Crazy times

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D5CAV
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:48 am

Crazy times

Post by D5CAV »

4-19 was a big day in history that is sadly not remembered anymore.

4-20 is a day in history that is also not remembered for good reason - Hitlergebortztag.

4-20 of 2020 is also the day the oil markets traded with negative oil prices … I'll pause to let that sink-in.

This is what happened on 4-20 of 2020. If you want crude oil, you don't need to pay anyone for it. Someone will pay you $40 per barrel to take it off their hands. No kidding.

Bill Blain has some thoughts on some other financial craziness: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bruta ... ial-unrest
Don’t look to Global Markets for guidance – they are detached from the economic reality because of renewed financial distortions from QEI (QE Infinity) govt supports and bailouts.
Someone asked me to explain the current financial situation. I told them nothing in the financial markets is real. There is no price discovery. It is all "Wizard of Oz".
Here in the UK we are already moving to a future where £1.10 in every pound of tax collected by government will be going towards paying Civil Service and State pensions.
If us.gov has to nationalize state.gov pensions, like they did for Puerto Rico, it will be even worse in US, maybe $2 of every $1 collected in taxes.
What are the implications and limits of unbounded Modern Monetary Theory on economies, inflation and currencies? Can some nations simply write off the balance of National Debt held by central banks as a result of QE? Do taxes matter? What will monetary creation trigger in terms of inflation? How will FX markets react to burgeoning debt and inflation?
All good questions. If us.gov spends $20 trillion and collects $1.6 trillion in IRS taxes what does any of pension fund obligations, student loan debt and stimulus checks matter? Negative oil prices was a shocker to me. That is something that I have an even harder time getting my brain around than negative interest rates.

To the people who ask me for financial advice, I tell them to buy three metals - silver, lead and steel. Beyond that I am out of ideas.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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