
The CMBS are included in the MBS balances on the Fed ’ s balance sheet .
MBS trades take weeks to settle .
The $ 30.5 billion in MBS the Fed bought this week will settle in May and June .
But the Fed books MBS trades only after they settle , which causes the balance sheet to lag the actual trades .
Then there is the issue of .
All holders of MBS , including the Fed , receive principal payments as the underlying mortgages are paid down or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boom in mortgage refinancing due to historically low mortgage rates , these pass-through principal payments have swollen to a torrent .
To compensate for the pass-through principal payments and keep its MBS balance flat , the Fed would need to purchase a significant amount of MBS .
If the Fed buys no MBS , the balance of MBS on its balance sheet would fall sharply .
The mix of reduced purchases , settlement dates , and pass-through principal payments caused the balance of MBS – which include CMBS – to fall by $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flat this week , at $ 1.61 trillion : The Fed has cut in half the amount of overnight repurchase agreements ( repos ) it offers from $ 1 trillion a day to $ 500 billion a day ; and it has cut its term repo offers similarly .
There has been little demand for these repos , and the majority of what is left on the balance sheet ( $ 173 billion ) are term repos from March : The Fed ’ s multi-pronged strategy to bail out every aspect of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of securities is based on loans that it extends to corporate entities it has set up , the Special Purpose Vehicles ( SPVs ) , which then buy those assets .
Via this scheme , the Fed is able in broad daylight to get around the limits imposed on it by the Federal Reserve Act .
Congress , which knows what the Fed is doing , nods approvingly .
But that doesn ’ t mean that the Fed is actually doing what it said it might , or that it is doing it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and bet on it would .
Total loans to these SPVs all combined fell again , now down to $ 113 billion , the lowest since March 25 .
The chart is on the same scale as the repo chart to allow those loans to grow into it : Primary Credit : fell to $ 26.5 billion from $ 43 billion a month ago .
This Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility ( PMCCF ) lends to an SPV that can buy bonds directly from companies , including certain “ fallen angel ” junk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of syndicated loans or bonds at issuance .
Some of the positions have unwound , and the SPV paid the associated loans back to the Fed .
Secondary credit : $ 0 .
This Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility ( SMCCF ) is designed to lend to SPVs that purchase corporate bonds , bond ETFs , and junk-bond ETFs in the secondary market .
None have been purchased yet .
Primary Dealer Credit Facility : fell to $ 15 billion from $ 36 billion three weeks earlier .
These are the amounts the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ securities with .
After the initial burst , some of the positions have been unwound .
Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility : fell to $ 43 billion from $ 53 billion a month ago .
This SPV buys short-term corporate paper to bail out money-market funds .
Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility : Rose to $ 25 billion , up from $ 8 billion two weeks ago .
Amount that the Fed lent to the SPV to buy from the banks the government-guaranteed loans they issued to “ small businesses ” under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of this SPV was Wells Fargo , which refused to participate in the PPP program because the Fed as banking regulator had imposed limits on its assets ( loans ) , and Wells Fargo said it was bumping into this limit .
The Fed then allowed Wells Fargo and other banks to offload their PPP loans to this SPV .
During the second round of the PPP , Wells Fargo has successfully obtained many loans for its customers .
These loans to its SPVs show that the Fed still has not bought any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bond ETFs , or junk bond ETFs .
But the announcement in March that it might buy them , and the re-announcement last Monday that it might buy them starting in “ early May ” caused a huge rally in those asset classes .
The Fed ’ s purpose was to unfreeze the credit markets during the panic .
Those markets are now steaming as investors are chasing yield .
This removes the original reason for the Fed to buy those instruments .
This is the effect of jawboning , and it works @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as long as the market believes it .
Central Bank Liquidity Swaps — half of them with Japan .
The Fed ’ s “ dollar liquidity swap lines ” with other central banks ticked up by $ 6 billion to $ 445 billion .
All of that increase was with the Bank of Japan , which now accounts for $ 220 billion of the swaps , or nearly 50 % of the total .
Swaps with the ECB , the second largest user , remained flat at $ 143 billion ( 32 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Bank of England also remained flat at $ 28 billion ( 6 % of the total ) .
The Fed ’ s swaps with the central banks of Australia , Denmark , Norway , Switzerland , Singapore , South Korea , and Mexico remained at the same relatively small level .
The largest counterparty in the group is the Bank of Korea , with $ 17 billion in swaps .
The Fed ’ s swap lines with the central banks of Canada , Brazil , New Zealand , and Sweden were unused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days or 84 days .
In essence , the Fed lends newly created dollars to another central bank and takes domestic currency as collateral , at the market exchange rate .
When the swap matures , the Fed gets its dollars back , and the other central bank gets its own currency back .
The balances by country are reported by the New York Fed .
Since March 11 , the Fed has printed $ 2.41 trillion .
The purpose was to inflate asset prices across the spectrum .
Surely , the Fed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the richest people on earth , to lose his shirt , so he and his empire had to be bailed out .
The Fed also wanted to restart the chase for yield that makes investors reckless and counting on another bailout when needed .
This $ 2.41 trillion was a gift to Wall Street and asset holders – the wealthier the asset holder , the bigger the gift .
If the Fed had spread that $ 2.34 trillion equally over the 130 million households in the US , each household would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ households , this would have been welcome help to get through the crisis .
But no .
This was helicopter money for Wall Street .

