Tag: news

After being forced to close his fund, Marble Ridge Capital, after a Jeffries trader and former Navy SEAL reported his dubious conduct to Jeffries General Counsel, who informed the authorities, prompting the trader to record some seriously incriminating and embarrassing phone calls, It looks like Daniel Kamensky is finally in custody.

Prosecutors in New York announced Thursday afternoon that Kamensky had been arrested and charged with securities fraud, obstruction of justice and extortion for allegedly trying to rig a bidding process involving bankrupt Neiman Marcus as Marble Ridge bid to supply the floundering retailer with a high interest loan.

The news was expected. Just last week, in a Houston courtroom, lawyers for Neiman Marcus pressed a judge to order Marble Ridge to pay out more than $50 million into an escrow account so that Neiman could collect the money promised from the firm before Marble Ridge dissolves. 

More than a week ago, we reported the salacious story of Kamensky’s downfall.  Joe Femenia, the head of distressed-debt trading at Jefferies Financial Group, is the man who, per court filings, taped conversations that brought down Kamensky and his hedge fund down. The proverbial crap hit the fan after Kamensky urged Femenia to not submit a bid for part of the bankrupt retailer, nicknamed “Needless Markups”.

Legal filings show Kamensky telling Femenia to “Stand DOWN”. Probably not a bright thing to say to a Navy SEAL…

When Kamensky realized that he had made a “grave mistake”, and tried to fix things, he only made things worse for himself.

By the time Kamensky urged Femenia, on a second phone call, to “treat the conversation off the books” and to “change his recollection” of how their first call went, Fermenia was recording.

In one, Kamensky pleaded: “[I]f you’re going to continue to tell them what you just told me, I’m going to jail, OK? Because they’re going to say that I abused my position as a fiduciary, which I probably did, right? Maybe I should go to jail. But I’m asking you not to put me in jail.”

That’s not a great look.

The charges were brought by Audrey Strauss, the acting head of the Southern District of New York.

Here’s the full press release:

Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today that DANIEL KAMENSKY, the founder and manager of New York-based hedge fund Marble Ridge Capital (“Marble Ridge”), was charged in a Complaint in Manhattan federal court with securities fraud, wire fraud, extortion, and obstruction of justice.  KAMENSKY’s alleged criminal acts occurred  in connection with his scheme to pressure a rival bidder to abandon its higher bid for assets in connection with Neiman Marcus’s bankruptcy proceedings so that Marble Ridge could obtain those assets for a lower price.  KAMENSKY then attempted to persuade the rival bidder to cover up the scheme.  KAMENSKY was arrested today and is expected to be presented before Magistrate Judge James L. Cott this afternoon.

Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said:  “As alleged, Daniel Kamensky disregarded his fiduciary responsibility to unsecured creditors of Neiman Marcus – and broke the law – when he attempted to coerce a competitor to withdraw a higher bid for assets of the bankruptcy estate.  As further alleged, acknowledging the illegality of his actions, Kamensky then attempted to obstruct an investigation by trying to persuade the competitor to change his account of the coercion, telling the competitor that otherwise ‘this is going to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.’  As today’s charges show, Kamensky was right about that.”

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney said:  “As alleged, Kamensky intentionally violated his fiduciary duty as a member of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Neiman Marcus bankruptcy by preventing the sale of securities to an investment bank so he could acquire the same securities at a significantly lower price for his own fund.  In a conversation with an employee of the investment bank, Kamensky went as far as to say, ‘Maybe I should go to jail.’  Today, we’ve removed the ‘maybe,’ and forced him to answer for his conduct.”

As alleged in the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:[1] DANIEL KAMENSKY was the principal of Marble Ridge, a hedge fund with assets under management of more than $1 billion that invested in securities in distressed situations, including bankruptcies.  Prior to opening Marble Ridge, KAMENSKY worked for many years as a bankruptcy attorney at a well-known international law firm, and as a distressed debt investor at prominent financial institutions.
The Neiman Marcus Bankruptcy.

Neiman Marcus, an American chain of luxury department stores with stores located across the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (the “Bankruptcy Court”) in May 2020.  At the outset of the bankruptcy, Marble Ridge, through KAMENSKY, applied to be on the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “Committee”) and was thereafter appointed to be a member of the Committee.  As a member of the Committee, KAMENSKY had a fiduciary duty to represent the interests of all unsecured creditors as a group.

