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And Suddenly Things Change
Kunstler.com ^ | 5 Aug, 2024 | James Howard Kunstler

Posted on 08/05/2024 8:52:48 AM PDT by MtnClimber

“The global economy is becoming unburdened by what has been.” — Jordan Schachtel on “X”.

That two-by-four upside our country’s head you’ve been waiting to get whomped with? Looks like it’s landing now. We got a banger in 2008, but it didn’t make a much of an impression. Maybe you don’t even remember these people, but then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke came in like a code blue squad and hooked up the banks to an IV-drip speedball of cocaine and heroin, i.e., “money” that didn’t actually exist (a.k.a. “liquidity,” hallucinated capital), and that crew kept it coming for years.

And then Janet Yellen and her posse kept it coming with never-ending zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) until the national debt canceled America’s future. And that left Jerome Powell pretending there was a way out of this doom-loop. Then came the repo market spasm in September 2019 that freaked out the blob so badly they shut down the whole world with Covid and locked-down economies. And everything since then has been a waiting game. The financial world was in hospice.

The wait is over. Everything that can break is breaking: stock markets, bond markets, the galaxy of derivatives — bets on this and that, which will never be honored. Banks are next. Gold and silver are hanging in there for dear life just now, because they’re actually worth something. (And because they are worth something, they‘ll eventually sell off some too, to cover margin calls on other stuff hemorrhaging value. But they will not go to zero like a lot of other stuff, and they’ll come back stronger.)

You understand this can’t play out like it did in 2008-9. The authorities are out of tricks and out of fake money. They can try the emergency interest rate cut, but it won’t change what is actually happening: the epic revaluation of everything humans make and own — with much of it losing value and quite a bit losing all value because it never really had any. The spooky catch is that there will be an attempt in this wild and terrifying process, for certain devious, unprincipled parties to take possession of many things shaking loose — what remains of collateral. . . real things. . . commodities. . . facilities. . . properties. . . chattels. . . artworks. . . and, of course, whatever securities still have a relationship to realities of production.

This brings a sharp end to the current political sitcom, especially the situation of the Democratic Party. They will get blamed for the economic carnage left behind by the shattered money system. They lied about everything for years, every number, every index, every supposed “policy”.

Kamala Harris won’t be cackling her way out of this. It’s hard to see how she might remain the party’s nominee. She can’t even speak to the massive catalog of prior failures to govern our country coherently and effectively. And it’s equally hard to figure how “Joe Biden,” still presiding emptily over this fiasco, can get Twenty-fifthed out of the way for his feckless veep. More likely, the coming convention will be a desperate, bloody mass cage fight and somebody else will stagger out of it to go through the motions of campaigning in a hopeless cause. Hillary might even decline the roll in this horror show.

Now, I began writing this post well before dawn, eastern time. The action in Asia, across the international date line, was a slaughter. Europe got smacked hard, but not catastrophically......


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: bidendestroyseconomy; bidenomics; bidenrecession; economy; stockmarket
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To: Bellflower

Yes, some very good comments. Love this one!

“So just try to stay detached and remember it’s only a video game!”


21 posted on 08/05/2024 9:45:10 AM PDT by Indy Pendance (Jesus can't get here soon enough!)
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To: MtnClimber
“The global economy is becoming unburdened by what has been.” — Jordan Schachtel on “X”.

Perfect line. Team DJT should use that. How are those near zero interest rates working out now?

22 posted on 08/05/2024 9:51:12 AM PDT by CodeJockey (I'd like to change the world, but they won't give me the source code.)
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To: MtnClimber

First off, let’s set knunster straight...
Bernanke saved the country from a depression in ‘08.
The banks needed physical dollars on hand to pay people, otherwise banks would have closed, robbing everyone of their own money.
Period.
The problem is that 4 presidents later, the presses are still cranking out funny money.
Yes, 4 presidents...
bushie, fubo, President Trump and biteme all had the opportunity to stop this.
All of them chose not to.
Now, we all pay the price for the John Mcpain and his gang of howevermany liars loan fiasco.
Buckle up


23 posted on 08/05/2024 9:54:18 AM PDT by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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To: Billthedrill

If the crash happens before the election the ‘RATs will just say that society was terrified by Trump being a candidate for “Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Trumpy’s Revenge”.


24 posted on 08/05/2024 10:04:07 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

True enough. I’d bet good money that stories to that effect are already in the can at the NYT.


25 posted on 08/05/2024 10:06:42 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill

Isn’t it GREAT that we have such strong leaders and mental giants as P and VP? Other than being corrupt and ignorant politicians through their whole lives, what has either accomplished that is positive for US Citizens and America? That’s right...nothing. Government by sociopaths is not a good thing.


26 posted on 08/05/2024 11:16:46 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp??)
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To: xoxox

Pol Pot used the “unburdened by what has been”.
We may think the economy is in dire straits but many leftists like Harris think this is all part of the plan. You can’t make an omlet without breaking a few eggs.
Year Zero


27 posted on 08/05/2024 5:17:30 PM PDT by griswold3 ( Robespierre and Pol Pot were “unburdened by what has been” Harris the "Year Zero" candidate)
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