I. Global 2.0: From Slow Burn to Budget Hot Potato
A. Controlled Demolitions Accelerate
- CEO: “The Retail Industry Is In Panic Mode”
- In the Economic Circle of Life, Businesses are Dying Faster than Ever
- 5 Charts That Explain Just How Indebted Your State Is
- Why We Can’t Shop Our Way to a Better Economy
Pension Funds , Entitlements and Failures
- Here Are America’s Most Underfunded S&P 500 Corporate Pensions
- Illinois “Budget Deal” Is Likely The Death Knell For The State’s $130 Billion Underfunded Pensions
- New Jersey Has the Worst Finances in the Nation, Report Says
- 1 Million Ohio Public Employees Face Pension Cuts As Another Ponzi Teeters On The Brink
B. Currency Wars/War on Cash
- Maduro Follows Russian/Chinese Lead –Leaves the US Petro Dollar System – Venezuela has Huge Oil Deposits
- The Economist: “Get Ready For A World Currency By 2018”
- Governments to Control Large Cash Transactions
- U.S. Consumers Embrace Freedom to Choose Cash
C. Cryptocurrency
Education and Studies
- Princeton University: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies Text and Lectures
- BIS Study: Central Bank Cryptocurrencies
- Global Crytocurrency Benchmarking Study – Hileman & Rauchs 2017
Central Banks and Regulators Assert Control
- IMF Proposes Central Bank Digital Currencies To Crush Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin Crashes On Massive Volume As China Plans To Shut Local Exchanges
- US Launches Quiet Crackdown On Cryptocurrencies
- SEC Cracks Down “Initial Coin Offerings”: Tokens Are Subject To Securities Laws
- New Proposed Regs You Must Declare If You Have More than $10K in Crypto Currencies
- Russia Backpedals On Bitcoin – Unveils Plan To Ban Cryptocurrency Sales To “Ordinary People”
- South Korea Bans All New Cryptocurrency Sales
News
- John McAfee: “Pandora’s Box has been Opened” (Crypto Currency Security)
- North Korea Is Dodging Sanctions With a Secret Bitcoin Stash
- 1% Own 99% of All Bitcoin
- JP Morgan Buys Bitcoin, Price Rises 20%
- Bitcoin Bond in Japan Wants to Bring Cryptocurrency into ‘World of High Finance’
- Investment Firm VanEck Calls Bitcoin a ‘Fad,’ then Files for Bitcoin ETF
- Hackers have Stolen $32 Million in Ethereum in the Second Heist this Week
D. The Debt Growth Model is Dying
- Global Debt Hits 325% Of World GDP, Rises To Record $217 Trillion
- BIS Study: Demographics Will Reverse Three Multi-decade Global Trends
- Global Debt may be Understated by $13 Trillion: BIS
Bonds and Interest Rates
- Fed Balance-sheet Runoff Could Rock Fiscal Boat
- 19 European Countries Now Have Negative Interest Rates
- The Fed Has Created “Universal Basic Income For The Rich” And Now It Can’t Get Out
Equity Public and Private
- S&P 500 Closes at Record High as Earnings Beat the Street
- The Rising Tone of Private Equity v Public
Environmental Myths and Car Sales
- U.S. Car Sales Are Tanking and Inventories Are Rising
- Harvey Wrecks Up to a Million Cars in Car-Dependent Houston
US Dollar
- The Fed has Become the Dollar’s ‘Biggest Problem’
- The Demise of the Dollar: Don’t Hold Your Breath
- Putin Orders End to Trade in US Dollars at Russian Seaports
- Petro Dollar Under Attack: Backstory
U.S. Budget Hot Potato
- DOD and HUD Missing Money: Supporting Documentation
- GOP Gave Trump No Choice But to Cut Bad Deal on Debt Limit
- The Imperial City’s Fiscal Waterloo
E. Financial Control
- DOD and HUD Missing Money: Supporting Documentation
- HUD Secretary Dr. Carson finds a Mere Half a Trillion in Errors…
- The Entity Controlling The Economic System Is Much Larger Than The Fed:Rob Kirby
II. Global 3.0 Rising
A. Amazoned
- Amazon Is Trying to Control the Underlying Infrastructure of Our Economy
- Whole Foods Shareholders Approve $13.7bn Amazon Deal
- Amazon Takes Over Whole Foods Market
- Grocery Bonds Plunge As Amazon Slashes Whole Foods Prices
- Amazon’s Victims: These Stocks have Lost $70 Billion so Far this Year
- Wall Street Flat as Home Improvement Retailers Get Amazoned
B. Automation
- Alibaba’s Unmanned & Cashless Store Using Face Recognition
- Former ‘Plunge Protection Team’ Member Warns “Blockchain Is Freaking Governments Out
- Former Glencore Traders Launch Concentrates Trading Platform
- Apple App Store’s Chinese Customers Get New Way to Pay for Purchases
C. 5G is Coming
- List of U.S. State Bills Streamlining Wireless Small Cells/DAS/Nodes on Rights Of Way
- Child With Heart Problems From Wireless: 5G Health Risks California SB 649 Hearing
- A New Strategy to Push Back Against the Dangerous Spread of Smart Meters and 5G Technology
D. Surveillance Capitalism
- Walmart Developing Facial Recognition Tech to Spot Upset Patrons
- US Firm Plans to Fit Employees with Microchip Implant
- YouTube Moves To Censor “Controversial” Content – Brings ADL On Board As Flagger
III. How Will Investors Handle the Transition?
- Silicon Valley Under Attack Both from Within and Without
- High-Priced U.S. Stocks Are Still the Best Investment, Vanguard Founder Jack Bogle Says
- Howard Marks Sounds The Alarm On ETFs And Passive Investing, Again
- Apple’s Bonds Are Acting More and More Like Government Debt
IV. Inside the Pressure Cooker: Will We Expand or Shrink the Pie?
A. Return on Investment to Taxpayers: Will It Turn Positive Or More Negative?
- Obamacare is Officially Destroying the Economy & Has Reached 60% of Total Retail Sales
- 74 Disasters Declared by FEMA in 2017 Before Hurricane Season
- NASA Plans to Build a New Plane that Could Halve Flight Times
B. Piratization: Could the Rape of Russia Happen Here?
- Puerto Rico Rejects Loan Offers, Accusing Hedge Funds of Trying to Profit Off Hurricanes
- Puerto Rico Judge Skeptical of PREPA Receivership
- Pennsylvania Municipalities and Utilities Benefit from Privatization, Says Moody’s
- Federal Bank Regulator Drops a Bombshell as Corporate Media Snoozes
- Wells Fargo Charged 800,000 Customers for Fake Car Insurance, Stole 25,000 Cars—Nobody Charged