06-03 15:00: RANsquawk Today's Trading Edge
Authored by Bill Bonner of Bonner & Partners (annotated by Acting-Man's Pater Tenebrarum),
Geniuses in Charge
Is there any smarter group of homo sapiens on the planet? Or in all of history? We’re talking about Fed economists, of course.
Not only did they avoid another Great Depression by bold absurdity…giving the economy more of the one thing of which it clearly had too much – debt. They also carefully monitored the economy’s progress so as to avoid any backsliding into normalcy.
And where do we get this penetrating appraisal? From the Fed economists themselves, of course. Bloomberg:
“The U.S. Federal Reserve’s decisions to delay interest-rate hikes helped cushion the economic shocks caused by rapidly rising borrowing costs for U.S. companies from late last year through early 2016, according to economists at the New York Fed.
“By maintaining the federal funds rate lower, the FOMC managed to substantially offset the effect of tightening financial conditions on the economy,” the authors, referring to the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, wrote in a blog post on the bank’s website on Wednesday.”
They’re geniuses. No doubt about it. That’s why they’re in charge and we’re not. They’re the elite. They run the Deep State. They may not pay the piper, but they call the tune anyway. And good on them! Who knows what prices we might discover if we were left on our own?
The gap between economic output and the debt accumulated to achieve it continues to widen…while savers are expropriated and capitalists are given an incentive to consume their capital (the “euthanasia of the rentier” propagated by Keynes has finally been achieved) – click to enlarge.
Four Lost Decades
One of the endearing features of the ruling classes is their abiding faith in their own judgment. Despite inexhaustible evidence that they are bumbling incompetents, the power elite stick to their guns – literally – and to their cushy sinecures.
We are now seven years into the “recovery” supposedly engineered by the PhDs at the Fed. At a cost variously estimated between $4 trillion and $10 trillion, we have now achieved a growth rate that is about half what it was 40 years ago – before the internet and debt-based money allegedly freed the economy from earthly tethers.
And thanks to these custodians of the public weal, 99% of the families in the USA now have less wealth than they did before the crisis of ’08 began. But wait – it gets worse. It is now 45 years since the PhDs took control of America’s money. Over those four and a half decades, how much financial progress do you think the average family has made? Approximately zero.
Actually, if they do much more work, “failure to make any progress” may quickly become the least of our worries…
Yes, the Levy Institute has completed a study. It tells us what we suspected already. Nine out of 10 people in the U.S. have roughly the same real earnings today as they did in the early ’70s.
That makes FOUR LOST DECADES, thanks to the feds, with no advance in the material well-being of the American people (aside from technological marvels) since the new money system came on the scene.
Offenses Against Man and God
Meanwhile, the security elite, too, has proven it cannot be trusted to protect a convenience store, let alone the nation. Trillions have been spent… thousands of people have been killed… offenses against man and God have been committed aplenty (in one case, the Pentagon water-boarded the wrong man 89 times in one month).
Perhaps Sanders and Trump are right; maybe it’s time to take a fresh look at the power elite and how they are running the country. That is the hope that is stirring the voters. But it’s rousing the Deep State to action, too.
“How to defeat rightwing populism” is a headline in the Deep State newspaper of record, the Financial Times, written by Elitist-in-Chief, Martin Wolf. “How to protect the status quo” is his real challenge.
He readily acknowledges the charges against him and other insiders: “[T]he greed, incompetence, and irresponsibility of elites.” This has “brought great populist rage,” he admits.
Establishment mouthpiece and apologist Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economic quack. A vociferous central planning advocate who presumably would have felt right at home in the command economies of the Soviet Bloc (except for the lack of comforts…so we guess Western crony socialism is actually the shtick he personally prefers). The man’s economic ignorance is only exceeded by his unbecoming and completely unwarranted arrogance.
But his prayers are not with the millions of people the power elite has harmed. Instead, his dark hours are tormented by a thought so chilling, so revolting, so unthinkably awful, he cannot sleep. What if, he worries, because of the Deep State’s errors… what if the elite should lose control?
Horrors! “In any country,” he writes, “embrace of the delusions of populism is disturbing.” Yes, especially to the people who caused it!
A Symptom of a Disease
The elite controlled the money, the wars, the policies, and the programs of the last 40 years. It is they who are responsible for $200 trillion of debt worldwide… ISIS… The Bern… and The Donald.
The initial reaction to a failing statist system…
Blame them for ZIRP and NIRP, for $8 trillion worth of income stolen from savers, for the vulgar rich flush with cash, for China’s breathtaking growth and its wobbly tower of debt, for Four Lost Decades, and for America’s longest (and most unwinnable) war.
