Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we focus on freelancing and the gig economy.
Precious Metals:
Reader H.L. sent this one in: Silver Coin Premiums Soar: Signal “Alt-Money” Demand As Re-Opening Recovery Hype Fades
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While the gold price consolidates, silver begins to awaken
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Negative interest rates: the next trigger in gold price
Economy & Finance:
Deficit to soar to nearly $4T as economy buckles, CBO says
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At Zero Hedge: Beijing May Dump US Treasuries In Response To US Hostility, Start Its Own QE: Chinese Media
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“Everything Has Been Cancelled”: Class 8 Heavy Duty Truck Orders Crash To 25 Year Low In April
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Also at Wolf Street: Week 7 of the Collapse of the U.S. Labor Market
Commodities:
H.L. sent us this. It keys in to decreased demand for ethanol: Jerry Gulke: Is Government-Induced Supply Control In Our Future?
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OilPrice News reports: Why This Oil Rally Won’t Last
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Copper scores fifth straight day of gains as Chinese imports surge
The Freelance/Gig Economy:
Reader D.B. sent this: The coronavirus could change how freelancers work in the long term. This article in Fortune begins:
“The coronavirus pandemic is thrusting into the spotlight some of the fundamental problems that define working life for the 57 million Americans, or 35% of the country’s workforce that, according to a recent report by freelancing platform Upwork and the Freelancer’s Union, make their living by being self-employed.
The same report states that frelancers contribute $1 trillion annually to the GDP, and they operate largely without benefits—no sick leave, no unemployment, no paid time off. But as this pandemic progresses, it’s becoming clear that demands from freelance workers—be them writers, performers, ride-share drivers, or hospitality workers—are as valid as those from full-time employees. “
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Coronavirus lockdown sees ‘side hustles’ surge as workers fear for day jobs. A snippet: “…one in five workers stuck at home are using the time to set up a new business”
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What to Do If You Can’t Work During an Emergency and Where to Look
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This is how each generation can freelance during and after the pandemic
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The 25+ Best Sites For Finding Remote Work
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Forex & Cryptos:
Weekly US Dollar Forecast: Technical Outlook Suffers Setbacks after FOMC
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GBP/USD Price Volatility Eyed by US Dollar; BoE & Jobs Data Loom
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Bitcoin halving: what is it and how will it affect pricing?
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Cashless Society 2020: Bill Gates Goes Viral on Digital ID and Digital Currency
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Ethereum Poised to Revisit Multi-Month Highs as Technical Strength Builds
Banks, Mutual Funds & Bonds:
Getting Ready For Negative Interest Rates
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Cash Havens With $4.8 Trillion Fret Unthinkable Negative Returns
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Big Banks Benefiting Most From COVID-19 Digital Shifts
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Fed Allows Banks to Eliminate Limits, Fees on Monthly Withdrawals From Savings Accounts
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The corporate bond market has been on fire during the coronavirus crisis
Provisos:
SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.
News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who closely watch specific markets. If you spot any news that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers, then please send it in. News from local news outlets that is missed by the news wire services is especially appreciated. And it need not be only about commodities and precious metals. Thanks!
Yeah I’m at 1099 (freelance) independent contractor. I’m a carpenter. That feel good fortunes article… Quite a bit away from the reality I face.
True I am weathering this well on account of being 1099 however… There was no 1200 gov’ment check. There was no unemployment. And so far the 600 a week coronavirus check is still pending… For the second month.
Now if I swish to return to work I’ve had to go back to w2 status.
During my time as 1099 (which has been considerable) I have had to forgo most all medical care…
Home fix broken bones
Cloth stitches (my wife can sew)
Super glue cuts
When I got a tooth knocked out had to take care of it on my own (lots of gauze from rite aid)
No unemployment safety net
No retirement savings
No sickdays
And certainly no possibility to “work from home”
The upside is cuz I recieved 100% of my earnings I actually had the savings for this but now I gotta save double my monthly for taxes.
Hey I’m not complaining btw I walked into my life both eyes open. But the reality is so far off of what the article says at least for guys like me. I would reckon a great deal of the younger 1099 crowd are living back with thier parents as the failed to save any to start.
When I didn’t have medical insurance I still went to a doctor or dentists. People do pay their own bills if they don’t have insurance.
And where did I say I didn’t?
I actually pay out of pocket for my wife’s autoimmune treatment and doctors visits and have done so while being the sole wage earner.
Further I wasn’t complaining about my life style I chose it and I’m happy.. I’m actually doing all right as I said.
But I do very much dislike the feel good atmosphere of the article cuz it sure hasn’t gotten better for us as 1099. Infact if the company you contract with takes advantage of gov’ment money you can not be put back to work as 1099 you must go w2. Which cuts your movable cash flow in half… Right when you are going to need it most as you recover from this.
A 1099 worker who keeps 100% of his earnings probably isn’t the right person to complain about not getting government assistance, when the revenues used to pay for those benefits come from the very treasury he has chosen to not pay into.
