We have a two part report this morning: First a look at a possible bounce today (though of small magnitude) and then the update of the Case-Shiller S&P, CoreLogic (and the pizza guy) Housing numbers around 8:15 *(Central).
This morning I’d like to share a tiny speck of my work over on the peoplenomics.com side of the house because the picture (and outlook) has deteriorated a good bit since last week.
First chart. This shows the Global Aggregate of multiple markets since the lows in March of 2009. It’s not for the squeamish or those who can count to five. Because under Elliott wave theory, five moves is usually all there is to any market movement. Look at the big Roman numerals.
This point cannot be over emphasized enough: Partial numbers while global markets are all trading are useless. The only time this information is really useful is when everything closes as the US shuts down for the weekend. Then? Well, money has to roost somewhere for the weekend and that’s when we snapshot its “resting state.”
We have been doing a fair bit of “news diffusion” research, lately. As, for example, that anomalous story that began breaking at 7:29 AM on May 7. The “children separated/in cages” memering. Bloody viral and very hot emotionally. But in the end, yet-another useless distraction. Like mad Maxine and her Trump bashing. Emotional? Sure. Can you trade on it? No.
Hate to break it to you, but there’s a much bigger picture.
It’s the pending collapse of the Globalist Business Model.
The problem can be stated in a sequential, evolutionary way.
- We begin with the major US inflation at the (1980) peak of the long wave economic interest rate cycle.
- As US wages soared, prices were climbing. In order to make a LARGER profit, corporations went on a shopping binge for lower labor cost locales.
- This, followed by the break-up of the AT&T/Bell phone monopoly in 1982 and the arrival of high speed modems Few people appreciate the rate of telecom impact on the global economy, but as Wikipedia notes “ The first 9,600 bit/s modem was developed in 1968, and sold for more than $20,000, but had high error rates.” Today, you can’t give them away.
- As the dispersion of manufacturing to least-labor-cost centers accelerated, so too did offshore finance. Recall I was #2 at a Cayman Islands airline in 1983…
- The real class division has its roots back in this period. That’s when the moneyed-class “went for it.”
- Telecom deregulation and a lack of US tariffs (due to the FedGov’s over-reliance on the Income Tax) allowed cheap foreign goods to flood into America. And, they continue to do so. Prior to 1913, the entire federal government was supported by tariffs. Now, only color televisions are tariffed as phones and other electronica slide in from what remains of borders.
- The Digital Revolution was rolling and by 2000, it looked like everything could only go higher. Then, the bubble burst beginning in March-April of that year.
- Similarly, the Fed has just raised interest rates again and these will likely have similar effects as in other historical cases.
- Then there’s global depletion. While the IPPC was busy selling the moneyed call notion of “global warming” and the science on the arriving DeVries (206-year) solar decline was being ignored, the prospect of a pretext for a Global Climate Tax brightened. Perhaps there would be a graceful way to get out of the global government problem.
- That problem distills down to a lack of genuine growth. Of the useful organic sort. Growth, once you have three cars, two phones, 300 square feet of housing and student loan debt up to your ass is sorely missing.
- Donald Trump (for all his faults) has shaken the foundations of Globalism by reopening the tariff problem.
- As he has done so, other governments are now looking at their own best interests and that’s where the problem lies.
Which eventually gets us to the “Report from Iron Mountain” problem at a global level. What do people “agree to be governed?”
As the radical faction of the Internet Age is expressing broadly, there’s a whole lot of people who don’t assent to anything in the way of authority, except from their own “tribes.” Consider the following groups and ask what they have in common:
- Black Lives Matter
- ISIS
- Antifa
- Occupy
- #metoo
…and the list goes on including radicals in climate, gender, energy use,trade, race, religion, politics…everyone is anti-everything and it’s all on the Internet.
You see, ultimately, the world is not a “grown-up” enough place to allow the total freedom and use of the internet. It wasn’t ready for radio, either, which is why that got regulated last time around (previous depression). It’s how history rolls. Too much change, too many stupid people and you get CB radio and more recently social media.
I outlined the coming Licensing of the Internet in my 2012 book Broken Web The Coming Collapse of the Internet. A few years early, but her she comes!
History, you understand, is cyclical. All the sex and gender “shock” of present day is merely a rerun of the late Roaring Twenties phenomenon of “flappers.” Shock value is the meme, kiddies, not the specifics. Loosh.
And, now as then, we have a national communications problem and a national revenue problem.
In the previous Depression, it was all embodied two laws: The Communications Act of 1934 and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. June 1930, I believe it was.
Point is, what’s coming will likely be a Big Global Ugly. The Internet has become a major divisive tool of radicals and will be regulated and licensed shortly. In fact, a note from my consigliere (a real lawyer) goes to this very licensing point:
Digital anonymity disappearing … this is from the UK
Already the UK is now requiring POSITIVE ID if one wants to visit a Porn site (has to take one’s driver’s license or other government ID to an office or registered shop and get a special ID #, and pay for it of course, in order to surf any porn – or so called porn – sites)
Fully ID’d internet surfing … have to “protect the children” of course!!