Mr. Wolf is not concerned about correcting any of these abominations. Instead, he just hopes to manage the problem so the elite stay in control. Trumpism, he claims, “is a symptom of a disease. We must now find more effective ways to cure it.”
GODDAMN RIGHT, BITCHES
this is fun ! lots o great pics http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3612880/How-Harmony-Seas-trip-PR...
Never ascribe to incompetence what can more accurately be described as malice and forethought.
Sociopaths often employ incompetent underlings in order to deflect attention and criticism.
Doing things right costs money...hire a bafoon and then you can blame him when/if the customer complains while his intention was to cut corners all along.
Should keep a copy of that Financial Times Issue on hand when we need to start issuing indictments.
The paper that is Satans equivalent of the burning bush - it keeps the fires of hell burning without ever consuming the paper.
I'm with Cog - incompetence has nothing to do with it!
Fortunately, the circulation of these "newspapers" is down to almost nothing, perhaps as a consequence of crap like this. They are yesterday's men with yesterday's story, although they themselves don't see the paradigm shift that has taken place yet precisely because their only concern is to stay in power.
"Bumbling Incompetence"
Here we go again.
Yeah, dey jez all so stooopid...
Like it is not "the plan".
The rich have never been richer, and the poor poorer.
The middle class is where the recent money came from that is in wealthy banks...
But keep "believin'" and "hopin'" and "votin'" in the "system"...
Pretty soon a "smart" one will come along and "save us"...
Nah, it's only The Great Red Dragon burning itself out, and then folks have to start all over again, simply because they don't recognize a sociopath. Imagine desert hiking if you're not smart enough to recognize a rattlesnake. Kinda the same thing.
What about Hillary?
Wait... don't tell me.
"WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE!?"
Only a brainwashed fool couldn't recognize an planned and organized takedown of Western civilization.
It's demonic.
Yea, Wolf doesn't look that troubled and he shouldn't. The system will be reset one way or another. The idea that those same sociopaths havn't thought of this is not based in reality. Those bastards know exactly what they are doing. But they don't know everything, black swans, an enlightend people who will know where they live or hide out.
This guy just screams of a nice new 4" rope around his beautiful $200 shirt and $300 tie to be hung on a tree...slowly...very, very very slowly. Oh, and keep his glasses on, so he KNOWS what's happening to him and how much the people really dispise his fat ugly Jewish ass.
Bullshit. You can get something done right with the general practical advice that's worked forever and a day, "Good, fast and cheap. Pick two".
As far as being surprised that some fuckstick politician is working an angle, that's just been par for the course since time began. The issue is applying the platform to the problem. The current problem is people pick on whatever mundane horseshit these pigfuckers lead the herd around by the nose with. 30 years ago it was gay rights, even though gay people been around forever and a day. Today its gender bender toliets, 1000 years ago that was called a gutter or a bush. The 'issues' aren't 'issues' they are molehills designed to keep morons chasing their own tails. The bunch of them that are 'in charge' lack the basic comprehension of the system they joy ride around in for a couple of years, the entire excerise of federal politics is about as valuable long term as leasing a car on a 4 year term. It's a situation where the money invested returns nothing at the end of the term.
Here's a basic idea. Government in trouble with money? Hire accountants for representation to run things until it's cleared up. Need big civic projects? Hire engineers for representation. Stop pretending that hiring lawyers and inbred religious fuckwits have ANY type of applicable experience in running things other than a three ring circus based on sweet fuck all that delivers nothing to any one. The whole point of democracy is the electorate shape how the country is run, at last glance there are LOTS of qualified people that could probably take a swing at the ball and do better than both delegations in the USA using nothing but their professional training and organisation skill.
Doing work right doesn't cost a fortune. That attitude of spend your way out of trouble is based on some illusionary shadow theatre bankers pull out of their asses, usually just before they get their heads nailgunned, taken or hands hacked off. You think any of you twats standing here were always in the money and you magically got here by the grace of an imaginary god? . Your ancestors sweat their bags off working, defied the odds over cycles, survived long enough to they could get you here...so you could curl up in a ball and suck your thumb like a toddler?
Your ancestors would like to have two words with all of you. Those words would be: fuck you.
"Sociopaths often employ incompetent underlings in order to deflect attention and criticism."
And so they themselves and the positions they hold will never be threatened or questioned.
