Category Archive: 5.) The United States

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Grab-Bag of Resolutions for 2017

2016-12-28

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2016-12-28

Bitcoin One-Year Chart
Here's a grab-bag of resolutions with something for just about every persuasion. I resolve to never utter or write the word "Trump" in 2017. (Good luck with that...)

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Crisis of Meaning = Crisis of Work

2016-12-27

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2016-12-27

Real Average Hourly Wages
Allow me to connect two apparently unconnected dots. Dot #1: The last sugar plantation in Hawaii is closing down, ending more than a century of plantation life in the 50th state.

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When Assets (Such as Real Estate) Become Liabilities

2016-12-27

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2016-12-27

Equity in Real Estate
It will be the middle class that accepted the notion that "real estate is the foundation of family wealth" that will be stripmined by higher taxes on immobile assets such as real estate.

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The Washington Post: Useful-Idiot Shills for a Failed, Frantic Status Quo That Has Lost Control of the Narrative

2016-12-25

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2016-12-25

US Federal Reserve System
Don't you think it fair and reasonable that anyone accusing me of being a shill for Russian propaganda ought to read my ten books in their entirety and identify the sections that support their slanderous accusation?

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The Burrito Index: Consumer Prices Have Soared 160 percent Since 2001

2016-12-25

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2016-12-25

Personal Consumption Expenditures
In our household, we measure inflation with the Burrito Index: How much has the cost of a regular burrito at our favorite taco truck gone up? Since we keep detailed records of expenses (a necessity if you’re a self-employed free-lance writer).

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The Disaster of Inflation-For the Bottom 95 percent

2016-12-24

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2016-12-24

Central banks are obsessed with boosting inflation, but the "why inflation is good" arguments make no sense for households being ravaged by inflation. The basic argument is that inflation makes it easier for debtors to service their debts.

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Why the Massive Expansion of “Money” Hasn’t Trickled Down to “The Rest of Us”

2016-12-22

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2016-12-22

MZM Money Stock
There are numerous debates about money: what it is, how we measure it, and so on. In recognition of these debates, I'm referring to "money" in quotes to designate that I'm using the Federal Reserve's measure of money stock (MZM). Nowadays, "money" is often credit. We buy stuff not with currency/ cash, but with credit extended by lenders.

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What Have the “Experts” Gotten Right? In the Real Economy, They’re 0 for 5

2016-12-20

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2016-12-20

Personal Consumption Expenditures; Services; Housing; Rental of tenant-occupied nonfarm housing
If the "experts" were assessed on results, they'd all be fired. The mainstream media continually hypes the authority of "experts," i.e. people with a stack of credentials from top institutions. But does the mainstream media ever check on whether the "experts" got anything right? Let's compare the "experts" (conventional PhD economists) diagnoses and fixes with the results of their policies.

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Are You a Deplorable? Take This Quiz to Find Out

2016-12-18

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2016-12-18

Media Concentration
Regardless of your ethnicity, class or religion, if you perceive the institutions that govern American life as corrupted, riddled with favoritism and spin or as broken, you're a Deplorable. Are you a Deplorable? The answer might surprise you. Take this short quiz to find out.

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Is the Deep State at War–With Itself?

2016-12-18

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2016-12-18

Deep State Network
The recent pronouncement by the C.I.A. that Russian hackers intervened in the U.S. presidential election doesn't pass the sniff test--on multiple levels. Let's consider the story on the most basic levels.

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Why the Democrats Can’t Let Go of Losing

2016-12-17

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2016-12-17

Democratic party
The Democratic Party has become everything it once was against. The Democratic Party has become everything that it once loathed: elitist, globalist, interventionist, self-serving, warmongering and overflowing with hubris.

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Recovering America’s History of Progressive Populism

2016-12-16

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2016-12-16

Populism
The elites' toadies, lackeys, shills, sycophants, water-carriers and apologists are desperately hyping the context-free, historically ignorant narrative that "populism leads to autocracy" to protect the existing autocracy of the elites.

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Rich Middle Class, Poor Middle Class

S&P / Case-Shiller
This great generational injustice is the direct consequence of central banks lowering interest rates to zero and inflating asset bubbles. How can middle class households have similar incomes but some are asset-rich and others are asset-poor?

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“Fake News”, Censorship, Darwin and Democracy

2016-12-14

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2016-12-14

Mass Media Gallup
Perhaps we can start by separating "news" from "analysis" from "commentary." "News" is "he said this, she did that, this happened." Analysis tries to make sense of trends that are apparent in the news longer-term--for example, why did Trump win? Is the economy actually healthy or not? "Commentary" is opinion that establishes a point of view and defends it while attacking other POVs.

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From Captive Audience to Open Democracy: Why the Mainstream Media Is Freaking Out

2016-12-12

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2016-12-12

Mass Media Gallup
In its panicky rush to demonize the independent media via baseless accusations of "fake news," the mainstream press has sunk to spewing "fake news" of its own. Here's The Washington Post's criminally false "fake news" article in case you missed it: Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.

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A Disintegrative Winter: The Debt and Anti-Status Quo Super-Cycle Has Turned

2016-12-11

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2016-12-11

Political Polarization Has Exploded Since 2000
With this list of manifestations in hand, we can practically write the headlines for 2017-2025 in advance. How would you describe the social mood of the nation and world? Would anti-Establishment, anti-status quo, and anti-globalization be a good start? How about choking on fast-rising debt? Would stagnant growth, stagnant wages be a fair description? Or how about rising wealth/income inequality? Wouldn't rising disunity and political polarization...

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Charles Hugh Smith a Russian Propaganda Site?

2016-12-10

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2016-12-10

WaPo-methodology on identifying "Russian Propaganda " Guilt by Associaton
We highly appreciate the site of Charles Hugh Smith because it integrates good economic graph with critical political comments. A couple of days ago, it appeared on a list of "Russian Propaganda Sites" that got cited by mainstream media.

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Populism in America: “Follow the Money”

2016-12-08

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2016-12-08

Shares of Gross Domestic Income
If you want to understand today's populism, don't look to the mainstream media's comically buffoonish propaganda blaming the Russians: look at the four issues listed below. One of the most disturbing failures of the mainstream media in this election cycle was its complete lack of historical context for Trump's brand of populism.If you consumed the mainstream media's coverage of the campaign and election, you noted their obsession with speech acts...

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Our “Gaslight” Economy

2016-12-07

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2016-12-07

Civilian Unemployment Rate
If you don't like what these charts are saying, please notify The Washington Post to add the St. Louis Federal Reserve to its list of Russian propaganda sites. Yesterday I described our gaslight financial system. Today we'll look at our gaslight economy. Correspondent Jason H. alerted me to the work of author Thomas Sheridan ( Puzzling People: The Labyrinth of the Psychopath), who claims to have coined the term gaslighting.

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Beyond Income Inequality

2016-12-03

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2016-12-03

US Household Wealth
Judging by the mainstream media, the most pressing problems facing capitalism are 1) income inequality, the basis of Thomas Piketty’s bestseller Capital in the Twenty First Century, and 2) the failure of laissez-faire markets to regulate their excesses, a common critique encapsulated by Paul Craig Roberts’ recent book and 2) the failure of laissez-faire markets to regulate their excesses, a common critique encapsulated by Paul Craig Roberts’ recent...

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