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Speaking on Bloomberg Television Friday, Nouriel Roubini warned the stock market is completely disconnected from the dire economic outlook of a waning recovery amid continued depressionary pressures. 

Roubini told “Bloomberg Surveillance” the global economy is slowing, and another downturn could be ahead if a vaccine is not found in short order. 

He said the shape of the recovery is transforming from a “V” and is “becoming a U and the U could become a W if we don’t find a vaccine and don’t have enough stimulus.”

Roubini, the chief executive of Roubini Macro Associates Inc., said the recovery on Wall Street doesn’t reflect the real economy:

 “Main Street is struggling,” he said.

Roubini said Europe’s policies to protect workers are much more robust than the U.S., where tens of millions of folks are jobless, hungry, and face eviction. 

“The European system of greater social cohesion gives you better economic outcomes than the one of the United States that is just Wild West capitalism,” he said.”That’s why the unemployment rate barely went up in Germany or even in Italy, while in the U.S. we’ve had double-digit unemployment rate and actually even worse, considering underemployment and so on.”

Jobs data this week showed the U.S. labor market recovery continues to reverse. Another million Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, back above one million and up notably from the 971k (revised higher) last week, and notably worse than the 920k expected…

The Federal Reserve’s minutes on Wednesday from its July meeting highlighted doubts about the “V-shaped” recovery, showing that the swift labor market rebound seen in May and June had likely slowed. Quoting Rabobank’s global strategist Michael Every, he told clients: “Of course, the Fed agreed that the virus is weighing heavily on the economy: is that some kind of surprise? Apparently, it was.”

While it was a surprise to many on Wall Street who have turned a blind eye to the utter destruction of the labor market and small businesses, the Fed’s monetary cannon has injected trillions of dollars into the economy markets to reinflate asset prices and distract everyone from the worst economic crash since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The party on Wall Street, driven by liquidity via central banks has reinflated financial assets to nosebleed valuations as the labor market implodes.  

The party on Wall Street is also concentrated in a handful of technology stocks, about five to be exact. If Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google were removed from the S&P500 index, the overall main equity index would be flat on the year, as opposed to +35%.

As for the rest of the world, a resurgence of coronavirus across the Asia Pacific, Europe, and the U.S. have stalled the global recovery. The risk now is the world economy slumps in the back half of the year. 

The consequence of central banks saving Wall Street at the expense of main street will result in widening wealth inequality to unimaginable levels that will continue to lead to a socio-economic implosion of the middle class. 

Authored by Kerry McDonald via FEE.org/The Libertarian Institute,

As remote learning creates more distance between school districts and students, school and state officials are clinging to control however they can. From sending Child Protective Services (CPS) agents to investigate charges of neglect in homes where children missed Zoom classes last spring, to proposing “child well-being checks” in homes this fall, government schools and related agencies are panicking over parents having increased influence over their children’s care and education during the pandemic.

A front page article in Boston Sunday Globe days ago describes the experiences of several parents who were interrogated by CPS agents last spring when their children missed remote classes or failed to submit homework assignments amidst pandemic-related school shutdowns. Some parents didn’t have Internet access and were blindsided by the CPS investigations of “virtual truancy.” One Latina mother featured in the Globe story is Em Quiles, who, like many parents last spring, scrambled to care for her children and continue to work during tremendous upheaval and uncertainty.

According to the Globe:

Then in June, Quiles was stunned to receive a call from the state’s Department of Children and Families. The school had accused Quiles of neglect, she was told, because the 7-year-old missed class and homework assignments.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Quiles lived one of the worst nightmares for a parent: A neglect charge, if substantiated, can lead to removing a child from their home.

While most of the parents featured in the Globe story were ultimately exonerated, previous interaction with CPS, even if unfounded, can act as a Scarlet Letter for parents, haunting them for years to come. More troubling, parents singled out for CPS enforcement are disproportionately low-income and minority, often lacking the resources to defend themselves against government overreach. According to the Globe: “Most of the families caught up in remote learning allegations are Latino or Black, groups that are likely to be overrepresented in state foster care at all times.”

