Winners

1. Pharma/THE Science - massive injection of money for drugs/research/general funding - their power has become god-like, unquestionable - last thing they want is an investigation that shows that their industry caused/covered-up Covid

2. Bureaucracy - apart from no-one losing a cent in income due to the all the restrictions, their power has swelled tremendously as bureaucrats take control of all facets of our lives as they administer/enforce decrees from the experts

3. Corporates - record profits, increased powers of surveillance

Losers:

1. Small business people, especially in tourism/food/entertainment - smashed by the lockdowns/border closures

2. Retirees - have seen their live savings dramatically dwindle since Covid

3. Normal people - huge hike in inflation has resulted in money going directly from normal person's pocket into corporate person's pocket

Retirement Plan Changes As 401k Contribution Limits Increase

These funds are invested in stocks, bonds, or both, mostly in equities. This is an infusion of cash into the stock market, and it's being contributed willingly by those who pounce on this 'opportunity' to hand over more of their earnings to Wall Street.

It works if you retire and cash out when the market is up. It doesn't work out so well otherwise.

The problem appears to be, yet again, due to globalist cartels running the world. Australia exports 80% of its gas so Australians, despite a huge surplus, are forced to pay prices dictated to it by some unaccountable, inaccessible global body, including the increased costs of exporting that gas.

This is the most insidious aspect to globalism - everything is pushed conveniently out of reach of normal people - oh we can't control that coz it's due to international pressures! Meanwhile, those elites who do control it - many of them from Australia, are making a killing.

It's a double whammy - we get fleeced of our money whilst being rendered impotent in terms of being able to do anything about it.

It doesn't matter what party is in power. It simply doesn't. Wealth will continue to flow from the poor to the rich. The con, at least in western democracies, is that people bought into this idea that their vote matters. It doesn't.

I keep feeling that the political landscape is wide-open for someone who can rise above the party system. There's an enormous level of discontent they could tap into. Come in and speak truthfully - even just inquire about the truth.

Trouble is it's more than the party machine system you have to overcome. The media, big corporates, national security orgs, the whole establishment is gonna suppress you - that's why they call it the establishment. The last thing they need is someone coming in and blowing the lid on their organized racket.

This feels like one giant con-job.

That's exactly what it is, and the con is that people actually believe that government has their best interests at heart, and when it doesn't, it's because of a bad apple or the 'wrong party' being in power.

It doesn't matter what party is in power. It simply doesn't. Wealth will continue to flow from the poor to the rich. The con, at least in western democracies, is that people bought into this idea that their vote matters. It doesn't. Sure, it matters on little things, and some big things. In the US, abortion is a big thing that voting can actually impact. So are issues like weed legalization and... well I can't think of much else at the moment.

But the really, really big shit, the shit that affects us all, MONEY, that is 100% unaffected by who is in office because the politicians were bought and paid for before they ever took the oath. And if they do try to affect real change, they're silenced in one way or another.

I'm not buying any more stock at my age. I'm waiting for it to go back up and then I'll start selling a percentage every year, and it will go back up. That's how the rich get richer. These fluctuations always make them more money. It doesn't matter if it goes up or down, they win. They can accumulate while it's down, they can write losses off on their taxes, they can squeeze little players out of the market, it's a power play.

During the crash of 2008, corporate America went in and bought as much foreclosed property as they could, sending rental prices skyrocketing, and that trend continues. They want these crashes. It's mop up time for them. And people lose their homes, so they must rent! And because more people must rent, the assholes can jack up rental prices. It's evil. So people end up spending 50, 60, 70% of their income on rent. It's the big squeeze.

Meanwhile, cash is worth less and less. Our buying power is diminishing, and it will continue to do so.

Yep, it's a con job, and we're the suckers.

How does that work? At least if there were record profits, wouldn't the stock market go up?

ABC: Half-yearly profits for all companies together had almost doubled to $US55.2 billion ($79.6 billion), up from $US28.7 billion for the same period last year
"These energy giants are posting staggering profits while fuelling our cost-of-living crisis", ACTU president Michele O'Neil says.

