Month: January 2022

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

This week, I had to opportunity to speak to one of my all time favorite podcasters, Tom Bodrovics from Palisades Gold Radio about my arguments from my latest article on inflation, called “Inflation Is The Kryptonite That Will End Our Decades-Long Monetary Policy Ponzi Scheme”.

The Age Of Censorship

First, on the podcast, I talk about how we live in an age where narratives can’t be questioned without you being considered a conspiracy theorist and how Substack is filling an important free market demand for uncensored content. I first touched on this when I started writing on Substack back in August of 2021 in this article called “Ending Social Media Censorship And The Meteoric Rise of Substack”.

On the podcast, I also point out that there are two narrative shifts occurring right now: Covid and inflation.

Inflation Marks An Impasse For the Fed

Regarding inflation, the Fed is at a fork in the road between popping the stock market bubble or allowing persistent inflation to brutalize the middle and lower class (or, as Jerome Powell put it this week, ‘some people are prone to suffer more’). 

I tell Tom that the Fed is trapped, and unlike in the past, they don’t have a viable way out. In the past they were able to avoid inflation and the Fed was able to pretend to successfully engineer the appearance of monetary prosperity, I told Tom. Now, there is no way for the average person to ignore Fed policy with high inflation. The Fed is running out of excuses and room to wiggle.

“The Fed’s feet are being held to the fire in a way that has never occurred before…politicians aren’t going to be able to overpromise anymore, as reality takes hold. Inflation is now the number one political issue in the country,” I tell Tom.

I also tell Tom that crypto has brought financial understanding to a new generation who want to understand monetary policy. Despite my criticisms of crypto, namely that (1) many of its advocates are charlatans, (2) it is most certainly a risk asset and (3) we can never be certain a cataclysm in crypto won’t occur, it is helping a younger generation quickly understand the flawed nature of our existing system.

This, in turn, is a huge problem for the Fed because the new generation understands the Central Banking ponzi scheme.

A Hyperinflationary Mindset Is Right Around The Corner

I also tell Tom that we’re not far from a hyperinflationary mindset in the country and that our leaders, who believe they can micromanage the economy and are stunned when their actions don’t work, are terribly ignorant. I wrote about this months ago when President Biden shut down the nation’s oil pipeline projects and then mulled the high price of gas in the coming months.

Instead, Harris Kupperman in a recent interview with me told me that oil traders “will break the Fed” and will make Jerome Powell “cry uncle”. Kupperman thinks oil prices are going higher and simply cannot be stopped.

The Covid Pivot Is Next, And Beware Of The Great Reset

I also spoke to Tom about why I think capitalism and common sense are going to end vaccine mandates and intrusion into our lives – something I wrote about at length just hours ago.

Finally I talk about Klaus Schwab’s “Great Reset” idea. I note that a large amount of people are seeing the global elite’s future plans for a system that will strip us of civil liberties while enriching central planners. I tell Tom that I don’t believe globalists have a viable way out of the system as it stands today.

This runs hand-in-hand with Part 1 of an interview with George Gammon I did this week, where George reminded us that the global only care about “usurping control”.

The more educated people become to the system, the fewer options will be left for the elite, I tell Tom.

“We’re all just in different stages of waking up.”

You can listen to my entire interview with Palisades Gold Radio, for free, here:

If you are still not a Fringe Finance subscriber and would like to read any of the above content – and because I know many of you are coming over from PGR – I’d love to have you on board and can offer you 35% off your first year as a subscriber. This is the steepest discount I can reasonably offer and this coupon only lasts for the next few days: Get 35% off for 1 year

A strong level of trust with customers is going to prove hugely important for recovering businesses when the pandemic finally comes to an end (or at least progresses to a stage closer to normality). As Statista’s Martin Armstrong details below, a survey by Edelman Research polled 36,000 respondents in 28 countries about their trust in business to “do the right thing” in November 2021.

