Tag: finance

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper,

For those who may have lost their jobs during the lockdown, it appears a whole new sector of jobs is opening up across the country. Cities and states are seeking “contact tracers”  and “disease investigators” to track down anyone who may have COVID-19 or anyone who may have come in contact with people diagnosed with COVID-19.

There are multiple job postings on Indeed.com, an employment-related search engine for job listings. Job titles include contact tracer, contact tracing supervisor, COVID-19 case investigator, and communicable disease investigator.

While some people find these positions to be necessary to public health, others find them invasive and meddlesome. One of the most worrisome things about this is what kind of power is held by the tracers and investigators. If they feel someone isn’t quarantining properly, and they report that person, what happens next? Ventura County, California officials claimed they would remove people suffering from COVID from their homes if there was only one bathroom, a claim they’ve since walked back after public outrage ensued.

Ventura County officials were forced Wednesday to apologize and clarify that those who could not isolate or quarantine themselves would never be forcibly removed from their homes as part of an effort to further contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Video circulated on social media showed Dr. Robert Levin, the director of Ventura County Public Health, speaking before the board of supervisors Tuesday about a plan to hire up to 50 new “contact tracing investigators” to “find people who have COVID-19 and immediately isolate them, find every one of their contacts, make sure they stay quarantined and check in with them every day.” (source)

If officials really want to see violence and unrest ensue, forcibly hauling off an ailing loved one would be one surefire way to make it happen.

What are contact tracers?

Here’s a little more about these jobs. (Emphasis mine)

New York State will hire and train a team of staff working remotely to support the NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH) and Local Health Departments (LHDs) to perform COVID-19 contact tracing in communities across NYS. The aim of this initiative will be to call every person diagnosed with COVID-19, establish all contacts of this person, and proceed to call and maintain ongoing communication with every contact. In addition, the team will support the isolation and quarantine of individuals, as appropriate in cooperation with the LHD. This includes virtual needs checks and referral to community resources as needed. This contact tracing initiative is in tandem with statewide-wide efforts to increase testing, improve communication and knowledge of effective strategies to reduce transmission, and implementation of isolation and quarantine. This will fortify efforts to control the pandemic in NYS.

General Summary:

The Contact Tracer will use a web-based client resource management (CRM) platform to call all contacts of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19, determine exposure, assess symptoms, refer for testing according to established protocols, and provide them with instructions for isolation or quarantine. Contact Tracers will maintain ongoing communication with contacts to assess symptoms, ensure compliance with quarantine and determine social support needs and/or handle reporting of issues that arise. Contact Tracers are required to follow set scripts and adhere to policies and procedures provided by NYS. They will also comply with Department training regarding confidential information related to personal information. COVID-19 Contract Tracers will be required to work a minimum of 20 hours per week.

• Work in collaboration with the Case Investigator from the local health department (LHD).

• Call contacts of newly diagnosed cases.

• Communicate with contacts in a professional and empathetic manner maintaining emotional and cultural awareness.

• Collect and record information on symptoms and needs into the CRM with accuracy.

• Provide contacts with approved information about NYS isolation and quarantine procedures, and if appropriate, refer them to testing according to protocol and/or to a COVID-19 Community Support Specialist for social resources.

• Follow a set script to inform contacts about the importance of isolation or quarantine and what to do if symptoms are present or develop.

• Maintain daily contact with Team Supervisor.

• The position is considered temporary with a one-year engagement expected and the possibility to extend as needed.

• The contact center will operate 7 days a week between the hours of 8am and 8pm. Evening and/or weekend work may be required.

Minimum Qualifications:

• High school diploma, or equivalent required. Must be 18 years of age or older. Some college training preferred.

• Must be a NYS resident.

• Ability to speak, read, and write English clearly and concisely. Fluency in a second or multiple languages would be a plus.

• Employment is contingent on completion of a background check by NY State.

• Own telephone, computer, wireless internet (WiFi) and electronic equipment. (A partial reimbursement to maintain unlimited phone and data access will be provided.)

• Must have access to a working PC with Windows 10, Antivirus Protection: Windows Defender and Windows Firewall; or Mac with Apple OS X 10.13, Antivirus Protection: Sophos; and personal mobile device to use for this job.

• A headset is preferred.

Preferred Skills:

• Ability to exhibit a professional, positive attitude and independent work ethic.

• Excellent interpersonal skills required and ability to interact professionally with culturally diverse individuals during a time of crisis and distress.

• Ability to show empathy to distressed individuals and assist with identifying solutions to problems identified.

• Excellent organizational and communication skills.

• Sound judgment required.

• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and professionalism.

• Proficiency with computers and data entry into electronic tracking systems.

