Tick Tock Tick Tock

A Brief History of Cycles and Time, Part 2

So why didn’t war break out in 1932, 1936, or for the U.S., in 1940? It wasn’t as if people didn’t see it coming, just as we see our own war and challenges now.

Because it wasn’t time. What I mean by that is, no matter how far seeing, History, as Hari Seldon would say, is made up of the aggregate, not the individual. No individual– not even Churchill chafing under Chamberlain in 1938—could change it.

It only happens slowly, when one by one the great mass of the population have changed their minds and their behavior. Only then can history unfold. You, me, even Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, or George Soros cannot push the great Wheel of History around because it is made of all 6 Billion of us, the whole planet, the whole market, and the sum of human understanding.

When “it’s time” — it’ll also be too damn late.

You don’t “get” cancer the day you’ve been diagnosed.

You’ve had cancer for years before any clue.

When the Collapse Of All Things happens, god help us all.

The Eventual Death Wave

The Next Pandemic: Not if, but When

… you may not have noticed the little items about a “novel coronavirus” on the Arabian Peninsula.

This came into view last September, when the Saudi Ministry of Health announced that such a virus — new to science and medicine — had been detected in three patients, two of whom had already died. By the end of the year, a total of nine cases had been confirmed, with five fatalities. As of Thursday, there have been 18 deaths, 33 cases total, including one patient now hospitalized in France after a trip to the United Arab Emirates. Those numbers are tiny by the standards of global pandemics, but here’s one that’s huge: the case fatality rate is 55 percent. The thing seems to be almost as lethal as Ebola.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

C-I-L-L The Landlord

Great Problems: The Rent Seeking Economy

Past writers who imagined the future thought that as machines saved our time, we would have more time for leisure. That has not happened. Instead, since no one is self-sufficient, we must work in sales and marketing to convince someone with money to trade cash for our trinket, so that we can have purchasing power to access the natural bounty of the land. Average work hours declined for a century — and then started curving back upwards as the everyone switched the zero sum battle of sales and marketing. The future is here, and it is the sales desk at Dunder Mifflin.

I don’t think anyone else understands landlords as acutely as a native New Yorker.

And after the break, Eddie Murphy.

Japan Surrenders After Nuclear Financialgeddon

BOJ to pump $1.4 trillion into economy in unprecedented stimulus

The U.S. Federal Reserve may buy more debt under its quantitative easing, but with the Japanese economy about one-third of the size of the United States, the scope of Kuroda’s “Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing” is unmatched.

“This is an unprecedented degree of monetary easing,” a smiling Kuroda told a news conference after his first policy meeting at the helm of the central bank.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were plenty of people sounding the alarm in America about how Japan was going to rule the world.

Japan has been an economic vegetable for about twenty years now. The “Lost Decade” has turned into the “Lost Generation.”

Cyprus: The Machine Begins To Consume Itself

Here We Go Again: EU Lawmaker To Push For Bail-In Resolution Law For Deposits Over €100K

Cyprus is no “one-time thing.” It’s their template for the future.

Imagine saving all your life and having 110,000 Euros in a Cyprus bank. Up to forty percent (if not more) of that is going to be wiped out. Stolen!

They can spin this as “dirty Russian Oligarch money” all they like. All that does is disguise the truth of everyday people who will suffer.

Having never let the crooked banks collapse back in 2008, they’re now going to come for everyone’s money.

Previously here:

The Definition Of “Cyprus” Is “Screw You”
Cyprus Looks Like Toast
Cyprus: No Cash Until March 26th
Are You Paying Attention Yet?
The Financial Monkeywrench Of Cyprus
Cyprus Launches Financial Andromeda Strain
The Day The ATMs Stopped Working

The Definition Of “Cyprus” Is “Screw You”

Cyprus Said to Reach Tentative Deal to Avert Default

Deposits below the EU deposit-guarantee ceiling of 100,000 euros will be protected, and a loss of no more than 40 percent will be imposed on uninsured depositors at the Bank of Cyprus, two EU officials said. Uninsured depositors at Cyprus Popular would largely be wiped out, two other officials said.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

And so with a wave of a wand — this isn’t even going up for a vote because it’s been framed as a bank resolution — in the Iron Fist of the State, POOF!, your money disappears.

Russian Oligarchs did not get to be Oligarchs playing nice or recognizing rules. There will be vengeance.

Having now created this loophole scheme that “absolves” the politicians, how long before it’s applied in other countries?

Previously here:

Cyprus Looks Like Toast
Cyprus: No Cash Until March 26th
Are You Paying Attention Yet?
The Financial Monkeywrench Of Cyprus
Cyprus Launches Financial Andromeda Strain
The Day The ATMs Stopped Working

Cyprus Looks Like Toast

Exclusive: Euro zone call notes reveal extent of alarm over Cyprus

Quoting the Chairman of the Eurogroup Working Group:

The economy is going to tank in Cyprus no matter what.

Surprisingly, the ATMs have been restocked for a few days and people were allowed to withdraw up to six hundred Euros a day. At forty Euros at a time. The last word is that they’ve dropped the daily limit to two hundred and forty Euros.

How soon before the ATMs stop working again?

Previously here:

Cyprus: No Cash Until March 26th
Are You Paying Attention Yet?
The Financial Monkeywrench Of Cyprus
Cyprus Launches Financial Andromeda Strain
The Day The ATMs Stopped Working

Cyprus: No Cash Until March 26th

Cyprus banks to remain closed another 2 days

Banks in Cyprus will remain closed for another two days as officials try to find a new plan to stave off financial ruin, the central bank’s spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Aliki Stylianou confirmed the additional two-day closure for Thursday and Friday. As next Monday is a national bank holiday in Cyprus, the institutions will not reopen before next Tuesday at the earliest.

How much of a disaster is this?

Are You Paying Attention Yet?

Cyprus banks to remain shut Tuesday and Wednesday: government source

The consensus of opinion among financial observers can best be summed up as this:

Just what the fuck are you doing, EU?!!!?
Have you all gone insane?!

The Financial Monkeywrench Of Cyprus

Cypriot Bailout Sends Shivers Throughout the Euro Zone

The government also extended a bank holiday that was put in place to try to stop a run on the banks. The holiday was supposed to end Monday night. Now, banks will not be opening their doors Tuesday, as planned. There was talk that they might not open Wednesday, either.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Why is that a surprise? They can’t open without withdrawal limitations, further eroding confidence in the corrupt system.