TRENDS ON THE ECONOMIC AND MARKET FRONT
ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
In dumbed-down America, where nearly 45 percent of the people get what they call “news” from mainstream corporate TV and swallow the crap spewing out of the mouths of Presstitutes—media whores who get paid to put out by their corporate pimps and government whore masters—the vast majority have no clue of what in the world is going on.
MONEY MARKET FUNDS CONTINUE TO RAKE IN RECORD CASH
Investors and bank depositors seeking a combination of safety and high returns continued sending their cash into money market funds last week as a U.S. debt default remained possible and fears about the banking industry continued to reverberate.
DOLLAR TREE MISSES EARNINGS TARGET, CUTS OUTLOOK
Dollar Tree’s earnings in its most recently completed quarter missed analysts’ expectations and sent the company’s share price sliding 14 percent.
INFLATION RISES UNEXPECTEDLY IN APRIL
The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s favorite measure of inflation, rose 0.4 percent in April after gaining just 0.1 percent in March.
U.S. CONSUMERS: DEEP IN DEBT, BUYING MORE
Consumer spending rose 0.8 percent last month after rising just 0.1 percent in both February and March, the U.S. commerce department reported. Even adjusted for inflation, spending was up 0.5 percent in April.
MORE HIGH EARNERS LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK
The number of U.S. six-figure earners living paycheck to paycheck has reached 49 percent, according to the latest LendingTree study, compared to 42 percent at the end of last year.
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE VALUES FALL
For the first time since at least 2012, the sale price of U.S. commercial real estate declined in the first quarter, year over year, according to a review of sales data by Moody’s Analytics.
CORPORATE BANKRUPTCIES CONTINUE TO RISE
To 27 May, eight companies, each with more than $500 million in liabilities, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month, including five in one day. Last year, the monthly average was three filings, the Financial Times noted.
FED CONTINUES TO STONEWALL ON OFFICIALS’ POSSIBLE CRIMES
The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to withhold details about its most notorious public scandal in recent history.
TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT
EUROPE: FIRST AN ENERGY SHOCK, NOW A FOOD SHOCK
Europe’s cost of natural gas began rising sharply in the run-up to the Ukraine war as Russia curtailed gas deliveries to the continent in a show of political pressure; then gas prices skyrocketed again after Russia invaded Ukraine and the West slapped sanctions on Russia’s exports.
WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
And as the numbers prove, while there are job opportunities in the low-paying service sectors, enormous numbers of middle and upper-class workers are out of work.
TOP TREND 2023, GOING GREEN, LIKE IT OR NOT: INVESTMENT IN GREEN ENERGY POISED TO TOP OIL THIS YEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME
Roughly $2.8 billion will be invested this year to increase global energy supplies, with $1.7 billion, or about 60 percent, going to clean energy projects such as solar and wind generation, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted.
COPPER’S PRICE FALLS AGAIN AS GLOBAL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK DARKENS
On 22 May, the price of copper to be delivered two days later was $66 a ton cheaper than copper for delivery in August, the Financial Times reported, as traders expressed disappointment with China’s weak manufacturing recovery.
“GREEDFLATION” FUELS INFLATION
While the media calls it a new term to the lexicon, Greedflation has long been a part of the mega-corporations running and ruling a country near you.
CORPORATE BUYBACKS: THE SPREE CONTINUES
The spate of corporations buying their own stock that we reported in “Company Stock Buybacks Set Record, Spark Investor Complaints” (23 May 2023) shows no signs of slowing.
MEXICO’S CENTRAL BANK PROMISES NO MORE INTEREST RATE INCREASES
Meeting on 25 May, the governing board of Mexico’s central bank voted unanimously to hold its key interest rate at 11.25 percent, halting its fastest and steepest series of rate increases on record.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA
China dominates lithium refining but has only 8 percent of the world’s raw lithium, less than Argentina, Bolivia, or Chile. Even the U.S. has more lithium ore than the Asian giant.
UKRAINE WAR TREND UPDATE
U.S. AT WAR WITH RUSSIA: UKRAINIAN MILITIAS USE AMERICAN VEHICLES IN ATTACK IN RUSSIA
The U.S. has justified its military support for Ukraine by pretending to act as though it believes Kyiv’s promises not to use any equipment to strike targets inside Russia.
