TRENDS ON THE ECONOMIC AND MARKET FRONT
SPOTLIGHT, TOP TREND 2023: OFFICE BUILDING BUST
Over the next 18 months, commercial real estate values will plunge by as much as 40 percent in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington DC, according to a new forecast from Capital Economics.
ECONOMIC UPDATE — MARKET OVERVIEW
The true fear of an economic calamity on the near horizon was further clarified yesterday as gold once again illustrated its status as the world’s number one safe-haven asset.
THE BET: TWO MORE FED RATE HIKES THIS YEAR
All 11 voting members of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee agreed to defer an interest rate increase in June’s meeting, the session's newly-released minutes show.
WAGES ROSE, UNEMPLOYMENT FELL AGAIN IN JUNE
In June, wages were 4.4 percent higher than a year earlier and unemployment edged down to 3.6 percent from 3.7 percent in May.
CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCIES JUMP 68 PERCENT THIS YEAR
The number of business and personal Chapter 11 bankruptcies shot up to 2,973 during this year’s first five months, a 68-percent increase from the 1,766 in the same period in 2022, data service Epiq Bankruptcy reported on 3 July.
PIMCO BRACES FOR “HARDER LANDING”
Pacific Investment Management Co. (Pimco), the largest U.S. active bond fund manager, believes markets are far too optimistic about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s and European Central Bank’s ability to bring inflation to heel without causing a recession.
WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
This is week 46 of job cuts. And get ready for a bad situation to get much worse. The higher the U.S. and EU raise interest rates the deeper economies will decline and the higher the unemployment numbers will rise.
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
As we had long forecast, the higher central banks raise interest rates, the lower the Merger and Acquisition trend… which hit record highs at the height of the COVID War in 2021 when interest rates sank and governments pumped in countless trillions to artificially prop up sinking economies.
UKRAINE WAR TREND UPDATE
SPAIN’S PRIME MINISTER RAMPS UP UKRAINE WAR, PROMISES TO KEEP FIGHTING AND KILLING FOR ‘AS LONG AS IT TAKES’
Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister in Spain, repeated the Western war machine line that Spain will support Ukraine's war effort against Russia for “as long as it takes.”
U.S. TO SUFFERING UKRAINIANS: LET THEM EAT CAKE
The 18-month-old war in Ukraine has put those still living in the country in dire economic circumstances, with nearly a quarter of the population living in poverty, according to a new report.
MOSCOW ACCUSES NBC NEWS OF SPREADING MISINFORMATION AFTER REPORT ON SECRET MEETING
The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected an NBC News story that said a group of former senior U.S. national security officials met with high-level Russians earlier this year as a form of “back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes” vis-à-vis the Ukraine War.
WWIII CLUSTERFUCK U.S.A.: BIDEN SENDING CLUSTER BOMBS TO BOMB RUSSIANS
U.S. President Joseph Biden announced last week that he ordered the military-industrial complex to send Ukraine cluster bombs so they...
U.S. ADMITS WHAT WE HAD FORECAST: UKRAINE’S COUNTEROFFENSIVE CONTRACTING, RUSSIAN CAPABILITIES UNDERESTIMATED
A top-ranking U.S. military official admitted last week that Ukraine’s so-called counteroffensive has been a disappointment and that Russian positions in its occupied territory are more challenging to breach than anticipated.
FEATURED TRENDS GUEST ARTICLE by John & Nisha Whitehead
CIRCLE THE WAGONS: THE GOVERNMENT IS ON THE WARPATH
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”—Harry S. Truman
FEATURED TRENDS GUEST ARTICLE by Dr. Joseph Mercola
THE STUPIDITY OF ETHANOL AS GREEN ENERGY
Carbon neutrality refers to a product that has net zero carbon emissions. The manufacture and use of corn-based ethanol has expanded based on the assumption that it’s carbon neutral and therefore far better for the environment than gasoline. However, several studies have shown that such assumptions are categorically false
FEATURED TRENDS GUEST ARTICLE by Philip Giraldi
DID YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN REALLY LEAD AN ARMED REBELLION IN RUSSIA?
“A riddle wrapped up in an enigma” is a shortened form of a quotation made in October 1939, just one month after the Second World War had begun, by Sir Winston Churchill in a radio broadcast to the British people. At the time, Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty. The full comment was “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…”
PRESIDENTIAL REALITY SHOW® 2024
NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHES HIT PIECE ON RFK JR.
It was The New York Times’s turn last week to publish a hit piece against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic challenger to President Joe Biden, and did its best to portray the environmental lawyer as a tin foil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist.
TRENDS IN TECHNOCRACY by Joe Doran
GOOGLE SAYS ITS AI WILL “SCRAPE THE INTERNET,” AS TJ FORECAST CONFIRMED: GENERATIVE AI HURTING WEBSITE TRAFFIC
Google just admitted it considers the entire Internet, including everything users may post online or create using Google software, to be fair game for training its generative AI systems.
THIS WEEK IN SURVEILLANCE
Just in time for July 4th, a Federal court judge in the Missouri vs. Biden court case issued a pro First Amendment ruling.
GOOGLE’S BARD AI SIDES WITH UKRAINE, AND SAYS IT HAS OPINIONS ON GEOPOLITICS
We recently probed Google’s Bard AI concerning the Russia-Ukraine war, and found that it displayed strong opinions about it.