First off if you read I’m not a worker I am an independent contractor (the rules allow for me to do this). I operate as my own entity with my own tools and bonds and insurance (when required)
Secondly I pay my own taxes. If you and I were at equal yearly income I would pay more as I have to pay 100% of my own SSI disability and unemployment taxes.
As an employee you only have to pay half.
I just have the ability to pay at end of year accurately vs. your guestimated inflated per check with holdings.
The reason you get money back is you’ve been over charged through out the year.
I assume you are a w2 employee.
And if you read again I didn’t complain about not getting handouts.
Point of fact I’ve been working over 20 years in my field and outside of 1 year during recession I have not recieved one cent of tax paid for services.
Just for clarification archer
I don’t blame you for being touch about paying the full SS tax. But in fact we all pay the full SS tax. It is factored into your pay as an employee. I mean that the employer could pay you 7.5% more if they didn’t pay “their” share of the SS tax. It simply isn’t as transparent to employees as it is to the self employed.
Actually that’s not the case.
Your federal taxes are all on you
Your local taxes are all on you
State same
Disability unemployment social security etc (any tax that is taken from your check to support the non working is a 50\50 proposition when your w2. Your taxes are also adjusted to the business tax rather than individual earning as you are now functioning as a business rather than an individual.
In construction if your boss pays you 30 an hour by the time all of your taxes and insurance costs are added up vyour costing him about 60 or more per hour. And in that mix is your other half of your applicable taxes
At least that’s what my hr department accountant customers told me.
Yes indeed the employer pays half of the SS tax. It is considered the cost of your employment with them. Essentially YOU are paying it. If SS disappeared then your employer could afford to pay YOU that 7.5%. Your employer paid health insurance and any retirement is also considered by them to be the total cost of the employee.
I don’t think it smart to have direct contact between a VP and President during a pandemic. If both become ill at same time, then….doesn’t Pelosi run govt?
Pelosi run government!?!? I hadn’t thought of that. She is third in line for the job and so I’m feeling some panic. I pray for the health of President Trump and Vice-President Pence. Yes, they should physically stay away from each other.
While technically true, they’d both have to be incapacitated at the same time. Otherwise whoever is left would immediately appoint a VP.
Dear Spotlight and Mrs. Spotlight,
Thank you for the bird recordings. I listened with joy to that White-Throated Sparrow. I was also listening to the other bird in the background and it was “driving me crazy!!” :). because I remember hearing it when I was in Virginia for a time, but couldn’t remember who it was. Finally I went to Cornell’s Bird identification site https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/
and began listening to birds that I thought it might be and discovered that it was a Carolina wren. ;). Since I discovered Cornell’s site, I’ve spent time going through my bird book making lists of the western birds that I was not familiar with that are in our area and listening to their calls. Many them are western species of eastern species that I am already familiar with, but have different names. For instance, we have Orioles but they are called Bullock’s Oriole, Western Tanager that is more yellow and orange instead of red. Instead of the Common Snipe, we have Wilson’s Snipe, etc. We also have many of the same species that are found in the east, too. I also need to learn to distinguish between the calls of the various warblers, finches, sparrows, flycatchers, wrens, etc. I thought we didn’t have wrens here, but I was very wrong, we have about three of them.So I am brushing up on my birds here, that we usually only hear, but seldomly see. I love birds and always am happy to learn more about them every year. It makes life so much more enjoyable to constantly learn new things. 😉
Many blessings to you, two and happy birding,
Lily
Thanks AL. What a nice diversion from all the bad news. Like you, I am fascinated with the birds around me, I find peace in knowing that God provides for them. They don’t worry from one day to the next where seeds will come from, they simply carry on, they are always busy and confident, they sing and go about their business. God provides.
You said Pelosi would RUN the government. Don’t you mean Pelosi would RUIN the government?
I’d say that is already happening! (Pelosi Ruining the Government)
About the on-going trade-WAR against the United States by Beijing-China, the Multi-National Corporations (Globalists), American 5th Columnists->traitors, paid sycophants, and of course the Americans only concerned about buying ‘cheap-stuff’ from China: =
China for the last three decades has been jumping up and down on the United States economically. … The USA has laid supine on the ground like a Libtard, metrosexual, pantywaist ~enjoying the impoverishment of working Americans. [More graphic images could be used; BUT, SurvivalBlog is a Religion-Family orientated site.]
President Trump is NOT down for the count, in spite of the Libtards and their impeachment efforts and diversionary tactics. = [Did General Flynn really lie to the FBI? ~ Oh, Heavens to Betsy! ~ Worry about the Flynn statements and NOT the ongoing destruction of the USA!] The FAKE NEWS is generated by Demons.
Two videos, I recommend for edification:
From Sunday May 10, 2020:
Maria Bartiromo with Senator Tom Cotton (Sunday Morning Futures ~ Fox news 5/10/2020)
Video 1: “Sunday Talks – Senator Tom Cotton Discusses Recent Reports About COVID-19 Escaping Bio Lab in Wuhan China in October 2019…x”
“Senator Tom Cotton appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss recent reporting showing cell phone in/around Wuhan China showed road-blocks and/or a containment zone was mysterious set up in October of 2019. The suspicion is that China knew the virus had escaped the Wuhan bio-lab and was taking effort to contain the spread of the virus.”