Total assets on the Fed’s balance sheet rose by $65 billion during the week ended May 6 — the smallest weekly increase since the week of February 26, when assets fell by $13 billion. And it was down 89% from peak-bailout in the week ended March 25. The chart depicts the weekly changes of total assets on Fed’s balance sheet:
The chart below of the Fed’s total assets, now at $6.72 trillion, shows the effect of the reduced weekly QE binges: a flattening curve since peak-bailout of $586 billion in the week ended March 25:
The Fed slashed its purchases of Treasury securities. Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), after falling last week, remained flat. Repurchase agreements (repos) remained essentially flat. Lending to Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) – through which the Fed said it would buy bonds, junk bonds, bond ETFs, etc. – actually fell , as the Fed still hasn’t bought any bonds or ETFs, junk or otherwise. But foreign central bank liquidity swaps ticked up, all of the increase being with the Bank of Japan, which now accounts for half of them.
Fed further slashes purchases of Treasury securities.
The Fed added only $49 billion of Treasury securities to its balance sheet during the week, the smallest amount since the market bailout began, down 86% from the $362 billion peak. The chart depicts the weekly changes of Treasury securities on the Fed’s balance sheet:
And the curve of Treasury securities has been flattening. The total is now $4.02 trillion:
MBS purchases fell, purchases of CMBS remain small.
The Fed has slashed its purchases of government-backed mortgage-backed securities (“Agency MBS”) over the past six weeks (New York Fed transaction summary, net purchases, for the weeks ended):
$157 billion (Mar 25)
$145 billion (Apr 1)
$109 billion (Apr 8)
$58 billion (Apr 15)
$56 billion (Apr 22)
$38.5 billion (Apr 29)
$30.5 billion (May 6)
The Fed is also buying government-backed multi-family “Agency CMBS” (mortgages for apartment buildings), but only in small amounts by Fed standards. It started doing this to bail out the CMBS market that had been thrown into turmoil when renters stopped making rent payments. According to the New York Fed, which does these operations, total CMBS purchased in the week ended May 6 was $3.4 billion. The CMBS are included in the MBS balances on the Fed’s balance sheet.
MBS trades take weeks to settle. The $30.5 billion in MBS the Fed bought this week will settle in May and June. But the Fed books MBS trades only after they settle, which causes the balance sheet to lag the actual trades.
Then there is the issue of pass-through principal payments . All holders of MBS, including the Fed, receive principal payments as the underlying mortgages are paid down or are paid off. With the current boom in mortgage refinancing due to historically low mortgage rates, these pass-through principal payments have swollen to a torrent.
To compensate for the pass-through principal payments and keep its MBS balance flat, the Fed would need to purchase a significant amount of MBS. If the Fed buys no MBS, the balance of MBS on its balance sheet would fall sharply.
The mix of reduced purchases, settlement dates, and pass-through principal payments caused the balance of MBS – which include CMBS – to fall by $18 billion last week and to remain flat this week, at $1.61 trillion:
Repos languish.
The Fed has cut in half the amount of overnight repurchase agreements (repos) it offers from $1 trillion a day to $500 billion a day; and it has cut its term repo offers similarly. There has been little demand for these repos, and the majority of what is left on the balance sheet ($173 billion) are term repos from March:
“Loans” to SPVs & Primary Dealers declined.
The Fed’s multi-pronged strategy to bail out every aspect of the financial markets by buying a large variety of securities is based on loans that it extends to corporate entities it has set up, the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), which then buy those assets. Via this scheme, the Fed is able in broad daylight to get around the limits imposed on it by the Federal Reserve Act. Congress, which knows what the Fed is doing, nods approvingly.
But that doesn’t mean that the Fed is actually doing what it said it might, or that it is doing it to the extent that Wall Street hoped and bet on it would. Total loans to these SPVs all combined fell again, now down to $113 billion, the lowest since March 25. The chart is on the same scale as the repo chart to allow those loans to grow into it:
These loans by category:
Primary Credit: fell to $26.5 billion from $43 billion a month ago. This Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility (PMCCF) lends to an SPV that can buy bonds directly from companies, including certain “fallen angel” junk bonds; it can also buy portions of syndicated loans or bonds at issuance. Some of the positions have unwound, and the SPV paid the associated loans back to the Fed.
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Secondary credit: $0. This Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF) is designed to lend to SPVs that purchase corporate bonds, bond ETFs, and junk-bond ETFs in the secondary market. None have been purchased yet.
Primary Dealer Credit Facility: fell to $15 billion from $36 billion three weeks earlier. These are the amounts the Fed lent to primary dealers to buy securities with. After the initial burst, some of the positions have been unwound.
Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility: fell to $43 billion from $53 billion a month ago. This SPV buys short-term corporate paper to bail out money-market funds.
Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility: Rose to $25 billion, up from $8 billion two weeks ago. Amount that the Fed lent to the SPV to buy from the banks the government-guaranteed loans they issued to “small businesses” under the PPP program. The primary target of this SPV was Wells Fargo, which refused to participate in the PPP program because the Fed as banking regulator had imposed limits on its assets (loans), and Wells Fargo said it was bumping into this limit. The Fed then allowed Wells Fargo and other banks to offload their PPP loans to this SPV. During the second round of the PPP, Wells Fargo has successfully obtained many loans for its customers.
These loans to its SPVs show that the Fed still has not bought any junk bonds, fallen-angel junk bonds, bond ETFs, or junk bond ETFs. But the announcement in March that it might buy them, and the re-announcement last Monday that it might buy them starting in “early May” caused a huge rally in those asset classes.
The Fed’s purpose was to unfreeze the credit markets during the panic. Those markets are now steaming as investors are chasing yield. This removes the original reason for the Fed to buy those instruments. This is the effect of jawboning, and it works better than actually buying the assets – as long as the market believes it.
Central Bank Liquidity Swaps — half of them with Japan.
The Fed’s “dollar liquidity swap lines” with other central banks ticked up by $6 billion to $445 billion. All of that increase was with the Bank of Japan, which now accounts for $220 billion of the swaps, or nearly 50% of the total.
Swaps with the ECB, the second largest user, remained flat at $143 billion (32% of the total). Swaps with the Bank of England also remained flat at $28 billion (6% of the total).
The Fed’s swaps with the central banks of Australia, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, South Korea, and Mexico remained at the same relatively small level. The largest counterparty in the group is the Bank of Korea, with $17 billion in swaps.
The Fed’s swap lines with the central banks of Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, and Sweden were unused.
These swaps mature in either 7 days or 84 days. In essence, the Fed lends newly created dollars to another central bank and takes domestic currency as collateral, at the market exchange rate. When the swap matures, the Fed gets its dollars back, and the other central bank gets its own currency back. The balances by country are reported by the New York Fed.
If…
Since March 11, the Fed has printed $2.41 trillion. The purpose was to inflate asset prices across the spectrum. Surely, the Fed didn’t want Warren Buffett, one of the richest people on earth, to lose his shirt, so he and his empire had to be bailed out. The Fed also wanted to restart the chase for yield that makes investors reckless and counting on another bailout when needed. This $2.41 trillion was a gift to Wall Street and asset holders – the wealthier the asset holder, the bigger the gift.
If the Fed had spread that $2.34 trillion equally over the 130 million households in the US, each household would have received $18,535. For many households, this would have been welcome help to get through the crisis. But no. This was helicopter money for Wall Street.


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--America Has Become A Powder Keg That Is Ready To Explode At Any Time

