February 3, 2012
TAE Summary said...
* Gold
- Credit has been disappearing but gold has gone up
- Gold is as much a delusion as fiat money
- Platinum is rarer than gold
- Steel and lead are also durable, portable and divisible
- If you must buy gold don't wait until your cash is worthless or gold is unavailable
- Feddies buy gold too
- Calculating the price of gold may soon require L'Hôpital's rule
- Price only matters when you buy or sell
- Don't trip on your gold on the way to the pantry
* TAE
- Another TAE marriage proposal
- TAE'ers know secret things
- ZH comments mention TAE
- TAE is profoundly contrarian
- Cite responsibly or join Cheryl
- Compare responsibly or get laughed at
- People who make ad hominem slurs are big fat idiots
* Arguments with fallacies are weak; Oversimplification apes delusion; It may be in your head but that doesn't mean it isn't real; 2012 is the year of maya
* Global energy is out of balance; If heat is trapped temperatures should rise; Weather is not climate; Troposphere, schmoposphere
* Printing presses and breeder reactors create their own fuel; The US has experience with failed currencies; Tuition, books and airfare keep you broke; You might like FinViz.com
* Not all Fed transactions are documented; Someday the big boys will ditch the dollar; Money shields us from befriending creeps; We don't trust people because we don't have to; Trust might rehabilitate creeps; Time is like personal property
* Money, agriculture and oil are the three legs of the population density stool; The world's a casino without a beginning and nobody know where it really ends; May you live in hyperinflationary times
* MFGlobal was the canary in the coal mine; The Baltic Dry Index is down; Currency collapse pending; The wheels will come off at $7 per gallon
* Sun blasts can take out telegraph lines; We are in the eye of the solar storm; A Carrington flare would be Swanzilla
* The CIA is everywhere; High ground is obsolete in the world of drones; Attacking Iran will hasten the dollars end; Oil can be bought with a basket of currency; Prepare now; You can't win at musical chairs unless the music stops
February 1, 2012
TAE Summary said...
* Criticisms of the Day
- The intelligent can still be blind
- Enjoy eating the crow that laid the golden goose egg
- You make me queasy
- Please don't make things up
- There are no boring subjects, only boring analysis
* Compliments of the Day
- Nice post
- Your predictions are on track
- Pretty good analysis
- Thanks for being polite
- Your point has great merit
- You are an engineer
- Amen to that
* Gold
- Gold bugs are pimps, gold haters are whores
- True price discovery is good/bad for gold depending on whether you are a gold pimp/whore
- Don't hate me because I'm durable, divisible and transportable
- Gold is a hedge against government printing presses
- Gold bugs are herds of lemmings
- Gold is only a good investment if you can afford it
- Gold is the S&P 500's evil twin
- Gold is the alternative to the dollar
- Gold may lose value but won't evaporate like bank accounts
- Gold prices rose during the great depressions
- Gold discussions should be relegated to the back room
- Look at the charts and decide for yourself
* The growth economy is not coming back; Fear of missing out means the bubble is about to pop; Open the pod bay doors HAL
* Americans see everything in terms of money; The love of stored labor credits is the root of all evil; If the system resets we will still have money; If the hard disk crashes relationships will be the new currency
* The G7 will be overrun by angry serfs after the collapse; The safest places will become the most dangerous; Nuclear subs enter the Red Sea; The loss of one aircraft carrier would kill the dollar
* Blaming climate change on CO2 is simplistic; 1998 was a wicked outlier; Gold and carbon have a lot in common; Don't hate me because I'm combustible
January 24 2012
* More "End of Money" Propaganda
- The idea is for bubble dwellers
- The thought never occurred to most people
- People won't think about this until they give up potato chips and soda
- It is one of the most tedious and unrealistic discussion ever on TAE comments
- Not a single shred of information on how the system could work has been put forward
- Money can help one create community
- Moneylessness worked for hunter/gatherers but doesn't scale
- The concept of no money will not be on the final exam
- The concepts that tie us to money all have exceptions
- If the concept was made easier to grasp more would grasp it
- The discussion is overcooked and might be over now
* Soviet Union committed the same atrocities and made the same mistakes as the West; Russia is now broadcasting Video Free America; Workers Unite! Throw off the chains you have forged in life!
* The USA is not what it once was; The Owners want neo-feudalism in perpetuity; America is now the shining bubble on the hill; O brave new world that hath such creatures in it
* Rules of nature shouldn't be confused with the rules of man; Herding behavior is chaotic with ordered complexity; We are better at killing than distributing
* Root causes are like roots, wide and deep with a thousand thousand hairs; Humans are always seeking but never coming to the knowledge of the root cause
* Where have all the articles gone?
* In the beginning the Big Bang was root cause of the universe, and the universe was fractally and chaotic. And the chaos murmured, "Let there be strange attractors", and there were strange attractors.
January 24, 2012
* Interesting times in Athens; Will they get IMF money or not? How long can the pretense continue? It's a dog agrees to agree to eat dog world
* Ex post facto laws are unconstitutional ; Slippery slopes are dangerous; Dismantling Detroit is beautiful; We wear the chain we forged in life; What's in your wallet?
* Systemic complexity and large scale capitalism are the root of our predicaments; Newt Complexity or Mitt Capitalism needs to emerge soon as The Candidate to silence Ron Paul; Mitt, Newt and Barack are three rings in the same circus
* Complexity arises from a multitude of simplicities; The whole is greater than the sum of its parts; Corporations and revolutions must grow or die
* The US legal system is a cruel joke; They don't call it a punch line for nothin'
* Things are rosy at the top; Third waves are powerful; Stay away from the back of the bus; The clues of the clueless are priceless; The herd never understands itself; Societal shifts can be instantaneous; Modern man is half guinea pig, half lemming and half starling; If only we could identify bird #1
* The End of Money
- Large societies can easily live without it
- Without money little would change
- The end of money could be coordinated via the internet
- It is akin to global awakening
- Reality may demand it
- To end money, think differently
- You can run up a tab locally but not with the Pentagon
- It's not about the system, it's about operational change
- It could be instantaneous; Person #459 might stop using money because person #458 did
- Most women love the idea except for my wife and few of her friends
- Without money people would just choose to be soldiers, build roads and clean toilets because they enjoy that shit
- Doomsteaders love money
- The concept is not meant for TAE readers
- Discussions of the concept offends some
- Others are not at all interested in the concept
* More "End of Money" Propaganda
- The idea is for bubble dwellers
- The thought never occurred to most people
- People won't think about this until they give up potato chips and soda
- It is one of the most tedious and unrealistic discussion ever on TAE comments
- Not a single shred of information on how the system could work has been put forward
- Money can help one create community
- Moneylessness worked for hunter/gatherers but doesn't scale
- The concept of no money will not be on the final exam
- The concepts that tie us to money all have exceptions
- If the concept was made easier to grasp more would grasp it
- The discussion is overcooked and might be over now
* Soviet Union committed the same atrocities and made the same mistakes as the West; Russia is now broadcasting Video Free America; Workers Unite! Throw off the chains you have forged in life!
* The USA is not what it once was; The Owners want neo-feudalism in perpetuity; America is now the shining bubble on the hill; O brave new world that hath such creatures in it
* Rules of nature shouldn't be confused with the rules of man; Herding behavior is chaotic with ordered complexity; We are better at killing than distributing
* Root causes are like roots, wide and deep with a thousand thousand hairs; Humans are always seeking but never coming to the knowledge of the root cause
* Where have all the articles gone?
* In the beginning the Big Bang was root cause of the universe, and the universe was fractally and chaotic. And the chaos murmured, "Let there be strange attractors", and there were strange attractors.
January 20, 2012
* The other massive shoe may drop at any time; Expect the unexpected; Contractions speak louder than words; Sentiments eventually yield to reality
* TAE
- TAE is a guilty pleasure
- TAE has real political and financial analysis
- TAE is unique and original
- TAE has never been about investment strategies
- TAE has two groups of readers: off gridders and fence sitters
- TAE's value is exposing new people to the same old TEOTWAWKI
- TAE posts are declining and may be linked to housing starts
- TAE posts are fewer but more complex
- ZH is the source, TAE the sink
* Abstract wealth depends on military power; The police primarily defend the rich; Public service doesn't pay; TPTB use TPTB to remain TPTB
* Most people don't see what's coming; Be careful how you spend your credibility capital; Preparation is delusional; Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we collapse
* Crisis acceleration is more interesting than crisis velocity; Repetition is the mother of diminution; Lead, follow or close your blog; Mene, mene, tekel, shut-upsharin
* The market is diverging; S&P is off to a Mayan start; Markets remain irraitional longer than you can remain solvent; Equity investing requires deep thought, deep pockets and deep breathing
* House poor used to require one income but now requries four; The young cannot ape the lifestyle of their parents; A degree in law won't grant you special priveleges; Young men with breeding and ambition should have breeding ambitions
* The keystone pipeline is an election strategy; Tar sands have only short term benefits; Use it up, wear it out, make your pile then do without
* There is only one TAE Troll; His mother was Medusa and his father was Santa Claus; His handle is 'legion' for he is many
January 18, 2012
* UK:
- Facts have been hidden in the UK
- UK economy is unstable
- UK crisis has been building for a long time
- UK will save itself by trading Yuan
- UK rail system is still great
- UK faces inflation or deflation
- As long as UK has net immigration housing will rise
- The UK is in an ugly spot
* Wikipedia, google and craigslist, o.a. are all blacked out; Greenland ice sheet darkened as well
* Being a storm rider is hard and requires you to move in mysterious ways
* Iran can shut down the straits at will; US energy independence is a joke; America's NET liquid energy imports are plunging
* Buccaneer capitalists are scum; Mother nature bats last; Greece will default shortly; Longing for collapse is a sin
* Kunstler is prone to blind spots; He hates Arabs and Cheese Doodles; He suffers from selective naked dissonance syndrome
* TAE has shrunk; The young should be careful what they post; Following advice can lose you money; The pain of loss trumps the pleasure of gain; One man's timing is another man's doh; Advice stays freshest in a vacuum; We're all speculators now
* Getting hoisted on your own canard is painful, especially if your canard is crooked and has barbs on it
October 1, 2011
* Comments are open, comments are closed, blessed be the name of comments
* People in the Northern Hemisphere and ferrets sleep 16 hours a day
* Barter is myth and/or recent invention; Historians at Columbia have shown the first recorded barter happened on Craigslist; My uncles Bob and Ross claim otherwise
* We need to be master's of our own fate; We are rats in a cage lured in by trinkets in airports; Never leave home without your bolt cutters and/or scuba gear
* The yen is puzzling; The dollar may increase or decrease in value against the yen; The dollar and yen will jointly rise; The yen is Gilgamesh, the dollar is Enkidu and the looney is Humbaba
* Traders are hypersociopathic; Scarcity means wild and crazy swings in pricing; Trading is like spanking children: It is usually counter productive but go ahead and do it if it makes you feel better
* The TPTB want to own it all; Stealing doesn't incur debt; New Zealand has been down graded; Nokia lays off 3000; Stoneleigh still deserves credit
* Refusing tenure is good; What will happen when the Greeks default?
*There is not enough wealth to pay all the debts; American's moving to kolob are still required to pay taxes
* Wampum is used perjoratively; Everyone wants a good return on their cash; The interest of America is interest
* Manhattan existed before Goldman Sachs; Most people are now anti-bank; Only potholes can stop the banker-juggernaut;
* Safest way to hold US dollars long term: Put them in an empty Wheatabix box, take the box to the supermarket and put it on the top shelf of the cereal aisle; Oh, and don't tell anyone
August 28, 2011
* Big shake up coming in the financial system; TAE is a thorn in the side of the power elite; It is hard for them to kick against the pricks; Trolls thrive on responses; Trolls are supported by the DOD; Trolls want to hook you, not eat you
* Gold:
- WIll soon be a buyers market
- Golden houses will be hit worst
- In terms of gold everything has been deflating for 10 years
- Unless gold corrects below $680/oz TAE has steered you wrong
- Irene won't be influenced by gold
- FDR confiscated gold but not silver
- Global currency will be partly gold based
- Gold is easier to manipulate than bits and bytes
- When gold rules only rulers will have gold
- Gold never deflates
- Buy gold if it makes you happy
- Don't buy gold unless you can afford to never sell it
- You will win big if you can hold onto your gold until you die
* Listen to your inner voice and don't buy silver now; The crowd rushes from one side of the ship to the other; Missiles use 10 lbs of silver
* Bet hedgers are closet hyperinflationistas; I&S predict hyperinflation but only after deflation; First the soup, then the salad; The US isn't Weimar Germany; Most Americans can't even pronounce Einsturz
*Ron Paul couldn't fix things even if he were President; Instead he would be fixed; Credit collapse causes the ueber-rich to panic
* Student debt exceeds credit card debt; Worthless BS+no job = double down to to MS; College education: $200K; Lifetime of debt servitude: Priceless
* Is the median wage going up or just the mean? Banks wan't borrowers, not depositors; Solvency is un-American; Using cash starves the beast
* One line comments suck
* How can the dollar strengthen when the Fed wants to weaken it; The dollar is dead, long live the dollar;
* Capital requirements break the boom bust cycle; As we age villains become heroes; Bubbles grow smoothly but pop raggedly; Bankers and politicians will scathe everyone
* Chips cut fraud; Moore's corollary on embedded microprocessors: mainframe, desktop, laptop, phone, creditcard, hand, cerebral cortex;
* Our problems are due to the end of growth; 99.9% are wrong; What you believe about the economy says more about you that it does about the economy
* Collapse favors the Pacific NW; The north will become a deep freeze; The south an oven; Maybe they can work together freeze-drying food
* Boomers were greedy but ignorant; TAE comprehends peakoil. Peakoil does not comprehend TAE; The revolution is coming: Treasuré, Geographé, Dehydré
August 7, 2011
* Nobody is in control; Our leaders are weak, pathetic people; If the weak and pathetic lead the weak and pathetic they will both end up in the ditch
* Cash is King; Large companies are sitting on cash and will soon gobble up smaller companies; It's a dog shaft dog world; Don't participate in the machine
* TPTB think people and goods are superfluous; The PPT rescues the S&P; Dead cats bounce 12%
* The Fed will avoid QE3 because they know it will fail; Wimpy half measures appear engaging and garner no blame; The Fed doesn't care about blame, it has other fish to fry
* Armies will be used against their own people; I, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; With luck some will either understand or break their oath
* The hallmarks of poverty abound; Consumerism isn't making Americans happy; Rumblings are coming from everywhere
* The media distracts more than it informs; Never join a retirement program, join a ponzi scheme or buy a timeshare; The city of Paris may sell flats
* Will there be bloodbath on Monday? History has been out back taking a leak but will be in soon; All quiet on the western front; And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
* Now that he has been outed Bernanke will distribute diplomas to the scarecrows, pocket watches to the tin men and will next generate the hot air needed to refill his balloon
* Amerika is a Schuldenpranger; US Debt is unpayable in dollars; The US might sell gold to make treasuries look more attractive; AA+ either is or isn't QE3
* Batting 500 is pretty good; Predicting collapse is a thankless job; Never let snakes lick your ears clean
* The downgrade will be great for equities; The Columbia is on the launch pad; Manuel can soon afford his own yellow Cougar; Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close Wall Street up with our Fiscal dead.
August 2, 2011
* Aphorisms
- It's a jungle out there
- War is a scam
- No matter how cynical you get, you can't keep up
- Politics is show business for ugly people
- Never act without a text book
- Bricks are heavy
- Don't give advice unless you want to
* Buyer beware; Lender be snare; The rich cannot break the law by definition
* No customers = No work; All our problems would be solved if people could create their own money; Banks never announce before they intervene
* France is huge; France is very close to Italy and not far from Greece; In France it's cheaper to wear bandages than clothes
* TAE comments are messy; Comments are not deleted but they may be filtered; No further comment is necessary
* Where is Cheryl? Has the big August run up in stocks started yet? Help me Cheryl, help me!
* Black boxes have unknown perimeters but known areas
* Cashless societies keep accounts in their head; Symbols can't replace substance; We aren't raising the debt ceiling, we're deepening the debt pit
* Liars are the good guys; Ron Paul exposes the good guys plan; They're still digging the debt pit, but have switched to a smaller backhoe
* Better Fred than Dead; If it isn't surprising it isn't change; If I have to get pecked by a vulture can she at least be a redhead?
* The agricultural lifestyle sucks unless you get to worship a female deity; Tent cities are growing in the Garden State; A generator comes in handy when the power is out; Someday soon a credit-card-sized object will determine if you will get medical care
* Don't criticize a Snuffy until you've walked a mile in his shoes; Then when you criticize him he'll be a mile away; And you'll have his shoes
July 16, 2011
What about Bob:
Bob said:
* Invest in lipstick, nylon stockings and odor eaters
* Stocks will go up long term
* The market is as firm and buoyant as a pair of silicon implants in situ
* A stock market crash would please TAEers
* The love of money is the root of all virtue
* Comfortable retirement is the sine qua non of our existence
* Humans seek patterns; TAE provides patterns but does nothing for your itchy back
* My S&P cup runneth over; Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life
* Civilization has always been messy; There are no good old days, just a shiny, golden future
* Bad things happen; Just make sure they don't happen to you
* There's nothing better than being trapped like lemmings in shiny metal boxes
* Sysiphus was engaged in God's work
The Anti-Bob said:
* Bob is Cheryl with huevos
* Bob blathers
* If Bob would post on TOD instead of TAE, the average IQ of posters on both sites would go up
* Bob is married to a croupier and his mistress is a bigger fool
* Bob is a lemming
* Bob is a DOD avatar
* Bob is a rat in a maze
* Bob doesn't factor in nuclear disaster, climate change, European dis-union or American insolvency
* Bob doesn't realize billions will die in the coming collapse
* Bob is a cog with dissonance; He deserves a raise and a fools-gold-plaited watch
* Bob is a people like Bob
* Bob is measured in the balance and found wanting
* Bob is actually Alex Jones on quaaludes
America. Her heart is full; her torch is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her people.
- Ronald Reagan
July 14, 2011
* The global economy is unsinkable; Luxembourg is a tax haven; China will bailout Europe; The Roman ruins will trump the Greek tragedy; The French kiss will trump both
* Debt is the natural outcome of wasting energy; Jubilee would just kick the can down the road; It's conservation or bust or both
* Debt is the natural outcome of offshoring jobs; Skynet runs the economy; It is all going according to plan
* Cars are sacrosanct, especially family cars with bench seats in front; Doomers like RVs; It's a bedroom, no it's a tractor, wait, it's both
* The Mafia robs Paul and deposits it with Peter; Economists have control but no responsibility; Graphs are scary; Rage interferes with reasoning and subjugation; Anger is more productive than despair
* They aren't making any more land; Houses not mortgaged by banks should be torn down for the benefit of those that are
* Obama threatens 60M people who are all lined up like dominoes; Jay Hanson seeks the fundamental errors in the theory of everything; Long haired freaky people need not apply
* QE3 might or might not happen; Italy is unbailoutable; Teach your bees to attack and the world will beat a path to your door
* The US will singularly refuse austerity; Technicals never lie; Yeah, Bob, it's death therapy. It's a guarunteed cure.
* Raise High the Debt Ceiling Congress, like Aires comes the deficit, taller far than a tall man
June 14, 2011
* PDQ Bach on music - Loud is good, fast is better, loud and fast is best of all
* SecularAnimists on collapse - Hard is good, fast is better, hard and fast is best of all
* Self aware + big brain makes one dangerous; George Bush proved that neither of these are necessary
* Imperialism plus military hegemony is nothing new; Call it the Sargon Doctrine
* Rating agencies are splintered reeds; We need a rating agency to rate the rating agencies; Who will rate the rating agency raters? It's turtles all the way down
* Some animals are more equal than others; Not everything is black and white; Reality looks and smells like pig shit
* Jelly fish are just one link in the feedback chain; They are too carbon based; They are not the canary in the coal mine, they are the explosion in the coal mine
* Europeans are selling euros for gold; A Greek default is then end of the Euro; A US default is the end of universe; An attack on Pakistan is like an attack on China only south and west
* Obama is no Mandela; Palin's Scottsdale mortgage has dubious bloodlines; Only those who contribute should be allowed to comment
* Civilization: Past performance is no guaruntee of future results; The market plans to do the most damage to the greatest number of people; This time it's different
* Once in your lifetime you should have your ideals shattered; Legendary investors understand that now is the time to profit from the death of 3/4 of humanity; The economy can be healed by praying to St. Ronald, saying 30 Hail Ayns and singing Kumbaya with your fellow mobbers
* Malthus is unfairly vilified and criticizing him is poor sport; Why not pick on someone your own size? The proper state of consciousness will solve all our problems; You gotta hate them misanthropes
* Be tough on Americans; They are mean and are standardly deviants; Every man, woman and child in the US has donated 4 shares of google stock to Europe; US citizens will someday form one huge circle, look the person on the other side in the eye and pull the trigger
* Optimisim leads to bad decisions; We have gone from a financial crisis to a political crisis to a physics crisis; Gravity and momentum will have the last laugh
* Tech stocks have plunged; House prices will go to zero in the limit; Most of what we have is made abroad and will not be shipped to us someday; Savvy consumers are already planning shopping trips to Guangzhou
* Word of the Day: malthus; adjective; from French mal=bad and English thus=description of consequence; A poor evaluation of consequences; Usage example: Claiming that peak oil will cause dieoff is malthus bologna
May 25, 2011
* Laughing at something doesn't make it funny; Reset is profitable for those with cash; Italy's job market hasn't kept up with its population; The disease is inflation/The cure is deflation; You should care deeply about S&P bond ratings
* Domino theory was invented by commmunists but perfected by capitalists; Cheney and Rumsfield can't afford justice; Johnny Cash bestows immortality; Greece needs a strategic plan; Rudolf was an alkie
* Patriotism = Loyalty; The best patriots are pack animals; Everybody is on the patriot scale somewhere; Nobody's morality is greater than his patriotism; The richer you are the farther your patriotism extends
* When Paul Craig Roberts talks, people listen; Max Keiser is a Ruskie agent; Ilargi writes good; Ashvin's essay on gold may blow some minds
* TPTB are silly and will kill us all; They own everything, wreck everything, poison everything; Captains and Kings are their front men
* Egypt was sustainable until it wasn't; Attacking Libya could be costly; The USA is well done; Chinese farmers pass peak watermelon
June 9, 2011
* A degree in Sociology is like an underwater mortgage; Dept. of Ed. sends in the SWAT team; There are plenty of jobs for those who can't repay their student loans in the Hunger Games
* Nobody:
- is a cute name
- is a contradiction
- is the default unix user account
- took the rap for blinding the cyclops
- is less relevant than genaration junk
- was separated at birth from UR Somebody
- I think, therefore IM Nobody
* Greece is too big to fail; Finland is an ice castle; US Govt. debt default is dangerous; China to purchase US states of Idahuang, Michangchung, Ohuai'o
* Democracy is only for powerful people; The rich and the poor are separated by a great gulf; Neocons and jihadis are two perps in a pod; Stalin cured Orwell of revolution; Fascism and imperialism are the natural born children of capitalism; I'll give up capitalism when you pry it from my cold, dead, invisble hand
* We are half past political crisis and approaching a quarter to system break down; Politicians perpetuate the system; Don't bite the hand that feeds you, lick the boot that kicks you; Starve the beast and the beast will eat you;
* Change from within the system is futile; We must protest; TPTB to use beams and chemicals to control the masses; Time to rethink hand gun ownership
June 3, 2011
* Using natural gas to get oil is stupid but then people prefer oil to gas; Nobody is addicted to oil because he doesn't ingest it; If we could just hurry up and use all the hydro-carbons global warming would stop; Ethanol is basically just rusty gas
* Markets are down but might go back up; Housing double dip is worse than expected; Congress cuts off food stamps; Pentagon wants robotic bombers
* France has hottest Spring since 1900; Melbourne has coldest May in 40 years; Global warming is so funny, let's all laugh on 3; Energy from the sun is like a race car and man is just the puny driver who can do nothing more than drive the car off a cliff; Everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it
* Serfs up in Europe; Germans to close nuke plants; Britains switch to interest only mortgages; Mortgage: Anglo-French from mort (dead) + gage (pledge)
* US Dollar experienced a take down but expect a reversal unless FED tries an illegal headlock
* Earth, wind, fire and water are actually the four horsemen; Gaia has a few tricks up her sleeve; Gaia has been balanced for a while but now the foundation is wobbly; Fat bottomed girls make the rockin' world go round
* Banks borrow low from the FED and lend high to the Feds; Capitalist create evil machines and evil jobs; A visitor from 1911 visiting Detroit in 2011 would be impressed; Other peoples envy our obesity; Sadly, probably no flying car in your future
* Mises didn't have a system, he just bet on the horse with the funniest name; The earth was without form and void before Ludwig said "Let there be gold"; Austrian economists want the market to make the important choices like which color to paint the dining room
* New Monopoly version has only two cards: Bank Error in Your Favor for the top hat, cannon and race car; Go Directly to Jail for all other pieces
* Parents parent best; Peer review of teens retards maturity
* Word of the Day: Claptrap from clap (applause) + trap (catcher) - Showy language intended to impress
May 16, 2011
* Great post by Ashvin; I am Ashvin Pandurangi ... and you're not
* Sovereign debt default scares people spitless; How did Iceland survive; Embrace collapse; Travesty. Horror. Decadence. Excrement.
* A good collapse takes time; Rome wasn't wrecked in a day; I see a thousand points of blight: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism
* Gold:
- Gold is a hedge against worst case scenarios
- Worthless paper will be more valuable
- A golden cow will be valuable before and after collapse
- Gold won't be worth it's weight in potatoes
- Don't get all your eggs from same goose
- The rumor of gold ownership may get you tortured
- When gold is sovereign only sovereigns will have gold
- If the sun supernova's tomorrow, gold will do you little good. If on the other hand, you win the powerball lottery tomorrow gold will not improve your situation. Clearly there is no reason to own gold
* Mother nature has locked and loaded, taken the safety off and has her finger on the trigger; Absinthe turns leaden reality into golden consciousness; If an unperceived tree falls in an unperceived forest did it ever exist?
