Monday Memes

Money Laundering

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you -

When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed."

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

This is not going to be one of my more optimistic meme sets with both economic collapse and a tinderbox waiting to ignite into WWIII. But on some days you ignore these things at your own peril. It looks like the Japanese carry trade is going to unwind fast. I suppose I called Black Friday too soon though it is likely that Asian currencies will get a lift from this:

I began my editing and publishing work at FactSet in late 2007, right at the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis. It’s busiest and most interesting during bear markets as I suspect a lot more people are watching those things instead of investing and forgetting. I sense a concern less from what people are saying on the calls and more from the tone of voice they are using. I hope I can be at least as smart as a dog regarding these things! And for the BOJ this is all over increasing interest rates to 0.25% to lower inflation.

Doesn’t Japan know that they can just lie about the inflation rate like they do about everything else in the US?

I suppose you can have two out of three of these things. As an anecdote which is especially directed at my Thailand expat readers, I visited the immigration office in Phuket Town twice in July and was ultimately sent away on a visa run to Malaysia. I’ve been to the upstairs office for long term stay expats at least a few dozen times over the years. I have never seen it as empty as it was during either of my visits in July. I suspect Thailand’s foreign income tax rule is taking a bite.

Meanwhile England is in chaos:

I personally will sometimes see some comment saying that such and such a given population (liberal women, Swedes, people against genocide in Palestine) deserve to be attacked and/or raped by migrants because “they voted for this.” I am sorry but who in God’s name voted for anything our supposed leaders do anymore?

I suppose some will vote in their economic interest based on keeping their jobs. A two tiered system becomes the norm based on the incentives in place:

Meanwhile the Pentagon is gearing up for potential WWIII, at least based on an index of DC beltway bars on a normally busy Friday night for them. Are they saying that our “defense” people are actually working on the weekend? The pizza shops are very busy though…and so are the underground bunkers…

Economic collapse and war unfortunately go hand in hand if history is any guide. Those in power will do anything to keep it, and destabilizing whole regions has simply become too profitable for them. I sometimes wonder if the 62 bit encryption used for all financial transactions could be cracked by AI. It has the potential to halt virtually everything globally. A Bank Holiday is a happy term for the ATMs stop working and so do all online transactions. I consider such a global stoppage as the biggest world altering risk.

There’s other signs of crazy out there. I am almost sure that this is a real sign from a resort on Phi Phi island, Thailand, not too far south of Phuket. I say this because there is a significant, often majority Thai Muslim population on these islands, and the often female staff of which are readily identifiable by their hijabs. I am not going to say who started what in this case, but if you are Jewish and especially an Israeli passport holder who wants to enjoy some beach life in the Land of Smiles, the Gulf of Thailand islands on the East (Koh Samui, Koh Phangnon, Koh Tau) will probably be more suitable for you than those on the Andaman Sea.

I am pretty sure this is also a real sign. My guess is that this is a thrift store in the US of A:

This would be where the real wealth is in that situation, as long as they don’t borrow from Russia or China’s communist playbook and have some armed guard shoot your child for stealing vegetable from your own farm. Starvation is a favorite tool of theirs:

While I understand this sentiment be careful what you wish for:

I think this is the situation with both parties any more. And now they have graphene condoms!

I don’t actually know which puppet would be more likely to start WWIII and economic collapse. Technically Biden’s bagholders would not want this before the election while Trump, if selected, might have a mandate from God or something to suspend everything due to emergency powers or whatever. Those apologists who claim that Trump would never do that seem to willfully forget who was in charge during the lockdowns until the biological weapon injections four years ago:

For those curious what is going on with my husband’s visa to come to the US, it’s on hold. Ka did not take any vaccines and perhaps as punishment he’s been diagnosed with tuberculosis caught on a chest x-ray. I was dubious about this from the start as my husband did not then nor does he now have any symptoms of any type of medical condition. I even looked up how many times it is normal to cough in a day when I heard him clearing his throat because is there a healthy range (according to google 0 to 18 times per day is common in someone healthy). Ka coughs maybe 3-4 times daily. We’ve both been walking about 3-5 miles per day for everything and trying to get some sun.

My big problem is the medicine for his horrid condition which he cannot go to the US with unless he is “cured” is not benign. It’s basically four super strong antibiotics, taken for 6 months straight, along with some supplemental vitamins. This garbage seems to be blowing out his liver: he claimed he has orange pee and yellowed eyes and when I was stupid enough to have him take the full 15 pill per day regimine he developed a very itchy rash. All of these are big red flag stop the medicine signs but if he doesn’t poison himself how can he get his visa to come to the US? It’s been made more retarded if that was possible because since he has no symptoms of TB and never did the only way he can be “cleared” is via a chest x-ray.

Under normal not immigrant visa situations, Ka’s lack of symptoms would lead to it being called latent tuberculosis and being classified as noncontagious. But because of the visa these vague metrics can be levered out at will. Meanwhile I have no symptoms of anything either, unless you count depression and stress associated with missing my daughters.

Side effects of these interventions include thoughts of suicide, economic desperation, isolation from friends and family, and possible irreversible liver damage. And also the indefinite torture of being toyed with again for God only knows how many months or years. Maybe the $5000 ransom to the Sinaloa Cartel for passage over the Southern border wasn’t such a bad deal.

Perhaps something really does have to give. I won’t miss the commericals, not that I have a TV anyways:

Do you think clown world might come crashing down this week?

Buy me a ko-fi