Have you noticed that people are a lot more emotional these days ?
People are angry about the lockdowns , people are angry because others are not “ properly ” observing the social distancing rules , people are angry about losing their jobs , people are angry about the shortages in the stores , and more than anything else people are angry at our politicians .
Even before COVID-19 came along , I was repeatedly warning my readers that anger was rising to a very dangerous level in this country , and now this pandemic has made things far worse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ log on to Facebook and read some of the “ discussions ” that people are having about this coronavirus .
Many of those “ discussions ” rapidly devolve into venom spewing contests , and sometimes this is still true even if people are theoretically on the same side .
There is so much anger and frustration out there right now , and it is only going to get worse the closer that we get to election day .
Thankfully , so far we don ’ t have the sort of widespread civil unrest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nations , but the stage is certainly being set for it .
The American people don ’ t like being forced to put their lives on hold , they don ’ t like all of the new rules that have been forced upon them because of this pandemic , and they are deeply frustrated with our politicians for being unable to instantly fix things .
Of course there aren ’ t going to be any easy answers .
The U.S. economy has already lost 33 million jobs , and millions more will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , more than 76,000 Americans have already died from the coronavirus , and the overall death toll in this country is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands .
In an environment such as this , people are going to have shorter fuses than usual , and it isn ’ t going to take much to get people to lash out in frustration .
One of the most prominent examples of this that we have witnessed lately occurred in Austin , Texas… It is quite foolish to push a law enforcement officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing restrictions are frustrating people so much that many of them are not thinking rationally .
And in this environment it certainly isn ’ t going to take much to push law enforcement officials over the edge either .
Americans were stunned when video footage emerged of New Jersey police officers relentlessly beating young men with their batons for violating the social distancing rules… Sadly , I expect to see a lot more wild scenes in our streets like that in the months ahead .
Right now , virtually the entire country is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unfortunately some people will choose to resort to violence .
And it can happen in places that you might not expect .
For instance , an argument over social distancing rules at a McDonald ’ s in Oklahoma resulted in three people getting shot… I ’ ll never understand why people commit these sorts of acts of senseless violence .
But as our world gets even crazier , more people than ever are going to be going off the deep end .
Our nation is so deeply divided , and explosions of anger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So many Americans are willing to “ shoot first and ask questions later ” , and the shooting of a 25-year-old African-American man in Georgia is causing a national uproar… On Thursday , we learned that the father and son that chased Arbery down have been arrested .
But even though they have been arrested now , it appears that this case will deepen the very deep racial tensions that already exist in this country .
I truly wish that we could all learn how to love one another , but instead I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America .
Needless to say , one of the big reasons why Americans hate one another these days is because of politics .
November is right around the corner , and we will likely see tremendous outbursts of anger and frustration both before and after the election .
Meanwhile , economic conditions will continue to deteriorate , and millions of Americans will become increasingly desperate .
Already , meat shortages are making headlines all over the nation… Many Americans can deal with short-term shortages , but if these shortages stretch into the summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to become extremely frustrated .
Overall , I have never seen so much anger and frustration in the United States in my entire lifetime , and it is truly a recipe for disaster .
Unfortunately , I expect anger and frustration to continue to grow in the months ahead , and we could be building up to a very dangerous crescendo later in the year .

by Michael Snyder
Have you noticed that people are a lot more emotional these days? People are angry about the lockdowns, people are angry because others are not “properly” observing the social distancing rules, people are angry about losing their jobs, people are angry about the shortages in the stores, and more than anything else people are angry at our politicians. Even before COVID-19 came along, I was repeatedly warning my readers that anger was rising to a very dangerous level in this country, and now this pandemic has made things far worse. If you doubt this, just log on to Facebook and read some of the “discussions” that people are having about this coronavirus. Many of those “discussions” rapidly devolve into venom spewing contests, and sometimes this is still true even if people are theoretically on the same side. There is so much anger and frustration out there right now, and it is only going to get worse the closer that we get to election day.
Thankfully, so far we don’t have the sort of widespread civil unrest that we are already seeing in other nations, but the stage is certainly being set for it. The American people don’t like being forced to put their lives on hold, they don’t like all of the new rules that have been forced upon them because of this pandemic, and they are deeply frustrated with our politicians for being unable to instantly fix things.
Of course there aren’t going to be any easy answers. The U.S. economy has already lost 33 million jobs, and millions more will be lost in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, more than 76,000 Americans have already died from the coronavirus, and the overall death toll in this country is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands.
In an environment such as this, people are going to have shorter fuses than usual, and it isn’t going to take much to get people to lash out in frustration. One of the most prominent examples of this that we have witnessed lately occurred in Austin, Texas…
Austin police have arrested a man who allegedly pushed a park ranger into a lake. The incident occurred on Thursday at Commons Ford, a public park that is home to Lake Austin, and was captured on a video posted on social media. In the video, a park ranger is seen standing near the lake’s edge telling a crowd of people to stand six feet apart when a man pushes the ranger into the water and falls in himself.
It is quite foolish to push a law enforcement officer into a lake, but the social distancing restrictions are frustrating people so much that many of them are not thinking rationally.
And in this environment it certainly isn’t going to take much to push law enforcement officials over the edge either. Americans were stunned when video footage emerged of New Jersey police officers relentlessly beating young men with their batons for violating the social distancing rules…
Footage from a street fight on Tuesday afternoon shows a Jersey City police officer – who is white – repeatedly hitting a man – who is African American – while he’s pinned to the ground, and now activists are calling for the cops to be fired. The clip filmed by a witness captured the man trying to raise his arms to protect his face as the law enforcement officer strikes him over and over again.
Sadly, I expect to see a lot more wild scenes in our streets like that in the months ahead.
Right now, virtually the entire country is in a really bad mood, and unfortunately some people will choose to resort to violence.
And it can happen in places that you might not expect. For instance, an argument over social distancing rules at a McDonald’s in Oklahoma resulted in three people getting shot…
Three workers at an Oklahoma City McDonald’s were injured Wednesday by gunfire and a scuffle that appeared to have started because the restaurant’s dining area was closed for social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, police said.
I’ll never understand why people commit these sorts of acts of senseless violence.
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But as our world gets even crazier, more people than ever are going to be going off the deep end.
Our nation is so deeply divided, and explosions of anger and hatred are becoming increasingly common. So many Americans are willing to “shoot first and ask questions later”, and the shooting of a 25-year-old African-American man in Georgia is causing a national uproar…
Ahmaud Arbery was fatally shot while running in a neighborhood after a former police officer and his son chased the 25-year-old man down, telling officers later that they thought he looked like the suspect in a series of recent break-ins in the area, authorities said.
On Thursday, we learned that the father and son that chased Arbery down have been arrested. But even though they have been arrested now, it appears that this case will deepen the very deep racial tensions that already exist in this country.
I truly wish that we could all learn how to love one another, but instead I continue to see hatred rise all over America.
Needless to say, one of the big reasons why Americans hate one another these days is because of politics. November is right around the corner, and we will likely see tremendous outbursts of anger and frustration both before and after the election.
Meanwhile, economic conditions will continue to deteriorate, and millions of Americans will become increasingly desperate.
Already, meat shortages are making headlines all over the nation…
Farmers and ranchers have hogs, cattle and chicken that they feed, but can’t sell. Meatpacking plants don’t have enough workers as they get sick and have heightened anxiety. And grocery shoppers and restaurants can’t get their typical cuts or supply of meat. Major grocers, including Kroger and Costco, added purchase limits this week for meat to prevent hoarding and help keep it in stock. Nearly a fifth of Wendy’s U.S. restaurants removed hamburgers and other beef products from their online menus, according to Stephens Inc. And another chain, Shake Shack, said rising beef prices have taken a bite into its profits.
Many Americans can deal with short-term shortages, but if these shortages stretch into the summer months a whole lot of people are going to become extremely frustrated.
Overall, I have never seen so much anger and frustration in the United States in my entire lifetime, and it is truly a recipe for disaster.
Unfortunately, I expect anger and frustration to continue to grow in the months ahead, and we could be building up to a very dangerous crescendo later in the year.