This must be part of The Great Reset. Normal people see their money shrink away before their eyes while the corporates bank record profits.

The energy companies' situation is particularly galling. Energy prices have gone up about 30% in Australia - i got a letter with my last bill explaining that it was due to Covid, the Ukraine War etc, etc - next thing i know i'm reading they made record profits! WTF?

Meanwhile, i have some energy company shares, but they've all fallen, quite dramatically in some cases.

This feels like one giant con-job.

Mr Albanese tweeted on Friday evening: "We will discuss proposals to ensure the vulnerable are protected over coming weeks."

Whereas just today Japan announced a record number of cases, and yet no new restrictions.

This new wave is going to break all records, and it's going to be very interesting. Japan is now experiencing the most covid cases ever. That's astonishing. And yet it has decided, so far, not to reverse the easing of restrictions it has started. Good for them. Smart move. The new strain is causing nothing more than a cold, and people are sick of restrictions and want to get back to living.

Meanwhile, countries that are maintaining some top down, draconian set of control methods are caught in a tough spot. What is the situation is Australia now if you test positive? To the extent that countries demand some stupid quarantine and mandatory testing, they have to somehow compensate the victims, unless of course you're in China.

China is maintaining this farce of a zero policy and it's killing its economy, but I think that's by design in hindsight. They don't give a shit about covid. They probably wanted to cool the economy anyway, and this gives them a good reason to do so while avoiding any blame for the hardship it causes the masses.

In the west, central banks are having to raise interest rates to cool inflation. They have to purposely torpedo the economy after printing so much money during covid that it started causing runaway inflation. China doesn't have that problem. It can blame economic hardship on covid while at the same time use it as an opportunity to expand surveillance.

All in all, I'd say China is winning in this game so far.

I remember a time long ago (2019) when politico-economics was all about belt-tightening. Voters were exhorted to demand fiscal responsibility 'in these uncertain times'. The goal was always balancing the budget. Politicians would earnestly explain that the national budget is the same as your household one - you can't be continuously spending more than you make. Which is basically the same message i've heard all my life. Printing money was considered madness.

In fact, it probably started in 2008 with the World Economic Crisis - that was the first time i heard of stimulus payments in Aus, though my understanding then was it meant going into temporary debt, then paying it off. Which the govt had announced it would do in the budget speech a month or so before Covid.

But now it's looking like a giant bonfire of money. I don't see any way back.

Money has become this 'fake' meaningless thing.

AHow can a house that was worth 50K 20 years ago now be worth 2 million?

This can only happen because the currency is losing value. The house isn't worth more; the currency is worth less.

Investment analysts are cautiously reckoning that a Russia default would not have the kind of impact on global financial markets and institutions that came from an earlier default in 1998.

Back then, Russia’s default on domestic ruble bonds led the US government to step in and get banks to bail out Long-Term Capital Management, a large US hedge fund whose collapse, it was feared, could have shaken the wider financial and banking system.

Once again:

Russia’s default on domestic ruble bonds led the US government to step in and get banks to bail out Long-Term Capital Management, a large US hedge fund whose collapse, it was feared, could have shaken the wider financial and banking system.

... could have shaken the wider financial and banking system.

And that's it in a nutshell. The rich bailing out the rich. Never mind all those thrown into homelessness in 2008. They're certainly not too big to fail. In fact, we don't give a shit about them. But one of our pals in the banking industry facing a slow year? Oh my. Yes, we'll use taxpayer money for that.

Luckily Russia prints rubles so problem solved!

(Russia has US$ in overseas accounts - but they've been frozen.)

That's right. Their other option is to offer increased interest on bonds in an attempt to borrow money, and that will put further pressure on the currency. In other words, if Russia wants to borrow money and nobody wants to lend it to them, their only option is to offer a high interest rate, but to meet that rate, they have to print more money. Again, it's a death spiral for a currency.