“These suspicions fall on the heels of additional confirmation that Beijing asked the World Health Organization not to reveal human-to-human transmission of the virus at the same time.”
“Stay big picture. After three years of Beijing losing the geopolitical confrontation to President Trump…. Think about what you know of the aggressive Communist and zero-sum disposition of China.”
[Comments taken from TheConservativeTreehouse, where I also watched the video]
+
Maria Bartiromo with Peter Navarro [Economic advisor to Trump] Fox News Futures 5/10/2020]
Video 2. “Sunday Talks: Peter Navarro Discusses COVID-19, China and Restoring the U.S. Industrial Base…”
“White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro appears for an interview with Maria Bartiromo. As a China hawk Navarro outlines the economic damage from a perspective where China needs to be held accountable.”
“One of the ways to hold Beijing accountable is to retract all U.S. business interests and decouple from China. The White House is currently using a task-force approach to assemble the background evidence. (Please NOTE) ~~>Once assembled, many people suspect President Trump will initiate very strong policies against China (including tariffs)financial punishment upon the Red Dragon.”
“At no time in the past twenty years has Beijing been more vulnerable to an economic adversary. At the same time, there has never been a more strategic economic adversary in the oval office. This is a conspicuously remarkable moment in history.”
[Comments taken from TheConservativeTreehouse 5/10/2020, where I also watched the video.]
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The Libtard controlled areas want to stay on the ground like Libtard pantywaists ~”Oh the Covid-19 pandemic is too dangerous to even allow people to leave their homes. We all need to collect Welfare and NOT work! We can’t say the pandemic started in China. = The China-Communists and their cronies will call us racists.”
******
President Trump wants the USA to fight an economic WAR with China. ~ My prepping advice: ‘Don’t get situated in the bathroom without a roll of toilet paper in the house.’ Review your necessary preps. + Check the advertisers here on SurvivalBlog, and also review the prepping advice given ~freely in the articles and comments on SurvivalBlog.
The USA is getting up off the ground, and back to business. There’s an economic war to fight. Trump and his supports want the USA to win this economic war.
Some things I wonder about that kind of dovetail with your thoughts, at least in my mind.
The selectivity of this virus is amazing. As the numbers grind out with antibody testing, virus testing, death statistics, etc. it is clear that this is about the same lethality as seasonal flu overall but far, far more selective. Deaths in my state run 90% over 60 years of age and 80% comorbidities. Other states are similar. Young or even middle aged and healthy and you have virtually nothing to worry about except infecting your older, sick grandparents. To my knowledge that is not the case with seasonal flu. Yes all respiratory illnesses hit the sick and elderly harder but from my limited knowledge they are typically much more random. The Spanish Flu was certainly much more random.
This seems to be a brutally effective “cull the herd” disease. Is that a bug or a feature? China has an aging population that they are beginning to struggle to take care of because of their one child policy. It makes you wonder.
New York state is running numbers that are so much higher than anywhere else in the world as to stretch credibility. Yeah high density, blah, blah, blah. There is significant evidence that New York is calling everything COVID whether it is or not but what if they are not lying? Is it possible that New York City is actually under bio attack? Could they have been specifically seeded and/or reseeded repeatedly there?
I think it more likely that New York is just lying and padding their numbers and with the density that explains the discrepancy but I do not put it past the Chinese to attack us in this manner and give New York City a little extra special attention being the financial and particularly media center of the US.
To illustrate what I mean by New Yorks interesting numbers consider this morning’s deaths per million metrics from Worldometer (which are aggragated from state and national health departments predominantly).
US overall – 244
New York – 1378
New Jersey – 1043
Connecticut – 832
Massachusetts – 722
Louisiana – 492
Washington DC – 465
Michigan – 456
…
Washington – 122
Florida – 81
California – 69
And my favorite with no lockdown and free business access still
Sweden – 322 (with an older population than the US running 32% worse than the US as a whole and 428% better than New York and significantly better than the whole Northeast).
One way or the other, something is suspicious in the US Northeast centered around New York City.
On the topic of new York city deaths and NYC padding the numbers this website news agency.
It has both the actual laboratory confirmed numbers and the inflated probable numbers.
Interestingly the inflated numbers come from “mystery increased stats” such as corpse in home. Those numbers have been analyzed from several previous years and the average of that is then subtracted from this year’s total the remainder is counted as “probably covid” deaths.
For example if may 11th for the last 5 years corpse found at home total was 300 and this year on May 11th the total is 500 then the probable covid tally is +200.
The Gothamist link for new deaths and total deaths are marked out very clearly. The number of confirmed cases are based off of died while infected with covid from covid symptoms.
Hope it helps
And keep in mind that NYC is a dirty filthy city filled with already very sick people in sad health states to start with.