The research found that people in China, Indonesia and India have the highest trust at 84 percent, 81 percent and 79 percent, respectively.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The figure was far lower in the United States at 49 percent while it was lower still in Russia at just 34 percent. In all, eleven countries saw an increase in trust in business, while eleven recorded a decrease. Interestingly, business is trusted more than government in 23 out of the 28 countries surveyed. Average trust in business globally was 61 percent, compared to 52 percent in government.

Tech, pharma and car companies were the only organizations in 2021 with a net positive trustworthiness rating worldwide. 34, 31 and 27 percent of participants in the annual Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Monitor deemed these types of corporations to be deserving of their trust. As our chart shows, governments, media companies and social media corporations have the worst trust-to-mistrust ratio of all sectors.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The positive attitude towards pharmaceutical companies, which gained six percent on the results of 2018, can be explained with the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the rapid and effective production of vaccines, although the decision to not lift patent restrictions on illness-preventing and potentially life-saving inoculations has come under scrutiny by activists and medical professionals over the past years. We wonder what will happen to this pharma cred now that vaccines are failing to live up to their promises?

The banking sector managed to gain even more ground with an increase of eight percent to a total of 28 percent deeming banks trustworthy, with 62 percent of Chinese respondents claiming banking organizations can be trusted. This is contrasted by 32 percent of respondents claiming to not trust banking companies, netting the sector fifth place when viewed through the lens of the most untrustworthy organization types. Mistrust in the media and social media companies has potentially been exacerbated by the coverage of the pandemic and, in the case of social media giant Meta, the scandal surrounding whistleblower Frances Haugen furthering calls for regulation of Big Tech due to its negative influence on its users.

It’s not just business, Statista’s Martin Armstrong took a look at the global levels of trust in government. When Joe Biden moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, one of his administration’s most important promises was to bolster trust in the American government and the healing of social divisions. Unfortunately, as his approval rating has collapse, along with distrust inside of government, the nation is more divided than ever though, and a new survey has found that a mere 39 percent of the U.S. public trusted the government in late 2021 – a 3 percentage point decrease on 2020.

The findings come from Edelman Research’s latest Trust Barometer which polled 36,000 people in 28 countries about their trust in various institutions in November 2021. The U.S. figure is far lower than many other countries, with trust in government in Canada and Australia standing at 53 percent and 52 percent, respectively. It is also slightly lower than the UK where the government’s Brexit strategy has proven highly controversial with public approval of the institution 42 percent in late 2021.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Some of the highest levels of trust in government were seen in Asia where 91 percent of Chinese respondents said they had trust, along with 82 percent of people polled in Saudi Arabia and 74 percent in India. The lowest rating was found in Argentina, where just 22 percent of respondents said they trusted their government there.
 

While the share of respondents mistrusting government and media might seem high, they have been largely consistent with minor swings over the years according to Ipsos experts. Since its initial run in 2018, the Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Monitor aims to dispel the idea that general trust in institutions and organizations is in crisis by surveying more than 20,000 adults in over 20 countries per year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

As talks on reviving the so-called Iranian nuclear deal enter a critical stage with the window of opportunity for a comprehensive agreement closing, oil markets are on edge once again about how the outcome of the ongoing negotiations would impact supply and demand balances later this year and early next year. 

The Biden Administration launched in April 2021 indirect talks with Iran, via the partners in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), about a possible return of the United States and Iran to the deal. Talks have been struggling since the start. They were suspended for months until a new Iranian president and administration took office and were relaunched at the end of last year, with little progress made so far. 

At the start of the talks in April, oil analysts first expected a legitimate return of Iranian oil to the market at some point in late 2021. As the negotiations dragged on and were suspended during the summer, the market pushed back the timeline for a return of Iranian barrels to 2022. This year, many analysts again pushed back that timeline to early 2023 if talks result in an agreement, considering that there would likely be a gap of six to nine months—and possibly more—before Iran starts to export oil without U.S. sanctions. 

Whether a deal could be reached in the coming weeks and months would influence estimates of oil market balances because Iran could raise its oil exports by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) within the first year of no-sanction exports. 

