Those who believe that slavery was long since abolished, are sadly mistaken. The definition of slavery is working for years and having nothing to show for it - whether in terms of pay raises, advancement, benefits, job security, or retirement. It's in terms of retirement where today's worker really gets shafted. In days gone by, companies offered "defined benefit" plans - meaning the worker knew exactly how much payout to expect in retirement. The current casino model is based upon "defined contribution" - the worker knows how much is going in but has no clue how much will be coming out many years hence. This transformed all of society into nervous casino gamblers. 2008 of course made matters far worse, featuring 0% interest rates for the better part of a decade. That should have been a warning to one and all that the casino model was no longer working. However, the Baby Boomers were between a rock and a hard place, so the only option was the one chosen - FULL CASINO.
I started to question all of this madness back in the early days of the post 9/11 Housing Bubble when Greenspan lowered rates to 1% to encourage leveraged consumption. Because it was abundantly clear that the *new* economy consisted of cannibalizing the future economy. However, despite having run head first into a brick wall once already, the zombies at large still have yet to question any part of their consumption-oriented slave life. They had ten years to figure things out and get their affairs in order, so they doubled down on indentured servitude. As usual, they trusted their corporate overlords, constantly reminding them how white their shirts could be. Sadly, nothing is being consumed more rapidly than the consumers themselves, aging as they are like Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They've been shrink-wrapped and commodified like everything else around here.
No surprise, ConnedFidence remains stubbornly high, in no way reflective of the carnage in retail
In many ways this past ten years since, has been far more pernicious than the good old days of the housing bubble era. This will be known as the era of serial asset bubbles. One after another asset class has been inflated, and then burst. The predominant side effect of an economy that provides zero aggregate career upside, is rampant speculation. Central Banks stood by like crack dealers, monetizing poverty into cheap debt for anyone wanting to rent their lifestyle until the next brick wall of reality monkey hammered them into oblivion.
Which gets us to today. The music is playing which means the hairless monkeys are dancing. The casino is now full Ponzi - meaning that it's a zero sum game with everyone assuming some bigger dunce is coming after them.
Sadly, in aggregate that fantasy is impossible to fulfill.
Yet another idiot on Zerohedge claiming that "inflation" is getting out of control. Record Treasury short sellers conned by record oil market speculation. What else?
"Hey look, oil is breaking out to half of what it was ten years ago, and it only took a 20x increase in speculation"
"I know, inflation bro"
This old age home is a farce
