Ah, the September jobs report. It’s the perfect backdrop for today’s topic – the rapid, inexorable decline of the American standard of living; or as we have been brainwashed to believe for generations, the “American Dream.” Sadly, said “dream” was but a mirage, created by a historical confluence of events that will NEVER again repeat. The reason Americans have lived “charmed lives” since the Baby Boomer generation was because the rest of the world nearly destroyed itself in two World Wars; then, handed over the keys to the “reserve currency” printing press – initially in 1944, but more so in 1971, when it collectively allowed America to renege on the Bretton Woods agreement and abandon the gold standard.
Since then, America has “fooled itself” – and the world at large – by creating artificial booms based entirely on its “printing press power”; first, when Alan Greenspan sparked the 1990s internet bubble with easy money; second, when Ben Bernanke fueled the 2000s housing bubble with easier money; and finally, today’s bastardized “boom” in which global economies plunge while stock markets surge – care of the most maniacal, worldwide scheme of MONEY PRINTING, MARKET MANIPULATION, and PROPAGANDA in global history. And no, such a statement is not hyperbolic in the least. The only thing I see as hyperbolic these days are government LIES (wait till you see what I’m about to write of) and DEBT; and sadly, they will worsen dramatically until the entire fiat Ponzi scheme implodes of its own weight.
Yesterday, I opined that the consensus estimate that 185,000 jobs were created in September was utterly RIDICULOUS. Frankly, I don’t know what planet these so-called genius analysts come from; as absolutely NOTHING in the (government-massaged) data I’ve seen even remotely suggests September was a strong month. And voila, an utterly abysmal report; with the only “positive” being yet another decline in the official “unemployment rate.” Yep, you guessed it, that darn labor participation rate again, whose inexorable decline may well take unemployment to zero – while the number of workers also drops to zero!
As usual, the job quality could not have been worse; and don’t forget that EVERYTHING the government reports is “massaged” to look better than it actually is. To wit, the horrific LIE I mentioned above; which frankly, is so blatant, it’s hard to believe ANYONE can’t see it. To wit, recall the unstoppable trend of American employers firing full-time workers and replacing them with part-time workers. This inexorable trend has gone parabolic in the past year due to Obamacare, which imposes onerous, business-killing taxes on firms with too many full-time, benefits-eligible employees. As you can imagine, such talk is politically damaging; and thus, the Obama Administration will not allow it. And thus, just as they started cookingthe “unemployment rate” just before the 2012 elections, they this month cooked historical data regarding the mix of full and part-time employment. This travesty is so transparent; I can hear the Chinese laughing all the way from Colorado. I urge you to read about it here; and subsequently, realize that EVERYTHING we are told by the government – and its fascist corporate partners – are LIES; particularly relating to the actual amount of PHYSICAL gold and silver in their coffers.
Of course, per the early stages of hyperinflation I wrote of yesterday – and last week – stocks, bonds, and commodities are all higher this morning. With the Fed pumping endless money into banks that no longer lend, but speculate with the full backing of its government “partners,” equities are commencing a dangerous period – both in the U.S. and worldwide.
I somehow doubt they will nominally crash with the Fed’s printing presses squarely behind them. However, it’s only a matter of time before they plunge in real terms – a la Weimar Germany, or 2013 Venezuela; and FYI, the dollar is plummeting this morning, despite signs that Greece may be ready to implode; and with it, the entire Eurozone.
As for PMs, they have fought through every conceivable capping algorithm this morning; with gold finally breaking through the nearly two-month $1,320 and $1,330 “lines in the sand,” and silver decisively breaching its $22 “line in the sand,” en route to $23 and beyond. Remember when the ENTIRE world said “tapering” would occur in September; that is, other than me and a tiny handful of others? Well guess what? The ENTIRE world now expects tapering no sooner than March; which is to say, NEVER! My view: it CANNOT, and WILL NOT, EVER happen; with the more likely scenario being the announcement of “QE5” sometime in the first half of 2014.
On that hyperinflationary note, back to today’s topic; i.e., the American nightmare I wrote of last year, and death of the middle class earlier this month. Actually, when including the “lower middle” and “lower” classes, it’s “the 99%” that’s dying, at the expense of the 1% that destroy our lives – creating a “dependency nation” that increasingly relies on entitlements for its very survival.
Part of this horrific, nation-killing trend results from the natural migration of jobs from the high-cost West to the low-cost East; and would have occurred whether corporate enrichment programs like GATT and NAFTA were signed or not. The fact that lobbyists took over the U.S. government only accelerated the process; a process, I might add, created by the temporary “geopolitical window” noted at the beginning of today’s article. When the world nearly destroyed itself – and in its weak state, abdicated global leadership to the tiny United States – America abused the privilege by not only overprinting its currency and becoming an imperialist bully, but allowing industry-killing unions to make its manufacturing cost structure unnaturally high.
The resulting wage gains created a mirage of prosperity dubbed the “American Dream.” However, such nominal gains have been ENTIRELY eroded by Fed-generated inflation since the gold standard was abandoned in 1971 – except for “the 1%,” of course. This “real wage gap” was entirely filled by global willingness to lend to Americans at ridiculously cheap terms, thanks to the U.S. holding it “hostage” via its “reserve currency” – which tragically, will soon be a distant memory.
As I write, the global economy is in its worst condition of our lifetimes; and not getting better, but inexorably worse each day. Citizens of the “fragile five” nations – among countless others – will see dramatic worsening of the horrific inflation they are experiencing today. However, it is Americans that will experience the biggest drop in overall living standards; as the dollar loses its “reserve currency status,” causing import prices to explode, employment to plunge, and government regulation to become increasingly draconian.
Amidst the so-called recovery that has been hyped all summer – one in which even a modest amount of “tapering” wasn’t even attempted, the U.S. standard of living index has been in FREEFALL – to the point that even McDonalds is warning of weak demand. And now that the global economy is again rolling over – as the U.S. prepares for its next budget crisis, and trading partners accelerate their flight from Treasury bonds, the only reasonable prognosis is significant decline. Even the government’s own accountants – i.e., the Congressional Budget Office – anticipate exploding entitlement spending over the coming decade, which will only put further pressure on the Fed to monetize the TRILLIONS of Treasuries necessary to fund such profligacy.
