Free Republic

This morning the CPI (Consumer Price Index) report came out and was higher than expected (Inflation stayed red-hot in May as CPI spiked 8.6% — highest since 1981). (Article by Stan Szymanski republished from EncouragingAngels.org) It is kind of like telling someone who is buried on the beach up to their neck in sand that the tide is coming in but not as fast as you think it is. Most of the food prices I see are up at least 15-33% from what I was used to paying. I know that the standard government numbers say that food inflation is...

There was a (very) brief period in which BofA’s Michael Hartnett – whom we long ago dubbed Wall Street’s biggest bear – turned ever slightly more bullish, when he told clients that while the bear market is far from over (recall he expects that to end some time in October with the S&P plunging down to 3,000) a powerful bear market rally had taken hold around the time we saw the biggest equity inflow in 10 weeks; even so, his advice to clients was simple: “fade all rallies.” All that’s over, and in his latest Flow Show note (available to...

As one who loves metaphor, I can’t help but notice the recent and varying range of metaphorical macro warnings. JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, for example, is now predicting a “market hurricane” ahead, which Peter Schiff has recently upgraded to a “Category 5.”Meanwhile, the always blunt Michael Burry has compared the trajectory of our market economy and macro warnings to “watching a plane crash.”In short, the bull vs. bear debate is behind us; even the TBTF banks are now openly alarmed. The Shark Fins ApproachIn fact, current macro warnings are more suggestive of a market shark rather than bear, and borrowing...

<p>As China faces a scenario of negative population growth, the government has started to force its citizens to marry early and have at least three children each. The administration has also begun rolling out various contests as bait, reported Geo Politica.</p>

The latest report on funding for social security benefits did not give a financially positive outlook for the future to federal lawmakers. Instead, a report by the Social Security Administration said benefits will cost more than the income collected to pay for it. By 2035, the SSA's Social Security Board of Trustees reported that the money in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds will be depleted, putting funds toward insolvency, meaning it is unable to pay its debts. Slightly sooner, SSA reported the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund would be empty by...

New Zealand tech CEO, Kim Dotcom did the math on the United States’ sovereign debt and he tweeted a thread about it, saying it may the most important thread that he may ever make. Kim explains that US spending and debt have spiraled out of control and the Government can only raise the money it needs by printing more of it, which means that hyperinflation is guaranteed. He says this has been going on for decades and there’s no way to fix it and that the US got away with this for so long, because US dollar is the world’s...

In a stunning miss, University of Michigan Sentiment collapsed in preliminary June data, crashing from 58.4 to 50.2 (massively below the 58.1 expectations). Source: BloombergThat is the lowest reading ever for UMich. Worst consumer confidence IN HISTORY pic.twitter.com/EW5UtBc1AY — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 10, 2022 Don’t worry though, ‘they’ are on it… *YELLEN: AMAZING HOW PESSIMISTIC HOUSEHOLDS ARE GIVEN JOB GAINS Maybe you should give them more stimmies to cheer them up? — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 9, 2022 Developing…

Amid the deluge of dire predictions that the human population will rise exponentially, deplete the earth’s resources, and overheat the planet, two recent demographic studies predict the opposite—that the number of people will peak within the next several decades and then begin a phase of steady, irreversible decline.In some places, including Japan, Russia, South Korea, and most countries in Europe, that population collapse has already begun. China is not far behind.The United Nations has predicted that humanity will continue its rapid expansion into the next century, growing from just under 8 billion today to more than 11 billion by 2100....

We have faced a lot of significant challenges in modern American history, but nobody will ever forget the economic horror that is breaking loose during Joe Biden’s time in the White House. For years, we were warned that the policies that our leaders were pursuing would destroy the value of our currency and unleash rampant inflation. Now it has happened. For years, we were warned of a looming global energy crisis that would inevitably hit us. Now it is here. But what we have been through already is just the beginning. The shortages that we are experiencing now will get...

Six months ago, state officials couldn’t have been happier as the U.S. Department of Transportation regularly announced billions of additional dollars that would be available for road and bridge projects. Now, with rampant inflation and problems getting basic materials like concrete and asphalt, especially for overnight work, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials say they are concerned that the federal windfall may not have nearly the benefit they expected. Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, PennDOT’s district executive for Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties, said last week that low bids for contracts have been coming in 10% to 20% higher than the department anticipated. Among...

The American empire is in a state of accelerating collapse, and there’s no turning it around. This once-great empire now cannot achieve the most basic of tasks that even isolated jungle tribes can still manage to do: feed their own babies. Somehow, with all the high-tech dazzle, iPhones, high-frequency Wall Street trading, electric vehicles, space rockets and all the rest, America still can’t figure out how to feed babies … something that ancient homo sapiens have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years. Even before the invention of the wheel, humanity’s ancestors knew how to feed their babies. They...