The catch here is that those interest rates on currency bonds (or the bonds) are almost always in USD. So Russia is screwed. Countries that issue bonds in USD can easily crash if their currency collapses. This is why the US is in this position of being able to borrow as much is it likes, because it's the reserve currency.

South American countries aren't borrowing in their own currencies. They're borrowing in USD. If their currencies collapse, their debt is non payable and they default. This is what's happening all over the world.

Again, the whole system is based on a hollow currency, the USD. There is no value backing all this up. It's all make believe. How can a house that was worth 50K 20 years ago now be worth 2 million?

My money is a joke.

Our currency is losing value. The USD is not crashing yet because it's the reserve, but others are. Sri Lanka, Turkey, Venezuela, the currency markets are in turmoil due to none of them having any real value. The US keeps printing, as do all the others, which is just now resulting in inflation, but they have no choice but to keep printing. We're in a death spiral of fiat.

This came into the mix today:

9 News: Russia has just defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

The country missed a Sunday night deadline to meet a 30-day grace period on interest payments originally due May 27.

In response, the Russian Finance Ministry said it would pay dollar-denominated debts in rubles and offer “the opportunity for subsequent conversion into the original currency".

Luckily Russia prints rubles so problem solved!

(Russia has US$ in overseas accounts - but they've been frozen.)

Think about it. In the 1970's, what do you think middle class people felt they needed to retire comfortably? I'm talking about their total wealth. I'm guessing 30-50K. In the 80's that went to 50-80. In the 90's, middle class folk probably felt insecure without a cool 100-150K in the bank, right?

Now it's fucking 1.5-2 million, and by 2030 it will be 5 million. My money is a joke.

Our currency is losing value. The USD is not crashing yet because it's the reserve, but others are. Sri Lanka, Turkey, Venezuela, the currency markets are in turmoil due to none of them having any real value. The US keeps printing, as do all the others, which is just now resulting in inflation, but they have no choice but to keep printing. We're in a death spiral of fiat.

They have no choice to keep printing because the system is broken. The next couple of years are going to be really ugly.

If steps had at least been taken to slow down the collapse of the economy at the beginning, we would not be facing this difficult situation today. But we lost out on this opportunity. We are now seeing signs of a possible fall to rock bottom.

They didn't lose an opportunity. Any opportunity they're referring to is more debt. This is another case of a collapsing currency. The whole world is in this debt cycle, like a dog chasing its tail. The US is the reserve currency which is laughable as it has no real value considering the US is currently 30 TRILLION in debt. And this is the economy that is the reserve currency? So, again, the world economy is a house of cards. Sri Lanka is low hanging fruit. They don't have a whole lot of guanxi in the world of finance.

From the same article:

Sri Lanka has been muddling through mainly supported by $5.81 billion in credit lines from neighbouring India. But Wickremesinghe said India would not be able to keep Sri Lanka afloat for too long.

It also has received pledges of $433 million-$865 million from the World Bank to buy medicine and other essential items.

Sri Lanka has already announced that it is suspending repayment of $10.16 billion in foreign debt due for repayment this year, pending the outcome of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a rescue package.

It must pay $7.26 billion on average annually until 2026.

That explains it all. Every country is in debt. How can this possibly work? It can't. There will be international upheaval of some sort. It might be war. It might be civil unrest. But it's an absurd situation that government are refusing to acknowledge.

9 News: In Sri Lanka, people queue for kilometres to fill a tank of fuel. In Bangladesh, shops shut at 8pm to conserve energy. In India and Pakistan, power outages force schools to shut, businesses to close and residents to swelter without air conditioning through deadly heat waves in which temperatures top 37 degrees Celsius.

These are just some of the more eye-catching scenes playing out in the Asia Pacific region, where various countries are facing their worst energy crisis in years - and grappling with the growing discontent and instability caused by knock-on increases in the cost of living.

When people get hangry on a large scale - that's how revolutions happen.

Fuel and water lines, they're already happening all over the world. This from Mexico.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe: Sri Lanka is facing a far more serious situation beyond the mere shortages of fuel, gas, electricity and food. Our economy has completely collapsed.

That's not good news coming from the Captain of the Ship.

