CQ Jeff Berwick
The wildebeest migration in Africa is often described as the "greatest show on earth". Also known as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. It doesn’t have a simple start or end, just a dynamic cycle of wild movement through the year. It’s never the same each year either. Not very predictable, but easy enough to witness if you plan around some key points.
Move over Tanzania, there’s a new migration destination in town, and it’s called…er…South Dakota.
It is prairie country, I suppose.
What am I talking about?
South Dakota
The state of South Dakota believes you should have the right to decide what goes into your body and have introduced bill HB1235, an Act to Revise Provisions Regarding Immunizations. If the bill progresses further it will end ALL medical mandates completely, giving citizens back ownership of their body and all medical decision making. This means that South Dakota would be the first American state to have no vaccine mandates at all to join other governments like Canada, Japan, and the UK in allowing their citizens uncoerced vaccine decision making.
Will we see a stampede of anti-vaxxers crossing the plains to South Dakota?
While the rule of no-government-is-good-government still stands, the alternatives are terrifying.
Colorado
Two states over, Colorado has introduced a bill that would "re-educate" parents who refuse to vaccinate their child with the coronavirus vaccine. The bill forces all doctors and medical staff to give vaccinations with no exemptions, even if they are in a situation where they believe it would not be in that child’s best interest.
California
And in California, the Los Angeles County Dept. of Children and Family Services (DCFS) this week recommended that the court remove children from their non-offending parent’s custody due to the parent testing positive for Covid-19, DESPITE the parent making appropriate arrangements for the child.
This comes right after the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) warned of a "fake" letter circulating social media that threatens removal of kids over COVID-19 testing. The "fake" letter claimed that recipients of the state’s government assistance program including MediCal and CalFresh will lose their benefits if they do not submit to mandatory COVID-19 testing.
The letter also claimed that if state benefit recipients test positive for the virus, their children will be taken into foster care.
It’s all fake folks. Until it isn’t.
I can tell you what isn’t fake! The incredible natural beauty of Zapopan in Jalisco, Mexico. Having the beautiful Defranco Alojamiento Boutique Hotel all to ourselves, hiking to waterfalls and just enjoying the incredible nature, made me think about the positives of the Plandemic. Everything in life should be seen, and used, as an opportunity. I’ve had time to meditate, to look within myself, to grow spiritually. My family has grown closer. I’ve finished my book!
...And I’ve had time to read other’s stories, like Emma Rose Holmbeck’s The Isolated Kingdom – a 12-year old’s take on the Coronavirus scamdemic.
The wildebeest migration in Africa is often described as the "greatest show on earth". Also known as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. It doesn’t have a simple start or end, just a dynamic cycle of wild movement through the year. It’s never the same each year either. Not very predictable, but easy enough to witness if you plan around some key points.
Move over Tanzania, there’s a new migration destination in town, and it’s called…er…South Dakota.
It is prairie country, I suppose.
What am I talking about?
South Dakota
The state of South Dakota believes you should have the right to decide what goes into your body and have introduced bill HB1235, an Act to Revise Provisions Regarding Immunizations. If the bill progresses further it will end ALL medical mandates completely, giving citizens back ownership of their body and all medical decision making. This means that South Dakota would be the first American state to have no vaccine mandates at all to join other governments like Canada, Japan, and the UK in allowing their citizens uncoerced vaccine decision making.
Will we see a stampede of anti-vaxxers crossing the plains to South Dakota?
While the rule of no-government-is-good-government still stands, the alternatives are terrifying.
Colorado
Two states over, Colorado has introduced a bill that would "re-educate" parents who refuse to vaccinate their child with the coronavirus vaccine. The bill forces all doctors and medical staff to give vaccinations with no exemptions, even if they are in a situation where they believe it would not be in that child’s best interest.
California
And in California, the Los Angeles County Dept. of Children and Family Services (DCFS) this week recommended that the court remove children from their non-offending parent’s custody due to the parent testing positive for Covid-19, DESPITE the parent making appropriate arrangements for the child.
