Elon Musk Says A SpaceX Bankruptcy Is “Not Impossible” Remember when Elon Musk joked about the potential for Tesla going bankrupt on April Fool’s Day several years ago, right before the company’s stock mysteriously rose ten-fold in the span of less than two years? Perhaps he is hoping for a repeat with SpaceX, because Musk is now openly discussing the probability of SpaceX going bankrupt, saying the scenario is “not impossible”. Musk made the comment on Twitter, when discussing production problems earlier this week.   “If a severe global recession were to dry up capital availability / liquidity while SpaceX was losing billions on Starlink & Starship, then bankruptcy, while still unlikely, is not impossible,” Musk wrote.  If a severe global recession were to dry up capital … [Read More...]

Victor Davis Hanson: Third-Worldizing America Authored by Victor Davis Hanson, op-ed via Townhall.com, In a recent online exchange, YouTuber Casey Neistat posted his fury after his car was broken into and the contents stolen. Los Angeles, he railed, was turning into a “3rd-world s-hole of a city.”The multimillionaire actor Seth Rogen chastised Neistat for his anger. Rogen claimed that a car’s contents were minor things to lose. He added that while living in West Hollywood he had his own car broken into 15 times, but thought little of it. Online bloggers ridiculed Rogen. No wonder – the actor lives in multimillion-dollar homes in the Los Angeles area, guarded by sophisticated security systems and fencing.Yet both Neistat and Rogen accurately defined … [Read More...]

Here We Go: Market Begins Pricing In Rate Cuts As Yield Curve Inverts With Powell effectively confirming an earlier end to the Fed’s taper program this week, parts of the US yield curve inverted, and as the chart below shows, forwards traders are starting to price in rate cuts in a few years suggesting the Fed will not only end its tightening campaign prematurely, but will be forced to cut relatively soon.  And, we would add, the more stocks drop, the greater the priced in future rate cut will be. In fact, with the forward swaps curve now pricing in more than 10bps of cuts, we are now where we were in late 2018, just weeks before stocks tumbled 20% and Powell capitulated, sparking a massive rally as … [Read More...]

Global Food Prices Rise Again, Hitting New Decade High  Global food inflation continues to rise for the fourth consecutive month in November, reaching levels not seen in a decade, led mainly by robust demand for wheat and dairy products, according to a new report via the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).  FAO’s food price index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of food commodities, rose 1.2% to 134.4 in November from October, driven by continued demand for food. The index is up 27.3% YoY.  Food prices remain at a decade high and have risen sharply since the beginning of the pandemic, driven by snarled supply chains, harvest setbacks, soaring farm costs, and high demand.  Last month, increases in grains, dairy, and sugar … [Read More...]

Bitcoin-Backed Bonds Are Coming To Wall Street As Goldman Embraces Crypto-Collateral Earlier in the week we described El Salvador’s historic bitcoin bond deal – a $1 billion deal collateralized with $500 million of bitcoin that the crypto-embracing nation would use to fund the construction of  a “Bitcoin city.” As we said at the time: Other countries are likely to look into how they too can get money without having to deal with the rapacious bankers at the IMF. A Bitcoin bond is a great way to secure funding outside the bounds of the traditional financial system. Well, according to a report from CoinDesk, Goldman Sachs, and a handful of othe tier-one US banks, are figuring out how to use bitcoin as collateral for … [Read More...]

Barbados & Britain’s Lost Empire After almost 400 years under a British monarch, Barbados officially removed the Queen as head of state this week, having initially gained independence from the UK in 1966. In a message to President Dame Sandra Mason of the newly born republic, the Queen wished “good wishes for your happiness, peace and prosperity in the future”. This marks the latest in a long list of countries breaking away from the British empire. While a source of great pride for some Brits, the phrase “The empire on which the sun never sets” is one which has not been applicable to the United Kingdom for a long time now. However questionable the pride associated with this notion may be, it was once a fairly accurate statement to … [Read More...]

What Happens When Omicron Meets Powell By Steve Englander, head of global FX research and North America macro strategy at Standard Chartered Bank, NY Branch 30 November FX moves most likely reflect position and G10 commodity currency unwinds Weakest currencies of the past two months were best performers as Fed and Omicron fears ramped up G10 currencies other than safe havens were weak, especially oil exporters FX price action on 30 November reflected concerns related to Omicron, the new COVID variant, and a hawkish shift in Fed Chair Powell’s monetary policy stance in an appearance before the US Senate. Investors have treated Omicron largely as a downside risk for G10 commodity currencies, although it is uncertain how serious a health risk it is. Indications of a high degree of … [Read More...]