During the bankruptcy process, the Committee had negotiated with the owners of Neiman Marcus to obtain certain securities, known as MyTheresa Series B Shares (the “MYT Securities”), and ultimately, the Committee was successful in coming to a settlement to obtain 140 million shares of MYT Securities for the benefit of certain unsecured creditors of the bankruptcy estate.  In July 2020, KAMENSKY was negotiating with the Committee for Marble Ridge to offer 20 cents per share to purchase MYT Securities from any unsecured creditor who preferred to receive cash, rather than MYT Securities, as part of that settlement.

KAMENSKY’s Fraudulent Scheme

On July 31, 2020, KAMENSKY learned that a diversified financial services company headquartered in New York, New York (the “Investment Bank”) had informed the Committee that it was interested in bidding a price between 30 and 40 cents per share – substantially higher than KAMENSKY’s bid – to purchase the MYT Securities from any unsecured creditor who was interested in receiving cash.
That afternoon, KAMENSKY sent messages to a senior trader at the Investment Bank (“IB Employee-1”) telling him not to place a bid, and followed those messages up with a phone call with IB Employee-1 and a senior analyst of the Investment Bank (“IB Employee-2,” and collectively the “Employees”).  During that call, KAMENSKY asserted that Marble Ridge should have the exclusive right to purchase MYT Securities, and threatened to use his official role as co-chair of the Committee to prevent the Investment Bank from acquiring the MYT Securities.  KAMENSKY also stated that Marble Ridge had been a client of the Investment Bank in the past but that if the Investment Bank moved forward with its bid, then Marble Ridge would cease doing business with the Investment Bank.

The Investment Bank thereafter decided to not make a bid to purchase MYT Securities, and informed the legal adviser to the Committee of its decision.  The Investment Bank further told the legal adviser they made that decision because KAMENSKY – a client of the Investment Bank – had asked them not to.

Advisers to the Committee informed counsel for Marble Ridge of their call with the Employees, and after speaking with KAMENSKY, counsel for Marble Ridge falsely informed the advisers that KAMENSKY had not asked the Employees not to bid, but instead had told them to place a bid only if they were serious.  Later that evening, KAMENSKY contacted IB Employee-1 and attempted to influence what IB Employee-1 would tell others, including the Committee and law enforcement, about KAMENSKY’s attempt to block the Investment Bank’s bid for the MYT Securities.  KAMENSKY said at the outset of the call, in substance, “this conversation never happened.”  During the call, KAMENSKY asked IB Employee-1 to falsely say that IB Employee-1 had been mistaken and that KAMENSKY had actually suggested that the Investment Bank bid only if it were serious, and made comments including the following:  “Do you understand…I can go to jail?”  “I pray you tell them that it was a huge misunderstanding, okay, and I’m going to invite you to bid and be part of the process.”  “But I’m telling you…this is going to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  This is going to go to the court.”  “[I]f you’re going to continue to tell them what you just told me, I’m going to jail, okay? Because they’re going to say that I abused my position as a fiduciary, which I probably did, right? Maybe I should go to jail. But I’m asking you not to put me in jail.”

During a subsequent interview with the Office of the United States Trustee, which was conducted under oath and in the presence of counsel, KAMENSKY stated that his calls to IB Employee-1 were a “terrible mistake” and “profound errors in lapses of judgment.”
After this series of events, Marble Ridge resigned from the Committee and has advised its investors that it intended to begin winding down operations and returning investor capital.

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KAMENSKY, 47, of Roslyn, New York, is charged with one count of fraud in the offer or sale of securities, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, one count of extortion and bribery in connection with a bankruptcy, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and one count of obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
Ms. Strauss praised the work of the FBI.  Ms. Strauss further thanked the Office of United States Trustee and the Securities and Exchange Commission for their cooperation and assistance in this investigation.  She added that the FBI’s investigation is ongoing.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard Cooper and Daniel Tracer are in charge of the prosecution.

The allegations contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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Source: DoJ

Authored by Martin Armstrong via ArmstroingEconomics.com,

The New York Times cheered Stalin and constantly reported that this was the way to the future.

Their top journalist, Walter Duranty (1884-1957), was their man in Moscow. The New York Times promoted him to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for that reporting.

When Gareth Jones (1905-1935) in March 1933 reported this was all a lie, the truth finally began to appear.