* Both borrowing and saving depend on previous production; All wealth is leveraged from surplus food; Everyone you know is either a saver, a debtor or a wife beater
* Finnish declines more than English; Finnish army captains are also captains of industry; Portugal won't be the last domino; Oil speculation is like botox, it can be useful in small doses
* Molten lead can cool reactor cores; A fifty foot deep trench filled with zeolite or IMF officials would solve all our problems; Once you have contaminated a few million gallons of seawater whats a few million more
* Portugal is having a double dip: Rocky Road on the bottom with German Chocolate Cake on top
* Money is a reflection of who we are; Too succeed, mutate early and often; Homo sapien is past it's expiration date and may soon be fed to the pigs; Used's icon may have been the victim of angry birds
* Dequill your dog at home; A dollar is a bet; It is unfair to mock Marx and Hegel; Why flay dead horses
May 3, 2011
* Osama Bin Laden Wrap Up
- He hasn't been a major player since 9/11
- His death was conveniently symbolic
- His burial was fishy
- He was very sick and on dialysis
- He was our Emmauel Goldstein
- The stories of his demise are greatly exagerated
- He probably died in Tora Bora
- We are creating his replacement by bombing weddings
- A body cavity search revealed his Hawaiian birth certificate
- He is Obama's evil twin
- Dang but he had a great doomstead
- If he had been killed earlier his death would have already been used for political purposes
- His death was announced now to counter Donald Trump
- He died by sea so that his grave wouldn't become a Holy Site
- The juxtaposition of his death with the birth certificate thing gets people
- They shot the Dalai Lama by mistake and claimed it was Osama to cover up the mistake
- They pulled him from the freezer now because, with Summer coming, Michelle and the girls needed the space for Otter Pops
* Printing money or not printing money won't matter; Being 100% in US Dollars sucks; I fought the Bernank and the Bernank won; Put half your money in gold and half in dirt
* Fukushima and coal smoke will kill a million people; Only nukes can replace oil; GE and Hitachi invent foolproof reactor; Few nuclear workers telecommute; Nuclear power plants should be built on the sun for safety; Thorium, blah, blah, blah
* Gilbert and Sullivan are the fount fo all wisdom; Trust glues us together; Ground beef costs an arm and a leg; The sheep are out in full force today; Bah Ram You
* Bankers destroy their own neighborhoods; Trust is dead; Only a miracle will keep us alive; Not all deaths are created equal
* Trump for President; ETFD
April 30, 2011
Summary in Limericks
anon11
We focus on US Gov debt
But Canada's made the same bet
Its debt has grown faster
With looming disaster
Kanooks may still be hosed yet
Ric
To truly discuss things with others
You have to be close, like two brothers
Archetypally speaking
It's ethics we're seeking
We'd talk moon, if I had my 'druthers
Kowalski
The gravy train soon will be ended
The Ponzi Scheme can't be extended
When death blows the kiss
We're down the abyss
Ben's QE has really been splendid
redcedar
The country is now one big burb
McMansions behind every curb
But the lawns, fate devours,
In dandelion flowers
And the wine that they make is superb
jal
A lever can move the whole planet
When it's long and economists man it
And leverage financial
Is just as substantial
It will foment collapse; We must ban it
scandia
Those who say will never collapse
We can pull ourselves up by our straps
Those exceptionalist tones
That faith in their drones
Are they serious? Well, sadly, perhaps
Greg L
Gallup polls make the evidence stark
The bite is now worse than the bark
The people's distress
Can't be hid by the press
We are facing the teeth of the shark
VK
Prosperity helps the elected
Without it they'd all be rejected
But growth fosters lies
And brings on our demise
Such a bane! And we're all quite infected
Half-A-Brain
I&S are wont to suggest
By deflation we'll soon be distressed
Bad inflation will follow
But how can one swallow
This thesis? Explain, I request
April 27, 2011
* The FED can kick the can down the road farther than expected; Propaganda can score from anywhere on the court; A 16hp riding mower can get you there and bring you straight back; This passes for news at the Oil Drum
* If you believe in HyperInflation don't pay your debts; If you believe in deflation sell everything and sit on your cash; Ask for specifics since generalities fail close up
* Greek bonds are barfilicious; The Greeks slept with Lloyd and have it coming; Don't cry for me Kallithea; Once the German ducks are in a row the Greeks will be cut loose; Greek bankruptcy is already baked in to the koulourakia
* Growth is a lie; Playing in the street increases your chance of getting hit by a car; There's always a bigger fish; Learn from the hardships of others
* Earning money is old fashioned; Don't piss your money away; Drug money trickles down
* The half life of gulf spill interest has been decimated by Fukushima; Exposing your fuel rod in public freaks some people out so cool it down with steam; Nukophobes unite - All you have to lose is your chain reactions; Not all nuke plants can be de-commissioned safely; We are all going to die; La-di-da
* Inflation and deflation are the meaning of life and affect every decision you make; Precious metals are not a no-lose situation; Claims that you must participate or regret it are made by charlatans and boy friends; Gold investment requires a steel gut; Shorters have weak hands; Gold may be too heavy to fly to the moon;
* TAEers are optimists; The DOW is at prechter's top; After charging you $500 for a chat Chris Martenson will say hi to your best friend for free; Tyler Durden is the Mother Theresa of Doomsday Blogs
* Destroying water and soil are madness; Injured teenagers are the worst effect of quarries; Not everyone can move back to the land
* Wages are at an historic low; Extreme weather is at an historic high; Loss of faith in banks will push us over the edge; The descent into barbarism will be steep; Psycopaths deserve contempt; Misuse will wreck your I-beams; So will thermite
* Today's Aphorisms:
- Mileage may vary
- Resistance is victory
- Make love, not kids
- Nobody is perfect
- Laughter is contagious
- The FED helps banks
- Welcome to Hell (Note: this is not actually an aphorism but more like a greeting)
March 25, 2011
TAE Summary said...
* Wikipedia lists 32 examples of hyperinflation; Even so, hyperinflation is out of the question since the herd requires a medium of exchange; Ammo will be the new currency of choice - The poor will use it humanistically, the rich will employ it kinetically and intellectuals will smoke it proactively
* Help clean up the mess by stop paying taxes; Not to worry, .gov only has enough ammo to shoot the first 10 million or so; If you want the gold you have to risk the gila monsters
* The FED:
- Only has as much power as we give them
- Has plenty of tricks up its sleeve
- Can create a godzillion dollars by typing '1' and holding down the '0' key for two seconds; Ben does this with one hand while mastidigitating with the other to divert attention
- Can create money but not direct it
- After dropping money from the chopper they will need to pave the streets with gold
* Warren buffet declares class warfare; As prices rise people will buy less; So long and thanks for all the cookies
* QE3 will be rejected; The markets are rigged and full of contrarians; Amateur investors and pension fund managers have dumb money; The masses live in blissful ignorance of the coming reset
* Everything is connected; Capitalism ended life on Mars; Libyans is being subjected to proactive kinetic humanism for their own good; No soft landing for China, in fact they won't land at all but will vaporize in mid-air
* Toyota is shutting down plants; The tsunami may wash jobs back to America; Destroying Japan's industrial capacity is our best hope for recovery
February 10, 2011
TAE Summary said...
* This ain't your father's future; The sins of the parents will be visited on the heads of the children to the third and fourth generation; Only permaculture can save us now
* Everything will be fine; Television is the opiate of the clueless; Your gold will be stolen; Next up: the commencement of the world as you've prepared for it; So long and thanks for all the "fish"
* Sleepless in Sydney; Nobody don't need no stinking job; Engineers hear all, tell all
* Rising prices in food and energy don't mean we have inflation, just starvation and hypothermia
* TPTB will prevent change in Egypt; If it ain't on CNN it didn't happen; Israel produces crappy oranges
* Mubarak to step down; Egypt at the end of its problems
* What about the Sinai? Suleiman wisely suggests chopping it in two
* Bad things always come in multiples; Death and violence sell more diapers
* Capital account trumps balance of trade; The goal of the super rich is to stay out of the middle class
* Just checking in; Can I panic now?
* Cheryl told us so; Neener, neener; Visit her new blog, TheAuthoritativeExpert.blogspot.com
* Dutch pension funds shouldn't hold precious metals; Securities are more useful for pensioneers; You can't wipe your ass with gold
* Word of the day: Smarming: The act of flattening the hair with cream or grease
December 31, 2010
TAE Summary said...
* Predictions from the fix it up chappie:
- Feds will prop up Muni market
- Govercorp debt re-financing will be a problem
- Bond spreads will widen
- Investors in bonds will have stars on thars
* VK believes in peak oil and cheap oil but not vegetable oil; He is 3.5 stones less thanks to Stoneleigh; No sugar, grains or s'mores, lift twice a week and walk a lot; Get abs of firmware
* Dystopia is all around us; $10 oil won't happen until Medicare is defunct; Die content with a collection of similarly convicted friends
* Nuggets of wisdom and prophecy abound; The collapse will take us back 300 years; We are very, very close to collapse but not close enough to have any idea as to how close we are
* Inflation for the rich and deflation for the rest of us; Deflation will last until it is over; Cash is king but has no clothes; Expat dollars will soon repatriate and demand their old jobs back
* We will all be peasants soon; The wise aspire to upper middle peasantdom
* China has a carrier killer missile; The sinking of the South Korean ship made Okinawa safe for US troops; Technology determines the advantages of offense and defense; The map of the world will need to be redrawn
* To avoid the wave, get liquid; If you're tired of cursion, try recursion at a lower rate; Redundancy and banality are strangling the life out of TAE comment section; Can't we all just get along?
* All the rest of the day on those wild screaming beaches,
the Fix-it-up-Chappie was fixing up Sneetches.
Off again, on again, in again, out again,
through the machine they ran round and about again,
still paying money, still running through,
changing their stars every minute or two,
until neither the Plain- nor the Star-bellies knew
whether this one was that one or that one was this one
or which one was what one or what one was who!
December 25, 2010
* A housing price drop of 80 or 90% is logical and inevitable; Fed will keep the house of cards standing unless it can't ; The difference between 80% and 90% is 50%; 90% is comforting since eventually you won't be able to give houses away; If you win the lottery, rent
* A cashless society will be easy to control; The rich are already cashless; Only those with the mark of the beast will be allowed to to buy or sell; A cashless society would make carbon taxation easier; When cash is outlawed only outlaws will have cash
* Credit is like the solar system; Vogons may foreclose at any moment
* How has retail activity increased this season? Is this the last hurrah?
* Nobody should write inane comments unless he's drunk
* Beijingers are angry about high housing prices; 2500 robberies buys a condo today; Only 300 were needed in 1974, and that was before renovations; Europe should move to China
* Don't sugar coat you opinions; Get on with your life; Diversify your lifeboat; You won't live to see the bottom
* There is insufficient time to gently lead people to an understaning of the future; They need to take the 7 meter jump now, even if it means a few non-life threatening injuries
* People understand cycles but not singularities; Pandering to the herd lends credibility; Politics, poetry, journalism and bufoonery are now indistinguishable; The veneer of civilization is thicker in the US; Nigeria sues Cheney for bribery and gets it
* Lion's share of printed money sucked up by banks; AIG holds munis so munis are too big too fail; Let the banker bashing begin, please;
* Clueless people avoid TAE, ZH, JHK and MK at their own peril; Max Keiser is the Soupy Sales of finance
* US House will be in gridlock; Current US course won't change in 2011/2012; Funeral for the US empire is shovel ready
* Prediction for 2011:
- QE 3 and 4
- Rubles => Yuan => Rupee => Real => Rubles
- Groceries += 20%, Vancouver Houses -= 50%, PM += 60%
- Kill the PIIGS, bash 'em in
- Come on all you big strong men...
* May the ghost of Christmas future scare the crap out of us all; Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night
November 22, 2010
TAE Summary said...
* Time to call out TAE; Stoneleigh's predictions are off by 1 year and 1000 DOW points; Just because a credit collapse in 1930 caused stocks to go down doesn't mean it will happen again; TAE should offer something concrete, like free donuts
* How to invest:
- Posit the 5 likeliest future scenarios, e.g. deflation, hyperinflation, business as usual, nuclear war, the age of aquarius
- Assign a percentage likelihood to each scenario
- Determine the best investment for each scenario
- Invest using the formula available_funds*likelihood_of_scenario
- Re-evaluate every six months
- When only one scenarios materializes, demonize the the proponents of the others using the formula available_demonization*likelihood_of_scenario
* Robert Rubin
- He is an important thinker
- He is prone to sticking his foot in his mout
- Take his advice if you like it
- He calls for higher prices over the long run
- He believes broke people can afford oil at $300 per barrel
- He will regret his criticism of Stoneleigh
- He at least recongized resource limitations
- He cannot comprehend an end to growth
- All Rubin's might be related
* Credit expansion borrows from the future and allows the same money to be counted twice; There are many mutually exclusive claims to the same pie; The pie has been copied and then shredded and the shreds sold to idiots; Take your slice out of the bank now
* America is phony; Japan is different than the US; China is not ascending; Ireland, Greece and Portugal are doomed; Silver==Money in Spanish
* The debt monster has the government by the throat; There will be deeper social cuts and austerity measures; Frugal living is the new prosperity; Enjoy living on less or don't
* Reality:
1) Trust is dying
2) Fiat currencies fail
3) Bubbles pop
4) Asian demand for Asian goods depends on American demand for Asian goods
* Conspiracy theories require 5 functioning synapses to understand; Landing a rover on mars just takes physics and fortran; All in/deflationist are wrong; Buy precious metals
* Simple truths are hard to comprhend; Things are more complicated than you think; Economics is founded on false assumptions; Predictions are probablistic; 2 < 5
* Mark of the beast will soon be required for commerce; Get your money out of the bank before December 7th; When a spring snaps it creates a chasm
* Irishman 1: Will ye do me a favor. When I'm dead will ye pour a bottle of fine Irish whiskey on my grave on St. Patrick's day
Irishman 2: I will. But do ye mind if I filter it through my kidney's first?
November 10, 2010
* Ron Paul suggests SS opt out; You will never get back the money you have spent keeping Aunt Martha alive
* Even those who acknowledge TEOTWAWKI don't believe it; Custer still hoped for victory until the squaws with knives arrived
* What is wrong with expecting the unemployed to do manual labor? He that is idle should not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer; Welcome to Reeks and Wrecks
* By the Numbers:
ONE = Ways back to a democratic system
TWO = Years in which only NZSanctuary got a raise
THREE = Teenage daughters of Linda needing practical skills
FOUR = Number of trustworthy people on the planet
FIVE = Father's worth of courage we will need
* Why pay $12.50 to see Stoneleigh's video when you can see Avatar in 3D for the same price? Media isn't really interactive unless you can blow stuff up or get reactions from large women on-screen; People love Stoneleigh except for the bastards that don't
* In Canada houses are built from unobtainium
* Corporate built composting toilets are green; Personally built composting toilets are brown
* Rats talking about cheese in a maze is fiction; If you build a better fly trap the chickens will beat a path to your door; If you build a better monkey trap Lloyd Blankfein will beat a path to your door
* Recognize the game for what it is; When the music stops there will be no chairs left; Don't try to squeeze the last drop of blood from the turnip
* Most people don't care about how money is created; Attempts at inflation will fail; Knee-jerk flight to safety will overwhelm attempted dollar debasement; We are near the top; Eventually the dollar will die but not yet
* Better to be nobody in heaven than somebody in hell; Wallow in it
* Rude comments are the penumbra of honest questions
* Being early can ruin your life; People who followed Prechter in 1987 have missed out on 23 years of pyramid pie and will be forced to empty the bed pans of wiser fools; Of all sad words of tongue and pen the saddest are I might have gotten a better return
* When you hear the falls ahead should you pull over or wait till the drop is in sight? Will it be a fast crash or a slow smoosh?
* Better to live a man's life than to live life for the man; Lotus-flavored kool-aid is best
* Life boat building takes time; Gold is distilled oil; The world needs more women who can gut deer
* Congressmen and lobbyists live longest; Long live congressmen and the lobbyists
* The Eliot Wave
In my beginning is my end.
In succession houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.
In my beginning is my end.
October 19, 2010
* Zoomers attack Doomers:
- I & S will be right right in the long term but happy days are here now
- Value of stock portfolio is what matters most in life
- Holding cash is gambling just like broccoli causes cancer
- Are you gonna believe the S&P or your lyin' CMIs?
- Apple beats estimates proving that the American consumer can take on an infinite amount of additional debt
- The Fed is not the man behind the curtain; The Fed is The Man
- The Fed has all of history on it side, if you count history as starting in 1933
- The stock market falling by 50% was just a blip
- An economy failing when fiat money is available has NEVER happened before
- Martin Armstrong says we are in for a long bull market
- Who was Stoneleigh's pick for the 1995 Superbowl? Enquiring minds want to know
- Stoneleigh could have made more money if she had bought plywood futures just before hurricane Andrew but she didn't - this tells the whole story
- Once on the operating table remember to ask your doctor how he treats a sore toe
- Stay away from losers and you will be fine
* The Doomers Strike Back
- Market is still 26% off highs
- Apple lost 6% after hours
- Topping markets inspire pot shots at doomers
- Fed induced rally is a gift to doomers, use it to prepare
- Have patience; Bad things come to those that wait
- QE2 will be a failure
- Drive down mainstreet and look at the shops and food bank lines; Green shoots are weeds in closed down gas stations
- Madoff investors did great until they didn't
- Real estate prices are not coming back for a long time
- The entire economy is based on fraud
- Those who see a tsunami first are ridiculed by those who see it last; The more advanced the warning they give, the longer they endure the ridicule of those playing on the shore
* US began as a criminal takeover; It is hard to get a deed to your house; If Fraudclosure isn't fixed it will be impossible to buy or sell a house; Only crime pays
* Paper is trash; Only silver and gold will survive currency wars; Gold fell way, way down to $1340 per oz today
* Prohibition killed liquor tax revenues; Income tax made prohibition possible; Unemployment in the Depression made liquor tax necessary again; Heroine tax could fund the Afgahn war
* Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
October 15, 2010
* The sky isn't falling! The sky isn't falling; Anti-doomers are right; The bubble just has a slow leak and will never pop; As needed the Fed will back mortgages, 401Ks and cosmetic surgeries in perpetuity; They will prop up the markets until the universe collapses back in on itself
* People are selfish, stupid, cruel and blood thirsty; Glenn Beck is now talking about peak oil while NPR is clueless
* The economy is a slow motion train wreck; Watching the passengers is more interesting than watching the train; Watching oneself is too scary
* Inflation: prices rise faster than your salary
Deflation: your salary falls faster than prices
Common denominator: The biggest garden you can afford
* Property bubble made the middle class think they were getting richer; Most think the forces of history will only affect other people; People will never figure out what hit 'em
* Expensive things purchased with loose credit lose their value; This includes cars, homes, college educations and democracy
* College graduates can't get jobs; Anything that can be shipped by container or transferred by packet is being outsourced; Non-productive academia-driven career opportunities are toast
* When paying the mortgage can be ignored only the ignorant will pay the mortgage
* Questions of the day:
- How about those markets?
- How long can Wile E. Coyote levitate?
- What about us?
- Is anyone surprised people are selfish and stupid?
- Can we agree on that?
- What is the blogosphere coming to?
- Who can you believe?
- Is optimism justified?
- What would Stoneleigh recommend?
- Once the system is dead who will evict and collect?
- Explanations?
* Hitler video subtitling has been done before; 1980s were the good old days; Sardines are for trading, not for eating
* Markets are blowing off the top; Trends are like a school of fish, they all change direction at the same time; Watch this space
* Ugarte: Rick! Rick! Save me, Rick!
Rick: I stick my neck out for nobody
October 3, 2010
Tempest in a Tea Pot
* From the NY Times Article, Tea Party Members:
(A) Are more wealthy, well-educated and older than average Americans
(B) Don't feel more likely than others to fall into a lower economic class
(C) Think their taxes are fair, send their kids to public schools, and think Social Security/Medicare are OK
(D) Classify themselves as angry and pessimistic about the economy
(E) 55 percent feel someone in household will be jobless next year
(F) 66 percent say the recession has caused hardship or life change
(G) Feel government does more for the poor than for them
(H) Lots of other stuff
* Stoneleigh's Analysis (Not necessarily based on the NY Times article)
- Tea Party wants to undermine power of central authority
- Movement is a ground-swell of public anger and as such is expected at brink of collapse
- Tea Party targets government abuse but ignores the role of corporations e.g. the connection between the banking system and the Treasury
- Represents unfocused anger of those who have suffered or will suffer but don't understand the system
- Danger is the Tea Party will become hijacked for political purposes leading to a further deterioration of trust
* MonkeyMuffins' Objection
- TAE community has penchant for easily debunked myths
- Quotes (A), (B) and (C) from NY Times but not (D), (E), (F) or (G)
- Stoneleigh's thesis about breakdown of trust may prove correct
- However, Tea Party members haven't suffered and don't fear to suffer substantial losses
- TAE is engaging in make-believe, e.g. 911 was inside job, climate change is not man-made and Gulf of Mexico will explode
- Those with Baloney Detection Kit will not be attracted to TAE
* Stoneleigh's Response
- Tea Party is grounded in popular anger and co-opted by rich and powerful people for their own ends
- Not surprising that Tea Party members wealthier than average
- Staggering losses will happen and dashed expectation will put anger into high gear
- Better for people to join positive local movements
- System can't be reformed
* D. Benton Smith's Response
- MonkeyMuffins fails Baloney Detection test
- NY Time is unreliable
- TAE doesn't support 911 theory, GoM theory, or climage change denial
- MonkeyMuffins is a Troll
* DIYer's Response
- MonkeyMuffins' rant wasn't even entertaining
- His Baloney Detector needs recalibration
* Ilargi's Response
- MonkeyMuffin's rant was entertaining
- Mentions (A) from NY Times and says it has nothing to do with Stoneleigh's thesis
- TAE doesn't support 911 theory, etc.
- Tea Parties are boring
* Coyote's Response
- MonkeyMuffin's challenge was useful because it initiated interesting responses
* Ian's Response
- MonkeyMuffin's remarks were intelligent and reasonable
- Anyone questioning any aspect of TAE gets slammed hard (except by Stoneleigh)
- This is why no one new posts on TAE
* Ilargi's Response to Ian
- Ian has it all figured out
* Summary Judgement
- We are all Trolls (except Stoneleigh)
October 1, 2010
* US and European economies are recovering; Car sales, vacation sales, cigarette sales and booze sales are all up
* Eat dirt
You like it = eat dirt
You don't like it = it must be good for you = eat dirt
Eat dirt.
Eat
dirt
* Crash will happen right after the mid-term bye-bye elections
* The dodo didn't mind extinction but cockroaches hate extermination
* Coming soon to a theater near you: The Virgin Home Buyers Suicides - A group of doomers become obsessed with a group of mysterious first time home buyers who are sheltered by their strict, growth-oriented government after some of them commit suicide
* Rich-poor disparity increases; Fewer haves, more have yachts
* Wall Street stands still and the universe revolves around it; US consumers will be dragged kicking and screaming to austerity
* Societal reset will be forced upon us by economic blue screen of death:
A problem has been detected and the economy has shut down to prevent damage to society.
The problem seems to be caused by the following situation:
CREDIT_LOCK_UP_BY_LENDING_INSTITUTIONS
If this is the first time you've seen a societal collapse, restart your society. If societal collapse happens again follow these steps:
Check to make sure all elected officials are not owned by corporations.
If collapse continues, disable or remove all elected officials. Disable your current form of government and restart your society in Safe Mode with no corporations.
Technical Information
*** STOP: 0x00000000 0xD15EA5E 0x0xDEADBEEF
October 5, 2010
* Luskin is the stupidest man alive; Trust you nose; Smooth sailing is misleading; A tongue in the cheek is worth two in the groove; Time will tell, especially if you grease his tongue with a few beers first
* The economy and the stock market operate in parallel universes; Fed is mainlining speed into the body economic; The market can only be insulated from reality for so long; No man putting his money in the market and looking back is fit for kingdom
* Head-and-shoulders pattern is passe'; Technical analysis now reveals nascent Quasimodo pattern which is more reliable
* Shorters will need wax in ears to resist the siren song of S&P profits; Short term gains are still possible; Feed the beast while the sun shines; Virginia recommends buying stocks; Yes, Ilargi, there is a profit clause
* CMI didn't have their act together until 2007; The S&P may reach 1220 but not in 2008 dollars; The oil of America is oil; $100 oil will put all 4 legs of the economy in the air
* Back in 1947 meteorologists predicted rain for three consecutive days for the first week of April in Muncie, Indiana, but it only rained for two hours, and that was at night! Sometimes I spend my weekends looking at old weather forecasts and just laugh and laugh and laugh
* The DOW, not public well being is now the benchmark for societal success; When markets ascend while people descend civilization is not worth saving
* Carefully choosing your stocks doesn't mean you'll get rich
Carefully graphing trends doesn't mean you can predict the future
Carefully choosing your words doesn't mean you'll be understood
* Thunder and lightning.
Enter three WITCHES.
When shall we three bid again?
On stocks and bonds, on oil and grain?
When the markets doing well,
When they're shouting "buy", not "sell",
That will be ere the closing bell.
Where the place?
Upon the street.
There Kerkorian to meet.
I come, Mike Milken.
Buffet calls.
Anon.
Bear is bull, and bull is bear:
Hover through the ticker tape filled air.