School districts across the country have a history of activating CPS against parents who stray from a district’s command and control. An in-depth 2018 investigative report by The Hechinger Report and HuffPost revealed that schools increasingly use child protective services as a “weapon against parents” — especially parents who lack the means to fight back.

Kamala Harris: “We Are Putting Parents On Notice”

Truancy has long been a trigger for CPS investigations, and now virtual truancy seems poised to accelerate these practices during the pandemic. This is particularly concerning because, just as in typical truancy cases, virtual truancy is often prompted by factors other than parental neglect. Special needs students and students with disabilities or health conditions may have more school absences, and they may find virtual learning to be uniquely challenging. A 2019 HuffPost article entitled The Human Costs of Kamala Harris’ War on Truancy, found that strict truancy laws and enforcement terrorized families, with parents being pulled out of their homes in handcuffs and sent to jail.

Cheree Peoples, one of the parents spotlighted in the HuffPot piece, whose daughter missed school frequently due to sickle cell anemia, was awakened in the early hours by police officers who arrested her for truancy. She told the HuffPost: “You would swear I had killed somebody.”

The HuffPost article, revealed that then Democratic presidential candidate and now the presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, was responsible for much of the heightened aggression toward parents regarding truancy. As California’s attorney general, Harris was a crusader against truancy and was instrumental in toughening criminal prosecution of parents whose children missed too much school. According to HuffPost, Harris “persuaded the state legislature to adopt harsher penalties for truancy. Under the new law, the parent or guardian of a young, truant child could face a fine of $2,500 or more — or one year in jail. Harris pushed hard for the law as she was running for attorney general, and it passed just as she won the election. ‘We are putting parents on notice,’ Harris said at her 2011 inauguration.”

Proposed Child Wellbeing Checks During COVID-19

Criminal investigations of child neglect tied to virtual truancy are set to skyrocket this fall, as school districts across the country adopt remote learning plans. Worried that parents can’t be trusted to care for their own children, some education officials have proposed large scale “child well-being checks,” by government agents. Earlier this month, the Tennessee Department of Education announced that it would be performing these well-being checks on children across the state. This plan created such an uproar among Tennessee parents and conservative lawmakers that the proposed initiative was withdrawn and its guidelines removed from the education department’s website.

Despite this immediate victory, all parents should remain on alert. School and state officials, aided by high-profile academics, will likely seek to increase CPS involvement in family affairs during remote learning and beyond. Elizabeth Bartholet, the Harvard Law School professor who made headlines last spring when she called for a presumptive ban on homeschooling, spoke out last week in favor of increased CPS action this fall. In an interview with Harvard Law Today, Bartholet said: “My overall general recommendation is that educators and CPS agencies need to recognize the level of problems that kids at home are now facing in terms of risk of both education and maltreatment, and come up with some creative new solutions.”

In the interview, Bartholet acknowledged the heightened interest in independent homeschooling, as more parents choose to forgo district learning this fall and consider separating from their school district going forward. According to Bartholet: “Roughly three percent of the population is now homeschooled. Let’s say that increases to six percent post-COVID. Legislators and other policymakers may look at that and say, ‘Wow, now this is a big phenomenon, it may continue to grow. Of course, it shouldn’t be just this lawless world out there with no rules and regulations and oversight. Of course, this should be part of our overall regulated educational system.’”

As I’ve written previously, homeschooling should not be part of the overall regulated education system. It is a form of private education that is separate and distinct from state schooling, and many parents are now finding that they prefer homeschooling over other education options. Parents are pulling their children out of school this fall in record numbers, dissatisfied with school reopening plans and aiming for greater educational freedom and flexibility. So many parents submitted online intent to homeschool forms in North Carolina last month that it crashed the state’s nonpublic education website. Perhaps not surprisingly, a recent report by a law professor at North Carolina’s Duke University called for greater regulation and oversight of the state’s growing ranks of homeschoolers.

As parents pull away from state-controlled education and assume greater responsibility for their children’s learning, the state will hasten efforts to maintain and expand its authority through its monopoly on the use of force. From virtual truancy claims and increased CPS investigations that disproportionately target poor parents and families of color, to calls for child well-being checks and more homeschooling regulations, the state will not willingly yield control of children’s education to parents.