(probably coming soon to the libraries near you too!! – can’t just go look at books or magazines on the shelf in the future …. they will have to track which ones you just look at!!, not just the ones you “check out”) Source link.”Digital IDs to end online mob rule and anonymity...”
Please remember, I’ve been alerting you to this issue of “Digital Mob Rule” for some months now and we are beginning to see how a focus on this (radicals seizing the web) might be the basis for a licensing requirement to come. It’s already been rolled out in Kneeler-lands.
Meantime, do be alert to the short-comings of what passes for “investigative journalism” these days. God-awful sport. Easily manipulated to swing public concern to the fate of irresponsible Central American parents and illegal border-crossers. All while the freedoms we once cherished are being seized by digital mobs.
I told you this was coming in 2012. I was way early, but it’s all showing up now: Least cost labor collapses (bringing globalism down) as wage parities are ironed out. Leaving governments trying to tax more through any means as the effective purchasing power of tax revenues declines.
The “investigative” types focusing on the low-lying fruit (anything the libs and rads will hand-wring about) does not change the velocity of America and the world as we head toward that brick wall.
But, sure is entertaining, ain’t it?
Department of Prescience
What did I show you yesterday?
Two tend channels.
Where did the US markets close yesterday? Bottom Trend channel. Like so.
We MIGHT be down a couple today, but there was the close and there was the trend channel. Other than buying some of that North Korean special paper they counterfeited American hundreds with, I don’t know how else to hand you money.
Now that you’ve been exposed to the larger contexts, let’s see a few headlines and see what useless, non-actionable bull shit and drivel is being foisted on us today and “news,” shall we?
Diss and Drat
While officials are in full ass-covering mode over the FBI’s purported use of spies withing the Trump campaign, we see this as another “better than the rest of us” assertion: Comey hopeful Trump won’t be re-elected: the American people will ‘tire of him’. Say good-bye now, Jim.
Peoplenomics subscribers who read ” will find this a useful data point: “Who is making money from struggling U.S. malls?.”
Historical Replay Dept: Remember the role of the Bonus Army protests in the Depression? Try this as a modern rhyme: Large army veteran protests in China pose challenge for Xi.
Mad Maxine Watch: Republican lawmaker introduces motion asking for Maxine Waters’ resignation. Never happen, but more Kabuki.
Reporters in the dark? Mike Pompeo Says He Won’t Put a Timeline on North Korea Denuclearization shows up in Time. Who are such reporters that they can’t understand Pompeo doesn’t run North Korea – it’s their timeline, not it. Oh, FMTT the press is losing it…
Press that emotional hot button! Here comes a democrat on (where else?) CNN and he’s using the emo hot word internment. (OMG…a democrat…hand-wringing…can you imagine? Why the same party that birthed the Great Society in ’64 and hasn’t moved the ball is now oh so worried about LAW BREAKERS. AYSM? GTFU kiddies…it’s all about money and power. And that’s all it ever is…)
BBC Losing It?
Much hype around the BBC’s Artificial intelligence software sees people through walls.
Quick: Look through the wall. Which finger am I holding up?
How can this be a breakthrough or even news when you can buy a Walabot DIY – In-Wall Imager – See Studs, Pipes, Wires (for Android Smartphones – Not Compatible with iPhone) for $70-bucks at Amazon…and both microwave and terrahertz wave “seeing through walls” has been out in the intel world for a long time and it’s in Wikipedia if one wants to look…
Here’s the question no one seems to have asked: Why put seniors behind walls in the first place? See how idiotic assumptions work? What, are we going to have mobile senior scoliosis patrols and huge government employment there? Seriously (or sort of), WTF?
See how this is “non problem” solving? Are reporters idiots? (Not us old seasoned ones..I mean the kids in news who shouldn’t be there!)
OK, I totally get it: The hot word is A.I. and that’s all part of future hype. Don’t ask the logical or obvious. Why, do that and the bullshit would all leak out all over the place. I totally get that. Ad revenues and government funding would fail, the world collapses and it’s all Ure’s fault for asking the questions that make sense. Pardon moi!
Jeez… I’m gonna get more coffee before the Housing data…maybe a quick squeeze with the ViseGrips, too. Though a crack-pipe would be more like it…gonna be on of them days.
End game, indeed. The only future I see for shopping malls is to convert them to senior warehousing. Retail is done. People don’t have the time, money or inclination to wonder around shopping malls. I can’t walk that far anymore, young people don’t give a rip for shopping or what they look like. My granddaughter and I can spend a quality ten minutes buying her stuff on line, same for myself. All our pet supplies are delivered to the house each month, I’m turning more to the internet for hard to find cooking ingredients and equipment.I recently sold a truck through a dealer on line, wholely satisfying experience and very inexpensive. Having a background with GM and property management, the next thing to go, in my view, will be the acres of car dealerships that line the major streets. Once they are gone, commercial areas will be ghost towns. The only growth model right now is rental housing, we need affordable housing, most people are priced out of the market.
