Month: September 2024

Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,

“The wavelike movement affecting the economic system, the recurrence of periods of boom which are followed by periods of depression, is the unavoidable outcome of the attempts, repeated again and again, to lower the gross market rate of interest by means of credit expansion.  There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.  The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”

– Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Crank Up the Printing Press

Fed rate cuts are coming.  If you believe this will levitate your stock portfolio, you are in for a big disappointment.

The forthcoming collapse on Wall Street can be seen a country mile away.  But only by those with their eyes open.

Extreme stock market valuations.  Sky high prices.  An AI bubble that is running out of greater fools.  All the while, the economy is slipping into recession.

These factors, coupled with a behemoth government debt problem, are aligning for something much more than a run-of-the-mill bear market.  By our estimation a 50 percent top to bottom decline in the S&P 500 will be the minimum.  Practically speaking, if the stock market goes down by 50 percent, then up by 50 percent, you have not broken even.

When the economy contracts in earnest and stocks slip and slide, the Treasury, in concert with the Federal Reserve, will once again crank up the printing press.  In fact, the Fed is already oiling the gears in preparation for a 25-basis point rate cut later this month.

Yet dollar debasement can only go so far.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statics own inflation calculator, $1 today has the purchasing power that $0.03 had in 1913 – the year the Federal Reserve came into existence.  The dollar’s value has almost been completely destroyed over the last 111 years.  Workers and savers have been on the hook for this via the inflation tax.

Thus, the looming recession and stock market decline could be followed by a debt crisis and dollar crisis.  At that point, inflation will run amok – debasing both the dollar and society as a whole.

Money Supply Inflation

This is a tale that is repeated from time to time.  Overindebted governments, relying on over issuances of money and credit, destroy their currency and economy.  Revolutionary France.  Weimar Germany.  21st Century Zimbabwe.  And everything in between.

Intense money printing ruins the currency, which forces relative prices higher.  Ultimately the inflation turns hyper, where monthly inflation rates exceed 50 percent.  Societal chaos and human suffering then follow a similar trajectory.

The U.S., regrettably, is traversing a similar path as that which has resulted in disaster for other countries.  Out of control spending.  Authoritarian government.  Extreme wealth disparity.  Burgeoning social discord and discontent.  The U.S. isn’t somehow immune to a similar inflation disaster; it won’t be different, this time.

Some aspects, of course, will be different.  Rather than issuing higher and higher denominations of paper notes as has occurred during past episodes of hyperinflation, the Treasury and the Fed will merely flood the system with cheap credit.  The devaluation will make carrying cash impractical – it already has.

Zeroes will be added to the back of both consumer prices and credit card limits.  Then, as a solution to the inflation of its own making, the Fed will roll out a digital federal reserve note.  And from then on, all private transactions will be subject to government oversight.

For American’s trying to work, save, invest, and improve the lives and security of their families, we’ve entered a dangerous territory.  To head off the fate of inflationary madness, Congress needs to simply do one thing.  Stop spending, balance the budget, run a surplus, pay down the debt, and suffer the consequences of a multi-decade depression, as the debt is paid down or written off.

We don’t believe there’s a snowball’s chance in hell this will happen.  The track record of the U.S. government since the close of the Great Depression has been one of money supply inflation.  The consequences of this will come to a head during the next presidency.

Germany’s Evil Genius

Hyperinflation, in the simplest sense, causes the currency to become effectively worthless.  For example, in Weimar Germany most people were utterly destroyed by the hyperinflation.  Responsible people were punished for saving money.

Wage earners received worthless notes for their labor.  Before the hyperinflation was over the only redeeming value of stacks of money was its use as fire kindling.

But not everyone was destroyed by the Weimar hyperinflation.  Some people prospered to the extreme.

One of those people was a man named Hugo Stinnes.  

What’s interesting about Hugo Stinnes is that while most people were wiped out by the hyperinflation, his wealth grew and grew.  It grew so much that he became the richest man in Germany and earned the moniker the ‘inflation king.’ 

He was also called Germany’s evil genius.

The important thing to understand about Stinnes’ enormous wealth is that it wasn’t so much the result of what he did during the hyperinflation.  But what he did just prior.

Stinnes was born in Germany in 1870.  He was already rich long before 1920.  His family owned a coal mine and other industrial interests.

Still, Stinnes was a shrewd economic observer and experienced with international trade.  Seeing the excesses of Reichsbank president, Rudolf von Havenstein’s money printing already working its way through the economy following World War I, he loaded up on steel, shipping, railroad, and cargo lines.  What’s more, he borrowed heavily to pay for everything.

While the value of the Papermark gradually eroded following WWI.  It didn’t really start to lose value until 1921.  After that, its loss of value got exponentially worse.  Stinnes used the gradual period to prepare.

Lessons from the Past

Overall, Stinnes’ hyperinflation playbook was generally straight forward.  He used debt to load up on hard assets prior to the hyperinflation.  Then, after the hyperinflation, his hard assets retained their value, in real terms, while their price shot through the roof in nominal terms (relative to the currency).

What this meant is that the debts he owed in terms of the Papermark he borrowed in dropped to the point of being insignificant.  Hence, he was able to pay off his debts for practically nothing while retaining his hard assets and becoming filthy rich.

When the hyperinflation hit, the value of the Papermark money he borrowed was worth less and less and the hard assets he owned all increased in value, relative to the declining German currency.  The important lesson is that hard assets don’t lose their value during hyperinflation the same way that the currency does.

On the one hand, Stinnes’ hard assets were increasing in value relative to the Papermark while producing output of real value.  Simultaneously, the hyperinflation of the Papermark was decreasing the value of his Papermark debts.

By 1924, Stinnes was able to pay off his debt with worthless Papermarks.  At the same time, his assets had ballooned in value relative to the Papermark.  Thus, making Stinnes the richest man in Germany.

Then, as fate would have it, Stinnes abruptly died in Berlin on April 10, 1924, as a result of a gall bladder operation.

Here in the USA, in September 2024, we see signs of government induced hyperinflation on the horizon.  But, in between, are dark clouds.

What Would Hugo Do?

The Fed, after hiking and holding the federal funds rates at a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent since July 27, 2023, has temporarily taken its monetary gas out of the economy.  The lag in the policy adjustments to when they filter through the economy are finally being realized – the economy is slowing.

While rate cuts will come later this month, there will, again, be a lag before their inflationary effects manifest.  This lag will be in the form of a recession and a declining stock market.  With this backdrop, if Hugo Stinnes were alive today, what would he do?

We suppose he would do what billionaire investor Warren Buffett is doing.

Buffett, like Stinnes, owns railroads and other businesses that offer high return on tangible capital.  But unlike Stinnes, Buffett is not loaded up with debt.

On the contrary, Buffett, through his company Berkshire Hathaway, has been selling stocks and building cash all year.  As of June 30, the most recent period reported, Buffett is sitting on a $277 billion pile of cash.

This contrast illustrates the difference between Fed Chair Jerome Powell today and Reichsbank president Rudolf von Havenstein circa 1921.  Powell understands the need for the economy to stall out before resuming the next great wave of money printing where Havenstein didn’t.

Extreme inflation may be coming to the USA.  But investors and speculators who wish to game it like Stinnes did over 100 years ago, by borrowing money to buy assets, are asking for trouble.  Like Buffett, we anticipate there will first be a shakeout.