Parents should strongly reject these heavy-handed efforts to interfere with family life during and after the pandemic, and be especially vigilant about helping low-income and minority parents to resist as well. Minimizing state power while maximizing individual liberty is the hallmark of a free society. Now more than ever, parents are exercising and securing their freedom to raise and educate their children as they choose. Parents may have been put on notice, but they are pushing back and opting out.

With Main Street still largely in disarray, despite the billions of dollars left in Fed-backed lending programs for small and medium-sized businesses and Ice Cube asking “where’s our f**king bailout?”, we imagine the millions of newly impoverished Americans can appreciate the fact that America’s jet-setting private equity barons are still doing their thing. After all, a pandemic is trivial compared with Steve Schwarzman’s insatiable lust for more – more assets, more capital, more recognition.

As America’s obsession with race and lineage intensifies thanks to the left’s embrace of ‘identity politics’, Schwarzmann has found a clever way to cash in on this trend, by paying top dollar for Ancestry.com. In a $4.5 billion deal – a staggering number, especially considering that Silver Lake and Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund acquired their majority stake for just $2.6 billion 4 years ago.

Though GIC will retain a significant minority stake, the deal appears to be a play for a quick IPO turnaround (though they may need to move quickly).

Since Blackstone is buying a relatively mature company with a huge marketing budget and a DNA network of 18 million people, we suspect Schwarzman’s plan is to pray that the market holds up (we’ll see what his buddy Jerome Powell has to say about that during his virtual Jackson Hole speech), at least long enough for Blackstone to take Ancestry.com public, and saddle retail investors with any long-term losses.

According to Blackstone’s press shop, the deal will be the first acquisition of the “largest ever private equity fund” which was recently raised by the $564 billion AUM asset manager, leaving it flush with cash during a period of market frenzy utterly at odds with the underlying economic fundamentals.

Bloomberg reports that deal talks regarding Ancestry.com started a few months ago when much of the world was still at home and looking for things to do, which increased the appeal of its by-mail business, which saw a boost in traffic.

We can see a slightly more sinister side to the deal: Pretty soon, Schwarzman & Co. will know which Americans’ ancestors owned slaves, and which did not.

Read the press release below:

* * *

New York, August 5, 2020 – Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) have reached a definitive agreement to acquire Ancestry® from Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity, Permira, and other equity holders for a total enterprise value of $4.7 billion. Current Ancestry investor GIC will continue to retain a significant minority stake in the company. This transaction represents the first control acquisition for Blackstone’s eighth vintage of its flagship private equity vehicle.

Ancestry is the global leader in digital family history services, operating in more than 30 countries with more than 3 million paying subscribers across its Ancestry online properties and more than $1 billion in annual revenue. The company harnesses the information found in family trees and historical records to help people gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Ancestry also operates a market-leading consumer genomics business, which informs consumers about their heritage and key health characteristics.

David Kestnbaum, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “We are very excited to partner with Ancestry and its management team. We believe Ancestry has significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly interested in learning more about their family histories and themselves. We look forward to investing behind further data, functionality, and product development across Ancestry’s market leading platform to continue to provide a differentiated service. Our investment is a prime example of Blackstone’s continued, high-conviction focus on investing in growing, digital consumer businesses, which are resilient in the current environment and beyond.” Sachin Bavishi, a Managing Director at Blackstone, added: “Ancestry’s large network of highly engaged users, unique content, and scaled technology platform have made it a market leader. We look forward to contributing Blackstone’s resources and leveraging our strong expertise in digital content to further accelerate Ancestry’s growth.”

Margo Georgiadis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry, said: “Our entire leadership team is thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Blackstone to further accelerate Ancestry’s global leadership in family history and consumer genomics, and to help us achieve our mission to empower journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. Looking ahead, in collaboration with Blackstone, we will continue to leverage our unique content, powerhouse consumer brand and technology platform to expand our global Family History business while bringing to life our long-term vision of personalized preventive health.” Howard Hochhauser, Ancestry’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, added: “We want to thank Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity and Permira for their support in helping set up Ancestry for our next phase of growth.” Stephen Evans and John Rudella, Managing Director and Director at Silver Lake, respectively, said: “We thank Ancestry’s management team, employees, and our co-investors on the board including GIC and Spectrum, as well as our Board Chairman Tim Sullivan, for their partnership during a period characterized by impressive growth, accelerating technology innovation and expansion across new products. We will be cheering on from the sidelines going forward, and hope and expect that the company will achieve continued success under Blackstone’s ownership.”

