10.01.22- Mortgage rates could soon top 7%
as Fed fights inflation
Megan Henney

The average interest rate on the most popular U.S. home loan could soon climb above 7%, hitting the highest level since the early 2000s, according to Bank of America strategists.

In an analyst note obtained by FOX Business, the bank's economists predicted that borrowing costs will continue rising as a result of the Federal Reserve's war on inflation and a worsening housing shortage. Read More

09.30.22- Global Financial Storm
of Epic Proportions
Egon von Greyerz

As the dark years are approaching, the world is now approaching survival mode. Admittedly, if you go to a high class restaurant in New York, London or Zurich,  there are no signs of misery but instead of incredible affluence.

What is happening to middle America or England has not yet reached Wall Street or the City of London where exquisite food is plenty and excellent wines are flowing. Read More

09.29.22- How Europe’s Energy Disaster Will Cripple the U.S. Economy
Brandon Smith

Though the situation is ever changing, currently the Russian government has announced an official shutdown of all natural gas exports to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and plans to maintain the shutdown until the EU ends its economic sanctions over the war in Ukraine. This means that around 40% of Europe’s energy resources are now gone, with supply chain issues surrounding the other 60% and prices skyrocketing for households and businesses. Read More

09.28.22- The Good, The Bad, & The GoodBad
Peter Tchir

Another morning of overnight volatility and the 30-year gilt moving 50 bps (in the “right” direction this time). 

The markets moved at least twice overnight in response to “intervention” news. 

Gilts bounced on news from the BOE that they will buy as many long-dated bonds as needed to calm the market. Maybe that is why we got QE rather than an emergency 100 bp hike? Now we are back to easier money rather than tighter money, yet it is helping. Hence the term GoodBad.  Read More

09.27.22- How Far Could Stocks Fall?
James Rickards

The stock market was down again today, the exchanges beginning where they left off last week. But it’s the larger trend that’s really disconcerting.

Investors don’t need to be told about the stock market collapse in recent months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down over 20% since January. The S&P 500 is down 23% since January. And the Nasdaq Composite is down 32% since its all-time high last November. Read More

09.26.22- “Joe Biden’s” Last Stand
James Howard Kunstler

That thing that many of you have worried about, and some of you have prepared for — well, it’s here. We’re in it now.

Historians of the future, grilling spatchcocked plovers over their campfires, will need not ponder for even a New York minute who started World War Three in the rockin’ 2020s. They will point straight to the waxy, furtive, larval figure known as “Joe Biden,” by then judged a moral weevil of such epic low degree that he became an embarrassment to all the other sewer-dwelling denizens of the dank DC underworld, including the roaches, the rats, the humble shipworms eating through sunk oaken foundations of buildings long forgotten, the writhing maggots rinsed from a thousand restaurant dumpsters, the slithering hellgrammites, millipedes, silverfish, pillbugs, termites, dung-beetles, woodlice, and, not least, the scaly lawyers spawned out of the infestation beneath K Street. Even these would loathe and disdain the thing that came into this world as “Joe Biden.” Read More

09.24.22- They Know That They Are Killing The Economy, But They Are Doing It Anyway…
Michael Snyder

They know exactly what they are doing.  The “experts” that run the Federal Reserve know that if they dramatically hike interest rates it will cause countless American workers to lose their jobs and it will absolutely crush the housing market.  And even though those two things are already starting to happen, they just announced another massive rate hike.  If there was a school for central bankers, one of the very first things that they would teach you is that you should never, ever raise rates as an economy is plunging into a recession.  Every Fed official knows what has happened in the past when rates have been hiked at the beginning of an economic slowdown, but they are doing it anyway. Read More

09.23.22- Are Stocks Cheap Again?
Brian Maher

The stock market has taken a good cowhiding this year under the Federal Reserve’s pitiless onslaughts.

The Dow Jones has hemorrhaged some 6,500 points year to date. Both S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have absorbed similar blasts — on a percent basis.

Trillions in stock market wealth have vanished into the great nothingness… whence it sprung. Read More

09.22.22- Central Bankers Are Gaslighting Us About The "Strong Dollar"
Ryan McMaken

On February 8, the Japanese yen fell to a 24-year low against the dollar, dropping to 143 yen per dollar. Not much has changed since then with the yen hovering between 142 and 144 per dollar. In September of 2021, one only needed 109 yen to buy a dollar. 

Overall, the yen has dropped 21 percent against the dollar over the past year, yet Japan's central bank apparently has no plans to change course. Nor should we expect it to do so.  Japan's debt load has become so immense that any attempt to raise interest rates or otherwise tighten monetary conditions would prove extraordinarily painful.  So, it's no surprise the BOJ is now positioned to become the world's last central bank clinging to negative interest rates.  Read More

09.21.22- Economic Collapse Has Arrived In Germany. Will The U.S. Be Close Behind?
Michael Snyder

Things are starting to get really crazy in Germany.  The Germans are dealing with the worst inflation crisis that they have seen since the days of the Weimar Republic, and meanwhile economic activity is starting to shut down all over the nation.  Of course other European countries are facing similar problems, but Germany was supposed to be the economic rock that the rest of Europe could always depend upon.  Unfortunately, the decision by the Russians to cut off the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is hitting Germany extremely hard.  If we could just get both sides to agree to end the war in Ukraine, that would greatly help matters, but that simply isn’t going to happen. Read More

09.20.22- This is the Single Worst Thing That Could Happen to Stocks Right Now!
Graham Summers

Treasury bond yields are rising again. 

And this is really bad news for stocks.

Why?

Because these bonds are the bedrock of our current financial system. They are the senior most asset class and the yields on these bonds represent the “risk free” rate of return against which all risk assets (including stocks) are priced. Read More

09.19.22- Strike, Strike, Strike
Chris Hedges

The mounting social inequality is fueling protests around the globe. The global ruling class is determined to prevent these protests from employing the weapon that can bring them down — strikes.

