SurvivalBlog reader GJM writes in: This is one example of what my “hegemony warnings” have been about. Like Brazil back in ’90s, it’s only one domino; but unlike anything else so far, it’s a game-changing big one. Ultimately, America either goes to war to maintain a slowly-degrading status quo…or accelerates to fast-fall… War with China means war with Russia means war with Iran means…
Fast-fall has the likelihood of being very fast and falling very far. No military retiree would get a tiny shard of his expected retirement; no police officer will ever get a pension—or much of a paycheck, for that matter; no EBT cards would magically transform into Doritos in the hands of the riotously grumpy; and the supply of pacifying Air-Jordans magically making their way into the flammable portions of America’s grim gothams would quickly evaporate. Congress would quit pretending to have seances over Social Security and would just bury that damnable, decaying old FDR Ponzi scheme, and so on…a lot of so on.
(And note that we’ve just imported 30 million new and additional little hunger gamesters, largely third-world, asymmetrically military-age males, almost none with loyalty or affection for this country, quite a few not-infrequently outrightly hostile, who also won’t be getting their free fortified Wheaties): China to Allow Direct Conversion Between Yuan and Swiss Franc
Either way, that Fantasy Football chart is going to end up seeming a whole lot less important.
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True Nat’l Debt $65T, Gov’t Spending ‘Lost Touch with Reality’, sent in by G.P.
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Items from Professor Preponomics:
The U.S. Distriibutes Lots of Wealth: Where Does It Go? (Mises Wire)
Share of First Time Homebuyers Falls to 28 Year Low (Bloomberg Business)
For Every Job Created Companies Spent $269K on Buybacks (Market Watch)
U.S. GDP Hot Spots (Visual Capitalist)
Deutsche Bank: OH How Broken are the Financial Markets Around the World (Zero Hedge) Commentary: Keep a close eye on the matter of liquidity.
Payrolls Report is Likely to be the Deciding Factor for Rates (Bloomberg Business) Commentary: Unless the Fed can find another reason.
Sprint Chairman Confirms: Lay-Offs will be in the Thousands (Kansas City Star)
Giants Tighten Grip on the Internet (Wall Street Journal) note: subscription required
Economics: Understanding the Free Rider Problem (an overview from Wikipedia)