Today's Consumption Borg is spiritually dead. A belief in anything, is a belief in nothing. Not a good place to be, heading into anarchy. We've never witnessed anything approaching this amount of non-stop lying...
"For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries)
"What is the cost of lies? It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves instead with stories?"
I've been watching the HBO special "Chernobyl", as I am clearly behind in my binge watching. The key takeaway is that it's staggering how much a late stage empire will lie to its own people. Throwing them under the bus just to maintain false pretense that everything is A-Ok. Case in point, we're seeing the same extant lying in China as the Coronavirus spirals out of Politburo control. Ricocheting against the U.S. global Ponzi empire swaying like the leaning Tower of Babel. For those young people reading this - never in my 52 year lifetime have we heard as many lies as we're subjected to today. Not even close. This old age home can't handle the inconvenient truth in any direction now. Which is why they've placed their faith in a serial liar. They can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction.
Which is a very dangerous place to be, spiritually, heading into financial nuclear meltdown.
"The way markets have been acting this year, treating high-quality American assets as a haven, makes sense. But even a sensible move can reach extremes and create distortions."
The trick is trying to figure out when rational activity takes conditions to a riskier place. It’s unclear we’re there yet."
"In response to the vast uncertainty of Chinese economic performance, the U.S. has outperformed the rest of the world"
As it was in 2015 - until the rest of the world peaked at a lower high and rolled over again:
"And so, we see the liftoff of the Vanguard Mega-Cap Growth ETF versus the Global Dow. The latter is a roster of multinationals that has stalled, while the glamour stocks of the Nasdaq carry the MGK skyward"
The P/E of that Vanguard mega-cap growth basket that so many investors are hiding in is now 30, leaving a diminishing margin for error."
"It’s become commonplace to argue that the stock and bond markets are sending conflicting messages"
One is heading for NeverNeverLand and the other one is heading for recession:
"The forward price/earnings ratio of the S&P 500 now exceeds 19, the high for this bull market, while the expected rebound in profit growth keeps getting pushed ahead into the future by the global industrial slowdown"
We could be dead and be smarter than these people.
"Bank of America global strategist Michael Hartnett, who has been correct in calling for a strong run in risk assets into early 2020, continues to recommend playing this trend until investors grow more clearly “euphoric”
"We're looking for any sign of euphoria"
"Keep playing the momentum Ponzi trend until the greater fool arrives. If it turns out to be you, don't worry, you're used to it"
Five down. Three up. At all degrees of trend.
Buckle up.
Soon, the burden of truth will no longer be on the truth, it will be on Twinkies of men.
And the fools that follow.
