TRENDS ON THE ECONOMIC AND MARKET FRONT
LAYOFFS, PRODUCER PRICES INCREASE: WORST IS YET TO COME
Applications for unemployment benefits rose by 22,000 to 264,000 in the most recent week, the largest number since October 2021, following a series of dramatic staff cuts among Microsoft, Twitter, and other tech giants as well as companies in finance and other industries.
ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
It’s a global economic freak show. Add up the numbers. Take a trip to Argentina. With inflation running at over 100 percent and its peso down 23 percent against the U.S. dollar, Argentina’s central banksters raised its key interest rate yesterday by six percentage points to 97 percent.
RECESSION COULD THROW $1 TRILLION OF DEBT INTO DISTRESS
A U.S. recession would tighten the credit market and could throw more than 8 percent of corporate bonds—about $920 billion worth—into distress, the last step before default, according to a client note from Bank of America (BoA) analysts.
INSURING U.S. TREASURIES AGAINST DEFAULT NOW COSTS MORE THAN FOR BRAZIL OR MEXICO
The price of credit default swaps, which insure holders against government default, are now more expensive for U.S. treasury securities than for the same protection in Brazil, Greece, or Mexico, Bloomberg reported.
HOME PRICES FALL IN ALMOST A THIRD OF U.S. CITIES IN FIRST QUARTER
In this year’s first quarter, home prices fell in 31 percent of the 221 metro areas monitored by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
POTENTIAL HOMEBUYERS: LITTLE FOR SALE
Homeowners who might want to sell their houses feel trapped by the low interest rates they have on their mortgages and are unwilling to have to start a new mortgage with today’s far higher rates, The Wall Street Journal reported.
WEALTHY AMERICANS ARE PAYING THE PRICE OF THE SLACK ECONOMY
Pity the rich: households earning more than $125,000 have seen their incomes and discretionary spending decline faster during the current economic malaise than those of households classified as low-income, according to Bank of America (BoA).
RETAILERS ABANDON DOWNTOWNS FOR THE SUBURBS
In April, downtown pedestrian traffic in the U.S. was about 25 percent less than during the same month in 2019, real estate software provider MRI Springboard reported.
BANK DEPOSITORS TRANSFERRING THEIR MONEY TO CREDIT CARD COMPANIES
Credit card companies offering deposit services to their customers are seeing an inflow of cash as people seek places other than small and regional banks to store their money.
TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT
SPOTLIGHT, TOP TREND 2023: AI – WE OWN YOU
On 11 May, the European Union’s (EU’s) parliament passed a sweeping set of controls that will be incorporated into the union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, likely to become the world’s first comprehensive body of regulations governing AI.
WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
Inflation and interest rate hikes are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees. To illustrate the employment trends and the socioeconomic implications, each week we will list job losses.
U.K. ECONOMY SQUEAKS OUT 0.1-PERCENT GROWTH IN FIRST QUARTER
Britain managed to expand its GDP by 0.1 percent during the first three months of this year, matching the growth rate in 2022’s final quarter.
ZIMBABWE ISSUES GOLD COIN TO SHORE UP ITS FAILING CURRENCY
The central bank of the southeast African nation of Zimbabwe has issued a solid gold coin intended to “expand the value-preserving instruments available in the economy.”
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA
In 2022, Chinese investment in Europe and Britain sank to €7.9 billion, 22 percent below 2021’s level and the lowest since 2013, according to a new study by Rhodium Group and Merics, a German think tank.
SPOTLIGHT: INFLATION
Last month, overall U.S. inflation came in at 4.9 percent. While it is the slowest since April 2021, it is still above the 2 percent Fed target rate. Inflation clocked in at 5 percent in March.
SPOTLIGHT, TOP TREND 2023: OFFICE BUILDING BUST
Office towers’ values are falling fastest in large, old-order urban centers such as New York City and San Francisco, Ann Walsh, Guggenheim Partners’ chief investment officer, told the FT.
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
Newmont Corp., the world’s largest gold miner, will take over Australian competitor Newcrest Mining Ltd. in a deal valued at $17.5 billion, the gold mining industry’s largest merger on record.
