Debt Rattle March 7 2018
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Lewis Wickes Hine Italian family in the baggage room, Ellis Island, New York 1905 • Currency Investors Are Bracing for a Full-Blown Trade War (
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 7 2018]When one is a citizen of a country (U.S.), which has gone bat shit crazy; it’s very difficult to come up with a cogent narrative that is relevant to the real world as it exists.
Vladimir Putin’s rational response has been met with denial, anger, threats, and untold irrational responses.
If, the remaining, rational, countries of the world, cannot muster a sane response?
Then I’d say we’re done…
As the old saw goes; bend over and kiss your ass goodbye…The schizophrenia surrounding the tariff plan is really startling. But then I could just say, “the level of insanity everywhere is startling.”
Self-avowed schmartz-guys are all “doesn’t the U.S. know their empire is failing and everybody is cutting them off? What are they thinking starting trade wars with allies and raising prices???” Stop. So your argument is the U.S. is losing its influence, other nations are about to cut it off and end the trade deficit, and thereby basically halt imports? While the U.S. has no internal manufacturing? And your argument here is that, not if but when the world cuts us off we a) would like to have some steel and aluminum to build factories, washing machines and tanks or b) do NOT want to have access to the basic raw materials of society? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
I’m sorry that this generation burned down the factory, then retreated to the mansion, sold off and burned all the furniture there too, then ran up the credit card with cocaine and heroin parties while yelling “I’m a rock star! I’m a Contender!”, but they did. Now there are only bad decisions, like the ones real adults have. And there’s nothing but work to put that factory back up, and that’s going to cost something, in this case, money and higher prices, using the thousand-year method of protective tariffs. Why not? Europe has 25% tariffs. China has a virtual lockout. If the U.S. machine then also has higher real wages for U.S. workers they can afford the tariffs. I mean, what’s their counterargument? If it’s better to not have steel and aluminum, perhaps we should shut down the few remaining foundries and have NO materials? I mean, if a little is bad, surely none is way better.
Mish for example thinks this way: if China is willing to give us cheap, under-market steel we should take it. No, not if you want to have a country, you don’t. Isn’t it a matter of national security to be able to make tanks, ships, railroads, and artillery? There’s more to the world than money.
Nor is this arcane. You know that brewing Japanese scandal about approving sub-standard steel worldwide for going on 40 years? Well that sub-standard Chinese and Japanese steel was turned into, say, sub-standard U.S. Abrams Tanks, which may explain why they’ve been breaking and unexpectedly going up like roman candles. So how’s your low-cost steel discount look now that the U.S. doesn’t have an effective military? Come on, guys. Again, the world is not only money, to be measured in money. It’s strategy, it’s community, it’s values. I’m surprised we’re so lost I need to bring this up.
Don’t get me started on how we don’t own (and therefore don’t really secure) our toll roads, ports, bridges, and utilities. They are also widely owned by foreigners now. Really? We (or they) sold every living thing out of the United States, and we’re looking for Russians and Terrorists under the bed? For the love of Pete…
Dr. D
The only question Dr.D, is; have you prepared for the thing you obviously see?
My other question is; how the hell do you prepare if you live in the U.S.?
I could not, by any measure, stay; so I self exiled; but, definitely not for everybody…I have, but yes, exactly. How do you prepare for an Argentina-like collapse and/or up to civil war we are so close to? People who have lived through it say, “you can’t.” If the whole country is mad, which it is, there is nowhere to turn for sense or even allies, to say nothing of dry goods. Co-Americans are now so immoral, so self-serving, so rapacious, so badly thinking, so ill-positioned and ill-prepared that they themselves are the largest single liability, to me, but mostly to themselves. Without basic morality — you know, like do your job, don’t lie about everyone around you, don’t sleep with other people and/or kids at the local high school — there is no “community” as Raul discusses. My place may be here, but I can only say: “stay exiled.”
Think the 30% uptick in opioid overdoses is bad? In my small county there are now 3 support groups of 30 each for pedophiles. These are mostly court-directed, meaning these are only the ones we know about. That’s in ADDITION to the self-help groups for alcohol and drug addition. Hey, where did we get those volunteers for Oxfam, UNICEF, and Haiti? And are the police, judges, Congressmen and FBI not also from this same population? Or are they going to arrest themselves and stop it? Maybe I should go arrest the police and see how that goes. It ain’t good.
