Thursday, December 12, 2019

 

News Links, December 13, 2019

## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards/global cooling/deflationary collapse ##
The Global Auto Market Collapse In 4 Charts
U.S. government posts $209 billion deficit in November
The story behind the GDP data? The incredible shrinking private sector (Australia)
The $20 Trillion Threat That Could Trigger The Next Financial Meltdown

## War on cash/cashless society/cryptocurrencies ##
China 'controls 66% of global hash rate'

## Airline death spiral ##
Boeing 737 MAX was plagued with production problems, whistleblower says

## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
Nuclear deterrent still the US Navy's top priority, no matter the consequences, top officer says
The aircraft carrier is over budget, behind schedule, and still experiencing problems with certain key technologies, namely the advanced weapons elevators built to quickly deliver munitions to the flight deck.

## Global unrest/mob rule/angry people/torches and pitchforks ##
Environment protesters glue themselves to Johnson's campaign bus
Permian Drillers Are Struggling To Keep Output Flat
Newer wells in the Permian see their oil and gas production declining much faster than older wells, and operators will need to drill a large number of wells just to keep current production levels, an IHS Markit analysis showed on Thursday.
IMHO, an oil price of $100/bbl is necessary and justified if people want to continue using oil. -- RF

## Got food? ##
Germany on alert as swine fever nears border
More humans and their domestic animals. Other species get pushed off the planet. -- RF
Technofix rules. -- RF
From "Locked & Loaded" To UN 'Unable' To Link Aramco Attacks To Iran: More War Lies Debunked
U.S. senators threaten Facebook, Apple with encryption regulation
U.S. senators grilled Apple Inc and Facebook Inc executives over their encryption practices on Tuesday and threatened to regulate the technology unless the companies make encrypted user data accessible to law enforcement.
Will anyone be held accountable for this monstrous, murderous lie?

## Propaganda/censorship/fake news/alternative facts ##
Adm. Davidson, Indo-Pacific commander: 'We're not asking people to choose between us and China'
The criticism of China's B&R is dishonest. Surely B&R involves indebtedness and control, but the US has done basically the same thing for a long time, as revealed by "economic hit man" John Perkins. As long as humans — especially world leaders — keep thinking with their lizard brains, humanity can never hope for a truly better future. -- RF

## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
Why "This Sucker Is Going Down"
Once the contagion starts spreading, loose money won't put the fires out.
As Prices Skyrocket, China Claims It Doesn't Need US Pork To Ensure Domestic Supply 
We've been covering this trend for the last several months, while the Trump administration continued to promote headlines indicating China was buying massive amounts of agriculture products from the US, including pork and soybeans. But as we noted, this wasn't the case, and China abandoned US markets for Brazil.
China biggest detainer of journalists worldwide, says watchdog
"Massive... Huge... Largest Ever": Fed Will Flood Market With Gargantuan $500 Billion In Liquidity To Avoid Year-End Repo Crisis
TransUnion: Credit card delinquencies could reach 10-year high in 2020
I don't see this as a true solution. Vendors of goods and services will not receive payment (OK, some are exploitive, but that's another story), and the whole cycle will just start over again. What the world needs is a socioeconomic system which does not drive people into debt. -- RF


Permanent Link posted by Rice Farmer @ 5:04 PM

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

 

News Links, December 11, 2019

## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards/global cooling/deflationary collapse ##
Recession Ahead: An Overview of Our Predicament


## Airline death spiral ##

## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
So 14,000 Troops to the Middle East 'Fake News'? Not So Fast
The defense secretary may deny the number, but an internal struggle over the Iran 'threat' suggests there will be deployments.

## Global unrest/mob rule/angry people/torches and pitchforks ##
Protests rage in northeast India over citizenship bill
The flow of outside capital has always been the key to the continuation of the plays. Not the geology. Not the economics. Other people's money.
US Moves To Sanction Russia-led Gas Pipeline Nord Stream 2
Clean and green? Tossing Old Solar Panels Into Landfill Is Greener Than Recycling Them
Sooner or later, all waste comes back to haunt us. The attempt to justify landfilling is a trick to make the poor energy return on renewables look better. -- RF


## Intelligence/security/internet/cyberwar ##
Google Maps tracks everywhere you go. Here's how to automatically delete what it stores

## Propaganda/censorship/fake news/alternative facts ##
Afghanistan war metrics were manipulated to highlight battlefield success, according to bombshell WaPo report
The Campaign to Lie America Into World War II
Before Pearl Harbor, there was an elaborate British influence operation of forged documents, fake news, and manipulation.

## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
The Taxonomy of Collapse
The higher up the wealth-power pyramid the observer is, the more prone they are to a magical-thinking belief that the empire is forever, even as it is crumbling around them.
Industrial-age barbarism: The 2019 Black Friday Video Hall of Shame

## Japan ##

## China ##

## UK ##
Using history to understand hidden wealth in the UK
Internationally, the pattern of a low-tax pre-war era followed by a high-tax post-war period is almost universal. Applying the method presented in this column to other historical wealth data from other countries could lead to the uncovering of vast sums of hidden wealth.
Duncan Burt, the boss of National Grid's electricity system operator business, thanked households for helping to balance the energy grid by "getting paid to use more energy on a windy night".
Patient data from GP surgeries sold to US companies
Data about millions of NHS patients has been sold to US and other international pharmaceutical companies for research, the Observer has learned, raising new fears about America's growing ambitions to access lucrative parts of the health service after Brexit.
Extinction Rebellion stages air pollution protests in London and Manchester

## US ##
Jobs of the future will include farming, blacksmithing, farming, woodworking, farming, hunting, farming, and highway robbery. And did I mention farming? -- RF
Accounting Fraud & Freight Recession Topple Celadon, Largest Truckload-Carrier Bankruptcy in US History
Creditors trying to repossess trucks over the weekend. Thousands of drivers on the road, some stranded. Employees left in the dark. Shares plunge 93% this morning from nearly nothing to practically nothing.
The liberal class and the Democratic Party leadership have failed, even after their defeat in the 2016 presidential election, to understand that they, along with the traditional Republican elites, have squandered their credibility. No one believes them. And no one should.


Permanent Link posted by Rice Farmer @ 4:54 PM

Sunday, December 08, 2019

 

News Links, December 9, 2019

## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards/global cooling/deflationary collapse ##
Globalization in a Sudden and Sharp Decline

## War on cash/cashless society/cryptocurrencies ##
China 'racing' to launch digital currency
Forkast.News says digital yuan will better monitor capital flows, see off Facebook's Libra and could help RMB break USD's global dominance

## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
Netanyahu, Pompeo Push Forward With US-Israel Defense Pact
The pact amounts to a more or less direct US intervention in Israeli politics, after two elections failed to end with a government formed.
Need I point out that Bezos has a considerable financial incentive for making this claim? -- RF
This has less to do with Trump, and more to do with the dynamics of change. All superpowers and empires inevitably decline, and lose their stature and influence. Nobody ever learns from history. -- RF


## Energy/resources ##
Cautious Canadian Oil Majors Forced To Cut Spending
Mekong River dying a slow but certain death
Massive new hydropower dams are parching the once mighty river's water levels to lowest in 60 years
Like waste-to-energy schemes, there's no future in anything that feeds off the detritus of industrial society. -- RF
Don't get exited. This plant makes things out of scrap steel. It doesn't smelt iron ore in a blast furnace. -- RF

## Environment/health ##
Himalayan glaciers that supply water to a billion people are melting fast
Vaping-illness cases still growing, now in all 50 states, CDC says
The Turow lignite coal mine in Poland is causing trouble for the environment and local communities - even in Germany and Czech Republic, whose border is just a short walk away.

## Intelligence/security/internet/cyberwar ##
Massive Leak Confirms Turkey's "Gold-For-Gas" Scheme To Evade US Sanctions On Iran
So, in conclusion, we now have two facts confirmed - trust no one and nothing; and gold is money.
Ukrainian neo-Nazis flock to the Hong Kong protest movement
Ukrainian fascists who previously fought in a US-backed neo-Nazi militia joined the anti-China protests in Hong Kong, sharing their tactics and showing off their tattoos.
This is part of the process in which China becomes dominant on its side of the world, while the US loses its foothold there. With globalization in decline (see "Globalization in a Sudden and Sharp Decline" in first category, above), the world is going to get bigger and more localized again. -- RF
US government drops case against Max Blumenthal after jailing journalist on false charges
As the mysterious disappearance of Secret Service records and complete absence of evidence supporting its case came to light, the US government dropped its bogus charges against journalist Max Blumenthal.

