Month: August 2020

John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he has been coordinating with US Attorney John Durham and plans to soon declassify more documents related to the Trump-Russia probe.

“I pledged to a bipartisan group of senators that I would look at all of the underlying intelligence surrounding the intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s interference and this idea of Trump-Russia collusion, but I’m not going to prejudice John Durham’s work in connection with that, so we’ve had to coordinate with his office about the timing of that. But I’m optimistic that I’ll be declassifying additional documents soon.”

As a reminder, Durham, the US attorney for Connecticut, is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into several aspects of the Obama administration’s surveillance activities against Trump associates. Ratcliffe went on, referring to Durham’s review of the investigation:

“He’s looking at the same documents that I am,”

 “He’s not sharing his findings or the work that he’s doing. But I’m coordinating with him to make sure that he has the intelligence documents that he needs to do his work. And what I don’t want to do is declassify something that might prejudice his work. So we’re going to have to coordinate as we go forward with the completion of his work with my ability to declassify documents.”

Additionally, Ratcliffe, said Sunday he has filed multiple “crimes reports” regarding alleged leaks of classified information to the media.

“When I become aware of intelligence community information that is disclosed unlawfully, I do what’s called a crimes report. I’ve done that now on a number of occasions, and so those investigations are moving forward.”

He said that the leaks were “for political purposes” to create what he said is a false narrative “that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China.”

As Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross notes, Ratcliffe’s decision to limit election-related intelligence briefings prompted outrage from Democrats who say that he is withholding information about Russian meddling to provide political cover for President Donald Trump.

Watch the full interview here:

Last week we showed that following the July 31 “fiscal cliff”, which saw the end of the $600 weekly emergency unemployment benefit and as a result, weekly unemployment insurance benefit payments were cut in half, from $25BN pre-July 31 to just over $10 BN after…

… spending among those most reliant on government stimulus – namely Americans who currently receive Unemployment Insurance payments  – had tumbled even as spending by all other social groups continued to recover. Bank of America examined spending trends of the population of card holders who receive UI through ACH (direct deposit) and compared to all other households. What it found was a dramatic divergence as the YOY rate of growth for UI recipients slowed dramatically but increased for the broader population since Aug 1st.

The drop in spending was also observed by income bucket: over the first two weeks since July 31, the YOY spending growth rate slowed by 12% for the unemployed cohort (formerly) earning under $50K vs. a roughly 5% drop for the middle and upper income cohorts.

Bank of America then reran the analysis one week later and found that total card spending, as measured by BAC aggregated credit and debit card data, continued to grind sideways, running at a 1.4% yoy rate for the 7-day period ending Aug 22nd, just fractionally higher than 2019.

However, as was the case one week ago, there were two important distinctions: i) The decline in unemployment insurance continues to impact the lower income population disproportionately, and ii) The decline in UI is affecting discretionary spending.

Some more details:

• The decline in UI is impacting the lower income population disproportionately: BofA examined spending trends of the population of card holders who receive unemployment insurance (UI) through ACH (direct deposit) and when comparing that to all other households, saw a decisive differential – since July 31st, the YOY growth rate in total card spending for the UI cohort has declined while it has increased for the rest of the population. This is particularly clear when examining the income level data which shows a 17% slowdown in the yoy growth rate for the cohort earning under $50K – a deterioration from the -12% drop observed a week ago (see above), and a roughly 6% slowdown for the middle/upper income cohorts.

The decline in UI is affecting discretionary spending: Looking at the data by sector, the UI recipients cut back the most on clothing and home improvement spending and the least on gas and restaurants/bars (Chart 1). This compares to small increases in the growth rate of spending for the non-ACH UI recipient across these categories with the exception of home improvement.

As time goes on, this decoupling in spending between recipients of unemployment benefits and everyone else will only gross, especially once Trump’s stopgap executive order fades away some time in late September, unless of course Congress gets off its ass and passes yet another stimulus package.

When could that happen? Well, if Democrats get their way, certainly not before the Nov 3 election, but there is one catalyst that could wake Congress from its theatrical stupor and spark legislation much sooner. A market crash. 

According to a separate note from Bank of America’s derivatives team led by Benjamin Bowler, the market once again finds itself in a Catch 22 – it is being held up by the promise of fiscal and monetary stimulus, which may not be forthcoming without pressure from a market selloff. In other words, for stocks to hit new highs they will have to crash again.

