Automatic Job Storm Coming

 

Almost every weekday, some arm of the US government issues some sort of economic statistic. News media and financial analysts review and report it. Then 99.9% of the adult population, and probably 90% of the financial industry, forget all about it. And they’re probably right to do so.

The monthly jobs report isn’t like that. Yes, any single month doesn’t tell us much. Yes, the Labor Department’s methodology has some flaws, both major and minor. But imperfect as it is, the jobs report is our best look at the economy’s pulse. Jobs matter in a visceral way to almost all of us, as you know well if you’ve ever lost one. Almost any survey that asked questions around employment would reveal the angst that many Americans feel about the possibility of losing their jobs.

Right now, automation tops the list of things that might threaten our jobs. Artificial intelligence and robotics technology are rapidly learning to do what human workers do, but better, faster, and cheaper.

The Swamp Strikes Back

On August 21^st many Americans witnessed the moon cast a historic but short-lived shadow across the United States. One day later, President Trump reversed his previously stated position on the 16 year old Afghan War, thereby eclipsing the possibility that the United States would finally come to its senses and rethink a failed strategy that is likely to fail for years, perhaps decades, to come. The abrupt change, in what had been a central plank in candidate Trump’s appeal to voters thirsting for change in American foreign policy, came hard after the departure of Steve Bannon from the White House. As a self-avowed nationalist, Bannon had represented a true break in interventionist Republican thinking that had entangled the United States in intractable conflicts around the globe. To put an exclamation point, Sebastian Gorka, the last remaining proponent of the Bannon perspective, was forced out of the White House. The counter-revolution appears to be complete. 

“Financial Crisis” Coming By End Of 2018 – Prepare Urgently

Source: Financial Times

 

“Financial Crisis Of Historic Proportions” Is “Bearing Down On Us”

John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics latest research note, Prepare for Turbulence, is excellent and a must read warning about the coming financial crisis. Mind refreshed from what sounds like a wonderful honeymoon and having had the time to read some books outside his “comfort zone” he has come to the conclusion that we are on the verge of  a “major financial crisis, if not later this year, then by the end of 2018 at the latest.”

Derivatives Trading Legend: “As Little As A 4% Decline In One Day Could Start A Critical Crash”

After building out Merrill’s mortgage trading floor basically from scratch, then moving to the buyside at Pimco, several weeks ago Harley Bassman, more familiar to many traders as the “Convexity Maven” – a legend in the realm of derivatives (he helped design the MOVE Index, better known as the VIX for government bonds) – decided to retire (roughly one year after his shocking suggestion that the Fed should devalue the dollar by buying gold).

But that did not mean he would stop writing, and just a few days after exiting the front door at 650 Newport Center Drive in Newport Beach for the last time, Bassman wrote his first full article as a “free man”, in which the topic was, not surprisingly, derivatives and specifically the recent collapse in vol – and convexity – what prompted it, but most importantly and what everyone wants to know: what threshold would be sufficient to finally launch the next “critical mass” market move (i.e. crash) and, just as importantly, what could catalyze it.

Obama-linked activists have a ‘training manual’ for protesting Trump

Getty Images

 

An Obama-tied activist group training tens of thousands of agitators to protest President Trump’s policies plans to hit Republican lawmakers supporting those policies even harder this week, when they return home for the congressional recess and hold town hall meetings and other functions.

Organizing for Action, a group founded by Obama and featured prominently on his new post-presidency website, is distributing a training manual to anti-Trump activists that advises them to bully GOP lawmakers into backing off support for repealing ObamaCare, curbing immigration anti-Trump activists from high-risk Islamic nations, and building a border wall.

In a new Facebook post, OFA calls on activists to mobilize against Republicans from now until Feb. 26, when “representatives are going to be in their home districts.”