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--We Are Witnessing Economic Carnage Like We Have Never Seen Before, And The Economy Is Going To Conti

We Are Witnessing Economic Carnage Like We Have Never Seen Before, And The Economy Is Going To Continue To Bleed Jobs

Now we are up to 33.5 million jobs lost .
In just 7 weeks , the U.S. economy has been completely turned upside down , and the numbers are unlike anything that we have ever seen before .
On Thursday , the Labor Department announced that 3.17 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week .
That brings the grand total for this crisis up to 33.5 million , and that figure absolutely dwarfs what we witnessed during the last recession .
And as I discussed yesterday , even the mainstream media is now admitting that millions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yes , some Americans will be going back to work now that the lockdowns are being ended , but for now it is being projected that the job losses will continue to surpass any gains that are made by workers that are returning to their old jobs .
In fact , one prominent economist told CNBC that it will likely take until mid-June before the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits each week falls below a million… To put that in perspective , prior to this year the all-time record @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So even when we get down to a million new claims each week , that will still be a catastrophic level .
And the truth is that these numbers don ’ t even tell the entire story .
Because state unemployment websites have been so overwhelmed , there are vast numbers of unemployed Americans that still have not been able to successfully file claims .
One of those unemployed Americans is Florida resident Roselande Guerrier… She has been trying day after day , and she still hasn ’ t been successful .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a single penny coming in , and she has three hungry kids to feed… Could you imagine being in her situation ?
When you have little ones depending on you , it can be absolutely soul crushing to have nothing to provide .
Sadly , the job losses just continue to roll on .
This week , several more big companies have publicly announced layoffs… If you were assuming that the U.S. economy would just bounce back to where it was before , you can forget about that right now .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it may be more than a decade before U.S. employment returns to the levels that we saw prior to this pandemic… Ladies and gentlemen , this is what an economic depression looks like , and it is going to be with us for the foreseeable future .
Of course Congress certainly didn ’ t help matters when they created a big , fat juicy incentive for people to stay unemployed .
As Zero Hedge reminds us , millions of unemployed workers are now bringing home a lot more money than when they were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ numbers will likely be hurt even more due to the bailout itself : as a reminder , the Coronavirus Aid , Relief , and Economic Security ( CARES ) Act , passed on March 27 , could contribute to new records being reached in coming weeks as it increases eligibility for jobless claims to self-employed and gig workers , extends the maximum number of weeks that one can receive benefits , and provides an additional $ 600 per week until July 31 .
A recent WSJ article noted that this has created incentives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employees , knowing that they will be covered financially as the economy is shutdown .
Meanwhile , those making below $ 50k will generally be made whole and possibly be better off on unemployment benefits .
I certainly don ’ t understand why Congress would do such a thing .
If only we had elected at least a few people that could have brought some common sense to that institution… Getting back to the economy , we continue to get more evidence that we are in the midst of a complete and utter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For example , we just learned that orders for Class 8 trucks in April were down a whopping 73 percent compared to a year ago… Virtually every corner of the economy is dramatically slowing down , and that is going to force more layoffs in the months ahead .
As I discussed yesterday , one survey just found that 52 percent of all small business owners expect to be out of business in the next six months .
Traditionally , small businesses are the primary engine of job growth in this country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failing at an unprecedented rate .
One of those small businesses that is in the process of failing belongs to wedding invitation designer Emily Rose Asher… I have such respect for people that create a business out of nothing and slowly nurture it into a success .
But now fear of COVID-19 threatens to kill millions of such businesses .
In other words , millions of hard working Americans are about to see their dreams go up in smoke right in front of their eyes .
It is a tragedy of almost unimaginable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wasn ’ t happening .
But it is happening , and what is truly sad is that all of this could have been avoided if we had made much different choices .

by Michael Snyder
Now we are up to 33.5 million jobs lost. In just 7 weeks, the U.S. economy has been completely turned upside down, and the numbers are unlike anything that we have ever seen before. On Thursday, the Labor Department announced that 3.17 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week. That brings the grand total for this crisis up to 33.5 million, and that figure absolutely dwarfs what we witnessed during the last recession. And as I discussed yesterday, even the mainstream media is now admitting that millions of those jobs are never coming back.
Yes, some Americans will be going back to work now that the lockdowns are being ended, but for now it is being projected that the job losses will continue to surpass any gains that are made by workers that are returning to their old jobs.
In fact, one prominent economist told CNBC that it will likely take until mid-June before the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits each week falls below a million…
At the current pace, the week claims numbers should fall below 1 million by mid-June, according to Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “We’re very hopeful that June will see the beginnings of a rebound as states begin to reopen,” Shepherdson said.
To put that in perspective, prior to this year the all-time record for a single week was just 695,000.
So even when we get down to a million new claims each week, that will still be a catastrophic level.
And the truth is that these numbers don’t even tell the entire story. Because state unemployment websites have been so overwhelmed, there are vast numbers of unemployed Americans that still have not been able to successfully file claims.
One of those unemployed Americans is Florida resident Roselande Guerrier…
Roselande Guerrier lies in bed each night, waiting for her cellphone to display 7:30 a.m. – when the Florida unemployment office opens – and calls, aching for answers, searching for help. “All night, my eyes are open,” she said. “Five o’clock, my eyes are open. I call at 6 o’clock and the office is closed. I call at 7:30 and boom, ‘All lines are busy.’ Every number they give me, I try, but they’re always busy.“
She has been trying day after day, and she still hasn’t been successful.
So for now she doesn’t have a single penny coming in, and she has three hungry kids to feed…
Guerrier, 36, has spent 13 years changing sheets, picking up dirty towels and scrubbing bathrooms as a housekeeper at the Fontainebleau hotel, the iconic Miami Beach resort. At night, she would do the same at the Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club, an art deco resort a few blocks away. Both those jobs vanished on March 23 when the hotels were forced to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With three children to care for, she hasn’t seen a nickel of unemployment benefits or federal relief money.
Could you imagine being in her situation?
When you have little ones depending on you, it can be absolutely soul crushing to have nothing to provide.
Sadly, the job losses just continue to roll on. This week, several more big companies have publicly announced layoffs…
The layoff announcements by larger companies continue on a daily basis. Yesterday, Uber announced that it would lay off 3,700 people; Haliburton announced that it would lay off 1,000 people at its corporate headquarters, after having already laid of thousands of people elsewhere; the Natural History Museum in New York City announced it would lay off 450 people; etc. etc. It’s a loud and terrible drumbeat. Thousands of smaller companies are laying off people without media attention.
If you were assuming that the U.S. economy would just bounce back to where it was before, you can forget about that right now.
In fact, Bob Michele told Bloomberg that it may be more than a decade before U.S. employment returns to the levels that we saw prior to this pandemic…
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J.P. Morgan Chief Investment Officer Bob Michele predicted it will take 10-12 years after the pandemic for U.S. employment to get back to its pre-coronavirus level, insisting it won’t be as simple as turning the economy back on. “No, it’s not that simple … it’s going to take years, or longer to get back to where we are, or where we were,” Michele said on Bloomberg when asked if reopening would be as simple as “turning on the lights.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what an economic depression looks like, and it is going to be with us for the foreseeable future.
Of course Congress certainly didn’t help matters when they created a big, fat juicy incentive for people to stay unemployed. As Zero Hedge reminds us, millions of unemployed workers are now bringing home a lot more money than when they were actually working…
Worse still, the final numbers will likely be hurt even more due to the bailout itself: as a reminder, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed on March 27, could contribute to new records being reached in coming weeks as it increases eligibility for jobless claims to self-employed and gig workers, extends the maximum number of weeks that one can receive benefits, and provides an additional $600 per week until July 31. A recent WSJ article noted that this has created incentives for some businesses to temporarily furlough their employees, knowing that they will be covered financially as the economy is shutdown. Meanwhile, those making below $50k will generally be made whole and possibly be better off on unemployment benefits.
I certainly don’t understand why Congress would do such a thing.
If only we had elected at least a few people that could have brought some common sense to that institution…
Getting back to the economy, we continue to get more evidence that we are in the midst of a complete and utter economic implosion with each passing day.
For example, we just learned that orders for Class 8 trucks in April were down a whopping 73 percent compared to a year ago…
The misery in Class 8 heavy duty truck orders continues. Still struggling with the remnants of an order backlog that started almost two years ago with record orders in August 2018, the industry was unable to find an equilibrium prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Orders were sluggish and we noted numerous trucking companies that closed up shop altogether in 2019. Post-pandemic, things look even more helpless. In April, the industry posted its worst order number on record as the economy ground to a halt as a result of the nationwide lockdown. Only 4,000 Class 8 orders were made last month, which is down 73% year over year and 44% from March.
Virtually every corner of the economy is dramatically slowing down, and that is going to force more layoffs in the months ahead.
As I discussed yesterday, one survey just found that 52 percent of all small business owners expect to be out of business in the next six months. Traditionally, small businesses are the primary engine of job growth in this country, but now they are going to be failing at an unprecedented rate.
One of those small businesses that is in the process of failing belongs to wedding invitation designer Emily Rose Asher…
Wedding plans nationwide have been shot to hell in this age of social distancing. But Chicago-based calligrapher and wedding invitation designer Emily Rose Asher still has some work creating “save the NEW date” cards that couples are now sending to guests when they decide to reschedule their big event. Still, Asher said, whereas she used to earn thousands of dollars during wedding season, she’s now earning hundreds. And the fact that she still has any income at all likely will disqualify her for unemployment benefits. But she did apply for a PPP loan at the end of April after trying to sort through conflicting guidance from two accountants about her eligibility.
I have such respect for people that create a business out of nothing and slowly nurture it into a success.
But now fear of COVID-19 threatens to kill millions of such businesses.
In other words, millions of hard working Americans are about to see their dreams go up in smoke right in front of their eyes.
It is a tragedy of almost unimaginable proportions, and I wish that it wasn’t happening.
But it is happening, and what is truly sad is that all of this could have been avoided if we had made much different choices.