The ruling oligarchs are terrified that, for tens of millions of people, the economic dislocation caused by inflation, stagnant wages, austerity, the pandemic and the energy crisis is becoming unendurable.  They warn, as Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and NATO Secretary GeneraJens Stoltenberg, have done, about the potential for social unrest, especially as we head towards winter. Read More

09.17.22- No Matter What You Call It, Storm Clouds Ahead
Dennis Miller

Academics have their code words when times get tough. Do we have high inflation? Are we in a recession, depression, or stagflation?

Few people care what they call it, other than politicians who want to blame their political enemies and avoid responsibility. Both the disease and cure hurt people economically. Read More

09.16.22- "Yesterday's CPI Showed Why Nearly All People Who Pretend They Know What Is Going On Really Have No Clue"
Michael Every

Yesterday’s US CPI report was one of those market-moving blockbusters that underline why nearly all the people who like to pretend they know what is going on really have no clue. I include myself in that group too for having been swept away by the trend expecting a weak inflation number for August on the back of lower gasoline prices – though in my defense I have been warning “not transitory” for over a year, and yesterday specifically flagged that US CPI was only going back to 2% again in magical DSGE models, not real life. Read More

09.15.22- The Housing Market Continues To Crater
Dave Kranzler

The following commentary is an excerpt from the latest issue of my Short Seller’s Journal. In addition to my analysis, I provide my subscribers with specific short ideas, including the use of options. In the housing sector, my recent home run short ideas include Zillow $Z, Opendoor Technologies $OPEN and Anywhere Real Estate $HOUS (formerly Realogy), among others. Read More

Just Like In September 2008, Many Investors Fear That A Dangerous Chain Reaction Is Starting On Wall Street
Michael Snyder

Do you remember the panic that swept through Wall Street in September 2008?  Well, a lot of people believe that it is starting to happen again.  And once selling starts to spiral out of control, it is going to be incredibly difficult to stop.  On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,276 points.  That was the seventh biggest single day decline in history, and on a point basis it was actually larger than anything that we witnessed back in 2008.  Investors were bitterly disappointed by the monthly inflation report, because it showed that everything that the Fed has done so far has not worked.  It appears to be inevitable that the Fed will continue to raise interest rates in a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, and that has put Wall Street in a very sour mood. Read More

09.13.22- Bear Traps' Highest Conviction Trade: A Perfect Storm Is About To Hammer The Dollar
Tyler Durden

At a time when Wall Street is stuck in a furious debate with itself whether or not the Fed will pivot because inflation this or that, we recently proposed on Sept 1 an alternative theory: the coming Fed pivot will come not because an "inflation target has been hit" (it won't be for quite a while, especially since US unemployment will need to rise by over 4 million to contain inflation, a political unpalatable outcome), but because the dollar is soaring, and recently hit almost daily all time highs. As such we suggested that the Fed pivot will come not because of inflation but due to "devastation across the ROW." Read More

09.12.22- Why This Recession Is Different
Charles Hugh Smith

All of these are structural dynamics that won't go away in a few months or years.

Let's explore what's different now compared to recessions of the past 60 years.

1. Deglobalization is inflationary. Offshoring production to low-cost countries imported deflation (product prices remained flat or declined) and boosted corporate profits. Read More

09.10.22- Boots-on-the-Ground Observations by 21 Home Builders about the Housing Market They’re Facing
Wolf Richter

#Phoenix builder: “The positive is there’s light at the end of the tunnel for improving build cycle times. The negative is there won’t be customers on the other side of said tunnel.”

We’ve seen the data from the Census Bureau about the downturn in the market for new houses: surging inventories – 11 months’ supply in July, highest since the worst days of Housing Bust 1 – exploding construction costs that home builders are facing, though some of those cost spikes are now abating; and plunging sales (-30% across the US, -50% in the West). Read More

09.09.22- How Europe’s Energy Disaster Will Cripple the U.S. Economy
Brandon Smith

Though the situation is ever changing, currently the Russian government has announced an official shutdown of all natural gas exports to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and plans to maintain the shutdown until the EU ends its economic sanctions over the war in Ukraine. This means that around 40% of Europe’s energy resources are now gone, with supply chain issues surrounding the other 60% and prices skyrocketing for households and businesses. Read More

09.08.22- FORCE MAJEURE: Massive global shutdowns are now under way for METALS SMELTING operations covering iron, copper, nickel, aluminum, zinc and STEEL
Mike Adams

Without metals and industrial elements — steel, copper, aluminum, iron ore, nickel, zinc, titanium, etc. — human civilization cannot exist. Nearly all manufacturing is dependent on metals for industrial processes. Even plastics cannot be made without metals for the injection molding, and aluminum and copper are required for all electrical systems, both commercial and residential. Read More

09.07.22- Biden’s executive order
a direct threat to the dollar
Matt Insley

On March 9, 2022, President Biden quietly signed Executive Order 14067.

Buried inside this order is a sinister provision that could give the government unprecedented control over your money and freedom.

In fact, this provision sets the stage for:

• Legal government surveillance of all US citizens
• Total control over your bank accounts and purchases
• And the ability to silence all dissenting voices for good Read More

09.06.22- Are Stocks About to Crash
Graham Summers, MBA

As I warned yesterday, the next crisis is just around the corner.

By quick way of review…

1) The Fed takes its cues on where rates need to be from the yield on the 2-Year U.S. Treasury.

2) Throughout the first half of 2022, the yield on the 2-Year U.S. Treasury has spiked, resulting in the Fed being WAAAAAY behind the curve in terms of inflation.