(source)

Because when you’re sick, who doesn’t want to answer questions asked by someone reading from a script? A similar job is posted for Applied Memetics.

There are also postings for “Communicable Disease Investigators”

Another even more invasive COVID-related job is ” Communicable Disease Investigator,” a position that Louisville, Kentucky is urgently seeking to fill.

Crown Services, Inc. in Louisville is proud to accept applications for COVID-19 Communicable Disease Investigators to join the fight against the novel Coronavirus in our community! The work involves investigating situations concerning individuals who have been in contact with COVID-19, which could result in possible sources of infection. This includes locating patients of COVID-19, and persons with whom they have had contact. Investigation procedures involve contacting various information sources such as welfare agencies, neighbors, hospitals, work locations, restaurants, and bars. The investigator is primarily concerned with locating persons who should be examined for acute infection. General supervision is received from an administrative superior with leeway allowed for the exercise of independent judgment and initiative in carrying out the mandate of the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Certain assignments made to employees in this position will require reasonable access to transportation to meet field work requirements made in the ordinary course of business in a timely and efficient manner.

Required Education and Experience

Current student or graduate from a college of public health, medical science, college of nursing, or school of medicine.

Essential Functions

• Interview patients to elicit information regarding their contacts to COVID-19 positive patients and to determine possible personal and health history related to transmitted diseases.

• Educates and counsels patients regarding transmitted diseases and risk reduction.

• Locates persons who have been reported to have COVID-19 or who have been in contact with infected individuals; directs these individuals to submit necessary laboratory specimens and such other necessary control measures.

• Induces persons who have been in contact with COVID-19 to have medical examinations and laboratory testing as applicable.

• Provides information and education on COVID-19 to phone inquiries.

• Conducts interviews with persons who are COVID-19 positive and assists them in informing their close contacts of their positive status.

• Conducts investigations to discover unreported cases.

• Performs a variety of duties relating to the preparation of reports, entering personal data on patient registers, and preparing correspondence to send to patients who are in need of medical examination and treatment.

• Maintains records on all delinquent and/or non-conforming patients.

• Prepares individual narrative reports concerning work procedures and certain patients.

• Utilizes appropriate methods for interacting effectively and professionally with persons of all ages and from diverse cultural, socioeconomic, educational, racial and ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, lifestyles, and physical abilities.

Pay and Schedule

COVID-19 Communicable Disease Investigator pay is $35.00 per hour base, plus mileage reimbursement

These full-time opportunities are on a rotating shift, and are available immediately! These positions are work from home with travel required within the Greater Louisville Metro area, including Southern Indiana. Staggered shifts are assigned between 7am-7pm, Sunday-Saturday. (source)

Other companies are looking for case investigators and contact tracing supervisors.

And don’t forget the dystopian technology.

Not only do sick or potentially sick people need to worry about being phoned or questioned by contact tracers, but there’s also a whole new world of dystopian technology being rapidly developed.

Apple and Google formed a partnership to develop a phone app with the potential to monitor one-third of the world’s population. The Australian government has developed an app called COVIDSafe to “protect you, your family and friends and save the lives of other Australians. The more Australians connect to the COVIDSafe app, the quicker we can find the virus.”

In fact, all sorts of potentially invasive new technology tools are springing up to “fight COVID.” Some use AI to detect signs of COVID and the Department of Defense is deploying thermal imaging to detect signs of COVID.

These things won’t just go away when the pandemic is over. If they’re in use for a year or two years – however long this virus is with us – chances are, they’re here to stay.

Meanwhile, it’s still nearly impossible to get tested in many states.

Despite the White House’s claims that anyone who needs a COVID test can get one, it’s proven to be nearly an impossible feat for many people who are genuinely ill. According to one report, the availability of testing depends on one major factor.

It depends on where you live. In California, El Dorado County and Los Angeles are offering free testing to all residents, even if they’re not showing symptoms. However, they still need to have an appointment.

Some cities and states may be able to test more people if they have more access to the test kits themselves. For example, tens of thousands of test kits are being diverted to New York state, a coronavirus hotspot and leading site of COVID-19 fatalities, because the need there is strong. New York is planning to manufacture its own test kits this month.

As a result, the limited number of tests available at each site are often reserved for higher-risk patients (for example, those with underlying health conditions) or those exhibiting strong symptoms that are associated with COVID-19, such as trouble breathing, pain or pressure in the chest, confusion and bluish lips or face.  (source)

In some states, you can’t just go to the drive-through testing facility and take a test – you require a doctor’s order, which you can only get after an appointment.

If you need to get tested, here’s a regularly updated list of testing locations across the country.