A full return to the deal and the removal of American sanctions would push oil prices lower as the surplus on the market would rise, upending current estimates. The longer the nuclear talks drag on, the longer it would take Iran to start ramping up its oil exports in case of an agreement.  

However, there could be very little time left to reach a deal. 

U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken warned earlier this month that the window of opportunity for a deal is closing. 

“We have, I think, a few weeks left to see if we can get back to mutual compliance,” Secretary Blinken told NPR in an interview on January 13. 

“This negotiation is urgent, and progress has not been fast enough. We continue to work in close partnership with our allies, but the negotiations are reaching a dangerous impasse,” British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss told the UK Parliament on Tuesday.  

“Iran must now choose whether it wants to conclude a deal or be responsible for the collapse of the JCPOA. If the JCPOA collapses, all options are on the table,” Truss added. 

Earlier this week, Iran suggested that it may consider direct talks with the United States.

“If during the negotiation process we get to a point that reaching a good agreement with solid guarantees requires a level of talks with the US, we will not ignore that in our work schedule,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, quoted by AFP. 

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday: “We do believe that it would be more productive to engage directly with Iran when it comes to JCPOA, when it comes to other issues.”  

Still, progress is not being made, and the Western countries in the JCPOA and the United States are concerned that dragging on talks further would allow Iran to advance its nuclear-weapon activities.

If the ongoing talks in Vienna collapse, it would likely be very bullish for oil prices as it would not only tighten expected market balances for 2023 and 2024, but it could also additionally increase the tension in the Middle East with a renewed U.S.-Iran standoff. 

“So much has changed since 2015,” Helima Croft, Global Head of Commodity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told Bloomberg.

“Iran is now a nuclear-threshold state. Would they be willing to relinquish that status? It’s not guaranteed,” Croft added, commenting on the possibility that talks could collapse.  

The oil market will continue to keep a close eye on the talks, which seem like the wild card for prices later this year and next. Last week, Goldman Sachs said it was pushing its Iran ramp-up forecast to the second quarter of 2023 due to lack of progress in the negotiations, as it joined other Wall Street banks in predicting $100 oil as soon as this year. 

With his approval ratings at an all-time low…

…and before what’s setting up to be a midterm bloodbath, progressive Democrats don’t want any part of the blame for President Biden’s status as top Democrat non grata.

According to The Hill, progressives are “pushing back at the idea that they are to blame at all for President Biden’s dismal poll numbers, arguing the White House’s problems have more to do with it moving away from a progressive agenda.”

Key progressives think instead that Biden’s polls reflect a disillusionment among the base over his unwillingness to deliver on key issues ranging from voting ‘rights,’ to gun control, to healthcare and beyond.

“Biden’s popularity was high when he ran on a progressive agenda — and it dropped when he let corporate Democrats take the reins,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of climate PAC The Sunrise Movement. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that voters are becoming impatient.“

…progressives argue Biden is playing into GOP hands by not fully embracing progressive priorities. They see the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law by Biden last fall as a lost opportunity that cut into their leverage for pressuring Manchin and Sinema on the Build Back Better legislation — which is also their top priority.

And they think a closer look at the polls shows that Biden’s real problems lie in a demoralized base — which they fear could also cost the party this fall.  

“They’re standing in the way of the president’s promises, and it will be mostly their fault if Democrats lose Congress in November,” Prakash said of moderate Democrats. -The Hill

According to a Pew Research Center survey released on Wednesady, Biden’s approval rating now stands at 41% – plummeting from 59% last April.

Biden’s horrible polling comes after Democrats were unable to advance his ‘signature economic package’ – as moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) oppose several aspects of the spending bill – from the overall cost, to a filibuster carve-out which would give Democrats virtually unlimited power to pass legislation. Moderates, meanwhile, have long argued that progressive Democrats are pulling Biden too far to the left, harming the party. Case-in-point, Sinema rejected proposals to hike taxes on corporations and wealthy households tacked onto the Build Back Better bill – while Manchin opposed further spending given inflation.

