2023

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (May 1, 2023) There are important signs that the both economic-financial and the geopolitical fronts of the western world are starting to buckle (i.e. collapse) in a significant way.  Both the seaports on the east coast of the USA (the largest being Norfolk, Virginia) and on the west coast of the USA (the largest being Long Beach, California) are unusually and abnormally quiet.  The main reason for this is that consumer demand is weakening by the day – the resources of the consumer have been spent and there is not much left in reserve.  Consumer spending comprises 70 percent of GDP or Gross Domestic Product. Major retailers like Walmart are closing stores in big cities or even pulling out altogether – specific examples include Chicago, Illinois and Portland, Oregon, respectively.  Target is planning major staff (or paid hour) reductions in employment.  Kroger (the 2nd largest supermarket grocery store chain in the USA) just announced miserable results for the most recent quarter as did D.R. Horton (the largest homebuilder in the USA).  Cumulative job cuts at large corporations have reached almost one-half million employees, the biggest number of these coming from Amazon.com.  Inflation and an already very high cost of living remain serious problems – the latest annually adjusted figure out of the United Kingdom is 10 percent………………….and we all know that the real numbers are far worse than the “official” numbers regardless of country.  44 percent of US workers are working two or more jobs – not by choice but by necessity. 39 percent of American households have actually skipped a meal to afford their house payments – in households headed by young adults this figure is an astounding 44 percent.  14 percent of American homes are now vacant (along with 50 percent of…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (April 2, 2023) Inflation (or more accurately: the loss of purchasing power) in North America, Europe, Australia and other countries tied to the west is in no way “transitory” – on the contrary, it looks to be permanent and getting worse by the day.  In your own lives, look at the prices in the grocery store, for your monthly utility bills and for insurance – especially something like homeowner’s insurance.  All of these prices have literally skyrocketed over the past few years. The political & the financial system power structure in the western countries appears to be collapsing by the day as well, driven largely by an insane desire to promote conflict with and in much of the rest of the world.  The power structure “on the other side” is becoming ever more independent from the west, specifically from the post-World War 2 hegemony of the American Dollar.  The illegitimate Biden regime in Washington, D.C. is now presiding over the collapse of the American Empire which has ruled the world since 1945. This “other side” power structure can be seen emerging most clearly in institutions such as the “BRICS” countries (these are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), in the SCO (the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization” which includes almost all of Asia) and in the Chinese BRI (“Belt and Road Initiative”).  Note – BRICS actually includes the 5 main founding nations plus 3 applicant nations (Algeria, Argentina and Iran), 5 more nations which have officially expressed interest in applying for membership (Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey) and finally 6 additional nations now in official dialogue for BRICS expansion (Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Senegal, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates). The Belt and Road Initiative includes most of Asia, South America, Oceania, Australia, Europe,…