From the report:

On the fiscal side, the expiration without replacement of extended unemployment benefits may already be hurting economic and market fundamentals. The importance of this program to the recovery can’t be overstated. Quoting our US economists, “absent government support disposable income would have fallen the most in history; with that support it has risen the most in history.”

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As markets continue their steady climb, two key engines of the rally may be running out of steam. The first is fiscal support – the critical but expired unemployment extension is unlikely to be restored soon. The second is the Fed, which stopped growing its balance sheet in June, deemed yield curve control a no-go last week, and faces new chances to step off the gas in Jackson Hole (27-Aug) and the Sep FOMC. Even if the Fed stands ready to act again, it will likely be in response to a market shock, which also looks needed to break the fiscal logjam.

BofA’s conclusion: “perversely, a [market] shock looks increasingly necessary to force policy measures allowing the market to sustain these levels to begin with.“

In other words, America’s poorest – those who rely on unemployment insurance to live – are (or should be) praying for a market crash which will force Congress to act. Which begs the question: will those same “poorest” stop killing each other across the US in the name of some ideological fallacy, and will they all finally congregate in front of the Marriner Eccles building and demand full accountability (a very polite way of putting it) from the Fed – the source of most of America’s troubles, as even Rabobank admitted last week.

President Trump emphasized at the Republican National Convention last week that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is ignoring the surge in violent crime across major US metropolitan areas. 

“When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable, and it will. But what we can never have in America — and must never allow — is mob rule,” the president said. “In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson, and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and New York.”

With 64 days left until the Nov. 3 election, Trump is once again making the implosion of Democrat-run cities a centerpiece of his campaign against Biden. 

“This election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it,” Trump said at the convention. 

The continuing violence seen in Democrat-run cities, like Chicago and New York City, is alarming and explains why city-dwellers are fleeing for suburban life.  

To Trump’s point, at least 40 people were shot, including ten fatally, during another weekend of soaring gun violence in Chicago, America’s murder capital. 

The city’s most recent shooting occurred Sunday afternoon at the Lumes Pancake House in the 11600 block of Western Avenue. Five people were injured, and one died after an unidentified person in a white SUV opened fire at diners enjoying a weekend meal at the outdoor restaurant, reported NBC Chicago. 

RIGHT NOW: Six people shot, one fatally at Lumes Pancake House on Chicago’s South Side, police say.

Victims were apparently eating outside in white tent when someone fired. Officers believe it was a targeted attack. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/O4AHjPO0G5

— Steven Graves (@StevenGravesTV) August 30, 2020

In response, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani tweeted Sunday: “4 police officers shot: 2 in Democrat St. Louis, 2 in Chicago.” 

Giuliani continued, “@realDonaldTrump has offered both Federal assistance. Hidin’ Biden finally stated his basement. but said nothing about this violence at DNC. “Silence is assent.” (Biden, DNC, 2020.) ” 

4 police officers shot: 2 in Democrat St. Louis, 2 in Chicago.@realDonaldTrump has offered both Federal assistance.

Hidin’ Biden finally issued a statement from his basement.
but said nothing about this violence at DNC.

“Silence is assent.” (Biden, DNC, 2020.)#BackTheBlue

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) August 30, 2020

As for the city formerly governed by Giuliani, New York has yet to release official data of violent crime this weekend, but the union representing 50,000 active and retired NYPD police officers in the city said “25 people were shot from Saturday morning to 7 am today. That makes 58 people shot this week. That’s a 100% increase in shooting victims from the same week last year.” 

25 people were shot from Saturday morning to 7am today. That makes 58 people shot this week. That’s a 100% increase in shooting victims from the same week last year.

— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) August 30, 2020

While the Biden campaign has only just begun to condemn the ongoing violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and elsewhere, the Trump administration’s angle of attack should be very clear to readers: convince American voters Republicans can save imploding Democrat-run cities, just like Giuliani did in the early 1990s when exhausted voters handed him control o Democrat-dominated New York.  

So far, it could be working… 

Things are going so great in California that Pinterest just paid $89.5 million to cancel its 490,000-square-foot lease at the upcoming 88 Bluxome project in San Francisco. 