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--Without overweighting the FANG stocks, the S&P 500 is just the MSCI World ex-US

.
@ johnauthers : `` At the corporate level , inequality as a result of the crisis has a specific @ @ @ @ @ .
Within the S & P 500 , the tail of companies whose share prices @ @ @ @ @ grown much longer in the last year '' t.co/xSpjPm8UPS pic.twitter.com/EGodMJMgMs

.@johnauthers: "At the corporate level, inequality as a result of the crisis has a specific manifestation that is very dangerous. Within the S&P 500, the tail of companies whose share prices have halved or worse has grown much longer in the last year" t.co/xSpjPm8UPS pic.twitter.com/EGodMJMgMs
— Trevor Noren (@trevornoren) May 7, 2020


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--The economic price of lockdown and reopening risk of human lives

⚖ The economic price of lockdown and reopening risk of human lives The # coronavirus , # publichealth , # @ @ @ @ @ # justice are not just some other cities ’ or states ' problem .
It @ @ @ @ @ It seems to strike so many systems.
” Coronavirus threatens more of the body than @ @ @ @ @ lungs , but brain , heart , kidneys , toes .
t.co/N1m4iJ1kY3 via @ WSJ

⚖ The economic price of lockdown and reopening risk of human lives
The #coronavirus , #publichealth , #publicsafety , #childabuse , #justice are not just some other cities’ or states' problem. It's everyone's problem
“It seems to strike so many systems.” Coronavirus threatens more of the body than initially known, not just lungs, but brain, heart, kidneys, toes. t.co/N1m4iJ1kY3 via @WSJ
— M/I_Investments (@MI_Investments) May 7, 2020


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--“Absent Hiring Activity on An Unprecedented scale, Unemployment Could Remain in Double-Digits Into 2

“Absent Hiring Activity on An Unprecedented scale, Unemployment Could Remain in Double-Digits Into 2021” – new @sffed  paper… Top JPMorgan Investment Officer: It Will Take ’10 to 12 Years’ for U.S. Employment Levels to Return

Top JPMorgan Investment Officer : It Will Take ’ 10 to 12 Years ’ for U.S. Employment Levels to Return J.P. Morgan Chief Investment Officer Bob Michele predicted it will take 10-12 years after the pandemic for U.S. employment to get back to its pre-coronavirus level , insisting it won ’ t be as simple as turning the economy back on .
“ No , it ’ s not that simple … it ’ s going to take years , or longer to get back to where we are , or where we were , ” Michele said on Bloomberg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simple as “ turning on the lights.
” Michele noted that there was a huge error when predicting unemployment numbers , as millions of Americans are losing their jobs amid the pandemic .
He then compared unemployment rates during the coronavirus outbreak to the 2008 financial crisis .
“ When you look at the congressional budget office forecast for the end of 2021 , they have unemployment at 9 percent , so sure , materially better than where we ’ re going to peak in the high teens , but during the peak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 percent , ” he said .
“ So even looking out a year and a half from now , we ’ re still going to be roughly where we were at the peak of the financial crisis.
” Michele questioned what would happen when the Paycheck Protection Program ( PPP ) runs out of money and predicted that even when the economy reopens , Americans will not be spending the same way they did before the virus hit , which could lead to another round of layoffs .

Top JPMorgan Investment Officer: It Will Take ’10 to 12 Years’ for U.S. Employment Levels to Return
J.P. Morgan Chief Investment Officer Bob Michele predicted it will take 10-12 years after the pandemic for U.S. employment to get back to its pre-coronavirus level, insisting it won’t be as simple as turning the economy back on.
“No, it’s not that simple … it’s going to take years, or longer to get back to where we are, or where we were,” Michele said on Bloomberg when asked if reopening would be as simple as “turning on the lights.”
Michele noted that there was a huge error when predicting unemployment numbers, as millions of Americans are losing their jobs amid the pandemic. He then compared unemployment rates during the coronavirus outbreak to the 2008 financial crisis.
“When you look at the congressional budget office forecast for the end of 2021, they have unemployment at 9 percent, so sure, materially better than where we’re going to peak in the high teens, but during the peak of the financial crisis, unemployment hit 10 percent,” he said. “So even looking out a year and a half from now, we’re still going to be roughly where we were at the peak of the financial crisis.”
Michele questioned what would happen when the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) runs out of money and predicted that even when the economy reopens, Americans will not be spending the same way they did before the virus hit, which could lead to another round of layoffs.


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--Mark Cuban: I Hired a Team of Secret Shoppers to Find Out How Businesses Were Opening in Dallas. It’

Mark Cuban: I Hired a Team of Secret Shoppers to Find Out How Businesses Were Opening in Dallas. It’s Not Good.