81,536 deaths in two months in the U.S. and you still believe this is no worse than the seasonal flu?
A recent study shows that perhaps 5300 uncounted deaths in NY City may also be caused by Covid-19.
Some people can’t see reality if it goes against their support for a political candidate. A candidate who by the way has supported unlimited bailouts for wall street with the bill sent to you and me.
The antibody testing is quickly establishing that the CFR from COVID is on par with seasonal flu since the antibody testing is establishing that we are undercounting COVID numbers by upwards of 85 fold.
And you make the assumption I believe those death numbers are all COVID.
Please consider the following article
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/questions-about-accuracy-of-coronavirus-tests-sow-worry/ar-BB124KXh?ocid=ientp
At first glance this would indicate a possible case count deficit of 30%. However a close reading of the article reveals something interesting.
“In New York City, “a negative is not clearing anybody who is symptomatic,” said Dara Kass, an emergency-room doctor at New York-Presbyterian, a hospital system. Dr. Kass, who is working from home after she tested positive for coronavirus in mid-March, said all patients with symptoms are being treated as coronavirus-positive, because the disease is so widespread in the city.”
This begs the question, since they are TREATING patients with symptoms as coronavirus-positive is New York COUNTING all patients with symptoms as coronavirus-positive?
I think this is pretty strong evidence that New York is likely counting all respiratory deaths as coronavirus deaths. Since New York and vicinity numbers are largely driving the nationwide numbers I suspect the 81,536 deaths could very well include 10s of thousands of seasonal flu deaths and other respiratory deaths.
There is additional evidence to this affect if you research the CDC death certificate coding policies for COVID and the U07.xx series of numbers. That is interesting as well. Pennsylvania coroners flew the BS flag on this one a while back and perhaps some of it was cleaned up but who knows.
Additionally last years (2018-2019) seasonal flu deaths were the worst in 40 years and topped 80,000. And traditionally the “season” ends the end of May. So seasonal flu is pretty wicked stuff. We just don’t keep a counter of it on TV every night for months on end. I wonder why not?
Actually the math is very easy to cross check.
Take a look at the standard published numbers of deaths then subtract that from the current number of deaths.
I can’t speak for other cities but I highly doubt that the uptick in deaths is because of heart disease. And given that with less traffic on the road we have not seen a dip in daily deaths, much much reduced construction work drunk driving driving while texting… Still no appreciable or even noticable drop in daily (or quarterly soon ) death rates…. But hey that’s just pure numbers from math.
Please provide your numbers for standard numbers of deaths and current numbers.
What little along those lines I have seen indicates that nation wide our death rate for the year so far is significantly lower than normal however I am not certain I believe those numbers either. What does your research show?
I do understand your need to discredit the numbers whatever they are in order to push your belief that this is no worse than the yearly flu. I kind of head in the sand approach to public health. But in fact it is worse and we won’t have the “proof” that would satisfy the non-believers for 12-18 months. Kind of late then to take necessary action. I would advise to err on the side of caution rather than full speed ahead. You are welcome to do whatever you like. Since I am in the age and health group that is most impacted by this virus I will continue to avoid unnecessary risk.
What you and I advocate is the same then.
You make the choice to stay home or not. And let others do the same.
But do not create a new Great Depression for those who are not fortunate enough to have jobs or businesses that are considered COVID friendly. Or are not retired. Or able to telework.
Us “non-believers” (sounds almost as bad as a “climate change denier”) might even do you a service while you stay home and build the herd immunity at our own risk, so that when you move about more it will be less risky for you.
BTW I am not a spring chicken either. I am fortunate enough to have no co-morbidities but my age is putting me right at the edge of the high risk group. And my job is considered “essential” so I have no financial loss associated with this situation. And I like to stay home. And my bank account is filling up faster while I do since I am staying home even more than normal and spending less than normal.
So my argument is for those who are being destroyed by this not for myself. And for the civil liberties that are being trampled over what I view as highly suspect numbers.
Your “seeding” comment caught my attention. Being the conspiracy theorist that I am I’ve been wondering through all of this if there may be a correlation between the corona virus and chem trails. I truly believe that we are being sprayed with something and I wonder if it would contribute to the severity of the virus. I also have to wonder if nations that are sprayed have a more or a less amount of people who get the virus and is it more or less severe when they get it.
The requested numbers that you stated you would still be in sure of. Using just one Burrough in NYC the Bronx which is not even the biggest in NYC
Total yearly deaths was counted at 9504 in 2017
As of right now corona death toll is at 4000 people in the Bronx.
I’m sorry that I can’t provide more detailed death statistics but the full scope of 2020 is not released.
But you can see clearly that two numbers are virtually the same given that in 4 months this year half of 2017 deaths have been achieved just using the corona data alone.
Sources
https://health.data.ny.gov/Health/Vital-Statistics-Deaths-by-Resident-County-Region-/7z98-p7et
https://gothamist.com/news/coronavirus-statistics-tracking-epidemic-new-york
Thanks for the link. The number I would like is total deaths this year from all sources to complete the loop.
