The Fake President Blunders On...and Other Disasters

In his search for only "Yes" men/women, Trump has reached a new height in the promotion of warmongering via his replacing of McMaster with the gruesome John Bolton.  Even a casual perusal of Bolton's history is enough to scare the bejesus out of you.  He must be the most uptight, anal-retentive, control freak in the whole country.  The man seems to love the idea of killing people, whether it's most everyone in North Korea...or Chelsea Manning.
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A few days ago, the Chinese launched their Yuan-denominated oil futures contracts in Shanghai.  China is the world's largest importer of crude oil.  This is the start of the decline of the PetroDollar.  Plus, the whole business will add greatly to the already edging-up, price inflation in the USA.

Add to the above the fact that hundreds of major stores are closing their doors for good here, unemployment is more than double what Trump's Executive Branch and the Corporate Media claim it is, income inequality has reached a record high, worker wages have increased so minimally that they still essentially are "flat", the Bond Market is collapsing, a Trade War is developing with China, and the Stock Market recently has experienced "corrections".  Does all this sound good to anyone?  I think not.

Keep in mind that the Great Depression of the 1930's (which lasted about ten years) was not so named until halfway through it.  For quite awhile, everyone thought it was a temporary, soon-to-end glitch of some sort.
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Porter Stansberry, who owns Stansberry Research (a financial analysis publishing company with almost 500 employees), claims that wages are no longer connected to productivity in the USA.  According to him, that's the main reason for the gross "income inequality" in this country.  Stansberry is controversial, and I don't know if he's an expert in the financial field or not; however, on this particular point, I believe he's correct.  Worker productivity has increased quite a bit in the last three to four decades, but wages barely have kept up with price inflation.  People essentially are being forced to work harder, sometimes at two different jobs, but they aren't being properly rewarded for it.  I suspect that's one of the main reasons (perhaps the main reason) for much of the discontent in this great Land.  The upper 10% of The People own 75% of the wealth here.  Go figure.
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Zuckerberg's supposed concern about Facebook users' privacy is laughable.  The whole Facebook set-up is designed to harvest and sell your private information.  At least, that seems to be the case.  Delete Facebook.  Be aware, though, it will take weeks to get yourself off that site...literally, weeks.
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Why is Equifax still in business?  After their unmitigated disaster involving millions & millions of SS numbers, plus the theft of their own employees' tax info, they should have been boycotted by everyone.  Those of you who check people's credit, don't use Equifax.  There's no law that says you must.  Those of you who are subject to credit checks, tell the entity doing the checking that nothing of yours should be sent to that company.  Why should you risk the theft of your identity?  Do you have any idea how long it takes to straighten out a mess such as that?  Never mind the cost.
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The Second Amendment nowhere guarantees that citizens can possess any type of firearm they so desire with only minimal regulations informing that scenario.  The purpose of the Amendment was to allow citizens to "keep & bear Arms" in order for the country to have a "WELL REGULATED militia".  That's a direct quote:  "...well regulated...".

These slaughters in schools (and elsewhere) have to end.  A citizen not in the military should be banned from possessing a weapon of war...and that includes assault rifles.  You don't need one of those to go deer hunting or target shooting.  Assault rifles are for killing people.

To be clear, I'm an owner of a firearm...but it's not a weapon of war.
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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Economic Crash Already Has Started

Carefully consider the following:

1.  Wall Street just had its worst opening week in history.

2.  China's Bubble is rapidly deflating.  China is the world's second largest economy.

3.  The U.S. (and most of Europe) currently is experiencing deflation, which will be followed (most likely) by inflation.  The real estate market, the housing rental market, and grocery prices still are inflated...but as the Collapse intensifies, they too will deflate.  Stocks and bonds are on the cusp of bursting completely.

4.  The Corporate Media, which usually have no more than half a sentence if the news about the Stock Market is negative, couldn't ignore number 1. above.  They attempted to smooth it over by stating, in essence, "Nothing to worry about...it's only volatility in the Market.".  Several analysts don't think so.

5.  Let's not forget the Stock plunge on August 24, 2015.  Only half of the historic 1,000-point drop was recovered by day's end.

6.  Our Stock Market is rigged to favor the high-frequency traders who use computer algorithms that make trades in milliseconds.

7.  Financialization has converted our economy largely into one of nonproduction.

8.  The Corporate Media are touting the December jobs report as evidence our economy is strengthening...December, the month of temporary Christmas employment. 

9.  Wages basically still are stagnated.

10.  Crude oil prices continue to deflate.

11.  European Stocks had their worst week since August, 2011.

12.  Our Fed Gov't has been waging a Currency War against China for awhile now; China is retaliating (most likely) with Cyber attack reconnaissance.  It's the belief of some analysts that they are gearing up for a major Cyber attack on our financial system, perhaps even our utilities (such as power & water systems).  I think the probability of that is very high.  Nothing is secure regarding computers, the internet, etc.  Even the Pentagon has been hacked.

13.  The Fed Reserve finally realizes that it can't artificially control any of this.  Its recent rate hike and any future ones are nothing more than an attempt at face-saving.  They are out of ammo.  This whole thing is a worldwide event.  To believe that the Fed Reserve somehow can manage this is to be deluded.  All they are doing now is bursting the U.S. Asset Bubble.  A few people will make a ton of money.

All the above does not mean things will go bust tomorrow, or the day after, or next week.  The Crash will continue to build until, at some point, the economy will be pushed over the precipice by an event or a relatively quick series of events.  I'm afraid that the analysts who predict 2016 as the year of the Collapse are correct...at least, the probability of that is extremely high...extremely high.

Don't despair--- the Powers-That-Be will prop up the System once again.  IF the Collapse ultimately is not as large as the Great Depression, the time to get things up & running again may be relatively short--- a week, or two weeks, or a month, or two months, or???  Nobody knows for certain.  Nobody. 

Be prepared.  Stock up on household commodities now.  There still will be goods around in warehouses when the Crash reaches its peak, but 
distribution essentially will cease because credit will dry up.  At the wholesale level, businesses run on credit, not cash.  Banks will restrict access to cash anyway for both business people and consumers...in order to prevent bank runs.  Some banks already have changed their Bank-Customer Agreement to reflect the BAIL-IN, which means in a Crisis they are allowed to confiscate your deposits.  Obama and the rest of the G-20 leaders signed that into existence.  Get out of Mega Banks NOW.  The FDIC Fund is a pittance compared to the amount of $$$ on deposit...you'll be lucky to get a penny on $100.

Once again, the Rigged System is designed to protect banks and the Oligarchy, not consumers and the economy.  And so it goes.

p.s.  The ten-year Great Depression (of the 1930's) was not recognized and/or named as such until halfway through it.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well