Exeunt
September 30, 2010
* The worldwide digital techno-entity may succumb to a virus; McAfee sets out digital petrie dishes hoping for digital mold that can be refined into digital penicillin to kill the virus (sic)
* Mini-flash crashes may be deliberate attempts to pull out all the stops; People are buying as a knee jerk reaction; They invest in stocks based on the square root of negative consumer data; Someone somewhere must know something that someone somewhere else doesn't, the bastard
* Nice charts; Rich/poor tree-graphs appeal to green monkey; Grow the economy by buying a car, a vacation, gas, booze and cigarettes
* Battlestar Galactica is heading through an asteroid belt; Your options: brace for impact, switch ships, don a space suit, enter a rescue pod or pray; Somewhere out there moving inexorably toward you is an asteroid with your name on it
* Gold and silver:
- They are manipulated but continue to rise
- We are past peak gold and in a bubble
- Everyone and their dog are buying PM
- Pissed of billionaires demand metallic precious metals
- The government will confiscate gold and for the good of mankind
- The water department won't take krugerrands
- Beat the rush, sell now
- Pay no attention to the man behind the last two years
* Stoneleigh says tomayto while Ilargi says tomahto; The Enquirer reveals that Ilargi and Stoneleigh are actually separate people, not multiple personalities of Dr. Evil as reported by The New York Times
* Cheryl was feral but Gretchen is fetchin'; Some think sarcasm don't mean a thing; Others find it adds a little je ne sais quoi
* Chris Martenson's articles are simplistic which is good for most people; Even so he is at best a non-expert and at worst a self-serving huckster
* Stoneleigh's thumbs are pricking; What is happening is exactly what one would expect to happen given what is happening
* I know what you're thinking. "Did the Consumer Metrics Institute's Growth Index fall by 6 percent or only 5." To tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a 365 day moving average, the most powerful statistic in the world, and could blow your investments clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
September 17, 2010
* Unfortunately no new technology will allow Despoil-As-Usual to continue
* Only the good die young; Health is no guaruntee you won't die; US life expectancy is sub-standard
* US poverty is up to 14.3%; The poor will inherit the earth and be happy with it; A cow is worth nearly an ounce of gold
* Things that could solve all your problems:
- Industries that don't require oil
- Zero point energy
- Extend and pretend forever
- Max Keiser squirted in your ear canal
- The returning flood of petro- and euro-dollars
- A theoretical model and the needed hardware within the timeframe imposed by peak everything
- Powdered aluminum
- Yet another cheery discussion about whether energy prices initiated the economic meltdown
- General fusion, if you can find a general who won't ask and won't tell
* Ricardo predicted a rising tide lifts all ships; Excess claims make deflation exponential; Liquid lead is hot
* Max Keiser knows TAE; Stacy does his legwork; Max, Stacy, Nicole and Whitney to star in remake of Charlie's Angels
* Sayings to live by:
- No one can think outside the box of physics
- Silver bullets are mirages in a haystack
- Water is stable because it doesn't burn
- Don't point a gutting knife at anyone you don't intend to gut
- Ik zag twee beren broodjes smeren, O het was een wonder
September 15, 2010
* We accelerate toward the edge of a high cliff; The fuse is lit for the population time bomb; Reducing the population can make the rations last longer
* "Made" maggots get away with murder which is pretty convenient for them
* Basel III was an admission that the banks are broke; Banks will someday own the world and lease it back to the little people; Your children will envy and curse you; Having no kids saves the earth and the carpet; A nice carpet is a great solace in old age
* Burning one Koran is a tragedy; Killing one million muslims is a statistic
* Fighting World War II solved the Great Depresssion; Outsourcing conflict can solve the Greater Depression; Obama is now a neo-con; US brokers largest arms deal ever with Saudis; Evil Return On Evil Invested is the new EROEI
* Can the pretense go on forever? When will we reach the bottom? We can't imagine how scary the bottom will be; If you are reading this you have a long way to fall
* Swinging markets feel risky; Many will liquidate at parity; The lean cows won't be marked to market for 7 years; Don't sell a dead skunk until it no longer stinks
* Let's escape our climate controlled, drug induced, force-fed-porn world; So long and THX for all the fish
* During the dark ages western knowledge was preserved by religious fanatics and terrorists
* Buyers and sellers collude to keep housing prices high; Speed of home sales is the absolute value of the velocity of home sales
* Condolences and best wishes to Stoneleigh and her family
September 6, 2010
TAE Summary said...
* Stoneleigh's delivery improves with practice
* British tax computer under-calculates taxes and now the bill comes due; This will bankrupt a lot of people; The government taketh, the goverment taketh again, blessed be the name of the government;
* Lack of information leads to an uninformed public; The words do not exist to describe what we are currently experiencing unless you speak Geonossian
* Governments perpetuate the inflationary cycle to concentrate wealth into their own hands; Though things fall apart the center will hold and the periphery will be sent to the hunger games
* Treasury bonds will never be repaid in real terms; Their value is now the stuff of myth and legend
* Bond market dislocation will be followed by hyperinflation like a sprained ankle is followed by swelling; Buy ice futures now
* Some are all cashed up with nowhere to go; "I don't want financial advice, just tell me when to buy"
* Rumors of gold's demise have been greatly exagerated; Value of PM ETFs and physical metal will diverge; Gold will be money until money doesn't buy happiness
* Inflation and deflation are not uniform; The money supply will increase for the rich but decrease for the poor
*The end of fossil fuels changes everything; This time it will be different
* TPTB:
- Will launch another false flag operation
- Are now injecting peak oil into the MSM
- Are not interested in hyperinflation
- Can remain in power in either 'flation
* Obama announces $50 billion transportation plan; New freeways to be built in Guangzhou, shipped to America and re-assembled in North Carolina
* The end of liberalism leads to moral nihilism; In other words Republican rule will cut taxes for the rich and raise military spending
* A society's pottery quality tells all; Peak pottery occurred on August 21, 2010; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again
* Don't spectate the collapse; Ben Bernanke and Jerry Jordan announce the Fed will purchase ice cream; Only two things are ever completely worthless: 8 track tapes and Ford Cortinas
* Pay the minimum on your debts and wait for the dreamy jubilee and the attendant rape and looting
* Cyclops: Give me more wine, little man and I will give you a special favour, if you will tell me your name.
Odysseus: Very well, Cyclops, I shall tell you my name. I am Nobody. Now give me the favour you promised.
Cyclops: This is my favour. You, Nobody, shall be the last man I shall eat.
August 18, 2010
* Post collapse business ideas
- Mobile repair shop
- Grow, cook and preserve fava beans
- Small motor maintenance
- Remaking clothing
- Medical skills
- Raising and caring for animals
- Teaching
- Distilling
- Candle making
- Soap making
- Cheesemaking
- Community hardware store
- Making tinfoil shades for readers
- Kickbacks for plugging doomer websites
* Time is running out for the west; France deports gypsies; Greek Austerity measures cause unemployment; American empire is near its end; Ireland bank vaults are full of tractors
* Debt is a black hole; Banks will suck in all the wealth; Black holes are 6 feet in diameter
* Bank loans create multiple claims to the same slice of excrement; Rehypothecation euphemizes chicanery; The fin-de-siecle zeitgeist verklaart the sombra banca система
* The government and the banks are the same entity; The system giveth and the system taketh; Blessed be the name of the system
* Deflation pits individuals against each other; Build your lifeboat now before the lifeboat dramas begins; Google Ads tempts TAE readers to jump lifeboat
* Shutting off the electricity will stop terrorism
* And now for something completely different: Our pattern seeking brains help explain how as we grow old it is ethical to avoid teflon until time ends
* The human population will probably not double until we colonize Mars
* Word of the day : Scamscateer : S-C-A (Amoral men on Wall Street ) M-S-C (See you'll lose your shirt) A-T-E-E-R
June 17, 2010
* Follow the money; Little people will never get a piece of the $20B
* Today's post was sickening; Tend to your lifeboat; You can build a doomstead on 2/3 acre; Nothing will save you execpt the beans on your fence
* Mad Max hosts Mad Mike; Nothing new for TAEarthlings but watch it anyway for a nice Angst boost
* Some look forward to solar flares and the cheery solar generated debacle that follows; Ain't no time to wonder why, Whoopee! We're all gonna die
* BlackRock is biggest BP shareholder; No comment on GOM spill from BlackRock chief equity analyst
* TPTB are requring BP to pay for oil spill damage; This may force oil production to leave the US from sea to shinging sea
* BP hasn't cleaned up the spill because of health and media risks to the cleaning crew; OSHA protects workers, not locals
* Citigroup will stop foreclosing on worthless gulf real estate; 500 arrested for mortgage fraud
* All government actions are now PR stunts; The US is prepared for nothing except pure pleasure; Initial jobless claims are up
* Barky's speech subliminally referenced transition towns; He should get off his shilly ass and kick some
* Canada has lifeboats in BC, Alberta and Quebec; A few years from now, all this, this whole place, everything, it's gone. Just gone.
June 4, 2010
* Price of oil and deflation/inflation have a non-linear relationship; Price of oil may cause inflation or deflation depending on circumstances
* Americans are zombies; The undead don't care about the gulf spill; They have their own undead fish to fry
* Oil spills aren't that bad; If all the oil in the world were spread evenly over the surface of Jupiter it would be invisible to the naked eye; Do the math if your are capable
* The spill is like a biblical plague; It will destabilize everything; The dispersant cure is worse than the spill disease; Lots of experts complain about the spill but none of them does anything about it; South Florida condos have lost 90% of their value; Expect refugees from the gulf
* Some people won't sell BP stock at a loss as long as it pays dividends; BP shareholders should be forced to go help clean up the spill; Hummer owners, frequent fliers, babies in disposable diapers and Lost fans should be forced to join them; Make them pay with time
* There is no H in PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS
* John Stewart and TAE are the only sources of truth; TAE is heading down hill like an olympic luger; Please pad the walls before someone is killed
* Cheney's ex-aide to spin for BP; Shrill, baby shrill
* Obama wants your ideas; He will email you back
* Spill could be captured in a big hot-air-balloon-like cloth bag; Obama may ask Oprah to volunteer wardrobe
* First you get down on your knees
Compliment his orchard trees
Treat his theories with respect
Then, genuflect, genuflect, genuflect
* LA gulf spill. Lame gulp! Et tu, Obama? I am about te plug 'em! All lips flugal.
June 2, 2010
* Deepwater Horizon
- Gusher may be stopped in as little as 900 days
- The press aren't discussing all ramifications
- The gulf recovered from Ixtoc but now fisheries are in decline and there are more people
- It is still seen as politcal theater
- University of Georgia is researching underwater plumes
- The oil companies are the experts, let's leave it to them
- The Plume will enter the Loop and the damage will stretch out over decades
- BP execs should be splashed with oily seawater
- Few will admit the relief wells might fail since that would be a disaster heretofore unseen by humanity
- They will still drill in the Arctic
- BP will cry fiscal uncle and won't remunerate victims
- Pentagon worst case scenario is to evacuate up to 500 miles in land
* Glenn Beck says we are headed toward global governance; In an absolute world, leaders needs absolute power; National sovereignty must be sacrificed to preserve the Euro; A crisis cabinet is needed; Buy gold
* Spring is sad this year; Partisan delusionals are pathetic
* All Wars are failures except the War on the Environment; James Lovelock has backed down from the tipping point; Even Homo Sapiens can't kill all life on the planet though we are giving it the old college try; Enjoy your time one earth
* Daily Obama Amalgam
- It not his fault
- He's been criticized since day one
- If he acts he is condemned, if he does nothing he is damned
- He has verbally taken full responsibility; Isn't that enough?
- He accepted the poisoned chalice when he got elected and will be blamed for the depression
- He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and worked damn hard to get there
- He is not on your team and doesn't have your interest at heart
- He is not really in charge
- He ran on 'change' but hasn't delivered
- His performance has been excrementally runny
- Let's hope he finishes his term and turns the mess over to Sarah since she really would deserve the blame
- He is like Faust
- Villifying him will galvanize the right
* Liberals have sold out and no longer express dissatisfaction; They cling pathetically to the carcass of the Obama presidency
* The Gulf States really could lose 50% of their economies; Maybe the Mayans were right; 2012 could be the tipping point toward human extinction; Have a nice day
* TAEers
- Are educated and economically stable couch potatoes
- Would like to cash out at the apex and view the collapse from France
- Love feeling doomsteadier than thou
- Have too much to lose to protest
* Scream and shout; Go along to get along; Panic calmly
* Will oil stick to the hull of the Obama presidency? If so how do you clean it off? Where is the clean up going to occur? Where will the inspection take place?
May 22, 2010
* The black swan's recent forrays:
- Iceland Volcano disaster
- Greece debacle
- Deepwater Horizon catastrophe
Blackie, you doin' a heckuva job!
* Three cheers for the American homeowner; As TEOTWAWKI approaches he still pays his mortgage; The Liebeck v. McDonald's precedent says underwater homeowners can sue since bad mortgages have scalded their private parts
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- He was top recepient of BP campain money
- He is paints himself into corners and then slips out
- He's deplorable
- He's just one piece of the puzzle
- He was expected to be an improvement from GWB but is exerementally runnier
- He is a shameless sociopath
- His budgetary priority is to blow people up
* Deepwate driling is the desparate act of a desparate species; The administration is coddling BP like they coddled BoA; BP's stock price is up; BP is screwing up the cleanup; TV Evangelists are scarier than oil spills; Double dip recession will be blamed on the oil spill; As oil disappears so will trees
* Because of environmental degradation we will sink below hunter-gatherer carrying capacity; North Korea may start Armageddon; VIX is up 26% in one day; Scientists have created new life form
* Guns:
- When it requires a gun to survive only survivors will have guns
- If dieoff is 98% a gun won't save you
- Principles are stronger than guns
- Buying a used Glock - $295 - becoming a hapless victim - priceless
- Non-violence only works among the civilized
- If you don't want to arm yourself to fight the unwashed hoardes, click your heels together three times and say, "There's no place like Utopia"
* Some are in limbo until the crash; Current events cause epiphanous claxons to go off inside sensitive heads; Even those who are hoping for collapse might not enjoy it but at least the cognitive dissonance will be less; If the world were to end tomorrow I would still comment on TAE today
* Cannibalism:
- It is common in human history
- Some request a Donner Pass Recipes Book
- Once your dead you might not care if you get eaten
- Now is a good time to get your teeth fixed; Boomers have notoriously tough flesh
- Cannibalism might be accompanied by caring and kindness; Would you like another helping of stock broker?
* The Deepwater Horizon Accident: It's a financial disaster; It's an ecological disaster; It's a financial disaster; It's an ecological disaster; Wait ... it's both; How much would you pay for a disaster like this? Don't answer yet, there's more ...
May 13, 2010
* Reports of the economy's recovery have been greatly exaggerated; Federal judge blocks 10% pay cut for NY employees; Older workers will not like pay cuts and will vainly kick against the pricks; Learn to live on half your salary
* We have crossed the rubicon; No exit now from collapse; Well, well, let's get on with it...
* The banks use public money for QE and then bet it will fail after which the public eats the loss; The bankers will tear off your arm and beat you over the head with the bloody stump
* Stoneleigh's lectures are scary; She pulls away the curtain, revealing a corrupt wizard and as stone wall; The end is near; Willful ignorance is in hyperdrive; Only a fraction of humanity will survive; Your skills will help others; Preparation gives you a choice: heads your head, tails your ass
* There maybe no black swan but rather a wedge of black cygnets:
- Rising oil prices
- Fannie and Freddie
- Cyber attack
- Rising foreclosures
Expect collapse before fall 2010
* I pity the fool who buys a house now
* Mish is a calmer Karl; He calls unions pestilential; He is a cranky old man; He is a sub-adult, He is too big for his huggies
* Obama saved the Euro; EU bailout will sow magic beans of dissension; European problems could stall US economy
* Unions are a double edges sword; Workers were once oppresed but les so now; The closed shop mentality is destructive; We need to build local relationships of trust; All human structures become sclerotic
* Deepwater Horizon leak is today's Three Mile Island; One month's pay is a piss ant's
* Dennis Moore will lead the revolt; Your lupins or your life
* The crash won't be all bad; You have nothing to lose but your plastic; The loss of dental care will be mitigated by the ability to see Cygnus in the night sky
* Most bloggers extrapolate opinions from facts
* The Chinese empire is rising; The American empire is falling; The Chinese need lebensraum; The Americans need wiggle room
April 13, 2010
* We cry when we think of our children's future; We think we are doing things for them but are really doing things for ourselves; So long and thanks for all the hydrocarbons
* Gen X only got in on the tail of the binge; Gen X won't get SS or Medicare; Gen X will join Gen Y in letting the air out of the tires of Boomer mobility scooters
* Boomers aren't to blame, elites are to blame; Boomers aren't monolithic, especially when they get osteoporosis; Boomers hope to die before TSHTF; Gen X and Y may be able to help
* No comment from the Silent Generation
* The Greatest Generation: They drilled the oil wells, dammed the rivers, invented nukes, started Social Security, created DDT and elected Nixon, and all for us; Gen Y should take life by the horns like they did
* Gen Y is soft and weak; They can't find their xyphoid process without a GPS; Gen Y would have acted like Boomers if they had had the guts to be born 50 years ago; Generations come and go but pompous males are here to stay
* Some are boomers in age only; There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to go vegan for
* VK spouts intergenerational nonsense; His post was shallow and hateful, not deep and loving like Boomer responses
* We will be condemned by the unborn for doing what they would have done in our position; Don't have kids; Who the gods would destroy they first create
* Each generation inherits a ruined world and succeeds in ruining it further; Easter Island is a prototype for our times; The flesh of the Boomer sticks between my teeth
* The end is near; We are all beneficiaries of the machine; We have met the enemy and he is everybody else; We all did the right thing, it's other people that raped the planet; None of you people cares enough about me to throw yourself off a cliff
* Darth Boomer: Luke, I am your father.
Luke YWalker: No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!
Darth Boomer: Search your feelings, Luke, you know it to be true!
Luke YWalker: No! No! (Throws self off cliff)
March 18, 2010
* Let's be clear: Persona is short for "Persona non grata"
* How fast will the crash be? Bots can crash things faster than people; They will decide our fate in a microsecond
* Electricians vs. Plumbers:
Fixing shorts is easy; Finding shorts is hard
Finding leaks is easy; Fixing leaks is hard
* Boomers won't work until 75 unless panhandling can be called employment or they can get paid to watch re-runs of Dallas; By then they will have forgotten who killed JR
* Market is like a pressure cooker; It will blow but when? The playerz won't miss the crash, they will just expect it to turn around and it won't
* Cheryl called the top around 10700 and bottom around 10000; She and hubby can finally afford that new lounge-suite; Watch this space
* Boomers will sell their children into slavery for a mess of cialis
* Better to have 5 acres in heaven the 40 acres in hell
* Nobody deserves the Noble Prize for Economics; Nobody can miss sarcasm when it is thrown in his face; Nobody's house may be blown up by drones
* China wants to export Horny Goat Weed; Panama wants to export Horny Vulture Root
* Insurance costs are up 25% for some; The crash will take the 'care' out of 'healthcare'
* Dennis Kucinich succumbs to pressure on health care; El G responds; Naked Nancy pics rival thumb screws
* TAE ethic is to prepare a life boat, not to flaunt the party on the ambassador deck
* 30 somethings are the big spenders and big owers; I haven't got any good humors, I've just got this bloody albatross
* When Obama quits there will be no one left to blame and the silence of the lambs will ensue
* All Bertie Wooster's Aunts are his favorites; TAE to be renamed "Stoneleigh and the Impending Doom"; Fruity
February 17, 2010
* "Did Peak Oil Cause the Financial Crisis" should be in the primers and an Olympic event
* Peak oil and peak credit were unrelated; They are just two ships hitting the fan in the night
* Peak oil and the financial crisis are not unrelated; They are bastard half brothers both sired by Ronald Reagan while Nancy was at a seance
* Peak oil was not THE cause, just A cause; The reasons for the financial crisis are many and varied
* Peak oil didn't cause the financial crisis, it just triggered it; Triggers aren't causes; Triggers don't kill people, .45 ACP 230-grain hollow-point rounds kill people
* Peak oil didn't pop other bubbles so it couldn't have popped this one
* Peak oil has popped every bubble with which it was concurrent
* Peak oil didn't push us into the gorge but it will stop us from climbing out
* Peak oil did cause the financial crisis for me since I couldn't afford the gas to rob banks
* Since oil drove the economy peak oil must have cause peak economy; When oil went up in price everything went up in price
* Energy prices didn't cause the bust; Deflation is in your head, not in your tank
* Ponzi schemes survive as long as they accelerate; When you're green you're growin', when your ripe you're rottin'; Star Trek proves that infinite energy and gullible Vulcans can keep a ponzi scheme going forever
* The ponzi house of cards could be brought down by a butterfly, just not the peak oil butterfly
* Losing your wallet is worse than losing your 401K because the liqour store don't take 401Ks, dude
* Round things are finite; Gasoline was $4 a gallon in 2008; The stimulus worked
* This time it's different; All happy bubbles are happy in the same way whereas all unhappy bubbles are unhappy in their own way
* There is no orderly retreat from a tsunami, avalanche, theatre fire or ponzi collapse
* Fighting is counterproductive; In TOD we trust; Jane, you ignorant slut
* We all have blind spots; We all make logic errors; Studies have shown that 90% of the populace is dumber than the other 10%; Occams razor is best at shaving yesterday's stubble
* Q: Why do Catholics argue with Protestants?
A: Because the Ayatollah doesn't speak English
* I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member
February 13, 2010
* Greece will be bailed out at huge cost to the Greeks; TANSTAAFB
* The dollar and euro will reach parity; Greece may outlaw large cash transactions; When cash is illegal only illegals will have cash
* The Lottery: Bank of America forecloses randomly selected houses to ensure a good harvest
* America is more naked than Europe; Unless some legitimate excuse is profered the US will be exceptionally screwed
* You can find a chart to support any opinion; Stick those lying charts where the sun don't shine
* Debt, debt, debt; Booze cures hangovers; Borrowing cures insolvency
* Blissful, media free weekends give one time to cultivate fresh idiocy; A spoon full of demeral makes the misery go down in the most delightful way
* Excess in all things is the undoing of men; The Olympian gods are laughing; Charon is hiring; Nato invades Afgahnistan
* Americans earn and then spend; Europeans spend without earning; Better to be a Walmart greeter in heaven than an IT architect in hell; Cutting Fannie and Freddy free would stick it mostly to foreign creditors
* Olympics opens with Bryan Adams crooning and Dayglo Native Americans dancing for Montenegrans; Truth is stranger than fiction
* Those under 60 shouldn't trust pensions; Mr. Market will force Governments to reset the economy back to the stone age
* We may be victims of unprotected sun activity in 2012; Mayans, Egyptians and Notradumus were all worried sick about 2012
* The acronym PIIGS disgruntles some
* The way that you wander is the way that you choose.
The day that you tarry is the day that you lose.
Sunshine or thunder, a man will always wonder where the fair wind blows.
January 28, 2010
* Ecclesiastes in Simplified Modern English
-I saw = Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion
-that = that
-the battle = success or failure in competitive activities
-is not to = exhibits no tendency to be comensurate with
-the strong = innate capacity
-but = but
-chance = a considerable element of unpredictability
-happeneth to all = must invariably be taken into account
The Sonnets of Shakespeare in beautiful Modern English soon to follow
* If you are a leader, obfuscation is your friend; 'True' has a different meaning in different Science dialects; TAEese to Old High Friesian dictionary to be added to Primers
* Couples share houses in Vancouver; Real estate bubble is still inflated in Scotland but may deflate in the fall; Britain facilitates insanely high home prices
* Britain is way past carrying capacity and consumes enough for China or India; Britain is out of recession; Blood glued opus
* Housing market is having a Wile E Coyote moment; Those who bought recently thinking the bottom was in will get a kicking as they fall; Sale price should be 16x rental amount; It is 50-100 in Casa Rica
* Four types of home buyers: 1) Oblivious 2) Scammers 3) Deluded 4) Informed, honest, realistic doomers
* El G tracks down missing pump; Wall street can only peform in a vacuum
* Government runs faster and faster to stay in the same place; 2010 will see first real resource shock for Usacos; It won't be a financial failure but a distribution failure (note: this sounds like Orlov's second phase of collapse)
* Its no longer about getting back in bed with the whore, it's about avoiding the four horsemen; Get off your butt and help others; Prepare even if it means consorting with Mormons; Time is running out; Katrina everywhere means relief from nowhere
* Pissing on the TPTB and power lines can be iffy; Zander explains his uneven gait; Weasel dog buys choco-ration futures
* Suspending Money Market redemptions is now legal; Dow is back to November 2009; Invested money is not yours; What's good for Bernanke is good for America
* Health and employment are uncontrollable; Age at your own risk; Not all can retire at once; Some suggest rotating retirement where we take turns emptying each other's bed pans
* Summary of useful information for those who missed the SOTU address:
-
-
-
January 25, 2010
* Stats of the Union speeches are all damned lies; It is easy to control a populace when you control the money, the markets, the military, the media and the minions; An incestuous educational system helps too
* Ben, Tim and Larry are
- The three crooked clowns
- The three jokers in the deck
- The three stooges
- The three whores of the apocalypse
* The Sawzall Rule is the foundation of modern economics; A college education leaves ignorance intact but is good for self esteem
* Homo intagralis is the next stage of human evolution; Everything is connected to everything; There are everything*(everything-1)/2 connections; You owe everything you own to your children
* We would all like to see our children have a future; The future is not a linear extension of the recent past; Mathematicians had it figured out a long time ago; Wikipedia may be the foundation that shortens the next dark age from 30,000 to 1,000 years
* The Big Bang is the only known energy source; Everything else is transmission and storage; Peak Oil has been deferred; Haiti may have oil and gas; Compressed air cars don't offer any advantage over sea slugs
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- He show less common sense than the average cosmetologists
- He is the next Herbert Hoover and will get the blame due to timing
- He is either stupid, corrupt or yellow
- He is getting blamed for helping and hurting wall street at the same time
- He will have his caca and eat it too
- His demise will cause racial division
- McCain would have been better except maybe he would have insisted on piloting Air Force One
* The 2009 rally is probably over; Mood will now change; Suspension of disbelief will soon end; We have nothing to fear but the fear of fear itself
* FDR's inauguration speech was anti-bank; He was nearly deposed but Smedley Butler said no; The last Person to overturn the money changer's tables was crucified for opposing God's work
* The US in the 1970's:
- Like today only different
- Started with dollar convertible to gold and ended with fiat currency
- Crossed Hubert's peak and had gas lines
- Lost in Vietnam and was hostage in Iran
- The end of the industrial boom
- End of wage growth required increase of credit
- Living standards would have peaked but were borrowed from the future
- Publication of Limits to Growth
* TPTB know we have resource constraints and postion themselves to benefit from shortages; They may keep things together until next fall or maybe even 2012
* Firing Bernanke may cause the market to collapse; Go short, young man, go short!
* Society can't function if too many variables change too quickly; Computers and iphones are more important than food
January 21, 2010
* Statements starting with "This is not meant to be sexist" usually are
* Haitians showed courage and strength through desparate times;
They are remarkably organized at a local level; MSM doesn't report this
* Don't give scumbags your money out of knee-jerk guilt; Be careful how you help others so that they actually get the help
* Usaco bashers suck; Soldiers are poor policeman but can unload trucks and planes tolerably well
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- A vote for Brown was a vote against Obama
- He will claim lack of support
- He will "work" with the Republicans on the "hard" issues
- He is a black version of Clinton and smoother, more polished version of GW Bush
- He is changing his name to Martin Luther Cheney
- He doesn't really run the show
- Let's put impeachment on the table
* The markets tanked in response to a brown swan event; Shorts are getting interesting but can split when too tight
* For society to work law-abiders must outnumber cheaters; Today Aunt Marthas out number Bernie Madoffs; In order to cheat people Bernie sometimes wore Aunt Martha's clothes; Prison will help him learn not do this in prison
* Being the center lizard is essential to political success; Martha Coakley was the lizard for sheep on the left; Scott Brown was the lizard for sheep on the right but also had center fold appeal
* Rednecks are already debt slaves; Quiche Eaters are heading that way; Maybe America needs bankruptcy; The debt will never be repaid
* US citizens are debt slaves with houses, cars and toaster ovens; When you are evicted and repo-ed you will still have your toaster oven
* If you disagree with I and S then reading TAE is a waste of time; Only the insincere disagree with I and S; My blog or the high blog
* Our economic problems were triggered by resource contractions; Those who don't understand this will have grandkids that are nasty, brutish and short
* The Supreme Court today reaffirmed that corporations are persons; Haiti is being punished for making a pact with Satan; Usacos wisely made a pact with a more reliable devil, except for homeless Usacos who are by definition mentally ill
January 13, 2010
* Not knowing you have a blindspot is a blindspot
* Monsters start out as ordinary citizens and then torture others; Abuse is automatic when other people are labeled subhuman; Only a thin veneer separates us from cruelty and barbarism
* Only the stupid and cruel will commit atrocities, i.e. most people
*The three kinds of people: The good, the bad and the detached; The deatched can be turned bad by cultural influences; Maybe only the bad will make it through the bottleneck
* Chinese switch from lead to cadmium in toys; Chinese lip gloss may be sludge; The Chinese may be fudging their official economic data; Chinese real estate is not a bubble; Demand there is real; They save every penny to put it into land and houses
* Peak phosphorous gets little press; Obama hasn't done a live press conference in six months; Keep it simple and stupid
* Getting to the top now requires birthright or sociopathic greed or both; Greed knows no bounds but resources do
* Saying that Israelis mistreat Palestinians is hateful since Palestinians aren't actually people; Why can't Arabs just be happy that our oil is under their land, forget about the so-called abuse of so-called Palestinians and absorb the so-called Palestinians into Jordan? Aren't 20 Arab countries enough? Arafat invented modern terrorism; Evil societies promotes suicide bombers while nice societies use unmanned drones to blow innocent people to smithereens; TAE offers a bright ray of Sunshine in a terror stricken world
* Heroism is struggling to do the right thing day after day; People are motivated by perceived necessity rather than heroism; Heroes don't see themselves as heroic; Easier to do the right thing than to know what the right thing to do is; Who among us will hide hispanics in our attics when Sarah come to power?