Finnish Electricity Prices Jump 5x Amid Unseasonably Cold Weather And Worsening Energy Crisis Finland has succumbed to the energy crisis as households and businesses early this week paid a mind-numbing €422 per MWh (including taxes), or about five times higher than a year ago, according to data from the Nord Pool electricity exchange. The Northern European nation bordering Sweden, Norway, and Russia is energy-dependent, meaning it must import high volumes of fossil fuels, such as petroleum and natural gas. Domestic sources of power production include thermal, nuclear, and hydropower plants. Energy experts told RT News that soaring natural gas prices in Central Europe attributed to skyrocketing power prices. Experts warned of very little relief for Finnish households and businesses who may experience heightened electricity costs … [Read More...]

Will New Jabs Be Necessary To Fight Omicron? Here Is Goldman’s Answer Over the weekend, Goldman Sachs’ analysts slammed the latest round of variant hysteria and insisted that the omicron variant will likely be remembered as a laughable sideshow, not unlike “Delta-plus”. By Sunday night, the word had spread – don’t fall for the latest round of COVID variant FUD. It’s just one more tool for the Biden Administration and Dr. Anthony Fauci to push their own agenda while trying to frighten Americans into getting both the original jabs and their booster. In its latest note, the Goldman team started by ticking off a bunch of new stats about omicron that millions of Americans can probably site by memory at this point. The variant is roughly ~50 … [Read More...]

UK “Delivery Chaos” Could Spark Alcohol Shortage Ahead Of Christmas Prime Minister Boris Johnson has taken several steps to address the shortage of truck drivers after the fuel crisis in September. Months later, and with thousands of new truck drivers, there are still fears that food, fuel, and other items might be in short supply in the run-up to Christmas.  The latest scare, due to a lack of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, is the United Kingdom could face a shortage of alcohol, according to UK Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WTSA).  WTSA sent a letter to UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, requesting the government take immediate action to boost HGV drivers. The letter was signed by 49 industry association members, including champagne and cognac makers Moet … [Read More...]

The Bitcoin Bond: El Salvador Makes History Authored by Sam Klemens via exodus.com, El Salvador is planning to issue the world’s first Bitcoin bond and it’s a really big deal! This article will explain how the bond works, what El Salvador plans to do with the money and why other countries might start issuing their own Bitcoin bonds. Let’s dive in! The Bitcoin Bond El Salvador’s Bitcoin bond* will be worth $1 billion and it’s going to get split into two parts. Half the bond will be used to begin construction on a “Bitcoin city.” The second half of the bond will be used to buy $500 million worth of Bitcoin. *A bond is a way for a country or corporation to take out debt. … [Read More...]

UK Army Reestablishes ‘Permanent’ Germany Presence Directed At “Russian Threat” The United Kingdom announced at the end of last week that the military will ramp up its permanent presence of troops and tanks in Germany, a year after drawing down its large Cold War-era presence there. British media appeared unanimous in citing that it was in the face of the “Russian threat” – with the premier newspaper The Sunday Times describing a “brigade-sized force” will now be closer to eastern Europe “in the event of war with Russia.”  “Hundreds of vehicles including tanks and drones will be deployed back to Germany in a government U-turn as the army builds one of its three big overseas hubs in the country,” The Times wrote in … [Read More...]

New Variant Hysteria Comes From Same Institution That Popularized Lockdowns, Previous COVID Scares Authored by Jordan Schachtel via The Dossier, What a small world we live in. The “Nu variant” scare you keep hearing about is coming from the same people and institutions that spawned the last COVID scare, and the one before that, and the one before that one, dating back all the way to the onset of COVID Mania. [Update: the World Health Organization has now labeled this strain the “Omicron variant,” in noticeably skipping over “Xi” in the greek alphabet] The corporate press and world governments have produced an incredible amount of noise about a claimed new COVID variant, the “Nu” variant, which has been detected in South Africa and Botswana.  ?Of all … [Read More...]