Now is not the time to buy stocks on margin.  You’ll get wiped out.

Instead, as a little guy investor looking to protect his hard-earned grubstake, you want to own hard assets and shares of good businesses with a high return on tangible capital.

You also want to hold some cash and prepare yourself psychologically, so you have the gumption to deploy it when there’s blood in the streets.

*  *  *

[Have you ever heard of Henry Ford’s dream city of the South?  Chances are you haven’t.  That’s why I’ve recently published an important special report called, “Utility Payment Wealth – Profit from Henry Ford’s Dream City Business Model.”  If discovering how this little-known aspect of American history can make you rich is of interest to you, then I encourage you to pick up a copy.  It will cost you less than a penny.]

The first job after graduation is an essential stepping stone that can often define one’s future career path and opportunities. While today’s new grads are entering one of the strongest job markets in decades, the U.S. labor market has become increasingly competitive in the past couple of years post-pandemic.

While the pandemic boom led the unemployment rate to fall as low as 3.4%, it now stands at 4.3% as of July, which is still low by historical standards. Additionally, the ratio of job openings to unemployed individuals has dropped to 1.2, down from a peak of more than two in 2022.

With U.S. college graduates hunting for their first foray into America’s workforce, the graphic below, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the best companies to work for according to new grads using data from Forbes.

Methodology of the Best Employers for New U.S. Grads

For the rankings, companies were assessed based on three years of survey results from more than 100,000 young professionals with under 10 years of work experience.

Organizations with 1,000 or more employees were rated based on the following criteria. In addition, respondents were asked if they would recommend working for their employer.

• Compensation

• Benefits

• Flexibility

• Working conditions

• Company image

• Inclusion

• Opportunities for advancement

The Best Companies for New Grads in 2024

Below, we show the best employers for new grads across 400 organizations analyzed:

Ranking first overall is Delta Air Lines, rated highly for its inclusion practices and corporate reputation.

As America’s most reliable airline, Delta provides a number of employee benefits such as 401(k) matching, family care benefits, flight discounts, and professional development initiatives. In addition, the company distributed $1.4 billion through profit sharing in early 2024, where employees are paid up to $1,200 per year by reaching operational goals.

In-N-Out Burger takes second spot, driven largely by its competitive compensation and career growth opportunities. On average, store managers at the iconic California chain make $180,000 in salary, roughly three times the industry average. Like Delta, the company offers profit-sharing plans.

American Express, ranked third, received high ratings in opportunities for advancement. The company is known for an enterprise career growth model that encourages employees to take ownership of their professional development. As part of this model, the company offers a wide range of training programs designed to strengthen leadership skills.

Ranking in eighth is Google, the top-ranking tech firm on the list. From cloud technical residencies to digital marketing programs, the company offers a number of initiatives for recent university graduates. Microsoft ranks in 12th, providing a two-year career development experience for new grads across roles ranging from technical sales to operations management.

To learn more about the best companies to work for in the U.S., check out this graphic ranking America’s best places to work at from 2020 to 2024.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

The relationship between Russia, the IMF, and BRICS isn’t what most folks have been led to believe…

IMF Communications Director Julie Kozack confirmed during a press briefing on Thursday that the first Article IV consultations with Russia since 2021 will take place next week. She also praised BRICS expansion. Both of these caught multipolar enthusiasts off guard since they assumed that Russia wouldn’t ever re-engage with the IMF, which they consider to be BRICS’ rival.

What follows are the exact words that she said, which will then be analyzed in the larger context of Russia’s financial grand strategy:

“The IMF and all of our member countries have a mutual obligation to conduct Article IV Consultations. It’s in our articles of agreement. Actually, in the case of Russia, since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the economic situation has been exceptionally unsettled, which has made it difficult to anchor Article IV Consultations, especially thinking about the outlook and policy frameworks for both the near- and the medium-term.

Now that the economic situation is more settled, Article IV Consultations with Russia are resuming, as I said at the beginning, in line with the obligations of both the Fund and the member country.

As part of the upcoming Article IV Consultation, the team will hold bilateral discussions with the Russian authorities. It will hold both virtual discussions from September 16th, and then the team will travel to the country for in person meetings. As is the case for all Article IV Consultations, the team will meet with a number of different stakeholders to discuss the country’s economic developments, prospects, and policies. And I think that I’ll leave it at that. 

…

With respect to the BRICS or any other groups of countries, our view is that improved and expanding international cooperation and deepening trade and investment ties among groups of countries should be welcomed and encouraged, provided that they aim at reducing fragmentation and reducing trade and investment costs among members. The decision to join such initiatives is a sovereign decision of each member country. And I’ll leave it at that.”

Readers should also be aware that Russia appointed a new Executive Director to the organization earlier this month, Ksenia Yudaeva. She’s an advisor to the Bank of Russia’s chief but also under US sanctions. Kozack declined to comment when asked whether Yudaeva would be allowed to serve at the IMF’s headquarters in DC upon taking over her new role in November. In any case, the importance is that Russia is actively re-engaging with the IMF, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently hinted at why.

He told students earlier this month that “[the G7] are trying to retain their preferential and undeservedly privileged positions at the IMF and the WTO. They stall the reforms of these institutions in order to maintain their domineering influence. But this process cannot be stopped, and it will continue.” Russia believes that reforms at both global bodies are integral to speeding up financial multipolarity processes, with Lavrov implying that Russia should contribute to this inevitable trend instead of self-isolate from it.

Likewise, the IMF also realized that such reforms must be carried out sooner than later so as to not self-isolate from the Global South, ergo Kozack’s praise of BRICS expansion. Observers shouldn’t forget that all BRICS members are also part of the IMF, and as shocking as it sounds, the BRICS Bank confirmed last summer that they comply with Western sanctions against Russia. Readers can learn more “politically inconvenient” facts about BRICS here, which enumerates nearly a dozen associated analyses at the end.  

What’s sufficient for the average reader to know is that BRICS is a network of countries that voluntarily coordinate their financial policies in order to accelerate that dimension of multipolarity. Nearly all of its members with the exception of co-founder Russia and new addition Iran are in direct relationships of complex economic-financial interdependence with the West, especially the US. This limits their freedom of action in this regard and is why financial multipolarity will be a gradual process, not a fast one.

Any sudden systemic shocks, such as coordinating the dollar’s collapse (which is a lot more difficult to achieve than some have made it seem), would deeply affect their own economies due to this interdependence. Even Putin acknowledged during a Q&A earlier this month that “we are not conducting a policy of de-dollarisation. We did not renounce settlements in dollars; they denied us such settlements, and we were simply forced to look for other options; this is it.”

Russia isn’t in a direct relationship of complex economic-financial interdependence with the West anymore after that bloc’s US leader forced the EU to largely “decouple” from it, but he’s well aware of how destabilizing sudden systemic shocks can be for its top trade partners and thus wants to avoid that. Although Russia is self-sufficient in raw materials, it still relies on foreign trade as an important source of revenue and a means of obtaining spare aircraft parts, high-tech products, and other goods.