* American retirement system is broken; People should invest more conservatively and withdraw more slowly or else
* Only increasing complexity can save us; This would require massive new energy sources; New complexity is fertile ground for fraud
* 'T was gezellig en de slijtig toovs gijrden en gimbelden in de weeb ...
January 10, 2010
* Why the stock market gets so much press:
- It is the play ground of the rich and famous
- It is easy to talk about since it can be represented as a single number
- It makes a pleasant distraction
* Should Icelanders be responsible for the Icelandic Saga? Be careful how you answer that one
* Cheryl agrees we are headed toward a brick wall but disagrees on how many eliot waves can dance on the head of a derivative; She also believe governments have great power to control the markets
* Governments like to claim omnipotence falsely; Mood can turn on a dime; Most of us have only lived through an un-naturally long credit-induced manic phase which we see as normal; It's not
* TAEers suffer from Collapsus Interuptus; Outside ideas are good; My blog right or wrong is bad
* Stoneleigh should be crowned Empress of North America; Meredith Whitney is now mocked by the MSM as Stoneleigh predicted
* Doomsteaders might not fare any better than co-opers; Being in possession of what everyone else wants could have a downside; The herd tramples who it will
* The bonds made during hardship are more enduring than those made in abundance; Overcrowded bacteria try to kill each other off
* Geithner was party to the AIG mess; Nothing to see here folks; Go on about your business
* The Pattern
- Peak Oil, Peak Soil, ...
- Roman Empire Collapse, Aztec Empire Collapse British Empire Collapse, ...
- Bacteria Crash, Reindeer Crash, ...
- Most of us are shortsightedly trying to game the pattern; After the crash it will be too late to prepare; What to do when your addicted to the status quo?
* The TAE 12 Step Program
1 Admit your are unable to fathom the coming crash
2 Believe that only a greater intellect can understand what is happening, and that is TAE as you understand it
3 Trust in the wisdom of TAE
4 Make a fearless discovery of your lack of personal preparedness
5 Admit on the TAE comment board that you are not prepared
6 Read the primer "How to Build a Lifeboat"
7 Humbly ask the TAE board for clarification of what you don't understand
8 Make a list of what you need to do to prepare
9 Make direct preparations based on this list
10 Continue reading and modifying and acting on this list
11 Through study and work improve you ability to prepare
12 Having had an awakeing of the reality of the crash, make preparation your daily practice
December 30, 2009
* It is bad and obvious to buy your own sovereign debt; It is better and murkier to buy MBS from someone else who then buys your sovereign debt; Bond funds had worthless MBS, the Fed bought these and the bond funds bought Treasuries; Aunt Millie's retirement is saved; QED
* Borrowing at 0.25% and then buying Treasuries that pay 5.25% is a beautiful thing; If Treasury yields skyrocket you want to be holding only bills; This would be the long awaited bond dislocaiton
* Dow in 2009 is about $10K just like in 1999 but $10K now buys half as much grain and one fourth as much gold
* Cracks in reality will be seen by all in 2010; All mainstream business articles about 2010 predict modest growth; Either TAE is insane or they are or both
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- Obama is about Power, not Change
- He embodies "Americanism"
- Voting for Obama was civil disobedience
- His policies kill people in the Middle East
- People believe in him because the dream is so good
- Obama deserves his chance to wreck the country just as much as any white guy does
- Attempted airline bombing was blowback for Obama's bombing of Yemen
- Michelle Obama might add a chicken coop to White House garden
* Act ethically today and let tomorrow take care of itself; The difference between Social Order and Disorder is 36 hours without food
* Doomers are in touch with their inner Casandra; Once you've seen the matrix you can't go back to being a part of the herd; How ya gonna keep 'em down in the pens after they seen Paree
* The state is like an organic entity and will consume to survive until there is nothing left; When the great contractions started Rosemary had delusions that the status quo would continue and that the system wouldn't fail her
* Kunstler is positive and theraeutic; Edward Bernays was a bad seed; Know one knows if Ferfal is for real
* Geithner spends his time averting crises; He's got the the tools and the talent; His attitude is like Nietzche's; Someone must keep Timmy from seeing a horse being beaten
* Are we still at the edge of the abyss?
Could even God destroy the US economy?
Will 2010 see D1K?
All are possible but ridiculous as long as the almighty US taxpayer is still around
* Be patient and the collapse will come when you least expect it; Remember that Spring arrives of its own accord
* Some read TAE because it is there; Others read it to get to the other side; TAE has answered the important questions since before your sun burned hot in space; Look for information, not a guru
* Math never lies but garbage in/garbage out; Music is the acoustic expression of mathematics but garbage in/garbage out; Applied math is math you can make money with; Pure mathematics has erotic beauty to some; There's nothing quite like a nice curve with a tight asymptote
* Never respond to the comments of CIA operatives; Oops...
* Unemployment is declining in LaLaLand; Die off will result in less unemployment; Everyone in the US can be employed and unemployed at the same time
* US has inherited the white man's burden; America is imperialist but won't admit it; US has globally replaced tyranny with the rule of law; US is paving the The Road to Pandora
* Stoneleigh: "You've come far, pilgrim,"
Zander: "Feels like far."
Stoneleigh: "Were it worth the trouble?"
Zander: "What trouble?"
December 25, 2009
* El G has emptied his leaky SDS bucket; Only big vultures will be allowed to make money from this crisis
* TPTB always find ways to redistribute wealth; Architects of collapse are psychopaths; Only collapse can stop them
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- He lied in Copenhagen
- He doesn't consider ordinary people in the future of America
- His first year was one of betrayal and failure
- His speech was double speak
- He is familiar with Orwell
- He reads the script handed him by his masters
- Trashing him supports terrorists
- He is preferable to Ph.D.s
- He parrots Dubya
- His adminstration will rule by force
* Societies cannot survive with the majority in poverty; Economy feels like a failed ride up widow-maker
* Dark matter found in defunct iron mine; Dark matter holds galaxies and economies together
* 2010
- Boom will continue corralling sheep until the fleecing starts
- The federal government will continue to shovel on the debt to keep it going up until they don't
- Birds will come home to roost
- Trolls will eat their words
- The ship can't hold together
- Cash rich companies will be king
* Givers gain and takers lose; When times are good all can take and feel good; In bad times only the strong can take and feel good; It is more blessed to give than to be taken
* Lloyd Blankfein worships Mammon; We are all seen as investments by big corporations; Our lives will be outsourced
* Identifying with a profession is despicable
* The sheep think it is an endless cycle of paddock to pasture and back; The sheep think the herd will turn around before they reach the cliff; The sheep still have a lot of wool to lose before the razor hits the skin
* Priest advises the poor to steal; St. Nick is the patron saint of thieves; Dallas Cowboys Santa program is broke
* Rednecks loved Avatar, especially them blue chicks with tails
* A 'Usaco' is essentially a 'Norte Americano'; Not a perjorative any more than the terms 'American' or 'Stinking Gringo'
* Real estate might not inflate even with inflation; Gold and stocks will go up
* Right wingers are unaquainted with reality but are pretty good at legislating their fantasies
* Fall is officially over; No one wins the lounge suite; Lounge suite was put up for sale on craigslist and what bought at a deep discount by Lloyd Blankfein
* Being prepared is a state of mind; Hopefully discomfort encourages us to prepare; Y2K was a drill for the 500 year recession; Lower energy society will de-construct land fills and recycle
* Rasputin: Repentance is good; There can be no repentance without sin; Please join me in sin
Obama: Peace is good; ...
* Discussion of collapse is a nice holiday tradition; It goes well with the airing of grievances and feats of strength
December 16, 2009
* I and S need to adjust their predictions and identify their blind spots; It is difficulty to play the market with unreliable crash dates; Also, my freeze dried food is going rancid; Crash timing is important so that preparation can be JIT; Only losers prepare early
* 800 men can move a car at 60 mph using levers and pulleys; Model T only required 600 men to do the same; This is not progress
* Fed can play the paper shell game for a long time and the electronic shell game even longer; The PPT can control the S&P for months at a time; The Titanic was sold to someone in steerage for $50 just before it sank
* US economy is a dead horse; Even so it it not to big to flail; We will all need to learn to live with a lower standard of living
* The Chinese have no water; They have ruined their farm land; They will steal Siberia; They will be screwed if they ape the west
* All sugars except honey and maple syrup are bad for you and will prevent you from washing your private parts
* Westerners have no intellect, no morals and no will power; Europeans figured out how to suck the life out of a maple tree without killing it
* Dow has failed to reach 10,500 four times; When it reaches 10,900 in January every one will pile in and then the rug will be pulled out; Super heated water is dangerous and explodes when the tea bag hits it
* Octopi use tools to build doomsteads and are smarter than most Americans
* Politics trumps economics; Next leg down will not be the S&P crashing but large scale social welfare problems
* Airliners have diplomatic immunity; On 911 the cockpit of UAL 93 was declared Saudi territory
December 9, 2009
* Critical power grid information is not presented to the people; US Energy infrastructure rates a D+; We should have moved toward distributed generation 20 ago when money still flowed in the streets; Community power is a great idea if it can be afforded; People undervalue local solutions; Biomass and biogas may help some
* Catherine:
- Tells it like it is - WAKE UP PEOPLE! KILL THOSE LEFTIE COMMUNIST BASTARDS! DRILL, BABY DRILL!
- Her passions is more important than her prose
- She speaks for many on the right and might actually be Sarah Palin
- Stoneleigh answers in measured tones
- Ilargi is unimpressed
- Coy Ote thinks she's great
- Responding to her is good practice for dealing with Mom
- She is just suggesting that we do the best we can with what we got
* Land is always too expensive; Look for farmland with an untillable part with trees; Don't underestimate the value of community; Don't buy anything so large that the lawn can't be mowed by hand
* They the builders of our infrastructure are mostly retired; Most people can't set their own clocks, cook veggies, make cheese or slaughter animals; People who can fix things are not in demand right now even though everything is already broken
* Everyone should do their own thinking; Those who went out and bought farmland or Crisco based on others' suggestions should have thought about it first; Those who can't think usually don't
* Dubai is the poster child for the next leg down
* Without petroleum we will need more acres of farmland or fewer useless eaters; Death of the surplus population might adversely affect farmland prices
* Words are the bluntest knife in the drawer
* Jarod Diamond was optmistic but not loopy
* Obama plans to to spend $150B to really get the economy going again; This time it will work; It is intended for the little people but will get hijacked by the rich; His popularity is the lowest ever for a first year president
* Global trade declined only 9% last month due to the upcoming holiday shopping season
* Currency converion is a convenient way to destroy wealth; Loss of credit plus failure of FDIC will disposses the middle class
* All options are risky; It's an uncertain world; Sometimes taking the risk pays off, sometimes it kills you; We are close to a risk-kill zone now
* Gold will bottom early in deflation because you can't eat it; People becoming desparate in successive waves will mitigate the collapse of gold prices; Gold will end up in the hands of the very few, as always
December 8, 2009
* Gold is a concentrated store of value
- Roosevelt confiscated most of the gold from safe deposit boxes in failed banks
- Gold is a good insurance policy as long as you never need it
- Gold preserves wealth but never, ever buy it as an investment
- The historical value of one ounce of gold in vestments:
o A toga and shoes in BCE 20
o Men's suit and shoes in 1913
o Men's suit and shoes in 2009
* Goldless ways to store wealth:
- Chickens and chicken wire
- Wells with high quality hand pumps
- Big Berkey
- Grains, legumes and a ton of Crisco
- Camping gear
- Tumbleweed house on wheels and some strong oxen
* Several years of deflationary depression will give millions the chance to fall off the cliff; Up next, Slum Dog Trillionaire
* Today's homes are different and appealing; Mortgages are no longer being given for condos in Phoenix
* Fukoaka combines taoism and gardening; Doing stupid things is a human right; Steel is better than oil; ZhuZhu the hamster is made with heavy metal
* Lack of basic nutrition and sanitation is worse than lack of medicine; Lifestyle changes are the best health plan
* Jarod Diamond goes to the dark side; Swallows party line hook, line and sinker; Brilliant men don't age well and ought to confine themselves to greeting at Walmart; You're only old once; Embrace senility
* Jobs and houses are fatally wounded; The Fed's ability to affect monetary policy by printing has been reduced; Bernanke doesn't respond to this altered landscape; Green shoots appear confined to a greenhouse in the green zone
* The road to hell is paved with good intentions; Climate change and financial armageddon can't be stopped; If TSHTF only castles will be safe; Kiss your butt goodbye
* All life seeks best EROEI; We are hard wired to over-re-produce; The wealthy never help the poor in any meaningful way
* Snerfling Scenario™:
- The Government can lower the boom slowly
- Once the boom is lowered it will be re-raised and the sails re-furled
* The Jal Judgement™:
- Relocate to avoid chaos
- Stockpile to wait it out
- Get skills for the afterworld
* The Flawed Analysis™:
- Banking system is backstopped by government so can't collapse
- Printing money can solve all problems
- Credit contraction and over capacity are deflationary
- Money printing is inflationary
* The PastTense Palaver™:
- Doomsteaders won't survive doomsday
- Other than mass poverty things will continue on as now
- The govenment will extend and pretend
* The Way of the Wolf™:
- Sell everything
- Purchase 6-8 months worth of portable food, some camping gear and guns
- When TSHTF move to Canada
* Farmer Amber's Compleat Doomstead™:
- Too long and too good to summarize
* Ric's Recommendations™ to provide for your children:
1) skills growing food, building shelter, and blacksmithing tools
2) appopriate education and books
3) scientific method
4) impecable ethics
5) rudimentary medicine and sanitation
6) defense
7) insight into the true value of life in all it's forms
8) how to live with death
* Stoneleigh to rent Colliseum in Portland to accomadate all interested in meeting her
December 2, 2009
* Stoneleigh may visit the Pacific Northwest; If so TAE Summary hopes to meet her
* Devaluation questions:
- Will 3 Reichsdollars be replaced by one new dollar?
- How is this done and what does it mean?
- Why not let inflation do this naturally?
- Since one dollar = 9.7 milliwatts and e=mc^2 are mass, energy and money all the same thing?
* Hindsight shows there were problems in Dubai; Dubai is bottomless pit; Who will throw their cash in? Someone who expects growth to resume
* To buy is to do; To do is to buy; Do-buy-do-buy-do
* Food banks expect 100% increase; Food stamps are canary in coal mine; Those on food stamps won't pay much in taxes; Martial Law is likely in a few years; Food will be used as the carrot, guns will be the stick
* Counties make better localization units than states; Municipalities are hosed; Speed traps, conscription and protection rackets may fund some munis; Municipal Bond will have a new meaning; Good neighbors may fill in the gap when munis fail; Doomers underestimate humankind
* VK's generation will inherit the mess; Let's hope they are up to being heroes since the prophets have failed them
* Are the TPTB kicking the can down the road or do they just have Restless Leg Syndrome? Elites may want to deflate but lack the will to do so; The top 1% are happy with the things the way they are; Elites have assets, not cash
* Bob Chapman:
- Says interesting things
- Assigns dates to I&S predictions
- Wants to sell us gold or treasuries
- Is hopefully wrong
- Is politically to the right of Genghis Kahn
- Is in a strange right side funk
- Is old and well off
- Is anticipating hyperinflation too soon
- Deserves suspicion
- Is an idiot full of nonsense who is usually dead wrong
- Is beneath our level
- Is easily skewered by Bill Bonner
- Probably introduced contour plowing
* Mish's fame has gone to his head; Jim Kunstler plagiarizes TAE faithfully; Stoneleigh is a cheerful doomer; Snuffy is wildly optimistic
* Debt is the hangman's noose during deflation; Many jobs will disappear; Invest in independence
* Things that smell like skunks:
- Pesticide drift
- Stale marijuana
- Skunks, minks and weasels
- Beavers in search of a new stadium
* People bond during optimistic times and become cruel during pessimistic times; Art is the shadow of economic conditions; Dark humor is a symptom of despair; Go placidly among the doom and gloom
* In inflation those who stand closest to the printing press win; In deflation everyon loses except savers; Deflation will devastate commerce which will make hyperinflation inevitable; Buy, baby buy
* Dying before 52 is an accident; Autopsies aren't much help
* 401K is biggest scam ever; Sucker's rally is laundering TARP money; There is a war between savers and gamblers
* Obama now owns Afgahn war; Obama is the man who would be king; Afgahnistan is the graveyard of empires
* Humpty Dumpty has already been blown to smithereens and is nothing but shell fragments; Economy will soon look like the blue screen of death; Time to press the reset button; Unfortunately many programs will be terminated and lots of bits and bytes will be lost
* Humanity is a giant bio-machine; I and S predictions are unfolding in SloMo; The herd is only shuffling toward the cliff
* Debt ceiling at $12.1T is too low; Raise high the roof beam, congressmen. Like Ares comes the deficit, taller far than a tall man
December 2, 2009
* The Road is shocking, well written, moving, depressing, unreal, formulaic, cliche-ridden, turgid, and implausible; The Road is long with many a winding turn that leads us to who knows where, who knows where
* Don't get sick until you're on Medicare; Don't go broke until you are dead
* Only comment on TAE if you are flush with insights:
- Toughen up your kids
- Our perception is our reality
- Captan kills fungus
- Cheese makes a nice gift
- Self flagellation is problematic
- By their fruitless hopes ye shall know them
* Denniger's rants and food wars are thema non grata at TAE; Leave Tiger alone
* People shouldn't moralize; Morality is dangerous; People who enforce their own morals sometimes don't keep the same; Morality helps maintain societal trust; Lack of morality is causing collapse; We should insist on morality, just not any particular morality; Those who attack morality won't make it through The Great Bottleneck and will be turned into fertilizer
* Some both agree and disagree that capitalism is both the best and worst system; Capitalism is an epic failure with a cast of billions; Capitalism serves entropy; Capitalism was invented by Nimrod
* We live in, shop at, drive in, eat from and work in boxes; This is not optimum or even optimal; American life revolves around consumers; One US citizern requires 240K calories of fossil fuels per year; Oil is too precious to burn
* Texas is too cold and snowy; New England is too warm and wet; Oregon is perfect
* Can the heads of government control the economy? The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it; Someday we will develop a new monetary system that will solve our intractable problems
* Economics moves at a glacial place; I and S prophetically foreshorten; TAEarthlings are tired of waiting for the crash; The four horsemen are stuck in a mud hole in front of MikeB's barn
* When your friends go into debt congratulate them; I see bankrupt people all the time, some don't even know they are bankrupt
* Mall walkers can't grow their own food and will die-off; Organic food is only for the rich or hard working; The claims of BigAg that you can't grow your own food are myths; Those left after die-off will create a new society
* Ben Bernanke paid the bank-whores $180B but still couldn't get laid
* Obama commits 100 US soldiers and $300M for each Al-Qaede member in Pakistan; Obama gets it, just like us
* TAE crowd has been brainwashed and won't admit that the government can keep the plates in the air forever; Collapse is now a religion whose adherents ignore the facts; Right thinking people know that only wacky American voters can cause collapse
* Visit Beautiful Hawaii - Inflated Americans, deflated Japanese and plenty of warships
November 25, 2009
* Republican crony capitalism caused our problems; Even talking heads say rally can't keep going; Correction is overdue; Next shoe will soon drop though no one can see the next leg of the crash coming; I'm dreaming of a white knuckle Christmas
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- He is an answer to someone's prayers
- He might give us all a big Christmas present
- His brand is destroyed
- He has soured the youth
- He has pissed everyone off
- He is creating a giant power vacuum
* Congress has sold their souls; No one will trust democrats or republicans ever again; The country is in danger of unrest; Blacks and browns will be punished for the sins of the rich; Batten down the hatches
* The fat and sassy pay no attention to the man behind the curtain; Fatness and sassiness end for millions each month; Save your job at all costs; Shop til you drop
Deepak Chopra assures us that:
- Crises spontaneoulsy generate leaders
- Sanity always prevails
- Solutions will emerge on all fronts
- Kool-Aid Kool-Aid, tastes great
* The ideologue cometh; USA will be Nazified; Palin is and answer to someone else's prayers, is pretty/dangerous but also pretty/moot; We need the brain of Ron Paul in the head of Mitt Romney
* M.C. Phd presents "It's a Wonderful Death"':
- Potter's butler rats him out
- Bert, Ernie and Bunny Winthrop dispense justice
- Potter feels the heat
- Zuzu sings "Later on we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire..."
* Unions overindulged but Wall Street hyperindulged; Overindulgence is always wrong; So is eating defenseless animals instead of carbs
* Ilargi see things as they are and explains why, Most men dream of things that never were and say WTF?
* Only theories expressed mathematically are science; Economics and boxing are not science; Numbers obscure beauty
Fakenomics for Dummies:
- Economies can grow forever
- Money can grow forever
- Debt can grow forever
- Go long sucker; Go wrong sucker; So long sucker
* A tale of two Davids: He makes the best of comments, he makes the worst of comments, he is the voice of wisdom, he is the voice of foolishness, he inspires belief, he inspires incredulity, he is the soul of light, he is the soul of darkness ...
* Ex-lax offers temporary liquidity guaruntee program
November 23, 2009
* Top Men predicting continued dollar decline; US economy is a sinking ship run by headless chickens trying to change horses mid-stream
* Denniger understands numbers but is disappointing and embarassing; There are fewer and fewer pithy nuggets in his froth; He and Glenn Beck were twins separated at birth
* There is no future; Feminist delusions will evaporate along with masculine aspirations
* Golm-aan Shakh business plan is simple and is written in the Black Speech; Golm-aan does Gob's work; Lloyd Blankfein, Fulk Yûl
* Geithner is smarter than his critics but will still be sacrificed and his blood sprinkled on the altar; Look for a replacement who belongs to Goldman but has never worked for them
* Financial crisis could be solved by cancelling Social Security and Medicare and replacing Thanksgiving turkey with fattened infants; There is no crash; The recession is over
* Gun control can't happen; When guns are controlled only the controlled will have guns
* The three types of political elites:
- Happy - I'ts all sunshine and roses and joy and joyness
- Doubtful - But still on the payroll
- Evil - Intent on profit
* Alloyed truth is harder and stronger than pure truth and makes better ball bearings, springs and cogs
* Absolute power attracts psychopaths; Localization keeps psychopaths from too much power unless they are too powerful
* Technical market analysis: We have had the head and shoulders; Expect knees and toes next
* People are angry but polls don't show it; Ten snipers could bring the whole country down; TPTB will prepare, manage and utilize the collapse; Opportunistic vacuum fillers will harvest the anger of the masses; The employed majority will repress the unemployed minority
* A new era is being born without the benefit of an epidural; The crisis is beyond the point of no return; US Economy will spiral out of control in early 2010; Re-read the primers and get your mind right
* Stagflation might happen; Anything is possible; Gravity might reverse itself; Magic beans might save us all; No one has a crystal ball or maybe we all do
* Magic Bubble Economy will give way to Extra Jumbo Survivor Countdown to Rapture Doomagedon Gardens; I see bubbles within bubbles within bubbles
* The news has turned negative; Yes We Cant
November 17, 2009
* Capitalism has no compassion for losers; The administration has two goals 1) Manage perception 2) Subserve the rich
* TAE focuses on trends, not daily noise; Markets don't respond much to noise but cows and sheep do
* The decadent facade has passed us by; We are in the twighlight of the empire; Enjoy these last golden days with flush toilets; Just a little collapse would be nice
* Collapse can be precipitated by one false rumor; TS will definitely HTF in next 60 days; Economy is like a terminal patient on chemo; Short term recovery doesn't equal remission; TAE gibt Diktate ueber Sterben und Tod
* CORRECTION: The herd isn't rallying ... The school is being fooled; Humans have the brains of fish; Watch your tone or else
* The rally, um fooling, will end someday; The herd, um school, is ready to panic and dash themselves upon the reef
* Denniger is full of piss and vinegar today; His emotional pleas are full of panic and hubris; Posters to his board are often racist
* We are headed toward a wall at full speed; Nature bats cleanup and is confidently pointing at the left field bleachers; Nature doesn't care about ism's
* Next leg down will bring out the know-nothings; Palin/Beck 2012
* Fed to spend $2T buying WSJ's Serena Ng a vowel; Bernanke announces in a major speech that it will most likely be an 'a'
* Some suggest eliminating all TAE commenters with screen names having a 'g' in them; This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen
* Federal reserve plans to heal the system by bleeding it; Wall Street to supply leeches
* Preparation has no downside
* US society is sociopathic; Destruction of the planet is non-negotiable
* Karl Denniger is good at recognizing trees but not forests; Meredith Whitney gets the big picture; She has a lucid grasp on a professional wrestler
November 14, 2009
* Will Obama invite Dick back? Dickey manipulates Barky through press conferences; Obama delivers Chains you can believe in; Lubricated chains are easier on the sprockets
* The Boyz
- Have fixed banking and housing are under control; Now for unemployment
- May be able to keep the plates in the air indefinitely as long as people believe the plates are in the air
- May get Barney to give them more power so they can better assist those doing G-d's work to spread their gospel
* BC is rainy in November; Rain is skookum but snow is skookumer; AZ and Oz wish they had some; Go north, young man, go north
* USD and S&P have hyperbolic relationship; Some lose sleep over charts
* Gold, slavery and polygamy are relics of barbarism and should be prohibited by congress; Gold is the perfect fiat currency; It is static and doesn't wear out; Coins would need to be small
* Prechter doesn't believe in peaks; Eliot waves are not peak aware; We are all peaked
* The march of the markets deserves more discussion; First annual Goofy Theory Day; TAE comments are full of theoretical sound and fury; Too many cry "lo here" and "lo there" and contend for their own ideas; No economic chart or data is of private interpretation; Straighten up and think right
* For Sale: Snerfling's cat - $1,000,000,000 OBO
* Deflationary collapse will require the consent of TPTB; Damn the savers, full speed ahead
* Congress follows that path of least resistance; Lobbyist write our legislation; To fix congress, quit your job and schnmooze congressmen full time; Voting congress out is replacing interchangeable parts
* There is excess everything in the system; We have reached peak excesss
* American have enough class resentment to lynch illegals but too little to hang the banksters; Burning vacant houses for fun and profit; People will kill the rich; The world will end in 2012 to be replaced by a new heaven and new earth
* The herd is pessimistic; Traders don't trust the rally; Fear of inflation makes people buy; Herd psychology explains nothing
* US capitalism can no longer afford public schools; US must choose between the Great Society and Capitalism
* Note to I & S: Please predict the future in detail so I can organize my little life; Please be specific so as to minimize the risk of me stubbing my toe
* Sparks occur regularly; Conflagrations start after a build up of fuel
* My Country Used to Be
November 6, 2009
* Bacon or Bacon Lord?