A Preview Of Trump’s Seven Imminent Executive Orders

 

Having already signed a (mostly symbolic) executive order on Obamacare on Friday night, urging US agencies to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of provisions deemed to impose fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals, Trump is preparing to unload a volley of many more executive orders. Courtesy of Axios, which quotes “one of the best-wired Republican lobbyists in town”, here is a preview of the initial round of Trump executive actions, some of which may hit as soon as Sunday afternoon:

• Look for a possible hiring freeze at executive branch
• 5-year lobbying ban on transition and administration officials
• Mexico City policy, which prevents foreign NGOs from getting U.S. family planning money if they provide abortions with non-U.S. funds. (It’s already illegal to use U.S dollars on abortions.)
• Task the Defense Secretary and joint chiefs to come up with plan to eviscerate ISIS
• Report on readiness, and something cyber security related
• Border/immigration: Something on sanctuary cities, expand E-Verify, an extreme vetting proposal
• Trade: Withdraw from TPP and a thorough review of NAFTA

Obamacare’s Latest Casualty: Largest Health Insurer On Colorado Exchange Abruptly Collapses

 

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

With the mainstream media, at least the majority that is left of center, flooded with story after story touting Obamacare’s success, the news coming this morning from Denver that Colorado’s largest nonprofit health insurer and participant in that state’s insurance exchange Colorado HealthOP is abruptly shutting down, forcing 80,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016, was a slap in the face for the Obama administration’s crowning achievement.

One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes – Part 2

You can read Part one here:

One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes – Part 1

 

Consumer spending in the U.S. accounts for approximately 70 percent of gross domestic product, though it is important to note that the manner in which “official” GDP is calculated is highly inaccurate. For example, all government money used within the Medicare coverage system to pay for “consumer health demands,” as well as the now flailing Obamacare socialized welfare program, are counted toward GDP, despite the fact that such capital is created from thin air by the Federal Reserve and also generates debt for the average taxpayer. Government debt creation does not beget successful domestic production. If that was a reality, then all socialist and communist countries (same thing) would be wildly enriched today. This is simply not the case.

Will Anything Really Change After The Midterm Elections?

Both parties together agree with so many issues because they are the same party. As in today’s neo-Soviet Russia, no matter who’s elected, the country goes on the same path because they’re controlled by the same component: The Kremlin. In this case, it’s more difficult to pinpoint who’s really in control of the United States, but it’s surely correct to say Obama isn’t the person who’s really pulling the strings.

On another side note, the number of abortions (50 million) stated in this article is likely highly underestimated. The 50 million total has been a statistic used over the last five to ten years, yet people parrot the same amount every time the topic comes up. As America’s social and moral fabric have eroded beyond the point of no return within the last ten to fifteen years, it would be difficult not to imagine that number is doubled. The movement of ridding the ‘inconvenience’ of having a baby in life gained ground by leaps and bounds during the Clinton administration.

As the article states: The clowns may change, but the circus remains the same.

If you’re still arguing about Democrats vs. Republicans, sorry, but you have been utterly oblivious for the last 15 years.

Maybe you’ll agree with this assessment, maybe you won’t. What you believe is up to you but how many times can you be warned that the sword is coming to disobedient nations such as the United States and the world over — and still not see it? It cannot continue on this path forever. It will fall.

You’re encouraged to dig through the posts on this site and come to your own conclusion.

 

The more things change, the more things stay the same.  As I write this, it looks like the Republicans are going to take control of the U.S. Senate.  But will that actually alter the direction of the country?  Will that actually change anything?  There are many that hope that this could represent a “turning point” for America, but history tells us that almost certainly will not be the case.  Over the past 30 years, things have changed very little no matter which party has controlled the White House and no matter which party has controlled Congress.  During that time frame, the national debt has continued to explode, our long-term economic problems have continued to get even worse, our liberties and freedoms have continued to erode and our nation has increasingly become a moral cesspool.  And the truth is that at this point there is very little real difference between most Democrats and most Republicans.  The corruption in Washington D.C. runs extremely deep, and very few politicians are able to enter that environment without being fundamentally affected by it.

In recent times, midterm elections have become primarily about punishing whoever is in the White House.  In this case, there is definitely much to be dissatisfied about as far as Barack Obama is concerned.  In fact, many consider him to be the worst president in U.S. history, and that is saying a lot.

…

But despite the millions upon millions of votes that were cast by concerned Americans on Tuesday, very little is likely to change in the way that this nation is governed.