Inflicting sudden systemic shocks on the West could therefore shock the Chinese and Indian economies too, thus leading to less energy sales to them as well as less high-tech and other product imports. This explains why Russia still accounts for nearly a fifth of the EU’s gas needs despite the bloc’s participation in NATO’s proxy war on it through Ukraine. The same goes for why Russia still sells critical minerals to them and the US too, although Putin just suggested restrictions on this “if this does not harm us”.

That’s a significant caveat since the insight shared in this analysis illustrated the relationship of complex interdependence that Russia has with China, India, and others, who themselves are also in their own such relationships with the West, thus making Russia and the West indirectly dependent on one another. Considering this, completely cutting the West off from all Russian resources would also risk plunging China and India into recessions too, thus provoking their ire and boomeranging back against Russia.

It could also be considered an act of war by NATO and exploited to justify escalating the bloc’s involvement in their proxy war on Russia in Ukraine. If those countries could manage on their own without Russian resources, then they obviously wouldn’t be financing their geopolitical rival to this day. Likewise, Russia wouldn’t be supplying its geopolitical rivals to this day either if it felt comfortable managing the far-reaching systemic shocks brought about by completely cutting them off.

All of this circles back to why Russia is re-engaging with the IMF, namely to play a role in gradually reforming this global body alongside China, India, and others in order to advance their shared goal of accelerating financial multipolarity processes. The IMF praised BRICS expansion precisely because all members apart from Russia and Iran are in direct relationships of complex economic-financial interdependence with the West, thus enabling each to keep the other in check to an extent.

IMF membership and the aforesaid interdependence with the West that it brings impede the pace of BRICS’ financial multipolarity plans, while BRICS works from within the IMF to still keep these plans moving in the desired direction. With the exception of Russia and Iran, BRICS therefore has a symbiotic relationship with the IMF, and this in turn deters Russia from catalyzing a series of sudden systemic shocks against the West by cutting off its resource sales (both critical minerals and energy) to them.

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

As a liberty writer and economist I have been working within the alternative media for almost 20 years now. I was there at the inception of what we consider the modern counter-media movement, when a scattering of radio hosts, writers and video bloggers started to come together to create perhaps the greatest unsung information revolution in decades. It was this era in which the mainstream corporate news started to lose their audience by the millions.

This was also the advent of the Ron Paul movement and the return of a more true conservatism that would eventually shake up the Republican Party and the “Uniparty” paradigm. Neo-cons are not conservatives, they are leftists and globalists in disguise. We all know that now, but back then it was an uphill struggle to get the average conservative voter to understand they were being duped.  Today, most Neo-cons are abandoning the Republican Party to vote for Kamala Harris.

The success of Donald Trump is a symptom, a side effect of this burgeoning liberty activism. Trump didn’t start it, he just rode the wave that we created many years ago. It’s important to remember that it existed before him and it will exist after him.  That said, it’s undeniable that Trump has come to symbolize a big middle finger to the establishment on the part of the conservative and even moderate population. His campaigns have indeed helped to bring culture war awareness to the forefront. Furthermore, I would dare say we are winning that war.

The political left used to deny that the culture war existed.  Today, woke ideology is now thoroughly exposed in entertainment, in corporate journalism, in public school curriculum, in the military and within our own government agencies.  The alternative media made this victory possible.

A lot of people also had a “come to Jesus moment” during covid.  The political left grasped so desperately for total authoritarianism during the covid mandates that they rushed ahead and flew too close to the sun.

They went after our basic freedoms, they tried to ban us from public places, they tried to force us to act as guinea pigs for experimental vaccines, they censored our free speech, they threatened to take our jobs away, take our kids away, and throw us in covid camps.  All of this happened only a few years ago and it shocked large numbers of Americans out of apathy.

The covid agenda failed in part because of the tireless efforts of the alternative media spreading scientific facts and evidence that contradicted government propaganda. The mandates were defeated. The vax passport plan was defeated. The CDC was forced to inflate the numbers of people who actually took the first vax and they had to hide the reality that almost no one took the boosters.

What this means, though, is that the globalists will simply try something new; a new disaster with a new enemy and a new agenda to take what’s left of our freedoms away. Algorithmic censorship of the alternative media on search engines and YouTube didn’t work and kicking us off social media helped them little. We found other ways to get the truth out there.

They are coming after us directly next time, and the attacks have already started…

I’m speaking mainly of the Tenet Media controversy in which the Department of Justice has accused alternative journalist Lauren Chen of acting as a middleman (or middlewoman) for Russia Today (a Russian state funded media organization) to feed millions of dollars to unwitting conservatives and pro-Trump personalities like Dave Rubin, Tim Pool and Benny Johnson.

To be clear, the U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by influencers, some of whom it says were given false information about the source of Tenet’s funding. Instead, it has indicted two employees of RT under the Foreign Agents Registration Act for funneling nearly $10 million to the Tennessee-based content creation company in exchange for Russia-friendly content.  However, the DOJ is in my view knowingly giving the corporate media and the DNC ammunition to attack and marginalize the alternative media right before the US elections.

Let’s cut to the core of this situation:

1) The DOJ has offered no evidence so far to substantiate these accusations. Maybe they are real, maybe they’re not, but the establishment has a track record of making up fake Russian conspiracies to derail conservatives (Russiagate). We’ll have to wait and see.

2) Even if these outlets did end up with Russian money, what did it change? Tim Pool and others were already arguing the same positions before Tenet Media offered them cash.

3) By extension, why would Russia pay conservatives millions of dollars to say what they were already saying?

4) This question continues to bother me and I have to wonder if the whole scenario is a psy-op to link the alternative media to Russia by association. You can already see the accusations in the establishment media and on social media:

“How far has Russian influence invaded the right-wing media? Maybe ALL of them are on Putin’s payroll…”

I predicted this EXACT outcome way back in 2014 – That conflict with Russia and the liberty movement’s associations with outlets like RT (whether real or fabricated) would be used to falsely indict all conservative journalists as traitors.

In my article ‘When War Erupts Patriots Will Be Accused Of “Aiding The Enemy”’, published ten years ago in September of 2014, I outlined why I believed a war with Russia (both economic and kinetic) was inevitable along with my concerns over the establishment’s attempts to attach the liberty media to Russia Today and other Kremlin funded platforms. I dissected one such propaganda piece by The Atlantic and noted:

“The fact based reporting of RT, at least when it comes to the Western side of the globalist establishment, mimics the alternative journalism growing in popularity in the U.S.  At bottom, RT is a newcomer to the world of independent news analysis, but it is ultimately NOT independent, and most of what they do amounts to little more than regurgitated content from more original and insightful Western independent media sources…”

“The Atlantic article [cited in the link above], very cleverly, makes it sound as if it is we witless writers in America who are getting all our info and inspiration from RT. And this is where we begin to see the true nature of the psy-op…”

“…Today, conflict with Russia, at the very least on an economic scale, is an inevitability…The narrative that is being constructed is clear – the establishment hopes to rewrite the history and image of the liberty movement by painting us as dupes radicalized by Russian propaganda, rather than being the originators of our own grassroots movement with our own philosophy and methodology. Through this, they take away our ownership of our own cause.”

I also addressed those people in the movement that, at the time, seemed to deny all Russian ties to globalist institutions without question. I warned against this adoration of eastern governments and made the point that they are not our saviors.