Been there, had it done to me. Malignant narcissists absolutely hate an honest, competent, cheerful staffer who actually thinks for herself. And the rest of the staff, being incompetents, love to get in on the blaming and gaslighting of the competent one, thereby demonstrating "loyalty" to the narcissist.
...and the narcissists know this well.
In my experience that isn't correct. Sociopaths tend to rise above highly competent people then set about destroyning them just for the fun of it, especially when said competent people question their authority in any way. Then, because in most large Organisations, it is not their decision alone, more competent people are put in place under them. Wash, rinse, repeat.....
In general it takes large Organisations a long time to identify sociopathic behaviour, in part because it tends to parrot the Corporate mantras, and by the time it is identified it is too late; the damage has already been done and the Corporation has lost a lot of talented people.
In my ute I worked for a construction company.
You were not allowed to second guess the Executive Secretary, if you valued your job.
She was convicted of accepting kickbacks much later and of course gone and disgraced in the industry.
Her last name was Black.
who's responsible, the same people who gave us Clinton, Bush, Gore, Romney, McCain, Obama, etc...
yep ... have worked for and with sociopaths and generally flip out when any thing you do, whether said or done, that exposes them as the sociopathic incompetents they are.
I agre with you mostly, philipat. My own experiences come from small organizations with little oversight to challenge the sociopath, who was already well entrenched in the top spot. It wasn't a matter of them rising above anyone, but rather being in the right place at the right time to grab the brass ring and then wield it for decades.
But what you said about destroying the competent just for the fun of it, that's spot on.
That confirms my suspicions about the DMV.
Their real purpose is to institutionalize you when you lose your shit and attack.
@ bamawatson
Putin's probably elated that he didn't take possession of those 2 Mistral Helicopter Carriers. As opposed to the STX-France in the article, they are built by STX-Europe.
Trump IS "elite".
Sanders is just fucking crazy..
That hit the spot, thanks!
Hey Lord, don't ask me questions!
Graham Parker and the Rumour
"Hey Lord, don't ask me questions!"
"Everday Stupifaction"!
Exactly i was thinking 28 pages of 9/11 and TT(R)IP, shhh, it's a secret. Brilliant song though.
Banbait #78
10:18. The recognition of our despot may also come before the destruction of the constitution; the moment for this recognition will come when the peoples, utterly wearied by the irregularities and incompetence--a matter which we shall arrange for--of their rulers, will clamor: "Away with them and give us one king over all the earth who will unite us and annihilate the causes of disorders--frontiers, nationalities, religions, State debts--who will give us peace and quiet which we cannot find under our rulers and representatives."
It's not their fault. It's their plan.
Martin Wolf = Jew
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Wolf
"Martin Wolf = Jew"
Bill Bonner = Jew sucker...
I'm all for taking care of any blue suit and striped tie in the most egregious and permanent method that can be devised by man---today---not a moment to lose---just saying--
"any blue suit and striped tie"
and what about the millions of "engineers", who without them the whole Empire could not be....?
Lets not forget military, police, pharmaceutical, medical, education, and bureaucrats that make up the hundred millions of ....
..."just doin' muh job"....sell outs....
THEY ARE NOT BUMBLING INCOMPETENTS!
The election of 1912 was rigged, and the takeover of the U.S. was funding by private banking parsasites. This sort of long range planning is on purpose with the intent to take rents and be GOD. Religion, especially Kabala and Zohar is wrapped up in this illuminist plot against mankind.
Hudson says it better than I can:
http://michael-hudson.com/2016/04/financial-diversion/
The IMF has this Austrian theory that pretends that money began as barter and that capitalism basically operates on barter. This always is a disinformation campaign. Nobody believed this in times past, and it is a very modern theory that basically is used to say, “Oh, debt is bad.” What they really mean is that public debt is bad. The government shouldn’t create money, the government shouldn’t run budget deficits but should leave the economy to rely on the banks. So the banks should run and indebt the economy.
You’re dealing with a public relations mythology that’s used as a means of deception for most people. You can usually ignore just about everything the IMF says. If you understand money you’re not going to be hired by the IMF. The precondition for being hired by the IMF is not to understand finance. If you do understand finance, you’re fired and blacklisted. That’s why they impose austerity programs that they call “stabilization programs” that actually are destabilization programs almost wherever they’re imposed.
LONG: Is this a lack of understanding and adherence to the wrong philosophy, or how did we get into this trap?