The company blames working from home as a result of the pandemic as the reason for abandoning the lease – but we’re sure the state’s rising taxes, impending real estate market crash and conversion of the property to a temporary homeless shelter in March likely helped contribute to the decision making.

Either way, Pinterest wanted out of the lease so badly they were willing to fork over a hefty sum to ensure they would not be held to it. The company’s total lease obligations for the property would have amounted to $440 million. 

Pinterest’s CFO told the San Francisco Chronicle: “As we analyze how our workplace will change in a post-COVID world, we are specifically rethinking where future employees could be based. A more distributed workforce will give us the opportunity to hire people from a wider range of backgrounds and experiences.”

Pinterest appears to be following in the steps of companies like Facebook, who has also embraced the idea of remote work for its staff. Facebook aims to have half of its company working remotely “within a decade”, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said. 

To us, it appears to be more of a statement about San Francisco’s real estate market than about Pinterest. After all, the company was the first and only lease commitment “in San Francisco’s 230-acre Central South of Market district, where numerous large commercial and residential projects have been approved after the city raised height limits last year,” the Chronicle said.

They were to help contribute to 30,000 new jobs and 20,000 new residents in the district, which the city hoped would fuel more than $2 billion in public benefits. The project is “now in doubt”. The proposed 88 Bluxome project was supposed to start construction this year, but current plans for the project are now “unclear”. 

And in peak San Francisco fashion, the city converted the tennis club currently on the lot to a homeless shelter in March. 

Authored by José Niño via The Mises Institute,

Foreign policy seems to have been placed on the back burner in the Trump era. Domestic issues, generic outrage politics, and the present covid-19 pandemic have sucked the oxygen out of American political discourse…

The fact that the media opts to cover more sensationalist material does not make foreign policy a trivial matter. If anything, the lack of foreign policy coverage reveals the dilapidated state of contemporary political debate. When the Fourth Estate does bother to broach foreign policy it does so for the most hysterical reasons.

The ongoing Russian hysteria is the embodiment of the media’s infantile coverage of foreign policy. Although the Cold War has been over for decades, pundits on both the left and right remain convinced that Russia—a country of nearly 145 million and with an economic output smaller than Canada’s—is hell-bent on reenacting its past Cold War aspirations.

Iran has always been on neoconservatives’ minds as well. Suffering from the trauma of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, neoconservatives and their establishment liberal counterparts have spent decades slapping on sanctions and trying to push for regime change in Iran. Earlier this year, the neoconservative bloodthirst was partially quenched after the US government assassinated Major General Qasem Soleimani at the Baghdad Airport. In a surprising display of restraint, the Trump administration has not escalated any further in Iran and potentially thrust America into another disastrous intervention.

Had Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush been at the helm, God knows where the US would find itself.

The global crusading has been cranked up to another level by provoking the Chinese government in the South China Sea and prodding into China’s internal affairs. From its repression of ethnic Uighurs in the Xinjiang region to its steps to consolidate power over Hong Kong, China’s internal affairs have been subject to scrutiny from the West. Reasonable people can recognize that China, despite making some pragmatic reforms in the 1980s, is still a repressive regime. But does this merit a potential escalation in the South China Sea or worse yet, a full-blown kinetic conflict?

Based on the fact that both China and the US are nuclear powers, cooler heads will likely prevail. But the fact that policymakers are entertaining the idea of risking a catastrophic conflict shows that politicians’ thirst for war and regime change destabilization has not gone away. Such delusions are the province of an empire in an inebriated state that prevents it from making rational judgments.

Why American Foreign Policy Is Due for a Correction

Frankly, it’s time to start talking about a geopolitical reset. A reorientation of American foreign policy priorities is long overdue. There are approximately two hundred thousand American troops in close to eight hundred bases in seventy countries stationed abroad.

According to American University anthropology professor David Vine, it costs taxpayers $85–100 billion per year to operate overseas military bases. Meanwhile, the decades-long war on terror has cost Americans $5.9 trillion and has led to the deaths of 6,951 American troops and at least 244,000–266,000 civilians in the Middle East. As of 2020, US defense spending stands at more than $732 billion—a figure higher than the next ten countries’ military budgets put together.