“…By blindly supporting Russia or the Russian government without considering their participation in the globalist run crisis, liberty activists help reinforce the soon-to-be manufactured lie that we are nothing but puppets of the Putin regime. If we publicly question the intentions of the Russian government as much as we question our own government, we can help to defuse this lie before it can take hold.”

“…Mark my words, one day our activism will be deemed treason, and our rebellion will be marginalized as a servant satellite astro-turf movement organized by Russian interests.”

I think the majority of my predictions from 2014 have been proven accurate and readers are welcome to read through that article in its entirety for the bigger picture. But what does all this mean?

The Tenet Media situation is just the beginning. Whether it’s really a Russian operation or something else, the narrative clearly only serves one purpose – To discredit alternative media sources. It doesn’t matter if Tim Pool or Dave Rubin or anyone else actually got money from Putin’s own pocket. It also doesn’t matter if they were lied to and they had no idea where the cash was really coming from.

The establishment only has to plant the seed of doubt in the minds of the masses that the former scenario MIGHT be happening.  It’s intended to make the alternative media look corrupt, or, easily fooled, and the average Democrat is dumb enough to believe it.   Let’s not mention the fact that governments, NGOs and globalist think-tanks (the Atlantic Council) have been funding pro-Ukraine propaganda as well as progressive propaganda in the news for years.

And though some people might think this problem will be quickly forgotten, don’t believe for a second that it’s going away for good.  The far-left will run with this story in different iterations right up until the November election and beyond, never relenting. Will it work? Probably not. I don’t see a lot of people outside of the political left that care much, but it depends on a lot of factors. With Kamala Harris in office in 2025 the Russian “influence” accusations will be endless.  It will become the new January 6th.

This incident should also act as a reminder that the alternative media needs to remain skeptical of eastern government agendas as much as we are skeptical of our own government. If there is indeed Russian money chasing conservative platforms, then it is either intended to buy influence or create division within the movement. Neither outcome should be allowed.

The media will accuse us of being Russian pawns regardless of what we do, but we don’t have to help them along.  That said, if instability erupts in the west it will not be because of Putin.  Putin has not been trying to force us into a socialist dystopia for the past several years, leftists and globalists have.  If civil war breaks out, it will be because leftists gave us no other choice.  Russia is irrelevant to the issue.

*  *  *

If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

Million-dollar homes are becoming more common, with the U.S. having 621 cities where a typical home is worth $1 million or more.

While high interest rates have caused commercial real estate prices to fall, it hasn’t had the same impact on the residential market. Housing inventory has increased, but it still remains below average historical levels. At the same time, while mortgage rates have fallen, U.S. home prices continue to climb, nearing record highs.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the number of cities in each U.S. state where a typical home costs $1 million or more, based on data from Zillow.

Ranked: The Number of Million-Dollar Cities, by State

Below, we show the number of cities where a typical home (the average home in the 35th to 65th percentile) costs $1 million or more by state:

Rank	State	Number of Million-Dollar Cities
1	California	218
2	New York	76
3	New Jersey	60
4	Massachusetts	44
5	Florida	30
6	Washington	23
7	Colorado	22
7	Hawaii	22
9	Texas	17
10	Maryland	11
11	Utah	9
11	Virginia	9
13	Illinois	8
14	Minnesota	7
15	Connecticut	6
15	Missouri	6
15	South Carolina	6
18	North Carolina	5
19	Arizona	4
19	Idaho	4
19	Montana	4
19	Nevada	4
19	Wyoming	4
24	New Hampshire	3
24	Tennessee	3
26	Deleware	2
26	Michigan	2
26	Ohio	2
26	Pennsylvania	2
26	Rhode Island	2
26	Wisconsin	2
32	Georgia	1
32	Kansas	1
32	Maine	1
32	Oregon	1
	Total:	621

As of July 31, 2024

California has more million-dollar cities than the next four states combined, with Atherton standing as the most expensive city, where a typical home costs $7.5 million.

Today, a typical home in California costs more than twice as much as a typical U.S. home, with residents paying almost $6,000 on monthly payments for a newly-purchased mid-tier home. These costs include mortgage payments, homeowners insurance, and taxes. Since February 2023, the state has added 20 cities where a typical home costs $1 million or more.

Following next in line is New York, with 76 million-dollar cities. A separate report shows that the price of single family homes jumped by 10.9% annually since the first quarter of 2023, giving the state some of the fastest-rising house prices in America.

Ranking in third is New Jersey, which saw one of the greatest increases in million-dollar cities overall since February 2023.

As we can see, there are 15 states without any million-dollar cities, mainly in the Midwest and South. These states are known for having greater housing affordability, and a lower cost of living, but fewer job prospects amid weak labor market activity.

To learn more about this topic from a U.S. city perspective, check out this graphic on the salary needed to buy a home in 50 U.S. cities in 2024.

Authored by Sheramy Tsai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Pumping iron at the gym is only half the muscle-building battle. The adage “muscles are built in the kitchen” rings truer than ever.

Foods and supplements you choose can amplify your workouts, turning efforts into visible results. With countless options available on the market, finding the most effective can be overwhelming. This guide cuts through the noise to help you fuel your body for optimal muscle growth.

1. Prioritize Protein

Protein is the foundation of muscle health. It supplies the vital components for muscle tissue and drives muscle protein synthesis, which repairs and strengthens muscles after exercise.

“Protein provides the essential building blocks your muscles need to repair, grow stronger, and get bigger, effectively complementing the hard work you put in during training,” Shawn Arent, professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina, Arnold School of Public Health, said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Skeletal muscle constantly repairs and renews itself, with about 1 to 2 percent of myonuclei, the nuclei within muscle fibers, turning over each week. This cycle of breakdown and repair helps muscles grow stronger and larger with consistent exercise.

The National Institutes of Health’s recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is set at 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, equating to about 54 grams daily for a 150-pound adult. However, Arent points out that more is needed to build muscle. “The RDA is meant to meet basic nutritional needs, not to optimize muscle growth,” he said.

This call for higher protein intake is supported by a 2023 study in Nutrients, which suggests increasing protein intake could better support muscle function and overall health.

Arent recommends aiming for 1.6 to 2.2 grams (gm) of protein per kilogram of body weight. An easier way to calculate this is to consume about 0.7 to 1 gm of protein per pound of body weight. For example, if your goal weight is 150 pounds, you should eat approximately 105 to 150 gm of protein daily. He advises older adults to target the higher end of this range due to anabolic resistance, a condition where the body becomes less efficient at converting amino acids into muscle protein. This inefficiency requires more protein to stimulate and maintain muscle growth as we age, he noted.

Best Food Sources of Protein 

Focusing on high-protein foods that deliver the best return on investment is crucial. Arent highlights that animal proteins like chicken breast, turkey, beef, and eggs are particularly effective because they’re rich in essential amino acids, especially leucine, which is critical for stimulating muscle growth.

Fish, such as salmon and tuna, provide high-quality protein and deliver healthy fats like omega-3s, which support overall muscle function. Dairy products like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and milk are also excellent choices, offering a mix of fast-digesting whey and slow-digesting casein proteins for sustained amino acid release, according to Arent.

For plant-based proteins, options like lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, and tofu can deliver protein. However, it may be necessary to combine various plant sources to achieve a complete amino acid profile and optimize muscle-building.

