Category Archives: Economics

Quote of the day—Keith M. Bellizzi

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“Facts First” is the tagline of a CNN branding campaign which contends that “once facts are established, opinions can be formed.” The problem is that while it sounds logical, this appealing assertion is a fallacy not supported by research.

Cognitive psychology and neuroscience studies have found that the exact opposite is often true when it comes to politics: People form opinions based on emotions, such as fear, contempt and anger, rather than relying on facts. New facts often do not change people’s minds.

Keith M. Bellizzi
August 13, 2022
Cognitive Biases and Brain Biology Help Explain Why Facts Don’t Change Minds
[This is probably a big part of the reason that Mao Tse Tung coined the phrase, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. Facts and reason are nearly irrelevant in politics. The only reliable means of changing people’s minds regarding politics is with a bullet.

Socialism and communism are so inefficient they cannot tolerate slackers or doubters. They need a very high compliance rate to sustain themselves.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

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The big socialist talking points are justice and compassion.

The big socialist motivations are resentment and revenge.

The big socialist results are labour camps and mass graves.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on August 15, 2022
[I would like to add that it seems the word “equity” is showing up a lot. And as I have pointed out before:

Full equality can only be approximated by everyone being in extreme poverty. Full equality comes with death. And it should come as no surprise the political left is well acquainted with death on a very large scale.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Class struggle to culture war

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Via Alice Smith:

image

Sounds plausible.

Quote of the day—Egon von Greyerz

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In 1971, when Nixon closed the gold window, global debt was $1.5T.

After 50 years of irresponsible monetary policies debt has grown 200X. When we reach a total debt of $3 quadrillion in the next 5 to 10 years, with the assistance of the derivative collapse, the increase will be 2,000X since 1971.

Egon von Greyerz
July 13, 2022
BEWARE OF MARKETS FULL OF FOOL’S GOLD
[We live in interesting times.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Egon von Greyerz

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Debt is likely to grow exponentially in the next 5-10 years, as the world experiences hyperinflation. But we must also remember that as commodities such as food and energy plus many raw materials like precious metals go up exponentially, all the bubble assets (stocks, bonds and property) will implode in real terms.

Egon von Greyerz
July 13, 2022
BEWARE OF MARKETS FULL OF FOOL’S GOLD
[We live in interesting times.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Michael Snyder

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A historic economic nightmare is here, and the guy in the White House is all out of answers.

So buckle up and try to enjoy the ride.

The months ahead are going to be quite chaotic, and you probably don’t even want to think about what is coming after that.

Michael Snyder
June 2, 2022
Americans Will Never Forget The Historic Economic Collapse During Joe Biden’s Presidency
[I want an underground bunker in Idaho.—Joe]

They want you to die shivering, hungry, and in the dark

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This is fascinating in a horrifying sort of way:

Why we must nationalize Big Oil

… the government should nationalize Big Oil. That would allow the government to manage the industry’s drawdown, a process the private sector is ignoring.

…

“We will likely need to take over and decommission the large fossil fuel extraction corporations that are both one of the leading causes of climate change and one of the primary institutional impediments to addressing,” Hanna concludes.

…

The federal government typically nationalizes companies to save them. In this case, it must nationalize Big Oil to save us all from a future we don’t want.

“Drawdown” is this character’s euphemism for controlled destruction.

They are referring to the manufacturer of a product that provides the energy to produce and transport food to billions of people who would otherwise die. This product is the basis of the worlds greatest triumphs over poverty, hunger, shelter, transportation, and pestilence. And these people want to deliberately destroy access to it.

To the best of my knowledge nothing of this sort has ever before been advocated, not even by the most evil communist regimes the planet has ever seen. This would be the deliberate murder of the vast majority of the world population.

Yes, people have been saying the deliberate and violent extinction of humans is what the environmental fascists “really want”. But prior to this the worst I have actually seen is the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

Prepare appropriately.

Another economy has collapsed

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Nightmare becomes reality in Sri Lanka as govt has no choice but to declare economy has ‘collapsed’:

After months of shortages of food, fuel and electricity. Sri Lanka’s prime minister said this morning the country’s debt-laden economy has “collapsed.”

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Sri Lanka’s parliament today that the South Asian country is “facing a far more serious situation beyond the mere shortages of fuel, gas, electricity and food. Our economy has completely collapsed.”

I didn’t see the exact words but I strongly suspect the high price of oil on the world market contributed.

There are other economic stressors out there. The most obvious are wheat and fertilizer from the Ukraine/Russia region. There are countless others. Some are ripple effects from the war. Others are from other areas of the world and less direct such as the chip shortage and inflation.

There will be more collapsed economies in the coming months and perhaps years. The ripples and, perhaps even, tidal waves are just over the horizon.

We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.

Dark times ahead

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Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras:

Changes at a QFC store — apparently for security reasons — have some customers say the store is going too far. Some are worried about safety and exiting in an emergency.

