The Sun is Not Done Yet – Another Absolutely Gigantic “Warning Shot” Was Just Sent Our Way
by Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
The sun just unleashed a monstrous X-class flare, and hardly anyone noticed. The X8.7 solar flare that we just witnessed was the largest one of this entire solar cycle. The good news is that it wasn’t a threat to our planet at all. Radio activity was affected in some areas of the globe for a while, but other than that there was no danger. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be paying attention. As I have been warning my readers, the giant ball of fire that we revolve around has been behaving very erratically in recent years. If solar activity continues to increase, it is just a matter of time before our planet gets hit really hard.
According to CBS News, the X8.7 flare that the sun unleashed on Tuesday “peaked just before 1 p.m. ET”…
Golden Opportunities: Navigating Fed Rate Cuts and China’s Metal Buying Spree with Phillip Streible
from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network
Kerry and Phillip Streible discussed a range of economic topics. They began by discussing the potential for Fed rate cuts, with Streible suggesting that they may be postponed until the end of the year due to inflation, political considerations, and external economic factors. Lutz expressed apprehension about the potential impact on the markets and questioned whether the Fed’s actions may be inadequate in light of current economic indicators. The conversation also touched on the upcoming June meeting, inflation data, and the challenges posed by high interest rates and their impact on consumer behavior and the housing market. The discussion then shifted to the dynamics of the gold market, with Streible attributing its current level to pre-positioning for Fed interest rate cuts and China’s substantial purchases of precious metals. Lutz expressed skepticism about experts’ surprise at higher-than-expected inflation numbers and questioned their awareness of market trends. The speakers also discussed the widespread impact of rising cocoa prices and inflation on consumer expenses, emphasizing the trickle effect on input and labor costs, particularly in the food industry, leading to higher dining out expenses and the likelihood of the Fed revising its inflation target. Finally, they discussed the potential economic implications of the upcoming election, forecasting market volatility and discussing the impact of fiscal spending.
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Why the Dollar Will Lose Its Status as the Global Reserve Currency
by James Hickman
Schiff Sovereign
By the early 400s, the Roman Empire was coming apart at the seams and in desperate need of strong, competent leadership. In theory, Honorius should have been the right man for the job.
Born into the royal household in Constantinople, Honorius had been groomed to rule, practically since birth, by the finest experts in the realm. So even as a young man, Honorius had already accumulated decades of experience.
Yet Rome’s foreign adversaries rightfully believed Honorius to be weak, out of touch, divisive, and completely inept.
He had entered into bonehead peace treaties that strengthened Rome’s enemies. He paid vast sums of money to some of their most powerful rivals and received practically nothing in return. He made virtually no attempt to secure Roman borders, leaving the empire open to be ravaged by barbarians.
Delinquencies On Office Property Loans at Banks Are at 8 Percent While Office Loans the Banks Sold to Investors Show 31 Percent in Trouble
by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
On Friday, the Federal Reserve released its semiannual Supervision and Regulation Report on banks. Commercial real estate loans at banks – particularly on office properties – continued to rank high on the Fed’s list of concerns. The Fed included the chart above showing that delinquency rates on office property loans held by the banks had skyrocketed from just over 1 percent at the end of 2022 to over 8 percent as of December 31, 2023. (The red text and arrow have been added by Wall Street On Parade.)
Banks are major lenders to the commercial real estate (CRE) market, providing almost $3 trillion in financing. According to a February 27 report from S&P Global, as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, two megabanks dwarfed all others in their commercial real estate loan exposure. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, the largest bank in the U.S., held $173.31 billion in CRE loans while Wells Fargo Bank NA held $139.65 billion. Bank of America ranks second to JPMorgan Chase Bank NA in terms of assets, and yet its CRE loan exposure is less than half that of JPMorgan Chase, at $82.80 billion, according to S&P Global.
Why the USA is Collapsing
by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh spoke at a judicial conference for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Justice Kavanaugh said that unpopular rulings tend to become the fabric of constitutional law, pointing to the unpopular decision at the time in Brown v. Board of Education, which held that separating children by race in schools is unconstitutional. This is often the case, but the nation has become so polarized that you immediately see today, when a Judge rules, they turn to who appointed him to the bench. The presumption is that they rule not according to the Constitution but according to the political party that they are affiliated with.