Also under fire from moderate Democrats is White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain – who has been accused of being in lockstep with far-left elements of the party.

The Washington Post reported that some think Klain is too deferential toward Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.  

Progressives held up a House vote on the infrastructure bill for months to try to move the Build Back Better bill forward.  

Eventually, under pressure from Biden, they relented and voted for the infrastructure bill. That gave Biden a political victory, but it is one that hasn’t really showed up in the polls so far.  -The Hill

According to Democratic operative Eddie Vale, the far-left isn’t to blame for Biden’s polling – as they’re the ones who ultimately bent the knee on Biden’s infrastructure bill.

“For the specific argument folks are currently having and the spate of stories going after Jayapal and Klain, blaming progressives doesn’t really make any sense because in the end they went along with the ‘pass infrastructure only’ strategy and almost all voted for both bills,” he said.

Another progressive, Camille Rivera of New Deal Strategies, said that “People are just really exhausted by moderate Democrats continuously eating their young,” adding “Conservative and moderate Democrats need to start taking responsibility for their own messaging.”

Whoever’s to blame, Democrats have a hard road ahead into this year’s midterm elections.

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance 

This week, my kind friend George Gammon from Rebel Capitalist took the time to answer a couple of exclusive Fringe Finance questions for me. George is one of my favorite economic commentators and has been a friend of mine, and my podcast, for years. I often describe his podcast as similar to mine, just more well thought out, more educational and more useful with less childish humor.

I thought this week would be a good time to tap into George’s head, given that the last time I spoke to George was well before the current market volatility. George prepared two, twenty minute-long exclusive videos for Fringe Finance to try and tackle a list of questions I had for him. 

First, I asked George and his team how they were changing their outlook for investing heading into this volatility this year. 

George responded: “All of us are really just trying to pay attention to what the Fed is doing. In order to answer economic questions, you’ve got to start by answering political questions. I don’t really like that because I don’t like politicians.”

“But unfortunately there’s a bigger cross current at play right now – and that’s what the Fed is going to do with monetary policy and maybe even what the government is going to do with fiscal policy. All our pros are fixated on what the Fed is going do right now,” he continued.

“You look at gold, you look at the dollar, you look at the 10 year, and I think everything revolves around trying to figure out if the Fed is going to go through what they say they’re going to do in 2022. Another interesting question is that inflation is kryptonite and a lot of talking heads think that if inflation comes down, it’ll buy them time. I don’t necessarily know if that’s true. Prices aren’t going back down to where they were in 2019. They might stop going up. They might go up at a lesser rate, but it doesn’t mean they’re going back down. The average voter knows this.”

I asked George what sectors he likes heading into 2022: “I think gold miners are interesting at these levels. I like things when they’re cheap and when they’re unloved. I don’t know if we’re seeing panic yet in the gold miners, but they’re definitely unloved. I think the Fed tightening is kind of baked into the price of miners. The market has taken the Fed seriously, therefore, if we see a dovish pivot, then I think miners could have a lot of upside.”

“There are some foreign markets I find interesting. For example, the UAE just came out and said they’re going to put up a 1,000 room casino. They’re not a bastion of freedom and liberty, but I’m looking for countries heading in the right direction. They’re looking to liberalize and move in a more free market direction. I think they have more tailwind than the U.S,” he said.

“Also I like that area because its a bit of a reprieve until the next crisis the global elite try and take advantage of. I think that’s most likely going to be climate change,” George continues. 

“I’m not here to say whether [climate change] is real or not, but I am here to say the elites don’t care about the quality of the air, they don’t care about the temperatures rising 2 degrees, the only thing they care about is usurping power and control. They see 2020 and 2021 as a big win in terms of ‘Wow, look at what we were able to make people do!’ During the next crisis, we can add to the power we obtained from 2020 and 2021.”

Countries like Russia, Brazil and the UAE all push back on this agenda due to their dependance on oil. “They’ll be less likely to follow Klaus,” George says. “I’m putting them on a watchlist and paying close attention to them.”

