Archive for month: November, 2023

As cases of pneumonia rise among children in China, the ruling class is now blaming it on “multiple pathogens,” and not a novel disease. The World Health Organization is investigating the illnesses and says that WHO Investigates Mysterious Pneumonia Cases In Children In China The first suspicion of Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) is that this is “a series of already recognized respiratory pathogens,” due to the fact that illnesses are reportedly occurring in children. “If it was a new pathogen, it would be showing up in kids and adults equally, ” he told  Fortune. According to a report by NDTV World , influenza is one of the main causes of the spike in cases. National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said at a press conference on Sunday that rhinovirus, mycoplasma pneumonia, and respiratory syncytial virus are also circulating. Because of these pathogens, China should guarantee medicine supply and open more areas for medical treatment, Feng said. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, agreed, telling  Fortune  that while information is still incredibly sparse, “it would not be surprising if it’s a constellation of various respiratory pathogens together causing clusters of illness.” Some reporting has pointed to mycoplasma pneumoniae, an atypical bacteria that can cause lung infection, as a potential cause, he said. It’s commonly known as “walking pneumonia.” Doctors have been warning for weeks about a likely spike in “walking pneumonia” cases and local Chinese media have reported a steady rise in infections from mycoplasma among kindergarten and primary school children. While the germ tends to cause only mild colds in older kids and adults with robust immune systems, younger children are prone to develop pneumonia – with symptoms lasting for weeks. – NDTV World The ruling classes have added that there is no need to restrict travel or implement further health protocols at this time. Schools in Beijing are also reporting high levels of absenteeism, even dismissing entire classes for at least a week if some students are ill and warning parents to be extra cautious, according to a report by  Al Jazeera.

This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.  The enthusiasm in the Western media for an imminent Ukrainian victory over Russia has been ever-circular; people who only get their news from corporate sources are likely to believe that Russia is about to be defeated any day now. However, as with all propaganda campaigns the public eventually grows tired of hollow optimism and skeptical of bombastic claims. Influencing hearts and minds is a fading prospect if your campaign is based on lies. If the war has taught people anything it is to never trust establishment media sources to be accurate in their reporting, or prescient in their predictions. A year ago we heard a deafening chorus of voices in the West suggesting that Ukraine’s victory was all but assured. The media’s boasts were relentless, but the numbers just didn’t add up. Zelensky’s appetite for NATO money and arms kept growing instead of waning. Recruitment efforts were expanding to include more women and older men. The talk of a glorious counter-offensive went on for months with no concrete actions taken. Rumors of mass deaths at Bakhmut circulated and it became clear that it doesn’t matter how many weapons NATO sends to Ukraine, there aren’t enough soldiers to utilize them. Ukraine’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny, acknowledged in a recent essay that training and recruiting troops was becoming a serious challenge. “The prolonged nature of the war, limited opportunities for the rotation of soldiers on the line of contact, gaps in legislation that seem to legally evade mobilization, significantly reduce the motivation of citizens to serve with the military.”  The essay admitted a bleak reality: Ukraine needs more people in uniform, and it needs them now. Wars are won by men, not by armaments. Going by this metric, Ukraine has already lost. The situation is far worse than Zaluzhny lets on. Reports of aging recruits are more frequent these days (the average age of new recruits is older than 40 years). Training of Ukrainians is rarely done in Ukraine. Instead, conscripts are shipped to places like the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. This may be because training facilities in their home country are not safe from Russian missile strikes, but a more likely explanation is that Ukraine is running low on experienced soldiers to train new fighters. Training in foreign facilities is highly expedited, with programs that normally take months being fast tracked and completed in mere weeks. Yet another sign that Ukraine is desperate for combat-capable troops. The life expectancy of these trainees is not good, and it is saddening to see Ukraine’s population being used as a proxy in a conflict that should have gone to the negotiating table a long time ago. NATO’s clear intent is to see the war continue, perhaps indefinitely. The problem is, that the general public has moved on to other concerns, including the war in Israel and its potential to spread beyond Gaza. Ammunition and arms shipments once destined for Ukraine are now being diverted to Israel. Zelensky has become visibly frustrated with the situation. After many months of being told by US and EU politicians that the whole of the West was flying Ukrainian flags over their homes, reality is finally slapping the former comedian in the face. As some predicted last year, “Ukraine fatigue” has set in. The majority of Americans polled now say they no longer support more funding or arms for Ukraine. The Democrat and Neocon push for American boots on the ground was immediately quashed by the public. The purpose behind prolonging the war (convincing Westerners to jump behind a plan for direct engagement with Russia) seems to have failed. Beyond the logistical nightmare, the growing possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House is also weighing on the minds of the Ukrainian leadership. Trump has stated that he plans to put together a deal to end the war as soon as he enters office. This means that Zelensky will be forced to accept a diplomatic settlement, something he has said he will never do. As winter closes in the tone shift in Ukraine is dramatic. It’s another winter of Russian infrastructure strikes, power outages, and utility shortages. Today calls for a ceasefire and peace in Gaza are overwhelming, and yet, similar calls for peace in Ukraine are nonexistent. Maybe it’s time to ask why.

