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I had hoped that by summer's end there would be no more trade war posts to write but there appears to be no end to the ongoing struggle. Fears of a recession are increasing, so much so that Bank Of America is offering advice on how to navigate the impending slow down, the price of everything continues to march upwards,  retailers are failing in droves , and even a Republican lawmaker is calling for a tax cut due to tariffs . This last point should prove once again that a tariff is a tax passed on to consumers, but try to explain that to the true believers who support the fun and easy to win economic policies of the current administration. At least things aren't boring. The market reaction to the Fed's announced rate cut (which flies in the face of all logic) followed almost immediately by a tweet announcing more tariffs on Chinese products sent the VIX off the charts and VIX traders into a rapture or rupture, depending on which side of the trade they were on. And yet, ...

The arrest of Jeffrey Epstein for sex trafficking children has all facets of the media tying themselves in knots, from straight reportage  to the more outrageous . These are early days and most of what is being published is opinion or speculation. It is this writer's choice to wait until justice is served before opining, but things of this nature seem to get swept away easily . Need more evidence? Look into Jimmy Saville. In the meantime, the UK is apologizing to Ivanka Trump for stating the obvious. Also, the Fed is preparing an interest rate cut as the economy soars to new heights . That gurgling sound you hear is your savings account being strangled.  And, as always, the US is spoiling for (more) war .  

It wasn't supposed to last this long. Or so it was thought. "Trade wars are good and easy to win!" the tweet read. I'm not seeing much good and no one appears to be having fun. I suppose a trade war is good when you have no skin in the game, ie your living expenses are covered by taxpayer dollars and you know how to write down losses, but for those of us on the ground in this trade war, real pain is being inflicted. Ask the farmer who is losing money (although in a bit of welfare, there are subsidies being discussed). Ask the customer paying more and more for the same items. Ask the business owner paying more for said items and passing that cost on to the customer you just spoke to. The current trade war is the economic equivalent of the second Iraq War: a war of choice, led by amateurs. Sure, US-based intellectual property is being stolen, but the companies whose IP is being stolen are multinational corporations who operate in China willingly. I'm yet to me...

American society has always had a prudish streak, ever since the landing of a bunch of uptight religious fanatics at Plymouth Rock. Protestant work ethic in tow, the pilgrims set about building a world in which submission to authority and obedience would lead to paradise. Then came the extroverts. As wild as the west may have become with an influx of adventurous spirits from around the globe, American society still retained a great deal of restraint. Some, however, saw opportunity in exploiting the mores of the day. The outlaw was born, and many a legend arose. From the cowboy to Capone, highwaymen to Heisenberg, outlaws have always taken the road less traveled. That road has changed drastically in recent years. The moonshiner is a classic outlaw archetype in the southeastern US; images of Appalachian hillbillies and stills come to mind and many in my area remember buying 'shine from the hill country of eastern Georgia. But these days, there's a distillery in town ...

Let's be clear on one thing: this is not the world your parents meant for you to inherit. The world they had in mind was a much safer, more stable world. Sure, there were surprises no one saw coming, but this is true in day-to-day life just as it is in the bigger picture. The end of the Cold War caught us all by surprise, as did 9/11, to name two examples. The wholesale outsourcing of jobs to cheap labor markets was not something your parents anticipated, although the precedent had been set decades before. One would do well to remember that American industrial jobs moved to the South to escape unionized labor and seek favorable tax policies; that those jobs have continued to move in search of greater profits, lower wages and regulations can be seen as the logical conclusion of policy. Besides, in your parents time, if you left one job, you could always find another. Times have changed, indeed. Your parents couldn't foresee a time when savers would be punished for s...

My wife and I recently enjoyed seeing Gone With The Wind projected on a movie screen, a first for us both. We'd seen it on television, but the large screen experience was something quite different. A good many years had passed since I last watched the film, and I was struck by its comedic moments, as well as its more blatant racism and misogyny (times have changed and continue to!) I was also impressed with its rather solid financial advice. For example, when raising funds for "the Cause" (AKA war), Rhett Butler made an impression on the crowd with an offer of gold for a dance. In times of political turmoil, you know, civil war, regime change and such, precious metals are more desirable than paper money issued by a government that may or may not be in power in days to come. This point is hammered home in a later scene, when Scarlett O'Hara returns home to find the family estate in ruins and her father in shock. He tells her not to worry, as he has money. At firs...

Inspiration has many sources. I prefer to stand on the shoulders of giants. This series is inspired by many profound thinkers, chief among them  Philip K. Dick . Dick, or PKD, was a science fiction author, a visionary whose work and influence loom large over the present time. Indeed, it was Dick who best predicted artificial intelligence and virtual reality. He also predicted misuse of technology as a means of social control. Paranoid, drug-addled and the unwitting recipient of a series of spiritual experiences, PKD is the patron saint of our time. Remember, it was he who warned us our toasters would be spying on us. If PKD described the black iron prison that keeps us enslaved.  Terence McKenna  sought to teach us how to break out of it. Psychedelics, spirituality, science, any tool that works is to be used. McKenna advocated finding a new operating system to replace the buggy one in use, while reminding us that this is not a dress rehearsal. Life is to be liv...