OT - Just a friendly PSA reminder:

The economies of the world are going nowhere, and will continue to go nowhere (except mostly down) until the Fed lowers rates back to ~2%.

Companies will continue shedding employees and posting losses. Stocks will continue to tread water sideways or slowly lose air.

Nothing amazing is going to happen until then.

Period. The end.

You could literally just set an alarm on your phone for that, log off the interwebs, and never look at financial market news until then.

On that note, perhaps someone should create a "Alert me when the Fed slams rates again" phone app? Fedratealert.com?

True, but it's all about perception. They only need to make it look like they are resisting.

Otherwise they would've just straight up preventatively told Blackrock, Fidelity, and all the other financial institutions "Don't even bother filing for a Bitcoin spot ETF. We won't be approving any of them, now or ever."

So it's happening.

Not a matter of if, only a matter of when.

I don't do Crossfit, but I do weight training 4 days a week.

I jog or run on the treadmill at least 10-12 miles a week.

I now have 15 pounds more muscle but still weigh less than I did in college.

Also I have been an off-and-on MA practitioner for 32 years, first with Tae Kwon Do (black belt), Shaolin Kempo (brown) and now Wing Chun (black sash) and JKD. I also dabble a bit in Tai Chi.

Crossfit is cool, but doesn't appeal to me. Especially at my age, I have to be more careful. I've seen way to many people get overzealous with that and get seriously injured.

Also keep in mind, that Crossfit (like any other sport or hobby) can become very cultish. They set up an us vs. them, Crossfitters vs. "the normies out there" mentality on purpose, to keep people coming back and paying the fees. It's an easy mental trap to fall into.  _{Ask me how I know...many schools of kung fu are the absolute worst for this behavior}

'Member Peloton?

'Member when their stock hit $162 /share at the height of the plandemic?

Now @ $5 /share:

Yevgeny Prigozhin didn't kill himself.

Holy shit lol.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/23/wagner-mercenary-boss-yevgeny-prigozhin-killed-in-plane-crash.html

OT:

With the U.S. and China now in financial ruins with running up and then crashing their economies with massive decade-long Ponzi property scams, I'm sure that TPTB are licking their lips looking for the next under developed nation they can run the same by-the-numbers nation building financial scam on. The trillions of newly printed U.S. dollars must stay abroad and not come home.

My guess is that it'll be India next. So what makes me say that?

It's perfect: a nation of 1.4 Billion people, still a bit behinds the times, still steeped in traditional living (like China was) and household savings, but with an increasingly progressive youth populous that would be easily manipulated into FOMO and hungry for new paper wealth. They used to be primarily an agricultural nation, but are moving more and more into manufacturing and IT.

Just start injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into it's economy and major cities, creating new white collar office and blue collar factory jobs, building up their cities and property markets, creating FOMO into better standards of living, lifestyle and luxury goods and services wants. Before you know it, they'll be flying high saying that they are the next "China".

The ultimate goal, of course, is to get it's citizens to stop all that nonsense saving and wealth hoarding, and get them to part with it, FOMO'ing into their stock market and newly created real estate investments.

You can see Apple and other tech companies already expanding into India very fast.

It's only a matter of time and enough money....

One last time, for the slow learners in the back....

Seriously, why do you guys keep falling for the "narrative" every time whales flash dump into their own walls?

Have we not learned anything over the last decade?  

Yep, have at it. I'm sure those NFTs will be sooo much higher in price in the future. 

Fkn LOL

‘Bored Apes’ investors sue Sotheby’s, Paris Hilton and others as NFT prices collapse
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/bored-apes-sothebys-lawsuit/index.html

My prediction: The true global market crash will start in China, but the media will try to distract by pointing to a different cause: "Look over here, it's the U.S. commercial real estate market that's causing the crash!"

The Chinese economy is on the brink of complete collapse, due to the coming meltdown of the massive property market Ponzi scam that they began over a decade ago.

We have businesses tied to China.

We have big and small commercial banks tied to China.

We have Wall Street investments tied to China.

The true cause of the global meltdown will be China.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinas-economy-verge-collapse-pboc-central-banker-calls-helicopter-money

Please do share, I'd love to hear your theory. It's pretty obvious by their behavior and policies over the last 3 years that they want a massive reduction in the working class, as well as a massive reduction in businesses.

My father worked for a business (who's revenue was solid and steady YoY) that had their absolute best year in 2021: they made 400% revenue over any year prior in their 15-year history.

Then they went out of business THIS year due to lack of business. Orders fell completely off a cliff from 2022 onward. Go figure.


For now the 1% have parked their cash at the Fed for a 5% return, but the Fed can't keep paying that out long term. Not even remotely sustainable. Especially with the interest on the national debt.

Anyone here think that M. Burry will get it right again, for a second time?

Michael Burry, of ‘Big Short’ fame, just bet $1.6 billion on a stock market crash
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/investing/michael-burry-stock-market-crash/index.html

Bullshit step 1 complete:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/11/sec-delays-decision-on-bitcoin-etf-from-cathie-woods-ark-invest.html

My thoughts are that the SEC will play the same BS game with the Spot ETFs that they played with the first round of derivative ETFs:

The first or two spot ETFs will get shot down for some BS reason. Complete head fake in the price, as per usual.  

Then the first of the spot ETFs will get approved in December of this year, and/or as we round the corner into the first of next year.

All of them will get approval before the halving (Gee, what a shocker.   )

Bitcoin price will start to take off pre-halving.

The derivatives market may flash crash in 2024. Some completely bullshit, "The-sky-is-falling-and-Bitcoin-is-the-hedge-play" narrative will get spun up in the MSM to support all this. As per usual.  

BRK/A is completely fkn SUS at this point.

One has to wonder, in a world with massive ongoing inflation, bank and corporate bankruptcies, cratering corporate revenues, and massive layoffs, how a company like BRK/A can literally DOUBLE their stock price since the pandemic started.

And up 5X in just a decade.

I smell shite.

Only in a world that is accelerating into a lowkey kind of hyperinflation could they do that.

I mean...just look at that ridiculous hockey stick chart.

OT: Oh the lies, the fkn lies...

Full-Timers Crash Amid Staggering Downward Revisions
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/inside-todays-disastrous-jobs-report-part-time-jobs-soar-1-million-full-timers-crash

LOL @ Jamie Dimon and Janet Yellen throwing a hissy over the Fitch credit score downgrade.

Same hissy they had in 2011.

McLovin' it. 

Fuck ya'll, convince Powell to drop rates if you want to see the economy move again instead of completely crater.