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Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

In recent years, so many Americans have become completely obsessed with the ups and downs of the political world, but meanwhile our nation as a whole continues to swirl even further down the toilet with each passing day. 

Virtually any measure of social welfare that you want to look at tells us that the fabric of our society is rapidly deteriorating, and there is no future for us if we stay on this highly self-destructive path.  Sometimes I get criticized for writing articles like this, but there is actually a very positive reason why I talk about these things.  My goal is to greatly shock people with the truth of what we are facing so that they will choose to fundamentally change the direction of their own lives.  And if we get enough people to start changing direction, that could potentially have a dramatic impact on society as a whole.  Unfortunately, most Americans seem to think that things are just fine.  So they are not open to radical solutions, because they generally feel pretty good about their own lives and the nation as a whole.

The choices that we make individually and collectively as a nation are life and death choices.

If we choose what is right, that will lead to great blessings, but if we choose what is wrong that will only lead to great curses.

It has been that way all throughout human history, and great empires have fallen because they consistently made the wrong choices.

When America falls, it will be because of what we have done to ourselves.

The following are 18 signs that the social decay in America is worse than it has ever been before…

#1 America has a very serious drinking problem.  According to new numbers that were just released, the average American consumes 500 alcoholic drinks a year.  That is the highest level in modern American history.

#2 The number of alcohol-related deaths in the United States has reached an all-time record high.  In fact, the number of alcohol-related deaths has actually doubled during the past 20 years.

#3 The number of Americans dying due to a drug overdose has reached an all-time record high.

#4 The number of Americans that are killing themselves has reached an all-time record high.

#5 The suicide rate for young people in the U.S. rose 56 percent in just one recent 10 year period.

#6 The suicide rate for the overall population increased by 41 percent between 1999 and 2016.

#7 The number of mass killings in the United States set a brand new record in 2019.

#8 A whopping 46 percent of all Americans have taken at least one legal pharmaceutical drug within the last 30 days.

#9 The anal cancer death rate in the United States has doubled over the last 15 years.

#10 The mouth cancer rate in the United States has reached an all-time record high.

#11 According to the CDC, there are 110 million STD infections in the United States at any given moment.

#12 Approximately 40 million people in the United States will visit a pornographic website on any given day.

#13 According to our own State Department, the United States is ranked #1 in the entire world in sex trafficking.

#14 Today, approximately 40 percent of all babies in America are born to unmarried women.

#15 Tucker Carlson says that downtown San Francisco is now filthier than downtown Mumbai, India.

#16 One poll discovered that the average American spends 86 hours a month on a cellphone.

#17 An organizer for Bernie Sanders was recently caught on camera saying that U.S. cities will “burn” if President Trump wins again in November.  Sadly, he is probably right.

#18 In one recent year, 17 million more American adults were diagnosed as having “a major depressive disorder”.  It is critical to understand that is not the total of all Americans that have been diagnosed with “a major depressive disorder”.  Rather, that is just the number that were added to the overall total in one year.

Recently, I had someone try to tell me that America has not fallen to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah quite yet.

Really?

The numbers above are exceedingly clear, and they have just continued to get worse year after year after year.

Before I close this article, there is one more thing that I would like to share with you.  The following story more or less sums up how sick and delusional our society has become at this point…

A pedophile told a judge he identifies as an eight-year-old girl as he claimed free speech laws entitle him to look at child sex abuse images. Joseph Gobrick, 45, was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison this week in Grand Rapids, Michigan by judge Paul Denenfeld, who did not buy Gobrick’s strange claims. At his sentencing, Gobrick told the judge: ‘I’ve always been an eight-year-old girl. And even in my drawings and fantasies, I am always an eight-year-old girl.’

Sadly, there are a whole lot more people like him out there.

In fact, the number of registered sex offenders in the United States will soon cross the 1 million mark.

The good news is that the broken pieces of any of our lives can be transformed into a beautiful thing if we are just willing to start making better choices.

In previous generations, God, family and country were top priorities for most Americans, and values that had been proven to work throughout human history were embraced and taught to future generations.

But today patriotism is out of style, the traditional family unit is under relentless attack, and God has been pushed out of every corner of public life.