* TPTB at a glance:
- Obama is a tool of TPTB
- TPTB know TSWHTF
- TPTB should help people recalibrate their expectations
- Soon the TPTB will turn on their own; Some will become the powers that were
- TPTB believe slave labor is good for America
- TPTB don't know what real work is
- TPTB would love a world currency
- Unions are The Power That Ain't
* Firing the entire government would be a black swan event; Military will replace the government; US Military bases are orgies waiting to happen; If the military kills one civilian all heck will break loose; The country is on a hair trigger; Nothing can stop Mad Max; It's every man for himself; We are all patsies now
* Propaganda only works when people are fat and happy; Money can by fatness and happiness; Fat and happy people procreate more often; Cruise ships prove that some people are still fat and happy; Propaganda fails at TAE because TAEers are sometimes fat or happy but never both
* Elections are a farce; A third party or limiting centalized power would solve all our problems; Since nothing can be fixed we should spend our time emoting
* Poor management runs companies into the ground; GS gets flu shot heard round the world
* Todays questions:
- How high can a pitchfork fly?
- How deep is the rabbit hole ?
- Why bother with politics?
- Will we fall in line or fall on our swords?
- How can house prices rise without wages?
- Why is the BDI up?
* Some libertarians voted for Obama in hopes he would listen to Volcker; Window for change is now closed
* US is screwed but not as screwed as everyone else; We are too far down the wrong road; US protects pipe industry with tariffs
* Maria Martinez skills and pottery are stunning; One pot sells for $1K+ on EBay
* Sophists and morons aren't mutually exclusive; They sometimes marry and produce offspring that become economists
* Double digit unemployment will hurt; Maybe this plus health care will bring the crash we so dearly hope for
* We don't need no stinking jobs; No jobs = Easy Money = Chicks for free; A multi-orgasm pill would make Ilargi a bull; Without chips you can't bet
* Ilargi fails too keep out El Riff Raff again; Glennjeff demands we audit the fund drive
* Popular culture doesn't drive the markets; They are both driven by tree gnomes but the market responds faster; Tree gnomes like horrible news; Tree gnomes are not rational and can't do math
* Stock market is entering the Bermuda Triangle; Rally is well engineered; The market is not up in gold or Euros; Only inside traders can be successful; The market is divorced from fundamentals; The market got the house and the fundamentals got the kids
* Stuff costs more in dollars than it did in 1973; Posting stupid charts is stupid; How you feel is less important than how you smell
* Bacon or Bacon Lord?
November 4, 2009
* Scientists have proven there are exactly 10 questions they can't answer
- Studies show that man is 30% less unique than previously thought
- Humans kill 16K sentient beings per hour and eat them with A1 sauce; Yes, it's that important
- For a more harmonious world we should breed animals that want to be eaten, sheep that want to be fleeced and consumers that enjoy being ripped off
- Intelligent animal pictures were probably photoshopped; Elephant painting was actually done by Gaugin wearing a glove
* Some can't tolerate people who can't tolerate people who are intolerant; It's nice to be nice to the nice; Dogma is for the dogs; Bullsh*t is for the bulls
* Top new job for 2010: Selling Olde English 800, drugs, guns and funeral insurance door to door
* Cheshire cats are sarcastic; Cat lovers claim cats are conscious; Cats know this but won't admit it
* Obama wants Karzai to deal with corruption; Obama is the crock pot calling the pressure cooker black
* Buffet buys stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe; Says America must grow; Puts his whole self in and shakes it all about but doesn't raid his mattress; Is hoping for cap
and trade to make him rich; How much would you pay for this entire railroad? Don't answer yet, there's more...
* Trains are more efficient than trucks by many X; Someday trains and bikes will conveniently share the tracks; Rail was killed in the US (and UK) by conspiracy and unions;
Don't forget the caboose
* Mein Vater war kein Wandersman
Da war er viel zu faul
Er schafte sich ein Dreirad an
Und fuhr mit hundertzehn
* Mish is on the same page as I and S but confines himself to the headings and footnotes
* Treasury invites bloggers to Tea Party
- Nelson can do math
- Some smart zillionaire should launch a new credit card company
- Old people can still have a grip on reality
- Canada is just a brand name and has no national emergency plan, those hoseheads, eh
* Maybe the market will go sideways
- Maybe if we ignore the market it will go away
- Maybe TPTB are propping up the market until their shorts are in place; It will then collapse like a dead fall on the little people
* People have a god shaped hole in their head; Religious nuttery is on the rise; Fundamentalism is always a crisis to a response; Religious people are intolerant and
ignorant but make nice homeless people; Choose your fellow nuts carefully
* Religion stifles growth but procreates more; Atheism fosters growth but procreates less; Exponential population growth is scary; Love, peace and asymptotes
* All human institutions are eventually taken over by by three-piece-suited interests; We will see massive debt defaults, trade barriers and a surplus of labor; Medical professionals will make nice homeless people; "Will give colorectal exams for food and shelter"
* Ilargi fails to keep the riff raff out; El G sharpens beak on carborundum stone
* Middle class is the goose that lays the golden eggs; The rich kill it at their own peril; Bankers red in tooth an claw
* Definition of the Day: Non-combatant : A dead Quaker - Ambrose Bierce
* Come Dick.
Come and buy.
Come, come.
Come and buy.
Come and buy a house.
October 30, 2009
* What will happen to the EU? It won't survive in it's present form; Bubble will take its toll on UK, Ireland and Spain
* Expansion engenders trust and commonality; Contraction fosters mistrust and isolation; The Roman Empire demonstrated this
* Desperate people will sacrifice their health for food; Once the US masses are weak from hunger they will figure out who is to blame and right all wrongs; Whose blood will flow in the streets? Anyone's who can't afford Coumarin
* Candidates for national offices are all chosen by TPTB; In the US democracy doesn't exist outside of the boxing ring; Politicians are like interchangeable parts; Never vote for a candidate who might win; Will all those who voted for the Lobotomy Party please fess up?
* The Army spread the flu in 1918 through personnel shuffling; Personnel shuffling circumvents bonding with locals; Health emergencies are a useful way to stop peacable assembly
* Freedom depends on credit and energy and will decrease; We are approaching the era of Big Men; I am localized, thou are territorial and he is feudal
* Giving each citizen $1 million would solve all our problems; Your money and your life will be digitized for your convenience
* Group accupuncture is a good future job; Also teaching others how to cook vegetables (Ahimsa, Dr. J - Don't even think about it); Stoneleigh has knit-rich quick scheme
* Fair value and the mind of a woman are unknowable; The best and brightest don't know how to fix the economy; They are out at the stables asking the King's horses for advice; The horses suggest pooping their diapers
* Aussies dependent on global resources; SE Asia electronics industry sees up tick in orders to fill warehouses; China's credit bubble about to pop
* States should consider seccession; HiDef Hoovervilles makes a great screensaver; The economy is like a wet t-shirt contest inside a circle j*rk
* Ilargi accused of wielding indirect imperatives; Tsk, tsk
* People are repelled by pessimism; Doomers have clueless friends; Rational explanations of collapse are far scarier than wild eyed, half assed ones; Just say no to doomer crack
* EU indices broke Tuesday's downward trend; Ilargi called yesterday's head fake correctly; Descent into scheduled for the Ides of November; TPTB won't be able to maintain their standard of living as the machine stops; Get ready for the parade of scapegoats
* Word of the day: pellucid – adjective
1. allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass; translucent.
2. clear or limpid: pellucid waters.
3. clear in meaning, expression, or style: a pellucid way of writing.
* TAEers were hoping for a picture of Stoneleigh
They seek her here, they seek her there
Those doomers seek her everywhere
Is she in heaven or is she in hades
That damned, elusive Stonelady
October 28, 2009
* Since Real Estate IS the US economy feds will do everything in their power to keep it afloat; If needs be they can lower interest rates, print more dollars or stroke Obama's lucky rabbit's foot; Foreclosed house lottery could solve all our problems
* Be careful how you use plastics and styrofoam; We are all to blame for the widening gyre in the Pacific; Gyre is twice the size of Texas but wetter; Oceans, once thought too big to fail, aren't; Greenpa suggests outfitting ships to collect the gyre plastic and recycle it into Toys-R-Us gift cards; Japanese experiment with ships that collect and run on plastic waste; Plastic eating microbes could solve all our problems
* Authorities are now raiding safe deposit boxes; If you have one document its contents carefully
* TAE now on Facebook and Twitter; Ilargi to appear on cover of Tiger Beat
* Homeowners tax credit probably discontinued; It was fun for realtors while it lasted
* Treasury lacks shrewdness; Did Team Obama throw the game or lose to the banks fair and square? The center cannot hold and the quarterback has butter fingers as well
* CNBC viewership down for lack of crises; People enjoy watching fireworks more than clockworks
* Gringos and Ticans get along; They band together against their common enemy, the dreaded Agouti
* Lounge-suite update:
- Origial contest was to pick the day of the market swan dive (not the peak)
- Peak was on Oct 19th but no big drops yet
- Because of momentum markets don't crash from the top; Dive from the cliff, not the peak
- A few more days of small declines may cause panic as investors smell the smoke
- Lounge-suite has noble history as grand prize
* Greenpeace is the Orek of environmental organizations: Noisy and ineffective but great marketing; Paul Watson is the superior eco-terrorist and has a cooler boat; Harpoons can puncture hulls; Net rippers are a two-edged sword
* Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
October 23, 2009
* Scenario 1: The Corn Pone American Dictator cometh; He/She will be the Great Repudiator of the Fed, debts, state x-fer funding, banker's rights and American exceptionalism and then rebuild a just society; With any luck 2040 can look like 1940
* Scenario 2: TPTB will continue to be TPTB; More bailouts and handouts at taxpayer expense, more power to the Fed, the dollar tanks and foreigners use their excess dollars to buy the US, states will start printing their own currencies; Unfortunately 2040 will look like 2040
* Most people imagine the economy is recovering because they are still in the car; Will the wheels come off or will we just have a flat with no spare?
* Mostly people have skewed priorities; All the laws in the world can't fix things; It will all end in tears; We are in a room with no exit; Let's get on with it ...
* Discouraging civil disobedience by offering creature comforts works; Democracy assumes it is easier to bribe a million men than to bribe one; Monarchy assumes it is easier to bribe one man than to bribe a million men; Libertarians assume men won't take bribes
* Evans-Pritchard:
- Pensions and entitllements are unsustainable
- Maintain a stiff upper lip and get on with things-Be ye warmed and filled
- He is just trying to be provocative
- He is acting coy and aloof when he knows perfectly well what is going on
- He should not be allowed to write his predictions
* Who will prepare us for the horrors to come; TAE will help only a few; Why can't the MSM just shout fire in the theatre and be done with it?
* How not to be a Libertarian:
- Learn to understand implications and complexity
- Masculate the government to keep out corporations
- Don't be doctrinaire
- Don't assume men act logically
- Don't believe the charade of laissez-faire capitalism
- Be in it together
- Make sure you worship a god with strong feet
* Bank failures up to 100; Not every one wants a $69 a month car; People haven't changed for 4000 years; Thirteen dollar an hour job draws 500 applications (Note: Job unfairly award to a non-red head)
* US Bank centered stimulus isn't working and can't work; Denninger thinks the fun is about to begin again; Stoneleigh agrees the rally is essentially over; Time to sit it out or short in the tall cotton; This time it will be different: the fun will be funner
* Corporations:
- Their prime directive is to maximize profits for shareholders
- Their CEOs cannot legally be nice guys
- They shouldn't be associated with worthy causes
- They make students hawk junk door to door so they can have field trips
- They make crummy public/private partnerships to fund required infrastructure
- They cannot be altruistic
- They cannot be affected by an appeal to morals standards
- Revenues are down all over but CEOs uinversally proclaim the worst is over
* Husbands and wives sometimes disagree on the road to TEOTWAWKI; Is money in the bank really money in the bank? Food to eat next year or new curtains today - which to choose?
October 26, 2009
If declining house prices are bad then rising house prices must be good; Fear of the stigma of foreclosure is all that holds back the deluge; The fear is less that 15 years ago; Debtor prisons may make fear popular again
* Five acres and independence costs $10K in the mid-west; El Gallinazo comes home to Costa Rico; My heros have always been gringos
* Not all countries let you deduct interest paid on homes; Home interest tax deduction should be graduated
* We are in a death sprial; Meds are way to expensive; Big pharma giveth, big pharma taketh away, blessed be the name of big pharama
* There may be a trigger in the next two weeks; Two months from now we will know a lot more about the next two months; Things will definitely go south when the Pepsi generation turns to Geritol; Maybe we'll skid to a stop and not crash
* Cheap money boom may last another year; The longer the collapse takes in coming the harder it will be; If TEOTWAWKI is a year late will you recognize it, or mistake if for Armageddon?
* Ohio banks were closed and then withdrawals were limited during S&L crisis; Now banks are perfectly safe thanks to the FDIC, especially Bear Stearns; Only possible problem is over-printing causing hyper-inflation
* The minor downsides to having cash at home: it might burn up, it might be eaten by rodents, someone else might want it bad enough to cut off your fingers one at a time; Soon you will have to prove that your cash belongs to you
* There are too few trees in the forest; There are too few fish in the sea ; Sooner or later hamsters reach terminal velocity; Vultures are less assertive than 15 years ago
* TAE is riveting; US only manufactures heavy equipment, cadillacs and burgers; Someday tempers will snap and the shooting will begin; Yesterday Sheila Bair's head spun around and green vomit poured from her mouth
* If there is nothing you can do about your situation, by all means do it; Crimson is coming, the goose is getting fat; Things will be weird soon
* October 26 is the big one (Note: that's today); October 29 is 4 turnings from the big crash; November 5th is also appealing but inconvenient for Ilargi; Have a nice day unless you had other plans
* Market Crash predictions from TAE, Sept. 21, 2009
- Coy Ote - September 29, 2:36 PM
- Snuffy - October 15
- David - October 16
- Bigelow - October 25
- El G - October 24-29
- Bob (Your Uncle) - Early November
Sorry David, Snuffy, Bigelow and Coy Ote: The grand-prize lounge-suite will not be yours
October 19, 2009
* Anthropoligists claim TAE breeds wimps; Anthropologist are funny; Spice is an anthropologist and knows a lot about fossilized men and archaic cultures
* Never use "if", "and" or "but" when you write; If you do you are weak and stupid but won't admit it
* Only TAE and Daily Reckoning have predicted a market crash this fall; Others say it will be another 6 months to 2 years; Please stick to trends and leave certainties to the professionals
* Patient: Doctor, what's the prognosis?
Doctor: In 2 1/2 months we will know if you are dead or not ... Is that really so long to wait?
* The whole thing stinks; Only question is how much cologne do TPTB have on hand
* Those doubting the Crash this fall are bullisht; Crash date doesn't matter unless you're a dummy and own SDS; We will know the turning point has come when VultureKind become bearish
* A prediction is like Bernaise sauce on Spam; It offends the delicate palate
* The market is mananged so screw it; Instead prepare; Stoneleigh's recommendations are more important than her predictions; If you are prepared you shall not fear
* Hope and despair keep us going; House flipping again replaces burger flipping as entry level job; Economy is not robust no matter what the DOW is at
* News stories point to an attack on Iran; War will be used to manipulate the economy for the benefit of Goldman, Sachs, et. al; Wars always have their intended consequences
* S&P at 666 was low; S&P at 1111 will be high; Within a year we are all going to hell in a handbasket
* Imports are down in LA; Educating women reduces fertility rates; All fields have whores
* The US Government has intentionally chosen illegitimacy; Those bastards
October 20, 2009
* Will 2009 be the end of consumer credit? All credit now comes from the Federal Government; Your bank balance will someday be shouted from the housetops
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- He will not finish his first term unless he does
- Once the market turns he will be a hiss and a byword
- Some were ecstatic about his ascent
- His treasury team are thieves and liars
- His honeymoon is over
- He will become the velcro president
- He will be stomped out like the grapes of wrath
- He is protected by the Cultural Messiah Complex
- He is attacked by Beck, Limbaugh and Palin but also some on the left
- If only he were as wonderful as FDR
* Of Presidents Past
- FDR was reliably opposed to financial power
- Truman stopped the buck
- Reagan was the dream boat president; Why can't O be like he was, perfect in every way
- Clinton institutionalized unlimited finance and credit
* Next to freedom of speech, the Presidency was the founders biggest mistake, so much power, so little restraint; Presidency used to be weaker; Congress gave the power away just like the Roman Senate; Don't blame congress, blame the people
* A nation requires a cause and a leader; Unfortunately this attracts the worst; The political process guaruntees unpleasant self-interested people in office
* We reserve "The Great" for those leading during optimism and "The Terrible" for those leading during pessimisim; No report of the Czar's wedding night was ever made, but it was noted that afterwards he called her Katherine the Great, while she refered to him as Ivan the Terrible
* Fracking battle looms; All alternative energy falls victim to the law of receding horizons; Fracking will not solve anything; New finds are overrated game changers
* Human race is doomed until they stop the hewing of trees and slaying of beasts; Killing is the root of all evil; A military coup would solve all our problems; We will have war before Christmas
* Where is the outrage?
-The outrage is simmering among dentists and farmers
-Greed retards outrage
-People think the cyclical economy will continue forever so no worries
-Revolutions are inevitable, given angular momentum
* Personal truth fuels creativity; TAE is invaluable; Sheep have brains; Kucinich and Paul are the only congressmen who get it; The FED is working as planned
* Inflation and Deflation are a one-two punch but what's the timing? Heed "The Warning"; Watch out for icebergs; Only apologize after you're impotent
* Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings
Of the Golden future time.
Bright will shine the fields of England,
Purer shall its waters be,
Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes
On the day that sets us free.
For that day we all must labour,
Though we die before it break;
Cows and horses, geese and turkeys,
All must toil for freedom's sake.
October 13, 2009
* TOD leads some to TAE; Other tear their hair out at the irony
* Administration announces cash for clothes lines program; Subsidizes major appliance sales and raises neighborhood property values at same time
* The economy will undulate; Recovery will be \ / shaped; Sometimes we must just agree to be disagreeable
* Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on Nobel Committee; Jekyll voted for Obama in hopes of single payer health care; Hyde voted for Obama in hopes of all out war with Pakistan; Having done nothing so far Obama now pledges to Oblige both
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
- Obama wants war without borders
- Obama doesn't get it but he knows
- Obama is the Survivor President; He wasn't elected, he just didn't get voted off
- Obama didn't choose himself for Peace Prize; When asked to vote he Obstained
- Obama is like the Sun King, except no one gets to watch him dress; Pendant moi, la deluge
* The Return of Anonymous; Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the tip jar; Don't donate until after you've made your killing; Don't predict until after TSHTF
* If corporations = prosperity and prosperity = goodness then corporations = goodness; Damn the externalities, full speed ahead
* Oh Lutefisk... Oh Lutefisk... how fragrant your aroma
Oh Lutefisk... Oh Lutefisk... You put me, in a coma
You smell so strong... You look like glue
You taste just like an overshoe
But Lutefisk ... come Saturday
I think I'll eat you anyway.
October 16, 2009
* Can we just have our collapse and move on? Market collapse is nonsense and will never happen; DOW will be at 36K five years ago; This time it really is different; There are too many pessimists now for a market collapse
* Plank's time of present too short for a decent coffee break
* Posting fake employment adds on craigslist is an amusing past time; Interviewing for a mid level job now requires a stunning presentation in front of top managers; Math skills and a nice suit are pre-requisites
* Amount of debt issued this decade is unprecedented; Mathematically impossible to reduce debt by borrowing; What will force the banks to face reality? Bank's may be betting against their own loans
* Crisis is both political and financial; How will Joe Public react to Goldman bonuses? America will die in its sleep like my grandfather, not hysterical and screaming like his passengers
* Sociopaths are not suicidal; Emos are not sociopathic
* Ethics were popular in 1958; Ponzi is the prophet for the new millenium
* Burning rabbits for energy:
- It's comic relief
- It's a renewable energy source
- Culling is a euphemism
- Same modest proposal should be made in NZ
- Cats, horses and talk show hosts likely next
- Why not eat them instead, or better yet, burn them, then eat them?
- Swedes got the idea from Bunny Winthrop
October 10, 2009
* Shorpy's delight - Cheese cake, beef cake and back to cheese cake
* Handouts to the poor are charity; Handouts to the rich are investments
* Science is useful but not true; Number theory is true but not useful; Economics is neither true nor useful
* Russians pillage and are proud of it
* Obama wins Nobel peace prize with Shock and Awe; Alfred Nobel funded the prizes with dynamite profits; Nobel committee adopts prize now, peace later approach; Obama considers prize as a call to actually do something; The prize might tie his hands; This approach sometime works on pubescent boys
* Deflation is on the way; Nothing can stop the decomposition of a corpse; Attempts to do this just kills the vultures
* US Empire most powerful and corrupt of any empire since a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away; US guilty of inflicting greatest pain on greatest number though Mariah Carey concerts are a close second
* DOW at 9864; VK in depressionary spiral which will lead to a devaluation of his currency; Rally will continue as long as people hate it
* Making swords is crazy but making plows is insane; Earth was a garden of Eden before agriculture spoiled paradise; Firebombing is less destructive than plowing; Even so most people prefer WheatThins to being firebombed
* Animals don't make money; Animals aren't entrepeneurs though a few play one on TV
* Blessed are the rich: for theirs are the kingdoms of earth.
Blessed are the profligate: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the proud: for they shall inherit everything.
Blessed are they which do glut themselves on the labors of others: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciless: for they shall need no mercy.
Blessed are the pure in malice: for they shall think they are god.
Blessed are the warmongers: for theirs is the Nobel prize.
Blessed are they which persecute for profit's sake: for theirs are the riches of the earth.
Blessed are ye, when men shall commend you, and award you, and shall say all manner of good about you falsely
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward on earth: for so awarded they the Kissingers which were before you.
September 29, 2009
* Gold makes a great double edged sword; Silver is better than gold because its not as valuable; Copper is better than silver because it's even less valuable; Dirt beats them all; Mercury is too liquid
* Gold, silver, dirt and your sorry ass all really belong to the government and can be confiscated at any time; Semi-numismatic coins are the exception; Swiss 20 franc coins CAN'T be confiscated because they are family heirlooms
* Those owning gold are either idiots or geniuses or both
* Timing of next leg down is easy; Stock market rally will end when Fed stops fueling it; Don't fight the Fed; Stocks used to pay dividends; The power to call margin is the power to destroy
* Some like navigating the rapids in lifeboats; Some prefer the freedom of swimming with the current while wearing only a golden speedo and silver nose plugs; Lifeboaters are solid, stationary and stodgy; Lifeboats can end up on the rocks; Those who don't like lifeboats are free to build deathboats
* Low value comments are two notches too low to appreciate
* Unemployment of the young mitigated by Obama Youth plans; US to take great leap forward
* Ahimsa finds food for thought; Apparently no meat in today's comments
October 1, 2009
* Scandanavia and Canada are still rising; Robert's neighborhood is under water and depends on perpetual bailouts
* Crashes and rallies are not orderly but proceed like a monkey with a parasol
* Economy is teetering on the brink; Collapse may be painfully slow or blessedly quick; A war may be used to conceal the collapse; Rationing is acceptable during war; The fat lady hasn't sung yet
* Stoneleigh says expect an unemployment uptick; Boy, that was quick
* Hitler uses an iPhone; Obama uses a blackberry; El G uses a sawzall; Same result can be had with all three
* CJB is in a good situation; Is there room for one more?
* Depression resistant jobs: Hands on skills like butcher, baker, gunsmith or masseuse are good; There is joy in working with one's hands; Having both a professional skill and a trade skill is a good idea; When TSHTF we will we will still need lawyers
* Income inequality is a yawning chasm and everyone knows it
* Snow white ate the apple; Sleeping beauty pricked her finger; Rumplestiltskin spun straw into gold; Most princes won't help a damn-soul in distress
* Pop quiz - Pirsig rode:
a) A BMW
b) A British Twin
c) A Honda
d) He just wrote the book, Phaedrus rode the bike
For the answer see this
* S & P up despite bad news; Market in incomprehensible zone; Investors try to guess what others will guess that everyone will guess that everyone else will guess about how news will influence the market; VK called the top at 9800; V in VK stands for Vizzini
* Chicago won't get 2016 olympics and never will since they will be the last ones
October 5, 2009
* Yesterday's T much nicer than today's A; Farmerod thinks maybe he owns Ilargi's ass; American bridges are collapsing but will still support an ass and a wheelbarrow
* Taxes always cost people money
* For the good of the country please have a bake sale and send the proceeds to your local jet engine researcher
* California is like a third world country; Texas will soon look like Mexico; Texas never had the boom but will share the bust; Texas state bird is Mockingbird; Maybe Texas will secede; Some Texas towns don't have police
* Ski bums are also avalanche experts; They understand the pucker factor better than most of us
* Allies in 1945 had secret agreement to avoid bombing their investments in Germany
* Allies in 2009 have a secret agreement to divorce the dollar and oil
* Crows have been warning us for years; Man arrested for tweeting warnings to friends; Small savings can be coaxed into a big nest egg by brooding
* FDIC is flat broke but still guaruntees $9 Trillion in deposits
* Aluminum screen can be used in food dryers; Tin market is cornered; Oil and gold up; We're out of the woods we're out of the dark, we're out of the night
* The DOW is undead; Economy is being hollowed out by maggots; Max Keiser looks lost and no longer sports Ed Grimley hair cut
* Sell your gold and everything else; Hoard cash and dried fruit
September 27, 2009
* TAE Summary Archive; Previously Noon, Nightly and Occasional Summary
* Tax extensions run out October 15th; Could cause bankruptcies
* US following footsteps of USSR; Government is bailing out the staterooms and throwing the water into steerage
* Denninger's site temporarily unreachable; Conspiracy theorists disappointed when it comes back on line
* The market will rally until the Fed cuts the umbilical cord; Fed is propping up a long dead horse; Eventually gravity and putrescence will win out
* Will the dollar spawn a new carry trade? Carry trade requires: 1) Interest rate differential for two countries 2) Stable rates for said two countries 3) Safe long term investments. 2) and 3) seem questionable
* Market has topped; Hold on to your hats; Small bank runs this year, bank holiday next year; Cash is best; In a crisis everyone wants the same thing so no one gets it
* Unemployment among young Americans at 50%; Social Security will run deficits within the next two years
* The Fed, trapped between Scylla and Charibdis, yearn for good old days when their only task was to resist the Sirens' song
* Comments are better now; All things in moderation
* Government will retest the economy by scaling back bailouts; Once they let go will the house of cards still stand?
