Misdirection.
In magic this is the deception of drawing attention to one thing in order to distract from another.
I do not know what is going on with the virus itself. I see compelling evidence on both sides. That this is not dangerous at all, little more than a flu that is being pumped up hysterically. On the other side is that this is a pandemic about to explode, even a weaponized virus, sure to kill many. (If I must pick, I’d say I’m leaning towards the former.)
In our information economy, the amount of noise generated is insane. Separating the noise from the true signal, is damn near impossible.
But what if the virus is really not the important part? What if that is all misdirection? The result of the virus, whatever the truth is behind that, is complete economic chaos. And here is where I think we should be looking more.
I’m not an economist. So take everything I say with a grain of salt. Look at the links I’m providing. Do your own research.
As everyone is aware of the stock market has crashed hard. Now the stock market is not the economy but one aspect of it.
Let’s think about the real economy. In quarantine, businesses are shutting down left and right. It’s only just begun. People are spending less. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin said unemployment as high as 20%, but later walked back his comments saying we’re not going to let that happen. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/03/18/mnuchin-walks-back-comments-about-20-unemployment-were-not-going-to-let-that-happen/#7969b4667368
Meanwhile, the unemployment website crashed from all the applications. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-state-unemployment-websites-crash-applications-surge-n1162731
A neighbor told me they’re not even vetting the applications now. They’re simply letting them go through unchecked.
This means the very real economy is being impacted too.
I’m in ecommerce. I know a lot of ecommerce people many of whom are solely on Amazon. Amazon said they’re not taking shipments from vendors of non-essential goods. Think ripples of impact. (Or think viral economic spread outside the virus itself.) We still haven’t even seen the full impact from the earlier shut down of China. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/coronavirus-impact-a-long-shutdown-in-china-will-leave-a-mark-on-key-sectors/articleshow/74218270.cms
The government is promising to take care of everyone. (I’m not making an argument for or against socialism at this time. I’m saying that the result is that we’re much more there than ever before real soon.)
Mnuchin has promised “unlimited liquidity” from the Fed in order to accomplish this. https://www.fxstreet.com/news/us-treasury-sec-mnuchin-fed-and-treasury-working-to-provide-unlimited-liquidity-202003131316
Money is being pumped into the market at a blurring speed. Trillions already.
Again, remember 2008. We had billions going to banks that caused the problem in the first place.
Most people are not aware that for about half a year now, the Federal Reserve has been pumping money into the market with what are known as repo loans. As one person put it bailouts were occurring…just on the sly.
The bubble was being inflated higher and higher, meaning that when it bursts it’s going to be magnitudes bigger than before.
Big companies have been spending all their money on stock buybacks to the tune of $4.5 trillion since 2012. This further enriched them at the time. Now, with no cash left they’re calling for the government to bail them out. After all they’re too big to fail. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/after-blowing-45-trillion-buybacks-us-execs-demand-taxpayer-funded-bailouts-shareholders
This is not 2008. This is 1929.
(Or as James Corbett put it 1929 + 1984 + 9/11 which I’d admit is better and easier to understand than my equation.)
I have not seen the following in the news at all. But one of my alternative sources covered it. The Federal Reserve cut bank reserve requirements to zero! “As announced on March 15, 2020, the Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26, 2020. This action eliminated reserve requirements for all depository institutions.” https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/reservereq.htm
What does that mean? Please do correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe this has ever been done before.
Our money is fiat, meaning fake. Created out of thin air. Banks essentially needed to keep some cash in reserves in a ratio around 1 to 10 for their loans outstanding. That reserve ratio is gone as of the 26th.
What are the impacts of this? Again, I’m not sure. But I don’t think it is good!
People that I follow and have been predicting things correctly up to this point are saying a run on the banks is coming. We’ve even seen the first tell-tale signs that that may be occurring.
A New York bank ran out of $100’s as customers withdrew money. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8113389/NYC-bank-temporarily-runs-100-bills-customers-withdraw-cash-amid-Wall-Street-crash.html
This article discussing more withdrawals also points out that cash could carry the virus. This is important for what seems to be part of this agenda, the transition to digital currency which I’ll talk about later.
I’m sure you remember the panic of buying toilet paper? It’s been meme-central for weeks now on social media.
Were you caught unawares? Did you go to the store and you needed a normal amount of toilet paper only to find the shelves were bare and you wondered what the hell is going on?
That was then. This article even talks about how the run on toilet paper is like a run on banks. https://theconversation.com/a-toilet-paper-run-is-like-a-bank-run-the-economic-fixes-are-about-the-same-133065
I feel conflicted in writing this. Telling you a bank run is possibly coming is to cause you to want to get money out, which in turn is exacerbating or causative of the very problem that would best be avoided.
But you’ve chosen to read these emails. I’m telling you what I’m seeing.
I personally went to the bank yesterday to take out a few extra thousand dollars. I did not drain my accounts completely. I asked the teller how things were going. He told me it wasn’t busy. No one else was doing the same.
…At least not yet. Our economy is mostly digital. There are far too few actual dollars for all that money. If it happens it will happen fast.
The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) appears to be saying that this is so that banks can loan out more money to people and businesses that need it without needing reserves in place. https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/03/19/fdic-seeks-new-breathing-room-for-banks-to-help-small-businesses-survive-the-coronavirus/#661a167c5f45
In this video, MSNBC tried to answer the question “Is there any possibility that the FDIC won’t be able to deliver on insurance if the banks fail? What is the best way to keep the money safe?” The answer is basically we’re in uncharted territory so who knows?
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/could-fdic-not-deliver-on-insurance-if-banks-fail-80717381617
I think I see two possible scenarios playing out.
One is that the government steps in big, big, big time. It makes the 2008-2009 bailouts look like small fries. Big companies that were part of the problem get tons of money of course. But maybe even average folks get money too. Understand that there are massive implications from this alone (hyperinflation?) and this seems to be the better of the two scenarios!
The other option is that everything they do is not enough. This bubble bursts hard. I shudder to think of the impacts.
I think that the chances this virus blows by us, and the economy bounces back are very, very slim. Again, I hope I am wrong, but I fear I am not.