HUDSON: We have an actively erroneous view, not just a lack of understanding. This is not by accident. When you have an error repeated year after year after year, decade after decade after decade, it’s not really insanity doing the same thing thinking it’ll be different. It’s sanity. It’s doing the same thing thinking the result will be the same again and again and again. The result will indeed be austerity programs, making budget deficits even worse, driving governments further into debt, further into reliance on the IMF. So then the IMF turns them to the knuckle breakers of the World Bank and says, “Oh, now you have to pay your debts by privatization”. It’s the success. The successful error of monetarism is to force countries to have such self-defeating policies that they end up having to privatize their natural resources, their public domain, their public enterprises, their communications and transportation, like you’re seeing in Greece’s selloffs. So when you find an error that is repeated, it’s deliberate. It’s not insane. It’s part of the program, not a bug.
America had it beat but then little by little they gave it all away because propaganda was used to turn everyone on each other... people still think unions are evil but they can't see past their nose. Globalization and inflation fucks with everyone else that isn't protected by a union so instead of attacking the invisible hand to why they are now feeling the pain they smack at the unions since they seem to be a teacher's pet but they had to fight to have those protections while others blindly sat around thinking the invisible hand was going to fist them first and then have the public destroy itself without realizing the real reasons until it is too late and all the shit is owned and ran by the parasites
dumbasses all of em
Your somewhat correct but defending Unions here is a mortal sin. If you notice many here say the problem is not high enough wages but then they turn around and condemn the only entity I know of that actually achieved higher wages other than Henry Ford famous wage raise. That is why there are so many articles on robots taking jobs. They love the idea of robots taking over to make things "cheaper" but cannot explain how those millions not working because of these machines are going to afford the products the machines produce. The closest they come is saying you need new skills etc, etc. Of course that is what they said when all the jobs were being exported. Today those degrees in computer sciences are almost useless.
The problem is today's Unions are mainly another means of skimming and in no way have the condition of their members at heart. Only interested in the dues that are sunk into campaign funds. Growing up in the 1960's there was no where near the hatred towards Unions as there is today. I remember the PATCO Air Traffic Controllers strike and the strike at Greyhound or Continental as the beginning of the end of Unions. The government came in at the behest of the corporations and cut them off at the knees. And the really bad propaganda started.
Today the only Unions that carry any weight are the Public Unions. Otherwise, unless things radically change high wages, excepting government, are a thing of the past.
This is the rise of the Self-Absorbed -- the Narcissist and Sociopath -- to a critical mass of places of influence and control.
Control is the endgame, intentional or otherwise; at its core is self-preservation and fear of exposure.
This is a natural process; the only antidote is vigorous protection of the Rule of Law.
Oops.
There is no protection. Government became a tool of the bully instead of protecting us against bullies. Case in point:
http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-bond-money-for-hedge-fund-20160527-st...
How did Hillary get left out of this?
If you can LEGALLY counterfeit, what MORE do you need? [Nothing]...What consequences do you face [None]... ergo, we are where we ARE....
"Elites" are not merely morons, though morons they certainly are. Worse, they are narcissists, enablers, corrupt to the marrow and self-serving in the extreme. Were they merely idiots, they could perhaps not have done as much damage as they have; that they are far more than imbeciles has led to the unrelentingly awful situation we're in, and likely to remain in as long as "elites" are running the show.
What is incompetent about a man who has made a billion dollars, who happens to want to save his country from the scam of the century (globalization) and the capture of his government by usurpers?
America has not had a REAL political representative in office since JFK. You "folks" who are wagging your fingers at Americans ALL come from pitiful countries with a declining middle class and an exploding poor class (senior citizens and children of the "free stuff - just get pregnant" crowd) are amusing at best.
Who else have you got? Is there a better man for the job who isn't bent over for the bankers or Military Industrial complex?
Divide and conquer is the ploy. And if this is the goal, it's a little fucking late. Six months ago, the Americans were too stupid to think, now that they have found a man who realizes that "by debt or by sword" is the explanation and the auction block will send 300 million people into a country-less state, you cannot stop criticizing him.
What the hell is going on here? I have yet to see anything wrong with Donald Trump. He has high self esteem and he has earned that right to brag and be proud of it. He has one goal - renegotiate trade deals - WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT? Someone explain to me right fucking now what is the problem? Mexico is a sewer and if you have not figured it out, Mexicans hate Americans and terrorists are being dispersed into our countries because a group of really rich stupid men said - let's put them together, arm them and watch them kill each other while we count the loot."
America is fine now. Bash the EU where the mess is a pot of boiling frogs.
Incompetence is not the issue, FRAUD is. TREASON is. STATE CAPTURE, Trojan horses, ulterior motives is what sent USA into a state of collapse, not incompetence.