I would like that one too for my own facts and stats. But I don’t think they publish until the following year maybe even year after that.
But .. meh data from 2017 is accurate enough for me as I don’t dictate any policies.
I think you misunderstand me.
Without the TOTAL deaths from ALL sources (not just COVID) for THIS year to compare to a control group (like 2017), I do not believe the loop can be closed.
This is very likely an exaggeration but suppose there are 4000 COVID deaths reported in the Bronx and 4100 total death from all reasons including COVID. This would paint a pretty suspicious picture regarding what New York is calling a COVID death. If there were 8000 deaths from all source so far this year that would paint a much less suspicious picture. Numbers in between would be less black and white but would still reveal useful information.
In most of these stories there are just one or two numbers that would fill in the gaps that are always missing. That is not unique to the COVID situation IMO. Happens all the time. I have always found it maddening.
The best data would be running tallies for other specific causes of death other than COVID to put alongside the COVID numbers. The only place I have seen that yet was out of Kentucky where a while back in a court case they presented this years seasonal flu deaths next to COVID deaths. This was in mid April as I recall. Approximately 2500 seasonal flu deaths and 250 COVID deaths. To make the data even better, historical deaths would be put side by side with this data.
I can’t cite the source any more but
It was some thing like this
20 – 50 found dead at home deaths is business as usual
Upwards of 300 have been showing up recently.
I can’t even guarantee the 300 how ever I remember it was a case of add a zero.
But again the removal of so many other death factors while not markedly dropping the death count with the only new variable being covid gives strong evidence that the new factor is the culprit. Not every where mind you. But here in NYC it’s more than a reasonable conclusion.
And btw aside from the ghetto goers most people here are chomping at the bit to go back to earning a living lol.
It must be exceptionally hard for people in NYC when so many live in apartments and condominiums. At least I would assume so. I would think people are normally out and about quite a bit at restaurants, theaters and other activities. I would suspect there is a lot of cabin fever.
GGHD, I agree with your post that the Libertards are FULLY TO BLAME for the dire straits AMERICA is in now. By towing the Commie Demoncrat line for the past 50 years the Liberals in AMERICA have prevented AMERICANS from living a CONSTITUTIONALLY FREE LIFE as AMERICA was founded upon!
JWR, You may want to decide to NOT provide a ‘Cabela’s Ad listing’ on SB, because 75% or more of the CRAP THAT CABELAS SELLS IS MADE IN CHINA CRAP!! Cabelas may even be China owned via stockholders!! Plus they and LLBEAN have THE WORST customer ‘service’!
I spoke with another of your advertisers who is a small Christian Family owned business and they cannot afford to advertise on SB and removed their ad. That’s NOT AMERICA FIRST!
Read these books folks, they will open your eyes!
‘The Last Lobster’ Christopher White(I believe is the author, read it a few years ago)
Dr Peter Moore’s books, ‘The Little Book of Pandemics’, and ‘Superbugs/ Killer Germs’.
The last 2 should be read by your whole family! And discussed!
@pat. Libertards?…Commie Demoncrats?…please. This is not what I come here for.
You won’t like what I tell you, nor will you believe it, but you should remember it and makes sure you considered it in your prepping and life plans. The country is on a downward spiral and the spiral has only accelerated under Trump. When making your life and prepping plans assume that the country will continue downhill, though the speed depends on who is elected with each election cycles. More Republicans means a faster economic slide, shorter lifespans, and a lower standard of living. Plan on it or you will not be prepared.
Reasons are many. Since roughly 1980 Republicans have become the party of the Rich and the multinational corporations. This is based not on what they say, but rather in the legislation they support and vote for in Congress and the legislation they oppose and stop in Congress. I don’t care what politicians of either party say I want to see what they do and don’t vote for. Who they support also shows up in the regulations they write and the ones they try to eliminate. Yes, the Republicans may not be taking away as many rights as the Democrats, but the Republicans aren’t protecting as many rights either and there is a significant economic cost to Republican policies. If you look at the Democrats, they are trying to pass more laws that help the bottom 80% of earners, but they are also complicit in giving economic and political power to the Rich, the Elite and Multinational corporations. A good example is Trumps tax bill that passed when Republicans controlled the house of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency. If you read the bill and follow the money, around 83% of the 1 Trillion plus in tax cuts were given to 10% of the households in the US (plus foreigners), or to people who made something over $180,000. That means the other 17% of the tax cuts were given to the bottom 90% of income households. The Democrats opposed this bill and tried unsuccessfully to change this distribution. If Republicans really cared about the average family the cuts would be reversed, with 83% of the tax cuts going to the bottom 90% of households and the other 17% going to the top 10% of households. Another example is the tariffs on China goods that are mainly paid by working level people in the US, not the rich and not the Chinese. I believe this is intentional. I could write a book with similar examples from legislation in Congress and regulations implementing laws.