3) Only once the Fed began raising rates by 0.75% did the yield on the 2-Year U.S. Treasury begin to stabilize. Read More

09.05.22- 12 Numbers That Show That We Are Getting Dangerously Close To An Economic Crash As The Fall Of 2022 Approaches
Michael Snyder

You have heard me say it over and over again.  What we are witnessing right now reminds me so much of 2008, and we all remember what happened in the fall of 2008.  That doesn’t mean that this new crisis will unfold exactly the same way that the last one did.  Ultimately, every economic downturn is unique.  But the fact that we are seeing so many parallels between what is transpiring now and what transpired 14 years ago should deeply alarm all of us.  We appear to be on the precipice of another economic crash, and all of the “solutions” that our leaders give us just seem to make things even worse. Read More

09.03.22- This new Renaissance can fuel human prosperity for decades to come
Simon Black

The year 1776 is legendary for precisely one thing: the Declaration of Independence.

But 1776 was actually a REALLY big year. Because in addition to the formation of the United States (which undoubtedly had an extraordinary impact on the course of the world), 1776 also saw two other historic trends take shape.

The first was the birth of capitalism. Read More

09.02.22- The Stock Market’s Worst Month
Brian Maher 

The canine days of August are clearing out, beach sand through the hourglass. Tomorrow the calendar furls to September.

Many consider September a snoozing month of market peace before dreaded October.

They will remind you that the market’s most violent cataclysms — the Panic of 1907, the Crash of 1929, “Black Monday” 1987 — all came barreling through in October. Read More

09.01.22- The Stock Market Rout
Has Only Just Begun
Bill Blain

“The thieves, they love a siege. Soon as the gates are sealed, they steal all the food. By the time it’s all over, they’re the richest men in town.”

Harry Hindsight is the greatest trader who ever lived. He saw the July/August rally was just a bear trap. But, he’s not revealing his thoughts on how much further the market has to correct. Some analysts see mean reversion all the way back to 2008 levels! Read More

08.31.22- Some clear thinking about Stagflation
Simon Black

Let’s not mince words: stagflation is here. Let’s also not overreact: the world is not coming to an end. And, like all things, there are both risks and rewards that will arise.

First, what do we know?

Historically high inflation is obvious. Plus many major economies around the world are already sputtering. Read More

08.30.22- Current System Close To Collapse: Banking Crisis One Month Away?
Alasdair Macleod

Tom welcomes back Alasdair Macleod to the show. Alasdair is the Head of Research for GoldMoney and an advocate for sound money.

Alasdair prefers to focus on the big picture for gold and the economy. We are nearing a bank credit contraction, which will be severe. GDP is the measure of total bank credit in an economy. He believes a banking crisis is coming quite soon, perhaps only a month or two away. Read More

08.29.22- Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater just predicted another 20% to 25% drop for the markets — here’s what the asset manager still holds for shockproofing
Jing Pan

Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater just predicted another 20% to 25% drop for the markets — here’s what the asset manager still holds for shockproofing. Read More

08.27.22- Meme Investors Speechless as Their Usual Tricks Fail Spectacularly
Peter Reagan

During my career, I’ve watched three speculative financial bubbles inflate, and two of them pop (the dot-com bubble, the 2007-08 housing bobble and today’s Everything Bubble).

These bouts of “irrational exuberance,” to use Robert Shiller’s trenchant description, are remarkably similar. They follow well-established patterns. Yet somehow people delude themselves with what Sir John Templeton called “the four most costly words in the annals of investing.” Read More

08.26.22- The "Big Short" Michael Burry Liquidates Entire Portfolio, Holds Just One Stock At End Of Q2
Tyler Durden

At least the Big Short puts his money where his mouth is... or rather pulls his money as the case may be.

After blasting the latest stock market meltup as "silliness" and claiming - correctly - that the US economy is facing a gruesome crash in tweets which he then promptly deletes (conveinetly, another accounts snapshots his tweets for posterity)... Read More

08.25.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: The Illuminati and the House of Rothschild
Johnny Silver Bear

Editors note: This forward is taken from my essay, Boiling Frogs. In that essay, I attempt to explore the history of the Dark Side prior to the seventeenth century. Among the vilest of the Dark Side (in my humble opinion) are the Money Changers. The Money Changers have always been the members of society that create, exchange and manipulate the quantity of money. I'm not talking about the hard working prospectors and miners, through whose toil the quantity of gold and silver was increased, but rather a group of imbalanced predators who employed dishonesty and deceit to ply their trades. Read More

08.24.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: The Fading Smile of a Dying Empire
Jim Quinn

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.” – Edward Gibbon

“Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.” – William Shakespeare, Richard II

We moved to our corner of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania twenty-seven years ago. We raised our three boys here. We spent hundreds of hours on local baseball fields, in hockey rinks, in school gyms for basketball games, concerts, plays and donuts-with-dads. It’s still a nice place to live, with virtually no crime, decent roads, and reasonable property tax rates. Read More

08.23.22- The Layoff Tsunami Has Begun: 50% Of U.S. Companies Plan To Eliminate Jobs Within The Next 12 Months
Michael Snyder

If half of the firms in the entire country really do cut jobs over the next year, what will our economy look like afterwards?  All over America, companies are anticipating that a major economic downturn is coming in 2023, and a lot of them are already planning to shed workers in order to cut costs.  Of course this sounds so much like what we went through back in 2008 and 2009.  Millions of Americans lost their jobs during the “Great Recession”, and it was truly a very dark time in our history.  So are we right on the verge of seeing a repeat?

Let hope that isn’t the case. Read More

08.22.22- Will the US Dollar Weaken
against Other Currencies?
Frank Shostak

In the July 26 Financial Times article entitled “Is the Dollar about to Take a Turn?,” Barry Eichengreen writes that the US dollar has had a spectacular run, having risen more than 10 percent against other major currencies since the start of the year. According to Eichengreen, the key reason behind the spectacular strengthening in the US Dollar is that the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates faster than other big central banks, drawing capital flows toward the US. Read More

08.20.22- The Dangerous Assumption Embedded In Today's P/E Ratios
Jesse Felder

Many investors like to use price-to-earnings ratios as a short-hand valuation tool for both individual equities and the broad stock market. Most of the time this can be useful but there are also times when it can be very misleading. Typically, those times are at the top or the bottom of the earnings cycle.

