Bizarre experience. I really wanted to make Coins Stamps & Stuff my LCS (local coin shop), the one up here in Ames is even bigger crooks. I go in there bright and early Saturday morning to buy some silver bullion (non-numismatic silver coins or bars). I started out at Jordan Creek so its no big deal to hit Hickman Rd on the way back. In order to figure out if I was going to buy Buffalo, Maple Leaves or Liberties, I asked the woman at the counter what the spread was (the price over spot) for the 3 coins. She wouldn’t tell me!
She had it in her head I was this spy for “the guy up the street”, and that I was going to know what their prices were and tell everybody! I got to thinking about it after I walked out, “You’re a business, don’t you want people to know what your prices are?” Wouldn’t you want to be known as having “the best prices in town!” Evidently they operate under the theory that you have to buy it if you want to know what the price is!
Its crazy! Then it started coming back to me. I’ve been in these places once in awhile for 50 years, they never have posted their prices (the spread). It reminded me a month ago when I went to the shop in Ames, I was quoted $3.50 over spot on the phone, when I went in she told me $10. Her word against mine. Nothing I could do, they don’t post their prices. None of them do. Its like some closely guarded secret. A damn business needs to post their damn prices.
Is that the way honest business people operate? Not in my book. I can assure you I’ve never been an industrial spy for anyone, I thought you were an honest business. And as stated earlier, why wouldn’t you want people to know your prices?
I think the bottom line is there’s a reason they don’t want to be nailed down on their prices, to have them posted. If they keep it verbal, it can be on a sliding scale, depending on whether they think you’re a sucker or not. Whether or not they think they can “take you”. They shouldn’t be free to be all ‘carny’ like, they need to post their damn spreads.
Before taxpayers bailout one more business, 2 things need to happen. Senior management, CEO and board of directors need to be on half pay. They also need to have presented a plan where they show how they will build a reserve of 9 months of operating expenses for the next rainy day. This nation is $27T in debt and cannot afford to keep bailing out these fools. “Too big to fail” – all they do is fail.
The chart is of the French CAC index, a mirror of the DJIA
It didn’t start out well this morning listening to CNBC. The first words I heard were “sector diversity”. What they mean by that of course are stocks grouped by category like industrials, banking, retail, transportation, etc. All you have to do is look at 100 year charts of the market. 2001 and 2008 being prime examples. There was no protection through diversification, everything crashed. Stocks, bonds, metals. There was no difference growth and value stocks. Large caps and small caps all crashed. There were no safe havens in overseas stocks. Every chart could be laid on top of the other.
Then I realized that every show on CNBC is like every financial show you hear on the radio: they’re all liars. Because they fail to address the 1 issue that matters. With 0 to near 0% interest rates the past 20 years (thus destroying bonds and cash as investment options), the Federal Reserve has removed 2 legs of the investment stool. Because there is no longer any competition for the investment dollar, there is nothing to hold stocks in-check.
Because there is no longer anywhere for money to flee, stocks have gone rogue. No dividends, no innovation and nothing but stock buy-backs benefitting senior management. And because these shows fail to address the ONE issue that matters, everything else they say is bullshit. There has to be competition. It is so basic. So fundamental. But they want to ignore the elephant in the room. You can’t throw out the window the principles of borrowing and lending. That is the basis of all business.
You destroy the most basic principle of business, the relationship between borrower and lender (with 0% interest rates), and you expect everything to work right? On top of this is the preposterous notion that a central bank can set the interest rates more knowledgeably than the market?? That is so ignorant its incomprehensible.
“the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like. An ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner. Quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience”.Dictionary.com
Do you have patience? The ability to put off instant gratification is so important in life. In fact I’ve heard it explained as its the difference between successful people and low-class behavior. Saving for tomorrow. Looking ahead. Not being blindsided. Thinking ahead a little bit saves so much time and money. How many times have I run to the store for something, and forgot an item. Or only bought 1 when I should have bought 3.
Its not just for shopping. Its planning your career. Your retirement. Giving your kids a boost for say a house in their future. Governments don’t think ahead. Less than 5 years after they put in over a half million dollar pedestrian bridge on a bike path, they decided, “Hey! Let’s rip that out and continue the road!” (that within a year they will take out a lane and put in a bike lane)
Part of what I was thinking in all this is because I know what is coming. Having lived through sharp stock market declines in ’73, ’87, ’01 and ’08, I know what is coming this November and the following 6 months. All hell is going to break loose. The reelection of the most hated President in history, the court challenges, the resulting street violence, the attempted coup by the Democrats and RINOs, the appointment of a successor to Ruth Buzzy Ginsburg. A “perfect storm” is coming our way.