Michael Snyder originally published this article at The Economic Collapse Blog under the title: More Problems With The Banks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank Of America, And Wells Fargo Have All Had Their Ratings Downgraded There is a reason why I am watching the banks so carefully. The banks are the beating heart of our economic system, and so if they get into big trouble we will all feel the pain. That is precisely what happened in 2008, and that is precisely what is happening again right now. In recent months there have been endless banking “glitches”, banks have been shutting down hundreds of branches and laying off thousands of workers, and lenders are getting really tight with their money because they are sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars of unrealized losses. And just in time for Thanksgiving, three of our “too big to fail” banks have had their ratings downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service… Moody’s Investors Service cut its rating outlook to negative from stable on Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., but the stocks rallied Tuesday on the heels of tame inflation data. The big news networks really haven’t talked much about this. Why is that? To me, this is a really big deal. When push comes to shove, the “too big to fail” banks will be looking to the federal government to bail them out, but the financial position of the federal government just continues to get weaker and weaker… Analyst Peter E. Nerby of Moody’s said that the worsening outlook on bank debt was due to “the potentially weaker capacity of the government of the United States of America (Aaa negative) to support the U.S.’s systemically important banks.” In particular, JPMorgan’s downgrade was partially because the bank runs a “complex” capital markets business that may post “substantial” risks to its creditors. For now, most Americans still seem to have faith in the stability of the banking system. And that is good news. But problem signs continue to erupt all around us. In fact, Wells Fargo just permanently shut down 13 branches in a single week… Six banks filed to close almost 40 branches last week leaving millions of Americans without access to vital financial services, with Wells Fargo alone axing 13 locations. Wells Fargo has been a leader in the closure of branches around the country, having closed 160 in the first half of the year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. When financial institutions get into trouble, they start getting really tight with their money. And according to a report that was just released by the Federal Reserve, the rate of credit rejection has risen substantially over the past year… Reported rejection rates among applicants increased by 2.1 percentage points to 20.1% in 2023 from 18.0% in 2022, well above its 2019 level of 17.6%. I fully expect that number to go even higher in 2024. An excruciating credit crunch has begun, and that means that we are heading into a very tough economic environment. Just look at what is already happening to home sales. Today, we learned that existing home sales in the United States have fallen to the lowest level since 2010… Existing home sales tumbled 4.1% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.79 million units, the lowest level since August 2010 when the sales were declining following the expiration of a government tax credit for homebuyers. That is horrible! And Zero Hedge has pointed out that on a year-over-year basis, existing home sales are now down a total of 14.6 percent… With housing affordability at its lowest since at least the early 1980s, (and homebuilder sentiment slumping as mortgage rates rose), it’s no surprise that analysts expected existing home sales in October to tumble 1.5% MoM. Sales actually fell 4.1% MoM (far worse than expected and down for the 20th time in the last 23 months) with September’s 2.0% MoM decline revised even lower to -2.2% MoM. That decline left existing home sales down 14.6% YoY … This feels so much like 2008. And just like the Great Recession, consumers are starting to pull back on their spending on a widespread basis… Shoppers will be splurging less this holiday than in past years, major retailers say. Best Buy, Lowe’s and Kohl’s all reported sales declines during their most recent quarter Tuesday and are forecasting holiday sales to drop from a year ago. “Consumer demand has been even more uneven and difficult to predict,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said in a statement, noting that the company “prepared for a customer who is very deal-focused.” Earlier this week, I wrote an entire article about the severe troubles that U.S. consumers are experiencing right now. The cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and as a result U.S. consumers just don’t have a lot of discretionary income to spend. The mainstream media continues to insist that the U.S. economy is doing just fine, but survey after survey has shown that most Americans are extremely displeased with how things are going economically. The bottom 80 percent of income earners have gotten poorer over the past several years, and now our economic problems are accelerating. But as bad as things are now, the truth is that they will get even worse in 2024 and beyond. The shaking of our banks will intensify during the months to come, and that is going to put an incredible amount of stress on the entire system. Unfortunately, our system is simply not able to handle much stress at all at this point… Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here. About the Author : My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  In addition to the new book I have written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of my articles.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial, or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and anyway that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.  