It took the New York Times until 1990 to admit to fault in failing to report that there was a famine in Ukraine where Stalin killed so many people.

The New York Times wrote that their reporting on the Russian Revolution constituted “some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper.”

Duranty was doing this also to support Roosevelt’s New Deal. He helped install drastic progressiveness in taxation.

In 1932, the top marginal tax rate was increased to 63% during the Great Depression under the Republicans. It steadily increased, finally reaching 94% in 1944 on an income of over $200,000. Under Socialism, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the 1935 Act, which introduced the payroll tax on everyone. However, the Socialists marketed it as the “Soak the Rich” tax, but payroll taxed everyone but the rich who did not work for a wage. Today, the majority of low-income earners pay more in Social Security than they do in taxes.

Are we supposed to trust these people again?

The leftist media is continuously supporting the overthrow of our democracy.

They remain dishonest propaganda artists who threaten our very way of life. Once again, we have the media trying to convince us to surrender all our freedoms to create a better world that they dream of along with all other Marxists. They are once again doing everything in their power to destroy our freedoms.

Yesterday we explained that much of the bizarre moves seen in the market in recent weeks can be explained as an unprecedented  gamma “battle” between one or more funds who were aggressively bidding up calls to the point that VIX was surging even as stocks hit 9 consecutive all time highs, while dealers were stuck “short gamma” and in their attempts to delta-hedge the ever higher highs, would buy stocks thereby creating a feedback loop where the higher the market rose, the more buying ensued.

And, as Goldman pointed out this morning following our own observations on the matter yesterday, “each new high for the SPX has come with a higher VIX, and at 26.6 [ZH: make that 32 now] the VIX is now higher than it was at the SPX peaks of March 2000.”

Ahead of today’s market action, Larry McDonald’s Bear Traps report made some follow through observations on this clash between gamma shorts and gamma long, saying that “as we learned with Lehman, greed breaks things. It’s “high-noon” – the only character missing is Gary Cooper. We are witnessing a battle of wills, high speculation where colossal call buyers are forcing the street to get long more and more stock to hedge their upside risk. It’s the March capitulation selling in reverse. Just the way the street had to BUY downside protection in late March (because put buyers outnumbered call buyers 10-1). Today, they are being forced to BUY upside protection in SIZE (call buyers outnumbered put buyers 10-1).””

Just one day later, it appears that this historic gamma squeeze has finally broken and Gary Cooper has finally showed up, with both tech names and the broader market tumbling so perhaps the dynamic that defined the market for much of August is now over.

What happens next? To quote the same PM who a few days ago said that only Tesla matters in this market, well, he hasn’t changed his mind as the following note before the market opened confirmed:

2 things to watch: For convexity selling, the closes in the red for AAPL and TSLA were important. However, watch for confirmation tomorrow morning, further weakness would  trigger new incremental option related selling. Just keep an eye on Tesla, it leads everything and has the highest beta. For a rotation signal, I think KO and PEP, etc tell you something real happening…

Yet as some loose ends have been resolve, the real questions emerge and first and foremost is who was it that led this furious gamma charge higher, taking on virtually every dealer?

Once again, we quote the Bear Traps report which first thing this morning may have identified the culrpit behind the most bizarre market action since the Feb 2018 volmageddon:

“one large buyer has made a colossal splash in the market and the scent of greed has drawn thousands of other market participants into the dangerous game. Several clients in our institutional chat on Bloomberg have cited SoftBank as the original size buyer. We have NO IDEA if this is true, just that highly credible clients have made this reference several times over the last week.”

It is hardly unreasonable to imagine SoftBank, the “brains” behind such catastrophic investments as WeWork, WireFraud WireCard, and countless other failed “unicorns” would desperately try to Volkswagen not just a handful of tech names, but the entire market in the process. After all, Masa Son is desperate to deflect attention from the fact that as we put it last October, “SoftBank is the Bubble Era’s “Short Of The Century.” And if there is one thing that can salvage the Japanese VC titan’s reputation it is a second tech bubble which blows out the valuation of his countless (otherwise worthless) investments which form the backbone of SoftBank’s “AI Revolution” whatever that means.