This comes right after the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) warned of a "fake" letter circulating social media that threatens removal of kids over COVID-19 testing. The "fake" letter claimed that recipients of the state’s government assistance program including MediCal and CalFresh will lose their benefits if they do not submit to mandatory COVID-19 testing.
The letter also claimed that if state benefit recipients test positive for the virus, their children will be taken into foster care.
It’s all fake folks. Until it isn’t.
I can tell you what isn’t fake! The incredible natural beauty of Zapopan in Jalisco, Mexico. Having the beautiful Defranco Alojamiento Boutique Hotel all to ourselves, hiking to waterfalls and just enjoying the incredible nature, made me think about the positives of the Plandemic. Everything in life should be seen, and used, as an opportunity. I’ve had time to meditate, to look within myself, to grow spiritually. My family has grown closer. I’ve finished my book!
...And I’ve had time to read other’s stories, like Emma Rose Holmbeck’s The Isolated Kingdom – a 12-year old’s take on the Coronavirus scamdemic.
Forwarded from no bullshit bitcoin
Mitre Corp. runs some of the U.S. government's most hush-hush science and tech labs
> a prototype tool that can hack into smartwatches, fitness trackers and home thermometers for the purposes of homeland security; software to collect human fingerprints from social media websites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the FBI; support in building what the FBI calls the biggest database of human anatomy and criminal history in the world; and a study to determine whether someone’s body odor can show they’re lying.
> During his time at Mitre, Edman partnered with the FBI, using his hacking skills to help take down the infamous Silk Road dark web drug bazaar. Shortly after he left Mitre, he was allowed to finish the job in October 2013, and was in Reykjavik, Iceland, alongside FBI agent Ilhwan Yum, to shutter the site run by the Dread Pirate Roberts (real name: Ross Ulbricht), who is now serving a life sentence.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/07/13/inside-americas-secretive-2-billion-research-hub-collecting-fingerprints-from-facebook-hacking-smartwatches-and-fighting-covid-19/
> a prototype tool that can hack into smartwatches, fitness trackers and home thermometers for the purposes of homeland security; software to collect human fingerprints from social media websites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the FBI; support in building what the FBI calls the biggest database of human anatomy and criminal history in the world; and a study to determine whether someone’s body odor can show they’re lying.
> During his time at Mitre, Edman partnered with the FBI, using his hacking skills to help take down the infamous Silk Road dark web drug bazaar. Shortly after he left Mitre, he was allowed to finish the job in October 2013, and was in Reykjavik, Iceland, alongside FBI agent Ilhwan Yum, to shutter the site run by the Dread Pirate Roberts (real name: Ross Ulbricht), who is now serving a life sentence.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/07/13/inside-americas-secretive-2-billion-research-hub-collecting-fingerprints-from-facebook-hacking-smartwatches-and-fighting-covid-19/
Prospering with Fungible, private, SOUND MONEY 3.0 & HEALTH for Everyone! pinned «Mitre Corp. runs some of the U.S. government's most hush-hush science and tech labs > a prototype tool that can hack into smartwatches, fitness trackers and home thermometers for the purposes of homeland security; software to collect human fingerprints from…»
Prospering with Fungible, private, SOUND MONEY 3.0 & HEALTH for Everyone! pinned «The Real Story Behind Tesla’s Crazy Rally https://www.coindesk.com/the-real-story-behind-tesla-tsla-rally»
Forwarded from Deleted Account
From today’s Bill Bonner’s Diary. Bill never lacks for insight, wit or entertainment.
Hard Times for the Sane
Wow… What a week!
There must have been a full moon… a lunatic new high in the Nasdaq… and an all-time monthly record in federal deficits. If monthly deficits were to continue at June’s rate, the deficit for the year would be a sizzling $7.6 trillion.
It is the best of times and the worst of times.
Stock market investors went howling mad… The last quarter was the best for the Dow Jones in 33 years. But for the economy, it was the worst quarter in history!
Dizzying Highs
Last week also brought Donald Trump to claim that Joe Biden had “plagiarized” his economic program, after Biden unveiled his “Buy American” plan.
