Tag: finance

Authored by Daniel Lacalle via The Mises Institute,

Global debt is expected to soar to a record $277 trillion by the end of the year, according to the Institute of International Finance. Developed markets’ total debt—government, corporate, and households—jumped to 432 percent of GDP in the third quarter. Emerging market debt-to-GDP hit nearly 250 percent in the third quarter, with China reaching 335 percent, and for the year the ratio is expected to reach about 365 percent of global GDP. Most of this massive increase of $15 trillion in one year comes from government and corporates’ response to the pandemic. However, we must remember that the total debt figure had already reached record highs in 2019, before any pandemic and in a period of growth.

The main problem is that most of this debt is unproductive debt. Governments are using the unprecedented fiscal space to perpetuate bloated current spending, which generates no real economic return, so the likely outcome is that debt will continue to rise after the pandemic crisis is ended and that the level of growth and productivity achieved will not be enough to reduce the financial burden on public accounts.

In this context, the World Economic Forum has presented a roadmap for what has been called “the Great Reset.” It is a plan that aims to take the current opportunity to “to shape an economic recovery and the future direction of global relations, economies, and priorities.” According to the World Economic Forum, the world must also adapt to the current reality by “directing the market to fairer results, ensur[ing] investments are aimed at mutual progress including accelerating ecologically friendly investments, and [starting] a fourth industrial revolution, creating digital economic and public infrastructure.” These objectives are obviously shared by all of us, and the reality shows that the private sector is already implementing these ideas, as we see technology, renewable investments, and sustainability plans thriving all over the world.

We are witnessing in real time the proof that businesses adapt rapidly and provide better goods and services at affordable prices for everyone achieving a level of progress in environmental targets and welfare that would be unthinkable if governments were in charge.

This crisis shows that the world has escaped the risk of scarcity and hyperinflation thanks to a private sector that has surpassed all expectations in a seemingly unsurmountable crisis.

The overall message of the World Economic Forum sounds promising. Only three words spoil the entire positive message: “directing the market.”

The risk of governments taking these ideas to promote massive interventionism is not small.

The idea of the Great Reset has been quickly embraced by the most bureaucratic and government-intervened economies as a validation of rising government implication in the economy. However, this is incorrect.

The idea that governments will promote an economic system that reduces inflation, improves competition, and empowers citizens is more than farfetched. As such, the World Economic Forum cannot ignore the risk of government intervention within this idea of a Great Reset that does not need to be enforced, as it has already been in place for years.

Technology, competition, and open markets will do more for sustainability, social welfare, and the environment than government action, because even the best-intentioned governments will try to defend at any cost three things that go against the well-intentioned messages of the World Economic Forum: governments will continue to try to defend their national champions, rising inflation, and more control of the economy. Those three things work against the idea of a new world with better and more affordable goods and services for all, with better welfare, lower unemployment, and a thriving high-productivity private sector.

We should always be worried about well-intentioned ideas when the first ones to embrace them are those who are against freedom and competition.

There is an even darker part. Many interventionists have welcomed this proposal as an opportunity to wipe out the debt. It all sounds nice until we understand what it really entails. There is an enormous risk that governments will use the excuse of canceling part of their debt with a decision to cancel a large part of our savings. We must remember that this is not even a conspiracy theory. Most proponents of the modern monetary theory start their premise by stating that government deficits are matched by households and private sector savings, so there is no problem…Well, the only minor problem (note the irony) is matching one’s debt with another’s savings. If we understand the global monetary system, we will then understand that erasing trillions of government debt would also mean erasing trillions of citizens’ savings.

The idea of a more sustainable, cleaner, and social economic system is not new, and it does not need governments to impose it. It is happening as we speak thanks to competition and technology. Governments should not be allowed to reduce and limit citizens’ freedom, savings, and real wages even for a well-intentioned promise. The best way to ensure that governments or large corporations are not going to use this excuse to eliminate freedom and individual rights is by promoting free markets and more competition. Forward-thinking investments and welfare-enhancing ideas do not need to be nudged or imposed; consumers are already making companies all over the world implement increasingly higher sustainability and environmentally friendly policies. This market-oriented approach is more successful than letting the risk of interventionism and government meddling take hold, because once it happens it is almost impossible to undo.

If we want a more sustainable world, we need to defend sound money policies and less government intervention. Free markets, not governments, will make this world better for all.

The same massive government intervention that brought us here is not going to get us out of here.

The Times reports criminal gangs in the UK are launching daring raids on highways to steal PlayStations, TVs, mobile phones, cigarettes, and cosmetics from tractor-trailers, all while moving more than 50 mph. 

Since the beginning of the year, police say at least 27 examples of these highway heists have been reported to authorities, including crooks climbing on the hood of a vehicle with cutting gear to break into the back of tractor-trailers to steal merchandise. 

These highways thefts are something out of the Fast and Furious movies or Grand Theft Auto video games. Detectives are worried that criminals will be stepping up highway robberies ahead of Christmas. 

