I've noticed a few articles on Zerohedge lately lamenting the end of the era of great criminality. The sad end to the great shift to the right that started under Tricky Dick 52 years ago. However, for most people this gilded age of corruption has been a serial nightmare. The strip-mining of the middle class to increase returns on capital. When it all explodes and central bank pump and dumps are rendered helpless, then the equation will rebalance back towards the middle class. What today's criminals call "the end", for everyone else will be the "beginning".
What will also end when this gong show explodes, are sanctimonious hypocrites hiding behind fake patriotism, fake religion, and false prophets. The conservative movement over time morphed from personal responsibility to self-aggrandizement. The elevation of self-interest over altruism. Over time, the worship of greed became more and more corrupt until it self destructed. The End. At least that's what history will say. And no question, these people have a long way to fall. They are the furthest thing from greatness in U.S. history.
Trump's brush with COVID and the copious drugs he is taking have given him a false sense of invincibility. It's only a matter of time before he exhorts his base to ultra-violence.
“Trump is already casting doubt on the legitimacy of vote by mail which tells me that he may try to dispute the result legally or by decree or who knows by what means,"
As we approach the existential election, Trump has been acting out in an erratic and truculent fashion, as he watches his ratings tank in the polls. Yesterday he threw a temper tantrum and declared stimulus talks over until after he wins the election - as in you will only get stimulus after I get re-elected. No blackmail there. But when he tanked markets, overnight he demanded an immediate stimulus mini deal. Putting a bid back under futures.
However, Republicans remain in massive denial over the state of the economy.
Here we see Republican consumer sentiment remains higher than at any time under Obama, despite mass unemployment:
Notwithstanding Trump's kiss and make up tweet, economic reflation remains a gambler fantasy.
The umpteenth headfake rotation from growth to value.
On the subject of the changing of the guard, clean energy stocks continue their parabolic run at the expense of the fossil fuel sector.
In summary, the stock market now mirrors the broken economy. Cyclicals rolled over in early June, and the Nasdaq rolled over in early September, leaving the only stocks making new highs right now, the stocks that have left everyone else behind.
The virtual economy.
What else?