U.S. consumers are getting weaker and weaker and weaker. Today, debt levels have risen to unprecedented heights, but thanks to roaring inflation our standard of living has been steadily going down. Most Americans are working extremely hard, but they have very little to show for it. And now the latest economic downturn is really starting to bite. Layoffs are starting to surge again, once thriving businesses are shutting down all over the nation, and hunger and homelessness are exploding. If economic conditions continue to deteriorate at this pace, what will things look like a year from now? For decades, we have been able to count on U.S. consumers to just keep spending money no matter what the economic outlook was, but now things have changed. The following are 11 signs that U.S. consumers are in very serious trouble as we head into the final stretch of 2023… #1  U.S. renters are spending 30 percent of their incomes just on rent… Renters remained burdened in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2023 despite a slight improvement as insurance costs to landlords mounted, according to a new report by Moody’s Analytics. Moody’s Analytics found that in Q3, the U.S. rent-to-income ratio (RTI) declined slightly by 0.5% and ended at 30%, a level that is the threshold for being rent-burdened. Renters are considered “burdened” if their rent payments consume 30% or more of their gross, or pre-tax, income. This comes after last year marked the first time that the median renter household in the U.S. paid over 30% of their income on an average-priced apartment when the national RTI reached a high of 30.8%. #2  One food bank executive just told USA Today that she is seeing “the worst rate of hunger in my career” right now… “This is the worst rate of hunger in my career,” said Morgan, who has worked at food banks in Boston, San Francisco and Anchorage, Alaska. “It’s so large, it’s hard to wrap your head around.” #3  Wells Fargo just shut down 13 bank branches in a single week… Six banks filed to close almost 40 branches last week leaving millions of Americans without access to vital financial services, with Wells Fargo alone axing 13 locations. Wells Fargo has been a leader in the closure of branches around the country, having closed 160 in the first half of the year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. #4  Average hourly earnings for all employees have fallen by 3.32 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House… Millions of Americans have received a pay cut over the past two years thanks to high inflation, a blow to President Biden as he attempts to center his re-election campaign around “Bidenomics.” The Labor Department reported Tuesday that average hourly earnings for all employees was $11.05 in October — a 3.32% decline from the $11.43 figure in January 2021, when Biden took office. #5  Due to a lack of consumer demand, three different major Burger King franchisees have recently declared bankruptcy… Premier Kings, a 172-unit Burger King franchisee whose owner died in 2022, declared bankruptcy protection, saying that operating losses even after the company closed restaurants forced the issue. It’s the third time this year that a major Burger King operator has taken such a step, while several others closed restaurants around the country in the aftermath of the chain’s sales and profit challenges. #6  Vice Media has announced that it will be laying off dozens of staffers… Vice Media, the one-time digital media darling that has seen its value and influence greatly diminish in recent years, moved on Thursday to further hollow out its once prestigious news division, shutting down several shows and laying off dozens of staffers. #7  According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, almost 20,000 media jobs have already been eliminated this year… Nearly 20,000 jobs have been eliminated across the media industry this year as of October, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. #8  Amazon is laying off hundreds of workers in its Alexa division… Amazon on Friday said that it is cutting “several hundred” jobs within its Alexa division. The layoffs come as the e-commerce giant is “shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities, and what we know matters most to customers —which includes maximizing our resources and efforts focused on generative AI,” an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to FOX Business. #9  Just in time for the holidays, Citigroup has decided to conduct large-scale layoffs… Citigroup will soon begin layoffs in CEO Jane Fraser’s corporate overhaul, CNBC has learned. Employees affected by the cuts will be informed starting Wednesday, with new dismissals announced daily through early next week, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Those impacted will include chiefs of staff, managing directors and some lower-level employees, said the people. The cuts will spread to more rank-and-file staff by February, they added. #10  As consumer wealth has dried up, federal tax receipts have been falling on a quarterly basis since the third quarter of 2022… Rather, federal spending is rising even as federal revenues have fallen, year over year, for ten of the last twelve months. Moreover, on a quarterly basis, federal receipts have been falling—quarter-to-quarter—since the third quarter of 2022. #11  80 percent of U.S. households are actually poorer than they were when the COVID pandemic originally hit this country… As of June, the bottom 80% of households by income, when adjusted for inflation, had lower bank deposits and other liquid assets compared to their status in March 2020. The decline marks a significant shift from the initial phases of the pandemic, where various factors, including government financial support and restricted spending opportunities during lockdowns, led to an accumulation of excess savings. Most Americans have been getting poorer, but the cost of living just keeps getting even more oppressive. As a result, the middle class is literally being hollowed out. The absolutely massive gap between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else has become an extremely pressing issue in this country, and it is going to lead to enormous civil unrest during the chaotic years that are ahead of us. Our leaders were able to keep the economy propped up for a long time by injecting trillions of fresh dollars into the system. But now the “endgame” has arrived, and it is going to be incredibly painful. Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here. About the Author : My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  In addition to the new book I have written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of my articles.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial, or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and anyway that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