The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (Navcis) urged trucking companies to increase security measures on their routes to thwart such thefts. In the first nine months of the year, Navcis said it received 3,055 notifications of cargo crime. 

The Times, citing one career criminal, said the weakest point of the supply chain, exposing valuable merchandise, are on highways, has increasingly become the focus for criminal gangs.  

Here’s an example of a highway theft in Romania, while others are taking place across the globe.

In Baltimore, Maryland, criminal gangs have been robbing USPS, FedEx, UPS, and Amazon vehicles, and in some cases, actually stealing the vehicles. 

We noted earlier that cargo theft across the US surged during the second quarter of the virus-induced downturn. 

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

Russia’s experimental Kalashnikov attack drones were tested during the ongoing conflict inside Syria, a new report revealed this week. The head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov (state defense firm Rostec has at least a 25% stake in Kalashnikov), told reporters that the plane has proven itself well, and is very effective, despite its low power. In addition to reconnaissance aircraft, the Russian Ministry of Defense will also acquire military drones.

A report by RT Arabic revealed that these drones, which are new to the Russian military, were tested against enemy targets during the ongoing conflict inside the Syrian Arab Republic. Previously Fox News and others detailed the Kalashnikov suicide drones’ development.

It is noteworthy to mention that the Kalashnikov complex last year displayed the Kub-BLA and Lancet kamikaze drones developed by its subsidiary. In fact, these devices are projectiles that fly in remote control mode over the battlefield and detonate upon reaching an enemy position.

The Kub-BLA carries a payload of about three kilograms, can fly for up to 30 minutes at a speed of 80-130 kilometers per hour and is able to hit the target regardless of its concealment and terrain.

The Lancet has two versions: Lancet 1 weighs five kilograms and carries one kilogram of payload and hits targets in a radius of 40 kilometers, and Lancet 3 carries a payload of three kilograms with a total weight of 12 kilograms.

Russian makers of Kalashnikov rifle create ‘suicide’ drone https://t.co/vLz75Aa2fF pic.twitter.com/YYll34DEui

— The Independent (@Independent) February 24, 2019

The developer calls the vehicles “a smart multi-role weapon capable of independently searching for and destroying a specific target, unlike the Kub-BLA, it has a TV directive channel, thanks to which it does not lose video contact with the operator until it touches the target.”

It also described as dispensing with navigation via satellites, because they determine the coordinates from different sources and locations, and thus, the drone can strike in the air, on the ground, and in the water without needing additional infrastructure.

Other unmanned vehicles are also being tested in Russia, Chemezov added: “If we talk about the creation of medium-sized drones, we can also mention the Corsar drones, which can carry weapons.” 

With a mere weeks to go in the Trump presidency, the clock is running out on the potential for a last-minute presidential pardon of either Edward Snowden or Julian Assange. Most see this as the last chance before Biden and his deep state national security state hawks begin their administration and slam the door on the possibility.

In Snowden’s case, Trump actually discussed the possibility of a pardon during an August interview with the NY Post, saying it’s “certainly something I could look at”.

This sparked a movement and growing chorus of activists calling on the president to pardon the pair. 

Especially in Assange’s case, had he not founded and put everything on the line for WikiLeaks we wouldn’t know about intrusive government surveillance programs, the United States’ aggressive drone strike program, or that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager and his brother are apparently into ‘spirit cooking‘ with a satanic performance artist.

And now longtime Assange friend and previously rumored ex-girlfriend Pamela Anderson is getting creative in her direct appeals to Trump, tagging the president in a Twitter post featuring a stripped-down bikini photoshoot of herself holding a sign that reads “Bring Julian Assange home”.

⁦⁩ ⁦@POTUS⁩ please #pardonjulianassange pic.twitter.com/WZN63ClyqU

— Pamela Anderson (@pamfoundation) December 7, 2020

Well, that’s certainly one way to get the president’s attention.

The former Baywatch star and ex-wife of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee has previously blasted Trump for not intervening to save Assange’s life sooner. His health has reportedly been deteriorating amid harsh confinement at London’s notorious Belmarsh Prison.

She’s previously called Assange a “hero” and said he’s being held by the UK while awaiting potential extradition to the United States as a “political prisoner”.

Last week former NSA analyst whistleblower Edward Snowden also made a direct appeal to Trump from his place of asylum in Russia. 

Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency during your time in office, please: free Julian Assange. You alone can save his life. @realDonaldTrump

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 3, 2020

“Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency during your time in office, please: free Julian Assange. You alone can save his life,” Snowden said in a tweet, tagging the president.

We expect, however, that Anderson’s steamy photo could grab the president’s eye quicker. As for Snowden’s message, it’s since gone viral with over 44,000 retweets.

Authored by Egon von Greyerz via GoldSwitzerland.com,

You have been warned. The Biden – Yellen (BY) nightmare dream team will fulfill our worst fears of deficit spending, debt explosion and dollar collapse.