When earnings are unduly depressed due to recession or are over-inflated due to opposite economic circumstances, the denominator in the ratio is no longer representative of sustainable earnings potential. As a result the metric itself appears dramatically elevated at the bottom of the cycle or somewhat depressed at the top of the cycle, sending a false signal regarding value. Read More

08.19.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: I Heard a Silly Rumor – This Is the End
Phil Butler

The end of civilization as we know it is at hand. Why more experts have not seized on the reality facing us is perplexing. It came to me like a bolt, the reason the current world order is pushing so hard for nuclear confrontation. The answer is right in front of us. Nuclear Winter.

I don’t need to rehash the craziness and diabolical machinations that have gone on over the past few years. The pandemic, the societal brain blistering that has caused, the lead-up proxy wars, ISIS, crazy presidents, pedophilia, and child sex changes, the Lolita Express, Hunter Biden, Ukraine. And, what about the very real problem of climate change, put into the brainwash blender so average Joe or Judy won’t know up from down? Then there's Bill Gates, population control, and one of Epstein’s chums owning most of America’s farmland. What about that? Read More

08.18.22- An Autum With Epic Collapses of Stocks, Debt, Currencies, Much Higher Inflation - Leading to Poverty & Social Unrest
Egon Von Greyerz

The world economy and especially the political and economic situation today consists of a potpourri of lethal ingredients which will have dire consequences.

Let’s look at what this deadly potion consists of:

• Debts at levels that can never be repaid – sovereign, corporate & private
• Epic global bubbles in stocks, bonds & property – all about to collapse
• Major geopolitical conflicts with no desire for peace – major wars likely Read More

08.17.22- Welcome to the World of Bankster Magic Where We Shall Have “Weather Followed by More of the Same Unless it Changes.”
David Haggith

At the start of the year he said we were entering the “strongest economy” he had ever seen. Then he said he saw storm clouds. Then he said his storm-cloud forecast might have been underestimating the calamity coming upon us because we were likely facing an economic “hurricane.” Now we’re back to “storm clouds” and a “strong economy.” JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, goes wherever the wind blows that particular day. Read More

08.16.22- "It's Time To Fasten Our Seat Belts"
Michael Every

"It's time for all of us to fasten our seat belts"

It’s hard to disagree with the above sentiment from multiple angles. What else is there to do about the ongoing shift from developed to emerging market norms in the West?

• In society, a famous writer is violently attacked… to shrugs rather than hugs from large parts of literary society; and Twitter --always happy to deplatform people at the drop of a hat-- allows follow-on gloating and death threats to other authors. Read More

08.15.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Ron Paul Says Abolish the FBI, Don’t Just Review and Reform It
Adam Dick

08.13.22- Geico Abruptly Shuts Down Every Office in California, Sparking Concern
Matthew Holloway

Across California, Geico customers suddenly found their local offices shuttered on Aug. 2.

Doors locked. Lights out. Some were found with a hand-written note on the door stating that the local insurance offices had closed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“I’d be worried about it if they’re closing or if all the insurance are going to close or is a recession coming or what is it?” customer Angelina Barron, who saw such a sign, told KXTV-TV in Sacramento. Read More

08.12.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Kari Lake, AZ candidate for governor, has the right idea
Jon Rappoport

Kari was fuming after the Feds raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. And she launched a statement about that. Yup. OK. Fine. But it’s how she moved on from the subject of Trump that really interests me.

Here’s her blast:

“This is one of the darkest days in American history: the day our Government, originally created by the people, turned against us. This illegitimate, corrupt Regime hates America and has weaponized the entirety of the Federal Government to take down President Donald Trump. Our Government is rotten to the core. Read More

08.11.22- The American Gestapo a.k.a. FBI
Paul Craig Roberts

What kind of Justice Department official would sign off on a FBI raid on a former US president’s home when the president is fully cooperating with the spurious “investigation” of him?

What kind of judge would issue the warrant and then hide it from view by sealing it?

What kind of FBI agent would invade a president’s home instead of resigning over the assignment? Read More

08.10.22- Why Inflation Could Last Years
Jeffrey Tucker

When inflation started clobbering producers and consumers last year, the general feeling in the air was: This won’t last long. After all, everyone in a position to know promised it was all transitory. Just one of those things that comes and goes before life gets back to normal.

Gradually, we’ve come to see the light. There will be no rolling back those price increases in general. There will be declines in the pace of increase here or there but overall prices have shifted upward, permanently. Read More

08.09.22- Are Older Workers Propping Up
The US Economy?
Charles Hugh Smith

Are 55 and older workers propping up the U.S. economy? The data is rather persuasive that the answer is yes.

The chart of U.S. employment ages 25 to 54 years of age and 55 and older reveals a startling change.

There are now 20 million more 55+ employed than there were in 2000, an equivalent of the entire workforce of Spain. 

This unprecedented demographic / employment transition is worth a closer look. Read More

08.08.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Four ways the “experts” have proven that they are insane this week
Simon Black

There’s an old saying that people often misattribute to Albert Einstein-- that ‘the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.’

The saying has become a bit of a cliché, but there is actually some truth to it. Read More

08.06.22- Here Is What Stagflation Looks Like
David Stockman

Yes, we have some stagflation. Subsequent to the pre-Covid peak in Q4 2019, real final sales of domestic product have slowed to a crawl, rising by just 0.73% per annum during the last 2.5 years.

We much prefer this measure over real GDP because it removes the abrupt inventory swings from quarter to quarter, which can have out-sized impacts on the headline number. Thus the reported back-to-back real GDP contraction was owing to inventory liquidation, not an actual shrinkage of current activity. Read More

08.05.22- "It Only Hurts When I Laugh"
Michael Every

Minister: Good morning. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, but I'm afraid my walk has become rather sillier recently, and so it takes me rather longer to get to work. Now then, what was it again? 