* Greenpa's Rule of Thumb: Men cannot use a stick longer than their thumb to beat their wives
* Flight to dollar is an emotional imperative; Dollar collapse is logically inevitable; Rush for stock market exit will be warm up for rush for the dollar exit; Dollar will hold its value in hotdogs but not in francs
* Governments are not pro-active: They act because they are forced to; Centralized services will collapse
* Blessed are the cheesmakers, for they shall inherit the earth
September 24, 2009
* Jobs of the future:
- Blacksmith
- Metal joiner/welder
- EV builder
- Motor repair
- Baker
- Brewer
- Carpenter
- Seamster/seamstress
- Moonshiner
- Gardener
- Orchardist
- Food processor
- Container supplier
- Sail powered shipper
- Nut fed pork smoker
- Tool sharpener
- Distiller
- Woodcutter
- Herbalist/Healer
- Gunsmith
- Security expert
- Rickshaw driver
- Bicycle repairman
- Confectioner
- Water pump expert
* Home sales slide; Next rabbit out of hat imminent
* Will London 2012 Olympics happen? Inertia has made Vancouver 2010 Olympics inevitable; Ric2 thinks the Olympics willl be replaced by military units from different countries getting together for fun and games
* Giant hoard of precious metals found in South Staffordshire, England; Archaeologists believe it was accumulated by a 7th century doomer in an attempt to ride out the collapse of the dark ages
* Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
The prose of James Kunstler, the punch of Ali
* Hey Nonny Nonny No
September 21, 2009
* Market Crash Day Predictions
- David - Friday October 16
- El G - October 24-29
Bluebird - Black Swan Day
- Jal - Unforseen Event Day
- El G and David - Beard Crystal falls in Super-Saturated Crisis Solution Day
- Bigelow - October 25 (market crash), November 1 (currency crisis), Dec 1 (Drive Drunk Day)
- Alan Greenshoots - Holiday-Shopping-Season-is-a-Bust Realization Day
- Aesthete - Bloody Bear Trap Day
- Stoneleigh - The End Approacheth Day
- Snuffy - October 15 or After Iran Attack Whichever Comes First Day
- Bob (Your Uncle) - Early November (BTW, Uncle Bob, how are things in Arizona?)
- Coy Ote - September 29, 2:36 PM (EST or PST? Please be specific)
- VK - Now and Forever Day
* Short sellers will be blamed for market collapse; May not collect on winning bets; Shorting DOW Stinks
* Lost work of Nicollo Twain found: The Prince and the Pauperization
* No wonder home ownership was crazy - It was easier to buy than to rent; This is also true of bicycle parts
* Cod and most other fish peaked years ago; McJellyfish Filet to become most popular sandwich of new millenium
* Personal tradgedy isolates; General tragedy unites; USA may be too big for cohesion and will require a really huge tragedy to bring us all together
* Nassim broaches diet question; Dr J. and Ahimsa lock and load; Frank opines that all will agree that obesity is bad; Step away from your keyboard Frank, and no one will get hurt
* Don't seek revenge; As Ahimsa says V is for Vegetta
* How to personally increase GDP - Have a massive heart attack while chopping down a forest, requiring an ambulance ride to a hospital for an ineffective 17-hour open heart surgery. Launch a class action suit against the doctor, the ambulance driver and the forest.
* Gravity writes on-line that some Arabic letters describe the recession well; Hey Grav, be sure and say hi to our friends from Homeland Security for us
* Soviet motto: If the Communists didn't make our shoes who would?
American motto: If Americans didn't buy the Communists shoes, who would?
* Protesting is a big waste of time and accomplishes nothing, just like baseball
* Western Finance is Dead; Long Live Western Finance
* Ben threatens he'll sh*t on the fan if audited, but luckily he won't do it in public; Foreclosing on people is miserable work but someone has to do it
* Blessed are the adaptable for they shall inherit the earth; Demise of large marine species due to pesticides and plastics; Humans won't go extinct for millions of years unless they evolve into sea creatures
* Man thinks he is god; Norway is a beacon of sanity
* The peak X occurs when X is half gone; Ponzi dynamics will cause collapse, not unavailabilty of oil; Oil has peaked in either scenario
* If PEOPLE you're eating
The taste is determined
By if they ate veggies
Or if they ate vermine
September 18, 2009
* Some like what Glenn Beck says but not how he says it; Beck is compared to various animals; Some cry foul, saying animals are not that hateful and violent; Others point out that some animals (e.g vultures, rodents and coyotes) are often as mean and nasty as Beck
* Q: What is the difference between socialized debt load and socialized medicine?
A: Catastrophic illness should not be equated with bad debts except for in those really, really rare cases where the illness causes financial insolvency
* Dr. J suggests paying for Ford's steel to help them be more competitive; Through socialism we can all live on less and less until we can live on nothing; We all belong to everyone else
* Spice in bed with swine flu; Meanwhile Greenpa spends his time pausing runway sex-slave videos; Disappointingly few redheads fall prey to this cruel trap
* V is for Vendetta; D is for Dumpster; P is for Plutocracy
* FED = Fox; Bank = Chicken coop; Safer coop is major goal of TAE; No chicken coop is safe from weasels; Best to distribute your chickens in several coops; The FDIC saves coops and weasels, not chickens; El G may start his own coop
* I used to rule the coop
Decide who would be chicken soup
Now in the morning I scratch alone
In the yard that I used to own
I used to peck at flies
See the fear in the cockerel's eyes
Listen as the hen's would squawk
"Now the old Cock is dead! Long live the Cock!"
(Apologies to Coldplay)
* Word for the day: Crappahola
Part of Speech: Noun
Definition: Obvious
Alternate Derivation: Onomatapeia for the sound effect in a deep-holed out house
Personified form: Crappaholic, e.g. Some crappaholics don't believe what I know to be true
September 17, 2009
* Life's big questions: 1) When is our lease up in la-la land? 2) Who's paying the rent in la-la land? 3) Who will profit when we're evicted from la-la land?
* VK compares the economy to a roller coaster; Can you still here the chink-a-chink-a-chink?
* Aaron misses out on his well-deserved big fat slice of pyramid pie and blames Stoneleigh
* TAE Right Winger offers a deal to Aesthete: He will quit calling cultures he know nothing about backwards if she will stop her senseless harping about equality and justice; Aesthete respects a good insult and is affronted when Ilargi doesn't insult her
* Dec 21, 2012 represents the point at which some unknown Mayan scupltor's chisel broke
* This game could last a few more years; The recession is probably, pretty much, mostly, kind of over; Leading indicators are never wrong because they are developed retroactively
* Ilargi accepts cash
* Glenn Beck:
Has a sick family and deserves our pity
Has survived talking to godless, liberal pinheads
Is not a genius but plays one on TV
Is a great American and admits it often
* Greenpa says ACORN is like Boeing; Gary North says the FED is like Jesus; Coy Ote says Glenn Beck is like Monsanto
* Bob Toll sells his stock; What does he know and when did he know it?
* Nubile investors are thrilled and anxious as they contemplate getting screwed by the market
* Stoneleigh visits; The rally is almost over; Greed is in on stage but fear is in the wings schmoozing the fat lady
September 8, 2009
* Exercize doesn't cause weight loss, weight loss causes exercize; It sounds counter-intuitive, but have you no steak or cream pies or hot fudge? 5 year study proves that a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat
* DEATH wields a schythe but recommends HAV-A-HART Rodent Traps; Rodent needs a new home; Note: Deer are not rodents
* Why believe I and S when 99.9% of bona fide telephone cleaners disagree with them? Instead trust The Wisdom of the Clowns: How Buffoons Shape our Societies and Nations
* Today is Soylent Green Shoots Day; The FED is here To Serve Man; 42% believe members of congress should be randomly chosen from a comic book
* The good news for the day: Hotels now cheaper in Vegas; Trained Amish teenage girls seek better employment; Sometimes things go boomp in the night
* Going against the grain is damn hard stuff; Luckily sewer pipes have no grain
* Alot of people would of been happier not preparing for Y2K; I and S are secretly owners of an MRE factory
* A stock pile is an insurance policy; Insurance policies are a bad bet; A better bet is cash in your mattress
*Be prepared
For what?
The death of the King
Is he sick?
No, I'm going kill him
August 12, 2009
* Luck conquers all; If you think your land can't be confiscated you are probably near denial; Having lots of kids can decimate your population
* Porno interns working for free; Flint and Heffner: Let me tell you them guys ain't dumb
* Debt is a trap; debtor prison and indentured servitude ahead
* Upside for rising home prices is absolute zero; Movement in home prices will not be reached by artificial or natural means
* Softball is a complex sport; Only real men can play short stop; There's no i in team but there is in left field
* Obama proposes new value of PI; Thinks current value is too unregulated and may lead to abuse; US is number -e^i*pi; All our problems are due to Moral Decay; Annexing China as 51st US state will solve all our problems
* SRS being sued; Leveraged funds may be a thing of the past; Bears will need to buy puts instead
* Military deployment being shuffled; Suicide king and Joker vying for top card
* Doomsday is coming the goose is getting fat
Please to put a billion in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a billion, ha' a billion will do
If you haven't got ha' a billion then God help you
July 23, 2009
* TAE posters have shown their true colors; TAE poster are the right wing progeny of Reagan; Reagan's first act was to take the solar panels off the White House; Be very afraid because TAEers may take your solar panels; TAEers should align themselves with constructive attitudes; TAE is like a pond in a cave; Aesthete is here to drop a pebble in that pond
* Stoneleigh tells us things we already know and we love her for it; Ilargi tells us things we don't know and we hate him for it
* Life is like a roller coaster ride: It is an automated and irrevocable process which rules out human meddling; It is not real or dangerous unless you just drank a quart of Sunny D; Keep your hands and feet inside the car and have fun
* Americans mistakenly believe money is a store of value; Norwegians are wiser and used massive oil revenues to buy enough lutefisk to last the whole country for 500 years; Now THAT'S a store of value
* Women are attracted by status, especially big horns; Women deserve their own big horns; Women should have half the seats in congress and 3/4 of the congressional bathrooms; Testosterone is dangerous and should be kept out of reach of children
* Scepticus came here from Mishland; Scepticus won't give Ilargi his coffee receipt so Ilargi can get back on his high horse and be off to the freeway; Playing catch with scepticus is fun; Scepticus is intelligent, rational and curteous; Banning scepticus is a terrible idea; Banning scepticus is a great idea; Negative interest rates will be the dawning of the age of Aquarius
* Ilargi underestimates the powers of the power that be to keep the powers that be in power
* The bottom and the top should discuss things more; They should have coffee, see a Norwegian movie, go home, take off their clothes and see what happens
* It's my blog and I can ban if I want to ... You would ban too if it happened to you
* The recession is technically over except for those who are technically screwed
* Three types of trolls: Dopey, Grumpy and Insulty; Scepticus is not a troll; Ahimsa may be a troll or a plant or an infiltrator; Softspoken, polite, well mannered posters are the worst kind of trolls; Let's take them out back and kick the shit out of them; Dwarves are worse than trolls
* Word of the day: PUTRESCINE n. A poisonous, colorless, foul-smelling ptomaine produced by the decarboxylation of ornithine, especially in decaying animal tissue which is irresistible to vultures
July 14, 2009
* Why do Ilargi and Stoneleigh use handles? Are they paranoid? Founding Fathers used handles; Some use handles to protect their employers from the embarassment of employing a TAE poster; Mike Ruppert, Jay Hanson and Alex Jones use their real names; Gary North refuses to respond to anonymous persons, therefore anonymous persons suck; Real names are too easy to lampoon say D. Bent-one Smith; Ilargi and Stoneleigh are in company with Mark Twain, George Eliot and the Son of Sam
* Those who attack I and S are pathetic and boring with itsby, bitsy, teeny little brains; They HAVE NO LIFE or legitimate thoughts; Their comments are pointless and should be deleted before respectable folks have to read them; Shame on them and their cowardly insinuations; Someone should hold a gun to their head until they move to another blog
* Some parents don't want their children raising chickens, buying water filters or playing with 9mm semi-autos
* Don't feed the serpent; Decouple baby, decouple; TAEers are moving from profiting from collapse to preparing for collapse
* Collapse will be followed by internal fighting; Goldman Sachs will either eat or be eaten; Some will sit in the street and starve; Others will go Mad Max; Stimulus money to be spent on doomer freeway signs
* Chinese stock bubble will burst on July 17th with the fury of a dragon
* Wind from kites may solve all our problems; Nuclear power may solve all our problems; Hemp and opium may solve all our problems; Herbal medicine may solve all our problems
* New readers should read the primers; A primer of primers would be nice
* Which ISM do I and S prefer? All people live under ISMs
* Ilargi's words are great and worth remembering; Meredith Whitney best viewed with sound off
* Eating healthy and swearing can help prevent disease; Eat your damn vegetables; "Where There is No Doctor" recommended
* Connecting dots is a waste of time; Reality always wins; Where is Starcade?
* Wells Fargo told to go f--k themselves, complies
* TAE is just a blog on the bliposphere; TPTB leave nothing to chance; Ben Bernanke wears Depends
Occasional Summary
* TAE is like a pressure gauge; Will give us time to run like hell before everything goes KA-BOOM; Some suggest KA has already happened
* Dollar stores to be renamed "Five Bit" Stores
* Bernanke to drop money from helicopters; Hopes this will keep pitchforks busy
* Farmland may be the next bubble; No good will come of it; Speculators may drive up prices
* Fed is a private corporation except in Washington where they are public servants
* TPTB rule by instilling fear; You are what you borrow
* Some recommend Daily Mail over TAE; Stoneleigh rumored to have been page 3 girl in previous life
* Australia will have no social collapse because 1) It doesn't kill abortion doctors 2) Voting is compulsory 3) Liberals and conservatives are forced to sleep together 4) Corporations are run by nice men 5) Its is non-empirical and 6) Tonsilectomies are free
* Debt settlement spam deleted; Cheery picture of debt-free family cavorting on beach seen by only a lucky few
* China may attack Australia because of its close association with the US; Free Toowoomba; Chinese employ soft power also known as fluffy nukes
* D. Benton Smith's First Law: Prepare for calamity or prepare for disaster
* Some like the idea of moving to Vermont; Some say this is too close to the golden hordes of Manhattan; In Vermont spring is perpetually around the corner smoking a joint
* World hunger: "Over 1 Billion not served"
* Robb makes the Book of Stoneleigh available at skydrive (Hurray!!!)
* Flesheaters are tragic and disgusting, should expand their minds and should be ground into sausage; When raising cows is outlawed only outlaws will raise cows; Ilargi calls an end to meat wars (Hurray!!!)
* Anti-missile defense is the Maginot Line in Space
* US is digging itself into giant deflationary hole
* Blinky spotted at the Plaza in Las Vegas; Think outside the burrow; WWBD T-Shirts now available
Final Summary
* The dollar will be toast someday; Don't buy a house yet; Buy SDS in a few months; Get some gold and sliver if you can afford it; Plant a garden; Learn some skills; Make some friends
* Peak oil is on the back burner; Someday it will return to the front burner and then life will change; Nothing produced using oil is sustainable long term; For most of us everything we see every day is there because of oil, hence nothing we see everyday is sustainable, not one thing, from your morning coffee to wake you up to your Lunesta to help you sleep and all the clothes and meals and furniture and roads and buildings in between
* Unfortunately the internet is not sustainable; TAE is here for one brief shining moment; Visit the tip jar often
* The banks and their toadies in the government will continue screwing us as long as they can which will be way too long
* Obama may mean well but we don't know and it probably doesn't matter; We do know that most of his appointments and policies are despicable though a very few seem OK
* The US as we know it is a goner to be replaced by something we won't much like; Europe probably also; Many parts of South America and Africa are a wreck, largely thanks to the US and Europe; China is in trouble but will overcome but not without lots of pain
* All men are selfish bastards at heart (ladies, pardon my French); The selfish bastards with power and money are the most efficient selfish bastards; Some few have overcome this tendency but not many
* Stoneleigh is always right; A thousand thanks for her wisdom and calm
* Those disagreeing with Ilargi are always wrong; A thousand thanks for his insight and energy
* El Gallinazo is a nice guy but hides it
* Snuffy is everyman's hero
* Greenpa is, well, Greenpa
* Starcade is paranoid; He is also probably right though his timing is off
* Gravity is a theory
* Prepare as best you can and hope your preparations can save you and yours; They might for a while if you are lucky
* The poor and the meek will inherit the earth because they don't expect so much and will share
* Take what joy you can while the world lasts; Love your friends and family as best you are able
* A fond goodbye to anonymous redheads everywhere
* Alas poor Blinky, I knew him well
April 17, 2009
* Funding crisis headed to US soon; Chickens come home to roost in Q3 2009
* Repucans and Demorats alike have unbending allegiance and infantile adulation to candidates of choice; More like cheering for laundry than politics; Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Waschmittel
* Strong Goldman policy is entrenched; Pay no attention to that Blankfein behind the curtain
* Some prefer synchronicity to tin foil
* Hopebroken, Hopesick and Hopelorn
* Slate animates job losses on map; Gives new definition to red states
* Daily Obama Amalgam:
Obama is reckless
Progressives still emotionally invested in Him
He confers with those who got us into this problem
Obama may not make it through first term as POTUS (will the PO or the US fail first?)
He is facilitating the looting through his b*tches
* Many appreciated hearing Ilargi's voice; Now we know how to pronounce his name
April 16, 2009
* What will happen to Medicare, Medicade and Social Security?; They are toast
* Chinese are in buy mode; Chinese will survive end of US
* Scary to visualize 700K unemployed people all in one place; What will happen when their credit cards are denied?
* General Growth files for bankruptcy; That's gotta be a bad omen
* Green Revolution needs new name
* Bear retired? Tiger loses to Duck? Spaniel whines as gaucho shines?
* Bet on deflation but hedge with gold and silver
* Cement is more valuable than gold and silver; Makes a better sidewalk
* Political capital is more valuable than cement; Makes a better Reich
* Some ask if they should sell their home and rent; Fast collapse might mean no repayment of loans; Housing will get worse; Read the fine print when refinancing; Even with a paid of house you can feel crappy
* Goldman is lucky; Goldman is a vampire; Goldman is perpetrating a coup on the US
* TEA parties were nascent fascist movement; There were pre-TEAparty demonstrations on April 11th by A New Way Forward
* Just a spoon full of LSD helps the tinfoil go down
* Will we see just economic collapse or political collapse too?; In Orlovspeak, will we go to collapse level 2 or 3?; Nobody wants collapse; Obama will try to prop things up as long as possible
* They will invade you in your beds,
They will snatch you from your hot tubs,
They will pluck you right out of your fancy sports cars!
There is nowhere, absolutely nowhere, in this God forsaken valley.
I'm talking about from the range of my voice, right here
Clear out to the Mohjave Desert and beyond that, clear out past Barstow
and everywhere else in the valley all the way to Arizona.
None of that area will be called a safety zone!
There will be no safety zone!
The safety zone will be eliminated. Eradicated.
You will all be extradited to the land of no return!
And if you think that's going to be fun,
You've got another thing coming.
(From Paris, Texas)
April 15, 2009
* Native Americans lived in harmony with environment; Early whities had great respect for natives; Pre-contact America was not what most people think; Easter Island is example of low-tech culture that destroyed their environment
* Humans use 400 years worth of fossil fuels per day (Note: this is not 400:1 as many have said but 146,000:1); What will happen when all this energy isn't available?
* Many could die from a fast crash; Electrical outage alone would kill many
* Only difference between US Dollar and Chuckee Cheese tokens are backed by the full faith and credit of a stable entity; Oh, and also Chuckee Cheese tokens still buy as many rides on a kiddy car as they did 30 years ago
* Western religion is based on power and authority; Enlightenment comes not by limiting consciousness but by transcending it; Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
* Coy Ote attempts to map Larry, Moe and Curly to Larry, Barky and Ben
* Snuffy hopes that when the O-man sees the error of his ways there is still a country left to be president of
* We become sustainable or extinct; Cities are not sustainable; Therefore we must quit the cities of face extinction except maybe Zurich; Extinction is sustainable; There is an infintessimally small chance that humans could win the darwinian lottery and become decent human beings
* Germans said no to GM corn; Green cars is oxymoron
* Stats are appreciated but not needed to see what is wrong; Panic will be obvious without stats
* Go ahead with your preparations but don't expect them to save you; We are all in quicksand; Mother nature always has the last word and that word is FOAD
* Copper more valuable than gold and silver; Makes better pipes
April 14, 2009
* Pledge to Goldman Sachs; Goldman Sachs has all the marbles that Americans have lost; GS to buy BoA; New company to be called Goldman Sachs America; Some claim Thoureau wrote Goldman Sachs mission statement
* Chinese one child policy leads to surplus of men; Chinese to import millions of women from Vietnam; Th? can be as sad as Won
* End of GM = End of Unions = End of T-Birds = End of Fun; UAW is own worst enemy
* Lincoln should have let the South secede
* Many people can't connect the dots; Humans can't grasp death; Even so American standard of living still far above third world; People consume 4 billion years worth of lunar brocolli output every 3 seconds
* El Gallinazo takes 0% loan from dealer; The first one is always free
* Obama speech causes market to go down
* David says we are a virus/cancer; Anon says we just need a predator/plague; El G says Goldman Sachs is the predator/plague; The Matrix is poor biology
* Ahisma says humans are the nastiest species because we have the biggest brains except whales whose brains are 10x bigger but since whales never invented Hawaiian pizza we are obviously worse
* Eugen says humans are wrecking the sun
* El Gallinazo asks for lecture on Grand Unified Theory; Gravity obliges: quarks, bosons, gluons and quantum chromo-dynamics
* Humans can't return to hunting/gathering; It's post carbon village or extinction; Maybe we weren't meant to survive
April 13, 2009
* Ilargi's true age now known to be 29; Number could be decimal, hexidecimal or vigesimal
* Stoneleigh says more people from different backgrounds are figuring out what is going on
* Goldman Sachs controls the market and most everything else in the world; DIYer presents Goldman Sachs with "Share the Wealth" card; Outcome unknown
* Greenpa in contact with aliens from Antares; They laugh at us; Real men have tenticles
* Debts that can't be repaid won't be repaid; US will never pay its national debt
* Obama ends Cuban embargo; Allows America's only valuable export to be sent to Cuba
* Turkey too complex and resilient for Americans to understand
* No need to Garth; Picking on Ben Bernanke is anti-emetic
* Tinkerbell says economy will be over worst by October
* Persephone says US is near collapse; Banks will be saved, however
* Anonymous suggest 3 Navy Seal snipers be trained on Tim, Larry and Ben
* Democratic party is casualty of crisis; Now beholden to Wall Street
April 12, 2009
* Many condolance and good wishes to Stoneleigh and her sister
* Jal suggests a revolution against paying interest; Seeks acrophobic cow to lead the charge
* VK thinks Icelanders bare some responsibility for their country; Every people gets the government they deserve; FlimFlam artists require a willing mark; You can't con an honest man
* Anon says meaningful healthcare reform will never happen in the US; TPTB have bigger fish to fry; Snuffy suggests that without healthcare reform there will be social unrest unless legalized pot subdues the masses; El G says legalized drugs will never happen because without illegal drugs the CIA would need a bailout
* Colour line = power line = poverty line
* David accuses Ilargi of repeater envy; Anon responds that attribution matters; Other anon suggest Ilargi needs humility; Michael Hudson is older than Naomi Klein and Ilargi put together; Stoneleigh says Hudson is a must read
* Anon readhead promises to save the world if she can just have her nightly summary; Let the saving begin
April 11, 2009
* Dark matter delves into the mind; Says doomers and zoomers both avoid reality; Somehow this helps Anon get the girl
* Greenpa and El Gallinazo discuss eschatological scatology; Suggest political science be renamed 'turdonomics'; Should you eat the smallest one or flush it down?
* Pop Quiz: Who almost Garthed? Was it: a) VK b) Nom c) Ilargi d) Greenpa e) All of the above (Note: this will be on the final)
* J9 quotes Ayn Rand; Ilargi is not amused; Who the hell does John Galt think he is, anyway?
* O'Neill personally paid for lush Treasury digs; Damask, bronze, taffeta and borrowed art
* It takes 20 years to rebuild an economy; Better get started
* Things that might save us: Going Galt; Ignorance; Carl Sagan; Walking the Razor's Edge; TAE; Anonymous Redheads
* Things that might kill us: Mercenaries; A Pole Shift; Dynamited Dams; War Porn
* Contracts without trust are worthless
* Coy Ote thinks we will soon be an ancient civilization; Jal wants to visit; Plans to have picture taken in front of the ruins of the Great Pyramid Scheme
* Greenpa claims he has a red and blue butt; Changes name to RGB-Pa
* Many people are in denial about stocks
* Thugs get paid more than fast food workers; A handful of mercenaries can kick the masses' asses; Mercenaries tag line is "I'm Lovin' It"
* Many at TAE enjoy being doomers and expect 80% die off; Have a happy Easter
* Sustainable is the new "S" word; No shit
* El Gallinazo says I & S subscribe to first half of Golden Rule, i.e. "Do unto others"; I & S apparently honorary members of TPTB
* FB claims not to believe anything; J suggests that FB doesn't really believe this; FB agrees
March 31, 2009
* US history is one continual mass migration; Locking people into the mirage of equity appreciation is a fatal mistake
* The sooner the collapse the better for world's sake; Some think it will be controlled (like Building 7?)
* No one should count on their pensions, even in Ontario
* Summers is a freaking idiot; He is a two bit hoodlum; He is the creepy un-dead
* Growth is dead; Decay is the new growth; Bring on the maggots
* American prefer hangings to beheadings; This makes a fine reality show; Who gets voted of the planet tonight?
