Category: Uncategorized

China Bracing . . .

. . . for Possible Sanctions.

Yes, they have possible moves. But so do the US and the Greater West. We’re now playing chess.

Or is it GO?

Topless in Nantucket

And as a matter of law based on GENDER EQUALITY.

Mmm, I wonder when gender equality will ENTITLE one to reequip oneself — USING TAXPAYER DOLLARS — with those MISSING BREASTS or a SURGICAL PENIS.  Or will we just start trading SEX PARTS like DERIVATIVES?

My only question is — CAN YOU STILL STARE?

Or will it be construed as VIOLENCE?

Let’s ask these two.  They look like EARLY ADOPTERS.

In Hudson

Stranded

The mind pleads empty,
Daylight dims,
A train pulls out
Without me.
It doesn't count,
I just arrived
And learned I'll
Have to wait.
I'll pace the platform,
Track my steps
And breathe this
Purer air.

The breeze has quickened,
Turned to wind,
My fingers note
The change.
My nose is dripping
Just a bit.
The pollen's
Nearly here.
I check my phone,
The Yanks won late,
They hit with
Men on base.

JAD, 2022
Gen Z

They say that they don't
Wish to work,
Preferring to pass
As attractive,
As men in name only
Addicted to games;
Or lay-about, stay-at-home
Wives.
Do they sleep with their
Apps and devices --
These avid consumers
Of digits unleashed?

McLuhan, for one,
Saw them looming:
Humans regressing
Towards atomized nodes
Conduits for digital
Flows;
Reality giddily 
Gutted in fits
As it fell for each 
Hyperreal pose.
Gen Z's horizons
Are streaming on screens.

JAD, 2022
Realization

I gather how it's
Come to this --
This third and final stage;
The need to muster patience;
To wait though disengaged.
What once seemed so
Substantial
Has thinned before my eyes,
Mocked by bland complacence
And certified my lies.

JAD, 2022

Potential Ban on Russian Tanker Insurance

There are many ways to wage ECONOMIC WARFARE and still claim you’re NOT at war.

Take the EU, which is considering a ban on Russia’s access to EUROPEAN INSURERS.

Russia has shipping loans, and if they can’t sell their oil because they can’t ship it because THEY CAN’T MANAGE THE VARIOUS RISKS INVOLVED, then they’ll have to SELL THEIR SHIPS.

Check out the tweet below which touches on the interplay between debt, demand destruction and potential loss of marine insurance.  It’s RUSSIA’S PERFECT STORM, complete with a ship fire-sale.

But wait!

If Russia CAN’T SHIP, from whom do its current consumers GET THEIR OIL?

And what does the resulting shortage DO TO OIL’S PRICE?

Yes . . .

ENERGY SANCTIONS CUT BOTH WAYS.

Commodity-Backed Currency

Alasdair Macleod is as knowledgeable about precious metals, currencies and monetary systems as anyone out there.  He’s also head of research at GoldMoney where Maxine and I both have holdings.  So, I trust him.

This is a terrific interview, particularly as respects the development of a Eurasian trade-settlement currency.

In case you can’t watch it — or not all of it — here are my notes:

  • Inflation will go much higher.
  • Central banks (CB’s) will have to raise interest rates much, much higher.
  • There will be a food price crisis.
  • We’re already in an energy crisis since we’ve cut off Russian oil imports.
  • The Yen and Euro are losing purchasing power.
  • Both Bank of Japan (BOJ) and European Central Bank (ECB) have asset to equity ratios in excess of 20 times.
  • The BOJ is likely to fall into negative equity.
  • It will then have to recapitalize during a crisis.
  • The ECB can’t do that as it’s owned by European CB’s which are also overleveraged.
  • The repo market, which involves collateral, is worth about $8.3 trillion Euros.
  • Banks have used repo markets to conceal bad debts.
  • As a result, there is a lot of worthless collateral in the system.
  • The entire international banking system has become progressively divorced from PRODUCTIVE collateral and consists now mainly of FINANCIALIZED collateral.
  • What is being called Bretton Woods III will rely on a commodities based trade-settling currency.
  • Essentially, this will be a Eurasian system encompassing 40% of the world’s population.
  • The point is for Eurasian states to secure their currencies against the threat of rising interest rates in the West.
  • This plan has been brewing since the formation of the Shanghai Cooperative Organization (SCO).
  • China does not wish to disrupt the rest of the world – THE DOLLAR WORLD – unduly because it exports to everyone.
  • But for his part, Putin wants the US out of Europe, even as he wishes to live peaceably — AND TO TRADE — with the entire continent.
  • And, of course, Europe is hurting.
  • Spain’s price index is up 46%; Germany’s, 30%; while ECB rates are negative.
  • Putin to Europe: I’ll sell you energy if you pay in rubles.
  • Russia has benefitted from rising commodity prices on the back of sanctions and just experienced a record trade surplus.
  • What we’re seeing is a return to a Bretton Woods currency system though not with the backing of gold but, instead, a basket of commodities.
  • The Eurasians won’t use gold as the West can manipulate its price.
  • Bitcoin won’t figure into it as a) it’s a kind of SUPER-EQUITY that will topple with the stock market and b) it’s not legal tender.

BUT DO WATCH THE VIDEO!