Not that a Trump win would have been that much different since the die had already been cast long ago for the final decline of the current financial system.

And the BY duo will be the perfect team to lead the US economy and the rest of the world into perdition. Biden is already an experienced player in deficit spending and massive debt accumulation. And Yellen was there for part of the time printing whatever was required.

BIDEN YELLEN – SEASONED MONEY PRINTERS

Biden served as Vice President from 2009 to 2017. During those 8 years US debt went from $10.7 trillion to $20t. That is a massive increase of 85% or $9.3t.

When Reagan became president in 1981, US debt was just under $930 billion. It took the combined efforts of Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton and Bush Jr 28 years to grow the US debt by $10t whilst Obama and Biden managed to grow it by almost the same amount in 8 years.

What we must remember is that the Great Financial Crisis was supposed to have been resolved in 2009. So there should not have been the same pressure to spend money freely when Obama and Biden came to power. But as good socialists Democrats, they threw frugality to the wind and spent recklessly.

The last three years of their reign, 2014-7 they had Yellen as accomplice in her role as Chair of the Fed. So this is a team with deep experience in creating money out of thin air.

A REMARKABLE RECORD

When Trump took over in 2017 he had no intention of being outspent or outshone by any previous president. So Trump will have managed to increase the US debt by $8 trillion in just 4 years – a remarkable record!

I don’t believe that anyone back in 2017 forecasted that US debt would be $28t in January 2021, at the end of Trump’s four years. But that was very easy to forecast for anyone who studies history.

Since Reagan became president US debt has on average doubled every 8 years. Thus in an article a few years ago (US debt explosion & Weimar II) I forecasted a debt doubling to $40 trillion by early 2025 and $28t at the half way mark in January 2021. No genius is required for such a forecast nor teams of analysts or economists with supercomputers.

A brief study of history combined with a simple extrapolation is all that is required. But alas that is much too simple a method to take any notice of.

DREAM DUO WITH 150 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

So if Yellen is appointed Treasury Secretary, we have a dream team with extensive executive experience in expanding debt and printing money. Talking about experience, has there ever been a president and treasury secretary whose ages add up to over 150 years? I doubt it and sadly their long money manufacturing experience is the wrong medicine for the US.

Ahead for the new administration lies the arduous task of keeping the sinking “SS US ECONOMY” afloat.

Certainly not an enviable task. Because the end game is virtually certain. Ships can go down very quickly or it can be a long drawn out affair.

This particular ship is already loaded with $80 trillion total US debt of which the government has issued $27 trillion and the Fed printed $7 trillion. Add to that derivatives and unfunded liabilities of at least $1/2 quadrillion. So say a total of $600 trillion in US debt including liabilities that will become debt.

DEBT WEIGHT – 150,000 747 JUMBOS

Just as an illustration, $600 trillion in $100 bills would weigh 60 million tons. This weight corresponds to 150,000 747 jumbo jets. With that amount of debt load, no wonder the ship will sink quickly.

It is obviously not surprising that governments are planning to do away with paper money in favour of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency). So much easier to stick the total debt of $600t on a small usb stick that weighs a few grams.

EXPONENTIAL PHASE OF QE IS HERE

And that is the way that central banks will try to fool the world, by shrinking the money supply to a binary code of Zeros and Ones in a reset. But even if that does away with paper money, creating a digital currency does not change anything. It will just become a new form of fiat that can be expanded at will but with the same problems as paper money.

What we do know is that the exponential phase of global QE has just started.

Just three central banks, the Fed, ECB and BoJ have printed $7.5 trillion since March 2020, by expanding their balance sheets by 50% from $14.5t to $22t in November.

Morgan Stanley estimates that for 2021, central banks will print a total of $300 billion per month. This seems much too low, bearing in mind that major parts of the world are in lockdown with 100s of millions of people either furloughed or redundant and with many businesses going under.

The retail and leisure/travel industries for example are haemorrhaging and unlikely to ever recover fully. Thousands of small businesses are also going under every month.

MMT COMING – DOLLAR COLLAPSE

QE in 2021 will not only be used for more support to the undeserved banking system. Also individuals and businesses will be direct beneficiaries of QE as Biden and Harris subscribe to MMT (Modern Monetary Theory).

Thus the money printing bonanza in 2021 is likely to far exceed the 2020 levels. This will not only put enormous pressure on the financial system, but will also be reflected in a collapsing dollar.

The biggest problem is the massive amount of treasuries being issued in 2020 and 2021 only has one buyer. The old buyers of US debt, China, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia etc are seeing the writing on the wall and are no more interested in buying depreciating dollar treasuries.

FED THE LAST MAN STANDING – US$ THE FIRST CURRENCY FALLING

So the last man standing is the Fed and this is why Yellen is perfect for the job as Treasury Secretary. With her Fed experience she will, with ease, plan for the biggest monetising of US debt in history.