George also talks about:

• His take on why lower inflation may not stop the bleeding for markets

• Why prices aren’t going back down to where they were in 2019

• Why midterm elections bode poorly for the Democrats and why the Biden administration may try to distract the voter with war

• Why gold miners and hotels in New York City are his favorite types of investments

• Why the Covid pandemic is coming to an end

• Why he doesn’t think vaccine passports and mandates will be permanent

• Where the U.S. economy is heading compared to places like the U.A.E. or Dubai

• That he thinks climate change will be the next crisis that the global elite take advantage of

• Why price controls are coming

Finally, he also gives his thoughts on whether or not Powell will hold his nerve this year and taper as expected and his bull and bear case for gold. In the second part of the interview series, which will be released here this coming week, I ask George about YouTube and social media trying to censor him, the commentators and fund managers he reads and listens to and his take on how the government will navigate Covid this coming year.

You can watch George’s full video response here.

Now read:

1. Inflation Is The Kryptonite That Will End Our Decades-Long Monetary Policy Ponzi Scheme

2. When The Global Monetary Reset Happens, Don’t You Dare Forget Why

3. The Fed Is Fucked And So Are The Lobotomized “Genius” Fund Managers It Has Created

4. Rogan 2024

DISCLAIMER: 

All content is George Gammon’s opinion. I own physical silver, GLD, GDX, GDXJ, PAAS, PSLV and a number of other metals/miners/gold/silver equities as well as numerous companies with exposure to oil and uranium. Readers should assume George also has positions in all trends/equities/etc. mentioned in this interview – as do I. We will likely stand to benefit if prices of commodities rise and/or our prognostications come true. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. It is only a look into personal opinions and personal portfolios. Positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I get shit wrong a lot. I’m not a financial advisor, I hold no licenses or registrations and am not qualified to give advice on anything, let alone finance or medicine. Talk to your doctor, talk to your financial advisor or your therapist. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe.

Tom Brady is retiring from the NFL after an unprecedented career in which he won seven Super Bowls and set numerous passing records, his company’s Twitter account said Saturday. ESPN first reported Brady’s retirement on Saturday, citing unidentified sources.

Tom Brady is retiring from football after 22 extraordinary seasons, multiple sources tell @JeffDarlington and me.

More coming on https://t.co/rDZaVFhcDQ. pic.twitter.com/6CHWmMlyXg

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 29, 2022

Brady’s TB12sports Twitter account wrote; “7 Super Bowl Rings. 5 Super Bowl MVPs. 3 League MVP Awards. 22 Incredible Seasons. Thank you for it all, @TomBrady”

The 44-year-old Brady goes out after leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title last season and NFC South championship this season. And, as stat freaks point out, Tom Brady has won 12.7% of all Super Bowls in history.

Tom Brady has won 12.7% of all Super Bowls in history. pic.twitter.com/EaXP9R4neG

— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 29, 2022

Brady led the NFL in yards passing (5,316), touchdowns (43), completions (485) and attempts (719), but the Buccaneers lost at home to the Los Angeles Rams last Sunday in the divisional round. As the AP notes, Brady had cited a desire to spend more time with his wife and children despite still playing at the top of his game.

Brady won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots in 20 seasons playing for coach Bill Belichick. He joined the Buccaneers in 2020 and led them to the second Super Bowl title in franchise history.

Brady leaves the games as the career leader in yards passing (84,520) and TDs (624). He’s the only player to win more than five Super Bowls and was MVP of the game five times.

Widely considered the greatest quarterback to play the game, Brady won three NFL MVP awards, was a first-team All-Pro three times and was selected to the Pro Bowl 15 times. He was 243-73 in his career in the regular season and 35-12 in the playoffs.