While vegetarian and vegan diets can support muscle growth, they may not be as ideal as diets that include animal proteins. Although high-quality proteins containing all essential amino acids are found in both plant and animal sources, they are often less densely packed in plant-based foods.

2. The Power of Protein Timing

While total daily protein intake is crucial for muscle growth, the timing of eating protein can also influence results. Arent emphasizes that consuming protein, especially during workouts, can further enhance muscle recovery and growth.

Research published in Frontiers in Nutrition shows that consuming protein within an hour of a workout improves muscle recovery and performance. While overall daily intake is most important, a post-workout shake or meal delivers essential building blocks during a critical window for muscle repair, according to the study.

Research by Donald Layman, a leading expert in protein synthesis and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, underscores the importance of the distribution of protein throughout the day. Meal timing becomes increasingly important with age, particularly after 40, as the body’s ability to use protein efficiently declines, he told The Epoch Times.

“The most sensitive meal is the first meal of the day after the overnight fast, but most Americans eat 60 percent of their daily protein at dinner and virtually nothing at breakfast,” he added. Shifting some protein intake from dinner to the morning can significantly enhance daily muscle protein synthesis, Layman added.

“The first meal for adults should have at least 30 grams of protein. I target 45 grams,” he noted. Consuming 30 to 45 grams of protein at breakfast aids muscle repair and supports functional mobility and metabolic health, according to Layman’s research.

A study in Cell Reports further underscores the value of consuming protein earlier in the day, especially at breakfast, linking a high-protein morning meal rich in branched-chain amino acids to increased muscle mass and strength, particularly in older women. Branched-chain amino acids are special nutrients found in protein that help build and repair muscles, making them crucial for maintaining muscle health as we age.

As we age and adopt more sedentary lifestyles, and/or experience conditions like weight loss or extended bedrest, paying close attention to how we distribute our protein intake throughout the day becomes increasingly important, Layman said.

3. Shake Up Your Protein Routine

Diversifying your protein sources is key to maximizing muscle growth, and protein shakes can be a valuable addition. Arent describes protein powders as another “tool in the toolbox.”

“Protein powders are absorbed faster than whole foods, delivering essential amino acids to your system right after a workout,” Arent said.

For those watching their calorie intake, protein shakes are a convenient way to boost protein without the extra fats or carbs in whole foods.

Research published in Frontiers in Nutrition shows that whey protein is particularly effective for enhancing muscle protein synthesis and recovery after resistance training. It can also help improve performance when consumed post-exercise. On the other hand, casein offers a slower release of amino acids, which is helpful for sustained nourishment.

Whey is the liquid portion that remains after milk has been curdled and strained during cheese production. Whey protein is quickly digested and absorbed. Casein, on the other hand, is the main protein found in the remaining curds that form when milk is coagulated. It is digested more slowly than whey, providing a steady release of amino acids over several hours.

Arent advises choosing a protein powder that fits your dietary needs—whether whey, casein, or plant-based—and opting for third-party tested products to ensure safety and quality.

Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, muscle expert and author of “Forever Strong,” noted in a LinkedIn post that whey is often gentler on sensitive stomachs, whereas casein benefits those who go long periods without eating, like overnight.

4. Carbs Aren’t the Enemy

Carbohydrates often get a bad rap, but they play a vital role in muscle-building and overall performance. Carbs are crucial for fueling intense workouts and providing the energy your muscles need to perform at their best, according to Arent.

“The strongest stimulant for muscle building isn’t protein intake—it’s resistance training,” Arent said. “Carbohydrates fuel those high-intensity workouts, helping you push harder and longer.”

In addition to powering workouts, carbs are essential for replenishing muscle glycogen stores post-exercise. Without adequate carbohydrate intake, the body may start tapping into protein as an energy source, hindering muscle growth.

Incorporating the right amount of carbs into your diet ensures that your body uses protein for what it’s meant to do—building and repairing muscle—rather than as a backup energy source.

5. Don’t Fear the Fats

Healthy fats are often underrated in muscle-building diets, yet they are essential for performance and growth. They provide a rich energy source and help absorb fat-soluble vitamins that aid muscle recovery.

Fats are critical for membrane and cellular integrity, the synthesis of steroid hormones like testosterone, and even neural and cognitive health, Arent said. Testosterone, in particular, stimulates the process of building muscle, making adequate fat intake essential for muscle growth and overall physical performance.

Incorporate healthy fats from sources like nuts, seeds, olive oil, salmon, and avocados to give your body the nutrients it needs for muscle function and overall health.

6. Supplements That Work—And Those That Don’t

While some muscle-building supplements are supported by robust scientific evidence, others fail to live up to their claims. Arent and Lyon provide insights into which supplements are worth your investment—and which are best avoided.

Creatine tops the list as one of the most effective and well-researched supplements for boosting strength and muscle mass. “Creatine should be discussed in the same way we talk about multivitamins,” Arent said. “We’re seeing numerous positive effects, not just for strength and power, but also for brain health and recovery.”

Lyon points out that creatine is naturally found in animal foods, especially in the skeletal muscle of beef, chicken, and fish. Creatine promotes brain health, protects nerve cells, and strengthens the immune system.

Cooking meat reduces its creatine content. She recommends eating one pound of rare or red meat or two pounds of well-done beef or white meat for approximate daily intake.

“You may not need to supplement creatine,” Lyon wrote in a LinkedIn post. However, supplementation can be ideal for older adults, those following plant-based diets, and those with lower meat consumption, as they may have difficulty obtaining enough from food alone.

Creatine helps increase the intensity of workouts, allowing heavier lifting and supporting greater muscle growth. The recommended daily supplement dose is typically around 5 grams, enough to see benefits without unnecessary waste, according to Arent.

In contrast, despite its popularity for joint health, collagen has little to offer in terms of muscle growth. Arent points out that the evidence supporting collagen’s role in building muscle is “negligible to none.”

Amino acids, particularly essential amino acids and branched-chain amino acids are another supplement category with proven benefits. They can support muscle recovery and growth. Arent recommends them for people with dietary gaps or training in a fasted state.

For those looking for a broader supplement strategy, Arent also mentions the potential benefits of fish oil for muscle recovery and reducing inflammation. “Fish oil, especially when high in EPA, may support lean tissue growth and muscle repair,” he added. EPA, or eicosapentaenoic acid, is an omega-3 fatty acid known for its anti-inflammatory properties, which can help reduce muscle soreness and support recovery after exercise.

Incorporating the right supplements—like creatine, high-quality proteins, and possibly fish oil—into your routine can impact your muscle-building journey, said Arent. It’s also important to avoid overhyped products that don’t deliver on their promises, like collagen for muscle growth, and instead focus on what’s proven to work.

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu shows female life expectancy at birth across a selection of high-income countries, based on data compiled by The Commonwealth Fund.

It highlights how women’s life expectancy in the U.S. is at least two years lower than its peers, despite the country spending more on health care…

Data and Key Takeaways

The figures we used to create this graphic are listed in the table below. Data availability for life expectancy at birth varied and is as follows: 2020 (UK), 2021 (CAN, KOR, NZ), 2022 (AUS, GER, JPN, NOR), 2023 (FRA, NETH, SWE, SWIZ).