The latest jobless print and unemployment figures are truly historic, tens of millions of Americans are out of work, and the real economy has crashed to depression levels. President Trump is attempting to reopen the severely damaged economy and force a V-shaped recovery by the time the presidential election is seen this fall. However, that is wishful thinking as the probabilities of an economic recovery are slim to none as hard data reveals the crash is one of the worst on records — it will not be until the back-half of the year that the true extent of the downturn will be realized. 

This summer will be challenging for millions of folks, as high unemployment, continued economic turmoil, and household deterioration suggests a revival of the economy will likely not be seen. Morgan Stanley outlined last week that a recovery could occur in 2021 or even 2022. 

In late April, Scott Minerd, the CIO of Guggenheim Investments, said a recovery in the economy could take upwards of four years and “to think that the economy is going to reaccelerate in the third quarter in a V-shaped recovery to the level where the gross domestic product (GDP) was prior to the pandemic is unrealistic.”

With several big names in the financial industry already calling a V-shaped recovery for this year “unrealistic” —  The New York Times on Saturday morning (May 9) — has just given the American people a dose of the reality of the economic devastation. 

And we must note, today’s economic crash is much different than before. There’s an entirely new component to it where aggregate demand cannot be immediately switched on through intervention via government or central bank policies. Mainly because people are confined to their homes in stay-at-home public health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. A similar instance was seen during the Hong Kong riots in late 2019 when the government attempted to stimulate its economy but failed to do so as people chose not to visit shops during the social unrest. This all suggests that traditional stimulation policies in a pandemic will likely be ineffective in driving consumers to stores for several reasons; many are broke and unemployed. Still, they haven’t received benefits, and the virus fears are driving consumer habits. Again, this is indicative of not a V-shaped recovery but more of a prolonged downturn — something equity markets fail to see at the moment. 

For more color on this, Daily Mail has published photos from across America of economies that are reopening with very few people returning to shopping malls and or stores. Many are staying away from public areas because of pandemic fears. 

Naples, Florida 

Tampa, Florida 

Atlanta, Georgia 

Douglasville, Georgia 

 

Austin, Texas 

Northern California 

Franklin, Tennessee 

Scottsdale, Arizona 

Latest reopening map 

The bottom line is that there’s too much hope and hype of a quick return to normal, it will take years before the economy reverts to 2019 levels. 

Authored by Christine Favocci via WesternJournal.com,

To the people who earn a living from them, every job is essential.

But during the coronavirus pandemic, the actions of politicians like New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo sparked protests from those who were laid off from jobs deemed “nonessential” by the government.

That doesn’t sit well with Mike Rowe, host of the web-based reality series “Returning the Favor” and an advocate for the hard-working folks who keep the America running.

The former “Dirty Jobs” host appeared on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino” on Tuesday and was asked for his take on the Democratic governor’s statements late last month in regard to people who have lost their jobs.

“You want to go to work? Go take a job as an essential worker,” Cuomo said of protesters concerned about the government-imposed shutdown’s effects on their livelihoods.

“You can get a job as an essential worker,” he said.

“So now you can go to work, and you can be an essential worker, and you’re not going to kill anyone.”

Perino asked Rowe what he thought of those remarks, noting that many people are “put off” by politicians deciding their jobs are either “essential” or “nonessential.”

“Well, can you blame them?” Rowe replied. “When I was doing ‘Dirty Jobs,’ things were flush and very few people were paying very little attention to these anonymous, unsung workers who were making civilized life possible for the rest of us.

“Well, we’re in a different world right now,” he added. “People got the memo.”

Rowe explained that millions of people are out of work because of government action, “but if you look at the impact of removing those workers from our economy — our macro economy — you can see that they’re absolutely essential.”

Speaking about the impact of using such binary classifications for workers, Rowe said:

“This is one of those instances where the headlines have caught up to our vernacular and if we don’t make some tweaks to our lexicon, we’re going to wind up sounding really — oh, what’s the word — stupid.”

Rowe does think it is possible to safely reopen the economy.

“Well, it’s not just that we can do it, we have to do it,” he said, using Fox host Greg Gutfeld’s metaphor to explain the conundrum.

“We’re trapped in a prison of two ideas: the idea that releasing the lockdown is somehow going to be irresponsible, and extending the quarantine is going to be cowardly. These are bad choices,” Rowe said, “but it’s what happens when we dispense cookie-cutter advice.”

Rowe talked about his “safety-third” theory, reasonably weighing risks and rewards equally to make a decision.

His theory is in stark contrast to Cuomo’s relentless belief that locking down the state is worth it if even one life is saved, regardless of the economic or lifestyle destruction that occurs in the process.

“Not to pile up on the governor,” Rowe began, “but a couple weeks ago he said another thing that really snapped my neck.

