#a state of great trouble or suffering. Archives

“We Worry About Armed Conflict”: Investors Are Suddenly Freaking Out About Post-Election Violence

Earlier we reported that amid fears of election night chaos, the White House has been put on lockdown, and that according to NBC sources, beginning tomorrow, a “non-scalable” fence will be erected to secure the WH complex, Ellipse and Lafayette Square with 250 National Guardsmen on standby. It’s not just the White House that is…

Flying Blind: Clueless About Risk, We’re Speeding Toward Systemic Failure

For all these reasons, the risks of systemic collapse are much higher than commonly anticipated. There’s an irony in discussing risk: since we all have an instinctive reaction to visible risk, we think we understand it. But alas, we don’t, especially when the risk is invisible and systemic. We even misjudge extremely visible risk. People routinely die rushing…

USDA Crop Report Shocker Sends Corn Futures Surging

Chicago corn futures surged 8% in the last two sessions after a massive reduction to the U.S. government’s acreage estimate reported Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) crop report on Tuesday showed farmers planted 92 million acres of corn in 1H20, which was a huge miss in expectations and 5 million acres below the USDA’s March forecast of 97 million acres.…

COVID-Comeback Batters Big-Tech & Black Gold, Sparks Bond Bid

Just when you thought it was safe to buy any stock – selected at random via Scrabble letters – on any dip, with levered money you can’t afford to lose, COVID-19 reappears in size to steal the jam out of your donut. Last Friday saw surges in COVID cases across many states and news that…

Front-Month WTI Crude Crashes Below Zero For First Time Ever

Over the last several decades, have we ever seen a year start as strangely as 2020 has? Global weather patterns have gone completely nuts, large earthquakes are popping off like firecrackers, it looks like the plague of locusts in Africa could soon develop into the worst in modern history, and a massive plague of bats…

12 Signs That The Economy Is Seriously Slowing Down As 2020 Begins

Lost in all of the headlines about Iran and impeachment is the fact that the U.S. economic slowdown which began during the latter stages of last year appears to be accelerating. The final numbers which will tell us if we are officially in a recession at this moment won’t be released until months from now, but…

Congress gives America a special Christmas present: higher taxes

You’ve got to hand it to these people– Congress really knows how to bring out the holiday cheer. They have some sort of pathological need to pass the most absurd legislation at the VERY END OF THE YEAR giving people very little time to react. Two years ago, for example, they passed comprehensive tax reform…

Making A Fortune: 19 Million Public Employees Across America Cost Taxpayers Nearly $1 Trillion

For the first time in history, 19 million public employee salaries at every level of government across America have been mapped and posted online. The work of our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com tells a compelling story: Public service is supposed to be about serving the people. However, the good intentions of America’s 19 million public employees come…

Truth and Consequences

How can one write about the underlying truth of the economy in a nation where the majority of people do not care about truth? Disregard of truth has become so extreme in the US that we have exceeded the peculiarity of calling a man a woman if he wants to change his body parts, even…

Schiff On ‘The Bubble’: “It’s Only A Matter Of Time Before The Whole Thing Implodes”

Vioa SchiffGold.com, Everybody knows that the 2008 financial crisis was caused by “deregulation” and “greed,” right? Except that it wasn’t. A film titled The Bubble offers a non-partisan, critical examination of the policies and events that led to the biggest crash since World War II. Produced by Jimmy Morrison and co-written by Tom Woods, the film features a…