Mr. Pudey: Well sir, I have a silly walk and I'd like to obtain a government grant to help me develop it.  Read More

08.04.22- How America’s Economy Was Destroyed
Paul Craig Roberts

(Editor's Note: In order to solve a problem, you must first determine that there is a problem. Secondly you must determine the cause of the problem and, thirdly, you must eliminate that cause. Consequently, the bulk of Americans are sheeple and prefer to turn a blind eye on the problems. As a result, the problems compound and eventually become ingrained in the fabric of our nation. Lyndon Johnson was, perhaps, the most corrupt and malevolent politicians in the history of the Republic. To review some of my research on Johnson, please follow this link, and scroll down to Slimeball Politicians -JSB)

In 1945 the United States emerged from a world war with the only intact industrial economy in the world.  The British, European, Soviet, and Japanese economies were in ruins.  China and the rest of Asia, Africa, and South America had undeveloped economies, later renamed third world economies. Read More

08.03.22- Office Space Market Faces "Economic Downturn" Due To Perfect Storm Of Factors
Tyler Durden

More than two years after the virus pandemic upended the world of work, signs of distress in commercial real estate markets are emerging. The world is transitioning from an artificial landscape of ultra-accommodative monetary and fiscal stimuli that inflated returns to an environment where the federal government and the Federal Reserve tighten financial conditions. Given work from home has become a more permanent feature of the labor market and the souring macroeconomic backdrop, commercial real estate may be on the brink of a downturn. Read More

08.02.22- Rising Financial And Economic Uncertainty: Watch Big Pension Funds
Dave Kranzler

After a decade of deranged monetary policies that ultimately amplified speculation beyond 1929 and 2000 extremes, we are so far from “normal’ that arriving anywhere near that neighborhood will be a journey. The recent market decline has simply retraced the frothiest portion of the recent bubble, bringing the most reliable market valuation measures back toward their 1929 and 2000 extremes – John Hussman, Hussman Funds Read More

08.01.22- The Government Runs the Ultimate Racket
Gary Galles

"Seniors hurt in Ponzi scam" headlined the story of elderly Southern Californians bilked in a pyramid scheme. While sad, the story reminded me of Social Security, since it is also a Ponzi scheme involving those older, with high payoffs to early recipients coming from pockets of later participants. With Social Security, however, it benefits those older at others' expense. Read More

07.30.22- Weekend Rant: Stop Saying the U.S. Dollar Is Strong, ‘It’s a Lie’; China on Track
To Become Reserve Currency
Mark Yusko

View Video

07.29.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Fmr. Greenpeace President Dr. Patrick Moore Says the Elites Have a 'Suicide Pact' to Reduce the World's Population
Chief Nerd

View Video

07.28.22- No, The Economy Will NOT Be OK
Karl Denninger 

No, this is not transitory.

And since we're headed for political season let me remind you of the sordid tale that led us here.

We elected Donald Trump as President. Donald Trump deliberately, from his first day, pushed "easy money" policies that were in fact how he levered his real estate empire to "success."  Easy money policies are a scam, but a very easy to run scam that appears to be "great" for a while. The reason is simple.Read More

07.27.22- An Apocalypse Upon Us: How much more can we take?
David Haggith

Trade wars, crashing stocks, bond blowouts, global recessions, rapidly plunging corporate earnings, the start of firings, a global energy crisis, collapsing cryptos, sliding housing markets, Covid, monkeypox, worldwide quarantines, government-mandated job terminations over forced experimental vaccines, soaring inflation, worldwide shortages, multinational involvement in a hot European-Russian war, sanctions, record heat waves, widespread, droughts, brownouts, blackouts, and burnouts, famines, political riots on the US Capitol steps, riots on the steps of other capitals under revolt, and racial riots in the streets. How much can we take? Read More

07.26.22- The Wrecking Crew Will Be Overcome
James Howard Kunstler

In keeping with the principles of mass formation psychosis, the maliciously insane people in charge of national affairs will expect you to swallow ever-greater absurdities to maintain their control (and protect themselves).

We stumble into the horse latitudes of summer feeling trapped in the stillness. The heat disorders minds — and these are minds already scrambled by official propaganda. We are this close to a general recognition that the Covid vaccines were a deadly scam, even while Rochelle Walensky of the CDC keeps pushing boosters on TV and the entire public health bureaucracy stands by silently behind this murderous fakery. When their trials finally come, will they plea that they just didn’t know? How is that possible? (It’s not.) Read More

07.25.22- A Flood Of Repossessed Vehicles Poised To Hit The Used-Car Market
Mike Shedlock

Now is one of the worst times ever to buy a car. Wait six months or a year and things will be different.

Auto Loan Bubble About to Burst

A pair of excellent Tweet threads explain what is happening with car prices and pending repossessions.  Read More

07.23.22- Do Fed Rate Decisions Affect The Price Patterns For Gold & Silver?
Chris Vermeulen

Many traders are focused on Gold as price has contracted over the past 5+ weeks, and the $1700 level is being retested. This prompted my team and I to do some research related to the US Federal Reserve’s recent rate increases and how Gold has previously reacted to rising and falling interest rates. Read More

07.22.22- Markets and Black Swans
Jim Rickards

I began studying complexity theory as a consequence of my involvement with Long Term Capital Management, LTCM, the hedge fund that collapsed in 1998 after derivatives trading strategies went catastrophically wrong.

After the collapse and subsequent rescue, I chatted with one of the LTCM partners who ran the firm about what went wrong. I was familiar with markets and trading strategies, but I was not expert in the highly technical applied mathematics that the management committee used to devise its strategies. Read More

07.21.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Former Clinton Advisor Says Hillary Is Preparing To Run Again In 2024
Paul Joseph Watson

A former top advisor to Bill Clinton claims that Joe Biden will be forced to step aside and be replaced by Hillary, who is preparing to run again for president in 2024.

No, not again!