“He said ‘no measure, no matter how drastic or draconian should be deemed unjustified if it saves a single life,’” Rowe said, paraphrasing the governor.

“The notion that nothing in the country is more important than staying safe, that’s not something common-sensical people embrace,” Rowe added.

“That’s something you hear from people who are trying to sell you something or politicians who are trying to get re-elected.”

Cuomo has indeed continued to take this approach.

“There is no dollar figure to a human life,” the governor tweeted Tuesday. “New York will reopen (by region) when it is safe to do so.”

There is no dollar figure to a human life.

New York will reopen (by region) when it is safe to do so.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 5, 2020

Rowe is absolutely correct about politicians like Cuomo who tell residents that their jobs are suddenly “nonessential” only by virtue of government edict.

The fact of the matter is that all jobs are essential to the people who earn livings from them, and the pain caused by being prevented from working cannot be ignored.

Furthermore, Cuomo advising people to simply take “essential” jobs, as if it is that easy in the middle of a pandemic, is as condescending as former Vice President Joe Biden telling coal miners to “learn how to program.”

Mike Rowe is right — putting safety above all else is not a principled philosophy, but rather a tactic of power-hungry politicians like Cuomo.

It’s time to empower struggling Americans by giving them the chance — and more importantly the freedom — to get back to work.

Recall just days ago we reported that Tesla was sending people back to work at its Fremont factory in Alameda County before the area’s lockdown expired.

Then, late last week, Alameda County responded by telling Musk that he could not re-open his factory. “We have not given the green light. We have been working with them looking at some of their safety plans. But no, we have not said that it is appropriate to move forward,” Erica Pan, interim health officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department, said on an online town hall meeting on Friday. 

That was enough to trigger a total Elon Musk meltdown. The CEO, who has been going off on diatribes about civil liberties on conference calls and podcasts alike, Tweeted out on Saturday that he is going to be suing Alameda County for not allowing him to re-open.

Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020

Calling it the “final straw” Musk also said he was going to move Tesla’s headquarters out of California and to either Texas or Nevada.

Musk also called the county’s interim health officer “ignorant”, claiming she was acting “contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!”

Most importantly, however, she is acting against the interest of Elon Musk and Tesla. 

People on social media weighed in about Musk’s meltdown:

Full meltdown by Elon Musk.

TSLAQ should give credit to Dr. Erica Pan of Alameda Public Health for standing up to Musk and enforcing civil and health code that the citizens of Alameda entrusted her with.

Bravo Dr Pan. It only takes one person.@lorakolodny @danahull

— Tesla Prophet (@ProphetTesla) May 9, 2020

It’s a miracle!

Fraud-Boy finally ran into a government official who’s faithful to their spouse and doesn’t care about recreational drugs or money!

— Mark B. Spiegel (@markbspiegel) May 9, 2020

How long before Musk caves and moves to China https://t.co/GObWrxeT3Q

— Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) May 9, 2020

Recall, on Tesla’s recent earnings call, toward the end and increasingly angry, Musk unleashed a 5-minute rant complete with an f-bomb in which the CEO doubled down on his stance against the shelter-in-place orders that have gripped the United States economy in recent weeks, warning that the factory shutdowns are a “serious risk” to the electric automaker’s business. 

Hey, thanks for all the tax breaks and subsidies, California, see you later!

 

 

The two US ex-special forces turn mercenary soldiers captured by Venezuela Monday as they tried to lead a small anti-Maduro invasion force into the country appeared in a Venezuelan court on Friday, alongside some dozen other alleged conspirators and detained mercenaries. 

Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41 have been charged with “terrorism and conspiracy” for the failed raid, which new details say included a total of 17 people coming ashore on fishing boats from a staging ground in neighboring Colombia.

Silvercorp mercenaries Venezuela captured following this week’s failed invasion face charges including terrorism, conspiracy, & illicit arms trafficking. They face 25-30 yrs in prison

US citizens Luke Denman & Airan Berry are among them pic.twitter.com/1o3cGstd6a

— Anya Parampil (@anyaparampil) May 9, 2020

Venezuelan media also claims that eight among the mercenary force – reportedly mostly made up of Venezuelan defectors – were gunned down when they tried to enter the country.

Denman and Berry have specifically been charged with “terrorism, conspiracy, illicit trafficking of weapons of war and (criminal) association.” 

There’s officially no death penalty in the Venezuelan legal code, with the charges faced by the Americans bringing a max 25-30 years in prison.

Maduro and Caracas officials have ultimately blamed the plot on President Trump, something which the US president and admin officials were quick to deny, with Trump noting he would never have used “a small little group”. 

“If I wanted to go into Venezuela, I wouldn’t make a secret about it. I wouldn’t send a small little group, it’d be called an Army,” Trump told FOX on Friday.