Two Seattle QFC stores now have extensive plexiglass inside, directing traffic for shoppers and limiting how people can exit. The grocery chain told KIRO 7 the changes are “to maintain a safe shopping environment,” but customers believe the goal is to thwart shoplifting.

“It’s like shopping in a dystopian novel or something, it’s really bizarre,” said Chris Mobley, a shopper at the store. “Seems to be a way to annoy customers — it’s really hard to navigate the store,” he said.

A few days ago Barb was at a store (not QFC) not far from our home in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, and the clerk commented, “There goes one of our regulars. He comes in every day.” It was a shoplifter.

Also, The police aren’t coming, but now in Seattle, they have a name for that:

It’s well known that Seattle police are struggling to respond to 911 calls in a speedy manner. But the notion that “the cops aren’t coming” has become such a routine of city life that they’ve created a new way of tracking their nonresponsiveness.

It’s called the “Z protocol.”

I have to wonder how much of inflation is the result of “defund the police” and related nonsense.

My greatest concern is that at some point many people will to conclude they are stupid for not stealing whatever they want. That will bring some very dark times.

Quote of the day—Goldmoney Staff

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Roman silver and gold coins were the principal money for the known world. The US dollar is the world’s reserve currency today, and nearly all the other 170-odd government fiat currencies are aligned with or refer to it. An accelerating dollar collapse will take most of them down, just as surely as the Roman currency collapse propelled the world into the Dark Ages.

Goldmoney Staff
May 26, 2022
A Roman lesson on inflation
[I know people preparing for a version of the Dark Ages. IIRC, they were planning on surviving with mid-1800’s technology. Among other things they were making hard copies of important books which explained the everyday tech to make and preserve food, build homes and barns, raise farm animals, create and care for tools, etc.

If I were seriously concerned about a major reset I would target the late 1950s or early 1960s. This would be the era just before semi-conductors because tubes aren’t that hard to make compared to semiconductors. Internal combustion engines with electric starters and instruments should be doable. Oil wells and refineries, even if operating at much lower production levels, with output prioritized for agriculture production, processing, and distribution should be able to prevent a die-off that sends us back to the true Dark Ages. This preserves enough tech to get us back to present day capabilities before the highly skilled people are all gone.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Richard Curtin

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Adam Smith’s legendary invisible hand describes how individuals acting in their own self-interest can create unintended benefits for the entire society. Unfortunately, the country now faces the potential for an inflationary hand that can transform self-interested decisions into losses for the entire economy.

Richard Curtin
April 7, 2022
Inflationary Psychology Has Set In. Dislodging It Won’t Be Easy
[We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Too much

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I can cook well enough to keep myself from going hungry. So it should come as no surprise I was only able to recognize the last item:

image

Via a tweet from Tanya Tay Posobiec @realTanyaTay. This has more impact when you discover Tanya was born in the USSR.

Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

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I want to give a warning – It’s very easy in this situation to assume that Pelosi and even Biden are making these arguments because they are too stupid to grasp the fundamentals of debt creation, money velocity and fiat. That said, never mistake evil for mere ignorance.

Brandon Smith
March 17, 2022
The Stagflation Trap Will Lead To Universal Basic Income And Food Rationing
[Emphasis added.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Capitalist Eric

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To begin with, the shitty, corrupt system that’s been in place since 1913, which is the ultimate Ponzi scheme- is finished.

In 2015 I listed several scenarios which could torpedo the dollar:

–China announces the yuan will be a gold-backed currency

–China announces they will no longer accept dollars for international commerce

–Saudi Arabia (now heavily backed by China) announces they will no longer accept dollars for oil

–China and Russia announce they’re dumping all US debt instruments

I was wrong; our leaders created a situation where bullets 2-4 have happened, or will soon.  And ironically enough, Russia just backed the ruble with gold, so bullet one is somewhat covered.

In short order, our phony leaders have basically forced China, Russia, India and even Pakistan to join up, and permanently yank the carpet from under the fiat-money banking system that the globalists base their power on.

No bullshit, that’s just the truth.

Capitalist Eric
March 31, 2022
Crash Positions
[Via Rolf on Gab.

Very grim. I wish I could refute his conclusions. Perhaps some economists could do that but the list of economists I don’t trust is much larger than the list I do trust.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

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I think it’s important that people within the liberty movement and outside of the liberty movement start thinking about the scale of the crisis we are facing. It’s not just about economic disaster and adapting to the loss of supply chains and stable currencies; it’s not just about survival. It’s also about fighting back against the inevitable government response to the crisis. They will try to take advantage of people’s pain, and use it to lure those people into slavery. This cannot be allowed to happen.

Brandon Smith
March 17, 2022
The Stagflation Trap Will Lead To Universal Basic Income And Food Rationing
[Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

All electric cars in Washington state

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As an electrical engineer I find this “interesting”:

Washington state plans to ban most non-electric vehicles by 2030, according to a newly signed bill by Gov. Jay Inslee.