The prediction was made by Dick Morris, who ran Bill Clinton’s successful re-election campaign in 1996 and was once touted as Clinton’s most influential advisor.  Read More

07.20.22- Russian gas cuts threaten to shutter Germany industry
Patrick Foy

(Editor's Note: The dominoes are beginning to fall - JSB)

I was lucky tonight. He had a gun, but I had a tire iron.—Phillip Marlowe, 1958

I woke up in Munich with a headache this morning to see an alarming item in the Financial Times, reproduced below. The FT is not part of the underground press. It’s mainstream. Looks like Germany, and hence Europe, and hence the world, is in real trouble. Economic trouble due to Russia’s fisticuffs with Ukraine. Once again, I must say, “Thank you, Washington!” Read More

07.19.22- A Tale Of Two Dollars
Peter Schiff

The dollar has been on a tear in recent months. Just last week, the dollar index moved from 107 to 108 with an inter-week high of 109.3. The greenback also hit parity with the euro last week. The dollar is near a 20-year high compared to the European currency and a 24-year high against the Japanese yen. And yet we have a massive devaluing of the dollar domestically. Read More

07.18.22- Sri Lanka, Farmer Revolt, Energy Crisis
Doug Casey

View Video

07.16.22- National railway strike APPROVED by locomotive union… all trains in America may HALT this coming Monday
Ethan Huff

Some 57,000 rail workers across the United States are slated to walk off the job on July 18 in protest against low wages and poor working conditions.

According to reports, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted by a resounding margin of 99.5 percent to authorize a strike if such action becomes legal and “necessary to secure a contract worthy of their consideration.” Read More

07.15.22- Los Angeles port boss: Fix rail service or risk ‘nationwide logjam’
Greg Miller

Los Angeles imports down 5% year on year in June, Long Beach imports up 16%

The Port of Los Angeles released record results for June on Wednesday. Neighboring Port of Long Beach followed suit with its own records later in the day. Read More

07.14.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Origins of the New World Order:
Nazi, Germany
Dr. Joseph Farrell

View Video

07.13.22- Why Economic Collapse is Inevitable
Chris Martenson

Note:  This is the first half of a talk I presented at the recent Rebel Capitalist conference in Miami (June 24/25, 2022). The conference was amazing and this talk was very well received by the audience. I highly encourage anybody interested in economics, investing and/or finance to attend future Rebel Capitalist events!  The second half is reserved for paying members.

If you understand energy and its foundational role in making the economy happen, then you understand something that few others do. I’m not sure why this energy blindness exists, but it is as mysterious as it is widespread. Perhaps, the implications are just too profound for many people to really entertain? Read More

07.12.22- LoanDepot To Fire Another 2,000 Workers As Mortgage Market Implodes
Tyler Durden

It's only appropriate that one day after we reported that the "Housing Market Craters As Sales Get Canceled At The Highest Rate On Record" that the Biden housing crash claimed its latest victim, or rather 2,000 victims, as mortgage lender LoanDepot announced it would  would fire another 2,000 staff by the end of the year as the company downsizes “to align with rapidly changing market conditions.” The latest round of layoffs is part of the company's plan to reduce staff to 6,500 by the end of 2022. Read More

07.11.22- Wen Bazooka?
Doomberg

“It's hard to punish and save the banks at the same time.” – Henry Paulson

After a frenzied weekend of tense and complex negotiations between senior leaders of the US government and the CEOs of the big Wall Street banks produced no viable alternative path for Lehman Brothers, the company filed for bankruptcy on Monday, September 15, 2008. The filing set off one of the most memorable weeks in the history of finance. Concurrent with the failure of Lehman was the forced sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, a move so rushed and dramatic it’s incredible to think it was the second most important headline on that fateful day. Read More

07.09.22- Weekend Rant: Failing states and strangled economies
Alasdair Macleod

Fickle markets have stopped worrying about inflation and begun to worry about recession. Both the financial establishment and investors seem incapable of understanding that it is not either one or the other, but both together. Read More

07.08.22- The Dollar Is a Victim of Its Own Success
James Rickards

America’s most powerful weapon of war does not shoot, fly or explode. It’s not a submarine, plane, tank or laser. America’s most powerful strategic weapon today is the dollar. The U.S. uses the dollar strategically to reward friends and punish enemies.

The use of the dollar as a weapon is not limited to trade wars and currency wars, although the dollar is used tactically in those disputes. The dollar is much more powerful than that. Read More

07.07.22- Central Bank Digital Currencies Are the Ultimate Tool of Financial Oppression
Brandon Smith

Currencies are the lifeblood of a nation’s trade and its economy. When a currency fails, the entire economy collapses.

Even so, most people rarely think about the health or buying power of the money in their pockets. They watch their bank balance, their brokerage or IRA balance and are aware of their home’s value. They see those numbers change, but they never reflect on the value of the currency itself.  Read More

07.06.22- The One Solution to All Our Problems
Charles Hugh Smith

Pick one, America: national security of the essential material foundation of everything, the industrial base, or "global markets," maximizing greed / corporate profits. 

Sorry about the clickbait title. We all know there isn't "one solution" to anything as complex as a socio-economic-cultural-political system. Read More

07.05.22- If Central Banks Do Not Tackle Inflation, Deflation Will Come from A Crisis
Daniel Lacalle

Most market participants have been surprised by the last six months. The total return of the US Treasury Index was the worst since 1788 according to Deutsche Bank.

Stocks closed June with one of the largest corrections since 2008. Bonds and equities are falling in unison, driven by rate hikes and normalization of monetary policy. Read More

07.04.22- Harry's Rant
Harry Dent Jr

View Video

07.02.22- Weekend Rant: Will This Recession Rival the Great Depression?
Peter Reagan

By the time you read this, the U.S. economy will likely be officially mired in what could be a long and deep recession.

Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood said Tuesday we’re already there

We think we are in a recession. We were wrong on one thing and that was inflation being as sustained as it has been. Read More

07.01.22- BIS To Allow Member Banks To Hold 1% Of Their Reserves In Bitcoin
Tyler Durden

It might seem like a rather odd move for the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to make after Bitcoin has lost around 60% of its value in only six months, but the globalist institution is now allowing member banks to hold 1% of their reserves in the cryptocurrency (around $1.8 trillion total).  Is this about recognition of Bitcoin as a viable trade mechanism, or is there an agenda afoot?  Read More

06.30.22- The 2022 Market Disaster...
More Pain To Come
Matthew Piepenburg

If you think the current market disaster hurts; it’s gonna get worse despite recent dead cat bounces in U.S. equities.

The Big 4: Dead Bonds, Rising Yields, Tanking Stocks & Stagflation

For well over a year before fantasy-pushers and politicized, central-bank mouth pieces like Powell and Yellen were preaching “transitory inflation,” or hinting that “we may never see another financial crisis in our lifetime,” we’ve been patiently and bluntly (rather than “gloomily”) warning investors of the “Big Four.” Read More

06.29.22- "It Is Possible - Even Probable - That The World System Will Shatter"
Michael Every

"and such small portions"

Another messy market day with bond yields down slightly, stocks by more, and oil up a lot. That was on the back of ugly US data, in particular consumer confidence expectations tumbling to 66.4, the lowest in years, and China reducing quarantine times from two to one week, which despite suggestions that Zero Covid will stay for five years(!), is a possible sign of opening up. The irony is that if China does, or stimulates, growth will pick up, commodity prices will go up, and the Fed will have to act more aggressively. The dollar had an up day, perhaps smelling that too. Read More

06.28.22- Your financial liability to your government is infinite
Simon Black

In the year 1255 AD, a prominent Italian businessman named Orlando Bonsignori launched a new venture that he boldly called the Gran Tavola, or “Great Table”.

Despite the name, it wasn’t a medieval furniture shop. Bonsignori came from a family of wealthy bankers who had highly influential political connections across Europe. And Bonsignori’s idea was to create the biggest bank on the continent that would cater specifically to kings, popes, and emperors. Read More

06.27.22- Dead Cat Bounce;
A New Reserve Currency
Dave Fairtex

The markets were mixed for most of the week. However on Friday, there was a bit of a surprise rally in equities. Financial Entertainment News thought the pop on Friday was due to this:

The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers said consumers expect inflation to rise at a 5.3% annualized rate as of the end of June. Read More

06.25.22- What’s Behind the Collapse of So Many Stocks Since Feb 2021?
Wolf Richter

This crash beneath the surface showed something had broken, that the magic had died, that hype and hoopla were suddenly unable to carry the day.

Stocks have been in a downward spiral for a while. The S&P 500 Index has dropped 23% from its high on January 3rd, the Nasdaq has dropped 33% from its high on November 22. Read More

06.24.22- Crashing Markets, Commodities, & What Happens Next
Doug Casey

International Man: In addition to stocks, it seems that almost every asset class is also crashing.

What’s your take on the markets, and where do you think it’s headed?

Doug Casey: Let’s take them in order of size and importance. Read More

06.23.22- The Inflation Solutions Are Even Worse Than The Problem
Michael Maharrey

As Americans labor under the burden of inflation, the Biden administration keeps telling us the economy is just fine. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently said we are “transitioning” to “steady and stable growth.” As a result, she claims the American people are in a place where they can “take on inflation.”

Americans aren’t buying it. In fact, they’re buying less of everything as rising prices squeeze their wallets. Consumer confidence has plunged to historically low levels. But as bad as things are, the worst could still be yet to come because the proposed solutions are worse than the problem. Read More

06.22.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Google Engineer Claims AI Computer Has Become Sentient
Doctor Joseph Mercola

According to Google engineer Blake Lemoine, a Google artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot application called LaMDA, short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, has achieved sentience, or independent self aware consciousness. LaMDA is a chatbot system based on advanced large language models that mimic human speech by analyzing text from the internet. Large language models can predict which word should come after another, based on context, for example. LaMDA technology is widely used in conversational search queries and auto-complete emails. Read More

06.21.22- Interview With
Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass
Becky Quick

Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Hayman Capital Management Founder and CIO Kyle Basswhich aired during CNBC’s “Financial Advisor Summit: Navigating Uncertainty” event today, Wednesday, June 15.

Becky Quick: First of all Kyle, I just want to say thank you for being here. It is great to see you today.

Kyle Bass: Great to see you too, Becky. Read More

06.20.22- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Russia’s New Rules
Tom Luongo

Russia is done with the West. The divorce is nearly complete. In the past few days we’ve heard from all major Russian leaders the same thing, “The West will play by our rules now.”

You can decide for yourselves whether Russia is writing checks they can’t cash, but in the words of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telling the BBC bluntly, “We do not care about the eyes of the West.” Lavrov has always been the soul of politeness and discretion when dealing with European media. Read More

06.18.22- Even after Admitting She Underestimated Inflation, Janet Yellen Still Doesn't Understand What It Is
Frank Shostak

According to the June 1, 2022, Financial Times, Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary conceded she was wrong last year about the path inflation would take. Yellen told CNN:

There have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn’t fully understand, but we recognize that now. Read More

06.17.22- A perfect storm in banking is brewing
Alasdair Macleod

Now that interest rates are rising with much further to go, the global banking system faces a crisis on a scale like no other in history. Central banks loaded with financial securities acquired through QE face growing losses, and their balance sheet liabilities are now significantly greater than their assets — a condition which in the private sector is termed bankruptcy. They will need to be recapitalised urgently to retain credibility. Read More

06.16.22- History is not on the side of the crypto’s grave dancers
Simon Black

On June 12, 1817 in the city of Mannheim, Germany, a local inventor by the name of Karl von Drais unveiled a brand new, futuristic invention he had just developed.

It was called a laufmaschine, or “running machine” in German. And it was essentially the world’s first bicycle.

