The EU’s Crisis Is Global

The EU's Crisis Is GlobalCharles Hugh Smith – The European Union (EU) was seen as the culmination of a centuries-long process of integration that would finally put an end to the ceaseless conflicts that had led to disastrous wars in the 20th century that had knocked Europe from global preeminence.

Wary of the predations of the U.S. and rising Asian powers, European nations sought the economic and diplomatic strength of a confederation that would be greater than the sum of its parts, a union that would restore Europe’s rightful place as a global power. Continue reading

We’re in the Eye of a Global Financial Hurricane

Charles Hugh Smith – The Keynesian gods have failed, and as a result we’re in the eye of a global financial hurricane.

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The Keynesian god of growth has failed.

The Keynesian god of borrowing from the future to fund today’s consumption has failed.

The Keynesian god of monetary stimulus / financialization has failed.

Every major central bank and state worships these Keynesian idols:

1. Growth. (Never mind the cost or what kind of growth–all growth is good, even the financial equivalent of aggressive cancer).

2. Borrowing from the future to fund today’s keg party, worthless college diploma, particle board bookcase, stock buy-back, etc. (oops, I mean “investment”)–a.k.a.deficit spending which is a polite way of saying this unsavory truth: stealing from our children and grandchildren to fund our lifestyles today.

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Billary Clinton and the Perfection of Consumerist Narcissism

commoditizationCharles Hugh Smith – I don’t think it’s coincidence that Bill Clinton’s presidency and Christopher Lasch’s landmark analysis The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations both date from the same year, 1993.

Clinton solidified the modern presidency’s narcissistic obsession with public approval (the political equivalent of “likes” on Facebook) and the exploitation of that popularity for maximum self-enrichment.

The relentless charm offensive and rapacious exploitation of Billary’s proximity to power has yielded a fortune once reserved for tech titans and hedge fund superstars:

Hillary And Bill Clinton Report $139.1 Million In Taxable Income Since 2007

This sum doesn’t include the tens of millions vacuumed up by the Clinton foundation machine, which distributes tribute to further the interests of the Clinton dynasty under the convenient guise of charity.

This is not to single the Clintons out as bad eggs in an exemplary system; it is to identify them as the stars of a thoroughly corrupt system. The Clintons did not make the political system; they have simply proven themselves the most adept at milking it for fame and fortune.

If the system encourages raking in millions, why not rake in millions? You’d be crazy not to. If we could skim $250,000 for a short speech on the travails of ageing Lotharios (or whatever else we wanted to blather on about), would we turn it down?

In this system, sincerity is what you spray-paint on whatever position that polls identify as popular. Hillary is especially adept at changing her accent to align with what her machine has identified as the dominant class in the audience of the moment.

Presidents in the culture of narcissism are caretakers, not leaders. When bank profits are at risk, the president OKs deregulation or bailouts to insure bank profits are unfettered by capitalism. Continue reading

The Changing World of Work 2: Financialization = Insecurity

Charles Hugh Smith – The Millennial Generation, if we’re to believe various polls, aspires to either make boatloads of money on Wall Street, or secure a can’t-be-fired job in the government. Given the dominance of finance and an economic backdrop of rising insecurity, these are rational choices.

financeBut all those Millennials hoping to work for Goldman Sachs does raise a question:when did playing financial games become so much more profitable than producing goods and services?

And that raises another question: is the dominance of the FIRE sectors (finance, insurance, real estate) permanent or cyclical?

Let’s turn to some charts for answers. The first is a look at the finance and insurance sectors’ share of the gross domestic product (GDP). The sectors’s share reached 4% of GDP in the stock market bubble of 1929 and the echo bubble in the mid-1930s.

It took 40 years for finance and insurance to exceed the highs of the Roaring 20s bubble.

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