Instead, we have got hordes of people running around doing whatever they feel like doing, and the result is utter chaos.

What we are doing is clearly not working, and if we keep going down this road there is no possible way that our story ends well.

Both individually and collectively as a nation, there is an opportunity to start making better choices, but if we are going to change direction we better do so very quickly.

Because time is running out, and it won’t be too long before it is gone completely.

Is the market about to hit a speedboat bump?

China was down overnight…

Source: Bloomberg

European markets closed lower on the day…

Source: Bloomberg

US markets slid notably after the US-China trade deal was signed, but the algos were determined to keep stocks green on the day…

The Dow topped 29k once again, Trump mentioned it, and efforts were engaged to keep it there for the first close above the line…

Defensives continue to dominate cyclicals…

Source: Bloomberg

“Off”-Target…

Source: Bloomberg

More bank earnings did nothing for WFC but JPM and C erased some of yesterday’s gains…

Source: Bloomberg

Credit markets were notable laggards today…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields were lower across the curve with the long-end outperforming (2Y -1bps, 30Y -4bps)…

Source: Bloomberg

30Y Yields closed at their lowest in over a month…

Source: Bloomberg

The yield curve continued to flatten significantly…

Source: Bloomberg

The Dollar drifted lower but still in a tight range…

Source: Bloomberg

Cryptos extended the week’s solid gains, led by Bitcoin Cash…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin accelerated to two-month highs, breaking above its 100- and 200DMA…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin is off to its best start to a year since 2012…

Source: Bloomberg

PMs outperformed as crude and copper drifted…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil continued to sink (on IEA fears and major product inventory builds)

And as oil sinks, HACK (the cybersecurity ETF) shows the real Iran risk trade…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold rallied back above pre-Soleimani levels…

Finally, there’s this…

Source: Bloomberg

One Wall Street luminary is bringing together two of the biggest trends in finance: the shift toward AI-driven quantitative trading, and sustainability-focused investing.

On the same day that BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink announced that his firm (the world’s biggest asset manager) is planning to avoid investing in polluters, BBG has published another story that might interest ESG die-hards.

Of course, since BlackRock’s biggest business line depends on passively buying the entire market, we strongly doubt that BR will completely divest itself of most energy-related firms, simply because they remain part and parcel of many of the index’s that BR’s funds track.

But if any wealthy investors were touched by Fink’s letter (even though it’s almost certainly nothing more than a PR stunt), they’re bound to love this: David Vogel, whom Bloomberg describes as a machine-learning “pioneer”, is seeking $1.5 billion for a new fund that aims to make profits by exploiting market inefficiencies linked to climate change.

Seemingly crafted to cash in on the ESG craze, Vogel’s Voloridge Sustainability Fund “will focus on companies affected by events such as floods, fires and natural disasters; firms that invest in efficient technologies; and electric-car makers and their suppliers,” according to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg.

Vogel

Here’s a rundown of the fund’s business plan:

About 30% of the Voloridge fund’s risk will be attributed to the three climate-related strategies, with the remainder made up of Voloridge Investment Management’s medium-term equity strategy – but include ESG rules and rankings. That strategy holds the average trade for about 45 days.

The new fund will also be market neutral – bets on rising shares will be matched by wagers on falling stocks – and invest in companies that are more efficiently spending money on sustainability and ways to address environmental issues, while wagering against those that aren’t. It will short industries usually excluded from ethical investing, such as firearms, tobacco and casinos, but won’t take long positions on them.

The new fund started trading this month using only internal capital. Vogel’s firm is coming off a hot year after its $2 billion Voloridge Fund gained 37% in 2019, while its $1 billion Voloridge Trading Aggressive Fund, which is closed to outside investors, gained about 31%. The firm manages about $3.1 billion.

Vogel has reportedly spent years closely studying data pertaining to climate change, and is also extremely passionate about the issue: He also runs a nonprofit focused on studying the effects of climate change.

According to Bloomberg, Vogel’s biggest challenge will be selling the fund to Wall Street:  Just 23% of hedge fund managers surveyed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. said they believed ESG principles will help them outperform.

But cagey investors might spot another problem: Vogel’s 70-man firm is based in Jupiter, Fla., which is situated along the state’s Atlantic coast. 

