Friday, September 21, 2018

The Grapes Of Wrath: The True Cost Of 2008

The apex of ignorance, arrogance, and wanton exploitation will be reached this coming week as Trump's second round of tariffs take effect Monday and the Fed raises rates again on Wednesday. The Dow and S&P both hit new all time highs this week to celebrate the great news. Because everyone knows that global trade wars and global liquidity squeeze are bullish...





Meanwhile, this news came in overnight, Saturday in China:




"The latest exchange of tariffs, which take effect this coming Monday, brings China and the U.S. closer to a full-blown trade war."




Per the theme of this post, social mood turned down hard this week amid a raft of mass shootings. Manic is once again morphing to panic, this time on a super cycle scale. One trend degree larger than 2008. 

Zombies are stabbing babies in day care centers now. This mentally ill society is beyond fucked up:




The obvious cost of 2008 was of course the bailout for those on Wall Street who not only created but monetized the subprime collapse. Then there was the ensuing doubling in U.S. debt as GDP imploded. However, the even bigger cost of 2008 which is never discussed, was giving yet another ten year license to the Supply Side Ponzinomic ideas that were the true root cause of the economic crisis. The proprietors of these failed ideas should have been put in jail or at least censured to the maximum extent possible, but instead they were given additional air time on Faux News and CNBS. One demographic disaster was narrowly avoided by creating a far larger one down the road. Here we are. They jailed Bernie Madoff for his pissant Ponzi scheme so they could bailout the real criminals for an even bigger round of pilfering.

To quote Bank of America, the gambit to borrow our way out of a debt crisis unfortunately just ended due to too much debt. But who knew that could happen? 

"The "Great Bull" market that came after the financial crisis is dead due to slowing economic growth, rising interest rates and too much debt"

And yet ironically, thanks to Trump, the failed ideas that abide Globalization aka. "Free trade" for the U.S., and mercantilism for Asia, are now reversing in real-time. Aided and abetted by the new Herbert Hoover, wholly ignorant as to how this house of cards is constructed.

This just appeared in the South China Morning Post:



“It’s not just any tariff. It’s tariffs on a scale and depth that is previously inconceivable in US history”

the ultimate goal is to “re-industrialise America” because manufacturing was the core of a nation’s power.

He and Trump were are convinced the US would will win"

The U.S. will now adopt export mercantilism while Asia moves to free trade. Sure. This is the contorted delusion we are now apparently living under. Leave aside the fact that Kudlow & company - now driving this clown car in reverse - were ALWAYS the most strident proponents of America's forty year unilateral "free trade" delusion. A delusion that was unceremoniously repudiated by Trump literally overnight amid not even the slightest whimper from his own party. By way of showing that the right has no ideology, aside from gaining power by any means necessary. Not even one of them will acknowledge that the whole point of Globalization was the monetization of poverty for fun and corporate profit. An earnings per share 10x magnification that sadly does not go in reverse. Which is why Wall Street is as I write re-calibrating their forward earnings projections from "this cycle will last forever", to "sorry folks, it's already over".

If you didn't know that we live in a Japanified Idiocracy run by aging geezers who don't give a flying fuck what happens the minute they depart this planet, this spectacle would be enough to drive anyone insane. My mistake for the past ten years was not fully understanding the power of demographics for driving this clown show onward to ever-greater depths of criminality. Having absolutely no limit to the level of depravity necessary to propagate the illusion that the cannibalized future must be exactly like the past, even if in a perpetual stream of nonsensical Twitter lies only. Because to do otherwise would be explicit admission that they've espoused failed ideologies their entire lives.

The only "silver lining" in this cloud is that unlike Japan, clearly America's "elite" actually believe their own lies. The consequence of being raised at the intersection of ignorance and arrogance.

All of which I humbly predict will lead to a spectacular enough final outcome to ensure a greater level of "accountability" this time around. 







"They're going to pay for our greed and stupidity"