WWIII: VICTORIA ‘F-CK THE EU’ NULAND ADMITS THAT THE U.S. HAS BEEN HELPING UKRAINE PLAN FOR COUNTEROFFENSIVE
The Trends Journal was the first to clearly state that the U.S. is not conducting a “proxy war” with Russia in Ukraine, but rather Washington is at war with Moscow.
LINDSEY GRAHAM VISITS UKRAINE 3 TIMES SINCE INVASION TO PROMOTE MORE WAR
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the biggest war hawks in Congress who has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be assassinated at least twice, has visited Ukraine three times since the invasion and his latest trip drew increased Russian ire.
PUTIN FACES DOMESTIC PRESSURE TO CRUSH UKRAINE IN ALL-OUT WAR
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to use the full might of the country’s military in Ukraine to save Russia from the risk of a revolution and to bring the war to a quick end.
FEATURED TRENDS GUEST ARTICLE By John & Nisha Whitehead
CONSPIRATORS FOR THE CONSTITUTION: WHEN ANTI-GOVERNMENT SPEECH BECOMES SEDITION
Let’s be clear about one thing: seditious conspiracy isn’t a real crime to anyone but the U.S. government.
FEATURED TRENDS GUEST ARTICLE by Dr. Joseph Mercola
THE MANY HEALTH BENEFITS OF FENNEL
Common fennel is a perennial plant in the carrot family. All but the roots are used in traditional culinary and medicinal preparations. The plant is native to the Mediterranean and is believed to have been part of Jewish meals since biblical times.
PRESIDENTIAL REALITY SHOW® 2024
RON DESANTIS’S CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT GETS MAJOR MEDIA COVERAGE, RFK JR STILL IGNORED
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis benefited last week from near wall-to-wall media coverage after his presidential announcement while Robert F. Kennedy, the Democrat challenging President Joe Biden, continues to be ignored by the corporate media.
GOV. DESANTIS PLAYING THE ROLE AS THE TOP CHOICE FOR REPUBLICANS
The Republican primary at this time in the Presidential Reality Show® is a race between former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis which is ratcheting up to be a bruising one between two men who are determined to prove their conservative strength while trying to win what is shaping up to be a personality contest.
RFK JR. BLASTS U.S. DECISION TO BACK F-16s FOR UKRAINE AS ‘DANGEROUS ESCALATION’
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic challenger up against the incumbent President Joe Biden, criticized the U.S.’s decision to support F-16s for Ukraine as a “dangerous escalation” without much upside.
TRENDS IN TECHNOCRACY by Joe Doran
HUMAN “SYMBIOSIS” WITH AI: CHATGPT WANTS TO BE YOUR DIGITAL KEEPER
“The concept of a dream machine … the human-computer symbiosis … is exciting. We went from the bicycle to the steam engine with ChatGPT.”
JOBS “SAFE” FROM AI?
Corporations have lately coalesced around the mantra that their unbound AI development and shock implementation isn’t meant to replace human workers, but enhance their productivity.
THIS WEEK IN SURVEILLANCE
That the Federal government engaged in massive, coordinated, and unConstitutional censorship of American citizens, has already been convincingly established by the ongoing Missouri vs. Biden landmark court case.
TRENDS IN CRYPTOS
HOW CRYPTO IS CREATING ITS OWN AI ECOSYSTEM
Large tech companies and partnerships are providing a lot of the backbone AI technology and APIs that other companies and smaller start-ups are using to create end-user apps.
BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
The 2024 Presidential contest now has both a Democrat and Republican candidate who have explicitly endorsed Bitcoin.
TRENDS IN THE COVID WAR
NO HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS UNDER 50 DIED FROM COVID-19 IN ISRAEL: DATA
Not one healthy person under the age of 50 died from COVID-19 in Israel, according to data released by Israel’s Ministry of Health in response to a freedom of information request—further proving that the outbreak was never a “pandemic.”
TRENDS IN GEOPOLITICS
RUSSIA BLASTS U.S.’S DECISION TO SEND CARRIER TO NORWAY AS ‘ILLOGICAL’
Russia slammed the U.S. for sailing the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to Oslo, Norway, last week as an “illogical” flex as the world’s largest warship sails to the Arctic for additional exercises.