Only Morality can fix it, where the nation cries out to God and says, “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the return of justice and order, even if it means paying for my own crimes.” You see that happening yet? My biggest fear is the present turn will patch it over enough to limp on a little further with no reform, and yet that seems the most likely. Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Benjamin Franklin said, “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” This is just Tytler’s cycle of history:
We’ve done it all but bondage. When China cuts off the imports and calls the loans, the cycle of bondage will be complete. Until we find faith, we’ll be peasants in our own land, as planned.
It is all beginning to make sense.
People who live in big cities all over North America have had psychic surgery performed on them with identity politics, eco-activism, neo-liberalism, LGTB legislation, and now the #MeToo movement, precisely because Wall Street and the City of London’s policies have made our cities unlivable, overcrowded and expensive beyond any rationality or justification. In reality, it is not development or capitalism that is to blame. The blame lies squarely with bankers and financial policy writers who make development and capitalism work for them, not the rest of us or the environment we live in. In this context, considering how much positive change the BRI has and will bring to the most poverty-stricken areas of the world, upper middle-class Vancouverites accusing China of human rights violations and climate change denial is something that only the brainwashed or elitist wanna-be’s would put enough energy into to muster a question to elites at an event like this. And that’s precisely what I witnessed.
It will be interesting to see whether this prediction comes true
I was in London yesterday. I hadn’t been there for 9 years and had not lived there for 43.
I went to places I frequented as a kid. Harrods food halls used to be gigantic, but they seem to have shrunk. They don’t seem to sell their famous “Swiss Rolls” any more. I had an early version of a Harrods “debit card” as a teenager – which I never used.
I saw a strikingly pretty girl working for Harrods go to a fridge to select a bottle of mineral water. She spent 5 minutes checking them all and an attendant came to help her. A long discussion ensued. I waited in the hope that she would return the same way so that I could have a better look at her.
Another tall young woman who was obviously upper middle-class English came very close to me and stood there all the while. I guess she wanted to strike up a conversation. She was very expensively dressed and her handbag must have cost the same as a car. I ignored her. She grabbed her mobile and started typing – and did not move away. I waited. The first girl went away and I did not get a chance to see her properly. I lost interest and walked around a bit. A few minutes later, I saw the second girl pass me with a middle eastern gentleman who was a lot shorter than her. My guess had been correct.
I went to the top floor of Harvey Nichols nearby. I had a coffee at the bar. The menu they gave me had amazing prices. It was so amazing that I felt I had to take it with me to show my friends. Here are some samples:
chicken club sandwich £18 ($25)
côte de boeuf £65 ($90)
beef burger £20 ($28)
Krug champagne £255 ($355)
chocolate brownie with ice cream £10 ($14)The place was half as busy as it had been last time I went there 9 years ago. I think they forgot that billionaires like to go to places with young people having fun. Well-off young people cannot afford these prices.
I had a chat with a sad-looking flower girl. I cheered her up. It turned out that she commuted every day from Canterbury. She must spend 4 hours travelling every working day. She told me how most of the houses in Knightsbridge had no lights on in the evening.
Dr. D
Indeed, I will stay exiled; Thailand is still the LOS (Land Of Smiles). I wish you all the best; you’ve painted a bleak picture. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. It’s pretty much as I have read in the non-corporate media.
An interesting read from ZH; an interview with V. Putin and his thoughts on the U.S. political situation. As expected, quite an astute observation;
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-07/putin-us-political-system-eating-itself-explains-preparation-nuclear-warNassim
Very interesting anecdote regarding present day London; no surprises there; just confirmation.Dr. D
Think the 30% uptick in opioid overdoses is bad? In my small county there are now 3 support groups of 30 each for pedophiles. These are mostly court-directed, meaning these are only the ones we know about. That’s in ADDITION to the self-help groups for alcohol and drug addition. Hey, where did we get those volunteers for Oxfam, UNICEF, and Haiti? And are the police, judges, Congressmen and FBI not also from this same population? Or are they going to arrest themselves and stop it? Maybe I should go arrest the police and see how that goes. It ain’t good.Pedophiles; very disturbing. This seems to be a huge problem across the western world; just now emerging is the true extent of this problem; it’s huge according to news across the western world!
Frankly, I’m at a loss, and my first impulse is to identify a total collapse of morality (along with everything else) in the west. Not totally comfortable with that explaination; but call it my wild ass guess (WAG).
To be fair; it’s not unheard of here in Asia; but, I do not get the same sense of the enormity of pedophilia as in the west.
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