Somehow.. I think that won’t happen. Although it will be fun to watch. I see how it can happen though. I look for the best price..one item that seems to vanish costs 15.00 at the local store. But if I order before I need them..I can buy a whole case for under ten.
I can’t visualize why they would allow the destruction of shopping malls though. It would be feasible if we still had the manufacturing. But we’ve move our position to that of grab and toss consumption. Like anything you need flow. And jobs to allow people to continue to consume.
“Donald Trump (for all his faults)”
So, all my conservative friends now say about W: ‘I never liked that guy. He was so incompetent.’ Started after Katrina, but of course breaking the Middle East for Iran was the biggie. Now I see the same thing starting with Trump, albeit years earlier. The Conservatives will keep trying to emotionally excuse the incompetence, but it’s going to wear ever thinner, ever quicker. Nothing like seeing little kids in cages or losing your motorcycle job to a Thai worker to break ‘denial’ fever. Best, Mike.
“””that anomalous story that began breaking at 7:29 AM on May 7. The “children separated/in cages””
Silly question… Did they finally decide to go after all is a evil power brokers that DC was doing the two step over.. Or is this still about blaming trump over the law that congress has been so inept at finalizing for the last twenty something years.
The very first video cameras that had the ability to record at night and low light levels had that ability..similar to the scanners at the airports today..nothing was left to the imagination..
I pondered an interesting conversation i had yesterday. We give away what seven hundred billion a year.. In various ways to other countries. Yet fail to take care of our own economy,infrastructure, health, etc. We give billions for medical research and then openly allow them to bend each of us over.
What if..we simplified the tax code. To one page rather than 75 thousand pages. And dumped that 700 billion into our country instead. Heck why should I care if another country needs new roads or economic and industrial assistance..
We send other nations “Foreign aid” as a bribe, so we can stick a finger, or our noses, into their internal sociopolitical affairs. In the vast majority of foreign aid disbursements, this money only aids the person or persons at the top of the food chain in each recipient nation.
As the USA has become wealthier and more-powerful, our government has become paranoid and its career politicians (including the Foreign Service), greedy with respect to the power they each hold. Because of their megalomania, the government does things like domestic surveillance drone flyovers and cell triangulation intercepts, and the building of a digital catacomb in which to archive every data-bit of human communication which will occur over the next 100 years, along with the creation of access paths to enable such archival work.
Unless Trump (the outsider) can find a way, NO American politician is likely to ever end, or even curtail foreign aid payments…
George, my 2 cents worth is we need to restore the fairness doctrine across all media. Might make things more “civil”.
The MSM had the resources and the staff to preserve themselves….by doing in-depth, honest reporting of big issues.
Instead they tried to compete on “opinion” and propaganda…and everyone on-line can compete there.
The fairness doctrine just ensures the MSM loses more viewers due to boredom.
It would certainly do that.
The “Fairness Doctrine” would ensure that only one point of view was possible.
Be very careful what you ask for…
WCD….. fairness doctrine.. from which perspective.. from their perspective they already are.how is it they say it.. fair and balanced .
( But if you take a close look you will notice on any positive media coverage when it comes to President trump.. they use negative subliminal messages in the back ground. so that even though the verbal message is hey he did good the subconscious minds says what a rotten dog he is.. its his fault there are so many suffering with hemorrhoids in the USA.. dint you know…. it really impressed me when trump commented on a positive media coverage filled with negative subliminal messages..the fact that he noticed it.. not to many can see that.. maybe he wasn’t quite sure why it irritated him but the fact that he was sharp enough to catch it has my future votes if he decides to run again..)
This point about licensing radio versus licensing the internet.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but wasn’t a major part of that issue folks were poaching each other’s bandwidth by using higher power rigs? There was an actual technical access problem there, not just radical people spewing bad ideas.
Assuming TPTB do license either (or both) users and content providers; many, many people will view it as what it is, an attempt to shutdown dissent and alternate views.
And if the ballot box and the soap box go away….
well, I’m sure you’ve heard that analogy.
Mean like the poaching on social by bot-runners and screamers who chew b/w and warp media coverage?
“they will have to track which ones you just look at!!, not just the ones you “check out””
It’s already here.
What’s the one library you’ve never heard me bring up examples from… The Thomas library..
I use to give examples of the sheer stupidity of our lwgislarors. How lazy and share samples of some of the stupid things they’ve voted in just because they don’t want to read this stuff.
Short story long..I get they old access denied.. Flag when I try to log on from home. There was a couple other things to.. But I would ave to log on from the library or another computer and lets face it.. Reading that scrap isn’t going to do any thing but frustrate me on the sheer stupidity.
The world is becoming a bad rerun of the late 60’s Dr Who. Super Rich ruler types up on the mountain with the worker bees down below!