Initially the dollar will be the biggest victim as an ever increasing amount of dollars are created. Many currency observers watch the dollar index. But since this is not really a traded currency, I prefer the EUR/USD spread. The euro against the dollar is the commodity with the biggest trading volume in the world at $1.5 trillion a day. The S&P daily volume is around $150 billion and US treasuries $500b.

EUR USD $1.5T DAILY VOLUME TO SLAUGHTER DOLLAR

Below is a table of daily trading volumes that I have shown before (EUR volume not included). This chart was shown to point out that daily trading volume in gold is 850x daily mine production and twice as big as the S&P volume. I will not go into this table in detail here but suffice it to say that this massive gold trading by the bullion banks is a clear sign that they have major problems to balance their positions due to the naked paper gold shorts.

Coming back to the Euro-Dollar, this chart is now very bullish for the euro and thus bearish for the dollar. After a 12 year correction, the Euro is now breaking out on the upside against the dollar and looks very bullish. The Euro is already up 14% this year and is likely to strengthen considerably in 2021 as the dollar falls rapidly.

NO PRIZE FOR BEING FIRST TO THE BOTTOM

Many observers question how the euro can strengthen with the major problems within the EU combined with the ever growing ECB balance sheet. What most people don’t understand is that the Euro is not strong in itself. Measuring currencies against each other is a mug’s game. If two currencies are dying, there is no absolute advantage in dying slightly more slowly and being the second to the bottom. It is only a matter of relative timing since currencies can’t all fall against each other at the same rate.

It doesn’t really matter which currency wins the race since there is no prize for being first to the bottom. The fallacy is of course that currencies should not be measured against each other but against real money that over time has maintained its purchasing power.

And the only money that has survived in history in its original form is of course gold. All other currencies have gone to zero. The chart below shows what has happened to all currencies against gold in the last 100 years. This pattern has repeated itself throughout history.

MEASURE WEALTH IN GOLD AND NOT IN DELUSIONAL DOLLARS

So if you measure your money in depreciating dollars or euros, you are deluding yourself. It is like slowly sinking in quicksand. There is no support and no way out.

History must never be ignored but sadly few people study history.

So prepare for massive QE, a rapid dollar fall with a US and world economy in severe decline in 2021. There will be no recovery for years and maybe for a decade or more.

GET READY FOR THE COMING GOLD RUSH

Your best friend and protector in this ignominious company of bubble assets and falling currencies are precious metals in the form of physical gold and silver.

But please ignore PAPER gold and silver (including ETFs) which one day will be worthless.

On the opposite side of the collapsing dollar stands gold which is about to start an accelerated rise.

Gold (and silver) has now completed the correction since August and is about to resume its 20 year uptrend.

The strength of the next move will take the gold market by surprise. And remember that gold is for long term wealth preservation and not for speculation.

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“Look! You fools! You’re in danger! Can’t you see? They’re after you! They’re after all of us! Our wives…our children…they’re here already! You’re next!”

– Dr. Miles Bennell, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

It’s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers all over again.

The nation is being overtaken by an alien threat that invades bodies, alters minds, and transforms freedom-loving people into a mindless, compliant, conforming mob intolerant of anyone who dares to be different, let alone think for themselves.

However, while Body Snatchers—the chilling 1956 film directed by Don Siegel—blames its woes on seed pods from outerspace, the seismic societal shift taking place in America owes less to biological warfare reliant on the COVID-19 virus than it does to psychological warfare disguised as a pandemic threat.

As science writer David Robson explains:

Fears of contagion lead us to become more conformist and tribalistic, and less accepting of eccentricity. Our moral judgements become harsher and our social attitudes more conservative when considering issues such as immigration or sexual freedom and equality. Daily reminders of disease may even sway our political affiliations… Various experiments have shown that we become more conformist and respectful of convention when we feel the threat of a disease… the evocative images of a pandemic led [participants in an experiment] to value conformity and obedience over eccentricity or rebellion.

This is how you persuade a populace to voluntarily march in lockstep with a police state and police themselves (and each other): by ratcheting up the fear-factor, meted out one carefully calibrated crisis at a time, and teaching them to distrust any who diverge from the norm.

This is not a new experiment in mind control.

The powers-that-be have been pushing our buttons and herding us along like so much cattle since World War II, at least, starting with the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, which not only propelled the U.S. into World War II but also unified the American people in their opposition to a common enemy.

That fear of attack by foreign threats, conveniently torqued by the growing military industrial complex, in turn gave rise to the Cold War era’s “Red Scare.” Promulgated through government propaganda, paranoia and manipulation, anti-Communist sentiments boiled over into a mass hysteria that viewed anyone and everyone as suspect: your friends, the next-door neighbor, even your family members could be a Communist subversive.

This hysteria, which culminated in hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where hundreds of Americans were called before Congress to testify about their so-called Communist affiliations and intimidated into making false confessions, also paved the way for the rise of an all-knowing, all-seeing governmental surveillance state.

The 9/11 attacks followed a similar script: a foreign invasion mounts an attack on an unsuspecting nation, the people unite in solidarity against a common foe, and the government gains greater war-time powers (read: surveillance powers) that, conveniently enough, become permanent once the threat has passed.