The slide won’t stop until both the Republicans and the Democrats are held accountable for their votes, the bills they propose and pass and their actions running the executive branch. Those politicians must fear losing elections not just to other politicians in the same party with the same policy goals of funning most of the economic power and wealth generated in the economy to the rich, but to politicians that actually work for the best interests of all the people. I don’t see this happening in the short to medium term for numerous reasons you don’t want to hear. I don’t think it will change until we have an economic collapse that potentially leads to abandonment of the current constitution and the creation of a new constitution that better ensures the government executes the will of the people. I don’t want to be around when it happens, but I’m thinking about it and trying to plan for it as best as I can.
FYI – don’t believe most conspiracy theories, as most are false. The coronavirus is not a weapon created by humans. You don’t release a biological weapon in your own country, you release it in your enemy’s country. The lab in Wuhan was routinely visited by US scientists and even Trump administration employees. Name one super secret weapons lab in the US that lets Chinese scientists see the labs, see the results, or participate in the research. How many Chinese have seen the inside of area 51. Bioweapons are poor weapons unless you have an effective treatment because bioweapons attack both your country and your opponent’s country. The Chinese don’t have a treatment or their death rates and the damage the virus has done to their economy would be less. Sure the virus could have been in the lab for study and escaped, but the virus is also present in the wild in China where people eat the host animals. This would be equivalent of shooting and eating a deer with chronic wasting disease.
I believe that the single factor that is going to destroy the West, Europe, Canada, USA, and Australia, is immigration both legal and illegal. The liberals favor both kinds of immigration because they benefit from the new replacement voters. But once the replacement voters reach a majority or close to it they no longer will vote for the liberals and they only vote for those who are like them. Then it will become a nation divided and old laws and justice will be thrown out and replaced by the new tyranny of the majority.
I can’t speak for all the countries, but immigration doesn’t have the effects you believe in this country. Look at where the 350 million US people came from. How many of us decend from Indian tribes, very few. That means the 347 million of us came from other countries. We are a nation of immigrants and we achieved our past greatness through being a nation of immigrants. We came from Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, China, Korea, Mexico, Scandinavian countries, African countries, we have citizens from just about every place in the world. What the US has done best is to convert those immigrants into US citizens. Sure, some parents may keep their native language and customs, but by the 2nd generation the kids speak English, they think like Americans, many starting losing their cultural heritage and languages to the lament of their parents. Even if they keep their heritage, they still think and act like Americans, and they typically work harder than existing Americans. One could say our culture is like an infection that takes over. Liberals are ok with immigrants for a variety of reasons. Immigration is very consistent with the teachings of Christ. From a selfish perspective, on a per 100K immigrants compared to existing Americans, Immigrants create more businesses, they are more entrepreneurial, they are responsible for more research that creates new patents and products, they have started many of America’s premier technology companies, they are responsible for the standard of living you have today. They are why the US is superpower instead of just an industrialized country like France or Great Britain. We used to attract the best and brightest immigrants, the people responsible for the key innovations that drives our greatness but that is changing with the immigrant backlash. The Immigrants that used to create and discover the breakthrough drugs, or the next construction company, the next technology company, the next microchip are moving out of the US to other countries to work, or sometimes straight to other countries to create wealth. China and Russia love the immigrant hate in this country because it weakens the US, it makes us a less capable opponent and weakens our defensive capability, it weakens us economically, it reduces the number of jobs, it reduces potential tax receipts and GDP, China is actually stealing scientist coming back to work in China. This immigrant hostility is accelerating the decline of the US. Liberals also recognize we have a shortage of workers to support specific industries like agriculture, meat production and construction. Liberals want to eat.
Immigration both legal and illegal literally took off in the mid 60’s and has continued growing by leaps and bounds. Prior to that our immigration was minimal and surprisingly we won WW II during that time and invented many things. The citizens held most of the jobs and filled most of the colleges. Clearly something changed and it was by intent. The intent is to flood the country with replacement voters and the only people harmed by this intentional mayhem will be the citizens. Why? As you point out we have 350 million here we don’t “need” more people. SO why are the politicians flooding the country with immigrants? Well of course obviously to dilute the vote and they believe that will lead to 100 years of Democrat rule. This wasn’t an accident, Ted Kennedy engineered this in the 60’s and it wasn’t kept secret. The intent was always to fundamentally change the U.S.
