Deflation v.s. Inflation: Signal v.s. Noise

The debate over whether or not the economy is seeing inflation versus deflation is mostly around timeframe. Costs for things like food, energy, healthcare and tuition keep rising, while wages continue to stagnate as wage deflation is relentlessly imported from the Third World.

If the cost of something keeps rising, and the ability to pay for it keeps falling then it will all break in the direction of deflation. But we don't have to conjecture about this, because we've seen this movie before...

Wall Street's Omerta: Greed's Code of Silence

The Flash Boyz

Everyone on Wall Street knows they are being front-run by HFT bots, but no one says anything, undoubtedly because that's the least of the corruption going on - If someone won't call the police when they are being fucked over, it means that they too are a criminal...

"Dude, where are the jobs?

When Econo-dunces coined this specious term "the consumer", jobs became an endangered species...

The Moronic Assumption: "There's No Subprime Here"

Plausible Deniability Is The Opiate of the Stoned Masses
Zombieland learned nothing from 2008. Less than nothing really. So it's guaranteed to happen again - it would be impossible for it not to happen. Cheap money was at the root cause of the financial crisis, and since that fiasco, money has only gotten progressively cheaper...Globalization's two primary exports are cheap junk and cheap money. Breaking it down in a way that even a zombie can understand - cheap money comes from Third World factory slaves who subsidize our standard of living - both through suppressed wages and reverse capital flows. Taking that cheap money to buy the bigger house and bigger car, under the premise that "it can't happen to me", is the Faustian assumption. Believing that "there's no subprime here" is the moronic assumption. In combination, these assumptions will bury anyone who believes them...

The Rise and Fall of The Great Powers

No country can remain dominant forever, however, understanding what has led the U.S. to this critical juncture informs future nation states (including the U.S. itself) that aspire to greatness...

Stewing in the Cauldron of the "Obvious"

aka. Pounding Sand Up Our Ass
That miniscule handful of people who would actually want to change the status quo to the benefit of future generations, are constantly stymied by the stagnant inertia of this decayed society. The word "obvious" itself has lost all useful value. In a society that can't handle any form of reality whatsoever, the fact that some risk or dysfunction is "obvious", means literally nothing. The bottom line in all of this is that today's thought dealers and the stoned Idiocracy at large, have not been sufficiently "motivated" to make changes...

Peak Leverage: Way Past Peak Oil

Norway shows us today just to what extent the oil industry, the car addiction, and of course global carbon emissions have been massively subsidized by Globalization. The presumed sustainability of the status quo is pivotal to attracting new investment in a high fixed cost world. Operating leverage and financial leverage have both been massively subsidized by globalization and its attendant flow of cheap money. Like the Dow, energy markets are leveraged for obliteration...

Welcome to the Hotel California

Getting into an asset bubble is the easy part. For the vast majority, getting out before it implodes is the impossible part...

Poverty's Black Hole

"Poverty is like literally being held back from enjoying life, almost to the point of not being able to breathe."

The Faustian Assumption: "It can't happen to me"

"dost thou not reckon us amongst the happy men at all?"

"Our wisdom too, is a cheerful and a homely, not a noble and kingly wisdom. Observing the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions forbids us to grow insolent upon our present enjoyments"
...

"Yet, to salute as happy one that is still in the midst of life and hazard, we think as little safe and conclusive as to crown and proclaim as victorious the wrestler that is yet in the ring"

- Plutarch's Lives