TRENDS IN CRYPTOS
WHY WEB3 SEARCH WILL CHALLENGE CURRENT SEARCH ENGINE SUPER PLAYERS
A recent research paper posted on SSRN detailed a web3 search engine that would use decentralized storage, PoS (Proof of Stake) and new PoL (Proof of Learning) crypto mechanisms to power and ensure the integrity of the decentralized network and service.
BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
Always use two-step verification, and never give either verification codes or passwords to anyone, even someone claiming to be a Coinbase employee.
TRENDS IN GEOPOLITICS
AS FORECAST, “POPULISM IS THE FUTURE”: DUTCH GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES OVER MIGRATION
For well over a decade we had warned that the refugee crisis sweeping across Europe would be a fundamental issue in elections and would escalate the rise of populist political parties.
THE ISRAELI WAY: BOMBS AWAY FOR ANY REASON THEY MAKE UP
Israeli forces bombed southern Lebanon last week as Tel Aviv considers a possible multi-front conflict as tensions in the region soar.
CHINA HITS U.S. OVER LATEST WEAPONS SALE TO TAIWAN
The American effort to turn Taiwan into a “porcupine” continued last week after the announcement of the latest sale of $440 million in military equipment to the island—which drew a swift rebuke from China.
U.S. ACCUSES RUSSIA OF HARASSING DRONES OVER SYRIA
The U.S. Air Force last week accused Russian fighter pilots of harassing Reaper drones over Syria in actions that the U.S. called unprofessional and reckless.
ISRAEL RAMPS UP KILLING SPREE
Palestinians keep waking up to a new day of attacks and murder by Israel, fearing what to expect next from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government that is fighting for its survival as hundreds of thousands of Israelis keep taking to the streets in opposition to his Judicial reform acts.
THE WARMONGERING U.S.A.: PRESIDENTS CAN USE DRONES TO KILL ON COMMAND
If a U.S. president identifies you as a “suspected militant,” he has the ability to approve a Reaper drone to kill you—even if you are far from any conflict, according to newly declassified documents obtained by The New York Times.
TRENDS-EYE VIEW
WEF AGENDA REPORT FROM 2019 DETAILS HOW CITY MAYORS WOULD LEAD RADICAL DEGROWTH 2030 GOALS
A report by the World Economic Forum from 2019 is receiving new scrutiny, in light of accelerating dictates by big city mayors and governors to force “zero carbon” climate goals.
BLIMPITIS: AMERICANS ARE STRESSED OUT AND GETTING FATTER
There’s a lot to be stressed out about these days, and more Americans are blimping up by eating their troubles away.
DADDY’S BOY ALEX SOROS VISITED BIDEN WHITE HOUSE MORE THAN 20 TIMES
You want access to high-powered politicians? Check your father’s bank statement. And as the brilliant George Carlin has said about government and the political/investor gang, “It’s one big club, and you ain’t in it.”
CANCER RATES SOARING AMONG THE YOUNG, OBESITY IS THE 800-POUND GORILLA IN THE ROOM
More young people are being diagnosed with an array of cancers most commonly associated with old age, and medical professionals are trying to figure out why.
DRINK THE WATER AND DIE: NEARLY HALF U.S. TAP WATER IS LACED WITH ‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’
A recent study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey found that about half the tap water in the country has PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that have been known to cause serious health issues among the population.
“BIGS” GET BIGGER AS MILLENNIALS LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK
A newly released study shined a new light on the financial struggles of millions of young Americans and found that 73.2 percent of Millennials—those between 25 and 40 years old—are living paycheck to paycheck.
JAPAN GETS FINAL APPROVAL TO RELEASE RADIOACTIVE WASTE FROM FUKUSHIMA INTO PACIFIC AS OUTRAGE GROWS
The United Nations' nuclear watchdog last week gave the final approval for the release of 1.25 million tons of the treated wastewater from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific.
TRENDS IN HI-TECH SCIENCE by Ben Daviss
TWO SUBSTANCES THE HUMAN BODY MAKES MAY BE KEY TO DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER’S
An obscure enzyme named HDAC9 may be a key to understanding the origins and prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia in general.
QUANTUM COMPUTING TAKES TWO GIANT STEPS FORWARD
Two new breakthroughs have moved quantum computers closer to practical use.
Quantum computers can store vastly more data and process it far faster than conventional computers. The reason: current computers store data as a series of ones and zeros. Each digit is stored in a specific spot in a computer’s memory chips and the computer processes each digit one after the other.
NSF GRANTS FUND SCIENCE AND TECH INNOVATION AS ECONOMIC ENGINES
The National Science Foundation has named 34 semifinalists in the first round of its Regional Innovation Engine program. Five winners will be named this fall to share $15 million over two years, then split another $145 million.
TRENDS IN AI
AI DESIGNS COMPUTER CHIP FROM SCRATCH IN LESS THAN FIVE HOURS
A team of 19 Chinese computer scientists from five separate institutions claim to have created an AI that designed a computer’s central processing unit (CPU)—a computer’s master chip or “brain”—in less than five hours, or about 1,000 times faster than humans could have accomplished the same task.
SCHOOL DISTRICTS BAN, ALLOW CHATBOTS
The Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland have banned ChatGPT and similar “large language model” AIs from public schools until government education departments determine how they can be used “safely and appropriately” in classrooms.
AI SPARKS LAYOFFS—IN THE TECH INDUSTRY
AI will erase jobs in a range of industries, but perhaps it’s surprising that some tech jobs are among the first to go.