The Unipolar Moment Is Dead

Thanks to the US’s location and vast nuclear arsenal, it is relatively safe from external threats despite all the fearmongering coming from the interventionist crowd. It’s becoming clear that the missionary model of exporting democracy abroad is a failure.

Nonetheless, foreign policy hawks have remained adamant about pursuing regime change in Iran through stiff sanctions, saber rattling, and drawing first blood. We shouldn’t forget that US government meddling in the region goes deep. This all started when the CIA and British intelligence launched a successful coup against the populist leader Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, resulting in the installation of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Following the shah’s deposition in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the US has seen Iran as one of its primary foes. Increased sanctions starting in the 1980s, combined with additional sanctions imposed in each decade, have only increased tensions. Not to mention the heightened military presence that encircles the country, which has compelled Iran to get crafty in its opposition to US foreign policy. Iran has responded to US regime change attempts not only by filling in the power vacuum that the US left behind after completely decimating Iraq, but also by expanding its operations in Latin America through the establishment of clandestine networks in the region. Though none of the networks pose existential threats to the US, they show the lengths Iran will go to counter US encroachments in its backyard. It is the height of imperial hubris to think that countries will just stand down and let the US steamroll them.

Additionally, increased US hawkishness toward Iran has created the conditions for it to forge alliances with Russia and China—two countries that have also been hit with sanctions and subject to US bullying in the past decade. These ties have only strengthened amid the current covid-19 pandemic. Undoubtedly, Iran won’t go down easily and will seek alliances with countries such as China and Russia, who share similar grievances with the zealous nature of American foreign policy.

It’s a New World out There

The world’s emerging multipolarity allows for countries to band together against a common antagonistic hegemon like the US. As the unipolar era of yore becomes a distant memory, the US can’t go throwing its weight around the world without repercussions. Regime change operations in Syria demonstrated that countries such as Iran and Russia are willing to step in to defend their interests regardless of what DC foreign policy wonks think.

Similarly, subtle machinations in Venezuela have seen countries like China, Iran, Russia, and Turkey respond by propping up the regime of the embattled strongman Nicolás Maduro. Any of the US’s attempts to try to topple governments it doesn’t like will be met with significant pushback. Regime change fanatics in DC can deny this all they want, but it’s part of the global realignment unfolding before our eyes.

It is amazing what governments can get away with when they have a printing press at their disposal. We are not getting rid of central banking any time soon, but the US’s deluded foreign policy ambitions can still be restrained. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of political will.

Policymakers should actually consider the costs of their foreign policy adventures before sending young people off to die in some ill-fated campaign and putting taxpayers—present and future—on the hook for such excursions.

A geopolitical reset that involves scaling back US interventions and its military presence abroad will foster pragmatic foreign policy decisions and the prioritization of actual defense policies. Whether or not American foreign policy leaders will abandon their imperial hubris is another matter.

The Democratic mayors of six small towns in Minnesota have rejected Joe Biden as having ‘moved too far to the left,’ and are instead supporting President Trump, according to Breitbart.

“Like many in our region, we have voted for Democrats over many decades,” reads a Friday letter from Mayors Larry Cuffe of Virginia (city), John Champa of Chisholm, Chuck Novak of Ely, Chris Swanson of Two Harbors, Robert Vlaisavljevich of Eveleth and Andrea Zupancich of Babbit.

Under Democrats, they continue, “We have watched as our constituents’ jobs left not only the Iron Rage, but our country. By putting tariffs on our products and supporting  bad  trade  deals,  politicians  like  Joe  Biden  did  nothing  to  help  the  working  class. We lost thousands of jobs, and generations of young people have left the Iron Range in order to provide for their families with good paying jobs elsewhere.”

Today, we don’t recognize the Democratic Party. It has been moved so far to the left it can no longer claim to be advocates of the working class. The hard-working Minnesotans that built their lives and supported their families here on the Range have been abandoned by radical Democrats.We didn’t choose to leave the Democratic Party, the party left us.

Yet, four years ago, something wonderful happened. Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States, and he stood up to China, implemented tax cuts and fought for the working class. Now, four years later, the Iron Range is roaring back to life and for the first time in a very long time, locals are hopeful because of this President’s policies and willingness to fight for us. Lifelong politicians like Joe Biden are out of touch with the working class, out of touch with what the country needs, and out of touch with those of us here on the Iron Range and in small towns like ours across our nation.