RT @laradiodelsur: Mercenary Airan Berry shows the contract between Silvercorp, Juan Guaidó, JJ Rendón and Sergio Vergara signed in October 2019 to execute terrorist plans in Venezuela pic.twitter.com/i8HsNimMHN

— Nicolás Maduro (@maduro_en) May 7, 2020

Meanwhile Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab has issued an Interpol arrest warrant for ex-Green Beret and head of the Florida-based security firm Silvercorp Jordan Goudreau. 

Goudreau had initially been boasting of being behind the failed coup attempt and giving media interviews from Florida, and he’s now under investigation by US authorities.

Washington appears to have been embarrassed by the whole “rogue” operation, for which Silvercorp has also come under widespread mockery online.

Vets are dunking mercilessly on these failed Silvercorp mercenaries who were the masterminds behind that edgelord Bay of Pigs in Venezuela. I talked with a few ex-special forces operators and rounded up the memes roasting this fiasco. Story never ends! https://t.co/ORZz0Lw5kG

— Ben Makuch (@BMakuch) May 8, 2020

The US army has since confirmed the men formerly served as members of the Green Berets and had been deployed to Iraq. Venezuelan state officials have claimed the group was going to be paid $212 million to orchestrate the overthrow of Maduro on behalf of opposition leader Juan Guaido and his US and Colombian backers.

While distancing itself from the fiasco, the State Department has pledged to “use every tool that we have available to try to get them back,” according to recent statements by Mike Pompeo.

Authored by Julia Conley via CommonDreams.org,

Ohio officials are encouraging employers to report what they’ve designated “Covid-19 fraud” as the state begins reopening some industries. Workers who refuse to report to work in light of the pandemic, which has killed more than 1,300 Ohio residents so far, can be reported via a government website and have their unemployment benefits taken away.

According to the Washington Post, less than a week after the state reopened manufacturing and distribution facilities, construction, and offices, 600 employers have “turned in” about 1,200 workers for not reporting to work.

“‘Turned in’ is a really fucked up way to even begin thinking about this,” tweeted labor journalist Sarah Jaffe in response to the Post‘s report.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services set up a website this week where employers may use a form “to report employees who quit or refuse work when it is available due to Covid-19.”

With retail stores expected to reopen on Monday, employees in that sector could be reported as early as next week for not returning to work.

In an email sent to employers across Ohio, officials told companies that “Ohio law prohibits individuals from receiving unemployment benefits if they refuse to accept offers of suitable work, or quit work, without good cause.”

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has set up a form called “Report COVID-19 Quits or Work Refusals when Work is Available”

By designating a deadly public health crisis an insufficient cause for staying home, as health experts have consistently urged for nearly two months, the Ohio government is giving residents a “near-impossible choice,” according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. 

Ohio workers must now choose between “going to work and earning income to put food on the table, and protecting their health,” senior policy analyst Alex Camardelle told the Post. 

Critics on social media accused Ohio officials of encouraging employers to “snitch” on workers for following the recommendations of public health officials.

Other Republican-led states have also aggressively pressured workers to report to their jobs with threats of having unemployment benefits taken away. As Common Dreams reported last month, Iowa officials are designating failure to report to businesses in reopened industries as a “voluntary quit,” while Texas’s reopening order carried the same message. 

The Century Foundation, a progressive and non-partisan think tank, noted that the focus on so-called “Covid-19 fraud” in Republican-led states stems from a fixation at the U.S. Department of Labor on rooting out workers who are using unemployment benefits when work is available to them. According to the Labor Department, nearly 90% of people who received unemployment benefits in Ohio between 2016 and 2019 used the system correctly.

“The driving activity of the U.S. Department of Labor for the last six to seven years has been unemployment fraud,” Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the foundation, told The American Prospect.

Ohio’s website represents a “bright flashing light of ‘fraud, fraud, fraud’ that for me is just like another example of the system’s overemphasis on unemployment fraud, rather than making sure we pay people who are out of work,” he added.

Newly declassified congressional transcripts from the Russia investigation include testimony from former Obama administration defense official, Evelyn Farkas, who testified under oath that she lied in an MSNBC interview when she claimed to have evidence of “the Trump staff dealing with Russians,” and said that the Obama administration was “trying to also get information to the hill” because the incoming Trump administration would try to hide the (nonexistent) evidence.

Former Obama DoD Deputy Evelyn Farkas reveals White House gathered intel on Trump campaign staff and then leaked it! https://t.co/W6FG4IFe5Q pic.twitter.com/VwaF2CnZzn

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) March 29, 2017

During closed-door testimony on June 26, 2017, however, Farkas – who was the Clinton campaign’s senior foreign policy adviser – admitted she had nothing.