Justice Kavanaugh made it clear that his family receives 24-hour security protection since, in 2022, a California man traveled to his house with alleged plans to assassinate him; outraged over pending decisions in cases dealing with gun rights, he wanted to see terminated and abortion, which he viewed should be allowed at any time before birth. Such issues have been so polarized by the press that the underlying security in this country is under assault. COVID unhinged a lot a people for a fair amount cannot withstand being locked down even in their home. That is why, in prison, they routinely throw people in what inmates call the “hole” to break them down mentally and force them to plead guilty when they lack the evidence for a fair trial.
Are U.S. Interest Rates High Enough to Beat Inflation? The Fed Will Take Its Time to Find Out.
The sharp interest rate hikes of the past two years will likely take longer than previously expected to bring down inflation, several Federal Reserve officials have said in recent comments, suggesting there may be few, if any, rate cuts this year
by Christopher Rugaber
Independent.co.uk
The sharp interest rate hikes of the past two years will likely take longer than previously expected to bring down inflation, several Federal Reserve officials have said in recent comments, suggesting there may be few, if any, rate cuts this year.
A major concern expressed by both Fed policymakers and some economists is that higher borrowing costs aren’t having as much of an impact as economics textbooks would suggest. Americans as a whole, for example, aren’t spending much more of their incomes on interest payments than they were a few years ago, according to government data, despite the Fed’s sharp rate increases. That means higher rates may not be doing much to limit many Americans’ spending, or cool inflation.
Common Knowledge Series: Expert Failings
Europe is turning to openly satanic displays, some professors are calling for the mass culling of people while others are beavering away trying to permanently block the sun. What could go wrong? We might as well admit it; the experts are not up to the tasks.
by Dr. Chris Martenson
Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity
They say nothing fails like success.
Meaning, people who experience early success due to happenstance and luck, misattribute those random conditions to their own skill and prowess and then go on to suck at everything they do next.
Well , we can say the same thing about “experts.” Our learnings from Covid are that truly colossal blunders require expert involvement.
WHO Makes Key Concessions Ahead of Pandemic Treaty Vote
from Zero Hedge
Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The World Health Organization (WHO) has watered down some provisions of its pandemic agreements ahead of the upcoming World Health Assembly on May 27. Critics in the United States, however, say the changes don’t do enough to address the concerns over the policy.
Provisions in prior drafts of the WHO pandemic treaty and International Health Regulations (IHRs) together aimed to effectively centralize and increase the power of the WHO if it declares a “health emergency.”
The release of the latest draft of the amendments, dated April 17, are the first public update on the IHR draft, which was initially made public early 2023.
There’s a Boom in Distressed Debt Exchanges to Deal with Leveraged-Loan Defaults
by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
An alternative to a restructuring in bankruptcy court.
Distressed debt exchanges are an alternative by companies to restructuring their unmanageable debts in a bankruptcy court, if they can get their creditors to agree to what are usually haircuts of some form. Distressed debt exchanges are a form of default, though they’re not always included in default rates.
But when distressed debt exchanges are included, the default rates are much higher. And the number of distressed debt exchanges has surged since the Fed started hiking interest rates. And thanks to the ultra-loose financial conditions despite the Fed’s tightening, investors are eager to work out deals.
The Global Solar Power Boom is Driving a Surge in Silver Demand
Miners are expanding their operations and ramping up production as prices for the precious metal climb to decade highs
by Christian Moess Laursen
The Wall Street Journal
Silver is integral to the production of solar photovoltaic—or solar PV—panels because of its high electrical conductivity, thermal efficiency and optical reflectivity, and mining companies are aiming to boost output as prices for the precious metal have climbed to decade highs.
Global investment in solar PV manufacturing more than doubled last year to around $80 billion, accounting for around 40% of global investment in clean-technology manufacturing, according to a report out Monday from the International Energy Agency. China more than doubled its investment in solar photovoltaic manufacturing between 2022 and 2023.
Campaigns Can’t Get Worse, Can They?