In recent years, Tom Brady emerged as one of the more prominent crypto-evangelists, taking an equity stake in cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. He then fully embraced the cryptocurrency bandwagon, from his “laser eyes” tweet to his recent commercial for FTX; in September 2021 he even discussed about getting paid in tokens for carving up NFL defenses. Appearing on SiriusXM’s “Let’s Go” podcast with Jim Gray, Brady acknowledged that other NFL players have requested to be paid a portion of their salaries in crypto, and it’s a trend he would love to join:

“I’d love to request that to get paid in some crypto and, you know, to get paid in some Bitcoin or Ethereum or Solana tokens,” Brady said. “I think it’s an amazing thing that’s happening in the world with the way the world is becoming more digital. And these digital currencies, along with a lot of, if you look how the way the world is going, with all these different digital mediums and how they’re impacting currencies.”

It’s unclear if Brady plans on focusing more on his crypto cheerleading now that he will have much more free time or if, as some have speculated, he will turn toward politics. Or he may just pull a Michael Jordan…

Tom Brady in three years pic.twitter.com/hPcVrUs0Ok

— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS) January 29, 2022

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The claim that the virus that causes COVID-19 definitely was not from a laboratory, put forth in a paper quietly shaped by Dr. Anthony Fauci that was cited by other scientists who called the lab idea a “conspiracy theory,” was “antithetical to science,” a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director says.

“The purpose of science is to have rigorous debate about different hypotheses. I’ve never really experienced in my life where there was private telephone calls among scientists that had a decision on what position they would take collectively, and to see that position then published in a scientific journal like Lancet, to say that individuals that thought like myself, had a different scientific hypothesis, somehow had to be put down and viewed as conspirators, this is really antithetical to science,” Dr. Robert Redfield, the agency’s head until Jan. 20, 2021, said during a Jan. 26 appearance on Fox News.

Emails recently made public show that Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), played a key role in shaping a paper published by Nature in early 2020.

The authors, most of whom messaged repeatedly with Fauci, joined him on a teleconference shortly before the paper was published, and have since received millions from Fauci’s agency, claimed that their analyses “clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”

The Nature article was one of those cited by EcoHealth Alliance founder Peter Daszak and a separate group of scientists in an article later published in The Lancet. “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” wrote Daszak, whose group funneled money from Fauci’s agency to scientists in Wuhan, China, and the other authors.

Many experts later acknowledged there’s no clear evidence that the CCP virus has a natural origin, and some have said the bulk of the evidence points to it coming from the set of laboratories in Wuhan.

Redfield is one of them.

“I don’t think it’s biologically plausible that this virus emerged from a bat to some intermediate species into humans and became one of the most transmissible viruses that we know in human disease. This virus clearly had a detour and that detour was being educated how to infect human tissue in the laboratory. I think that’s the most plausible explanation,” he told Fox.

Dr. Francis Collins, Fauci’s boss when he was the head of the National Institutes of Health, and Fauci were trying to “protect science” by suppressing debate over the virus origins, Redfield posited. The problem is, “there’s very limited data” to support their position, he told Fox.

Asked if Fauci, who has been in his position since 1985, should be fired, Redfield demurred but said he did think Fauci should “reflect on this and then provide the science leadership that we need to move forward.”

“I have a lot of respect for him over the years. I think he needs to step back and not try to second guess and make things a way that he thinks the world can hear. We should just tell the truth,” Redfield said.

NIAID didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Redfield also said that he believes scientists will eventually solve the mystery of the origin of the virus.

As a generation of baby boomers weighs where they should retire, one popular survey has just proclaimed New Jersey – home to Bruce Springsteen and open sewer that is the Jersey Shore – the worst state in America for retirees.

The Garden State ranks last, with Mississippi and New York rounding out the bottom three.

Unsurprisingly, the No. 1 factor in Jersey’s low ranking was was the fact that NJ and NY are the two least affordable states in the US to live in, according to the survey released Monday by personal-finance website WalletHub.

They both scored slightly higher in terms of quality of life and health-care. But in both cases cost is still a serious factor.

Once again, Florida was ranked the best state to retire. It ranked fourth for affordability and fifth for quality of life, although surprisingly – considering the state’s large population of seniors – health-care ranked 27.

Virginia, Colorado, Delaware and Minnesota rounded out the top five states to retire, with each of these states boasting high marks on affordability.

