The U.S. pseudo-economy is 5 years into pseudo-recovery, which is good news to the pseudo-humans.
Unfortunately, however, those zombies who are now attempting to cling to the consumption-oriented lifestyle at all costs, even as it collapses into the abyss, will be dragged down right along with it...
Unfortunately, however, those zombies who are now attempting to cling to the consumption-oriented lifestyle at all costs, even as it collapses into the abyss, will be dragged down right along with it...
80% of Americans believe there are no survivors
Yet, 70% of Americans still think that the search should continue
Even though 50% think that the search is in the entirely wrong part of the planet
And 46% believe that the true reason for its disappearance will always remain a mystery.
WTF?
Let's apply this same artificial intelligence to the Economy:
80% of Americans believe there is no real economy
Yet, 70% of Americans think that the search should continue
Even though 50% think that the search is in the entirely wrong part of the planet (half are right)
And 46% believe that the true reason for its disappearance will always remain a mystery.
Ok, this explains everything...
The Corporate Zombies are Self-Imploding
I just read this ludicrous article regarding the state of retirement in the U.S. which pretty much sums up the self-implosion of the consumption-oriented lifestyle that will inevitably drag down anyone and everyone who attempts to cling to it, as it all falls straight into the abyss.
Early tapping of 401k (retirement plans) has now replaced home equity as the personal ATM machine of choice. So, having fully tapped out their home equity, desperate zombies are now drawing down their retirement savings in order to maintain appearances or worse yet, just keep from becoming homeless.
Rock Bottom
The woman profiled in the article is 56, and took $2,767 out of her 401k, leaving $7,000 remaining. She used the money to move back into her mother's basement. Wow. I will take a 9mm to the head any day over that scenario. It's cheap, fast and there's no paperwork involved - at least for me. $7k can pay for the funeral and a decent steak dinner afterwards. (Yes, I suppose I consider myself a human call option, thanks for asking).
Double then Dog Food (Please Pass the 9mm)
It gets worse, the median retirement balance for those over age 55 is a mere $65k. Let's see, that's about 3 years of dog food, and then they move into their 90 year-old parents' basement. What a fucking disaster. This, coming at the end of a multi-decade long expansion during which the longest recession lasted a mere matter of months. Global wealth has never been higher. American wealth has never been higher- and of course never more uneven.
Surrounded by Pretenders In Every Direction
How do you get an entire society to buy into this type of openly publicized catastrophe? How do you get hundreds of millions, if not billions of people (globally) all to believe so much in the status quo consumption-oriented lifestyle that they are willing to gamble their entire future on its indefinite sustainability? Even as I write, someone else is buying the bigger house and bigger car all while believing that factory slaves in other countries deserve their lot in life, just as we deserve to consume 10x more resources than they consume. This is a sociopathic society, in which pretending and being fake has been propagated across the entire society. Facing reality and otherwise living within one's means, is considered old fashioned and "uncool". Living the dream is where it's at, no matter how distant or unsustainable it may be. It's a human Borg of like-minded zombies all tuned into the exact same mindless sociopathy of mass consumption. I suppose half a trillion in corporate advertising is not for nothing.
Globalization Collapsing@Peak Delusion
Who's the Tallest Midget In the Circus Right Now?
Russia is already in recession
China is a latent catastrophe, decelerating rapidly
Japan has been on/off depression for 25 years now with fiscal debt @200% of GDP
The U.S. pseudo-economy is five years into pseudo-recovery
And the hardest hit European economies have been in depression for five years straight
Every other country on the planet exports everything they make to one of these above collapsing pseudo-economies
I'll go with Cuba for tallest midget, since they alone had the intelligence not to buy into this Globalized catastrophe in the first place. And to think that the entire illusion is crumbling even as Skynet is manipulating the Dow at all time highs, which gets to the next topic...
The tanking in the markets today was partly due to the Twitter's insider selling lock-up expiration which we discussed a month ago (link above). Currently there are still 150+ recent IPOs that will have insider lock-up expirations in the next 6 months. That is a ton of supply of new stock hitting a market that has already been monkey-hammered and is starting to sway like a punch drunk boxer.
Cumulative Lock-up Expirations Over Next 6 Months i.e. Twitter was just one out of 150 stocks about to melt-down (even further):
Most of these stocks are already down massively, so the fact that Twitter got hammered even lower on the day of its expiration shows there is still a lot of pent-up selling pressure in IPO-land:
Twit-Ter:
The new Faceplant:
Fireye: Expiration was March 19th
Don't Try this at Home:
Relypsa: Expiration is May 14th:
Only 150 more of these to go...