In an exchange with former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Farkas is pressed on why she said ‘we’ when she said ‘if they found out how we knew what we knew about their staff dealing with Russians.’

Farkas’ response: I didn’t know anything.

In fact, Farkas shouldn’t have known anything, because she resigned from the Obama administration in September 2015.

…how did this non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, gain knowledge of intelligence regarding members of Trump’s team and their relations with Russia, when she was the senior foreign policy advisor for Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton?

Farkas was the prime driver behind the anti-Russia phobia inside the Pentagon during the Obama years — shilling hard for the Ukraine — requesting that the President send them anti-tank missiles — which, essentially, would mean outright war with Russia. –iBankCoin

Given all we now know, Occam’s razor suggests that Farkas, while working for the Clinton campaign, was fully aware of the work of Christopher Steele – the former UK spy paid by the Clinton campaign (through their lawyers and Fusion GPS) to fabricate the infamous dossier used by US intelligence to paint Donald Trump as an agent of Russia. 

That said, who exactly did she mean by “we” during that interview? And who was scrambling to leak evidence to the hill?

Based on the MSNBC interview, Farkas obviously knew something. But instead of going down that particular rabbit hole during congressional testimony, she thought the best option was to simply say she lied.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Once the government’s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes, the entire order vanishes along with it.

The era of waste, greed, fraud and living on borrowed money is dying, and those who’ve known no other way of living are mourning its passing. Its passing was inevitable, for any society that squanders its resources is unsustainable. Any society that makes private greed the primary motivator and priority is unsustainable. Any society that rewards fraud above all else is unsustainable. Any society which lives on money borrowed from the future and other forms of phantom capital is unsustainable.

We know this in our bones, but we fear the future because we know no other arrangement other than the unsustainable present. And so we hear the faint echo of the cries of alarm filling the streets of ancient Rome when the Bread and Circuses stopped: what do we do now?

When the free bread and entertainments disappeared, people found new arrangements. They left Rome.

The greatest private fortunes in history vanished as Rome unraveled. All the land, the palaces, the gold and all the other treasures were no protection against the collapse of the system that institutionalized corruption as the ultimate protector of concentrated wealth.

The most zealously guarded power of government is the creation of money, for without money the government cannot pay the soldiers, police, courts and administrators needed to enforce its rule. Western Rome created money by controlling silver mines; in the current era, governments create money (currency) out of thin air.

Once the government’s money loses purchasing power, the system collapses. And so in the final stages of Rome’s decline, Imperial orders still flowed to distant legions, but the legions no longer existed; they were only phantom entries on Imperial ledgers.

Our “money” is also nothing but phantom entries on digital ledgers, and so its complete loss of purchasing power is inevitable.

Without “money,” the government can no longer enforce the will of its self-serving elites: orders will still flow in a furious flood to every corner of the land, but the legions to enforce the institutional corruption will be nothing but phantom entries on Imperial ledgers.

Once the government’s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes, the entire order vanishes along with it. The destruction of the value of central bank-created “money” is already ordained, for there is no limit on human greed and the desire to maintain control, and so governments will create their “money” in ever-increasing amounts until the value has been completely leached from the phantom digital entries.

The outlines of a better world are emerging, an arrangement that prioritizes something more than maximizing private gain and institutionalizing the corruption needed to protect those gains. We will relearn to live within our means, and relearn how to institutionalize opportunity rather than corruption designed to protect elites.

We will come to a new understanding of the teleology of centralized power, that centralized power only knows how to extend its power and so the only possible outcome is collapse. (I explain these dynamics in my book Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change.)

We will come to understand technology need not serve only monopolies, cartels and the state, that it could serve a sustainable, decentralized economy that does more with less, i.e. a DeGrowth economy.

The Federal Reserve will fail, just as the Roman gods failed to sustain the corrupt and bankrupt Roman elites. A host of decentralized, transparently priced non-state currencies will compete on the open market, just like goods, services and commodities. The Fed’s essential role– serving the few at the expense of the many, under the cover of creating currency out of thin air–will be repudiated by the implosion of the economy as all the Fed’s phantom “wealth” evaporates.

The outlines of a better world are emerging. Do you discern them through the smoke as the last frantic phantoms of an unsustainable system issue orders to reverse the tides of history as they dissipate into thin air?

*  *  *

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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Silver is the matrix of precious metals:

• on the one hand, it is an industrial metal, critical to the production process in many of the world’s most in-demand products;

• and on the other hand, it has been ‘money’ for millennia, playing second-fiddle as a spending ‘asset’ relative to gold’s ‘wealth’.

The question is always, which of these demand/supply attributes is more prevalent at any one time.