WalletHub, the authors of the survey, compared all 50 states on different categories from affordability, quality of life and healthcare. Then these categories were divided into 47 metrics including tax-friendliness, risk of social isolation, elderly friendly labor market, life expectancy and health-care facilities per capita.

All of this was condensed down into a scale of 100 possible points, with each state being assigned a unique ranking.

Bloomberg took the WalletHub rankings and imposed them on a map of the US:

* * *

Source: Bloomberg

Authored by Parker Beauregrad via TheBlueStateConservative.com,

I began an article yesterday with the line: If coordinated lies could stop the spread of respiratory viruses, Covid would have ended in March of 2020. It applies just as much to this article. The following quotes come from Tony Fauci, Joe Biden, Rochelle Walensky, Bill Gates, Albert Bourla, and others who promised – promised! – us that the vaccines were going to end this alleged pandemic.

From the beginning, all talk of preventative care, repurposed drugs, alternative treatments were not only ignored but disparaged. Several states threatened to pull the licenses of doctors and pharmacists who either prescribed or filled prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Even now, a doctor in Maine has had her license suspended and made to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for dispensing these beneficial treatments. (Seriously, even if they did nothing, how is that worse than injecting yourself with a brand-new, lab-made cocktail of goodness knows what?). It isn’t just medications; something as cheap and simple as supplementing with vitamin D or going outside in the sun were actively suppressed. Southern California, home to some of the most beautiful landscapes and endless supply of Pacific sunshine, shut down beaches and parks upon threat of arrest. 

From the beginning, only vaccines would get us out. They told us that. They promised us that. We would have to die unnecessarily at home since hospitals didn’t treat anything and sent us home until we were too sick and every potential medication was blackballed, but it would all be worth it. If only we hunkered down until a vaccine could be developed, then there would be an eventual light at the end of the self-imposed tunnel. Amazingly, right after Donald Trump was defeated, pharmaceutical companies announced their foregone results to the world: The vaccines were here and life could get back to normal.

Don’t take my word for it; take theirs:

1. Joe Biden: “You’re Not Going To Get COVID If You Have These Vaccinations.”

2. Tony Fauci: “You Become A Dead End To The Virus.”

3. Rochelle Walensky: “Vaccinated People Do Not Carry The Virus — They Don’t Get Sick.”

4. Alberta Bourla: “[O]ur COVID-19 vaccine was 100% effective in preventing #COVID19 cases in South Africa. 100%!”

5. Bill Gates: “A key goal [of the vaccination program] is to stop transmission.”

6. Rachel Maddow: “Now we know that the virus stops with every vaccinated person.”

7. Francis Collins: “‘[R]eason to be pretty optimistic’ that the available COVID-19 vaccines will be effective against the new Omicron variant of the virus; All of the other variants that have emerged during this COVID-19 pandemic have shown response to the vaccine, including Delta

8. Brian Stelter: “The newspaper [USA Today] describes ‘America’s fourth Covid-19 surge,’ noting this ‘didn’t have to happen,’ since vaccinations are so widely available. The headlines are followed by a call to action: ‘Let’s end it now.’”

9, Honorable Mention, any of your obnoxious friends or family members: “You’re an anti-vaxxer. The vaccines are safe. They work. I’m doing my part. I’m better than you. You’re unsafe to be around. Just do your part. You’re selfish. Trust the science. Do you know more science than Fauci? Trump wahhhhhhhh!”

So that didn’t age well.

And before anyone says the science changed, just ask yourself: Do you really believe that? This entire vaccine debacle is the result of intentional lies and propaganda. 

If the medical and political entities had been honest from the beginning about supplements, preventative lifestyle changes related to diet and exercise, alternative treatments, and, indeed, optimism over a new delivery system for the purpose of inoculation, then so be it. If they had treated us like adults – free citizens, not subjugated peasants – then it seems unlikely we’d be at this crossroad. Instead, they have lied with gusto and mandated we take the vaccine upon threat of lost livelihoods. It is criminal what they have been and are still doing.

And they lied this whole time.