Choo Yong Cheen, Chief Investment Officer of Private Equity at GIC, said: “Ancestry is the clear leader in helping people discover, preserve, and share their family histories. As a long-term investor, we are proud to have contributed to Ancestry’s family history mission since 2012, and we are confident the team will continue to innovate for years to come. We appreciate the contributions of Silver Lake, Permira, and Spectrum and look forward to partnering with the Blackstone and Ancestry teams for this next phase of growth.”

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLCserved as lead financial advisor to Ancestry. Barclays also served as a financial advisor to Ancestry. Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal advisor to Ancestry and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal advisor to Blackstone. Dechert LLP is serving as legal advisor to GIC.Committed debt financing for the transaction was provided by Bank of America and Credit Suisse.

* * *

Source: Blackstone

After all major indices rose almost tick for tick overnight following the COVID treatment headlines, the cash market open has seen a very aggressive flush in Small Caps (into the red) and bid for Nasdaq as the growth/value rotation accelerates hard…

This follows some malarkey in VIX this morning that saw a mini-flash-crash around 0800ET…

Additionally retail investors are marooned…

• Robinhood is having problems since 9:41 AM EDT – DownDetector

• TD Ameritrade is having problems since 9:33 AM EDT – DownDetector

How much longer can this farce continue?

With earnings season now over, looking at the week ahead the highlight will be the Jackson Hole gathering on Thursday and Friday, where central bankers will be meeting (virtually this year) for the annual economic symposium. This theme this year is “Navigating the Decade Ahead: Implications for Monetary Policy”, and one of the key highlights will be Fed Chair Powell’s speech on Thursday on the topic of the monetary policy review. As DB’s Henry Allen writes, the bank’s US economists note that while it’s possible that the policy review results will be released along with Powell’s appearance, they think it’s more likely that he summarizes the key findings and outlines the likely implications for the Fed moving forward. They think instead the review results won’t be released until the next meeting in mid-September. In addition to Powell, central bank watchers will have plenty of other speakers to look out for at the gathering, including Bank of England Governor Bailey, ECB chief economist Lane, and Bank of Canada Governor Macklem.

Turning to politics, attention will also be on the Republican National Convention taking place this week from Monday to Thursday, even if there aren’t likely to be as many market-moving headlines compared to Jackson Hole. Nevertheless, a CNN report said that President Trump would be appearing on every night of the convention, according to a Republican familiar with the convention planning, on top of his own speech planned for the Thursday night. So that could generate some news depending on the nature of any remarks. There are just over 10 weeks to go now until election day on November 3rd, and according to the polling averages, President Trump continues to lag behind Biden.

On the data side, we don’t have many top-tier releases with the US jobs report not until the following week. However, tomorrow will see both the Ifo’s business climate indicator from Germany, as well as the Conference Board’s consumer confidence from the US. The recent breakdown in fiscal negotiations in Congress could weigh on consumer attitudes, and DB economists see the number falling to 92.0 (vs. 92.6 in July).

Courtesy of Deutsche Bank, here is a day-by-day calendar of events:

Monday

• Data: US Chicago Fed July National Activity Index
• Politics: Republican National Convention begins

Tuesday

• Data: Germany final Q2 GDP, August Ifo business climate, US June FHFA house price index, August Conference Board consumer confidence, July new home sales, August Richmond Fed manufacturing index
• Central Banks: Fed’s Daly speaks
• Earnings: Salesforce, Medtronic, Intuit, Autodesk

Wednesday

• Data: US weekly MBA mortgage applications, preliminary July durable goods orders, nondefence capital goods orders ex air
• Central Banks: ECB’s Schnabel and BoE’s Haldane speak
• Earnings: Royal Bank of Canada