Right now, is it the “blue pill” of blissful ignorance that an economic recovery is imminent and v-shaped; or is it the unpleasant truth of the “red pill” that this is the beginning of the end of the current system and a post-COVID world will look very different (and require protection).

Well, we may have the answer.

The price of silver coins is surging (‘Monetary’ demand) as futures prices sink (‘industrial’ demand), somewhat shunning the hope-filled hyping of stocks’ recovery off the lows in March…

And in fact, this is the largest (physical) silver coin premium since Bernanke disappointed the markets in 2011 and since Lehman sent investors scrambling…

Additionally, the demand for “monetary” silver may be driven by the fact that it has never been cheaper relative to gold…

In ancient Greece during the age of Pericles, gold was valued at 14x silver. In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar valued gold at 12x silver.

It remained this way for centuries.

Even in the earliest days of the United States, eighteen centuries after Caesar, The Coinage Act of 1792 established a ratio of 15:1.

(According to the law, one US dollar is supposed to be 24.1 grams of silver, or 1.6 grams of gold. So those pieces of paper in your wallet are not dollars– they are technically “Federal Reserve Notes”.)

In modern times there is no longer a fixed ratio between gold and silver, though its long-term average over the last several decades has been between 50:1 and 80:1.

This is a lot higher than in ancient times… but the circumstances are obviously different.

Today, gold is still widely used as a reserve by central banks and governments around the world.  And investors still buy gold as a hedge against inflation and uncertainty.

Silver, on the other hand, as we detailed above, has countless industrial applications; it’s a critical component in everything from mobile phones to automobiles to solar panels.

Like gold, silver is also a hedge against inflation and uncertainty.

But silver’s demand fundamentals are more heavily influenced by overall economic health. If the economy is in recession, silver prices can fall because there’s less demand from industry.

Gold, on the other hand, doesn’t follow that pattern. In 5 out of the last 6 recessions, in fact, gold has increased in price.

That’s why recessions, and extreme turmoil, can lead to a massive spike in the gold/silver ratio. Gold goes up, and silver stays flat (or falls).

• Just prior to World War II as Hitler launched his invasion of Poland, the ratio spiked to 98:1.

• In 1991 as the first Gulf War began, the ratio again reached 100:1.

• Today we’re back again in that territory; as of this morning, the ratio is 110:1, and it’s been as high as 120 or more in recent weeks.

Source: MacroTrends.net

This ratio may stay elevated for a while, or even go higher.

But in the past, the ratio has always returned to more traditional levels. Always. Even when the world was facing Adolf Hitler or the Great Depression.

So it stands to reason that, if they keep printing money (which they already are), and the ratio eventually returns to its historical range, the price of silver could really skyrocket.

…and it won’t be due to the economy.

And in case you need more reassurance that the “recovery” is not coming anytime soon, Goldman’s “re-opening” basket is significantly struggling to outperform.

Global silver demand nudged higher in 2019 thanks to a 12% increase in investment demand as retail and institutional investors focused their attention on the long-term investment appeal of the white metal according to a report highlighted in the latest edition of the Silver Institute’s Silver News.

According to the World Silver Survey 2020, total demand inched higher by 0.4% despite the trade war. Investment demand grew to 186 million ounces, the largest annual growth since 2015. Exchange-traded product holdings stood at 728.9 million ounces at year-end, up by 13%, achieving the largest annual rise since 2010. Meanwhile, silver mine supply fell for the fourth straight with output declining by 1%.

At its core, silver is a monetary metal. It tends to track with gold over time. And it has historically outperformed gold in a gold bull market.

Authored by Bradley Thomas via The Mises Institute,

During the current coronavirus lockdown, I’d pay good money to see just one public official be asked:

“How many lives are you willing to sacrifice to prevent one coronavirus death?”

Thomas Sowell has repeatedly written that in a world of scarcity there are no solutions, only tradeoffs. The lockdown debate has thus far focused on that tradeoff as one between saving lives versus a temporary blip in the economy.

As Tom Woods wrote recently, “We heard it from Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, and plenty of people since then: if we save even one life with all these draconian measures, it will have been worthwhile.”

But there’s so much more to it than that.

The lockdown itself is costing lives, perhaps more so than the virus itself.

Opponents of the lockdowns do themselves a disservice in focusing almost exclusively on the importance of “reopening the economy,” as if financial self-interest were the only reason to lift stay-at-home orders and risk an acceleration of COVID-19 spread and deaths.

As Heather Mac Donald wrote in this recent American Greatness piece,

“The focus on saving ‘just one life’ from the coronavirus, as Cuomo put it in March, to the exclusion of all other considerations likely will prove a catastrophic failure of policymaking.”