Life expectancy can be attributed to a number of factors including living standards, lifestyle choices, quality of education, and access to health services.

Based on other data collected by The Commonwealth Fund, access and affordability appears to be a leading problem in the United States.

For example, among high-income countries, American women are the most likely to struggle with paying their medical bills, and are also the most likely to skip needed care due to costs.

America’s outlier status on this measure likely stems from the large number of working-age women who lack health insurance – nearly 10 million – as well as the high copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles that many U.S. women enrolled in commercial health plans face when seeking care.

– KFF (2023)

Further data from The Commonwealth Fund shows that 14% of American women do not have health insurance, rising to 26% among Hispanics.

To see more data on this topic, check out our visual comparison of life expectancy vs. health spending across developed nations.

Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” 

– Abraham Lincoln

It is both apt and ironic that the anniversary of 9/11, which paved the way for the government to overthrow the Constitution, occurs the week before the anniversary of the day the U.S. Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787.

All sides are still waging war on our constitutional freedoms, and “we the people” remain the biggest losers.

This year’s presidential election is no exception.

As Bruce Fein, the former associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, warns in a recent article in the Baltimore Sun, “In November, the American people will have a choice between Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance. But they will not have a choice between an Empire and a Republic.”

In other words, the candidates on this year’s ballot do not represent a substantive choice between freedom and tyranny so much as they constitute a cosmetic choice: the packaging may vary widely, but the contents remain the same.

No matter who wins, the bureaucratic minions of the Security/Military Industrial Complex and its Police State/Deep State partners will retain their stranglehold on power.

Neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris have the greatest of track records when it comes to actually respecting the rights enshrined in the Constitution, despite the rhetoric being trotted out by both sides lately regarding their so-called devotion to the rule of law.

Indeed, Trump has repeatedly called for parts of the Constitution to be terminated, while both Harris and Trump seem to view the First Amendment’s assurance of the right to free speech, political expression and protest as dangerous when used to challenge the government’s power.

This flies in the face of everything America’s founders fought to safeguard.

Those who gave us the Constitution and the Bill of Rights believed that the government exists at the behest of its citizens. It is there to protect, defend and even enhance our freedoms, not violate them.

Unfortunately, although the Bill of Rights was adopted as a means of protecting the people against government tyranny, in America today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned.

In the 23 years since the USA Patriot Act—a massive 342-page wish list of expanded powers for the FBI and CIA—was rammed through Congress in the wake of the so-called 9/11 terror attacks, it has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse.

The Patriot Act drove a stake through the heart of the Bill of Rights, violating at least six of the ten original amendments—the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments—and possibly the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well.

The Patriot Act also redefined terrorism so broadly that many non-terrorist political activities such as protest marches, demonstrations and civil disobedience are now considered potential terrorist acts, thereby rendering anyone desiring to engage in protected First Amendment expressive activities as suspects of the surveillance state.

The Patriot Act justified broader domestic surveillance, the logic being that if government agents knew more about each American, they could distinguish the terrorists from law-abiding citizens—no doubt a reflexive impulse shared by small-town police and federal agents alike.

This, according to Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr., was a fantasy that “had been brewing in the law enforcement world for a long time.” And 9/11 provided the government with the perfect excuse for conducting far-reaching surveillance and collecting mountains of information on even the most law-abiding citizen.

Federal agents and police officers are now authorized to conduct covert black bag “sneak-and-peak” searches of homes and offices while you are away and confiscate your personal property without first notifying you of their intent or their presence.

The law also granted the FBI the right to come to your place of employment, demand your personal records and question your supervisors and fellow employees, all without notifying you; allowed the government access to your medical records, school records and practically every personal record about you; and allowed the government to secretly demand to see records of books or magazines you’ve checked out in any public library and Internet sites you’ve visited (at least 545 libraries received such demands in the first year following passage of the Patriot Act).

In the name of fighting terrorism, government officials are now permitted to monitor religious and political institutions with no suspicion of criminal wrongdoing; prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government has subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation; monitor conversations between attorneys and clients; search and seize Americans’ papers and effects without showing probable cause; and jail Americans indefinitely without a trial, among other things.

The federal government has also made liberal use of its post-9/11 powers, especially through the use (and abuse) of the nefarious national security letters, which allow the FBI to demand personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions and credit companies at the mere say-so of the government agent in charge of a local FBI office and without prior court approval.

In fact, since 9/11, we’ve been spied on by surveillance cameras, eavesdropped on by government agents, had our belongings searched, our phones tapped, our mail opened, our email monitored, our opinions questioned, our purchases scrutinized (under the USA Patriot Act, banks are required to analyze your transactions for any patterns that raise suspicion and to see if you are connected to any objectionable people), and our activities watched.

We’re also being subjected to invasive patdowns and whole-body scans of our persons and seizures of our electronic devices in the nation’s airports. We can’t even purchase certain cold medicines at the pharmacy anymore without it being reported to the government and our names being placed on a watch list.

In this way, “we the people” continue to be terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of compliance by a government that cares nothing for our lives or our liberties.

The bogeyman’s names and faces have changed over time (terrorism, the war on drugs, illegal immigration, a viral pandemic, and more to come), but the end result remains the same: in the so-called name of national security, the Constitution has been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.

A recitation of the Bill of Rights—set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and the like (all sanctioned by Congress, the White House, and the courts)—would understandably sound more like a eulogy to freedoms lost than an affirmation of rights we truly possess.

What we are left with today is but a shadow of the robust document adopted more than two centuries ago. Sadly, most of the damage has been inflicted upon the Bill of Rights.

Here is what it means to live in a permanent state of crisis with our freedoms locked down:

The First Amendment is supposed to protect the freedom to speak your mind, assemble and protest nonviolently without being bridled by the government. It also protects the freedom of the media, as well as the right to worship and pray without interference. In other words, Americans should not be silenced by the government. To the founders, all of America was a free speech zone.

Despite the clear protections found in the First Amendment, the freedoms described therein are under constant assault. Increasingly, Americans are being persecuted for exercising their First Amendment rights and speaking out against government corruption. Activists are being arrested and charged for daring to film police officers engaged in harassment or abusive practices. Journalists are being prosecuted for reporting on whistleblowers. States are passing legislation to muzzle reporting on cruel and abusive corporate practices. Religious ministries are being fined for attempting to feed and house the homeless. Protesters are being tear-gassed, beaten, arrested and forced into “free speech zones.” And under the guise of “government speech,” the courts have reasoned that the government can discriminate freely against any First Amendment activity that takes place within a so-called government forum.

The Second Amendment was intended to guarantee “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Essentially, this amendment was intended to give the citizenry the means to resist tyrannical government. Yet while gun ownership has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as an individual citizen right, Americans remain powerless to defend themselves against red flag gun laws, militarized police, SWAT team raids, and government agencies armed to the teeth with military weapons better suited to the battlefield.