The bill says that all vehicles of the model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in the state must be electric.

As the next year’s model come out in the fall the target for their mandate will be in a little over seven years. I don’t think the electrical infrastructure can be upgraded to handle the new load in time. This will be especially true if the leftist politicians pushing to remove many of the hydroelectric dams are successful.

It is my belief they hope to bring wind and solar online. But those sources are intermittent. Those cars are going to be lower in the priority que than heating and lighting homes and offices. If you pull into the charging station during peak usage in early January with little wind and almost no solar for a few days you could be told you won’t be able to recharge until the wind blows from the south again so the heating load isn’t so high. Perhaps in a week or two. Or maybe you can find a black market diesel generator if you know who to ask and have the cash to pay for it.

My guess is that one of two things will happen.

  1. The politicians who voted for things like this mandate, the anti-business regulations, the schools teaching math is racist, and the oppressive gun laws will be unable to maintain the required margin of fraud in future elections and the oppressive laws will be repealed.
  2. The productive and freedom loving residents will leave the state and the state will spiral down into an economic abyss resembling downtown Seattle and Detroit. I.e., an Atlas Shrugged like scenario.

I often wonder if the economic destruction authoritarians create is due to obliviousness, maliciousness, or a deliberate gamble that things will somehow recover from their reign of power.

We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

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The Left are suspicious of the government on defence and law & order.

The Right are suspicious of the government on welfare and education.

Both are correct.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on March 22, 2022
[I agree and go further. I am suspicious of government on all things.

The profile of Ms. Smith on Twitter may be of interest to some:

Who is Alice Smith? The great-great-great-granddaughter of Adam Smith. Follow me on my adventures down the capitalist rabbit hole! 2+2=4

I presume this is the Adam Smith who wrote The Wealth of Nations. This book had a big influence on me.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Victor Davis Hanson

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This governmental freefall has been overseen by a tragically bewildered, petulant, and incompetent president. In his confusion, an increasingly unpopular Biden seems to believe that his divisive chaos is working, belittling his political opponents as racist Confederate rebels.

As we head into the 2022 midterm elections, who will stop our descent into collective poverty, division, and self-inflicted madness?

Victor Davis Hanson
January 19, 2022
Is America Heading for a Systems Collapse
[I’m nearly certain that is the wrong question to ask. It is my understanding that in chaotic times people give their support to “strong” (authoritarian) people who claim they can fix the broken system. Mussolini and Hitler come to mind…

Hence, I think the better questions are:

  • “How can we prevent the wrong person from coming to power?”
  • “How can we dramatically reduced government power and let the free market fix the mess we are in?”
  • “How can we survive the coming collapse?”
  • “Where is my underground bunker?”

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Emily McCormick

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Consumer prices soared by the most in four decades in January, with inflation across the economy showing few signs of peaking even after months of increases.

The Consumer Price Index’s 7.5% annual surge at the start of 2022 was the biggest leap since 1982 and topped already elevated expectations for a 7.3% rise, based on Bloomberg consensus data. On a month-over-month basis, the CPI unexpectedly posted a 0.6% increase for a back-to-back month, whereas economists had been looking for a deceleration. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, also exceeded estimates, showing a 6.0% year-over-year jump in January.

The report served as one of the clearest affirmations that inflation — described as recently as November by the Federal Reserve as “transitory” — has become a persistent feature of the economic recovery.

Emily McCormick
February 10, 2022
What economists are saying about soaring inflation
[We live in interesting times.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

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My position has always been that the Federal Reserve is not a banking institution on a mission to protect American financial interests. Rather, I believe the Fed is an ideological suicide bomber waiting to blow itself up and deliberately derail or destroy the American economy at the right moment. My position has also long been that the bankers would need a cover event to hide their calculated economic attack, otherwise they would take full blame for the resulting disaster.

Brandon Smith
December 4, 2021
Mainstream Economists Are Struggling To Hide The Incoming Economic Collapse
[There is a lot of good stuff in this article. This claim isn’t part of the good stuff.

If the claim were true then the creators of the Fed have been waiting over 100 years to detonate their bomb, right?

Or, I suppose, it could be the Fed has somewhat recently been taken over by the suicide bombers without a single defection from the conspirators or underlings.

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. I say there is far from sufficient evidence to support this claim.

It could be that past, present, and future actions will be mostly consistent with this hypothesis but have a different true intent. Sort of a like a lie that snowballs as the liar has to lie more and more to cover up the original lie. Then witnesses require silencing to hide the vast number of lies. The original lie wasn’t intended to result in murder, but that is where the slippery slope led. I could believe that sort of thing is what has happened.

Sometimes it’s too tempting to take the easy way out for the short term benefit when the long term consequences are murky. I believe that is far more likely than a “suicide bomber” conspiracy.—Joe]