UKRAINE WAR TREND UPDATE
MORE GERMANS WANT PEACE, URGE NATO TO KEEP UKRAINE OUT
Despite German leadership emerging as one of the top financial and military proponents of the Ukraine War, the public appears unconvinced that this is a conflict worth fighting, according to a recent poll.
U.S. SEC. OF STATE BLINKEN ‘VIOLENTLY’ AGREES THE KILLING MUST GO ON IN UKRAINE
The U.S. and U.K. said last week that they will continue to push for more war in Ukraine regardless of how badly Kyiv’s counteroffensive fails, how many Ukrainian citizens are killed and/or how much of their nation is destroyed.
WWIII: PUTIN BLAMES WEST FOR TRYING TO DESTROY RUSSIA
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a Victory Day Parade last week to commemorate Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 and told the crowd in Moscow’s Red Square that his country finds itself—once again—in a struggle against enemies seeking its demise.
FEATURED TRENDS GUEST ARTICLE by Dr. Joseph Mercola
PLASTIC IS EVERYWHERE NOW, INCLUDING YOUR BRAIN
We live in a throwaway society, and products intended for short-term consumption are packaged in materials that will survive for centuries.
FEATURED TRENDS GUEST ARTICLE By John & Nisha Whitehead
BUSINESS AS USUAL: SHUTDOWN OR NOT, THE POLICE STATE WILL CONTINUE TO FLOURISH
Once again, the police state is up to its old tricks, stoking tensions over whether or not the government is forced to shut down, even partially, due to a default on the national debt.
PRESIDENTIAL REALITY SHOW® 2024
GOP TO PRESS IMMIGRATION AS TOP ISSUE FOR 2024 ELECTIONS
Republicans see immigration as a clear vulnerability for President Joe Biden in the 2024 election and will attempt to use the border crisis as an example of a failure by the White House to secure the U.S. from an invasion of migrants.
BYE-BYE BIDEN: KENNEDY 2024
President Joe Biden and his campaign are confident that he can pull in over $1 billion for the 2024 presidential election despite lagging poll numbers and concerns about his age.
TRENDS IN THE MARKETS by Gregory Mannarino
GLOBAL DEBT AND THE HUMAN BUBBLE
“The world’s central banks are responsible for creating a “market” for their product, “currency backed by nothing,” by fostering a population boom and consumers who are dependent on their product.” —GM
TRENDS IN TECHNOCRACY by Joe Doran
AI GIRLFRIENDS GET PERSONAL, AND MORE EXPERTS PREDICT AI ARMAGEDDON: THE LATEST IN “AI, WE OWN YOU”
Age of Internet Influencer just met Age of AI, and they’re hitting it off quite nicely.
MOVING TO ENERGY AND TECH THAT “ISN’T THERE”
There is no electric grid capacity in place to handle the radical energy transition that the Biden Administration, and state governors like Kathy Hochul are pushing via misnamed laws, mandates and regulations.
BLACKROCK ESG INVESTING GETS MORE STATE AG SCRUTINY
BlackRock is trying to grab large stakes in public utilities, even as it has pledged itself to radical ESG investing and carbon zero goals. That’s a problem, as a large group of state Attorney Generals see it, and this past week they filed a motion with FERC to challenge BlackRock’s attempts to buy up those stakes.
THIS WEEK IN SURVEILLANCE
When Joe Biden claimed “White supremacy” was “the most dangerous terrorist threat” facing Americans during his speech at Howard University’s commencement proceedings this past week, he earned widespread scorn for stirring racial division.
TRENDS IN CRYPTOS
MAKERDAO UTILIZING AI IN “ENDGAME” DEVELOPMENT
MakerDAO, a Decentralized Autonomous Organization built around the DAI stablecoin, is employing AI to develop and implement a series of development initiatives, according to a new paper on its forum.
DESANTIS SIGNS LEGISLATION REJECTING CBDC USE IN FLORIDA, CITING SURVEILLANCE AND ESG CONCERNS
Florida, a perennial Presidential battleground prize, just took a stand against a possible U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
Purchasing and transacting with Ethereum just got easier for U.S. citizens, thanks to a new rollout of Paypal payment options in the popular Metamask self-custody crypto wallet.