• We called ~1000 restaurant and retail locations based on popularity ( we used # of reviews on Yelp by category as a proxy ) to assess full re-open rate ( open for dine-in , in-person shopping etc . )
• We conducted physical audits at ~300 locations across restaurants and retail locations in Dallas to assess compliance against state re-opening protocols 1 ) Re-opening Rate : Only 36 % of businesses chose to open on the opening weekend .
Media coverage , showcasing owner sentiment and infection statistics , paint a picture of a large degree of latent fear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Degree of Safety Protocol Compliance – By Locations : Overall – 96 % of businesses were non-compliant across all mandatory protocols and all locations .
The extent of non-compliance is dramatic with ~1/3 of all locations being < 50 % compliant across protocols as established by the Governor ’ s office .
The chart below breaks out the degree of compliance across mandatory compliance % buckets .
3 ) Aggregate Degree of Safety Protocol Compliance – By Protocols : On average , ~60 % of protocols were followed and ~54 % of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ locations followed ~58 % of all mandatory + suggested protocols .
The following chart shows an aggregate view of all protocols and the degree of *non-compliance* ( the top is what is not followed and the bottom is what is more followed ) in order of most to least non-compliant across locations .

Methodology:
We called ~1000 restaurant and retail locations based on popularity (we used # of reviews on Yelp by category as a proxy) to assess full re-open rate (open for dine-in, in-person shopping etc.)
We conducted physical audits at ~300 locations across restaurants and retail locations in Dallas to assess compliance against state re-opening protocols Overview: 1)Re-opening Rate: Only 36% of businesses chose to open on the opening weekend. Media coverage, showcasing owner sentiment and infection statistics, paint a picture of a large degree of latent fear in the marketplace.
2) Aggregate Degree of Safety Protocol Compliance – By Locations: Overall – 96% of businesses were non-compliant across all mandatory protocols and all locations. The extent of non-compliance is dramatic with ~1/3 of all locations being <50% compliant across mandatory protocols as established by the Governor’s office. The chart below breaks out the degree of compliance across mandatory compliance % buckets.
3)Aggregate Degree of Safety Protocol Compliance – By Protocols: On average, ~60% of mandatory protocols were followed and ~54% of all suggested protocols were followed. In aggregate – locations followed ~58% of all mandatory + suggested protocols. The following chart shows an aggregate view of all protocols and the degree of *non-compliance* (the top is what is not followed and the bottom is what is more followed) in order of most to least non-compliant across locations.
…
…


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--The symbolic and esoteric interpretations of the Covid “crisis”

Many places are now making face masks mandatory .
In Germany , you must wear them before walking into a shop or using public transportation .
In many US states , they are compulsory as well .
As of this writing , over 30 countries are forcing them on people .
At the same time , we are being bombarded with contradictory information .
One one hand , the WHO warns that-outbreak ) “ the wide use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risks ” ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the CDC says we should wear “ cloth face coverings fashioned from household items ” ( archive ) .
The research itself says such face coverings useless at best , counterproductive at worst ( archive 1 , archive 2 ) .
Readers who are familiar with our psychological warfare posts will immediately understand these contradictions , and the main reason behind making these masks mandatory ; it will enrage many people .
During the 1918 pandemic , masks were the measure that the general public most objected to ; San Francisco even saw @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as well as protests and civil disobedience against the policy .
Note it is none other than the WEF making sure we are aware of this ( archive 1 , archive 2 ) .
The WEF article linked above concludes with this sentence : Here is our contention : the barbaric central planners are fully aware of the unconscious mechanisms at play .
They know perfectly well why people will resist them even more than the quarantines and lockdowns .
To understand , try typing “ censorship ” in Google Images and see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Mandatory mouth coverings are unconsciously and universally associated with a gag .
That in turn is a symbol of the oppression of speech ; that ’ s why we say “ gag rule ) ” or “ gag order “ .
That ’ s also why figureheads are ostensibly refusing to “ mask up ” ( archive ) : we are being gagged , not them .
These unconscious associations are extremely strong .
Gags are a symbol of subservience and domination ; they are deeply humiliating ( and indeed they are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That is why people resist them so much ; that is also why they are currently being made mandatory the world over .
There is little doubt the unproductive barbarians behind this circus are enjoying themselves ; they believe they are being subtle .
This also involves imposing their symbols on us .
The esoteric interpretation of the mandatory gagging ties into the symbology of silence , that is as old as occultism itself ( esoteric means “ inside the circle ” , occult means “ hidden from view ” ) .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ wear and adopt their symbology as a reminder of who is controlling them behind the scenes .
Nobody advocates killing everyone infected with HIV or Ebola ; but why ?
Presumably , they are deadly , contagious diseases ; and eliminating all carriers would reduce their spread .
The answer , of course , it that it would be morally wrong .
So morality does indeed exist .
But what is the limit then , the red line ?
What is acceptable , and what isn ’ t ?
Let ’ s put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the coronacircus , and imagine we were faced with an actual pandemic .
Let ’ s even picture masks , lockdowns , quarantines , tracking , surveillance , and other restrictions as proven to help .
Wouldn ’ t the coercion and government violence be then justified ?
The answer is , resonantly , vehemently , peremptorily : NO !
The easiest way to approach this is by contradiction .
Indeed the usual justification for such measures is that we live in a democracy , and that the collective interest therefore supersedes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , if a majority of people are in favor of these measures , they are justified by definition .
In addressing the argument like this we are accepting the axiom “ democracy is good ” and “ democracy is morally preferable to tyranny ” .
So now we simply need to show coercion is incompatible with democracy .
To do that , we need to falsify the idea democracy is reducible to mob rule ( universal suffrage ) ; we need to show a majority may not impose its will on a minority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it has come to mean ; we also know US founding fathers never used the term democracy , wary of that very risk .
Still we can show that definition to be wrong .
The word democracy , in the strict sense , means the people ( demos ) in power ( kratia ) .
Or , in other words , the people are above the State , i.e .
the State works for the people , it is subservient to them .
But if the people hold the power , a practical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the government get the authority to , for instance , regulate what plant I may ingest ?
I don ’ t personally have the right to forcibly prevent another adult from ingesting plants I dislike ( or that I deem dangerous ) .
Nor does anyone have that power over me .
So where does the State get that right ?
Who could have granted it that prerogative , if nobody holds it to begin with ?
Does voting matter , if not one single voter has the right to do what they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dig a bit into this notion , and use a simple analogy to easily explain what ( actual ) democracy entails .
Imagine five neighbors who decide to all chip in to hire a security guard .
The guard watches over all his employers ’ homes while they are tending their business .
This guard may catch , arrest , or chase a trespasser/burglar , as each one of his employers has delegated to him his own individual , natural right of doing so .
The guard may not however enter one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ furniture ( or loot his refrigerator ) , even if the other four have asked him to do so .
Indeed they don ’ t have that right themselves , and thus couldn ’ t have granted it to the guard .
You give the guard a little star , ask him to dress up in a costume , and call him “ the sheriff ” – but still he works for you , his only power is whatever power you have – and could – delegate to him in the first place @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , had a coherent political ideology : the authority to rule others is granted to them by God .
Feudal subjects don ’ t own their body , life , and labor : the sovereign does .
But this line of thinking is outdated ; we are supposed to live in a democracy ; the State derives its power from the People .
Therefore , it can not have any power that the people do not have to begin with .
So , if no “ civilian ” has the power to force @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no State agent wearing a costume can have this power either , regardless of the amount of government paraphernalia hanging on his costume .
This realization , that democracy actually equates with individual liberty , comes with deep implications .
Therefore , it sometimes produces strong resistance .
Here are common tentative rebuttals , with the appropriate answer ( in our own opinion ) .
If the State can not coerce , pandemics might kill countless people .
What should we do then ?
The answer is individual responsibility .
Forcing everyone to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t want to stay inside may go outside safely does not make any sense anyway .
If you ’ re afraid of lightning , don ’ t go out in the storm ; if you ’ re afraid of ticks , don ’ t walk in high grass ; if you ’ re afraid of other people infecting you , avoid other people .
Isolate yourself .
But what about roads ?
ROADS !
If the individual is to be respected , if the government can ’ t initiative violence against him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ roads !
That ’ s commonly known as the slaverowner ’ s argument : “ but without slavery , how will we pick the cotton ?
“ .
The proper answer is to renounce cotton ; emancipate the slaves first , figure out how to pick cotton second .
The moral anti-slavery stance supersedes the practical consideration of knowing how to pick cotton .
Just as we figured out how to pick cotton without slaves , we will surely also figure out how to build roads in a democracy .
And if we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we can just walk .
But what about gay marriage ?
Transgenderism ?
Abortion ?
We need an enlightened State to protect us against the ignorant hordes .
The number one abuser , enslaver , colonizer , and mass-murderer , by a long shot , across geography and history , is the State .
Democide ( a word we rarely hear , death by government ) is the # 1 cause of non-natural death in every century .
In the 20th alone it represents over 250 million dead ( not counting soliders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discrimination in the context of civil rights means , and has always meant , discrimination by the State .
Equality is equality before the law .
If the State holds only the powers that could have been delegated to it , then it can not discriminate ; nor can it abuse , enslave or kill anyone .
In a proper democracy , the State would be utterly agnostic and neutral when it comes to “ minority issues ” .
Men would be completely free to amputate their testicles and call themselves women , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they are a velociraptor .
The government would not be involved in consecrating unions , so gay marriages would most definitely be possible .
Neither pregnancies nor vaccinations could be forced on anyone , as everyone owns his own body .
But what about forced taxation ?
We have to have redistribution of wealth for the most unfortunate .
Solidarity is a virtue .
Every moral human being should , to the extent of his possibilities , help people in need .
Voluntary communities and social contracts are righteous indeed .
The answer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : let people form , join and leave communities freely .
In a free society , we are at liberty to form or join any system , as long as we impose it on ourselves and nobody else .
In this post we have started addressing two congruent topics we believe are important to the coronacircus .
First , its symbolic and esoteric aspects , as they play an important role in the manipulation and mind control .
Second , the philosophy of liberty , as that is what is ultimately being targeted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though : what to do about these face masks ?
Should we comply ?
Of course that answer is left to each individual conscience .
We would like to point out one thing though : civil disobedience can also be done in good nature .
In the great tradition of Molière , who mocked the barbaric powers that be rather than belligerently opposing them , humor carries great power .

