All Activity

absolutely every town & city. FTFY

I have massive respect for the way President Nayib Bukele has cleaned up El Salvador by rounding up the gangs and jailing them. Equally respect the way he could have done an Argentina and pegged to the USD but instead just made bitcoin legal tender. You can literally just buy your daily stuff using bitcoin.

Monte, do you mind sharing how you intend to off ramp those expenses? I love the idea of carrying my wealth across borders in my brain, but when it gets to logging on to the internet and recording my transaction in a ledger for someone to exchange my bytes for spendable currency, it breaks down for me. I have visions of me running around looking for a generator to charge my phone... I know it's ridiculous! This is not a criticism: I have been waiting for an evolution in tech/process to improve the convertability of BTC into currency (ideally gold). Thoughts appreciated.

Ooh, that’s news to me. a new company has taken over the royal hotel and they’ve started doing work already

Roads are shite in the North West, town, city and rural.

Any news on when they are building the Premier Inn and where it will be?

Behave, they are spending loads of money here. We are getting a new plinth on the old town hall, in the market place that’s been the same for centuries, a new maritime training building and a monkey puzzle tree. No one wants ant of it. Meanwhile, the lights on new quay road haven’t worked since lockdown and a hole on the pavement so big it’s been filled with a sandbag (the seagulls seem to like it).

I've mulled asking this for a while, so now that you've raised it I will. The roads in the northeast and north Yorkshire are absolutely fucked just atrocious. I drive a lot for work and leisure and I'm seeing not just more potholes than ever but BIG fuckers, sometimes 4-5 inches deep. There's definitely been a decision taken to save money on road maintenance up here, but what are other areas of the country like?

They spent their excess dollars from trade, buying materials to build infrastructure both in China and abroad (belt and road).

To be fair whilst it was new (ish) mine was filthy with hair/dust and I needed to give it a decent clean/service which took me an hour or so. I mean the dyson was filthy....not the chubby lady selling it. I never found out if she was filthy...I was worried she might want to eat me (and not in a good way) 😎

Mentioned it before, close family member moved from £34k prison officer job (8 years and very experienced) due to recruitment of females, diversity selection, risks on the job....and he is liberal/open minded but when its for sensible reasons not when its putting his life at risk. Prison fairly devastated cos he was only 32/33 years old and had the degree thingy they do. No matter how tough you are (and he is tough) who wants stabbing for a commute, shifts and £34k a year? Stayed public sector (why not?), admin/pastoral senior role at a school £28k, walks to work, schools holidays off.....and tbf it sounds like a really demanding job whilst there i.e. pupils, entitled parents, teachers and management stressed. But happy to earn less and (due to student loans etc) pay less into the pot that the gov have their snouts in. Surprised anyone still doing these sort of jobs for £30k......even teachers jobs (who for decades have moaned about fuck all) sound like a admin nightmare role now. Feels like the seams are beginning to split. Can someone pass the gold around please?

Damn you

Lol....absolutely exactly the same (genuinely word for word) but I paid £25. 😉

I bought my Dyson DC14 for £35 off Facebook marketplace in great condition as it was apparently too heavy for the fat lazy woman I bought it from so she'd bought one of the new cordless inferior ones

Dyson posts a $2.2 billion loss ,looks like vanity buys are falling over

They've been doing this for a decade+ already.

Push out that roadmap and something becomes obvious.Whoever ends up holding the dollars towards the end suffers swift purchasing power wipe out.Perhaps China has worked out how quickly they expect to be inflated away so intend to slowly lower their use in transactions.I suspect they would start exchanging for more primary production ie mines etc because they can be switched to being valued in anything you want.China wont want a Western collapse,it wants what it has a certain long decline.Key for us is as we always said excess savings wont be going west anymore,or much lower,they will be going into their own assets and other EMs.

Wait, what? You can get half a bag a month for back problems? Where do I sign up? The last time I woke up and spent a full day up without lumbar pain was in 2013.

Indeed, as up thread, direction and timing.

USD for short term transactions into something else sure. But yes, why hold USD long term? China partially holds USTs to support its trade. Not much point if one party takes that reason away!

