"Every despotic society lives on the basis of a rather implausible dogma."Reinhold Niebuhr
Here is a snapshot of the key charts as of noon today.
There will be no updates tonight.
Things went well for us yesterday and today. It may be encumbered by an insane bureaucracy of parasitical financial and medical monopolies who add no value but extract fat profits and artificially ration care to keep prices high, but there are many good and hardworking people in the healthcare system itself.
Once again, I have ransomed my 'pearl of great price' from the lion's mouth.
And as always one finds themselves sharing their plight with others in waiting rooms, offering and receiving comfort, sharing thoughts with those carrying their own daily crosses with their loved ones. It is a Lenten gift.
Be back tomorrow.
I am keeping an eye on the shenanigans of the careless few.
This 'strong dollar is good' meme will serve the financiers, but it will put a spike into the heart of The Recovery™, and probably the dollar as the world's reserve currency by causing turmoil in the emerging markets. Think of 1997 and the failures that helped start the movement to displace King Dollar as the reserve currency in the first place.
How can anyone forecast inflation or deflation when so much of it is up to discretionary decisions by the Fed and their moneyed interests? This is why I forecast stagflation, which in itself is the result of either an exogenous economic shock or a willful policy error.
In this case it is the result of massive monetary stimulus, that has been misdirected top down into an unreformed financial system that has left the broad aggregate demand wanting. It flows to the Banks and the corporations, who skim the best of it before it can barely reach the people. It is like sending aid to a beleaguered nation, straight into the hands of robber barons, petty warlords, and despots who take the best and the most for themselves.
Any overseas firms that have been arranging their loan debt in dollars are going to suffer mightily from this monetary hubris.
The financiers can skim profits from this dollar short squeeze, and use the King Dollar to acquire even more income producing, even sovereign, assets on the cheap overseas.
We have the best and most skillful liars in the world. And they are on parade.
Winning....
Keep your lamps trimmed and burning.
Have a pleasant evening.