Rising prices are leading some retirees to think about heading back to work. According to a survey from ResumeBuilder.com, 1 out of 5 retirees say they are likely to start working again this year. Among that group, 69 percent cited the growing costs of living as their reason for resuming their careers. Faced with the highest inflation in decades, some retirees are reconsidering whether they left their jobs too soon. “There is no longer a retirement age, and people want to be engaged longer,” says Stacie Haller, a career consultant with ResumeBuilder. “Others are returning to the workplace for financial...

House of CardsThe data that got some heads, and markets, turning yesterday was US new home sales, which slumped 16.6% m-o-m and 26.9% y-o-y to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000 in April, the lowest level since April 2020. Economists had expected a figure of 748,000. Yes, this is always a very choppy series, but the drop was widespread: -5.9% in the Northeast, -15.1% in the Midwest, -19.8% in the South, and -13.8% in the West. That’s synchronicity which takes me back to a conversation I had with a Russian-American in mid-2006 when working at another bank, who explained...

The economy has gone from the ICU to the morgue. It was inevitable. There has been no shelling, no EMP, no invading army, no nuclear attack. Everything is more or less the same, but everything has changed so drastically. You feel like you are living in a parallel universe. Decadence is all around, and it came faster than people could imagine. Businesses, fabrics, commerce, and entertainment – everything is working. Stuff is being produced, sold, and serviced. Just not as before. The streets are dim, dirty – lacking conservation and maintenance. It’s a lot more unsafe to walk around, especially...

A little over a week ago, when looking at the latest consumer credit data from the Federal Reserve, we were shocked to learn that in March, credit card debt soared by a record $52.4 billion, the biggest monthly increase on record and more than double the expected change. Summarizing our views on this historic surge in credit-fueled purchases, we said that “while this unprecedented rush to buy everything on credit at a time when there were no notable Hallmark holidays should not come as much of a surprise, after all we have repeatedly shown that for the middle class any...

The realization is hitting home for many people that the crises now hitting the United States are not simply one-off events. The infant formula outage, rising fuel prices, supply chain collapse, authoritarian censorship and now a wave of mass shootings over the weekend — they all point to the systemic collapse of western society as a whole. We are watching the downfall of western civilization as we know it. The rule of law is dead. Elections are rigged. Free speech is disallowed and a criminally corrupt government now runs an actual Ministry of Truth “disinformation” board. “Science” is a total...

Americans are now entering uncharted, revolutionary territory. They may witness things over the next five months that once would have seemed unimaginable. Until the Ukrainian conflict, we had never witnessed a major land war inside Europe directly involving a nuclear power. In desperation, Russia’s impaired and unhinged leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin, now talks trash about the likelihood of nuclear war. A 79-year-old President Joe Biden bellows back that his war-losing nuclear adversary is a murderer, a war criminal, and a butcher who should be removed from power. After a year of politicizing the U.S. military and its self-induced catastrophe...

Wall Street's prolonged plunge is beginning to raise Americans' concerns about their retirement savings, potentially pushing some to delay retirement as their account balances dwindle. So far this year, the benchmark S&P 500 has dropped 18 percent, wiping away $7 trillion in market value from the companies in the index. The Dow Jones Industrial average is down nearly 14 percent. Bonds, the traditional safe-haven of those approaching retirement age, have also fared poorly amid high inflation and rising interest rates, with Vanguard's Total Bond Market Index Fund losing more than 9 percent since the start of the year. Since retirement...

HAH ALAM - An economic expert has warned some countries may face hyperinflation or out-of-control inflation where price of goods and services rise at an annual rate of 1,000 percent or more and urged for more discussions and negotaions are needed over the issue. Universiti Malaya Asia-Europe Institute Economic Professor Datuk Prof Dr Rajah Rasiah said this could lead to economic depression unless world leaders address the issues. “What we are facing now, in some countries, is that inflation is already here. “The stagnation would lead to rising unemployment and hyperinflation,” he said during Wacana English Edition on May 9....

US labor productivity tumbled by 7.5% in the first quarter of 2022 -- the largest decline in worker output per hour since 1947, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The report also showed that unit labor costs, or how much workers are paid per unit of output, surged by 11.6% during the quarter. That reflects a 3.2% increase in hourly compensation and a 7.5% decrease in productivity. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had projected a 5.4% decline in productivity and a 9.9% rise in labor costs. Thursday's data underscores the robust labor market, where competition for workers has pushed up...