There were no pedals, no seat, and no chain to connect the wheels; the rider basically had to propel the laufmaschine with his feet, then balance on it once achieving sufficient momentum. Read More

06.15.22- Surveys: Consumers are saving less and acquiring more debts due to inflation
Belle Carter

Multiple surveys reveal that consumers are saving less, depending on debts to stay away from financial troubles, and starting to lose confidence in the economy due to the out-of-hand price inflation these days.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis data shows that in April, the household savings rate went down to 4.4 percent from the 6.2 percent in March. This is the lowest rate since the 2008-2009 Great Recession. Read More

06.14.22- A Nightmare On Wall Street
Michael Snyder

This is bad.  This is really, really bad.  Investors loved the ride up, but now the Federal Reserve is helping to destroy the bubble that it once so eagerly created, and trillions of dollars in paper wealth is being wiped out in the process.  Unfortunately, our system is not really designed to handle this sort of carnage.  So many in the financial world live right on the edge, and when things go really, really bad the dominoes can start falling at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking.  We witnessed this back in 2008, and it could soon happen again. Read More

06.13.22- A Chaotic Tipping Point:
"We Are Spiralling Into Something Messy"
Bill Blain

“The tipping point is not a question of if, but when”

The number of threats facing markets; from inflation, central bank hikes, war, geopolitics, recession risks, corporate earnings and bond liquidity are legion. The big risk is they combine into a chaotic tipping point, at which moment we will just have to pick up the pieces…. Again. Read More

06.11.22- Weekend Rant: “Pay-to-Play”
for the Rest of Us
Charles Hugh Smith

The more kafkaesque quagmires you’ve slogged through, the more you hope “pay-to-play for the rest of us” becomes ubiquitous.

You know how “pay-to-play” works: contribute a couple of million dollars to key political players, and then get your tax break, subsidy, no-bid contract, etc., slipped into some nook or cranny of the legislative process that few (if any) will notice because the legislation is hundreds of pages long or a “gut and replace” magic wand was wielded at the last minute. Read More

06.10.22- We Are Hurtling Toward Stagflation
Michael Maharrey

There are a number of signals that the US economy is getting weaker even as inflation gets stronger.

In other words, we are hurtling toward stagflation.

Target announced plans to cancel orders from suppliers and slash prices to clear out amassed inventory. Why? Because consumers aren’t buying their stuff – particularly hardline goods such as clothing and home goods. Read More

06.09.22- Why Woke Corporations Will Go Broke
Doug Casey

International Man: There seems to be a concerted effort to blur the lines around gender. For instance, it’s now common for schools to introduce bizarre gender theories to prepubescent children.

What is going on here?

Doug Casey:The reports are so bizarre and crazy that you’d think that they were made up, but apparently, they’re not. Read More

06.08.22- When Money Dies
Craig Hemke

Back in the summer of 2011, many of us were reading about the Weimar Republic and its hyperinflationary downfall. A decade later, it's time to revisit the history.

The go-to book in the summer of 2011 was "When Money Dies” by Adam Fergusson. Originally published in 1975, Fergusson updated the text in 2010, and following the initial onslaught of debt monetization and QE1 and QE2, it became required reading. Read More

06.07.22- You Own Stocks, But….
Karl Denninger 

..... you don't really own them.

Let me explain.

Let's say I own shares of Boeing or GE.  This gives me the right to vote my shares.  That is, if I own shares in a public (or private for that matter) company, I have a right to representation -- I can vote at the annual meeting for, as an example, the board of directors.  I can also vote on shareholder proposals, which may include things like "DIE" (or DEI), ESG and similar. Read More

06.06.22- Don’t get too excited about the stock market’s recent rally. Some Wall Street experts say it could be a trap—and the bear market will still wreak havoc
Will Daniel

The stock market is suddenly looking up. Or is it?

Equities whipsawed throughout the month of May as investors contemplated falling economic growth projections and less-than-stellar earnings forecasts from retailers.

Despite the bearish news, ongoing volatility, and consistent predictions of an impending recession, the S&P 500 ended the month roughly unchanged after mounting a recovery over the last few weeks.Read More

06.04.22- Jamie Dimon Warns “Brace Yourself” for This “Economic Hurricane”
Peter Reagan

We’ve suggested many times that an economic “storm could be brewing” so that you could start or continue preparing for it.

Well, if Jamie Dimon (CEO of JP Morgan) is correct, it looks like we might have underestimated how bad things could get. According to a recent report on CNBC, Dimon predicts that something much worse is barreling toward our economy: Read More

06.03.22- Biden Sentences Struggling Americans to Even Worse Economic Hardships
Brandon Smith

One of the most detrimental aspects of an inflationary or stagflationary crisis is that, in most cases, housing costs tend to rise while home sales fall.

It might seem counterintuitive; one would assume that as sales fall so should prices, but this is the upside-down world of inflation. Certain commodities and products, usually necessities, almost always skyrocket in price, ultimately driving most American families out of the market completely. Read More

06.02.22- Now Even The Elite Are Openly Admitting That America Is Facing An Absolutely Enormous Economic Crisis
Michael Snyder

Not too long ago, the elite were trying to put a happy face on our growing economic problems.  It was obvious that things were trending in a very alarming direction, but they kept assuring us that any bumps in the road were just temporary and that a new golden age of prosperity was just around the corner.  Needless to say, there were dead wrong, and now some of them are publicly admitting the truth.  For example, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon just publicly stated that an economic “hurricane” is rapidly approaching…Read More

06.01.22- Teamsters, Car-Haulers Go Down To The Wire In Contract Talks
As Trucker Strike Looms
Mark Solomon

Car-hauling companies and the Teamsters union went down to the wire Tuesday to reach a collective bargaining agreement and avert a nationwide strike that could start as soon as a minute after midnight on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post late Monday night, lead negotiators of the Teamsters’ Carhaul division, meeting in Michigan, appeared optimistic that a contract could be agreed to by midnight Tuesday. Read More