* It's time for society to embrace town centers, community gardening and bike paths
* Kunstler is a melange of I & S, Orlov, Mish, Denninger and Durden; When he's hot he does great doomer synthesis
* Being thought crazy gets you left alone; This can be a good thing
* Persephone would refuse a free Ford; Her brother has had a paradigm shift without a clutch
* Bunny Winthrop shows the masses who their real friends are; Tomorrow: "Come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, pointy teeth!"
March 30, 2009
* Starcade NFL says we live at the pleasure of our slave masters; Will we be cannon fodder or soylent green?; El Gallinazo asks if TPTB want to eliminate people why have they fostered overpopulation?
* Armando Gascon says unrest in the streets only happens because someone powerful benefits from it; Don't waste your energy on violence; Snuffy replies this doesn't comprehend the US situation; People are mad; Only belief in the bailout has postponed panic in the streets; People are as nasty as snakes
* Most people will have to work for as long as they live; There won't be enough jobs for the young and strong, let alone the old and frail; entitlements to be essentially gutted in 2 to 3 years; We will return to the extended family model; The nightmare will be brewing while the world relaxes into a suckers rally
* VK asks if maybe a an electronic bank run is not as bad as a physical bank run; Some think it won't make a difference, real question is when will the FDIC go broke
* Markets are all about self fulfilling prophecies; Get out or REITs ASAP; Commerical real estate will be an epic disaster
* Democracy: Nice concept, poor implementation; America is already a police state; Two tier society coming
* TPTB want to put Humpty Dumpty together again; Soros says we are not going back to where we were
* Most of us in the first world don't yet no what desparate means; Not affording take-out isn't desperate
* Bunny Winthrop is planning something big, and it doesn't sound pretty; Tune in next time ...
* D. Benton Smith suspects he is an alien; Same mother ship apparently dropped off El Gallinazo, Ahisma and Brimstone as well; Submit your advice prefers to be a local; EG recants, thinks he is also a local, it is other people who are aliens; Jal is glad there are other seekers out there
* Lessons from near starvation: Rotted caribou ribs taste great, desperation is dangerous, true leaders save lives, best advice is to find and follow best advice; Avoid fights, survival is not vengeance; The future belongs to those who can adapt (Note: last point was not from Alaska but seemed to fit)
* Gardening season nears; Several interested in terra preta
* What happens when graduating students can't pay back student loans?
* The two great questions: Why is there a universe and how did beings that can ask that question arise; Don't let religion get in the way of spirituality; Neither atheists nor theists really know, they just interpret the shadows on the wall differently; What a man believes about God says more about him than it does about God; Ditto woman
* Baboons are efficient and insufferable; Surprisingly none have posted to TAE (or have they?)
* Only idiots use the word sustainable; Only liars wear neckties; Um...
March 28, 2009
* Full Disclosure: Nightly Summary is male, a boomer (apologies to all GenXers), grows a garden, collects rainwater, hoards tuna fish, appreciates TAE but is unqualified to make useful comments, so instead plays the fool to stormy king Ilargi, benevolent queen Stoneleigh and the mass of squabbling TAE courtiers.
* Will oil service stocks recover?; Some say yes, we are three to six months from price shock; Others say $20 oil still possible
* Credit crash caused by GenX hedge fund managers and traders; Boomers were innocent bysh*tters
* Greenpa suggests US and UK buy each others' bonds
* "Ilargi" is basque word for moon; Women are smarter than men; Duh!
* Don't expect any good to come from IMF actions
* Idle Acts gives insider view of SEC; Change in tone at top is major improvement; SEC employees are not the Borg; Most try to do the right thing; Some are skeptical; Talk is cheap; When will AIG be prosecuted?; NS and others hope Idle Acts will not driven away by flack
* Taleb recommends barbell investing: 85% gov't notes, 15% risky ventures
* Some churches and other organizations are donating land to community gardens; Large scale ag not sustainable; Family farms under attack; Urban populations are oblivious to food sources
* Where will the wheat come from?; Corn, amaranth, lamb's quarter, popcorn, favas, chicpeas and lentils suggested as subs
* FDIC on the move; There are plenty of ways you can hurt a bank and bring it to the ground
* Food is the new Gold; Is there gold left in Fort Knox or is the gummnt giving us the gold finger?
* Scandia fears violence at G20 summit in London; Police plants may throw rocks; Similar thing happened in Miami
* Why can't some country with guts just cancel all foreign debts and go insular?; Because no one would do non-cash business with that country ever again
* Get ready for fascist imperialist wars
* Thirdcoast seeks doomer chick; Must like doomer porn; He can expect doomer chicks to be pounding on his door soon
* Some doomer girls married cornucopians; Some doomer guys are in same position
* Cap and trade great for congress and traders but bad for middle class
* Nationwide Wall Street protest planned for April 11
* Pension collapse will have long term deflationary impact
* Snuffy suggests Encyclopedia AutomaticEarthica on CD; Could serve as foundation for new empire
* RC says this not the best of all possible worlds after all; Regrets that authors of The Secret failed to choke to death on Hawaiian Pizza
* When will we as a species stop the madness?; Don't hold your breath or better yet go ahead and hold your breath
* Kunstler predicts end of dollar; Suggests now is time to get tangibles; Some say he is a great idea guy but has no sense of timing or herdonomics
* El Gallinazo explains TAE registry
* There is a fine line between chemistry and physics; Physics is applied math, chemistry is applied physics, biology is applied chemistry, economics is applied potty training
* Stablization, depression, collapse: Are chances 60/30/10 or 10/60/30?
* RC and El Gallinazo try to out-insufferable each other; Some wish they would focus more on their ineffability
* BloodyParadise thanks I and S for focus, direction and buffoons to pelt
March 27, 2009
* Nightly Summary apologizes to female questioner of aitrader's manhood; From a man, them's fightin' words; From a woman, well, she's probably right
* Dutch pensions in trouble; Geen goede gepensioneerden in gracht gooien
* Jimbo seeks investment advice; Needs new material for Mad Money
* Collapse of market could take a long time; Play the market at your own risk; Prepare for the worst but exploit the best
* El Gallinazo and RC: One plumber in two hypostases; one will, one operation, alike in two persons; Incomprehensible, ineffable, insufferable; Equal in power, equal in might; equal in suction, equal in drainage; twice radiant, twice brilliant, forever and ever (Apologies to St. John of Damascus)
* Third coast welcomes doomer chicks; Recommends Ilargi charge for premium access and change site name to DoomerMatch.com
* Charles Hugh Smith explains bunker in woods won't be a secret to locals; Get to know the hicks near your doomstead
* RC names four horses of the pocked lips: Cervantes, Carroll, Capek and Clemens
* Many have stopped playing the market; Exchanged Tomato Friendships have better yields
* New, improved regime at the SEC; SEC staffers learn to turn the lights on; Criminal authority and power to regulate hedge funds would help SEC work better
* Idle Acts explains her moniker; Explanations of others' monikers would be interesting; E.g. what meanings do ilargi, chaos, thethirdcoast, jal and darkmatter have?
* Buy extra garden tools now; Shortage coming when EG organizes million pitchfork march on Washington
* Not losing is the new winning; Not dying is the new living; Not starving is the new obesity
* Plutocrats to rule US if they can wrest power from wealthy elites; Republican Road to Recovery paved with good intentions; Beware of neck ties on April 1st
March 26, 2009
* Chinese are flexing muscles in South Africa; Tai Chi can save you from injury when you fall down
* Financial power plays and nukes are America's remaining strengths
* VK expects good economic news for the forseeable future
* Aitrader's manhood questioned by manly anonymous poster
* What about water?; Supply will probably exist but quality could degrade; Big Berky recommended
* Snuffy hopes I and S are wrong but isn't taking down his greenhouse just yet
* Don't buy a gun; Just wait a while and pry one from someone's cold, dead hand; Guns with sharp corners still useful when ammo is gone; Guns work better when you can see what you're shooting at
* Big brother has always been watching you; Act natural; Don't look at the cameras
* Many wise cracks about plumbers; Intelligence and job description not always correlated; Plumbers can be smart even if plumbing's not rocket surgery
* Zenni Optical Downside: Redheads seldom make passes at men who wear glasses (Or do they?)
* Collapsing comments recommended; Sometimes the name is all you need to know
* Blinkers are for the eyes, not the arse; Economists exist to make proctology look appealing
* Obama doesn't talk like Bush, he justs acts like him
* Greenpa thinks economy suffers from many diseases; Nothing will heal the patient; Obama agrees patient is sick but thinks bleeding and leeches will help; Bleeders and leeches think Obama's position makes more sense
* Obama-Jugend won't be allowed to protest; They will, however, be allowed to look at cameras with impunity
March 25, 2009
* Ilargi can't control what other people think he means; I and S have saved people millions; Few of these beneficiaries donate; Sad comment on people in general; Some suggest they move to a subscription model; I and S have no intention of going away
* Being a great nation is fetish of the right; Americans are responsible for their own predicament
* Stranger is interested in El Gallinazo; EG gives Stranger strange response
* Some think bridge photo was upside down; Sign actually said TO??
* Not saving the banks would have wiped out capitalists; It was therefore unacceptable
* Once the Fed goes the USA goes with it; Some expect softer landing on cushion of shredded t-bills
* New reserve currency is day dream; Once US buys own debt advantages of reserver currency will crumble; Chinese want basket of currencies, not brand new currency
* It is tempting but dangerous to buy into sucker rally; People badly want to believe credit crunch is over
* Obama will take on Messianic status and be crucified later
* El Gallinazo's TAE registry is being used to connect TAEers; Some don't like it and impugn EG's motives; If he really is a plumber let him show his pipes; Electrician comes to his defense; No masons or carpenters have vouched for him so far
* Nixon lit the fuse and it's about to explode; Fiat currencies will all collapse
* Aitrader demands some gnarly prophecy; Stoneleigh delivers: Panic by next year or before; Tri-polar world (Oceana, Eurasia and Eastasia); Possible attacks on US disguised as terrorism; Even so aitrader departs TAE; Don't you love him as he's walkin' out the door
* Some return to anger; Sane and sober people want handguns now; What does Joe 6 Digit Income do when his kids can't eat?
* Geithner says no plan B is needed; His plan 9 only requires will; He's just a watering boy (Tho' I've belted you and flayed you, By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Tim)
March 24, 2009
* Elections come and go but Wall Street remains
* El gallinazo organizes email central; No government anonymity promised
* Legislators pass laws more easily when they don't understand them
* Obama is either a plant or as dumb as a plant
* VK predicts tomorrow's news; Round up the usual suspects
* Pretty women land jobs in tight bare market
* The die is cast and there is no way out of market collapse; Day to day events are just noise; Enjoy the show
* Will Americans settle for crappy lives?; Haven't they already?; Triple cheese burger and American Idol are new American dream and therefore non-negotiable; Americans can't handle the hard stuff
* Many on NPR think Obama's plan will work; Obama comes from culture of self-assured infalibility; Hubris drives him
* Ammo in short supply; Trucks will stop soon; Change from the O-man coming your way
* Gerald Celente says US is not number one
* Geithner plan stinks
* High frucktose corn syrup causes obesity and diabetes
* Some still have faith in Obama's progressive agenda; He is brilliant and self-made; Some find him less so; Maybe Obama will have the army march on the rich; Maybe he will call fire from heaven upon the wicked
* Manufactured crises are superb mechanisms to consolidate power
* Democrats are 'Mommies', Republicans are 'Daddies'; They still get it on after all these years
March 19, 2009
* Nothing's going to work; Nothing worked for Japan; Current action will buy some time
* For TAE humanure composters the sh*t has hit the pan
* Lawyer reports: 1) Small developers belly up last year 2) Big developers going belly up this year 3) Building suppliers going belly up
4) Jumbo loans in trouble 5) 7 year supply of empty lots 6) Commercial lending is going bust
* Veracity of Swedes impugned
* You can live on potatoes alone
* Authorities walking tightrope between staving of fear of deflation and fostering fear of inflation; They are impotent to cause and actual wage/price spiral
* This may be the larger rally; If so expect large fall in equities this fall
* There is no financial profit, only theft; Truth and competency are lacking
* No one wants to work for Geithner; Maybe ex-GM workers will help out
* Everyone wants theirs to be the reserve currency but hard to deliver
* El Gallinazo asks about personal productivity; Let the riffraff be known
* New word: crashstead; Similar to doomstead, panicstead and crunchstead
* Military have better weapons than populace, but populace have more of them; Both military and armed populace are mobs; Army has poor record in asymmetrical warfare; Civil war preparation rumored
* Things are worse than they appear because many bad investments still hidden
* Some people having difficulty getting money out of bank accounts
March 18, 2009
* Heart felt condolences to Snuffy
* Ilargi knows Dutch, German, English and French; Dutch learn languages to higher levels than most others
* Some concerned about pathogens and drugs in human waste; Humanure requires extensive research; Look up night soil and honey wagoon
* Rulers always use herding language when talking to the ruled; This is not excuse not to be outraged but outrage should be real; Some think Obama is Messiah
* The Fed will print to help the economy; Gold jumps $60; May 18 may be major turning point; Weimar meets Mad Max
* Everyone wants to know if inflation will now begin; Ilargi replies 1) Bond markets have already priced it in 2) This step not spectacular for Fed 3) There will still be demand for US debt for a while 4) This will cause other big problems 5) $1 Trillion in printing can't offset $40 Trillion in losses
March 17, 2009
* Nightly Summary is glad to be friends with Greenpa and anonymous redhead
* Difference between perception and reality; Some people fight inflation when deflation is imminent; Quantitative easing will bring the worst of both worlds
* Rally near end or headed sideways; Even so shorting is dangerous game; Some think this rally is as high as it will go, i.e. no bigger rally to come; Some say bigger rally will come and will be without cause
* Efforts to reignite confidence looking desperate; Confidence can't be restored until deleveraging is over; Expect more cheerleading
* Some like nicknames; Some find them offensive; Several impolite names for Obama suggested
* Horses: They teach us how to relate to people; Manure is great fertilizer; Better than synthetic fertilizer; Orlov says donkeys are better
* Legitimate political system was gone by 1945; Dates back to assembly line tactics of Ford and Firestone; Car sales are a response to a political vacuum; Religious systems were smashed in WW I; There is now a gigantic religious and political vaccuum
* English is Ilargi's third language; He writes fascinating grammatical errors and misspellings if you can just get past the pesky astounding content
* Treasury, Fed and AIG compared to Abu Ghraib torturers; Blame the grunts, not the officers
* US seems eerily normal; People still in denial; Waiting for tipping point; Eerily normal can last a long time; We may have to wait until 2015 or beyond for TEOTWAWKI; What a bummer; Some lucky few won't have to wait this long for TSTH their personal fans
* Charles Eisenstein essay: We have prostituted our land, forests, seas, songs, stories, basic needs and relationships; Basis of life is threatened by monetization; Tidal wave of misery approaches
* Report that Geithner knew about AIG bonuses in advance; Bonuses are peanuts compared to bailout elephant
* Jon Stewart's joke news is the most credible; Real news is mostly a joke; Welcome to bizzaro world
* Some say root of problem is extending franchize to unqualified (low IQ) voters; Government panders to ninnies who can vote; Healthy societies enforce rule of law; Fraud used to be capital crime; Get mad
March 16, 2009
* Noon Summary appreciates Greenpa's offer but has wrong gender, age and hair color and is apparently member of different religious cult than Greenpa; NS is interested in knowing what Greenpa puts in Greenma's tea
* Dr J has no issue with vegans but insists science backs up his views; Feud ensues; Hell hath no fury like a vegan scorned
* Bernanke could get laid in '09; This explains much
* New technologies may still provide opportunity to get rich
* Planting pear trees is therapeutic
* Thin skin won't cut it when TSHTF
* Reports of the death of death have been greatly exagerated; Genetic engineers fantacize too much
* Market does not run on reality
* Will Federal Gummnt exist by 2012 or will it be gone will the dollar?; Treasury reportedly working on 1 Godzillion dollar note for future use, with George W. Bush on face and engraving of XTE J1118+480 on back
* Gravity Channels Moloch
* Sheep, birds and bees saner than people
* Obama full of impotent rage
March 15, 2009
* Beware the Ides of March!
* Juan Enriquez sees our salvation in genetic engineering and robots; Shows humorous pictures; Doesn't mention energy or climate change; Predicts McVitrio sandwiches to feed all mankind by 2020
* Can we feed 6.5B people without industrial fertilizer; Yes we can!; Let them eat steak
* Readers of TAE are likely willing to work at agriculture; Just because you don't have ag skills yet you are not a moral leper; You can learn skills quickly through training; Read Sharon Astyk
* Americans don't respect farmers; This will change and gardeners will get respect; Suburban gardeners will lose standard of living but will atleast be living
* Who chooses who lives and dies when the fertilizer runs out?; Someone chooses already, they will just have a bigger turkey shoot; Emergency management funds guns, not butternut squash
* Since the price of natural gas has plummeted has the price of ammonia fertilizer dropped also?; We have sold our birthright for a mess of potash
* Doomers insist on getting sex, no matter what
* Those not following Ilargi or Roubini are lost; Reading Ilargi helps some know they are not crazy but others around them are
* Agriculture is biggest mistake in human history; Hawaiian Pizza is first runner up
* Some say we can live better without carbs; Many animals require low NPK inputs; Blinky did not die in vain; Fat is bad is big fat lie; Need to distinguish between complex and refined carbs
* Hunter Gatherers were healthier, wealthier and wiser; Agriculture trades health for density
* Meat-only diet justifies western excess; Cows create more greenhouse gasses than cars (Especially true when cows catch on fire); Organic plant based diet can be healthy; Some live on Koolaid alone for years
* Unemployment will rise; Will the unemployed learn to garden or all become Wii testers?
* National character and national leadership go togethera
* Reports of the death of industrial agriculture greatly exagerated; Fast food will have slow death
* Summers is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweþ Fed that bloweþ bread
And springþ þe debte nu,
Sing cuccu!
Congress bleteþ after pork,
Tim's after half a clue.
Bama sterteþ, Biden uerteþ,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes þu cuccu;
Ne swik þu nauer nu.
* This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius; Love will steer the stars
* Celente predict new third party by 2012 to be named the Party's Over Party (POP); POP logo is Mayan calendar
* Bernanke on TV; TSHH60M; Says banks must not fail; AIG makes him mad, darn it!; He's one of us, feels our pain
* Quit reading this; Get a life; Go play the grand piano; Go fly your aeroplane
March 14, 2009
* Empty Shelves Prediction: It was true for stores being closed in US; Also stores in Britan; People pay attention to Ilargi's prediction; He is batting 80%; He can't be held to every word spoken about volatile system; He was spot on about firearms; Statement was a tad reckless; In heartland there is less variety on shelves, fewer items on shelves, fewer shelves and fewer stores; More stale items on shelves
* Massive government spending won't help until real economy restarts
* Obama increases pure propaganda; If successful, suckers rally has arrived
* Our system is not a free market; Free market and communism always fail but adherents want to try it again; Say it will be different next time
* Crime hasn't risen yet because people still have hope; We are stuck beteween Denial and Anger; Chris Martenson has written about 5 stages of economic grief
* Descendants may curse us in our graves; Real killer will be when next generation realizes the bailout didn't buy anything of value and when the masses learn they cannot be fed
* Liberatrian are preferable to fascists and both to dentists with hairy hands
* System has less inertia than lemmings think and more that doomers think; Slow down in collapse is due to Obama team trying to avoid crash; G20 are all in agreement on this; When crash really happens debts won't be repaid
* Many business men say they are doing fine
* US sold soul long ago; Only pain will wake us up
* Roubini owns stocks; Said he was in cash; May be modeling portfolio on great depression
* California will be hitting up Feds for more money
* Greenpa suggest quanititave cleansing instead of quantitative easing
* Disposable plunger is zenith of modern society; Will be indispensable when TSHTF
* We are toast; Malthus will have last laugh; Just too many people on the earth; Death of industrialized agriculture inevitable; We will all be doing agricultural work; Most think it won't be in their lifetime; Few of us have the ag skills we will need
March 13, 2009
* Madoff may have wanted to show he could out foxed everyone; He may have confessed to protect others; Suffers from Noblesse Oblige
* Mexico economy generates new billionaire, supplier of cocaine to US
* Is this the suckers rally?; Stoneleigh suggests it will only last a few days; Even so buy SDS at your own risk
* In defense of Denninger, he didn't say "idiot savant" but "idiot savant comment"; He is still unsavory
* Collapse is OK if you don't panic
* If you buy a gun make sure you are willing to use it
* Stewart gave Cramer hell and Cramer took it; Comedian trounces buffoon
* Baltic Dry Index rising; Could be related to sea levels; Probably a minor correction
* Global outstanding deriviatives have reached 1100000000000000 Dollars (Note: This is not in binary)
* Readers don't like climate breakdown; Prefer climate collapse; Seems intuitive; Helps people realize that by 2050 there will be no climate left; Some prefer climate degradation or climate gone wild
* When you get on TAE
And post your favorites song
I get mad and Betty freaks
The lyrics are so snarky long
Oh please, Oh please man, be a friend
And post a link at most
My fingers are gone red and sore
From scrolling past your hog-long post
Don't post the whole damn thing
Don't post the whole damn thing
Don't post the whole damn thing
Don't post the whole damn thing
Don't post the whole damn thing
Yea man, be that friend
Alright
* Stoneleigh bases predictions on Eliott waves, a human nature herdonomics model; Markets are patterns rather than random
* The invisible hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing
* Socialism doesn't help people: People help people; Socialized medicine is only possible for a healthy economy;
* TAE once predicted empty shelves by January 20; Only occurred in gunshops; Will it happen elsewhere?; Ilargi calls this weird assertion; From TAE, December 2, 2008: "That, my friends, spells bleak and empty shelves coming to a place near you. Around January 20."; Year was not specified
* Greed is still alive; Evil is dark, incoming tide
* Justice will prevail, even though this seems unfair
* Could George Bush read? (Note: The Pet Goat was read to him)
* Mark to market debate is insane
* Honest questions need not be met with sarcasm
March 12, 2009
* Sacramento's tent city is being evicted; Exepct police violence soon
* Ferfal's diary good starting point for survivalist; How much time between collapse and degredation?
* Before you get out of Dodge establish a half way point; When you get out of Dodge Do Not Stop Till You Get There; U-Haul is useful in getting out of Dodge; Getting out Dodge in a Dodge will soon be difficult
* What accounts for rally? 1) Stupidy 2) Correction 3) Collusion 4) Dead Cat Bounce; Most vote for 3); Some for 4); Some say it isn't a rally yet (has to be longer)
* You can't feed yourself from a back yard garden; We are tied tightly into an unsustainable system; Even if your garden is big enough you will still have problems
* KD sniping continues; Ilargi says meh; Readers are pleased
* 400,000 children dead is wrong direction; Line could make a stone weep; Madeleine Albright turns over in grave (Note: Some claim she's not dead yet)
*Big Rock Candy Mountain and Johnny Cash quoted
* Three data points: 1-Waikiki Hilton at $55/night; 2-Top line hotel rooms in Palm Springs at $70/night; 3-Gun sales are brisk; The writing is on the wall
* Cramer on Jon Stewart provides jocularity (Note: Jim never learned the first rule of being on TV: Never fight with a comedian); Some suggest they will kiss and make up
* Reasonable headline: Geithner expects flying monkeys to shoot out of his butt
* Madoff drew the short straw and was ritually sacrified; Sweet
* Pay your taxes
* Bernanke to appear on 60 Minutes; Will be interviewed by Andy Rooney
* Threat of closing US bases abroad will cause other countries to get in line
March 11, 2009
* Noon Summary changed to Nightly Summary because it confliced with NS's work schedule (PST)
* Media finally talking about failing banks and CDS's
* Argentina and Uruguay might help the US in a pinch
* Citi's stock is a lottery ticket or rather yesterday's lottery ticket; Even so they are still offering loans
* Thrill of the game is in the air again
* Karl Denninger:
- He doesn't handle conflict well
- He's brilliant
- He needs to check his ego
- He tolerates too much anti-social commentary on his boards
- His hissy fit is distracting people from the real problems
- He is jingoistic and rude
- His prediction score is no better than average
- His plan is naive and wouldn't stop the depression
- He suffers from cognitive dissonance
- He is overreacting to Ilargi
- He hasn't gotten past the denial stage
- He is missing the forest for the trees
- His proposal is worth serious discussion
- He talks trash
- He can't be reasoned with
- He is mad because his world is falling away
- He can't understand simple concepts like Peak Oil
- His rants are never interesting
- He doesn't get it
- Reading him is like eating 4 day old road kill
- He speaks High Gibberish
* Ilargi accused of being an alien; Stoneleigh pours oil on troubled waters; Many thanks from readers for TAE in reporting on reality; Don't they get bored covering the same story every day?