Thursday

• Data: China July industrial profits, Japan June all industry activity index, final July machine tool orders, France August business confidence, Euro Area July M3 money supply, Italy June industrial sales, industrial orders, US second reading Q2 GDP, weekly initial jobless claims, July pending home sales, August Kansas City Fed manufacturing activity
• Central Banks: Economic Symposium at Jackson Hole commences, Fed Chair Powell, Bank of Canada Governor Macklem and ECB’s Lane speak, Bank of Korea monetary policy decision
• Earnings: Dollar General, HP
• Politics: President Trump speaks at Republican National Convention

Friday

• Data: Germany September GfK consumer confidence, France preliminary August CPI, final Q2 GDP, Italy August consumer confidence index, Euro Area final August consumer confidence, Canada June GDP, US July personal income, personal spending, advance goods trade balance, PCE deflator, preliminary July wholesale inventories, August MNI Chicago PMI, final August University of Michigan consumer sentiment index
• Central Banks: Economic Symposium at Jackson Hole concludes, BoE Governor Bailey speaks

Finally, here is Goldman’s take on the key events in the US, where the key event this week is Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. The key economic data releases this week are the durable goods report on Wednesday, the second Q2 GDP estimate on Thursday, and the personal income report on Friday.

Monday, August 24

• There are no major economic data releases scheduled.

Tuesday, August 25

• 09:00 AM FHFA house price index, June (consensus +0.3%, last -0.3%)
• 09:00 AM S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, June (GS flat, consensus +0.10%, last +0.04%): We estimate the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index remained unchanged in June, following a 0.04% increase in May.
• 10:00 AM Conference Board consumer confidence, August (GS 94.0, consensus 93.0, last 92.6): We estimate that the Conference Board consumer confidence index increased by 1.4pt to 94.0 August, as an improving virus situation and rising stock prices could boost confidence.
• 10:00 AM New home sales, July (GS +2.5%, consensus +1.2%, last +13.8%): We estimate that new home sales rose by 2.5% in July, partly reflecting a boost from higher mortgage applications.
• 10:00 AM Richmond Fed Manufacturing, August (consensus 10, last 10)
• 03:25 PM San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly (FOMC non-voter) speaks: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daily will discuss inequity and Covid-19 in a virtual panel hosted by the Rotary Club of Oakland.

Wednesday, August 26

• 08:30 AM Durable goods orders, July preliminary (GS +5.5%, consensus +4.5%, last +7.6%); Durable goods orders ex-transportation, July preliminary (GS +2.5%, consensus +1.7%, last +3.6%); Core capital goods orders, July preliminary (GS +2.5%, consensus +2.0%, last +3.4%); Core capital goods shipments, July preliminary (GS +2.5%, consensus +2.0%, last +3.3%): We expect durable goods orders to increase 5.5% in the preliminary June report, reflecting improvements in net aircraft orders. We expect a 2.5% increase in core capital goods orders, given the continued industrial rebound.

Thursday, August 27

• 08:30 AM GDP, Q2 second (GS -31.6%, consensus -32.5%, last -32.9%); Personal consumption, Q2 second (GS -32.0%, consensus -34.6%, last -34.6%): We estimate the second estimate of Q2 GDP will show an upward revision to -31.6% (qoq ar), compared to -32.9% as reported in the advance release. The quarterly services survey revealed more resilience in consumer activity than the BEA assumed in the first vintage of Q2 GDP, with surprisingly modest weakness in healthcare services and personal and household services. Accordingly, we expect a 2.6pp upward revision to real consumption growth to -32.0%. Given the weakness in motion picture and music recording revenues, we look for a sizable downward revision to Q2 intellectual property investment.
• 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended August 22 (GS 1,000k, consensus 1,000k, last 1,106k); Continuing jobless claims, week ended August 15 (consensus 14,400k, last 14,844k): We estimate initial jobless claims fell to 1000k in the week ended August 22.
• 09:10 AM Fed Chair Powell (FOMC voter) speaks: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will deliver a speech titled “Monetary Policy Framework Review” at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank’s annual Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, hosted as a virtual event. The topic of the conference this year is titled “Navigating the Decade Ahead: Implications for Monetary Policy.” Prepared text and media Q&A are expected. The event will be livestreamed.
• 10:00 AM Pending home sales, July (GS +4.0%, consensus +2.0%, last +16.6%): We estimate that pending home sales increased by 4.0% in July based on regional home sales data, following a 16.6% surge in June. We have found pending home sales to be a useful leading indicator of existing home sales with a one-to-two-month lag.