Yet as while we seek further proof about the identity of the gamma grabber, spare a thought for everyone else that jumped on the bandwagon only to see their “get rich quick” fortunes turn to smoke. Here again is Larry McDonalds with the anticlimax:

It’s a high-stakes game of musical chairs, the ultimate greater fool theory moment. The colossal call buyer has thrown meat in the water and drawn in the sharks, but unfortunately thousands of Robinhood minnows at the same time. When the large players’ exit, the little guy and gal will be left holding the bag. As my first boss told me at Merrill Lynch in 1990, “In options Larry, they show it to you (lush $$ green premium), and then they take it away.”

One final thought: the HFT(s) that frontrun Robinhood traders giveth and taketh away, and today’s elevator down action demonstrates just how furious the selling is – and will be – courtesy of the algos who sense that a tidal wave of retail selling is about to hit.

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

A new video highlights how young people agree with Donald Trump’s second term agenda, just so long as they don’t know it’s the President’s.

Campus Reform told students that the plans, including going after human traffickers and terrorists, and ending wars to bring troops home.

“The fight on terrorism has always been important, especially in America. So getting rid of stuff that can harm American lives is perfect,” one student said, believing that the agenda was Biden’s.

“Human trafficking, especially in South Florida which is where I’m from, is a huge issue. So from what it sounds like, it sounds like a great idea,” another student responded.

“I mean, I still haven’t decided yet, but these things all sound great and they’re definitely making me lean more towards Biden,” one student said when told the agenda was the Democrat’s.

When they were finally told the plans were all Trump’s, some of the students admitted they should be looking beyond character.

“It surprised me a little bit because I don’t have the highest opinion of the president at the time, but I think that’s great,” one student said.

“I think everyone, including myself, could be a little bit more looking at the policies of the President rather than their character” another responded.

“In this time, not a lot of the good he does is heard. It does help knowing that he is doing these things,” a further student declared.

In another video shot by Campus Reform, most students admitted that if Biden refuses to debate Trump, it would be a “weak” move.

“I do believe that Trump would win the debates,” one student said, adding:

“I feel like Biden would struggle, and Biden, from what I’ve seen so far, doesn’t bring too many facts and tries more of an emotional argument.”

China remains the world’s largest importers of chips, and will spend some $300 billion to import semiconductors this year — the vital component for chips’ functionality in storing data and programs on computers and other devices — but the Trump administration’s blacklisting a who’s who of China’s tech companies has put into doubt the country’s continued access to the most advanced chips.

And now Bloomberg reports China is paving the way for an ambitious new program to establish a domestic semiconductor industry which new government policies are rapidly prioritizing in order to counter US sanctions and ultimately sever dependency on American tech in the near and long term. The report underscores the Beijing will confer “the same kind of priority on the effort it accorded to building its atomic capability.”

This as major Chinese firms long central in headlines related to the US-China showdown like Huawei, will lose access to chips based on new American regulations. In Huawei’s case, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will be prohibited from doing business with the Shenzhen-based  telecommunications and electronics company.

“Beijing is preparing broad support for so-called third-generation semiconductors for the five years through 2025, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing government deliberations,” Bloomberg reports. “A suite of measures to bolster research, education and financing for the industry has been added to a draft of the country’s 14th five-year plan, which will be presented to the country’s top leaders in October, the people said.”

To drive forward these efforts President Xi Jinping earlier promised $1.4 trillion through 2025 to ensure rapid advance of domestic produced cutting edge technologies, central to which are semiconductors, which is vital to everything from wireless networks, to developing AI, to cellular phones.

“This is a sector about to see explosive growth,” Xin Capital Co.’s Alan Zhou, said last week at an industry event. He predicted the transition will likely see huge investment in Chinese semiconductor development, which could create a “world-class Chinese chip giant.”

However there’s still a technology gap in this area which Chinese developers have struggled to close over and ahead of more developed rivals in this area like the US, Japan, and Europe.

Beijing has had a benchmark in place since the start of the trade war to see at least 40% of China’s semiconductor needs met by local manufacturers by middle of next decade. But the question remains whether it can catch up to the cutting edge global leaders and original innovators in the industry responsible for breakthroughs centered in the West.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

So what can we do about all this when our politics, regulation and policies are all captured? We go directly to the source of value, which is demand.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by my friend and colleague Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D., who has contributed essays to Of Two Minds since 2009.

This is part 4 of a 5 part series entitled When the World Market Itself Is Fake, Economic “Value” Loses Any Real Meaning.

