Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (January 1, 2024)
The Dow Jones 30 Industrial Index hit a record nominal high of 37,778.85 on December 28, 2023. According to Elliott Wave technical analysis the stock market has never been so severely overly bullish or overbought. We can make the same statement for virtually all classes of assets including for real property (note the new video link below by Nicholas Gerli of Reventure Consulting). The cryptocurrency market is performing no differently from the rest of the market – it is very closely correlated with the overall asset market. In fact the cryptocurrency market is even more closely correlated with the overall global stock market, which hit a nominal peak about two years ago toward the end of 2021. The overall global stock market is in fact still 48 percent below its record nominal high from December of 2021, and the overall cryptocurrency market is still 76 percent below its record nominal high from November of 2021. We are witnessing nominal & real bear market retracement – this is not a real bull market.
The three largest mega investment banks of Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street own fully 80 percent of the S&P 500 corporations and 60 percent of American real estate (commercial and residential real property).
The effects of the global pandemic hyperinflation are also not leaving us. The overall cost of living has more than doubled in just two short years. In the USA, fully 78 percent of families rent their residences as opposed to own them or owe a mortgage on them. More than 8.2 percent of the American population is comprised of illegal migrants – one out of every 12 people now in the United States of America. All of the above trends represent a very real and present danger toward the survival of free enterprise and toward representative democracy in the USA.
Here is a new video from Nicholas Gerli of Reventure Consulting which demonstrates how the retail consumer economy is collapsing – freight shipments and trucking companies are hurting because consumer demand (70 percent of GDP) is imploding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNN8N4Z9WAA.
Many people tout certain commodities (i.e. precious metals such as gold and silver) as the ultimate and/or perfect hedge/protection against inflation, the high cost of living, etc. This is yet one more of many fallacies broadcast by many sources in the investment community, certain religious communities and in some of the alternative media. Here is a good video from Elliott Wave International of Atlanta which shows that this is basically NOT true: https://www.elliottwave.com/articles/is-inflation-bullish-for-gold-and-silver/?rcn=231231socez&utm_source=com&utm_medium=eml&utm_campaign=ar-frup&utm_content=231231socez.
The mainstream media also do not tell the truth with respect toward the global wars they support. The war in Eastern Europe has pretty much come to a standstill and the situation equals an unqualified victory for Russia. For all intents and purposes the Ukraine no longer exists as a national entity. The situation in the Middle East is likewise not what the media tells us. Sources within Israel confirm that Israeli military casualties are much higher than what is reported (3,700 killed in action plus 5,000 wounded including 2,000 permanently maimed as of December 14), and that the Netanyahu government has an approval rating within Israel in the low single digits. Israeli civilians have to a large degree vacated (left, moved out of) both their northern and their southern provinces due to a lack of trust in their own government’s ability to protect them. Shipping traffic in the Red Sea (Suez Canal) has fallen to almost nil due to Yemen’s support of the military forces of occupied Palestine in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank of the Jordan River. And other players which have yet to enter this war are much, much lethal than either Hamas in the Gaza Strip or Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula – Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran, Ottoman Turkey (yes, Ottoman), Russia and Mainland China.
Every single war (without exception) must be immediately negotiated to a cease fire. All or most American military forces must be withdrawn from the more than 170 countries around the world and returned to the continental USA, where they must be immediately deployed to protect America’s borders – especially the southern border with Mexico – to stop the flow of illegal migrants which now exceeds 28 million people and which is growing at a rate of more than 5 million more individuals per year. Those who cannot or will not integrate into American society must be permanently deported and those who can must either serve as enlisted personnel in the US military or earn their financial keep until they can attain legal status within our legal system.