The Donald said it with characteristic pride… flattered that someone would want to imitate him. Apparently, now, both parties are going to make America great again.
A more thoughtful man might have wondered why the big spending dumbbells on the other side of the aisle would think his program was just fine for them, too.
When the tone deaf fellow in the church choir is hitting the same notes you are… maybe it’s time to change your tune.
But wait… there’s more…
Mary Trump (Donald’s niece) says the president paid someone to take his SATs… and Kanye West announced that he’s running for president too. (Sure to boost brand awareness for his clothing line, Yeezy. We had never heard of it.)
And Tesla flew to such a dizzy high last week that we practically broke our neck looking at it. Here’s money-manager extraordinaire Chris Mayer:
Tesla is now worth more than Toyota, GM, Ford and Fiat combined… and yet, still can’t deliver 500,000 vehicles annually, can’t make a profit, sales haven’t grown much since 2018, they have a CEO who openly taunts the SEC saying they suck his you-know-what, and they have at best doctored up financials (at worst, fraudulent).
Tesla stock is up 270% so far this year. It trades at 288 times free cash flow.
Wow. What a great company, right? Or what?
The “or what” is what interests us today. And we have a feeling that it concerns much more than Tesla…
$20 Billion Countertrade
Tesla is so obviously over-priced that it has created a whole “or what” $20 billion countertrade. That is the value of the shares that are now “short” TSLA.
Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine:
Let’s call it Anti-Tesla … is apparently the biggest synthetic company ever, the largest pool of shares ever manufactured by people betting against a company. It’s no Toyota, but Anti-Tesla is bigger than Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV; the market value of Tesla stock produced by short sellers is larger than the market value of an entire real car company.
That’s … something. I don’t know. It’s easy to scoff that Tesla, a young and still-niche company that has not produced a lot of profits, is more valuable than these big mature car companies; but even that scoffing itself is more valuable than some of those companies. Finance is weird.
Weird? Yes. And so far this year, the scoffers have lost (on paper, at least) some $18 billion. Tesla has gone up. Their short positions have gone down.
But that’s the problem with “or what”?
What’s going on is insane. But if you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, you will probably lose a lot of money.
Real-World Damage
A sane, sensible and sober investor should stay away from U.S. stocks.
After all, stocks represent real businesses. And real businesses operate in the real world… which, measured by GDP, may have slumped 38% last quarter.
Those businesses will probably never again be worth as much as they were a year ago.
And now, we can expect a “recovery.” But losses are losses. They are permanent, like a summer spent indoors.
Time passes; it never comes back. And when the economy eventually goes back outside – with pasty skin, wasted muscles, and trillions more in heavy debt to lug around – it is unlikely to regain its old vigor.
Stocks should reflect the real-world damage, in other words, not ignore it.
Hard Times for the Sane
Wow… What a week!
There must have been a full moon… a lunatic new high in the Nasdaq… and an all-time monthly record in federal deficits. If monthly deficits were to continue at June’s rate, the deficit for the year would be a sizzling $7.6 trillion.
It is the best of times and the worst of times.
Stock market investors went howling mad… The last quarter was the best for the Dow Jones in 33 years. But for the economy, it was the worst quarter in history!
Dizzying Highs
Last week also brought Donald Trump to claim that Joe Biden had “plagiarized” his economic program, after Biden unveiled his “Buy American” plan.
The Donald said it with characteristic pride… flattered that someone would want to imitate him. Apparently, now, both parties are going to make America great again.
A more thoughtful man might have wondered why the big spending dumbbells on the other side of the aisle would think his program was just fine for them, too.
When the tone deaf fellow in the church choir is hitting the same notes you are… maybe it’s time to change your tune.
But wait… there’s more…
Mary Trump (Donald’s niece) says the president paid someone to take his SATs… and Kanye West announced that he’s running for president too. (Sure to boost brand awareness for his clothing line, Yeezy. We had never heard of it.)