The Third Amendment reinforces the principle that civilian-elected officials are superior to the military by prohibiting the military from entering any citizen’s home without “the consent of the owner.” With the police increasingly training like the military, acting like the military, and posing as military forces—complete with heavily armed SWAT teams, military weapons, assault vehicles, etc.—it is clear that we now have what the founders feared most—a standing army on American soil.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits government agents from conducting surveillance on you or touching you or encroaching on your private property unless they have evidence that you’re up to something criminal. In other words, the Fourth Amendment ensures privacy and bodily integrity. Unfortunately, the Fourth Amendment has suffered the greatest damage in recent years and has been all but eviscerated by an unwarranted expansion of governmental police powers that include strip searches and even anal and vaginal searches of citizens, surveillance (corporate and otherwise), and intrusions justified in the name of fighting terrorism, as well as the outsourcing of otherwise illegal activities to private contractors.

The Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment work in tandem. These amendments supposedly ensure that you are innocent until proven guilty, and government authorities cannot deprive you of your life, your liberty or your property without the right to an attorney and a fair trial before a civilian judge. However, in the new suspect society in which we live, where surveillance is the norm, these fundamental principles have been upended. Certainly, if the government can arbitrarily freeze, seize or lay claim to your property (money, land or possessions) under government asset forfeiture schemes, you have no true rights.

The Seventh Amendment guarantees citizens the right to a jury trial. Yet when the populace has no idea of what’s in the Constitution—civic education has virtually disappeared from most school curriculums—that inevitably translates to an ignorant jury incapable of distinguishing justice and the law from their own preconceived notions and fears. However, as a growing number of citizens are coming to realize, the power of the jury to nullify the government’s actions—and thereby help balance the scales of justice—is not to be underestimated. Jury nullification reminds the government that “we the people” retain the power to ultimately determine what laws are just.

The Eighth Amendment is similar to the Sixth in that it is supposed to protect the rights of the accused and forbid the use of cruel and unusual punishment. However, the Supreme Court’s determination that what constitutes “cruel and unusual” should be dependent on the “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” leaves us with little protection in the face of a society lacking in morals altogether.

The Ninth Amendment provides that other rights not enumerated in the Constitution are nonetheless retained by the people. Popular sovereignty—the belief that the power to govern flows upward from the people rather than downward from the rulers—is clearly evident in this amendment. However, it has since been turned on its head by a centralized federal government that sees itself as supreme and which continues to pass more and more laws that restrict our freedoms under the pretext that it has an “important government interest” in doing so.

As for the Tenth Amendment’s reminder that the people and the states retain every authority that is not otherwise mentioned in the Constitution, that assurance of a system of government in which power is divided among local, state and national entities has long since been rendered moot by the centralized Washington, DC, power elite—the president, Congress and the courts.

Thus, if there is any sense to be made from this recitation of freedoms lost, it is simply this: our individual freedoms have been eviscerated so that the government’s powers could be expanded.

It was no idle happenstance that the Constitution opens with these three powerful words: “We the people.” As the Preamble proclaims:

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.

In other words, it’s our job to make the government play by the rules of the Constitution.

We are supposed to be the masters and they—the government and its agents—are the servants.

We the American people—the citizenry—are supposed to be the arbiters and ultimate guardians of America’s welfare, defense, liberty, laws and prosperity.

Still, it’s hard to be a good citizen if you don’t know anything about your rights or how the government is supposed to operate.

As the National Review rightly asks, “How can Americans possibly make intelligent and informed political choices if they don’t understand the fundamental structure of their government? American citizens have the right to self-government, but it seems that we increasingly lack the capacity for it.”

Americans are constitutionally illiterate.

Most citizens have little, if any, knowledge about their basic rights. And our educational system does a poor job of teaching the basic freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Teachers and school administrators do not fare much better. A study conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis found that one educator in five was unable to name any of the freedoms in the First Amendment.

Government leaders and politicians are also ill-informed. Although they take an oath to uphold, support and defend the Constitution against “enemies foreign and domestic,” their lack of education about our fundamental rights often causes them to be enemies of the Bill of Rights.

So what’s the solution?

Thomas Jefferson recognized that a citizenry educated on “their rights, interests, and duties”  is the only real assurance that freedom will survive.

From the President on down, anyone taking public office should have a working knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and should be held accountable for upholding their precepts. One way to ensure this would be to require government leaders to take a course on the Constitution and pass a thorough examination thereof before being allowed to take office.

Some critics are advocating that students pass the United States citizenship exam in order to graduate from high school. Others recommend that it must be a prerequisite for attending college. I’d go so far as to argue that students should have to pass the citizenship exam before graduating from grade school.

Here’s an idea to get educated and take a stand for freedom: anyone who signs up to become a member of The Rutherford Institute gets a wallet-sized Bill of Rights card and a Know Your Rights card. Use this card to teach your children the freedoms found in the Bill of Rights.

A healthy, representative government is hard work. It takes a citizenry that is informed about the issues, educated about how the government operates, and willing to do more than grouse and complain.

As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, “we the people” have the power to make and break the government.

The powers-that-be want us to remain divided over politics, hostile to those with whom we disagree politically, and intolerant of anyone or anything whose solutions to what ails this country differ from our own. They also want us to believe that our job as citizens begins and ends on Election Day.

Yet there are 330 million of us in this country. Imagine what we could accomplish if we actually worked together, presented a united front, and spoke with one voice.

Tyranny wouldn’t stand a chance.

A few weeks ago, we warned that the entire Chinese experiment was on the verge of collapse because while on one hand the welfare state was crumbling due to Beijing’s stubborn insistence not to stimulate the economy at any cost (normally, it would be admirable to be so stubbornly insistent  on austerity but when austerity threatens social collapse, it may be time to reassess), this was accentuated by an explosion in social unrest as youth unemployment soared, and worker strikes surged across the nation.

While we detailed the various reasons that had pushed China to the edge of the abyss, one section was especially notable: our preview of what was the logical next step in China’s belt-tightening ways – raising the retirement age – and the obvious blowback storm it would generate.

In a key socioeconomic planning meeting concluded last month, the government vowed to improve the social security system by addressing the restrictions faced by migration workers. In response to the country’s aging population, it added that the statutory retirement age — currently 60 years for men and between 50 and 55 for women — would be raised gradually and voluntarily.

To this we added that there is, of course, zero historical record of a “centrally-planned civilization that has managed to raise the retirement age either “voluntarily” and without clashes, violence, and collapse in social cohesion, precisely the three things that Beijing fears the most.”

We concluded by quoting Yun Zhou, a social demographer and family sociologist at the University of Michigan, who warned that “for China’s urban workers, the talk of raising retirement ages is felt as a delayed, if not broken, promise of social welfare coverage” to which we counteded:

Which is precisely why Beijing will have no choice but to blink in the end, and that will mean unleashing a much delayed stimulus bazooka that likes of which have not been seen yet.

Fast-forward to today, when Beijing did just as we expected it would and, in a last ditch attempt to delay the “stimulus bazooka”,  announced it would raise the retirement age for the first time since 1978, a move that will help stem a rapid decline in the labor force but risk angering workers already wrestling with a slowing economy.

Top lawmakers endorsed a plan to delay retirement for employees by as long as five years, Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. Men will retire at 63 instead of 60. Women will retire at 55 instead of 50 for ordinary workers, and 58 instead of 55 for those in management positions. Come to think of it, it is absolutely insane that in China 50 is the retirement age for women. But now that China has finally figured out the brutal reality of its demographic implosion, the money printer comes next.