Plus: A listener asks the editors about President Joe Biden holding up arms shipments to Israel.
by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman
Reason.com
In this week’s The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman conjure up a few changes they’d wish to see in the vain hope of improving U.S. presidential campaigns and consider the Biden administration’s threat to cut off arms shipments to Israel.
00:35—Desirable presidential campaign reforms
23:00—Weekly listener question
33:20—FreedomWorks is disbanding
If You Give a Denver Migrant a Cookie…
by Brian C. Joondeph
American Thinker
When my adult children were young, a favorite read-along book was called If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It was a cute story with the premise,
If a hungry little traveler shows up at your house, you might want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. He’ll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn’t have a milk mustache, and then he’ll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim…
Illegal migrants to Denver have done just that. Last week they submitted a list of 13 demands to Mayor Mike Johnston that they insist the city must meet before they vacate their tent city encampments and move into city-provided shelters.
These migrant families are currently living under bridges and near train tracks. Let’s look at some of their demands.
Two Serious Pieces of Financial Advice
by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org
Let’s do the easy one first: There are plenty of people talking about taking Social Security early because it is likely to “go broke.”
I’m going to make an assumption here: You’re either not working or intending to not when you take it. If you are working and have employer-provided health insurance then this doesn’t apply to you, but if not it most-certainly does.
The problem with taking Social Security early is that Social Security distributions count toward MAGI and thus will reduce your Obamacare (PPACA) subsidy. Right now the former “cliff” that whacked you at about $40,000 of income (cutting the subsidy off entirely) has been abated by pandemic-era law changes but those are scheduled to expire in a couple of years and they might not be renewed. Indeed they are a serious part of the fiscal trouble that the Federal Government is in right now with its deficits — and letting them expire requires doing nothing where extending them will require actual passage of a bill. Choosing to take Social Security cannot be taken back and if you get nailed by this the cost will be extraordinary, as the older you are the worse medical insurance costs become. This could, quite-trivially, eat half or more of your Social Security check so do not ignore it — this risk is very real and for nearly everyone, unless you have no other income, it makes taking it prior to 65 flat-out silly on a cost basis since you cannot control whether that subsidy cliff will return and you can’t change your mind either.
Thirty-Four Trillion Dollars and No One Cares
by Craig Hemke
Sprott Money
What’s another trillion? What’s another five trillion or ten trillion when no one cares? It’s not like it’s real money anyway!
Perusing the internet this morning, I found this little beauty and was reminded of why I became a “gold analyst” all those years ago…
[…] The full article is behind the Fortune magazine paywall, but the headline sums it up perfectly. The current U.S. debt total has reached $34.6T, but no one in politics could give a darn. They just keep spending and spending in order to buy off as many voters as possible while funding all of their wars.
What is Causing This? “Demographic Winter is Coming” as Fertility Rates Plummet All Over the Globe
by Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
Fertility rates have fallen way below replacement level throughout the entire industrialized world, and this is starting to cause major problems all over the globe. Aging populations are counting on younger generations to take care of them as they get older, but younger generations are not nearly large enough to accomplish that task. Meanwhile, there aren’t enough qualified young workers in many fields to replace the expertise of older workers that are now retiring. Sadly, this is just the beginning. As I discuss in my new book entitled “Chaos”, if fertility rates continue to drop we could potentially be facing an unprecedented global population collapse in the decades ahead. This has become so evident that even the mainstream media is starting to do stories about this. In fact, an economist that was just interviewed by the Wall Street Journal is warning that “demographic winter is coming”…
Female Inmate Allegedly Raped by Transgender Inmate in California Women’s Prison
by Alana Mastrangelo
Breitbart.com
A woman at the Central California Facility for Women says she witnessed the immediate aftermath of a jailhouse rape by a transgender inmate.
Mimi Le provided a sworn declaration to lawyers with the Women’s Liberation Front, which will be included in the organization’s case against California, according to evidence from the filing obtained by Reduxx.
Le reportedly said she was one of many inmates who saw events involving what was described as a “sexual assault” committed by a man who identifies as a woman and was therefore locked up in a women’s prison.
On May 19, a female inmate was taken to a medical-administrative building after other female inmates reported to staff that she had been raped, Le explained, adding that she found the woman to be “barely conscious.”