U.S. Intelligence, HHS Fail to Locate Foreign Malware Inside Obamacare Networks

U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services investigated the software used by Obamacare computer networks but did not discover malicious code from Belarus, the HHS’ top information official said on Monday.

“Yes we have done a thorough review and we have worked with the intelligence community on that,” said Kevin Charest, HHS chief information security officer.

Charest, speaking to reporters following a recent cyber attack drill held by HHS and several healthcare companies, also said the department has urged the millions of new subscribers to Obamacare to change passwords to avoid losing personal data to the Heartbleed security software vulnerability.

The United States of Decline

America is unraveling at a stunning speed and to a staggering degree. This decline is breathtaking, and the prognosis is dim.

For starters, Obama now rules by decree. Reportedly for the 27th time, he has changed the rules of Obamacare singlehandedly, with neither congressional approval nor even ceremonial resolutions to limit his actions. Obama needs no such frivolities.

“That’s the good thing about being president,” Obama joked on February 10. “I can do whatever I want.” In an especially bitter irony, Obama uttered these despicable words while guiding French president François Hollande through Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson — a key architect of America’s foundation of limited government.

Target Hack Was Just the Tip of the Iceberg

There was a startling revelation from Senator Mark Warner. Basically, he admitted that there was more to the hacking of 100-million+ Americans credit cards than meets the eye. Here are some comments from CNBC:

Transcript:  ”In all this, we got a hint yesterday from senator Mark Warner from Virginia who suggested that U.S. Intelligence knows a lot more about this hack attack problem than it can say publicly. Take a listen to Mark Warner yesterday –‘Quite honestly, I think we’re going to see and I know from my role in the intel community this is a crime that happens daily to financial institutions, retailers at a level that frankly, if most Americans realized, I think would find rather confounding.’ So, Warner suggesting there that U.S. Intelligence knows more about this than American consumers do.”

Now, pair this statement regarding Target with comments from General Keith Alexander on 60 Minutes as reported in Forbes:

The Belarusian Connection

Belarus is a puppet regime of Russia, today’s neo-Soviet Union. Cyber attack units and other state-sponsored units of terrorism are outsourced here (among other neighboring countries), in order to keep blame off the Soviet regime. As we see from a previous post, nuclear weapons might get the green light to be stored there, as in the past. One can only wonder why Belerusians were sourced in the development of ACA software. They might have planted an ability to shut down hospitals in the futue.

U.S. intelligence agencies last week urged the Obama administration to check its new healthcare network for malicious software after learning that developers linked to the Belarus government helped produce the website, raising fresh concerns that private data posted by millions of Americans will be compromised.

The intelligence agencies notified the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency in charge of the Healthcare.gov network, about their concerns last week. Specifically, officials warned that programmers in Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, were suspected of inserting malicious code that could be used for cyber attacks, according to U.S. officials familiar with the concerns.

The software links the millions of Americans who signed up for Obamacare to the federal government and more than 300 medical institutions and healthcare providers.

“The U.S. Affordable Care Act software was written in part in Belarus by software developers under state control, and that makes the software a potential target for cyber attacks,” one official said.

Be prepared: Wall Street advisor recommends guns, ammo for protection in collapse

A top financial advisor, worried that Obamacare, the NSA spying scandal and spiraling national debt is increasing the chances for a fiscal and social disaster, is recommending that Americans prepare a “bug-out bag” that includes food, a gun and ammo to help them stay alive.

David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, said in a note to investors, “Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.”

Is America’s Economy Being Sovietized?

The foundation of the Soviet model of trade and investment was centralization under the guise of “universal public ownership”. The entire goal of communism in general was not to give more social and political power to the people, but to extinguish alternative options and focus power into the hands of a select few. The process used to reach this end result can vary, but the goal always remains the same. In most cases, such centralization begins with economic hegemony, and it is in our fiscal structure that we have the means to see the future. Sovietization in our financial life will inevitably lead to sovietization in our political life.

Does the U.S. economy’s path resemble the Soviet template exactly? No. And I’m sure the very suggestion will make the average unaware free market evangelical froth at the mouth. However, as I plan to show, the parallels in our fundamentals are disturbing; the reality is that true free markets in America died a long time ago.