ISRAEL WARNS THAT ATTACK ON IRAN MAY BE IMMINENT OVER NUCLEAR ADVANCEMENTS
Israel has long said that it will not allow Iran to develop weapons-grade uranium and would conduct an all-out war to prevent what it sees as an existential threat.
NEW WORD DISORDER: MIGRATION IN U.K. HITS NEW HIGH
The United Kingdom is being flooded by migrants fleeing from countries that are either war-torn or face paralyzing economic hardships—further cementing our “NEW WORLD DISORDER” forecast.
U.S. PROVOKES CHINA WITH PLANS FOR NATO OFFICE IN JAPAN
The U.S. has been trying to sell fears that the Russian invasion of Ukraine will cause a domino effect in the Indo-Pacific and Japan has been a willing participant in militarizing for a possible conflict with China in the future.
U.S. RAMPS UP PRESSURE ON IRAN WITH INCREASED PATROLS IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ
The U.S. continues to provoke Iran in the Strait of Hormuz as the two countries recently got involved in tit-for-tat ship seizures in one of the world's most strategically important waterways.
ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG: KISSINGER HITS 100
Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state who has become an authoritative voice on foreign affairs, turned 100 years old last week.
ANTI-CHINA RHETORIC FROM G7 MEETING MOVES MOSCOW AND BEIJING EVEN CLOSER
China has warned European countries against following the U.S. down the path of confrontation in its zero-sum game to prevent the emergence of a unipolar world and to keep the current “global world order.”
TRENDS-EYE VIEW
DEGROWTH: LOOMING WORLD DEPOPULATION SPELLS CRISIS
It’s not what we’re doing that may signal disaster, for western developed so-called “democratic” societies, most of all.
SURGEON GENERAL WARNS OF ‘PROFOUND’ MENTAL HEALTH RISKS TIED TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, issued an advisory last week warning of the risks that social media sites have on mental health—especially young people—and called on lawmakers and Big Tech companies to enforce age minimums and create default safety settings.
COLLEGE CRASH TOP TREND ON-TREND: ENROLLMENT CONTINUES DECLINE
As we forecast when politicians launched the COVID War in 2020 and colleges forced students to learn from home and then prohibited them to return to school if they refused to get the COVID Jab, fewer students would be going to college.
TRENDS IN HI-TECH SCIENCE by Ben Daviss
BENCHTOP DNA PRINTERS: A NEW WEAPON OF TERROR?
Research biologists editing DNA have been buying their DNA samples from about 100 specialty suppliers. Those samples have been used to create new drugs, biofuels, and crops.
PARALYZED MAN WALKS WITH ELECTRONIC BRAIN-SPINE BRIDGE
Gert-Jan Oskam, a Dutch man whose spinal cord was damaged in a bicycle accident, is able to walk again, thanks to an electronic “bridge” that transmits signals from his brain to the spinal column below the injury.
RECOVERING MINERALS THROUGH PHYTOMINING
Forward-thinking researchers are foreseeing a time when future generations of humanity are running short of minerals because their ancestors have used them up.
TRENDS IN AI
AI IS NOT JUST IN THE NEWS, IT’S INVENTING THE NEWS
The web is awash in phony news stories created by artificial intelligence (AI) and posted to social media sites, according to independent studies by NewsGuard, which finds and flags false information on the web, and Shadow Dragon, a company providing tools and training for digital investigations.
MEDICAL CHATBOT TELLS FAKE “PATIENT” TO KILL HIMSELF
A French developer of healthcare tech was designing a ChatGPT-3 chatbot to take part in medical services and ran it through a series of tasks escalating in complexity.
UP NEXT: iPHONE GPT
OpenAI, the company that unleashed ChatGPT on the world, has created a mini-version of the chatbot for Apple’s iPhone. The bot understands voice questions and commands and responds with a text message.
INVESTOR FRENZY FOR AI STOCKS FUEL RISE IN INDEXES
With artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT registering 100 million downloads in its first two weeks on the market, investors are lunging for stocks that can ride the AI wave.
Top Trend 2023, AI – We Own You: WHAT TO DO WITH ALL OF AI’S DISPLACED WORKERS?
ChatGPT and the other generative artificial intelligences (AIs) now flooding workplaces could raise U.S. productivity by 1.5 percentage points over the next 10 years and boost the world’s economic output by 7 percent, according to a Goldman Sachs estimate.