The government’s scripted response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been predictably consistent: once again, in order to fight this so-called “foreign” foe, the government insists it needs even greater surveillance powers.

As we’ve seen since 9/11 and more recently with the COVID lockdowns, those in power have always had a penchant for enacting extreme measures to combat perceived threats. However, unlike the modern America police state, the American government circa the 1950s did not have at its disposal the arsenal of invasive technologies that are such an intrinsic part of our modern surveillance state.

Today, we are watched and tracked 24/7; data is collected on us at an alarming rate by governmental and corporate entities; and with the help of powerful computer programs, American domestic intelligence agencies sweep our websites, listen in on our telephone calls and read our text messages at will.

Now with the COVID pandemic and its offshoots such as contact tracing and immunity passports, the governmental landscape is even more invasive.

Yet no matter the threat, the underlying principle remains the same: can we hold onto our basic freedoms and avoid succumbing to the soul-sucking dredge of conformity that threatens our very humanity?

This conundrum is at the heart of the 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was based on a 1954 science fiction novel by Jack Finney (and later remade into an equally chilling 1978 film by Philip Kaufman).

Body Snatchers not only captured the ideology and politics of its post-war era but remains timely and relevant as it relates to the worries that plague us today. Filmed with only seven days of rehearsal and 23 days of actual shooting, Body Snatchers is considered one of the great science fiction classics.

Body Snatchers is set in a small California town which has been infiltrated by mysterious pods from outer space that replicate and take the place of humans who then become conforming non-individuals. Miles Bennell, the main character, is a local doctor who resists the invaders and their attempts to erase humanity from the face of the earth.

At the very least, the film conveys a double meaning, serving as both a mirror of a particular moment in history and a compass pointing to a growing societal illness. Following World War II with the emerging military empire, the atomic bomb and the Korean War, Americans were confused and neurotically preoccupied with domestic threats, the polio pandemic and international political events, not much different from today’s populace preoccupied with domestic and international political drama, terrorism and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet Siegel’s film delves beneath the surface to confront an even more sinister threat: the dehumanization of individuals and the horrifying possibility that humanity could become infused as part of the societal machine.

Central to the film is one key speech delivered by Bennell while hiding from the aliens:

In my practice, I see how people have allowed their humanity to drain away…only it happens slowly instead of all at once. They didn’t seem to mind…. All of us, a little bit. We harden our hearts…grow callous…only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is.

As Siegel makes clear, it is not Communists or terrorists or even viral pandemics that threaten our well-being. The real enemy is invasive governmental measures—something we now see happening across the country—and, thus, totalitarian conformity. And resistance must be against all government measures that threaten our civil liberties and against all kinds of conformity, no matter the shape, size or color of the package it comes in.

When all is said and done, however, the real threat to freedom (in the fictional world of Body Snatchers and in our present-day America) is posed by an establishment—be it governmental, corporate or societal—that is hostile to individuality and those who dare to challenge the status quo.

The mob hysteria, sense of paranoia, fascist police and the witch hunt atmosphere of the film mirror the ills of a 1950s America that is frighteningly applicable to present American society.

Acknowledging that Body Snatchers portrayed the conflict between individuals and varied forms of mindless authority, Siegel stated, “I think the world is populated by pods and I wanted to show them.” He explained:

People are pods. Many of my associates are certainly pods. They have no feelings. They exist, breathe, sleep. To be a pod means that you have no passion, no anger, the spark has left you…of course, there’s a very strong case for being a pod. These pods, who get rid of pain, ill-health and mental disturbances are, in a sense, doing good. It happens to leave you in a very dull world but that, by the way, is the world that most of us live in. It’s the same as people who welcome going into the army or prison. There’s regimentation, a lack of having to make up your mind, face decisions…. People are becoming vegetables. I don’t know what the answer is except an awareness of it.

All of the threats to freedom documented in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People came about because “we the people” stopped thinking for ourselves and relinquished control over our lives and our country to government operatives who care only for money and power.

While the specific game plan for turning things around is complicated by a police state that wants to keep us at a disadvantage, the solution is relatively simple: Don’t be a pod person. Pay attention. Question everything. Dare to be different. Don’t follow the mob. Don’t let yourself become numb to the world around you. Be compassionate. Be humane. Most of all, think for yourself.

Alice Little, a legal sex worker in Nevada and quite possibly the highest-paid one in the US, is suing the state of Nevada to reopen its brothels, according to Yahoo Life. 

Little is an employee at the BunnyRanch Legal Nevada Brothel in Mound House, Nevada. The brothel has been closed since Mar. 17, despite other “close contact” businesses reopening. 

Little recently filed a complaint and motion for a preliminary injunction against Nevada’s Gov. Steve Sisolak in the Third Judicial District Court in Lyon County to reopen brothels. She cites unstated damages for her lost wages and seeks the right for her and other licensed sex workers to “ply their legal trade” at private locations. 