The letter ends with a formal endorsement of President Trump for “four more years.” 

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Not only have the billionaire class made money, they have tightened their monopolistic grip on the levers of money supply and distribution, turning a global rigged casino into a global company town.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by my friend and colleague Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D., who has contributed essays to Of Two Minds since 2009.

I wrote this predictive observation in the January 28, 2011 Of Two Minds post entitled, Abused Fundamentals and Fake Markets: How They Play Out (later published and updated in 2013 in my book: Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities):

So we have a lawless system. What does this mean for citizens and investors? In the near term it means that the fundamentals will not apply. Anything that maintains or augments elite wealth and increases elite options will be supported, and anything that consumes or converts common people’s wealth and labor and restricts their choices will be pursued.

Anything that reinforces accountability, rational response, or cause and effect will be actively suppressed. Forget reversion to the mean. One only has to observe where the respective value/wealth of each party resides and where it gets channeled to know what the market will do and where policy will go. When the stock market should crash, it won’t… until some time frame far longer than even the most generous fundamentals would dictate…

Analyses that try to predict near term market moves based on Laffer curves, Elliot Waves, and historical cycles will almost definitely fail. We don’t have a ‘new era’, but we definitely have unprecedented coordinated global intervention dedicated almost solely to the fortunes of the top 1%. That is the new rule that will govern until there is a serious breakdown.

The chickens are now coming home to roost, and proving to a greater and greater degree that markets are no longer markets at all, or even casinos. They are clearinghouses for transfers of wealth from the many to the few. Period. No credible argument can be made otherwise. Therefore, we must first and foremost understand the rigged system to inform active resistance and effective alternatives. In so doing, we must also transform ignorance into awareness, obedience into civil disobedience, and fearful attachment into creative interdependence.

In brief, here is how I believe this latest round of audaciously escalating fraud will play out. Given that “too big to fail, too big to jail” is now established worldwide policy, the logical next move for the billionaire class will be buy up everything of hard value with unlimited free unbacked money and massive debt. Think private equity firms, but on a colossal scale: Extract and savage this wealth from every known stored value, and leave the mess for someone to clean up. This is a project now supported by every major central bank and it involves monopoly ownership of every avenue of value assignment and measurement by a handful of people and companies.

What proof do I have that there no longer exists a “market” at all in terms of fundamentals?

Exhibit A: Why are the dollar, stocks, gold, oil, and even Bitcoin all moving in the same direction, when, according to fundamentals, they should move in opposite directions?

Most financial news media give technical definitions. Jeff deGraaf in Marketwatch explains “As real yields turn negative, opportunity costs for holding non-yielding assets essentially vanish, particularly when viewed through the historical lens of fiat currencies and their purchasing power.”

Gold, and I would add the U.S. dollar, create a convenient floor at the zero to positive level, to potential black swans that might sweep the more “risky” fake markets (and cause them to fall before they are rescued again upward).

Therefore, I expect the U.S. Dollar to remain strong, gold to hold its value, as a stable foundation and exchange medium for wealth extraction. Bitcoin will also hold its value and be dominated by the big players in order to control the gateway to democratized value exchange (and they can do so by borrowing unlimited 0% interest U.S. dollars to buy up as much Bitcoin as they want).

All traditional, modern, and post-modern forms of value exchange will be dominated by the same players and manipulated to their advantage to extract and concentrate greater wealth. Manipulate the stock market, gold, oil, and Bitcoin up, get the suckers to pile on, then sell, let it crash, and buy again, an unending cycle of wealth extraction. Use government subsidies, bailouts, and tax shelters to hide and sequester wealth. Rinse and repeat.

What basic precursors do you need to stampede wealth toward the few?

First, you need unlimited cost-free money, preferably the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. This has been accomplished with zero-percent interest rates going on twelve years now (effectively negative interest rates when adjusted to inflation). Paying nothing or next to nothing for both savings and borrowing, does two things: 1) This converts trillions of dollars worth of ordinary-people value in lost savings interest to frictionless manic borrowing and gambling by the big guys. 2) This induces John and Jane Doe and their companies’ pensions to participate in and inflate a rigged stock market if they want any return at all.