by Venus230
Many places are now making face masks mandatory. In Germany, you must wear them before walking into a shop or using public transportation. In many US states, they are compulsory as well. As of this writing, over 30 countries are forcing them on people.
At the same time, we are being bombarded with contradictory information. One one hand, the WHO warns that-outbreak) “the wide use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risks” (PDF). On the other hand the CDC says we should wear “cloth face coverings fashioned from household items” (archive). The research itself says such face coverings useless at best, counterproductive at worst (archive 1, archive 2).
Readers who are familiar with our psychological warfare posts will immediately understand these contradictions, and the main reason behind making these masks mandatory; it will enrage many people. During the 1918 pandemic, masks were the measure that the general public most objected to; San Francisco even saw the creation of an anti-mask league, as well as protests and civil disobedience against the policy. Note it is none other than the WEF making sure we are aware of this (archive 1, archive 2).
Masks As A Symbol
The WEF article linked above concludes with this sentence:
If mass resistance to the mask should arise in the months to come, it will be interesting to see if new research will produce any useful findings on phobias about covering the face.
Here is our contention: the barbaric central planners are fully aware of the unconscious mechanisms at play. They know perfectly well why people will resist them even more than the quarantines and lockdowns.
To understand, try typing “censorship” in Google Images and see what kind of illustration predominantly comes up.