Read Part 1 here…

Read Part 2 here…

Read Part 3 here…

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“The assumption I see everywhere in the alt financial media is the elite will do fine because they own the gold, land, factories, apartment complexes, etc. All true. However the Roman Elites owned all this too, but that didn’t save them from systemic collapse. They weren’t still fabulously rich once the Imperial structure collapsed.”

– Charles Hugh Smith, August 23, 2020 email to zeus@citizenzeus.com

The gravy train for a pampered and protected elite won’t last forever. It never does. But before these elites fall, just like those of Ancient Rome, there must be a combination of internal broken trust, opting out of the system, and independent, decisive rebellion by a critical mass of citizens as well as significant external pressures.

These citizens would have to start an exodus, aided by exterior forces, to decouple from the values, ethics, and imagination of the ruling elite which whispers, “You too, could be one of us.” Just like the bread and circuses of old Rome so have the entertainment spectacles and endless social media diversions kept our eyes off economic manipulation and abuse. The breakdown of the Ancient Roman spectacle was aided by the invasion by Visigoths from the North, who sacked Rome and brought the empire to its knees. It looks like American imperial delusions are beginning to be broken by Covid-19.

We see both internal and external forces interacting with the Covid-19 crisis and the eye-opening shift it has created in perspectives around the desirability of urban living, consuming, and tolerating unsatisfying work. Once the goodies have been removed (TV sports, nights at the bar, etc.) it is remarkable how much we realize we have been evicted from well-being by allowing our senses to be occupied rather than by inhabiting of our intelligence.

The external pressures also brought by Covid-19 have compelled a response that further reveals the fragility and exploitation (unequal bailouts, rigged medical system, no social safety net) rife in our system.

It is interesting that March 2020, during the Covid-19 shutdown, was the first March without a school shooting in nearly two decades not to mention 30% reduced pollution levels and a host of other neglected benefits of stopping or slowing consumption and “growth” and pursuing healthy, broadly popular policies!

On a whole host of policies, 80-90+% of Americans (and the entire world, for that matter) agree on basic issues–environmental protection, sensible background checks for gun ownership, working class protections, help for the middle and working class, greater taxes for the rentier and leisure classes, (and on and on) yet without a single policy change in sight.

On the other hand, corporations are given a deference quite reminiscent of Old Rome. Virginia, a state now controlled by supposedly “liberal” (read neo-liberal corporatist) Democrats, has the worst worker rights record in the United States. Its neo-liberal governor, Ralph Northam, is proposing to delay by four months even modest increase in wages and tepid boosts to collective bargaining, already passed into law and scheduled for January 2021.

In an Orwellian statement, Northam’s office claimed, “This will ensure workers get the support they need while allowing greater economic certainty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.” What!? The very people most in need of aid and a raise, the most affected, are once again the last in line, just as with the recent 2.2 trillion dollar bailout? This a particular form of disaster capitalism, what I call extortion capitalism, aided and abetted by both major parties.

So what can we do about all this when our politics, regulation and policies are all captured by those who are determined to exploit us and extract ever higher rents from our labor, our talents, and our assets? We go directly to the source of value, which is demand. The organic food movement and the Covid-19 virus are showing us how.

When organic foods spread from a fringe subculture in the early 1970s to a conscious and viable desire for suburban soccer moms in the 2000s, big corporations had to respond or lose out. They spooned us cheap, high-fructose-corn-syrup garbage for decades that decimated our health and clouded our minds.

We rebelled successfully by moving to organic foods and conscious eating. They had to follow. We did not necessarily need any regulation or government mandate to change behavior. They tried to buy off regulation by making pesticide / sugar-laden food “natural”, but we did not buy it, and citizen-activist groups successfully kept the label “organic” from being watered down. Now, these corporations are trying to buy up family-owned organic businesses.

Currently Covid-19 is showing us how we can really call the shots with Big Oil and, perhaps, make them invest more in alternative energy. Oil futures plunged into the negative range for the first time in history during the pandemic (costing more to store than sell). If we take the lesson, and insist on working from home (and businesses find that productivity actually improves, as research shows), and demand stays depressed, Big Oil will have to adjust, just as Big Ag had to adjust with organic foods.

The present centralized capital economies (focused in cities) were constructed to do one thing: concentrate as much money and power in as few hands as possible. The opposite movement is needed, radical decentralization, regionalization, and localization of economy (as Charles Smith has written about extensively in his books and blogs).

