Can Economies Like the American One Hang On?
With oil now traded in yuan (not "petrodollar") and the Fed issuing a warning: "Current trends ‘not sustainable,’ says Fed chair, whose conversation with Harvard undergrads also touched on inflation, impact of war, independent decision-making" (in "Powell issues a warning on U.S. debt" yesterday at Harvard).
Our politicians and bankers rapidly become "doomers" based on this new article ("The crisis will arrive slowly, then all at once"), which includes quotes from high-level officials and also some charts regarding oil shipments/transmissions because "the buffer is emptying" as an associate puts it. Many people know this and heard about it; the media restrains itself.
Put simply, there are tough times ahead and the media tries not to alarm people as that can trigger "panic buying" (hoarding), "runs on banks" (attempts to withdraw money that isn't even there), and all sorts of other phenomena (or panic leading to more panic phenomenon) learned from the COVID-19 lock-downs. In the UK, the most famous story was scarcity of toilet paper - its availability sank to almost zero at some stores, even very large retailers/chains.
Right now the US economy is shedding off many jobs while price of energy rises (it impacts many things directly and less directly) while the dollar loses value and companies borrow like crazy. All so-called 'AI' (slop) companies are at risk of shutdown; they waste energy for no good reason. Once they shut down, the economy will collapse in Wall Street too.
But it's not limited to technology.
Consider this household brand.
With 65,900 employees (many of them doing mechanical roles and manual labour) it's almost a million dollars in debt per employee. Coca-Cola's debt level can be compared to Walmart borrowing over a trillion dollars. Would that make any sense?
The coming weeks will be "interesting" unless wars end; regardless, "America First" turns out to be "America alone" and it means bad news for the value of the dollar (no longer a de facto "international currency"). █
Published 1.5 weeks ago: American apocalypse: The end 'feels personal and imminent' in Germany's broadcaster