Friday, August 28

• 08:30 AM Personal income, July (GS +0.1%, consensus –0.4%, last -1.1%); Personal spending, July (GS +2.0% consensus +1.5%, last +5.6%); PCE price index, July (GS +0.40%, consensus +0.4%, last +0.37%); Core PCE price index, July (GS +0.45%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.20%); PCE price index (yoy), July (GS +0.98%, consensus +1.0%, last +0.75%); Core PCE price index (yoy), July (GS +1.24%, consensus +1.2%, last +0.95%): Based on details in the PPI, CPI, and import price reports, we forecast that the core PCE price index rose by 0.45% month-over-month in July, corresponding to a 1.24% increase from a year earlier. Additionally, we expect that the headline PCE price index increased by 0.40% in July, corresponding to a 0.98% increase from a year earlier. We expect a 0.1% increase in personal income in July and a 2.0% increase in personal spending.
• 08:30 AM Advance goods trade balance, July (GS -$69.9bn, consensus -$72.2bn, last -$71.0bn): We estimate that the goods trade deficit decreased by $1.1bn to $69.9bn in July compared to the final June report, as both exports and imports likely rose further.
• 08:30 AM Wholesale inventories, July preliminary (consensus -0.8%, last -1.4%)
• 09:45 AM Chicago PMI, August (GS 51.9, consensus 52.5, last 51.9): We estimate that the Chicago PMI remained unchanged at 51.9 in August—following a 15.3pt increase in July—reflecting mixed manufacturing surveys so far in the month.
• 10:00 AM University of Michigan consumer sentiment, August final (GS 73.0, consensus 72.8, last 72.8): We expect the University of Michigan consumer sentiment to edge 0.2pt higher from the preliminary estimate for August, in which the index rose 0.3pt. The report’s measure of 5- to 10-year inflation expectations increased by one-tenth to 2.7% in the preliminary report.

Source: Deustche Bank, Goldman, BofA

Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

I was asked for comments by Sputnik News the other day about Democratic Nominee Joe Biden’s assertion he would lock down the entire country if the scientists told him to.

As you can imagine I didn’t hold back.

The idea that the scientists who have been the most vocal in advising President Trump and the other world leaders, would give Biden the honest answer about how to deal with COVID-19 at this point is beyond laughable.

I’m sorry but the official arbiters of “Science!” have done nothing but lie, delay, obfuscate and oversell the threat of this virus. And their miscommunication, intentional, well-meaning, or just incompetent, has cost humanity hundreds of billions if not trillions in accumulated wealth and time.

Those things translate directly into lives lost, opportunities destroyed.

Has Biden not looked around and seen the multiplying protests worldwide against these idiotic and tyrannical lock downs?

Biden’s handlers are telling him to campaign on this because they are trying to hold together The State, the religion of the Left, as the final arbiter of truth and societal best practices while it fails right in front of our eyes.

And I believe this is why they are trying so hard to hold onto these narratives so tightly. No one wants to watch their belief system wither and die on the vine.

No one is comfortable with having their fundamental premises which form their worldview be revealed as inadequate to the task. But that is exactly what is happening to progressives and socialists of all stripes.

All of the social welfare systems are failing from over-promising and imminent failures to produce.

Everything that has been unleashed upon us in 2020 is a direct result of this mad scramble to claw back the power of the White House by any means necessary and it’s woken a lot of people out of their slumber as to what they can expect from their government.

We selected the wrong man for president four years ago and Congress has worked nonstop, on both sides of the political aisle, to ensure he doesn’t achieve anything of lasting significance.

Somehow they think continuing to lie about him and talk down to us will somehow become endearing.