The lawsuit said Sisolak has “without any rational basis, decided to single out brothels.” 

Last month, a Nevada court ordered the state’s attorney general to respond to Little’s legal action within 30 days.

“It would be understandable if the governor kept all close-contact businesses closed. But the fact that massage parlors, estheticians, salons, escort services and other non-essential businesses have been allowed to reopen lead me to believe that the governor’s decision to keep brothels closed is just blatant discrimination against Nevada’s legal sex workers,” Little said in a press release.

“I just can’t let the governor arbitrarily decimate the livelihoods of an entire class of hard-working women. That’s why I decided to take legal action.”

Little is drumming up her legal battle with the state. She launched a GoFundMe campaign last month that has so far raised $8,404 for her legal defense. 

The high-rolling hooker said her lawsuit has been “self-funded up to this point, and now I’m asking for your help to allow me to pursue this case all the way through to a successful victory.” 

The Nevada Independent spoke with other sex workers who say the brothel shutdown is “discriminatory.” 

Kiki Lover, an employee of the Sagebrush, told the local paper that Sisolak is “discriminating against sex workers,” adding that the industry’s collapse has forced many women out, and some are now homeless. 

Little told Yahoo that the risk level of contracting COVID-19 is not that different from other services, such as a massage parlor. 

In April, brothels were preparing to reopen, but eight or so months of closure, at the hands of the state government, has forced the industry into collapse. 

Authored (mostly satirically) by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory,

All right, that’s it. I’ve run out of patience. No more excuses. Where’s the Hitler?

Yes, you heard me. I’m talking to you. You respectable journalists and political pundits. You Intelligence officials and politicians. You fanatical liberals. You pseudo anti-fascists. All you members of the GloboCap “Resistance” who have been hysterically shrieking that “Trump is Hitler!” since he won the nomination back in 2016.

Well, OK, it’s November 2020. The show is almost over. When do we get Hitler?

No, do not tell me “any day now.” You’ve been telling us that for four straight years. Do we look like a bunch of gullible idiots that you can whip up into a four-year frenzy of mindless hatred and paranoia by screaming “Hitler!” over and over, and then not produce an actual Hitler?

Well, we’re not. We remember what you said. You promised us Hitler, and we want Hitler, or at least a decent facsimile of Hitler.

And don’t even think of trying to pretend that you didn’t actually promise us Hitler.

You did. You want me to prove it? OK.

Remember back in 2016, when The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, The Inquirer, and other such “leading respectable broadsheets,” and online magazines like Mother Jones, Forward, Slate, Salon, Vox, Alternet, and countless others, warned that Trump was sending secret anti-Semitic “dog whistle” signals to his underground army of Nazi terrorists by talking about “international banks,” “global elites,” the “political establishment,” and even “corporations” and “lobbyists” … all of which was supposedly code for “the Jews,” who he was going to exterminate if won the election?

I do. I remember that, distinctly.

How about after he won the election, when The Guardian reported that “white supremacy ha[d] triumphed!,” and The New York Times, NPR, Keith Olberman, and other verified news sources warned that America had descended into “racial Orwellianism,” or Zionist Anti-Semitism, or the “bottomless pit of fascism,” or whatever? Or when Michael Kinsley in the Washington Post confirmed that “Donald Trump is actually a fascist”?

Do you remember all that? Because I certainly do.

Remember Aaron Sorkin’s letter to his daughter warning her that millions of “Muslim-Americans, Mexican-Americans and African-Americans [were] shaking in their shoes” as they waited for Trump to round them all up and send them to the camps, along with the “Jewish Coastal Elites”?

And how about when Stern Magazine depicted Trump wrapped in the flag and heiling Hitler? Or when the Philadelphia Daily News also portayed him as Hitler on its cover?

What about when the corporate media reported that Trump had called those tiki torch Nazis in Charlottesville “very fine people” (despite the fact that he demonstrably did not)? Or when they caught Trump calling somebody a “globalist”? (That episode was particularly disturbing to me, personally, as I had no idea that I was literally a Nazi until the corporate media and the ADL explained that talking about “global capitalism,” or “neoliberalism,” or, God help me, “banks,” was just Nazi codespeak for “Kill the Jews!”)

Oh, and speaking of Nazi “dog whistles,” remember when the Department of Homeland Security embedded secret Nazi code in one of its official press releases? Or when that Jewish-Mexican-American law clerk signaled to Trump’s underground Nazi army that they had infiltrated the US Supreme Court, and thus the dreaded “Boogaloo” was probably imminent?

And who could forget when The New York Times published a full-blown dystopian fantasy in which Trump, Putin, Marine Le Pen, the AfD, and other notorious “globalist”-hating Hitler-alikes secretly formed an Evil Axis (the “Alliance of Authoritarian and Reactionary States”), dissolved the European Union and NATO, declared international martial law, and ethnically cleansed the world of immigrants? Or when they ran this propaganda film, “If You’re Not Scared About Fascism in the U.S., You Should Be!”