And Tesla flew to such a dizzy high last week that we practically broke our neck looking at it. Here’s money-manager extraordinaire Chris Mayer:
Tesla is now worth more than Toyota, GM, Ford and Fiat combined… and yet, still can’t deliver 500,000 vehicles annually, can’t make a profit, sales haven’t grown much since 2018, they have a CEO who openly taunts the SEC saying they suck his you-know-what, and they have at best doctored up financials (at worst, fraudulent).
Tesla stock is up 270% so far this year. It trades at 288 times free cash flow.
Wow. What a great company, right? Or what?
The “or what” is what interests us today. And we have a feeling that it concerns much more than Tesla…
$20 Billion Countertrade
Tesla is so obviously over-priced that it has created a whole “or what” $20 billion countertrade. That is the value of the shares that are now “short” TSLA.
Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine:
Let’s call it Anti-Tesla … is apparently the biggest synthetic company ever, the largest pool of shares ever manufactured by people betting against a company. It’s no Toyota, but Anti-Tesla is bigger than Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV; the market value of Tesla stock produced by short sellers is larger than the market value of an entire real car company.
That’s … something. I don’t know. It’s easy to scoff that Tesla, a young and still-niche company that has not produced a lot of profits, is more valuable than these big mature car companies; but even that scoffing itself is more valuable than some of those companies. Finance is weird.
Weird? Yes. And so far this year, the scoffers have lost (on paper, at least) some $18 billion. Tesla has gone up. Their short positions have gone down.
But that’s the problem with “or what”?
What’s going on is insane. But if you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, you will probably lose a lot of money.
Real-World Damage
A sane, sensible and sober investor should stay away from U.S. stocks.
After all, stocks represent real businesses. And real businesses operate in the real world… which, measured by GDP, may have slumped 38% last quarter.
Those businesses will probably never again be worth as much as they were a year ago.
And now, we can expect a “recovery.” But losses are losses. They are permanent, like a summer spent indoors.
Time passes; it never comes back. And when the economy eventually goes back outside – with pasty skin, wasted muscles, and trillions more in heavy debt to lug around – it is unlikely to regain its old vigor.
Stocks should reflect the real-world damage, in other words, not ignore it.
Forwarded from Deleted Account
In February 2020, the stock market was on the ropes, and getting pummeled by the COVID-19 shutdown.
There was no reason to think the economy would come out of the ring intact. But investors who took the anti-stock bet missed a 35% rebound.
Now, the economy is still black and blue, and walking with a limp. But the market averages are back to where they were when The Donald could claim it was “the best economy ever.”
Measuring Insanity
But the averages, too, are nutty.
Take out the top 10 tech stocks – Apple, Facebook, etc. – and you wipe out half the Nasdaq.
On the S&P 500, the top 10 stocks represent 80% of the index. With the exception of Berkshire Hathaway and Johnson & Johnson, they, too, are all tech or finance companies.
But do these entertainment, time-wasting, and money-spinning companies really account for half or more of America’s real wealth?
Of course not. Like Tesla, what they measure is insanity, counted out in the Federal Reserve’s paper wealth… and speculators’ enthusiasm for casino-like gains.
Take U.S. bonds, for example.
What is a bond worth that is issued by a 244-year-old company that is (in the month of June) spending four times as much as it earns?
What is it worth when the company also controls the currency in which the bond is payable… and when it is covering its deficits by printing more of it?
And what if it had no plans to stop losing money… or to stop printing the money to pay its losses?
The short answer: its bonds wouldn’t be worth very much. But U.S. bonds have actually gone up. If you’d dumped U.S. Treasuries three years ago, you would have missed a total return of about 50%.
In short, it’s been a rough time for people who aren’t insane.
Only one anti-insanity bet has really paid off….
More to come…
Regards,
Bill
There was no reason to think the economy would come out of the ring intact. But investors who took the anti-stock bet missed a 35% rebound.
Now, the economy is still black and blue, and walking with a limp. But the market averages are back to where they were when The Donald could claim it was “the best economy ever.”
Measuring Insanity
But the averages, too, are nutty.