Currently, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is $US700 million ($1.02 billion) in debt. As a result, no country or organization in the world is willing to provide fuel to us. They are even reluctant to provide fuel for cash.

If steps had at least been taken to slow down the collapse of the economy at the beginning, we would not be facing this difficult situation today. But we lost out on this opportunity. We are now seeing signs of a possible fall to rock bottom.

I wonder if that last sentence could be extrapolated to the world economy ...

9 News: In Sri Lanka, people queue for kilometres to fill a tank of fuel. In Bangladesh, shops shut at 8pm to conserve energy. In India and Pakistan, power outages force schools to shut, businesses to close and residents to swelter without air conditioning through deadly heat waves in which temperatures top 37 degrees Celsius.

These are just some of the more eye-catching scenes playing out in the Asia Pacific region, where various countries are facing their worst energy crisis in years - and grappling with the growing discontent and instability caused by knock-on increases in the cost of living.

When people get hangry on a large scale - that's how revolutions happen.

Lower incomes for the world's poorest contributed to the death of 21,000 people each day, its report claims.

But the world's 10 richest men have more than doubled their collective fortunes since March 2020.

As my father used to say: money doesn't disappear - it goes somewhere.

In this case the funny monetary policy - that will be paid off through increased taxes/inflation for generations - has gone where it usually goes - into the pockets of the super-rich.

Oxfam: This year, what's happening is off the scale. There's been a new billionaire created almost every day during this pandemic, meanwhile 99% of the world's population are worse off because of lockdowns, lower international trade, less international tourism, and as a result of that, 160 million more people have been pushed into poverty. Something is deeply flawed with our economic system.

Something is deeply flawed in our system, period.

According to Forbes figures cited by the charity, the world's 10 richest men are: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault (fashion industry) and family, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison (Oracle), Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer (ex-Microsoft) and Warren Buffet.

Of those, the ones in bold were directly involved in censoring investigation into the origin of Covid and the subsequent cover-up. Who says crime doesn't pay?

Sure some can work from home - but you can't work from home if you're a truck driver delivering groceries to supermarkets. Or fuel to petrol stations.

The level where Covid (a covered-up lab-exit!) could get truly scary is when there's not enough food on the shelves.

Scott Morrison: The more you try to protect your hospital system, the more people you are taking out of work, which disrupts supply chains.

Well you're the one who introduced the rules buddy. He's furiously back-pedalling now that over 10% of the workforce are off on any given day.

This is a constant daily process of balancing the need to keep people at work and to protect our hospitals. And that is why it changes almost daily.

Guess that's the alternative system of government to thinking things through first.

If there's a crash it will probably be this year some time. Likely a perfect storm event with a range of things compounding the situation. Labor shortage could easily be one of them. When demand is greater than supply, prices go up - whether its goods or labor.

Those official government inflation reports are all bullshit and they know it.

It's another one for the 'we can't tell you the real truth' file - 'but here's the messaging'.

ISTANBUL, Dec 27 (Reuters) - The lira tumbled almost 8% against the dollar on Monday amid persisting investor concern over Turkey's monetary policy,

At current levels the currency is still 35% weaker than at the end of last year (while) inflation that has risen to more than 21%. Price rises are set to exceed 30% next year in part due to the lira depreciation, economists predict.

I wonder if Turkey is the canary in the coalmine here ...

For one thing, at least in the US, all sorts of budgets are based somewhat on the inflation rate, including things like social security which is adjusted yearly for inflation. Unfortunately for those who depend on their social security, that adjustment is based on an artificially low rate.

The local building supplier told me yesterday that the price of decking has almost doubled in a year. Doubled.

That means the cost of renovations/building has sky-rocketed (all building materials have shot up due to over-demand).

House prices have gone up significantly - maybe 20-30%.

Car prices have gone way up.

Petrol is way up.

These are key expenses in a normal person's life that are up, let's be conservative, by 20-30%.

We hear stories about inflation being up but the official report in Aus is 2.5%. That simply doesn't match with the real world.