And the “emboldening”! I almost left out the “emboldening.” Surely, you remember when the corporate media reported that Trump was emboldening white-supremacist terrorism with his Hitlerian Tweets … as if homicidal racist psychopaths had been sitting around in their mother’s basements, semi-automatic rifles in one hand, smartphones tuned to Twitter in the other, just waiting to be “emboldened” by the president.

Oh, and the “concentration camps.” You know, the ones that Biden and Harris personally flew down and liberated the morning after they won the election. The ones where they put the kids in cages and forced all the prisoners to drink out of toilets. I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t mention them.

And those are just a few of the highlights.

Look, the point is, you “Resistance” people promised us Hitler for four years straight, and now you’re acting like you just defeated Hitler, and, I’m sorry, but that is not going to cut it. We’re going to need some actual Hitler before we transition to the Brave New Normal, or we might start to … you know, doubt your credibility.

I mean, come on. Lawsuits? Recounts? Audits? Angry tweets? Golf, for Christsakes? This is not remotely Hitlerian behavior. You people promised us an attempted coup, a Reichstag fire, Nazi militias occupying the halls of Congress, stadiums full of Sieg-heiling rednecks, white-supremacist terrorists terrorizing everyone … and now all we get is Rudy Giuliani sweating rivulets of hair dye, or something, on TV? All right, granted, that was pretty scary, but it’s not exactly Joseph Goebbels fanatically barking about “total war,” or legions of Hawaiian-shirt-wearing fascists goose-stepping up Pennsylvania Avenue.

The way I see it, you people have got another four or five weeks to goad Donald Trump into going full-Hitler and staging a coup, or gratuitously mass-murdering the Jews, or somebody, or the public is going to feel … well, bamboozled, and insulted, and even a little angry. They are going to feel like you “Resistance” people regard them as a bunch of total morons that you can manipulate, over and over again, with blatantly ridiculous propaganda that anyone with half a brain could see through … some of which, frankly, has been downright offensive.

Seriously, fascism, Hitler, the Holocaust … these are solemn, sensitive subjects. They’re not just convenient emotional buttons that you can press to whip folks into a frenzy of mindless paranoia and murderous hatred whenever you feel like demonizing some foreign leader or unauthorized president.

The same goes for racism and anti-Semitism. These are real issues, which people care about. They’re not just glorified marketing buzz words that you can pull out of your bag of cheap tricks and slap onto your enemies like they don’t mean anything. If you spend four years accusing someone of literally being Adolf Hitler, or the resurrection of Adolf Hitler, and brainwash millions of credulous liberals into believing that America is on the brink of fascism, you can’t just suddenly say, “We were only kidding. We didn’t mean that he was actually Hitler, or that fascism was really on the rise.” People won’t stand for it. They’ll go ballistic. You’ll have some sort of revolt on your hands.

Or, all right, on second thought, maybe not. Maybe you can get away with pointing at some billionaire ass clown and howling “Hitler!” over and over, on a daily basis, for years and years, without ever providing any actual evidence that the ass clown in question resembles Hitler, or has done anything comparable to Hitler, or is in any way remotely similar to Hitler. Why not? You successfully Hitlerized Corbyn, not to mention Saddam, Gaddafi, and Milošević, and a long list of other “threats to democracy.” You’ll probably get away with Hitlerizing Trump.

After all, it appears you’ve convinced the public (or at least the vast majority of the public) that they are being attacked by an apocalyptic plague that causes mild to moderate flu-like symptoms (or, more commonly, no symptoms at all) in 95% of those infected and that over 99.7% survive, and thus we have to cancel constitutional rights, let government officials rule by decree, devastate the economy (or at least small businesses), have global corporations censor all dissent, force everyone to wear medical-looking masks, put whole societies under house arrest, psychologically terrorize children, and otherwise transform the planet into one big paranoid, totalitarian theme park.

If you can get people to go along with that … well, they’ll probably go along with anything.

January is going to be a mess. America’s small-time landlords, along with their tenants, are in trouble as safety nets are set to expire. Tenants haven’t paid rent in months, with a looming eviction moratorium expiring at the end of December. According to Reuters, the lack of rental income for landlords has also been troublesome, with many skipping mortgage payments, potentially resulting in a firesale of properties in the year ahead. 

For 12 million Americans and their families – this Christmas will be their worst – as the extended unemployment benefits that have kept many of them afloat are set to expire later this month. Then on New Year’s Day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium expires, which could result in a massive wave of evictions in the first half of 2021.

At the moment, $70 billion in unpaid back rent and utilities are set to come due, according to a new report via Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi. 

Last month, Maryland utility companies began to terminate customers with overdue bills, many of which were unable to pay because of job loss due to the coronavirus downturn. 

New research from the Aspen Institute warns 40 million people could be threatened with eviction over the coming months as the real economic crisis is only beginning. 