What is truly amazing to me is how it will all play out with perfect coordination and synchronicity. Once again, its all about ‘looking ahead’. Finally I am. Forewarned is forearmed. When we get within a week of November 3, pay attention.
As an example, you’ll get no help from CNBC. They are all, “La di da di da! Everything is fine!” As they blather on about Tesla this, Nikola that, Apple something else. The ‘Bullshit-O-Meter’ is off the charts. There’s an orchestrated crash coming in late October / early November, and nobody is talking about it. One morning around that time, about 10:30 in the morning, the market will plummet 10,000 points and they’ll suspend trading for the day.
Then, they’ll have to talk about it! They’ll act all like, “Where’d that come from?” People won’t have been prepped, they won’t be ready to buy, but the professional will. And another fleecing of the flock will have taken place. That’s not quite true. I think this one will go on for several weeks. I can see 50% coming off the market top of 29,100, easy. Would not at all be surprised to see 65%.
I’m just restless and impatient because until then, everything is too high. The market is too high to buy stocks, metals are too high to buy silver. We’re just in a holding pattern until the dam breaks. Talk radio really sucks right now. Radio hosts Armstrong & Getty, who I had thought would replace the morning idiot Jeff Angelo, turn out to be about as dumb. They think its okay that Louisville cops can bust into a house at 1 am and gun down Breonna Taylor.
FOX News is pointless. CNBC as noted is worthless. So ya better like the old movie channel! So until then its “hurry up and wait!”
That is what we spend per pupil versus what the world spends (wait for it), and our student is a year behind theirs in educational equivalency! How do they do that?? Its just incredible the waste that exists inside the educational – industrial complex. I’ve followed this casually for 25 years. I’ve talked to Christian school and homeschool experts who also report their students are 2 – 3 grades ahead of the public school students! But wait: both the Christian school and the homeschooler are operating on shoestring budgets! If NASA wants to study Blackholes, they need look no further than the government school system. Its been said for decades that .75 cents of every education dollar is lost feeding the bureaucracy in Washington DC.
Do you have liquidity? You may want some in 45 days. After totally missing the boat in 2001 and 2008, I am ready to sail this time. If only I knew then what I know now. In 2 weeks I should be rolled over from T Rowe Price to Vanguard. My ROTH should be well on the way to maximizing the 2020 allowance. Aside from a couple of thousand in stocks, the rest will be sitting in cash, in anticipation of the crash (see what I did there, ‘cash/crash’).
Look at the storm clouds we have on the horizon: COVID-19, a sitting President so hated that Bob Woodward’s book has revealed talks of a military coup, the election contest of said President that is guaranteed to be contested, another stimulus package that will completely deplete the lending reserves of this country (in addition to the unprecedented amounts already handed out this year), China’s military flexing it muscle in the Far East, its economic muscle here, and the fact that since June for the first time not all of our nation’s debt is being bought.
If there aren’t wild swings ahead for us in the market I will eat my proverbial hat. What I feel bad for is the people who will not be ready for this, and the mistakes that will be made. When the market loses say 65% of its value over a 2 week period, that is the time to go shopping. Regrettably, many people at or near retirement will panic and sell. People at or within a year of retirement should already have pulled their money out of the market.
For those people 5/10/15/20 years away from retirement, the best thing they could do is just what they’re doing, putting money in every 2 weeks just like they’ve been doing. If they can up the amount they’re putting in when the crash happens, that would be great too. If they want to go down to Coins Stamps ‘N’ Stuff on Hickman and buy a little gold and silver bullion, that’s not a bad idea either. I wouldn’t buy a whole lot, we’re at a market top. A little insurance wouldn’t hurt though, if in 3 years today’s prices seem cheap.
“You completely missed the boat about the Postal Service. You repeat the vague “financially troubled Post Office”, with no recognition of why they have ran a nearly $5 billion dollar deficit the past 14 years. In 2006 Congress required them to prepay 75 years into the future $5 billion a year into “future retiree healthcare”. That is prepaying for ‘retirees’ that aren’t even born yet. Why would they place this 75 year mandate that is not found anywhere else in government or civilian business? Because Congress wanted a cash cow. They wanted a pool of money they could drop an IOU into and take the cash, just like they do with SSA, Medicare and FERS. Absent that Congressional mandate, they are either flush or profitable the past 14 years.”
This was a response to the Federalist on Facebook. I would have put it on the Federalist website, but a couple of months ago Google told them if you ever want to show up on search results again, you are going to get rid of your comments section. So now the only way to comment on their articles, you have to do it on Facebook. Can you say censorship?
For the sake of brevity in my paragraph about Postal woes, I left out 1 key little tidbit. Democrats feign like they are for the Postal Service. Yet in all these bailouts the past 6 months where everybody and their uncle is getting money thrown at them, the one entity that isn’t is the Postal Service. Huh. Why is that? Both sides of Congress want to kill the Post Office.