An interesting blog entry from goldswitzerland yesterday by Matthew Piepenburg and quoting the likes of Luke Groman. Obviously with a gold centric conclusion but with some very pertinent observations regarding the current state of the American 'empire'. Is America Losing? By Matthew Piepenburg Partner May 19, 2024 Below, we soberly assess the lessons of history and math against the current realities of a debt-defined America to ask and answer a painful yet critical question: Is America losing? The End of History and the Last Man In 1992, while I was still an undergrad with a seemingly endless optimism in life in general and the American Dream in particular, the American political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, published a much-discussed book entitled, The End of History and the Last Man. Released in the wake of the wall coming down in Berlin and a backdrop of continually low rates and rising US markets, this best-selling and optimistic work captured the Western mindset with obvious pride. With its central theme (supported by an overt Hegelian and dialectal framework) of capitalism and liberal democracy’s penultimate and victorious evolution (Aufhebung moment) beyond the Soviet dark ages of a debt-soaked and centralization/autocratic communism, the famous book made headline sense in this Zeitgeist of American exceptionalism. But even then, amidst all the evidence of Soviet failures (from extended wars, currency destruction, unpayable debts and a clearly dishonest media and police-state leadership), my already history-conscious (and fancy-school) mind could not help but wonder out loud if this book’s optimistic conclusion of the West’s ideological and evolutional end-game was not otherwise a bit, well: naïve. Had the West truly reached a victorious “end of history” moment? Pride & An Insult to History? In fact, and as anyone who truly understands history should know then as now, history is replete with rhyming turning points, but never a victorious and eternal “end-game.” Stated more simply, the famous book, which made so much sense at that particular moment in time, seemed to me even in 1992 as a classic example of “hubris comes before the fall.” In other words, it may have been a bit too soon to declare victory for liberal democracy and capitalism, as these fine systems require fine leadership and even finer principles to survive history’s forward flow. Today’s History… Fast-forward many decades (grey hairs, advanced degrees and sore muscles) later, and it would seem that my young skepticism (and historical respect) was well-placed. The evidence around us now suggests that the “victorious” capitalism Fukuyama boasted of in 1992 died long ago, replaced in the interim years by obvious and mathematically-corroborated examples of unprecedented wealth inequality and modern feudalism. Furthermore, if one were to contrast the principles of America’s founding fathers as evidenced by their first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution (remember our Bill of Rights?) to the current and obvious destruction of the same in what is now a far more centralized, post-9-11 “Patriot Act” USA, the evidence of democracy’s crumbling façade is literally all around us. In other words, perhaps Fukuyama got a little too ahead of himself. Or more to the point, perhaps he was dead wrong about the final “victory” of genuine US capitalism and an actual, living/breathing liberal democracy? Is the USA the Old USSR? In fact, and with a humble nod to modesty, blunt-speak, current events, simple math and almost tragic irony, the actual evidence of history since 1992 suggests that today’s Divided States of America (DSA) (and Pravda-like media) appears to look far more like the defeated USSR than the victor presented by Mr. Fukuyama… Such dramatic statements, of course, mean nothing without facts, and we all deserve a careful use of the same if we seek to replace emotion with data and hence see, argue and prepare ourselves politically and financially with more clarity. Facts Are Stubborn Things Toward this end, I am once again grateful for the facts and figures which Luke Gromen provides in supporting the otherwise “sensational” conclusion that America may have won the “cold battle” with the USSR, but it is now losing a “cold war” with the Russians and Chinese. Really? C’mon. Really? Again, let’s look at the facts. Let’s look at the numbers. Let’s look at current events, and let’s look at history, which is anything but at an “end.” For those whose respect for history goes beyond a twitter-level attention span or the assistance of mainstream media Ken and Barbies (from CNN to The View), none of whom understand anything of history, you will recall that Regan’s successful war against the USSR was won by bankrupting the Soviets. But as Gromen so eloquently reminds us, “nobody seems to notice that is EXACTLY what the Russians and Chinese are doing to us now.” This is not fable but fact, and I warned of this in How the West was Lost the moment the US weaponized the USD in 2022. This desperately myopic (i.e., stupid) policy gave a very patient and history-savvy Russia and China just the opportunity they have been waiting for to turn the tables on the DSA. History’s Fatal Debt Trap Lesson As I also recently wrote, with the insights of both Niel Ferguson and Luke Gromen, you know (and history confirms) a nation (or empire) is ALWAYS doomed the moment its debt expenses (in interest terms alone) exceed its defense spending. And as of this writing, the DSA’s gross interest is 40% higher than its military spending. Nor are we, the Russians, the Chinese or even a select minority of informed Americans alone in this knowledge of the DSA’s fatal debt trap. No Hiding the Obvious The current turning point in American debt is now increasingly and more globally understood in what Ben Hunt calls “the Common Knowledge Game.” Stated more simply, and as evidenced by the now undeniable move away from the US IOU and USD by an ever-increasing (and ever de-Dollarizing) BRICS+ membership roster, the world is catching on to the blunt fact that the American empire (of citizen lions led by political donkeys) is spending fatally more than it earns. What is far more sickening, however, is that Uncle Sam is then paying its IOUs with debased Dollars literally mouse-clicked into existence at