Category Archive: 5.) Charles Hugh Smith

The Crash Has Only Just Begun

Everything, including a rational, connected-to-reality, effective financial system, is on back-order and unlikely to ship any time soon. While the stock market euphorically front-runs the Fed and a V-shaped recovery, the reality is the crash has only just begun.

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AxisOfEasy Salon #1: Hypernormalisation, Legitimacy and Simulacrum

The first episode in the AxisOfEasy Salon and Interviews series with the AoE Contributors: Charles Hugh Smith, Jesse Hirsh and Mark E. Jeftovic.

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AxisOfEasy Salon #1: Hypernormalisation, Legitimacy and Simulacrum

The first episode in the AxisOfEasy Salon and Interviews series with the AoE Contributors: Charles Hugh Smith, Jesse Hirsh and Mark E. Jeftovic.

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Overcapacity / Oversupply Everywhere: Massive Deflation Ahead

The price of a great many assets will crash, out of proportion to the decline in demand. Oil is the poster child of the forces driving massive deflation: overcapacity / oversupply and a collapse in demand. Overcapacity / oversupply and a collapse in demand are not limited to the crude oil market; rather, they are the dominant realities in the global economy.

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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Pandemic and Growth

There is no way authorities can limit the coronavirus and restore global growth and debt expansion to December 2019 levels. Authorities around the world are between a rock and a hard place: they need policies that both limit the spread of the coronavirus and allow their economies to "open for business." The two demands are inherently incompatible, and so neither one can be fulfilled.

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There’s No Going Back, We Can Only Go Forward

What I see is a global collapse of intangible capital that is invisible to most people. It's only natural that the conventional expectation is a return to the pre-pandemic world is just a matter of time. Whether it's three months or six months or 18 months, "the good old days" will return just as if we turned back the clock.

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Buy The Tumor, Sell the News

The fictitious valuation of the stock market will eventually re-connect with reality in a violent decline. No, buy the tumor, sell the news (tm) is not a typo: the stock market is a lethal tumor in our economy and society. 

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The World Has Changed More Than We Know

Put another way: eras end. While the mainstream media understandably focuses on the here and now of the pandemic, some commentators are looking at the long-term consequences. Here is a small sampling: While each of these essays offers a different perspective, let's focus on the last two: Ugo Bardi's essay on Hyperspecialization and the technological responses described in the MIT Technology Review essay.

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What Will The Post-Coronavirus World Look Like? (Martenson, Rubino, Smith & Taggart)

If covid-19 is indeed hastening the permanent disruption of the status quo, what will life in a post-coronavirus world look like? This prognosticating session builds on last week’s Economic Shockwaves roundtable: https://www.peakprosperity.com/economic-shockwaves/ This time, John Rubino, Charles Hugh Smith and Adam Taggart — also joined by Chris Martenson this time — discuss the myriad ways …

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If Lockdown Is a Needless Over-Reaction, Then Why Did China Lockdown Half its Economy?

Recall that the initial deaths and related costs are only the first-order effects; policy makers have to consider the second-order effects. Everyone who reckons that the lockdown is needless and more destructive than the pandemic that triggered it has to answer this question: then why did China lockdown half its economy?

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When Bulls Are Over-Anxious to Catch the Rocketship Higher, This Isn’t the Bottom

Everyone with any position in today's market will be able to say they lived through a real Bear Market. In the echo chamber of a Bull Market, there's always a reason to get bullish: the consumer is spending, housing is strong, the Fed has our back, multiples are expanding, earnings are higher, stock buybacks will push valuations up, and so on, in an essentially endless parade of self-referential reasons to buy, buy, buy and ride the rocketship...

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The Wonderful Insanity of Globalization

So here's an April Fools congrats to globalization's many fools. The tradition here at Of Two Minds is to make use of April Fool's Day for a bit of parody or satire, but I'm breaking with tradition and presenting something that is all too real but borders on parody: the wonderful insanity of globalization.

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Gadfly Public Interview: Charles Hugh Smith – Of Two Minds Blog

Start your FREE 30-day subscription today https://thegadfly.vhx.tv/ Visit and support Charles with his work: https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html

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Charles Hugh Smith on the Social, Financial and Economic Implications of the Coronavirus!

Charles Hugh Smith on the Social, Financial and Economic Implications of the Coronavirus! http://financialrepressionauthority.com/2020/04/01/the-roundtable-insight-charles-hugh-smith-on-the-social-financial-and-economic-implications-of-the-coronavirus/

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Sample Hour Live – Two Beers with Charles – Charles Hugh Smith

Multistreaming with https://restream.io/?ref=pKNQQ

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The End of Globalization & Financialization Leads To A New Monetary System – Charles Hugh Smith

Thanks for watching this RTD Q&A ft. Charles Hugh Smith. Share your thoughts in the comment section below. Subscribe & click the ? icon to be notified of the next livestream. Consider becoming a supporter of the RTD Channel. All gifts add up to make a difference. Thanks RTD Patreon (Monthly Support): https://www.patreon.com/rtd RTD Donation …

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The New (Forced) Frugality

There are only two ways to survive a decline in income and net worth: slash expenses or default on debt. In post-World War II America, the cultural zeitgeist viewed frugality as a choice: permanent economic growth and federal anti-poverty programs steadily reduced the number of people in deep economic hardship (i.e. forced frugality) and raised the living standards of those in hardship to the point that the majority of households could choose to be...

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The Pandemic Is Accelerating the Breakdown That Began a Decade Ago

The feedback loop has reversed: by saving more, people will spend, borrow and speculate less, draining the fuel from any broadbased expansion. In eras of confidence and certainty, people save less and spend more freely. 

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Helicopter Money: Short-Term Relief Won’t Cure our Financial Disease

The collateral supporting the global mountain of debt is crumbling as speculative bubbles deflate. A great many freebies are being tossed in the Helicopter Money basket. That households experiencing declines in income need immediate support is obvious, as is the need to throw credit lifelines to small businesses.

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The System Will Not Return to “Normal,” and That’s Good; We Can Do Better

Essential home lockdown reading. The pandemic is revealing to all what many of us have known for a long time: the status quo was designed to fail and so its failure was not just predictable but inevitable. We've propped up a dysfunctional, wasteful and unsustainable system by pouring trillions of dollars in borrowed money down a multitude of ratholes to avoid a reckoning and a re-set.

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