Here is a summary starter list of ways to take on the big corporations (Big Everything) directly and accelerate the move toward decentralization:

Taking on Big Ag: By ramping up urban gardening, especially in inner city “food deserts,” patronizing farmers markets, and supporting organic farm-to-table, citizen consumers and take a big chunk out of the consolidation and monopolization created by corporate farms.

Taking on Big Oil: By radically reducing consumption, curtailing driving, downsizing houses, increasing energy efficiency, going solar (even though that has an environmental cost as well), and getting rid of plastics (8-10% of total oil output is used just for plastics), will put a significant ding in the demand for oil, and the power of oil producers. How much money would be saved and oil would be refused if we simply used bikes to get around to do our local shopping?

Taking on Big Pharma: Almost all of Big Pharma’s profits (in collaboration with Big Ag’s junk food agenda) come from pains, depressions, and chronic breakdowns of health created by entirely preventable lifestyle choices. By radically reducing consumption, unnecessary work, eating well, and using the extra time to get off the corporate hamster wheel and actually go for regular walks with our families, the physical, mental, and emotional health increase will put a serious dent into Big Pharma profits.

Taking on Big Rent and Housing: Housing prices have become completely extortionist. Lower-wage earners are paying upwards of 60-70% of income for rent and even “middle class” Millennials are paying 45%. Why not form cooperative communities, co-housing, or moving in with families as an act of liberation and rebellion? Again, demand, demand, demand. The rentier class cannot support extravagant rates if few people are wanting what they are selling.

Taking on Big Finance and Big Credit: Why do we need to get ripped off, getting absolutely zero interest rates on our savings, when we can peer-lend to each other and set up systems where both lender and borrower prosper from productive, healthy pursuits while cutting out the middleman? New Rule: You must add real value to an exchange to be valuable. To this end local currency becomes indispensable, a voluntary, community- based system of exchange that cuts out credit card fees and other premiums ginned up by predatory finance.

Taking on Big Government and Big Taxes: Why is it that the most profitable companies in the world, like Amazon, are not only paying 0% in income taxes, but getting tax rebates and subsidies to the tune of billions of dollars? Why is it that a successful, self-owned small business has the effective tax rate of 50% in California? Enough!

By bartering or gifting (which is completely legal up to 15,000 dollars per person in 2020), we can all lower our overheads and send less to the military industrial complex that dominates government spending.

By pooling our resources informally for necessities, like food, shelter, and clothing, we can live a lot better on a lot less, lowering our formal incomes and paying less to bureaucratic, technocratic, and militaristic state mechanisms.

Taking on Big Business: Support local businesses, even if they are a little more expensive. Even on Amazon (though Amazon does get a percentage), there are family-run businesses, who do great work and who don’t cost much more than foreign-made junk products. I ordered an organic bamboo, expandable silverware tray from Royal Craft Wood, a family run, American enterprise, owned by a single father and military vet. I now realize they ship free from their own site, and I will go directly there from now on.

Perhaps we can develop a nationwide directory, much like the Green Directory for small to medium, family-run businesses. To intensify the effect, why not divest from corporate stocks of all stripes, except those that run their companies in a conscious and community friendly way? Why not lobby your pension funds to do likewise?

Taking on Big Med and Big Insurance: It’s no secret that there is no profit in health and well-being for Big MedInsur. Sickcare is the name of the game. Scare the wits out of people, and bankrupt them with expensive procedures (gastric bypass) and drugs (for Diabetes 2, etc.) that could have been avoided entirely with exercise, good food, and decent preventive support in community health cooperatives. Not only would a single-payer Medicare for All save about 500 billion dollars a year (and about 65,000 lives), but easily a trillion dollars a year could be saved with a healthy populace (not to mention being far more microbe-resistant, and lower-risk when it comes to communicable diseases).

I could take on many more in the “Big Everything” category (i.e. Big Sports and Entertainment vs. local sports and artistic participation), and the boondoggle called Big Education (largely expensive and useless factory-style “higher” education vs. community learning and engagement) but let’s leave it at the main offenders for the time being.

These are ways to collectively rebel. There are also individual ways, which I will talk about, in my next essay, Plugging into Small Everything: Wake Up and Smell the 3 C’s: Community, Cash, and Coin (Coffee optional)!

copyright 2020 Zeus Yiamouyiannis

Part 5 will discuss healthy, pro-democratic, creative alternatives to the current rigged system.

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My recent books:

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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