TRENDS IN THE COVID WAR
NEW COVID STUDY ABOUT BACTERIAL PNEUMONIA SUPPORTS TRENDS JOURNAL ANALYSIS FROM 2021
A new study has found that many ventilator-dependent COVID-19 patients acquired secondary bacterial pneumonia, and that pneumonia killed more people than COVID-19.
HOW THEY STIRRED HATRED TOWARD THOSE EXERCISING MEDICAL FREEDOM
Many government authorities and the mainstream media would like people to forget their extreme, hateful diatribes against people who chose not to receive controversial mRNA gene-level “vaccine” treatments.
U.S. FORMALLY ENDS ITS CRISIS RESPONSE TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK
The U.S. announced last week that its emergency response to COVID-19 is officially over, but warned that the virus is still infecting people.
COVID-19 VACCINES ESSENTIALLY WORTHLESS WITHIN 9 MONTHS: STUDY
The COVID-19 vaccines that were sold during the COVID-19 War as the panacea for the outbreak with a 94–95 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic infection.
TRENDS IN GEOPOLITICS
MIDDLE EAST MELTDOWN: U.S. TO INCREASE MILITARY PRESENCE IN THE ARABIAN GULF, BLAMES RECENT IRANIAN SHIP SEIZURES
The U.S. announced last week that it will increase its military footprint in the Arabian Gulf after recent oil tanker seizures by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz—which we have noted was in response to Washington’s pirating of Iranian ships in the region. But this was ignored in the mainstream media.
WWIII: SWEDEN HOLDS LARGEST MILITARY EXERCISE SINCE THE FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION
As we have been reporting, as economies decline across the globe and the plantation workers of Slavelandia suffer deepening economic pain, nations are stealing more of the plantation workers' taxes to enrich the war machine.
MIDDLE EAST MELTDOWN: ISRAEL, PALESTINIANS IN ANOTHER BLOODY CLASH, AS TOP ISRAELIS CALL TO EXTEND CONFLICT TO WEST BANK
Israel and fighters for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were engaged last week in a days-long clash that resulted in the deaths of at least 33 Palestinians that Israel killed in Gaza.
CHINA TELLS EUROPE: U.S. POLICIES WILL HURT YOUR COUNTRY
China’s top diplomat conducted his first European tour last week in an effort to pull the EU from Washington’s orbit by stressing how these countries would be badly damaged economically if they take the U.S.’s zero-sum game approach to diplomatic relations with Beijing.
DUH-MOCK-RACY: LOVE CHARLIE THE KING OR GO TO JAIL
Democracy is under attack in the UK.
British police exercised new powers to snuff out protests before the coronation of King Charles III earlier this month, which drew swift scrutiny from those who called the new law, Public Order Act 2023, excessive and an attack on freedoms.
WWIII: AUSTRALIA INCREASES ITS MILITARY BUDGET TO RECORD LEVELS AMID TENSIONS WITH CHINA
Australia took another step in its militarization last week after releasing its 2023-2024 budget with an increase in military spending that represents 2.04 percent of its GDP, which amounts to a record sum.
TRENDS-EYE VIEW
UPDATES IN THE WAR ON NATURAL FOOD: ORGANIC MEANS WHATEVER BILL GATES SAYS
Trying to buy organic for health reasons?
Your grocery trip just got more complicated.
BON APPÉTIT: ‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’ USED IN PESTICIDES SPRAYED ON FOOD CROPS IN U.S.
Pesticides that are commonly used in the U.S. have been found to contain PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are toxic and linked to serious illnesses in humans.
TRENDS IN HI-TECH SCIENCE by Ben Daviss
NEW AI CAN SIMULATE 10,000 SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS IN A DAY
BacterAI, a new artificial intelligence (AI) created by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Michigan, carried out as many as 10,000 science experiments in a single day without human intervention as it sought to define the metabolic processes of two bacteria.
INHALED POWDER PROTECTS AGAINST CORONAVIRUS
When the next coronavirus starts spreading, we might be able to avoid doing battle over facemasks, thanks to a compound developed by researchers at North Carolina State University.
EV START-UP IS BUILDING A BATTERY-SWAPPING INFRASTRUCTURE
When electric vehicle (EV) start-up Fisker introduces its “Ocean” SUV in the U.S. next year, it also will unveil its new battery-swapping station that can “refuel” its cars in the time it takes to fill a tank with gas, the company says.