The first reason is they want the 1 time influx of cash from the sale of delivery and sorting functions. That’s just a one time blip though, that they can’t profit from personally. What they really want, is the real estate the Postal Service has owned in really prime downtown locations for 200 years. That’s where they stand to profit personally. Snatching up the sale of the land, then turning back around and leasing it back. Its a shell game.
Gab had a picture of this 1972 Ford Mustang convertible. The picture triggered a couple of things. The first was that is a really ugly car. Could you pick an uglier brown? My gawd, how do you make a Mustang that ugly? I’ve seen Democrats that weren’t that ugly. I’ll put a picture below of what a good looking Mustang looks like.
The other thing it triggered was recalling the 1973 Oil Embargo. And here’s where it gets a little fuzzy. Detroit (we used to make cars there) in 1972 was scaling back the ‘muscle cars’. Wikipedia says the embargo lasted from October 1973 until March 1974. It was targeted against those nations supporting Israel in the Arabs latest attempt to wipe them off the map on October 6 of that year.
But the 1973 models actually come out right at the end of 1972, and January of 1973. The “pollution controls” were already appearing on the 1972 and 1973 models, way before the embargo that fall. It was the 1974 models that would have been most affected, and they were way past the drawing board stage, too late to be affected by the oil shortage.
I just get a little suspicious about it all. I remember at the time gas prices went through the roof. I was just starting to drive and the days of .28 cent gas were gone! I was paying double that, .55 cents and better. We were being shown long lines at the pump on the nightly news, but I don’t remember being told why. The nations speed limit dropped to 55 mph.
In order to alleviate congestion and gasoline shortages, some communities came up with the idea of “even and odd” days you could fill at the pump, depending on the last number on your license plate. Aggravating the situation was the creation of the EPA in 1971 I believe.
The phucking Arabs did this. Saudi Arabia was pissed we supported Israel. So they brought our economy and the auto industry to its knees. The stock market had a horrible down turn. It coined the term, “economic malaise” of the late seventies when they did it again with another oil shortage in 1979.
And our foreign policy never changed! We continued to treat Saudi as if they were some great ally! We sold them a ton of weapons, with which they could try and destroy Israel, for the next 20 years! Then on September 11, 2001, 19 Saudis brought down the World Trade Center, destroyed the Pentagon, and tried to destroy the Capitol Building!
For 30 years they did nothing but try to destroy us and make American lives miserable, and all we could think about was selling them more weapons!
Dat’s a Mustang.
[When I wrote this all I knew was that I missed cars from this era. Their power and looks and their ease of repair. Those cars were a dream in each of those aspects. I really resented whatever it was that made them go away. The more I learned and the more I realized the impact of government, I have to believe what killed the auto industry was the EPA.]
I have a fascination sometimes with the Soviet Union. Other people obsess over the 12 year period of Nazi Germany. To me that was a relatively short “one-off”. A nut propped up to be used as a tool by the Elites to fulfill their agenda. The Soviet Union on the other hand lasted for 74years. They also had 9 leaders to my count. It can’t be dismissed as an aberration. What can be learned from the Soviet Union hasn’t been as well publicized as it should have in my opinion. Which makes sense if you admit the education system in America has been taken over by socialists, who wants to admit their failures?
I imagine cultural anthropologists could tell you volumes on the successes and failures of the Soviet Union. If you had the time and inclination to read all the books on the subject. Probably one of the failures of our system is the lack of distillation of all this information into an absorbable form. My point of all this is to try and assimilate a recent article from World Net Daily that I used as the title of this post. March 15, 2020 was a pivotal date in my mind (just short of 2 months ago).
It was the first time in my life I had ever experienced a shortage of a good I wanted to buy. People from shitholes are no doubt used to shortages, America was not supposed to be a shithole. In that incredible writing style I have its doubly ironic, as the shortage was toilet paper (toilet paper/shithole, get it? Its funny). Being a Cold Warrior from way back, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it myself. But it took this WND article looking at the infamous shortages in the Soviet Union, to see what might be in store for us.
I think WND missed it in one respect. They seem to think Americans being “paid unemployment not to produce anything” is going to result in shortages in the months ahead. I disagree simply from the respect that modern America doesn’t make that much. I think they did nail it in a psychological observation though. It begins with the humble shopping bag. They said the reusable shopping bag was invented in the Soviet Union, and it had nothing to do with being ‘green’.
They said the cloth bag was something a woman could fold up and put in her purse, or a man could put in his lunch pail, and have with them at all time. The reason they wanted that was so if they happened upon an item in the store that hadn’t been available, they’d be able to snatch it up at a moments notice. The Soviet Union being world famous for its shortages. Then they hit upon something I’d never heard before. A lesson for us.
