On Wire

by Charles Hugh-Smith The good news is renewal becomes possible when the entire rotten status quo collapses in a putrid heap. There are two basic pathways to systemic collapse: external shocks or internal decay. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course; it can be argued that the most common path is internal decay weakens the … Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjbFsuDJc_M AT&T is having layoffs. And AT&T now owns time warner, and CNN.

by Egon von Greyerz My long standing target for gold of $10,000 in today’s money and much, much higher in inflationary terms, is now more probable than ever. But I hope it will never be achieved. When gold goes to $10,000, it won’t be under the same circumstances that we saw in the 1970s. Gold … Read more

by Michael Snyder It sure looks like nothing can stop the trade war now, and that could potentially be absolutely disastrous for the global economy.  The last major trade war began in 1930, and it turned an economic downturn into the Great Depression of the 1930s.  But without a doubt something needed to be done about … Read more

by Michael Snyder If it seems like about half the country is on drugs, that is because it is actually true.  According to a new survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, almost half of all Americans have taken a pharmaceutical drug within the past 30 days, and that officially makes us “the most medicated … Read more

via @GS_CapSF:          

via @TaviCosta: At that time USDCNY exchange rate was at 7.25! Today, it’s only 6.79. This divergence in monetary policy puts tremendous pressure on the PBOC to devalue its currency. Honest question: If Chinese growth is picking up again, why is the $CNY share of global payments via swift declining year to date? It’s now below … Read more

via @TaviCosta: Even worse than countries like Argentina & Greece. Talk about dumping capital into massively unproductive assets.    

via Zerohedge: As each of the seven largest credit-card issuers in the US reported a troubling jump in default rates to levels not seen in the better part of a decade, we noted last week that relaxed lending standards combined with ‘Non-GAAP’ FICO scores suggest that the American consumer is in far worse shape than many had … Read more

via jugglingdynamite” In the first two credit-tightening cycles of the last 27 years, the US central bank hiked its base interest rate 108% from August 1992 to May 2000 (3 to 6.5), and 425% from June 2003 to June 2006 (1 to 5.25). While household savings were higher coming into those cycles and total debt levels much … Read more

In his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee’s contempt vote against Attorney General Bill Barr, ranking member Rep. Doug Collins questions why lawmakers are moving 10-times faster than they did with Attorney General Eric Holder. #FoxNews   Jim Jordan: House Democrats are trying to destroy Barr   The push to hold William Barr in … Read more

by howmuch There are an estimated three quarters of a million franchises in the U.S. alone. While most people think of franchising in terms of fast-food restaurants, the U.S. Census Bureaunotes that a number of other industries including fitness, beauty, and automobiles also rely on a franchise model to generate business. Our latest visualization illustrates how much it … Read more

This has to end badly because the distortions have to be reconciled. It was once okay to have recessions and corrections in the stock market when the stock market was not the economy, but asset prices have become the economy.