If one believes Greta Thunberg & Co., that city will be underwater in a decade or two.

For somebody who’s trying to sell a fund based on the idea of capitalizing on climate change, he sure doesn’t seem too worried about it’s impact.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

When will the American wage-earner finally tire of the skims, scams, fraud and lies that are now the foundations of everyday life?

You’d think that with the Federal Reserve printing trillions of dollars since 2008, we’d all be able to afford nice things. But you’d be wrong: after 11 years of Fed money-printing, nice things are even more out of reach for all but the favored few who’ve received the Fed’s bounty of freshly created currency.

The Fed’s trillions were supposed to trickle down into the real economy, but they never did. All those trillions boosted asset prices and the wealth of the $100 million yachts and private jets elite.

Instead costs have soared while wages have stagnated. If this widening gap between wages and costs were accurately presented, there would a political revolt against the Fed and those few who have benefited so immensely from Fed money-printing: the banks, financiers, corporations buying back their own shares, the owners of high-frequency trading computers, etc.

Despite the best efforts of the government’s “suppress all evidence of runaway cost inflation” functionaries, a few facts have slipped through. Let’s start with income from 1980 to the present, as per the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Note that this is all pre-government-transfer (Social Security, food stamps, etc.) income, both earned (wages) and unearned (investment income).

The top households have done very, very well in the past 20 years of Fed largesse, while the incomes of the bottom 80% have gone nowhere.

Meanwhile, big-ticket costs of living such as rent have skyrocketed: so how do we buy nice things if our wages are stagnant but the cost of essentials is rising? We borrow more money.

Exhibit A for borrowing trillions of dollars to afford nice things is student loan debt. A college degree has long been worshiped as the ultimate Nice Thing everyone who aspires to middle class Nice Things must have, and thanks to cartels and financialization, student debt-serfs now labor under a crushing load of debt:

Healthcare is also a Nice Thing that is no longer affordable. Wages nudge up a few pennies while healthcare costs continue soaring.

A new vehicle is another Nice Thing that’s increasingly out of reach unless you borrow a small fortune. My colleague Bill Rice Jr. did the grunt work of comparing apples to apples on the least expensive autos and discovered a massive divergence between “official inflation” and real-world inflation: according to the BLS, inflation in the category of “New Vehicles” has been practically non-existent for decades, while the real-world cost of new autos has risen by over 200%. No, Autos Are Not “Cheaper Now” (June 28, 2019)

Yes, autos are safer, but are they “better”? Just wait until the electronic motherboard of your Nice Thing vehicle goes out and the repair bill totals thousands of dollars. There goes your “rainy day fund” if you have one, and few do.

The real-world costs are masked or buried until The Moment of Truth: the co-pays of your healthcare are arcane and obscure until the soul-crushing bill arrives, and then your next stop is bankruptcy court.

Meanwhile, the financial assets of the Fed’s Favored Few have grown to the point that they now dominate the economic and political order. Corporations can borrow billions to buy back their own shares, further enriching the already-rich, while in the real world we watch other shoppers returning items to the supermarket shelves–they’re no longer affordable and so the customer has to put the Nice Thing back on the shelf.

While Apple stock soars to new heights, those outside the the Fed’s Favored Few are happy to get a 5-year old hand-me-down iPhone since their old iPhone or Windows OS phone died.

While Mr. Softee (Microsoft) stock soars to new heights, tens of millions of their customers with Windows 7 computers received a notice that Microsoft will no longer support Windows 7, and Mr. Softee “recommends” buying a new computer with Windows 10. Windows 7 is a perfectly adequate operating system, but like the rest of America’s tottering economy, “growth” comes only as a result of planned obsolescence, not actual improvements.

When will the American wage-earner finally tire of the skims, scams, fraud and lies that are now the foundations of everyday life? Probably never, until the toll is paid in failed health and breakdown. Tax donkeys and debt-serfs can be whipped to continue for only so long, and then they break down and cannot go on any longer. The trickle of tax donkeys and debt-serfs who can no longer go on will swell to a flood, and the Fed’s Favored Few will finally face the life-changing consequences of the Fed’s lopsided giveaway to the super-wealthy.

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My recent books:

Audiobook edition now available:
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)
(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).

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

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

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

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