Rattled Rich People - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J_Iy4wMWL4 - Doctor of Common Sense and Ashley
"America has not had a REAL political representative in office since JFK. "
Another distraction? As if the "President" makes any decisions that the Rockefellers disagree with?
"I have yet to see anything wrong with Donald Trump."
No, he is just the Jew Poster boy for the establishment insiders who are also just lackeys for the Rockefeller/Rothschild Emperors...
Compelling leadership inspires goddam it. By now, everyone KNOWS ISIS is ISRAEL in disguise and ISIS is going to be blown off the fucking map! I have seen politicians and "experts" who happen to be rich as filth thanks to the insider trading and kick backs on live TV look not unlike a sexual predator being questioned by Caught on Tape Chris Hansen (To Catch a Sexual Predator) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfrbsTWv9eU including the Bush clan - a family whose life has been devoted to murdering and "decision making" in a mass murder campaign only made possible by media ownership.
Correction: compelling leadership inspires the weak-minded. Strong-minded people don't want leaders.
Crooks do not want leaders. Everyone else wants to live, raise their family, work at their jobs, take part in extracurricular activiites without worrying about the infrastructure falling apart while they are busy living their lives. "I don't need no stinkin' government!" Oh sure! Stepping over the corpses of sweet little old ladies, doll-faced children and medically handicapped each morning on your way to the mail box is the other option. The WEAK are protected by the infrastructure, you are right, but if not, we'd have to look at the result of what lawlessness predators have done during the night while we were peacefully sleeping.
What's wrong with Trump? Easy: it's not real. None of the shit you're talking about will actually happen, because you can't get into office if you don't work for the Rothchilds. Same people who give Obama his orders. It's all bullshit, and in truth the vote is probably rigged. I'd bet anything those fucking Diebold machines have already been programmed to spit out the winning name.
I am 58 years old. My mother read Esquire magazines when I was a teen ager. I know everything there is about Trump and his wives. He owns golf courses and rubs elbows with the higher echelon of city because if he did not, he's not be a billionaire. The many millions of dollars of bad press to discredit mean anything at all or is slander part of it?
We all know Donald Trump. We don't expect him to be an perfect man. He is 70 years old. But he has a clean past in comparison to the lawyers and career politicians who we have had shoved down our throat like they walked on water, only to watch them cut off our air supply while they tell us to "breathe."
It has been covered thoroughly. There are no rich people in a bankrupt nation. Agenda 21, the repo truck, has shown its ugly face at a local level, strangers sitting in city meetings are telling Americans to park their cars and buy a bicycle, and prepare to live in concentrated city dwellings near railroad tracks and warehouse hubs. This is a pretty picture of enslavement and the miracle is this is happening.
http://anonhq.com/brazil-just-arrested-worlds-richest-banker-tax-evasion/ "The ‘world’s richest banker’ had knowledge of a 2014 plan by executives at his Banco Safra SA to pay 15.3 million reais ($4.2 million) in bribes to federal tax auditors. It only took a tapped phone call to reveal his dirty little secret, according to a statement."
He's one of the most hated group ever to visit this world.
He is White and worse..... Male.
You see, Americans were savvy enough to elect a Black man to successfully tear down our wall of racism, but today their missing the opportunity to correct 10,000 years of genderism against the poor little woman.
Note, every time an article pops up describing the Donald or the Bern as symptoms of populism,,, Hillary is never in the crowd. Soooo, you ignorant masses, they're trying to 'gently' show you the correct way.
Liquidate the one per cent, and their progeny. Give me all of their accumulated wealth transfer or I will take it forcefully whilst I act with impunity when I rape & pillage their families like they did to mine over the last half century.
Oh, and don't forget that you owe me one leg, and a life cut short through the First World War, and the fact that my grandfather was forced to fight in it and lost his leg from a bomb blast. He died rather young because he only had one leg and complications health wise from losing it in France. And that was a war started by banksters for bankster profit at a cost to my grandfather's leg.
It's payback time for the 'elite'.
Note: I will get Alan Greenspan's leg to hang on my wall over the fireplace mantle and above Greenspan's head, Rubin's head, and Summer's head sitting on my fireplace mantle. I need a good Taxidermist for that job.
"over the last half century."
Last 2 centuries...
On behalf of my great, great grandfather, great grandfather, grandfather, and 3 uncles...
Here, here.
"I need a good Taxidermist for that job."
I saw a great knife set on QVC...includes "the Bank Whore Gutter IV"...!
Guts bank whores in seconds and has a "de-bone" attachment...
Not that they have spines, so sounds like a cinch!
No winch required...