The retirement change will take place over 15 years starting January, and will allow more people to work longer. This could boost productivity to address the challenges of an aging population, although it is much more likely that all today’s decision will do is spark public anger, and add to the ire from an economy growing at the worst pace in five quarters.

“The timeline of raising the retirement age is pretty gradual. Policymakers probably have taken into account the potential negative impact and calibrated that carefully,” said Michelle Lam, China economist at Societe Generale. Actually sorry Michelle, but nobody in Beijing has calibrated anything as the coming violence will demonstrate.

Shares of companies providing health and elderly care jumped, with Shanghai Everjoy Health rising by the daily limit of 10%. Chalkis Health Industry and Youngy Health both gained more than 6%.

“People may face more health problems if the retirement age is raised. And the pressure of supporting parents may require more elderly care institutions to share the burden,” said Shen Meng

China’s retirement age had been among the world’s lowest – even below that of socialist paradise France – despite significantly increased life expectancy over the decades. A bigger tax base and delayed access to benefits will relieve the pressure on the government to fund pensions as the elderly population rapidly expands.

The retirement age hike is aimed at “adapting to the new situation of demographic development in China, and fully developing and utilizing human resources,” according to the decision by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

The approval followed the previously reported July announcement by the ruling Communist Party that the retirement age will rise in a “voluntary, flexible manner.” Flexible? Maybe. Voluntary? No chance in hell: previous efforts to raise the threshold had failed in the face of public opposition.

The Friday decision left countless people fuming over working into an older age, as well as those who fear greater competition in the job market.

“Are you asking me, when I’m 60, to compete with young people for jobs?” a Weibo user said on the X-like social media platform, where the news was the top trending item and garnered more than 530 million views as of Friday afternoon.

Some also complained about employers’ discrimination against older job candidates, a problem that the government has long vowed to address. Authorities acknowledged the potential short-term pressure on the job market at a press briefing on Friday. Li Zhong, vice minister at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said the gradual pace of the change should lead to a “muted” effect on youth employment, which as everyone knows China stopped reporting last year, only to replace it with a new, “revised” data series… which also just hit a record high.

Just to make sure the outraged workers are even angrier, China’s top legislative body also ruled that starting 2030, workers will need to contribute to their pension accounts for a longer period before they’re eligible to receive payout. This requirement will increase gradually from 15 to 20 years, Bloomberg reported.

“The sustainability of the pension system may be the main consideration behind the move,” said Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered. “Even though the move will increase pressure for the job market, in the long term it helps mitigate the impact from declines in the working-age population.”

Adding insult to injury, lawmakers also called on officials to actively respond to the aging population, protect workers’ rights and improve elderly care. Additionally, it empowered the State Council, China’s cabinet, to adjust these measures as needed.

In other words, absolutely nothing will happen, except for even more government workers being thrown at an unsolvable problem, and even more corruption.

As China’s life expectancy has risen, delaying retirement has become more important to offset the demographic challenges from its decades-long enforcement of a one-child policy, which left a generation of single children supporting a large elderly population. Today, the average Chinese lives to 78 from 66 four decades ago.

People aged 65 and older are expected to make up 30% of the population by around 2035 from 14.2% in 2021, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday. Authorities’ efforts to encourage births have so far done little to reverse the demographic shift, with birth rate falling to a record last year.

“When I was born they said there were too many. When I gave birth they said there were too few. When I wanted to work they said I was too old. And when I retire they say I’m too young,” another Weibo user said.

Authored by Aaron Sobczak via The Mises Institute,

The legacy of 9-11 is full of misinformation and misguided policy initiatives. Rather than taking seriously the motives of the hijackers and their supporters, American politicians went head first into creating a massive surveillance state and growing the American presence overseas. What is worse is that not all of the masterminds are identified by Washington. While we know firmly that actors with connection to the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) were at least aware of the incoming attacks on 9-11, politicians in Washington have rarely attempted to hold the Saudis responsible, and have been quick to strengthen ties between the Gulf monarchy and the United States. 

Osama bin Laden, in his Letter to the American people, laid out the reasons behind 9-11 and other instances of terror and military opposition. It is easy to condemn terrorism and to look at those who hate America as simply barbarians who don’t understand freedom, but terrorists and barbarians will exist in the world for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately for George Bush and presidents after him, the War on Terror was a complete failure, with each campaign against terror simply creating new rebel groups ready to oppose American imperialism. This game of whack-a-mole was predicted by bin Laden in his letter, saying “…then be aware that you will lose this Crusade Bush began, just like the other previous Crusades in which you were humiliated by the hands of the Mujahideen, fleeing to your home in great silence and disgrace.”

Rather than learning lessons from the Soviets in Afghanistan, politicians in Washington jumped into Afghanistan with full force, ready to occupy and radically change the cultural makeup of the central Asian country. The goal of the United States was to go after Al Qaeda and defeat the Taliban, whom Bush asserted was responsible for harboring Al Qaeda. While the Taliban may have been powerless to stop some Al-Qaeda operatives from operating in Afghanistan, regime change in Afghanistan should have been seen as foolish and utopian from the start. The 2021 pull out of the country ended the 20 year occupation, and the following collapse of the American-supported government proved that it was an utter waste. 

Meanwhile, America is consistently a strong ally of Saudi Arabia, a nation which has funded the Taliban for years. The United States has regularly intervened on behalf of the Saudis, including the Gulf War in 1991 where we turned on our then-ally, Saddam Hussein, when he threatened Saudi oil profits. In 2015, then-President Obama, agreed to allow the United States to assist Saudi Arabia in its campaign against the Shia Houthis in Yemen. This relationship was continued by Trump, and resulted in what is widely regarded as genocide towards the Houthi people. Fast-forward to recent years, President Trump worked tirelessly to undermine Iran, Saudi Arabia’s chief enemy, while also having significant business dealings with the Saudi royal family. 

Present day, the United States is addicted to selling arms to Saudi Arabia, with President Biden announcing a $500 billion arms sale in 2023. Despite human rights abuses, ties to 9-11, and regular support for America’s enemies, Riyadh continues to enjoy high levels of support from the United States. It is likely that President Trump will renew talks surrounding his Abraham Accords with Saudi Arabia if he is re-elected in 2024. The Abraham Accords are a series of agreements made between the United States, Israel, and willing Muslim-majority nations. The agreements always involve normalizing relations with Israel, millions of dollars in aid from the United States, as well as other tantalizing items. Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel would have implications of enormous magnitude, as the Saudis carry high levels of influence not just in the Middle East, but also around the world.

It is required of the American people to never forget 9-11, but Washington hopes that the public will forget about Saudi ties with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and why the hijackers committed such acts of terror in the first place. Families of the victims are still pursuing answers and justice regarding the Saudi connection to 9-11, but it is unlikely that they will find peace through this avenue, as this monetary relationship is far too profitable for defense contractors.

Instead of justice, Americans were given endless wars in the Middle East, which have killed an estimated 4.5 million people. A massive surveillance state, trillions of dollars of debt, and relationships with shady foreign dictators are what the American public has inherited from the actions of the elite in Washington. It is time to hold them accountable and demand that the legacy of 9-11 be properly remembered for what it was—a deadly, completely avoidable reaction to American imperialism. Blowback is bound to occur again if politicians in DC continue to treat the world as America’s stage.