So, in the context of that and the freak show that was this year’s Democratic National Convention I answered Sputnik’s questions with a frankness that, honestly, surprised me.

My full answers via email follow (you be the judge):

President Donald Trump has resisted calls for another shutdown despite a spike in coronavirus cases in many states this summer. Trump and members of his administration have argued a new lockdown would cause irreparable harm to the economy. At the same time, Joe Biden is considering such an option if necessary. What is your opinion on this matter?

I’ve been quite clear that the Democrats have used COVID-19 as an excuse to destroy the U.S. economy and blame it on President Trump.  I’ve written extensively on the subject (here). 

Biden is playing to his base that wrongly believes the path to safety from the virus is more draconian lockdowns rather than building herd immunity, as we’ve seen in places like Sweden.  This is an extension of a concerted effort to destabilize the U.S. and continue a climate of fear over a virus with an effective lethality rate lower than the annual flu.  

We are six months into this planned destruction of all facets of U.S. society, and most of the West for that matter, for the purpose of instituting police state like controls over our everyday lives, undermining the idea of personal rights in a climate of hysterical fear.

President Biden does not have the authority under the Constitution to do this anyway and would have to suspend it in order to ‘legally’ do what he’s suggesting. So, this is a pathetic bluff by desperate people to hold onto a failing narrative that COVID-19 is something so deadly it necessitates wholesale change to our way of life.

​How will a repeated lockdown affect the economy?

It would be further devastating.  Economic conditions are only good on paper now because of the massive stimulus spending from the CARES Act.  That spending is ending.  We’re already seeing it in the consumer spending data. 

Trump has won the showdown over the next round of spending with Speaker Nancy Pelosi caving the other day.  Trump will send out another round of checks between now and the election and the Democrats are desperate to counter this move, which they can’t.  

 Will the country’s economy survive it? 

As I’ve already said, the goal is to destroy the U.S. by engaging in the rankest form of political extortion.  It’s already bad enough that we have to deal with the growing supply disruptions and the first wave of bankruptcies, locking the economy down again would ensure that more people die from stress, abuse, theft and domestic violence than the virus would ever take. 

The people most susceptible to this virus are the ones most vulnerable to basic goods disruptions by locking down the low-risk and the productive.  

Locking down the healthy is honestly moronic, and if I believed for one second that Biden was actually crafting his policy points, then I would present his comments as prima facia evidence of his declining mental capacity.

“We cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with”, Joe Biden said.

That’s a nice soundbite. 

Too bad it runs completely counter to thousands of years of human history where the sick and at-risk are protected and/or quarantined while the healthy face the threat and keep society functioning. 

Biden is trying to make sound reasonable a policy plank that is nothing less than fear-mongering.  

How likely is it that the economic situation in the country would have been different if Biden had been president? 

​They would never have run this COVID-19 scam on us in the first place.

They would have treated it exactly the way Obama did Ebola, something to worry about but the push for universal vaccination, medical passports and the rest would have been done quietly behind the scenes, rather than out front. The threat that Trump’s second term and Brexit represent to the globalist, neoliberals, who I call The Davos Crowd, is palpable and they want control over the White House at any cost.

Biden would still be presiding over a financial crisis, but the political crisis in the U.S. wouldn’t look like it does today with the degradation of the two sides, rioting in cities subsidized by local governments, and counter-productive lockdowns. 

How realistic is his economic programme in this situation?

​Completely not realistic at all.  The Green New Deal is nothing more than a bailout for the global financial system which is over-leveraged and on its last legs.  Now they are engineering the destruction of trillions in middle and lower class wealth to ensure there is no opposition to their continued rule, though their perfect technocratic state, The European Union. 

Trump, for all of his faults, understands that the U.S. is being sacrificed here and he’s doing his imperfect best to try and stop it from happening.  But the only way to balance the books now is currency debasement of a type and kind we’ve yet to imagine which will wipe out the middle class in the U.S. even further, erode what’s left of the rule of law and bring about a dark age of humanity.  

That’s what Biden’s been told to say in this statement.  It’s evil and it should be rejected by everyone. 

*  *  *

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