the not-so “federal” and not-so “reserved” Federal Reserve. This desperate reality, and completely fantasy-based monetary “solution,” has resulted in an empirically bankrupt nation who quantifiably spends more on entitlements (cashed out by 2030), sovereign IOUs and warfare than it does on transportation, agriculture, veteran benefits and citizen education (our apologies to Thomas Jefferson). See for yourself: Returning from simple math to otherwise forgotten (or now increasingly “cancelled) history, it becomes harder to deny Gromen’s observation “that the US appears to be reprising the role of the USSR this time, with a heavy debt load, uncompetitive and hollowed-out industrial base, reliant on a Cold War adversary for imported manufactured goods, and needing ever-higher oil prices in order to keep its oil production from falling.” Democracy’s Suicide? In other words, and in the many years since Fukuyama declared victory in 1992, the interim sins/errors of increasingly suicidal (or grotesquely negligent/stupid) US military, financial and foreign policies have irrevocably placed the DSA into a defeated decline rather than victorious “End of History.” This reality, of course, gives me no pleasure to share, as I was, am and will always remain a patriotic American—or at least patriotic to the ideals for which America originally stood. But as I’ve said many times, today’s DSA is almost unrecognizable to the American I was when Fukuyama’s book of hubris was released over three decades ago. As our second US President, John Adams, warned his wife Abigail: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did commit suicide.” Again, this is history, and it appears to be a history that Fukuyama misunderstood in 1992, when he apparently thought it had reached its happy “end.” The Past Informs the Future Looking forward, I/we must be equally capable of looking backward. History has far more to teach us than the stump-speeches (or pathetic cue cards) of current political opportunists (puppets?) who, with very few exceptions, care far more about preserving their power (via coalitions, the legalized bribery of K-Street lobbyists, the promulgation of mis-information and the deliberate omission of mal-information) than serving their public. The Sad History of Currency Debasement History also warns/teaches that the leadership of all debt-soaked and failing regimes will buy time saving their “systems” (and covering their @$$’s) by debasing their currencies to monetize their debts. Folks, this is true throughout history, and WITHOUT EXCEPTION. Sadly, the DSA and its hitherto “exceptionalism” is no exception to this otherwise ignored historical lesson. Toward this end, and as Egon and I have argued for years, the DSA will thus pretend to “fight inflation” while simultaneously seeking inflation, as all debt-strapped (and hence failed) regimes need inflation rates to exceed interest rates (as measured by the yield on the US10Y UST) in what the fancy lads call “negative real rates.” The Sad History of Dishonesty Inflation, however, is not only politically embarrassing, but stone-cold proof of failed monetary and fiscal leadership. To get around this embarrassment, politicos from the Fed and the White House to the so-called House of Representatives (and the Don-Lemonish/Chris Quomo/ 1st Amendment-insulting/hit-driven legacy mediawhich supports them) will do what most children do when faced with making an error, that is: Lie. And in this case: Lie about inflation data. Of course, a nation that lies to its people is not best suited for leading its people. As Hemingway warned, and as I often repeat, those at fault will point the fingers of blame to others (from Eastern bad guys, and man-made viruses to political fear campaigns on everything from global warming, white nationalism or green men from Mars); or worse, leaders will distract their constituents in perpetual wars. Sound familiar? In the interim, those “people” will continually and increasingly suffer from the sins of their childish leadership under the crippling yet invisible tax of the debased purchasing power of their so-called “money.” This too, is nothing new to those who track history… Golden Solutions? Gold, of course, cannot and will not solve for all of the myriad and “human, all too human” failures of national leadership and the monetary, social and centralized disfunctions which ALWAYS follow in the wake of too much debt. But as history also confirms (and equally without exception), each of us can at least protect the purchasing power of our wealth by measuring that wealth in ounces and grams rather than openly dying paper/fiat money. This is not a biased argument. This is not a “gold bug” argument. It is far more simply an historical argument, which further explains why governments don’t want you to understand the history of money nor the history of gold. In fact, even Fukuyama’s now embarrassing book ignores this simple lesson of gold lasting and paper money dying, which only adds to my opening observation that history never “ends” it simply teaches and protects the informed. The same is true of physical gold. About Matthew Piepenburg Matt began his finance career as a transactional attorney before launching his first hedge fund during the NASDAQ bubble of 1999-2001 Thereafter, he began investing his own and other HNW family funds into alternative investment vehicles while operating as a General Counsel, CIO and later Managing Director of a single and multi-family office. Matthew worked closely as well with Morgan Stanley’s... More... Matthew Piepenburg Partner VON GREYERZ AG Zurich, Switzerland Phone: +41 44 213 62 45 VON GREYERZ AG global client base strategically stores an important part of their wealth in Switzerland in physical gold and silver outside the banking system. VON GREYERZ is pleased to deliver a unique and exceptional service to our highly esteemed wealth preservation clientele in over 90 countries. VONGREYERZ.gold Contact Us

Quoting the BBC, not @spygirl: 35 + 34 = 69. 68 - 34 = 34. 68 - 35 = 33. Don't know if it's the "journalist" or the sad face nurse, but mathematics isn't someone's strong point here.

Canadian markets closed today - so no action in those small miners.

I think i heard something similar once, something about only following orders!

We need to sanction this "Asia" immediately