Combine this zero-interest, unlimited, frictionless money with allowing unlimited stock buybacks, and the value of stocks no longer has to even be connected with earnings! Tesla’s price to earnings (PE) ratio is at the time of this writing over 1,100! PE’s of 30 or 40 used to be considered irrational exuberance. What would you call this? Is there any longer even a theoretical limit?

Second, you need dominant global corporatism and oligarchy in which all asset valuation, production, government regulation, and monetary policy is geared toward the maximum financial enhancement of a tiny billionaire elite. This allows a divorce between risks and consequences, where the little guy accepts all liability and the big guy gets all the profits.

How much have billionaires made since the collapse of the market in March 2020? They have made 637 billion dollars according to an August 3, 2020 Business Insider article, which also notes that this separation and concentration of wealth is only accelerated by government bailouts that go overwhelmingly (some 90%) to a wealthy hyper-minority (with tax loopholes and shelters that allow them to keep those ill-gotten gains).

Meanwhile, 30+ million ordinary people lose their jobs, and as many as half of small businesses may be closing their doors, while multi-billion dollar hedge funds are showered with “small business” cash because they have less than 50 employees.

As Ryan Detrick said in a tweet on April 30th, 2020.

Third, you need austerity and disaster capitalism for the little guy so you can force them to sell off their assets at rock-bottom prices. You also need controlled political systems run by technocrats and bureaucrats that don’t mind exploiting and abusing the little guy as long as they get a slice of the pie to maintain their own lifestyles. And it doesn’t hurt to have bloviating nationalist dictators, and various “deep state” conspiracy theories to arouse the emotions of the public and direct these emotions to anything (anger at immigrants, and black and brown people, abortion, feminists) but not at the very entities anger should be directed toward– corrupt capitalists, lawless corporations, and predatory oligarchs.

The one thing we can say right now, unless something drastically changes, is that there are no upper level champions for the ordinary citizen. Donald Trump has already proven to be an alarmingly agile lackey for the power elite, dumping trillions into their coffers, hiring them as advisors, and getting rid of any kind of financial or environmental regulation. Joe Biden’s advisors are touting “austerity” for the little guy, while promising Big Oil that they will not have their subsidies cut (despite Biden’s platform promise to cut subsidies), and promising Big Finance that they will remain unchecked.

It remains to be seen which Joe Biden will show up, the neo-liberal bootlicker or the one that follows through on this own policy platform to rein in the out-of-control abuse of the power elite. Congress is no better. Any attempts to get money directly to the ordinary public is being thwarted outright by Mitch McConnell, who simply uses legislative extortion to guarantee that the lion’s share will always go to the super-wealthy.

Not only have the billionaire class made money, they have tightened their monopolistic grip on the levers of money supply and distribution, turning a global rigged casino into a global company town. Though the supply of dollars is and will become more and more ridiculous, the demand for those dollars among the elite will become even more ridiculous.

Will we have another flash crash, and fear and want, resulting in consolidation of poverty for the many and material ownership for the few? Will people drastically downsize, suffer through austerity policies, while Big Everything (Oil, Pharma, Finance, etc.) continues to get bailed out and get multi-billion dollar subsidies even when they bring in record profits?

Will we have a massive collapse of commercial and residential real estate, because of people moving in together and millions of small businesses closing, which will allow private equity firms to sweep in and buy properties up in collusion with corrupt banks for pennies on the dollars?

The big banks don’t have to worry, because their assets will be backstopped. However, will small banks and credit unions who rely on lending be forced into bankruptcy, where they can be swallowed as well? This is where we are heading if “we the people” do not stand up to this multi-headed hydra.

This is part of series entitled When the World Market Itself Is Fake, Economic “Value” Loses Any Real Meaning.

Parts 2 and 3 of this series will explore where we are right now and what to look for in the tough times ahead.

Parts 4 and 5 will discuss healthy, pro-democratic, creative alternatives to the current rigged system.

*  *  *

My recent books:

Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)

(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 (Kindle), $12 (print), $13.08 ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).

The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)

Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).

*  *  *

If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

All we can say is that we hope Elon Musk’s questionable Neuralink demonstration that was given days ago was legitimate.