“The Omicron Variant” – Magic Pills, Or Solving The Africa Problem? Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org, Yesterday the WHO labelled the sars-cov-2 variant B.1.1.529 as a “variant of concern” and officially named it “Omicron”. This was as entirely predictable as it is completely meaningless. The “variants” are just tools to stretch the story out and keep people on their toes. If you want to know exactly how the Omicron variant is going to affect the narrative, well The Guardian has done a handy “here’s all the bullshit we’re gonna sell you over the next couple of weeks” guide: The Omicron variant is more transmissable, but they don’t know if it’s more dangerous yet (keeping their options open) It originated in Africa, possible mutating … [Read More...]

Biden ‘Forgets’ To Close The Southern Border Against ‘Omicron’ Variant Authored by Monica Showalter via AmericanThinker.com, Much has been made of the news that Joe Biden has shut the door to eight countries over the new ‘omicron’ COVID variant. AT deputy editor Andrea Widburg has an excellent piece today on that here. Some of the implications, of course, are vaguely comical. Biden’s White House medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the so-called “expert” and voice of “science” he touted was last seen recommending against the closure of air travel. Joe, of course, did it anyway, signaling that Fauci’s expertise to him is all about what’s politically useful and, apparently, this wasn’t. After all, country after country was shutting its air travel from countries where that variant … [Read More...]

What Is The Relationship Between The Political Left And Globalism? Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us, No one educated and sane likes the political left. This is not a shocking revelation. As I have been outlining for many years (but specifically in the past few years), leftists are the ONLY people in the country that consistently support draconian government policies and oppressive corporate monopoly. They are the only people that support mass censorship of opposing viewpoints through Big Tech and social media. They are the only people demanding the deplatforming and “canceling” of public personalities that dare to utter any views that are contrary to the leftist narrative. They are the only group that has a vast majority in support of the authoritarian covid lockdowns … [Read More...]

Amazon Shelling Out $3,000 Signing Bonuses, Chartering Ships, In Unprecedented Holiday Push Drastic measures are going to have to be taken this holiday season to make sure that inventory and online orders arrive on time. But don’t worry, Amazon has a plan. Adobe is projecting this year that consumers will spend $207 billion online, a rise of 10% from last year, according to Bloomberg. This means that dodging supply chain and logistics issues is a must for retailers like Amazon.  Amazon is going to be chartering additional ships and has already hired 150,000 seasonal workers to help with shipping and packing this holiday season. It is enticing them with bonuses of up to $3,000 and higher than usual pay.  Additional costs, like chartering ships and dispatching half-full … [Read More...]

Black Friday: Deal Or No Deal? Black Friday is upon us. Marketed as a shoppers’ paradise, for a limited period (sometimes extended to a week) retailers sell selected products at often heavily discounted prices – leading in some cases to a desperate rush to take advantage of the deals. However, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong notes, newly published analysis by the UK consumer association Which? indicates that all may not be as it seems when looking at a large percentage of the price tags. Data for 201 home and tech products from a range of retailers’ UK ‘Black Friday deals’ revealed that in the 6 months prior to last year’s Black Friday, a startling 92 percent of advertised products were the same price or even cheaper before the “deal” while only one … [Read More...]

Media Tells Americans To Perform COVID Tests, Check Vaccine Status Of Thanksgiving Dinner Guests Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News, On the eve of Thanksgiving, media outlets urged Americans to perform COVID tests and check the vaccination status of Thanksgiving dinner guests before allowing them into their homes. Yes, really. During a segment on CBS Mornings, psychologist Lisa Damour was asked how nervous Thanksgiving hosts should bring up the subject of vaccination status when welcoming friends and family. “It might be a difficult conversation before people step into your house to say, ‘whoa, wait a minute, where’s your card, what’s your status?’ before you walk into my home,” the host of the show said. “This is tough because people are all over the … [Read More...]

Shellenberger: Why Anti-Police Activism Kills Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack, In response to anti-police protests, many officers quit, resulting in shortages and a spike in avoidable deaths, from homicides to heart attacks, of innocents… Will Yurek with three of his four children including Drew (far right) who called 911 when his father suffered a heart attack. First responders say the city of Seattle failed to save Will’s life because of a police shortage. At 1:24pm on Nov. 2, 13-year-old Drew Yurek called 911 to report an emergency: his father Will didn’t feel well and needed help. Medics arrived six minutes later, but were told by dispatch to wait for the police before entering; there was a cautionary note that flagged the occupant of the address as … [Read More...]