## Propaganda/censorship/fake news/alternative facts ##
Corporate media sing the same song on Hong Kong, presenting the situation in a lockstep single-mindedness that would impress any totalitarian propaganda system.
As The OPCW Is Accused Of False Reporting U.S. Propaganda Jumps To Its Help
Chinese state media 'terrorism' documentaries seek to justify Xinjiang crackdown after US vote on human rights bill

## Japan ##
One naturally wonders why Japan would need US approval. -- RF

Wanted: Chinese cadres to hold Beijing's line in Xinjiang as Han Chinese head for the exits
The measures targeting Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang have triggered "widespread discontent among Han Chinese officials and citizens", a source close to the central government told the South China Morning Post.
Suppressing Dissent Guarantees Disorder and Collapse
The frantic efforts of an exploitive elite to eliminate dissent only accelerates the regime's path to collapse.
"Of course, being a vain person that's very important to me," Trump added. "It gives you an orange look. I don't want an orange look. Has anyone noticed that?"
Harvesting the Blood of America's Poor: The Latest Stage of Capitalism
Blood has become big business in the United States and there is no shortage of corporations ready to exploit America's most vulnerable populations in order to get a piece of the pie.
Kerry's Endorsement of Biden Fits: Two Deceptive Supporters of the Iraq War
The spectacle of Kerry praising Biden as a seasoned leader amounts to one supporter of the Iraq catastrophe attesting to the character and experience of another supporter of the same catastrophe.
[T]he Democrats, Republicans, and the ultra-wealthy are laughing all the way to the bank. And the vast majority of Americans have been sold into debt slavery.
Bombshell Report: The Fed Has Not Rejected One Bank Merger Application Out of 3800 Submitted in Past 11 Years

And finally...


Permanent Link posted by Rice Farmer @ 4:15 PM

Thursday, December 05, 2019

 

News Links, December 6, 2019

## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards/global cooling/deflationary collapse ##
India's central bank is expected to cut rates but that may not be enough to spur growth
Gold has even outpaced the stock prices of many of the world's most popular tech investments like Netflix, Tesla, Amazon, etc.

## Airline death spiral ##
United orders 50 long-range Airbus jets to replace older Boeing planes

## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
Trump Mulls Turkey Sanctions As Senate Grows Impatient
Germans in favor of 'reducing reliance' on US
A new YouGov poll has found that a majority of Germans are in favor of reducing reliance on the US and increasing ties with Russia.
Turkey is taking a page from China's playbook. Making an outrageously huge claim is much more likely to increase your eventual winnings than by not doing so. -- RF

## Energy/resources ##

## Got food? ##

## Environment/health ##

## Intelligence/security/internet/cyberwar ##
Despite worldwide media coverage of their open letter, more than 80 medical doctors have received no response from the UK government.
Former Deutsche Bank Executive Who Oversaw Trump's Loans Dies by Suicide
Indians afraid to criticize govt: industrialist
Bajaj Group Chairman Rahul Bajaj says there is an atmosphere of fear in the country
The Angry Arab: U.S. Role in Lebanon's Crisis Goes Unrecognized
The bulk of Lebanon's corrupt ruling class are clients of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, not Iran. But this fact is too inconvenient for Western media to point out.

## Propaganda/censorship/fake news/alternative facts ##
Twitter bans Project Veritas ads over old video exposing platform's shadow-banning

## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
Catabolism: Capitalism's Frightening Future
Crunchtime: When Events Outrun Plan B
Costs Are Spiraling Out of Control
And how do we pay for these spiraling out of control costs? By borrowing more, of course.
What Worries me About "Hedonic Quality Adjustments"
An arcane device that impacts so much and papers over the struggles many Americans face in a world that is becoming increasingly unaffordable for them.


Permanent Link posted by Rice Farmer @ 5:00 PM

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