Because otherwise, the hope Musk is drumming up in desperate people who suffer from ailments (and whose family members and close friends suffer from ailments) would only be akin to the faith healers and psychic hotlines of the 1990’s. 

While we don’t necessarily endorse the idea that Musk faked the Neuralink presentation (although after Tesla’s Solar Roof Tile and battery swap presentations, we would certainly have good reason to), we wanted to highlight the gravity of claims that Musk has made about Neuralink.

It goes beyond cleaning up your carbon footprint and pulls at the emotional heartstrings of many who are suffering. Musk has claimed that Neuralink would eventually be able to “help cure neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia and spinal cord injuries and ultimately fuse humankind with artificial intelligence”.

This sent droves of desperate people looking for relief to Twitter, as was documented by the Twitter account @GretaMusk in a thread on Saturday. “It is literally everything,” one person wrote. “I can’t stop crying…it means help for my son.”

Another wrote: “My daughter has Rett syndrome” and “I wonder if Neuralink could potentially help people like her.” Others sought relief from PTSD, bi-polar disorder and lupus. 

This is what happens when a serial #fraud appears on society’s center stage. cc: @MelaynaLokosky #Tesla $TSLAQ 1/3 pic.twitter.com/oetCwobfUf

— Greta Musk (@GretaMusk) August 30, 2020

Other people Tweeted, seeking relief for their friends and family members from Alzheimers, dystonia and pontocerebellar hypoplasia:

This is what happens when a narcissistic sociopath is allowed to promise everything without being responsible for anything. cc: @montana_skeptic #Tesla $TSLAQ 2/3 pic.twitter.com/DsoUBAqZjs

— Greta Musk (@GretaMusk) August 30, 2020

“I hope you can look into helping people like me,” one person wrote, “…who suffer from trigeminal neuralgia”. Others continued to ask for relief from ailments like OCD, depression and anxiety – even blindness.

This is what happens when a celebrity billionaire is regarded as humanity’s savior, and offers false hope to the hopeless. cc: @Tweetermeyer #Tesla $TSLAQ 3/3 pic.twitter.com/yCV5jQ614b

— Greta Musk (@GretaMusk) August 30, 2020

Former neuroscience researcher turned Gizmodo journalist Shoshana Wodinsky was – well, less than convinced and less than enthused by the demo. She called Neuralink’s claims “impossible” and said, on the night of the demonstration: “I did not spend 5 years getting a neuroscience degree to watch this manchild literally brainfuck a pig on stage.” 

mfw elon fanboys are still blowing up my tl bc i pointed out neuralink’s claims are impossible like 24 hrs ago pic.twitter.com/DyQMM6BDZR

— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) August 29, 2020

Neuralink has said that it aims to “implant wireless brain-computer interfaces that include thousands of electrodes in the most complex human organ to help cure neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia and spinal cord injuries and ultimately fuse humankind with artificial intelligence,” according to Reuters.

Musk continued to tout that line of thinking, stating on Friday: “An implantable device can actually solve these problems.”

To demonstrate it, Musk showed what appeared to be a demonstration of Neuralink on a pig named Gertrude.

Musk narrated: “The beeps you are hearing are real-time signals from the Neuralink in Gertrude’s head. This Neuralink connects to neurons that are in her snout. Whenever she shuffles around and touches something with her snout that sends out neural spikes that are detected here.”

Here’s what the pig demonstration looked like when it happened: 

Elon Musk tests Neuralink On Pigs during Live Demo #Neuralink #ElonMusk #neurolink pic.twitter.com/0ylu7DFVwF

— Luke Gilfillan (@LukeGilfillan1) August 29, 2020

“On the screen you can see each of the neural spikes,” he continued. Talking about the safety of the product, he said: “I could have a Neuralink right now and you wouldn’t know. Maybe I do.”

“It’s kind of like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires,” Musk continued. 

But, as we noted, not everyone was sold on the demonstration:

Did the pig have a scar on its head? Was there an X-Ray? Did its head respond to a metal detector?

Did Elon Musk offer any proof the pig actually had a chip in its head?

— Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) August 30, 2020

For the sake of those holding out hope, we hope Elon was on the up-and-up. But again, we aren’t talking about people’s cars here, we’re talking about people’s lives.

If we were you, we’d tread lightly, Elon…