Take out the top 10 tech stocks – Apple, Facebook, etc. – and you wipe out half the Nasdaq.
On the S&P 500, the top 10 stocks represent 80% of the index. With the exception of Berkshire Hathaway and Johnson & Johnson, they, too, are all tech or finance companies.
But do these entertainment, time-wasting, and money-spinning companies really account for half or more of America’s real wealth?
Of course not. Like Tesla, what they measure is insanity, counted out in the Federal Reserve’s paper wealth… and speculators’ enthusiasm for casino-like gains.
Take U.S. bonds, for example.
What is a bond worth that is issued by a 244-year-old company that is (in the month of June) spending four times as much as it earns?
What is it worth when the company also controls the currency in which the bond is payable… and when it is covering its deficits by printing more of it?
And what if it had no plans to stop losing money… or to stop printing the money to pay its losses?
The short answer: its bonds wouldn’t be worth very much. But U.S. bonds have actually gone up. If you’d dumped U.S. Treasuries three years ago, you would have missed a total return of about 50%.
In short, it’s been a rough time for people who aren’t insane.
Only one anti-insanity bet has really paid off….
More to come…
Regards,
Bill
Forwarded from Deleted Account
It's getting really hard keeping track of how many ways the world is going insane, all at once!!!!
Forwarded from Bitcoins
Researcher Hopes Cosmos-style ‘Checkpoint’ Could Fix Ethereum’s Data Problem
https://www.coindesk.com/researcher-hopes-cosmos-style-checkpoint-could-fix-ethereums-data-problem
https://www.coindesk.com/researcher-hopes-cosmos-style-checkpoint-could-fix-ethereums-data-problem
CoinDesk
Researcher Hopes Cosmos-Style 'Checkpoint' Could Fix Ethereum's Data Problem
The “ReGenesis” proposal by Ethereum researcher Alexey Akhunov would “nuke” the state for certain nodes. It might just fix the network’s growing data issue.
Forwarded from no bullshit bitcoin
A few thoughts about Signal’s Secure Value Recovery
> Signal has been rolling out a raft of new features to make its app more usable. One of those features has recently been raising a bit of controversy with users. This is a contact list backup feature based on a new system called Secure Value Recovery, or SVR. The SVR feature allows Signal to upload your contacts into Signal’s servers without — ostensibly — even Signal itself being able to access it.
> I want to delve a little bit deeper into why these decisions have made me so concerned, and what Signal is doing to try to mitigate those concerns.
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2020/07/10/a-few-thoughts-about-signals-secure-value-recovery/
> Signal has been rolling out a raft of new features to make its app more usable. One of those features has recently been raising a bit of controversy with users. This is a contact list backup feature based on a new system called Secure Value Recovery, or SVR. The SVR feature allows Signal to upload your contacts into Signal’s servers without — ostensibly — even Signal itself being able to access it.
> I want to delve a little bit deeper into why these decisions have made me so concerned, and what Signal is doing to try to mitigate those concerns.
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2020/07/10/a-few-thoughts-about-signals-secure-value-recovery/
Prospering with Fungible, private, SOUND MONEY 3.0 & HEALTH for Everyone! pinned «A few thoughts about Signal’s Secure Value Recovery > Signal has been rolling out a raft of new features to make its app more usable. One of those features has recently been raising a bit of controversy with users. This is a contact list backup feature based…»
Wow, Super cool to see…
Forwarded from no bullshit bitcoin
Paradigm investment firm announces funding for bitcoin core developer Anthony Towns' ongoing open source work
> As an investor in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Paradigm has a vested interest in Bitcoin's success, and we believe it is our responsibility to help fund Bitcoin development.
> Paradigm will pay his salary, but Anthony will have complete freedom to choose what he works on.
https://www.matthuang.com/funding_bitcoin_development
> As an investor in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Paradigm has a vested interest in Bitcoin's success, and we believe it is our responsibility to help fund Bitcoin development.
> Paradigm will pay his salary, but Anthony will have complete freedom to choose what he works on.
https://www.matthuang.com/funding_bitcoin_development