According to Stacey Johnson-Cosby, president of the Kansas City Regional Housing Alliance, landlords are also in deep turmoil. She said more than 40% of the landlords surveyed in her coalition said they will have to sell their units because of the lack of rental income. 

“They are sheltering our citizens free of charge, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Johnson-Cosby. “This is their retirement income.”

She said small landlords are frightened to speak out about non-paying tenants because social justice warriors and their “Cancel Rent” groups have attacked landlords. 

“What they don’t realize is that if they run us out and we fail, it will be private equity and Wall Street firms that buy up all our properties, just like they did with houses after the last foreclosure crash.”

Reuters interviewed Clarence Hamer, who may have to sell his house in the coming months because his “downstairs tenant owes him nearly $50,000.” He owns a duplex in Brownsville, Brooklyn – and without those rental payments, Hamer has been unable to pay his mortgage. 

“I don’t have any corporate backing or any other type of insurance,” said Hamer, a 46-year-old landlord who works for the city of New York. “All I have is my home, and it seems apparent that I’m going to lose it.”

Hamer is not alone – millions of Americans are headed for a “dark winter” as they could be evicted or lose their homes in the coming months as government safety nets are set to expire. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, stimulus talks quickly faded after it was reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell touted his own plan rather than a bipartisan compromise for a deal. 

John Pollock, a Public Justice Center attorney and coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, recently said January could bring a surge of eviction and homelessness,” unlike anything we have ever seen” before. 

Yesterday, when discussing the biggest jump in Chinese FX reserves in 7 years we wondered if this was an indication that the PBOC was starting to lean against the surging yuan. Today, after the latest Chinese inflation data released moments ago, we are confident that it is only a matter of time before Beijing will once again aggressively intervene and/or devalue its currency.

According to the National Bureau Of Statistics, in November China’s CPI unexpectedly tumbled to -0.5% Y/Y in November, below market expectations and the first year-over-year decline in consumer prices since the financial crisis. While rapid decline of food prices continued to be the main driver for lower headline CPI inflation, non-food inflation also edged down to -0.1% yoy from 0% yoy in October, which begs the question: how much of China’s now deflation is the result of the surging yuan, and how much longer will Beijing tolerate the soaring currency (or, said otherwise, the plunging dollar). On the flip side, PPI inflation was at -1.5% yoy in November, which while still negative (the last positive PPI print was in January), was less negative than October as inflationary pressures increased along with the strong expansion of industrial activity.

Here are the key numbers:

• CPI: -0.5% yoy in November, exp. +0.0%; down from October’s +0.5% yoy.
• Food CPI: -2% yoy in November; October: +2.2% yoy.
• Non-food CPI: -0.1% yoy in November; October: +0.0% yoy.
• PPI: -1.5% yoy in November. exp. -1.8% yoy; up from October’s -2.1% yoy.

 

Some more details: in year-on-year terms, food inflation went down to -2.0% yoy in November from +2.2% yoy in October, largely because pork prices tumbled 12.5% on a year-over-year basis, lowering year-over-year CPI inflation by 0.6pp.

Egg prices also plunged, dropping 17.1% yoy, and lowering the headline CPI by another 0.1pp. Fresh vegetable prices rose albeit at a slower pace: Inflation in fresh vegetables was +8.6% yoy in November (vs 16.7% yoy in October), adding 0.2pp to headline CPI inflation.

Non-food CPI inflation edged down to -0.1% yoy in November, from 0.0% in October. Fuel costs fell further by 17.6% yoy, vs -17.2% yoy in October. Core inflation (headline CPI excluding food and energy) was unchanged at +0.5% yoy in November.

On the other side, PPI inflation rose modestly and was at -1.5% Y/Y in November, less negative than October. In month-over-month annualized terms, PPI rose by 5.6%, vs -1% in October. Price declines narrowed for producer goods (-1.8% yoy vs -2.7% yoy in October) but price decline for consumer goods widened (-0.8% yoy in November, vs -0.5% yoy in October) mainly on lower food and clothing price inflation. By major industry, PPI inflation increased on a year-over-year basis in most sub-industries except food processing and telecom industries.

According to Goldman, headline CPI inflation may remain at low levels in the coming months on falling food prices and a high base while PPI inflation could rise further as inflationary pressures continue to build in the industrial sector.

A bigger problem for China is that while PPI may be rising, it’s only a function of higher commodity prices and industrial strength on the back of massive credit injections; meanwhile consumer deflation is starting to emerge as a major concern for a country that has not had a negative CPI print since 2009.

One wonders how long Beijing will allow this, and how long will Chinese rates remain as high as they are, before the Politburo capitulates and realize it needs to aggressively devalued its soaring currency (and offset the tumbling dollar) if it hopes to keep deflation in check.

It may even have to decide between keeping interest rates highs, and thus yields on Chinese bonds attractive for foreign investors (as a reminder, everyone knows by now that one of Beijing’s top priorities is to have a steady source of offshore capital entering the negative current account nation), or finally conceding it needs to cut rates in order to let some of the air in the yuan out.