You just don’t like immigrants which is your right. By historic standards immigrants as a percentage of the US population today is similar to the 1860-1920s. The higher immigration today and the historic percentage of population who are immigrants mean we had a period of much lower immigration (1930-1970). This also means immigrants are not taking over the country any more so today than they have in the past. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-population-over-time Women in the US don’t have enough babies (I can tie this to Republican policies too) to replace deaths and the number of workers in the US is shrinking compared to the number of old people. This has bad economic consequences as explained in this article. We need more young people, which is generally who immigrate to this country. ://www.insider.com/record-low-birth-rates-could-cause-extinction-demographic-time-bomb-2019-8 Democrats don’t need immigrants to gain a ruling advantage. It will happen naturally as all the old people die off ( a greater percentage vote Republican than democrat), and the coronavirus is only helping this. When young people move to the city for jobs, become educated, meet other people a greater percentage vote democrat than Republican. Republican economic policies are destroying rural areas (for example I read recently that something over 30% of a food bill went to farmers 40 years ago and now its like 1/2 that with large agribusiness taking the other 1/2 now) which will also increase the number of democratic voters over time as people die, drugs kill, despair kills, towns die, and people move to cities and suburbs. The question is will it happen before Republican policies to benefit the ultra-rich collapse the economy and the country. This mean even if you stop immigration it will still happen, but I would recommend preparing for the collapse. This last article presents data on the creation of jobs and companies by immigrants and their children in the US. Its a lot of jobs, GDP and income taxes they pay. https://www.newsweek.com/immigrant-founded-fortune-500-companies-us-gdp-1450498 Immigrants contribute the defense of our country. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigrant-veterans-united-states Democrats recognize the need and value of immigrants and their contributions to our nation. No conspiracy theory, just good policy.
It’s not that I dislike immigrants it is that I like citizens and my country. America first; borders, language culture. We literally do not need more people we need to be putting our people first. Bring jobs back from overseas and send H1B workers back home. In 1860 arguably we needed immigrants, today we don’t. The only reason we have this immigration is to benefit certain people at the cost or harming all citizens.
“Women in the U.S. don’t have enough babies” Oh please! If our population was a million people “maybe” that might be a good argument but our population is 350 million.
It is easy to find and cite articles that seem to imply that immigration is good for us. Who do you think writes those articles?
The U.S. doesn’t “need” more people. But all of those 3rd world countries desperately need educated citizens who have seen what freedom and capitalism can do for a country. Those people have a responsibility to go back to their home countries and help their own people did themselves out of poverty and tyranny.
Oneguy,
It’s possible some of the production will come back, but don’t count on all the jobs. I read somewhere that something over 80% of the jobs lost in manufacturing in the last couple decades were automated out of existence. Machines took the jobs. We still make about as much GDP wise as before off shoring started, but do it using a fraction of the people. I have a friend who designs automated production lines to make car parts in the US. Their customers demand like 99.9999% defect free parts. The only way to achieve this is to remove humans from production. Humans make too many mistakes and too much variation in the parts. I have another friend who worked for a big engineering/construction firm. He claimed he couldn’t find engineers with the skills and willingness to do the engineering grunt work their company needed so they used the H1-B process. I don’t know if he was telling the truth or not, but I do know there are fields where we don’t have enough people graduating with the right skills. Sure, it may appear we have plenty of workers, but people need to be willing to move to where the jobs are, and they have to have the right skills for the jobs and many people don’t want to move or have the skills. I subscribe to a construction trade magazine. They have frequent articles about the shortage of carpenters and other construction labor and about how to attract, groom, empower, educate and keep their best workers. Workers became tired of the boom or bust cycles and leave for good. Too many people go to college and get liberal arts degrees and not enough go to trade schools and learn the skills needed to keep our infrastructure going. The birthrate right now is below 2. it must be something over two just to keep the population steady. If every household of 2 people have 1.75 kids the total population shrinks because 2 people are replaced with 1.75 people. We may have 350M people, but too many are old and the number retired is going to increase as people live longer and the rest of the baby boomers retire. This leaves fewer people working and contributing to SS and fewer people available to take care of all those old people. There are numerous articles about this online including this one. https://www.mercatus.org/publications/government-spending/how-many-workers-support-one-social-security-retiree. You can dismiss the importance and the benefits of immigrants because that is a value judgement, an opinion, everyone has different values, but the numbers, companies created by immigrants, contributions to GDP by immigrants, and their contribution to our national well being still exists, its still a fact. It doesn’t matter who wrote the article, all those still exist, they can be looked up, documented, they show up in measurements of the country, profits of public companies. If you don’t want the immigrants that’s fine, and the other countries that accept the immigrants will benefit from our loss, but it also means the US doesn’t receive the benefits of those immigrants so we will have fewer jobs, a lower standard of living, the nation will be less competitive internationally, we’ll have higher prices, higher taxes or fewer government services, dying younger, the effects ripple. This is how capitalism works. Are you ready to give up your 2nd car, pay 30% more for food, live in a 20% smaller house?
During the last bust in the oil patch we saw this coming and decided to offer rig storage on some property we had off a highway. Be sure and get a lease contract drawn up and make sure your insurance in covering yourself should some rig hand hurt himself on your property. Also make sure they drain all that fluid before they bring in on your property. You may have an income for several years if this keeps going. Just a thought. Happy Trails, Gaddygirl
The article about China dumping US Treasuries is very interesting. Makes me think. Who is going to buy them? Maybe with a very steep discount as interest is practically non existent! The Fed is in reality, the only buyer at the moment and they are up to their butts in New Treasury issues now. A good example is if everyone is raising chickens for eggs and they are everywhere. You may not be able to give them away; and it is possible that you might have to pay someone to take them off your hands before they start to stink. This is called the Bigger Fool Theory.