This article was originally published by Frank Shostak at The Mises Institute.  Many economists, including Milton Friedman, have claimed that reality is elusive and that one cannot know its true nature. Most mainstream economists also believe that data gives us the state of the economy. By inspecting numbers such as gross domestic product (GDP) or the consumer price index, only then can an economist accurately assess the state of economic conditions. Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of Economics have had a different view. According to Mises, the data is a historical display and, by itself, cannot provide the facts regarding the real world. To make sense of the data, one needs to have a theory beforehand that will allow one to interpret the data, and the theory must originate from something real that cannot be refuted. A theory resting on the foundation that human beings act consciously and purposefully fulfills this requirement. One cannot refute that foundation since anyone trying to do so does it consciously and purposefully and thus contradicts himself, according to Hans-Hermann Hoppe. The knowledge that human actions are conscious and purposeful allows one to make sense of historical data, writes Murray N. Rothbard in the preface to  Theory and History  by Mises. The Importance of Defining the Subject of Investigation The Importance of Defining the Subject of Investigation
The key to examining data is establishing the subject and definition of what one is analyzing. To establish a definition, one should go back as far as one can to the point of time when that particular thing emerged. For instance, when analyzing money supply, we would go back to when a particular commodity started to assume the role of money. In this case, one would establish that individuals began to use money to promote the trading of goods. A commodity that was selected as money enabled the most efficient exchange. Note that, through the general medium of the exchange, we establish that individuals are paying for one good with another good with the help of money. We can also establish that increases in the quantity of money cause a decline in the purchasing power of money, all other things being equal. This is because the expansion of the money supply results in a greater amount of money per unit of a good than in the previous situation, all other things being equal. Note that the price of a good is the amount of money per unit of a good. Hence, by observing an increase in money supply, one could infer that more money will be spent per good, bringing a decline in the money’s purchasing power. The definition that money is the general medium of exchange enables the understanding that once money is injected, there will always be early and late recipients of money. This in turn enables us to infer that a change in the money supply is likely to have a lagged effect on the prices of goods. Without a theoretical framework, the data by itself cannot tell us the conditions of the economy. It cannot tell us whether the strong GDP data is because of a wealth expansion or because of the erosion in the wealth-generation process. For instance, once it is established that the loose monetary policies of the central bank are behind the so-called strong economic conditions, then by means of a theory, we can establish that this is going to weaken the wealth-generation process. In the modern world of the paper money standard, we can establish that an increase in money supply results in an exchange of nothing for something. This leads to a diversion of wealth from wealth generators to non-wealth-generating activities. To maintain their lives and well-being, individuals are likely to prefer present consumption over future consumption. As an individual’s wealth expands, the premium assigned to present consumption over future consumption likely declines, with the premium of present consumption over future consumption determining interest. Preferring present consumption to future consumption implies that, to live, people assign a premium to present consumer goods versus future consumer goods. From this, we can also establish that individuals’ time preferences determine interest rates, not central bank policies. Central bank policies can only distort interest rates, thus setting in motion boom-bust cycles and economic impoverishment. Also, note that preferring present consumption over future consumption implies that interest rates must be positive. If one observes negative interest rates, this does not contradict the theory but rather forces the analyst to ponder how this could have happened. Most likely, he will discover that the main reason for these rates are the central bank’s monetary policies that distort the interest rates. Furthermore, the fact that an individual pursues purposeful actions implies that causes in the world of economics emanate from human beings and not from outside factors. This means that mathematical methods are not going to be of much help here. For instance, contrary to popular thinking, one’s outlays on goods are not caused by real income as such. In his own unique context, every person decides how much of a given income will be used for consumption and how much for investments. While it is true that people are likely to respond to changes in their incomes, the response is not automatic. Every individual assesses changes in income against the particular set of goals he wants to achieve. In response to the increase in income, he might decide that it is more beneficial for him to raise his investment in financial assets rather than to raise consumption. However, the important thing to remember is that the decision is made by the person in question, not a mathematical equation. Conclusion Conclusion
Reliance on statistical data as a foundation for the formation of a view about the state of the economy is questionable. Data cannot produce information about the facts of reality without a theory that “stands on its own feet” and is not derived from the data itself. Once the theory passes the test of logic, it becomes the means for interpreting the facts of reality through the assessment of the data.