Bread was forever in short supply in the USSR. But they said you could often find loaves of moldy bread in dumpsters. Why would that be? Why would people be throwing away a commodity in such short supply? Because whenever the artificially low-priced bread was available, they’d whip out their shopping bag and buy way more than they needed! Its a psychological need. I see it now myself. I probably haven’t used rubbing alcohol 10 times in my life, but now that its not available, I want it! They created the bread shortages by buying more than they could use.
Toilet paper is a funny little story. On 3/15 when the shortage started, I was able to soon buy 2 packs of 18 rolls. I had never figured out how long a roll lasted. I found out it lasted 2 weeks. 36 rolls times 2 weeks a roll, works out to 72 weeks of toilet paper. That’s almost a year and a half of toilet paper I now have. Okay I’m a little embarrassed. But (butt) imagine the people who filled up their garage? Or basement? Or spare room with toilet paper? Shortages beget hoarding, and hoarding begets shortages. Chicken / egg.
I talked to a clerk at Walmart one day trying to get a feel for the supply chain to the store. This was in early April and Walmart was letting people walk out with a case of toilet paper! That’s 24 packages of toilet paper! These loons are now into the 2030’s with their supply. I suppose they could pass it on to their kids in a sort of heirloom situation. Another item is alcohol wipes. I probably didn’t use maybe 12 a year in picnic situations or at the State Fair when I need to wipe my hands without water. People now have hundreds of them, if not thousands.
Walmart used to have a very well stocked array of bandanas. Well as soon as it was discovered that they could work as a makeshift mask (to make up for the nonexistent commercial ones), they disappeared too. I almost forgot the meat shortages, beef, chicken and pork. Early on those shining examples of corporate citizenship, meatpackers, told their illegals they had to come to work even if sick, or they’d be fired. Well guess what happened?
Packing plants became the epicenter of outbreaks. So of course the authorities shutdown the meat processors. As wise people have known throughout the centuries, its when people get hungry that change happens. That’s when people get desperate. What will be the outcome of the coming unrest is not clear to me. Americans have become fat and lazy in most respects. They’ve had it so cushy for so long they don’t know how to rebel.
Couple that with technology that makes it so easy to ride herd on a populace, I frankly don’t see how a government could be overthrown. Not that people would choose the right path anyway. They could just as easily choose a more authoritarian socialism as they might a reversion back to our more limited government roots. Unrest is coming. The social fabric held together during the Great Depression of the 30s because we were 1 people. Warts and all.
That’s no longer the case. We have 30 million Mexicans in country that (most) have no allegiance to this country. A substantial Muslim population trying to install a system of Sharia Law. A declining number of the white population that identifies as Christian. A black population that’s as dysfunctional as ever. Cultural pathologies they didn’t have in the 1930s. The institutions that held this country together at one time, no longer exist.
We are not the nation we were in 1989 that amazed Boris Yeltsin. A trip to a Randall’s grocery storein Clear Lake, Texas turned out to be a pivotal moment in Russian history. Unfortunately too few Americans have heard the story. Boris and company made an impromptu stop at a small town grocery store to pickup some item. He could not believe the untold bounty in the store. The “luxury” available to everyday Americans that was not available to even the Soviet Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev.
As they point out in the article, up until the recent pandemic, Amazon and Walmart took that one step further and were fighting to see who could deliver that bounty to your door. But if WND is correct, that luxury will not be continuing. The generation that lived through the Depression and WW II has now largely died off. They were perhaps better adjusted for societal upheaval. They had dealt with cataclysmic events. The generation following, my generation, hasn’t faced that.
And if my generation is unprepared for the coming events, imagine where the Gen Xers are? The Millennials? If we’re not on the cusp of change, I would be very surprised. As Jesus said, you can’t rob the house of a strongman until you bind him. You can’t replace the system of a strong America, until you first tear it down. Mission accomplished.
Trump’s hatred for Bezos is clouding his judgement to the big picture. All of the Postal debt until the pandemic was from Congress using the Service as a cash cow. In 2006 Congress needed the money for the Iraq war so they told the Service you’re going to pay us $75 billion over the next 10 years. We’re going to couch that demand under the pretense of “prepayment of retiree healthcare” (which no one else in the world is required to do). Guess what? No one could absorb a $7.5 billion annual debt that came out of nowhere. The USPS was solvent until Congress used them for cash. That and Trump is a real estate developer. The push to sell the Post Office has never been about who delivers grandma’s birthday card, its about getting hold of the most prime real estate in every metropolitan area in the country. The Post Office holds prime downtown real estate in every city in the country. That’s what they’re after.
Congress cannot abide a pile of cash. They have to steal it. Its their nature. People do not realize the degree of jeopardy their IRAs and 401Ks are in.
Politics and Religion 