“The devastation to individuals’ ability to flourish or even survive may soon become irreversible,” she added.

Indeed, the lockdown itself poses significant health risks of its own, including countless deaths. The public has been bombarded with constantly changing models purporting to show the massive amount of coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths that will ensure should lockdown restrictions be lifted.

But where are the models projecting the deaths and suffering resulting from the lockdown itself? Why are our rulers so intent upon keeping those tradeoffs from entering the public debate over the lockdown?

Research has clearly shown a positive correlation between increased unemployment and suicide rates. A study published by The Lancet found that “the relative risk of suicide associated with unemployment was elevated by about 20–30%” in their study period.

The study further attributed roughly forty-five thousand suicides per year worldwide to the mental and psychological toll of unemployment.

The hope for many laid-off workers is that their unemployment will be temporary, but there remains great uncertainty about just how long this will last. The longer this economic shutdown and its consequences last, the more suicides there will be. 

Loss of life from substance abuse will also increase. As the substance abuse rehab clinic Recovery Ways notes, “One study from 2017 found that every time unemployment rises by one percentage point in a given county, the rate of opioid deaths increases by 3.6 percent and the rate of emergency room visits increases by seven percent.” 

And in a very bitter case of irony, the anxiety and stress caused by the reaction to fight the spread of the coronavirus can actually weaken the immune system and make people more vulnerable to contagion. As reported at Healthline.com: 

But if you repeatedly feel anxious and stressed or it lasts a long time, your body never gets the signal to return to normal functioning. This can weaken your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to viral infections and frequent illnesses. Also, your regular vaccines may not work as well if you have anxiety.

Also accompanying the global economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus lockdowns will be mass starvation. Although the US will suffer increased deaths from the economic hardships, the pain felt globally will be far more severe.

An April 16 Reuters article highlighted a UN report warning that

economic hardship experienced by families as a result of the global economic downturn could result in hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths in 2020, reversing the last 2 to 3 years of progress in reducing infant mortality within a single year.

Warning of a “pandemic of starvation, illiteracy and poverty” resulting from the government lockdowns, this April 22 New York Times article noted that in third world nations, “Polio eradication campaigns are being suspended. The same is true of vitamin A distribution, which saves children’s lives and prevents blindness. School feeding programs have often been shut down along with schools.”

In Bangladesh, the article noted a survey that found that “Four in 10 respondents had three days’ worth of food at home or less.”

The mass hysteria and panic is also leading many people with serious health issues to dangerously avoid hospitals because of unwarranted fear of infection. Such avoidance can lead to serious and sometimes irreversible illnesses that were entirely preventable.

Moreover, as a Stanford doctor wrote in this article in The Hill, “People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.”

“Most states and many hospitals abruptly stopped ‘nonessential’ procedures and surgery,” the doctor wrote. “That prevented diagnoses of life-threatening diseases, like cancer screening, biopsies of tumors now undiscovered and potentially deadly brain aneurysms.”

“Cancer patients deferred chemotherapy. An estimated 80 percent of brain surgery cases were skipped. Acute stroke and heart attack patients missed their only chances for treatment, some dying and many now facing permanent disability,” he continued.

Tom Woods further pointed out an article in the UK’s Sunday Express that concluded that “increased cancer fatalities will result from the redeployment of health resources caused by COVID hysteria.”

According to Richard Sullivan, a professor of cancer and global health at King’s College London and director of its Institute of Cancer Policy, “The number of deaths due to the disruption of cancer services is likely to outweigh the number of deaths from the coronavirus itself.”

The government’s response to the threat of the coronavirus has been unprecedented. The question of whether or not the response has been warranted has boiled down to saving lives versus “restarting” the economy. Many opponents of the near universal lockdowns have been accused of wanting people to die just to save a few points in their Wall Street portfolios.

This is absurd.

The lockdown is costing lives. A lot of them. The economic fallout will cause more waves of deaths, especially among poorer nations. Preventable deaths and health problems are spiking, because scarce medical resources are being reserved for predicted waves of COVID-19 cases that largely aren’t materializing.

In a recent tweet, libertarian podcaster and comedian Dave Smith posed the question that needs to be asked but is thus far being ignored:

Sadly, it’s beginning to look more and more like our rulers don’t even want to publicly acknowledge these tradeoffs, or that they ever will.

Nothing in life is free; there are always tradeoffs. That includes the coronavirus lockdown. Saving “just one life” from the coronavirus is not costless. Unfortunately, the true nature of these costs is being ignored and reduced to mere temporary economic inconvenience.

As Woods concluded, “It isn’t just that we want to go out and get a haircut, as these geniuses keep saying. It’s that we’re against destruction.”