Mandatory mouth coverings are unconsciously and universally associated with a gag. That in turn is a symbol of the oppression of speech; that’s why we say “gag rule)” or “gag order“. That’s also why figureheads are ostensibly refusing to “mask up” (archive): we are being gagged, not them.
These unconscious associations are extremely strong. Gags are a symbol of subservience and domination; they are deeply humiliating (and indeed they are popular in BDSM sexual bondage practices). That is why people resist them so much; that is also why they are currently being made mandatory the world over.
There is little doubt the unproductive barbarians behind this circus are enjoying themselves; they believe they are being subtle. This also involves imposing their symbols on us. The esoteric interpretation of the mandatory gagging ties into the symbology of silence, that is as old as occultism itself (esoteric means “inside the circle”, occult means “hidden from view”). The idea is to make people unwittingly wear and adopt their symbology as a reminder of who is controlling them behind the scenes.
A Moral Solution
Nobody advocates killing everyone infected with HIV or Ebola; but why? Presumably, they are deadly, contagious diseases; and eliminating all carriers would reduce their spread. The answer, of course, it that it would be morally wrong. So morality does indeed exist. But what is the limit then, the red line? What is acceptable, and what isn’t?
Let’s put aside for a moment what we know about the coronacircus, and imagine we were faced with an actual pandemic. Let’s even picture masks, lockdowns, quarantines, tracking, surveillance, and other restrictions as proven to help.
Wouldn’t the coercion and government violence be then justified? The answer is, resonantly, vehemently, peremptorily: NO!
The easiest way to approach this is by contradiction. Indeed the usual justification for such measures is that we live in a democracy, and that the collective interest therefore supersedes the individual one. In other words, if a majority of people are in favor of these measures, they are justified by definition. In addressing the argument like this we are accepting the axiom “democracy is good” and “democracy is morally preferable to tyranny”.
So now we simply need to show coercion is incompatible with democracy. To do that, we need to falsify the idea democracy is reducible to mob rule (universal suffrage); we need to show a majority may not impose its will on a minority. We realize that is unfortunately what it has come to mean; we also know US founding fathers never used the term democracy, wary of that very risk. Still we can show that definition to be wrong.
The word democracy, in the strict sense, means the people (demos) in power (kratia). Or, in other words, the people are above the State, i.e. the State works for the people, it is subservient to them.
But if the people hold the power, a practical question comes to mind. Where does the government get the authority to, for instance, regulate what plant I may ingest?
I don’t personally have the right to forcibly prevent another adult from ingesting plants I dislike (or that I deem dangerous). Nor does anyone have that power over me. So where does the State get that right? Who could have granted it that prerogative, if nobody holds it to begin with? Does voting matter, if not one single voter has the right to do what they are voting about?
Let’s dig a bit into this notion, and use a simple analogy to easily explain what (actual) democracy entails.
Imagine five neighbors who decide to all chip in to hire a security guard. The guard watches over all his employers’ homes while they are tending their business.
We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!
This guard may catch, arrest, or chase a trespasser/burglar, as each one of his employers has delegated to him his own individual, natural right of doing so. The guard may not however enter one of his employers’ home to rearrange the furniture (or loot his refrigerator), even if the other four have asked him to do so. Indeed they don’t have that right themselves, and thus couldn’t have granted it to the guard.
You give the guard a little star, ask him to dress up in a costume, and call him “the sheriff” – but still he works for you, his only power is whatever power you have – and could – delegate to him in the first place.
Middle-Age kings, in their defense, had a coherent political ideology: the authority to rule others is granted to them by God. Feudal subjects don’t own their body, life, and labor: the sovereign does. But this line of thinking is outdated; we are supposed to live in a democracy; the State derives its power from the People. Therefore, it cannot have any power that the people do not have to begin with.
So, if no “civilian” has the power to force me to wear a face cloth, no State agent wearing a costume can have this power either, regardless of the amount of government paraphernalia hanging on his costume.
Tentative Rebuttals
This realization, that democracy actually equates with individual liberty, comes with deep implications. Therefore, it sometimes produces strong resistance. Here are common tentative rebuttals, with the appropriate answer (in our own opinion).
If the State cannot coerce, pandemics might kill countless people. What should we do then?
The answer is individual responsibility. Forcing everyone to stay inside so that those who don’t want to stay inside may go outside safely does not make any sense anyway. If you’re afraid of lightning, don’t go out in the storm; if you’re afraid of ticks, don’t walk in high grass; if you’re afraid of other people infecting you, avoid other people. Isolate yourself.
But what about roads? ROADS! If the individual is to be respected, if the government can’t initiative violence against him, we wouldn’t have any roads!
That’s commonly known as the slaverowner’s argument: “but without slavery, how will we pick the cotton?“. The proper answer is to renounce cotton; emancipate the slaves first, figure out how to pick cotton second. The moral anti-slavery stance supersedes the practical consideration of knowing how to pick cotton. Just as we figured out how to pick cotton without slaves, we will surely also figure out how to build roads in a democracy. And if we don’t, so be it, we can just walk.
But what about gay marriage? Transgenderism? Abortion? We need an enlightened State to protect us against the ignorant hordes.
The number one abuser, enslaver, colonizer, and mass-murderer, by a long shot, across geography and history, is the State. Democide (a word we rarely hear, death by government) is the #1 cause of non-natural death in every century. In the 20th alone it represents over 250 million dead (not counting soliders killed in war).
Furthermore, discrimination in the context of civil rights means, and has always meant, discrimination by the State. Equality is equality before the law.
If the State holds only the powers that could have been delegated to it, then it cannot discriminate; nor can it abuse, enslave or kill anyone.
In a proper democracy, the State would be utterly agnostic and neutral when it comes to “minority issues”. Men would be completely free to amputate their testicles and call themselves women, as anyone would be free to claim they are a velociraptor. The government would not be involved in consecrating unions, so gay marriages would most definitely be possible. Neither pregnancies nor vaccinations could be forced on anyone, as everyone owns his own body.
But what about forced taxation? We have to have redistribution of wealth for the most unfortunate.
Solidarity is a virtue. Every moral human being should, to the extent of his possibilities, help people in need. Voluntary communities and social contracts are righteous indeed.
The answer is therefore radical decentralization and local governance: let people form, join and leave communities freely. In a free society, we are at liberty to form or join any system, as long as we impose it on ourselves and nobody else.
Conclusion
In this post we have started addressing two congruent topics we believe are important to the coronacircus. First, its symbolic and esoteric aspects, as they play an important role in the manipulation and mind control. Second, the philosophy of liberty, as that is what is ultimately being targeted.
We have not answered one question though: what to do about these face masks? Should we comply?
Of course that answer is left to each individual conscience. We would like to point out one thing though: civil disobedience can also be done in good nature. In the great tradition of Molière, who mocked the barbaric powers that be rather than belligerently opposing them, humor carries great power.
coronacircus.com/2020/05/06/masks-as-the-metaphorical-muzzle/


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--The People Need To Be Prepared, Do Not Depend On The Gov To Help You:Bix Weir

Todays Interview : Today ’ s guest is Bix Weir .
Bix discusses the event , how the people must @ @ @ @ @ government is not going to come to the people aid .
The people must demand @ @ @ @ @ , businesses etc .
The [ DS ] push is coming to an end , @ @ @ @ @ move forward .

Todays Interview: Today’s guest is Bix Weir. Bix discusses the event, how the people must be self sufficient, the government is not going to come to the people aid. The people must demand the reopening of their state, businesses etc. The [DS] push is coming to an end, the patriots are ready to move forward.
We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!


investmentwatchblog--2020-05-08--Target, Walmart, Macy’s & Belk have eliminated dressing rooms and Starbucks in their stores

So , I guess they ’ ll have a more lenient return policy ?
Not that I ’ m disagreeing @ @ @ @ @ to think about .
Just because the state is reopening and more retailers will be @ @ @ @ @ ’ t mean it will be shopping as usual .
As of right now , @ @ @ @ @ area have their dressing rooms closed .
Belk stores are also temporarily closing fitting rooms @ @ @ @ @ told 2WTK stores have a selection of fitting rooms open throughout stores , which complies @ @ @ @ @ Although stores will be temporarily suspending the dress shirt fitting service .
Whether you try @ @ @ @ @ or at home , you could still be trying on clothes and returning them– or @ @ @ @ @ rack for someone else to then try on .
Even that Starbucks thing they started @ @ @ @ @ Wonder about the Subway ’ s they put in too ?

So, I guess they’ll have a more lenient return policy?
Not that I’m disagreeing, but another price involved to think about.
corporate.target.com/about/purpose-history/our-commitments/target-coronavirus-hub
Target, Walmart, Macy’s and Belk.
Just because the state is reopening and more retailers will be welcoming you in, doesn’t mean it will be shopping as usual.
DRESSING ROOMS. OPEN OR CLOSED?
As of right now, Target and Walmart in our area have their dressing rooms closed. Belk stores are also temporarily closing fitting rooms.
But Macy’s told 2WTK stores have a selection of fitting rooms open throughout stores, which complies with social distancing guidelines.
We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!
Although stores will be temporarily suspending the dress shirt fitting service.
Whether you try it on in the store or at home, you could still be trying on clothes and returning them– or putting them back on the rack for someone else to then try on.
www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/are-dressing-rooms-open-at-stores-target-walmart-belk-macys-policies/ar-BB13KSAH
Even that Starbucks thing they started to do – done.
Wonder about the Subway’s they put in too?
h/t betta02