Welcome anon to another week of paid content.
Please refer to the Backdrop Post and trade with mindfulness.
Please refer to Definitions page for any terms or abbreviations that I use that you don’t understand. If a term is missing, please let me know.
Please feel free to skip around or ignore certain sections if it does not apply to you. The Table of Contents is made to preserve your time in this manner. You can always simply read the conclusion if you are in a hurry.
Of note, I will be away from my computer at the end of the week, so the review post for this week will be coming out on Saturday (April 2nd) instead of Friday (April 1st).
All times given in this update are in US Central time (UTC-6 clock).
Song of the Week - Rich Greedy - Baby God
Table of Contents
Mindfulness of the Times
Economic Calendar
Bank of England Speech
US Employment
US treasury bond auctions
Crypto Macro
Conclusion
1. Mindfulness of the Times
I often see people responding to news of the financial demise of the existing power structure within the US with sadness and despair. We all grew up with some image in our heads of what we expected the future to be or to look like, or how we expected to grow within the existing paradigm. Many of us dreamed of what heights we might aspire to in an age of peace and prosperity. We looked forwards to advancing in a career, starting businesses, taking care of our parents, hosting family holidays within homes we owned among families we made, and many other perfectly reasonable dreams for any person to have. And when discussing a world of persistent, significant inflation, geo-political unrest and conflict, rampant corruption in the halls of government, shortages of food and energy, and a rapidly retreating social ladder to the next social class some people have responded with despair and dismay. Again, this is a perfectly reasonable reaction to have as you look upon the world as it really is.
But please, I beg of you, do not stop at the despair as you realize that some old dreams of yours may have to die, shift, or transform with the current reality. Keep going until you find the positive and the hopeful new dreams that could only come to fruition in such times as these. As the federal governments weaken and power shifts towards state, county, and city governments, be aware that the reigns of power are coming closer to your own control. Think what leverage you and a small community of like-minded people might be able to have by simply moving to a county with a low population. The less people there are in a county, the more influence you have as a voter, and also the more likely it is that there will be significant talent gaps within local government that you might be able to win an uncontested election, or gain a county commissioner seat. As chaos emerges at the highest levels of government, rural areas become places of significant opportunity, especially as income streams move more digital and less physical. By simply getting a few like-minded people together, you could bring significant tax income to counties in dire need of it without requiring much infrastructure constructed by them on your behalf, especially with Elon Musk’s Starlink becoming more and more available for internet.
Is that what I plan to do? Maybe, the idea isn’t fully fleshed out in my mind yet, and there is much I need to accomplish for such a thing to be possible. I also suspect that many of you might think I am richer than I actually am, in truth I am probably like many of you or a peer in terms of financial wealth, I could not snap my fingers today and have a compound constructed on my behalf from my existing funds and still be whole, it would take everything and I would be unable to fund its maintenance.
Those old dreams may have to die, as the cities in the West (mainly america) become more unlivable due to crime, politics, and budgetary largesse. But please allow for your special brand of creativity to bring you new dreams, maybe even better dreams that could only be possible in times like now.
For the second time I will be sharing a clip from a TV show based on the Chinese Novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In it, two men are faced with times far more dire than ours today. The empire their ancestors had lived under for hundreds of years was collapsing around them.
“Without Chaos, whence come heroes?” Indeed. I don’t know just what exactly I may come to accomplish in the coming months and years. Maybe nothing. But I do know that when times change significantly, they offer uncommon opportunity for those that can see it first and act. I often discuss a coming separation of Finance and State. I believe it is inevitable, I just can’t say when it will occur, but I hope that it is to come in my lifetime. Not only that, but I believe that I should be doing everything in my power to bring it about and participate in it. I could be horribly wrong and misled. I could be playing into the hands of the rich and powerful. Or, I could be right, and I (along with many others) could be paving the way to a far fairer world within which people can be paid fair wages for fair work, and have no fear that their savings will be devalued or eaten into by a corrupt system of wastrels, bureaucrats, and administrators. A place where people can not only save, but build. A place where people can have any financial, or legal service at their fingertips instantly for fractions of a penny without any middlemen or controlling interests siphoning 20% off the top. A place where entire communities can be self-sustaining with a closed financial loop if they choose. A place where the people can truly choose the government that rules them, or choose none if they prefer. “To live in a time of chaos, is a great misfortune. But if we can turn chaos into order, would that not be turning misery into a great fortune?” I never had much taste for the “normal” way of things. As Americans, in truth, we exist off of exploitation of the world around us. This is not our doing, most of us are unconscious of this, but the petro-dollar and the reserve currency status our currency had was to our benefit, and exploited those countries with unfavorable trade deals with us. As we come off of this system, there will be great pain, but also great opportunity. When one hears of collapse and destruction, one must meditate creatively on how we can (oh god I’m gonna say it) build back better.
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