This is kind of like what is happening to our currency at the moment: money is no longer printed to limit its value, but with a few key strokes Trillions of dollars are created from very thin air. Beware, as rapid inflation is just around the corner. Personally precious metals are looking quite attractive to preserve what little money I have. I can easily see a time when one might wish they had a few silver dimes to buy a weeks worth of groceries instead of a handful of $100 bills. A few butternut squash will be much more valuable than a case of organic potato chips. Also look to owning non renewable resources, TP comes to mind, another class of items which may have immense value as they have in the past are spices that are imported and not grown here, I buy spices that are not ground as they last longer and are easy to grind at time of use.
Junk silver is the best buy at this time.
This article about U.S. treasuries is backwards. Once the treasury bond is sold the U.S. could care less what you do with it. This isn’t a “threat” it is a stupid statement. The treasury decides when they buy back a bond or choose to let it run to it’s contractual time period, not the buyer. China can do what ever it wants to with those bonds no one cares. It makes me wonder why the article would be written as though China had some power in this.
If there are more treasury bonds on the market for sale chasing the same buyers it means the US Treasure will have to raise the interest rate they pay to attract buyers. That means the taxpayer will pay more interest and there will be less money in future years to government functions. We do care.
This is not true. Bonds are bought for the interest they pay. Yes they are sold on the open market but the treasury is liable for the interest. My point is that low or negative interest makes new bonds impossible to sell on the open market and that is the situation at the moment. The threat is that if confidence is lost in the bonds and they have to be sold at a steep discount the new bonds will have no private buyers thus making them useless for government financing. This is why the Federal Reserve creates the money out of air to buy the bonds and transfer this bogus money to the Treasurery Department for Congress to waste. Yes, China will lose if they sell these bonds to some idiots but the US will not be able to sell bonds to anyone else but themselves. Thus the worm that eats it’s tail. The governments continued spending of more than they take in for the last umpteen years is exactly like charging a credit card payment to another credit card, the end result is predictable, they will go bankrupt and we the citizens will go down with them. We have no one to blame but ourselves as we have elected morons to congress and allowed them to create bloated and unnecessary beauracracies with absolutely no repercussions for their stupidity.
What you say is true for businesses but not the federal government. Most of the federal debt is held by the government. If no one buys their bonds then they buy them.
Interestingly the federal government can call in those bonds and other forms of debt anytime they want to. That is they can give China the value of the bonds and take on that debt themselves. The bottom line is the federal government has all the options on their debt and the buyer of the debt has only the promise of interest payments and face value.
Which brings me to my proposed solution as to how to get our government out of debt. Simply pay it off. One suggestion is to create some platinum coins each worth a trillion dollars, yes basically print trillions of dollars and buy back all the debt and retire it back to zero. Ideally this would be done in conjunction with a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. That seems unlikely.
Flynn lied to the Vice President. Putin is laughing in his vodka.
This digital world causes more harm than good. We should fight fire with fire. The reason we do not is our leaders know that other countries have the ability to hack our electrical grid sending us into the 1800s.
China wants us to fail too but they are looking for an off ramp that doesn’t destroy them.
On tangibles, don’t forget dual purpose PMs. You know the kind for barter or boom.
22lr is still available.
#Boycott CHINESE MADE PRODUCTS Simple as that! BUY AMERICAN! Specifically, try to buy products MADE IN AMERICA BY LEGAL AMERICANS! Shop in LOCAL Family Owned Stores! Leave Wallmarrt, Costtoomuch, Homedepository, Best bought elsewhere, for the LIBERALS to support! The sooner AMERICANS STOP USING AMAZONIA, FACEBLOCK, FEEBAY, the sooner AMERICA returns to a CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY COUNTRY! Take a stand people, don’t cowtow to anyone to get you to spend money in ‘the company store’!!
Lately I have been using “AMAZONIA” as a search tool only. All the products on the site include who the product is supplied by. I then look up the company to see if it is a USA based company & if the product is in fact made in the USA, then just order directly from them. Most of the time it will be for the same price plus included shipping cost, sometimes it does cost a little more,but that OK too. It just take a few more minutes of time to find these USA only companies.
Yes! …and do watch for language that reads “ships from USA” which does not necessarily mean “made in the USA”. We’re watching this very closely, and purchasing from American-based and American-owned companies.
I do not get it
It is like bad is good and good is bad
Letting people out of jail so they do not get sick
But putting moms in jail for trying to feed her kids
Giving out drugs and alcohol to the homeless
Cops throwing people on the ground for not having a mask on
Adding numbers to the death count that are not from this Covid
People making more at home then working Here is a little extra now shut up
Killing the pigs,cows,chickens because people are sick at the packing plant
Was we not told if you get this to stay home for 14 days then your good
So why is no one going back to work
Different rules in different states you have to wear a mask Others you do not have to but please do Others do what you want
Man the power these people thing they have over us
They are going to push the wrong person the wrong way that has nothing left to lose
Every day you just keep hearing more and more of this stuff
GOOD IS BAD and BAD IS GOOD
I just shake my head
Nothing to see hear just move along