* Who is calling the shots in corrupt banks? Read creature from Jekyll Island
* Justice for Just Us is US mantra; US says do as we say, not as we do
* Several Anonymi leaving TAE over Denninger kerfuffle; Denningerphiles can post on TAE but TAEphytes can't post on the Ticker; Pissing match is a distraction; Snarkiness is a great sounding word; Large prostrates hinder pissing matches; Denninger vs. Ilargi is tempest in a TAE pot
* Communism and Capitalism both destroy middle class; Need new system for next generation; Liberatrianism is absurd
* Domino Theory of Collapse posited: Banking Collapse => Consuming Collapse => Manufacturing Collapse => World Trade Collapse => Tax Revenue Collapse => Bond Collapse => Government Collapse
* Zanders voted poster of the day
* Friedman to be cast out of Free Trade Garden; His flat earth is about to get rounder; After 20 years of undermining public-spiritedness he no appeals to community; He may need drugs to see him through the change
* Homeless living in motels need to be responsible; Liberal doesn't necessarily mean stupid
* Economics Replacement Contest: Econ-Astrology; Econonsense; Eonomixup; Economagic; Economucks; Cargo Cult Economics
* Looters just took advantage of situation ripe for exploitation; Powerful are not motivated by by a desire for social equity
* VK suggests creating an island bank to buy up all bad debt in the world; Then it could go under and all other banks would be saved
* Texas may be safest place when TSHTF; Getting a firearm may be good idea
March 10, 2009
* Bush is the new Nero
* El gallinazo gets out of shorts JIT; When Stoneleigh talks, people listen; Beartrap rally underway thanks to PR lackey's; Some say it is a mere correction
* Blithe Oblivion (BO) surrounds masses
* Sustainability is a myth with modern lifestyles; All farming is unnatural and unsustainable; So is flying; Sustainable and green are vehicles to sell products
* Orlov predicts 2/3 reduction of US economy
* The optimists are out; Happy days are here again; Herdonomics to the rescue
* "Perma-poverty is Fun!" lacks appeal as a slogan; Problem will sort itself out shortly; Futile system is our collective destiny
* This correction is different because the very survival of the central government welfare state is at stake
* Crime and riot thrive in Summer's heat; Can Ben prop up the corpes till November? They will print and prop up as long as they can
* Bush was not incompetent; He did what he set out to do
* Communism is a false option given to rebelling serfs
* Karl Denninger visits TAE; Storm's a comin'; Snuffy to sell tickets
* Daily Obama Amalgam: Obama is responsible for what gets done; He didn't create mess but has not differentiated himself from Bush; It's not the Depression
March 9, 2009
* Confidence in debtor comes from enforceability of contracts; Some take issue; feud ensues
* Planting trees has same effect as desalinization plants but yields more trees; Long water pipelines are bonkers
* 30 year treasury yields better than stocks
* Some see this contraction as a blip
* Should we pay or taxes? Some think revolt is coming
* Loss of net (WWW) worst part of collapse
* LaoZi in 4 words: Little self minimal desire; Modern America in 4 words: Big ego endless entitlement; If one can't take this to heart, stay away from the US
* ??????????? should know that ????????? is Greek
* Orlov says collapse unavoidable; Nice to see what he looks like so we can quit imaging; Request for I & S video post; Orlov focuses more on the vision thing (along with Kunstler and John Micael Greer)
* Orion and Greenpa disagree; Other TAEers thank them for their civility
* Moment of truth for DOW; From yesterday: Truth is ugly
* God talks to jal :) Orion is always right :)
* Manhattan still happily shopping; Could change in hours
* Rally coming in equities; Marc Faber and Stoneleigh agree
* Graves, sheep, shoes and bridges still needed in Spain
* Good luck with SDS to all brave souls
* Ideology walks out the door when reality comes innuendo (aplogies to Anon 12:51 and Marx)
* Daily Obama Amalgam: He is admired; What the HELL is he thinking; He is bought and paid for by bankers
March 8, 2009
* Life on unemployment is scary
* Some claim engines cannot be 100% more efficient; Even efficient engines will accelerate peak oil
* Better to be brown than green
* Pineapple suggests we are near step 5 of a ten step path to economic collapse
* Daily Obama amalgam: Urges Americans not to stuff money in their mattresses; Should lead by walking behind (Note: Better translation is lead by being humble); His track record is meh; Is playing high stakes poker; TARP is now his baby
* Some have no money to stuff in mattress; Some have no mattress; Some would like to stuff money in places that would get them arrested
* Persephone offers safe bed; Any takers? (Apologies to Persephone)
* Truth is ugly; WSJ is defecting; Treasury and Street are in panic mode; Denninger using Elephant font
* Start charging in a different direction or get slaughtered
* Rural properties becoming ridiculously cheap in some areas; Time to prepare is short; Beware of remote properties; Neighbors can be a good defense
* Packaging of mortgages described
* Black swans suffer a lot of abuse theses days
* Mormons have best preparation books; Becoming one is better than starving to death
* First financial collapse; Then energy shortages; Then food shortages
* Human race will survive
* Useful to keep kids in 2 worlds: city and backwoods farm
* Ad Hominem attacks unwelcome at TAE (Hear! Hear!)
* Xtropy27 presents innovative ideas: Ground B52's;
Implement small reactors; Do coastal water desalinization; Create self fab, afordable housing; Fund NanoSolar; Create new auto industry based on innovation; Some suggests these are techno-fixes that might not work; Others are less enthusiastic; Feud ensues
* Orion asks why smart women marry dumb men?; If you can't dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bo%%gna
* Super high efficiency engine compared to parrot brain; We probably understand neither
* Financial meltdown illustrates why we shouldn't do nukes: Risk, including loss of operators; Mitigating factor would be forcing board of nuke companies to live next door
* Receding horizons explained
* AITrader leaves TAE; Will be missed by some (including Noon Summary)
* FHA is new subprime
* We can't have planet and eat it too
* US insurance companies must pay foreign claims, if needs be with money stolen from the not-yet born; The rich in Spain say "Gracias"; Americans, like worn out hookers, don't respond
* TAE readers suggests BofA hire Paulson after buying Merrill Lynch; New company should be named America Lynch Paulson
March 7, 2009
* Offering facts and data seems to entrench people in denial; When others say "Have a nice life" just reply "Thanks, but I had other plans"
* NASA looking for extra-terrestrial life to buy US Treasuries; Physicists posit that galactic credit crash caused original big bang
* Tao Te Ching proves popular among Automatic Earthers; Taoism is jewell of Chinese culture
* Buy cheap land in Puetro Rico and move there; Leave the Great White North to bloggers
* Who promised us a comfortable environment? (answer: no one); History promises us continual change and the four horses of the apocalypse
* US Dollar benefiting from flight to safety but is doomed; Holding gold is for those with deep pockets; Otherwise you may sell it at a big loss; Buy gold when everyone else is selling (hint: not right now)
* Gravity channels Blinky again; Predicts unrecognizable continua by Christmas
* Some success stories: Knights of Columbus Life Insurance and Habitat for Humanity
* Beware of parent/teacher conferences; They are dark and scary
* Starvation is coming; Stockpile if you can; Be nice to your neighbors; The best dreams are dreamed in the worst of times
* DC is now Wall Street
* Financial meltdown resembles Tim Burton movie
* Slip out of your shorts before they get too tight
* CNBC is staffed by optimists
* Will "Unjust Enrichment" allow some to get their money back?
* Obama Amalgam of the day: He saved Christmas; He may not be aware of Michael Hudson; He wants to avoid being labeld a socialist; Obama would possibly do a deal with the devil;
* Many (most? (almost all?)) are not aware what is coming and are clueless
* Clock is ticking down to bank runs; Financial world is staggering blindly; Get your food now, bees later; This no dream; Even a fast crash feels slow
* It doesn't matter how many sandbags are thrown into the breach (See Teton Dam Disaster)
* Regional currencies may be backed by gold; If gold becomes a standard it will be confiscated; You can't buy a sandwich with gold
* Engine invented that quadruples efficiency; Uses ethanol and frictionless pulleys; Still won't be as efficient as bicycle
March 6, 2009
* The comment that can be posted is not the true comment
The username that can be entered is not the true username
It is easier to read a vacuous comment
Than one that is filled with wisdom (apologies to Lao Tzu)
* aitrader give no holds barred, stream of consciousness, herdonmically correct snapshot of future; Suggests we are returning to 1982 incomes with 2009 prices and 1982 resources with 2009 populations; Stoneleigh thinks this is optimisitic; Some nonetheless want to go back to 1982 since back then they were young and still had hair; aitrader says give up and enjoy the ride
* Stoneleigh clarifies: Bounce might not be immediate; Getting back into your shorts may be risky since your stock may rise unexpectedly and you might not be able to get out of your shorts quickly enough and could lose it all; It's so erratic
* Sophocles, Lao Tzu, William Blake and Vincent van Gogh cited
* Greenpa considers starting hotel in Iceland where getting out of shorts costs $145 which is about $1e15 krona
* Lao Zi has spoken; He must not know
* FB gives update on how people are preparing in his cou des bois
* Ryan buys huge SUV; Plans road trip to visit Jim Kunstler and honk at him; Orion's coworker joins convoy in new Hummer; Centiare calls shotgun; Suggests we consume all that pesky excess energy as quickly as possible so we can get on with enjoying the taste of our own excrement
* Rachel asks "If a house falls to pieces in a deserted neighborhood, does it make a sound?"
* John asks why part of the trillions for bailout can't be used for the sick and starving instead; Probably no good answer for that one
* jal explains that CDS stands for Cat Dog Swap; Currently over 600 pets have been exchanged worldwide
* The culture seems to have a death wish
* Obama promises everything and then brilliantly and with total lack of vision accomplishes absolutely nothing even though we spend more money per capita than any other nation
* Horsemen of Apocalypse are upon us (Note: the 4 horses are violence, hunger, disease and death for those who haven't read Revelations lately); Industrial revolution enables one world government
* D. Benton Smith says beware of Martin Feldstein; Don't let the kindly, intelligent, scholarly, affable, reasonable, grandfatherly bastard grind you down.
* Orion proposes Ilargi as sole deity for Church of Miracle and Wonder since he is often mistaken for both Father and Son
* Orion says money grows on stalks; Farmers are new bankers; Wall street farmer convinces Orion to invest in stalk market; Puts life savings in Farm of America
* Car companies are barometer for collapse; What's good for GM is good for America
*Denninger suggests 401K's and IRA's will be confiscated; Stoneleigh is in agreement; Also agrees that bond market will dislocate
* All environmental roads lead to oil fields
* aitrader thinks Gold is a historic footnote but it's still charming; Probably won't do much over $1000; Stoneleigh differs; Thinks gold will hold value as it always has but puts it low on priority list; Recommends tools and canned goods instead
* Greenpa asks what will happen to the 1% in prison when TSHTF
March 5, 2009
* Possible collapse triggers: Major bank run; WTC II; Escalation of violence in Eurasia
* This summer may be last chance to start doomstead
* Obama's advice apparently taken for one day; Those in SDS take it briefly in the shorts; Slipping out of shorts feels good
* Ridley Scott reveals that Deckard and Dick Cheney are Replicants
* Hope is the mind-killer. Hope is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my hope. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the hope has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. (Apologies to Frank Herbert)
* Negative and truth are not synonymous; Some use TAE as motivation to keep preparing at full speed
* Illegitimati non carborundum is the first lesson of survival; TAE motto: undertand globally, act locally; Learn to swim in strange waters
* Reptillian brain will soon re-assert itself; Maybe Dick Cheney is not a Replicant
* aitrader asks what will happen next; TOD has such a discussion including comments by Stoneleigh and Ilargi ; Too many variables for reliable predictions; Maybe aitrader knows what will happen; If so he should share; aitrader responds he won't share because this isn't his blog
* Kunstler's Eyesore of the Month recommended
* Hoard canned goods, not stocks
* Anonymous wishes there was a god; If you can't wait for Ilargi's Church of Miracle and Wonder maybe this can help
* Orion accuses Ilargi of being human casting doubt on Church of Miracle and Wonder
* Abnormal is the new normal (or is normal the new abnormal?)
* aitrader says Ilargi has peeked at the future and is now resting on his laurels i.e. Ilargi has passed Peak Peek and is now in Peek Decline
* China's military budget increase is non-story; It's been done before
* Gravity channels Blinky again;
* @ Anon 7:25:
Though to us it's evident,
These attentions are well meant,
Such expressions don't appear,
Calculated men to cheer
Who are going to meet their fate
In a highly nervous state.
Tarantara
* More pension bombs going off than you can shake a stick at
* Americans are like mushrooms; Like being kept in the dark and fed dung
March 4, 2009
* Noon summary correction: Greenpa said that desperation can cause rallies; Stoneleigh merely agreed
* Gravity channels Blinky; aitrader parries with Michael Palin
* When the depression began, people simply stopped working; Same thing happened at some point on Easter Island; During a depression resources lie idle; This time we will have even more resource limits
* Bailout money may cause further concentration of wealth and power further Capitalist Paradise; Brazen are the capitalists, for they shall inherit the earth
* Stoneleigh's refrain: Get rid of debts, hold cash, learn self sufficiency
* Stoneleigh suggests it may be time to get out of shorts (Note: better too early than to late)
* Ben is righteously indignant at AIG; Called it hedge fund attached to insurance company
* U vs L shaped recession explained; shaped recession posited and corrected, replaced by \\\\ shaped recession
* Economic optimists must be smoking something and now suggest @ shaped recession
* Experts have hard time saying D word
* Dog breeds are the height of human achievement; Malia and Sasha concur
* Obama shouldn't recommend stocks, except as destination for banking execs
* Obama has let us down, sounds ridiculous and is to be pitied
* It is suggested that Obama neither sweats, hyperventilates nor panics; Wetting pants remains viable option
* North Dakota has state owned bank
* Chicago pension fund 62% underfunded
* Two potential black swans: Surplus goods and politicization of Treasuries (refusal to buy Treasuries for political reasons)
* Suggestion that no bounce will occur until S&P 450 (currently about 700) Note: actual comment said SPX and corrected from 450 to 45
* jal suggests "rally" term substitute contest (e.g. "bounce" or "recoup")
* Days of 5000 mile salad are numbered
* Entire population could fit in a 60 mile diameter circle requiring only 30 mile salads
* Bluebird suggests there are fools and money still to be parted
* What will trigger the collapse?
* Flying reindeer will replace electric cars as prefered mythical transport; With minor modifications flying reindeer can run on wood chips or milkweed thistle
* Fear is the new hope
* Scary graphs show that Europe will be the first one up against the wall
* Credit Default Swaps were unregulated and allowed banks theoretically infinite leverage
March 3, 2009
* Map shows world at +4C; Who will pay for the high rise buildings in the Antarctic and solar panels in Africa; Borderline delusional; Whole exercise is ridiculous; Even so DIYer calls dibs on Antarctica; Snuffy wants some of the author's weed; Some doubt the ability of Siberia to become breadbasket despite this experts assertions
* aitrader - "Fanatics do not have a sense of humor. it's what distinguishes them from human beings."
* TAE readers never attending grade school in US don't know what "wet willy" is; Fear it has something to do with Bill Clinton in a hot tub
* CNBC talking heads are about to explode; Tune in at 8
* Daily dose of Ilargi snaps one into reality
* Doom along the byway set to music (please perform this on youtube)
* Stoneleigh predicts we are nearing bottom of this decline after which there will be a several month rally; Some wonder if desperation will prevent this; Stoneleight replies desperation will cause this; The market is irrational; Experts say now is the time to get back in (Note: they have never not said this) ; Rallies are fueled by fear and greed and so far we have the fear but not the greed
* aitrader asks Ilargi to tell the hard facts about the future; VK suggests dieoff.org
* Ilargi not yet ready to start new religion; Greenpa says he'll need a martyr; Any volunteers (Note: must have second sight but need not be the sharpest tool in the shed; Maybe Obama?)?; Starting a religion may not be as easy as it looks unless Tom Cruise joins
* People have never paid attention to climate change or other big problems; People are not rational
* "You can always find a mule."; This is good to know
* 4000 sq. ft. needed to sustainably feed an adult when farmed biointensively; This from must-have book by John Jeavons: "How to Grow More Vegetables"; One acre could support 10 people
* Stoneleigh expects short selling to be banned; This is bad because short sellers smooth the corners
* Long term (2-4 years) bets: oil sands, coal, oil services, monsantos, metals; Short term bets ( < 1 year): S & P ; Stoneleight notes commodities will see rebound with predicted rally
* We may never get to 9 billion people on the planet or even worse, we might
* Some don't like Obama; Some posit Obama inherited an awful situation but will at least try for health care and pull the troops out of Iraq
* The formula the killed Wall Street or cupolating with the devil
* Future powered by renewable energy won't look like current world; People need to accept this
March 2, 2009
* Too much opinion, not enough facts in comments for some; Others like anecdotes
* Farmers have never done well; Farming to disappear in valleys of CA
* Herd behavior may not evolve as expected due to internet and other factors; There may be no big suckers rally
* Hillary Clinton has sold out American middle class
* Stabilization for America means lower standard of living
* Bail out people not banks to maintain civil order to protect your own property, even if you're rich
* Many people now stocking up and growing gardens
* People will soon be heading for the door, trampling each other on the way out
* Magic soothes the wild beast
* Not a single government is doing what it should; Populations want their governments to act sensibly; People are fed up with their governments
* Indigenous people often don't benefit from modern western civilization
* DOW 5000 predicted
February 28, 2009
* Is current situation malice or stupidity? ; High IQ doesn't preclude ignorance; self-delusion and forms of idiocy; Maybe orchestrated plan gone awry; The folly of the quants
* Gaia doomed; Europe desiritified by 2040
* Iraq war motivation: oil or something else; Topic is a divider, not a uniter
* Rumor of bank runs on Citi - so far unsubstantiated except for on TAE reader who withdrew all funds who hid funds in pants
* Healthcare broken; Headed toward pay as you go; Best hospitals will be empty; Stockpile pain killers
* Modern dentistry may disappear; Too dependent on high tech; Say hello to wooden teeth embedded in lead at age 21; Some claim this is cheaper and less painful anyway; Dentistry will till will be a good profession and in high demand;
* Elegan metaphor: "... the bureaucracy seeks to sustain its core by cutting off limbs."
* FDIC funding at lowest level since 1993; Can it handle failure of large bank?
* Who will buy US Treasuries in 2009?
* Mark Twain quotes; He extols the longevity and influence of Jews
* US Auto sales predicted to be 9 million in 2009; Ilargi right again
* Ilargi celebrates birthday; Many happy returns of the day; Rumored to be 29
* Chevrolet is French for Goat with Milk; Shotgun wedding of Ford and GM predicted; Many suspected they were in bed together
* Rail extolled; Will it be electrified?
* Selling "New used" goods will undermine government cash flow; Us might attempt to tap private sales in Google and PayPal; Ron Paul says this leads to police state
* Return to 1490 predicted
* Big brother is reading this; His digs are in the Mojave desert
February 27, 2009
* Noon Summary offered tips; Declines, prefering instead TAE Stock Options
* Greenpa volunteers to lead banking zombies; Changes name to Gangreenpa
* Gas supply seems bearish for short term
* Peak oil not the same as peak liquids
* Z posts beautiful music in memory of Blinky; Blinky now rests in peace
* Mexico might be next US bubble; Only needs American know how and greed to become leveraged paradise
* Mike (Friend of TAE) posits the Mothra Effect: Peak oil too big not to tank economy, requiring a Godzillion dollar bailout
* Volker: The system is broken; Bernanke: Good, because if it ain't broke, I can't fix it
* Barney Frank can't send all culprits to gallows; Some would like to see Barney himself well hung
* Brace for impact: Fasten your seat belts - Put your head between your legs - Kiss your ass goodbye
* Government, Healthcare, and Welfare State are next tiny bubbles to pop
* Centiare: We have interrupted hell on earth to give you a 100 year FIRE commercial; Now back to your regularly scheduled program, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome"
* The demise of the Great Lakes; The spread of quagga mussels
* Economics has been made "too complex for untrained folks to understand"; To grasp this fact go open the hood of your car
* "The American masses ... with chronically sore butts from using hard TP, burn Wall Street and march on DC with tar and feathers"; This explains why Eastern Europeans riot more often than Americans
* The Dead are extolled
* Word of the day: Herdonomics; Coined by aitrader
* Was market collapse an accident or intentional?
* Acronym of the day: ELP - Economize, Localize, Produce ; Usage example: TEOTWAWKI! ELP! ELP!
February 26, 2009
* Andy from San Diego suggests a "Name that Depression" contest
* Obama sells ice to eskimos; Pitches this as solution to global warming
* Republicans and Democrats: two sides of the same douche bag
* George Mammon, Formerly of Lloyd Harbor, N.Y., bids clients farewell and is off to the Great White North
* The Chinese are not irrational but are transcendental; Americans, the root of the problem, are irrational
* Given an infinite amount of time and money Obama can fix all our problems; This gives some hope that he might still save our sorry asses
* Peak oil trumped by deflation; Oil production drops but demand drops further; Eventually production will fall lower than demand and then prices will rise; Some estimate this will take only one year or less
* Waning car production causes vicious cycle
* Mexico in free fall as drug cartels reign with help of US made weapons
* Peak oil as cause of credit crunch broached again; RTFA, dude
* Rapier suggests humor section; AITrader obliges
* National institute of mental health mistaken for rechargeable battery
* The Black Rabbit of Inle' claims to be posting to TAE
* Wyote waxes poetic
"Dave's been laid off. The ARM is going to reset. (I wonder if it is attached to the Invisible Hand)"
Classic
* Update from IowaBoy: Credit crunch has bit here
* Becoming a professional pilot discouraged
* Blinky, despondent, ingests cyanide ends up in GreenPa's stew pot; We will miss them both
February 25, 2009
* Cubans may not appreciate the position they are in; So called rich nations definitely don't appreciate the position they are in
* Stoneleigh's second law: The opposite of sustainable is terminal
* Some are still not sure what a bond market dislocation is. Will someone please explain?
* Cubans are the friendliest people in Latin America but for some reason don't want their country under American influence ... hmmm
* DOW rockets way, way up to 7350, a level not seen since Monday
* Buenas noticias para la gente que no saben Español: El caballo es muerto (Credit: Babelfish)
* Cuba has up to 20B barrells of oil offshore; Cubapetroleo to be renamed CastroOil in an effort to loosen trade blockage
* Greenspan's legacy falls victim to reality
* Niall Feguson predicts blood and horror as economy falters; Admits to posting to TAE as Starcade, NFL
* In a worldwide speech Obama announces he is to star in remake of Thriller with the PPT playing zombies; Meredith Whitney is cast as Ola Ray; Alan Greenspan will replace Vincent Price if he can be taught to laugh
* Government owning bank shares may allow them to force banks to lend; Obama speech may cause market rally (Surprisingly, it didn't)
* Michael Klare predicts blood and horror as economy falters; Claims Niall Ferguson is lying; Claims he is the one posting to TAE as Starcade, NFL (Double apologies to Strarcade)
* Australia may not escape the inevitable; Its exports will decline due to reduction in world demand
* Bernankelocks and the Three Bears
Papa Bear: Someone has been drinking my Koolaid!
Mama Bear: Someone has been drinking my Koolaid!
Baby Bear: Someone has been drinking my Koolaid and it's all gone!
(Snoring heard upstairs....)
* Long term Chinese strategy is to turn all Americans in to debt slaves; American more than willing and living in fool's paradise
* Snuffy petitions higher power for two more weeks before the TSHTF; Higher power shocked at first ever prayer to save IRS
* ROW worse off than America may be balderdash (what is ROW?)
* Sound bite fromObama's speech
* Bank bonuses fomented credit crunch says, Nassim Taleb. "And never trust with your money anyone making a potential bonus." Talib suggests bankers install tip jars instead.
* Dmitri Orlov recommended (Hear! Hear!)
* Governor of Louisiana eyes White House
* jal opines that Snuffy might not get his tax return
* TAE readers demand an update on Blinky
February 24, 2009
* Correction: Viva LE Governateur. He's no girly man.
* Cuba has great people but is not paradise
* Watching the DOW is the morbid pasttime for many
* Stoneleigh predicts DOW at 6000; Starcade predicts 6300 or lower
* Cancelling your Amex card: 300 bucks.
The Exquisite Irony: Priceless.
* Japan never recovered from its credit bubble; Their pain is getting worse even now
* VKs medium turn predictions: stocks crater, government bungles, bonds dislocate, interest rates rise, unemployment spikes, pensions disappear, plebes riot, goods in short supply, home prices plummet, living standards drop, grow your own food, life expectancy declines.
* Total bailout cost will be between a godzillion and an Avagadro dollars; Carbon footprint of recovery not to exceed 12 grams
* Get grain while it's cheap; They may not plant much for next year
* Obama is not fixing things and your grandchildren are toast but it would be worse with McCain and worser still with Palin and the first Dude
* The militias will save us from socialism if medicaire will just buy them wheelchairs
* Depression may cause legalization of marijuana which may cause depression
* Taxation of vice can reduce prison populations and help balance the budget (Let's get some buck for our bong)
* No one wants the government behind them, especially after they've dropped their car keys
* Try and make it through to the other side. We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when ...
* Archdruid Report: Ages of faith and reason to be followed by the age of memory (and finally the age of Alzheimers)
* Foreclosed homes could be rented out by localities at minimal cost
* Starcade gives voice to our deepest fears
* Currency devaluation is a real threat, especially for England, Russia and Spain, however, currency devaluation isn't necessarily inflation
* California seniors struggle to survive
* Bernanke holds press conference - tells all who believe in recovery to clap their hands and the economy will get better
* Denninger gets no respect from some
* Blinky is somewhere plotting revenge - May become the Unibunny
February 23, 2009
* Nationalization of Citi and BofA is only a question of when. Will it cause a market crash and bank runs or will no one care?
* TAE is aware of reindeer and overshoot and is here to help people prepare
* Correction: Humans are dumber than reindeer
* Some like it hot, some like it cold. Also, I and S not welcome in the caribbean (Note: They are welcome in upstate Montana)
* Thorium may be a cleaner nuclear fuel and may be more sustainable (Ilargi dissents)
* All nuclear power is a Faustian bargain and unsustainable and unsafe in a collapse
* Men in the caribbean favor propostion 8 (women per day that is)
* Agriculture without oil: See you in C U B A (or is it overrated?)
* Americans should concentrate on their own problems
* Ilargi writes better than most with his brain on vacation (but not in the Caribbean). Also, Ilargi is accused of not being pessimistic enough
* The stimulus/ignores the pus/Rome's end draws nigh/We pine and sigh (apologies to Oarwell)
* CDOs are excrement not worth composting (apologies to VK)
* Paco the Drain Man will build houses in Africa
* Peggy Noonan is economically born again: Heal! Heal! Heal!
* Joe and Mao spoiled Communism; Adolf and Benito spoiled Facism; Ronnie and George spoiled Free Market Capitalism; Next up?
* Alternate opinion: Communism and Facism have failed in the US. Free markets have never been tried here.
* Blinky has been found but Kari has been eaten by wolf dogs named Ben, Hank and Tim
* Chernobyl has driven out the people and nature is thriving
* Obama may raise capital gains taxes: Bad for capitalists, good for socialists
* Municipal Meltdowns - Bernanke's home sold in foreclosure. Ben and Blinky considering co-habitation (apologies to Wyote)
* California: The new France. Viva la Governateur!
February 22, 2009
* Noon summary yesterday missed key point that the White House has backed away from bank nationalization
* EU and Euro in significant peril
* It appears that George Soros may be following TAE
* Russian collapse will be easier for Russians than American collapse for Americans (per Dmitri Orlov)
* Checkbook IRAs explained
* PPT = Plunge Protection Team = Working Group on Financial Markets
* Irish unrest, housewives selling gold, 1/5 of Los Angeles on public assistance
* Banks - capitulation or monetization
* The return of wind powered water transport
* Europe cannot maintain their socio-economic systems
* TAE understands peak oil
* We are 30 years into a catabolic collapse
* We are a dumb as reindeer
* Whereabouts of Blinky still unknown - Rumored to be held captive by Bernie Madoff
February 21, 2009
* Don't buy a house yet - much further to fall
* Fabulous, beautiful sculpture
* Banking system could fall apart in 2 years or tomorrow
* $25 Trillion in admitted debt
* Bye, bye, big three
* What is really going with Obama?
* T-bills are better than FDIC insured deposits (for now)
* Europe in more trouble than US - expect bank failures
* European failures will have ripple effect to US
* SDS has done well, SKF better, but watch out for fool's rallies
* No rabbits in Peru
* Blinky gets evicted and is lost, possible moved to Peru
* Gold and silver will fall back pretty soon
* Dollar will rise for a while as a safe haven
* Expect currency volatility and eventual failure of exchange rate system
* Era of 'us' vs. 'them' ahead
* Stoneleigh's law: Mood drives news and markets but news lags markets.
* Credit unions not necessarily safer than banks.
