The Economy

Wish my girlfriend had waited eight months to buy one.

 

I blame Biden for Peloton's troubles. By staying in his basement for all of 2020 rather than holding rallies, he encouraged people to stay in their basement on their Pelotons and since he hasn't cured COVID, they've gotten really bored with their Pelotons.

 

Like I said in the other post, one of the big concerns with this is not the government tracking us. It's the government — in concert with major banks — having the ability to micromanage the economy and people's behavior. To basically turn the U.S. and the world into a dictatorship through economic means. The digital dollar is only one piece of a machine they've been building and slowly implementing, mostly through regulations instead of laws.

Another big piece is ESG scores (Environmental, Social, Governance) that a lot of big banks and companies are exploring. Those are like China's infamous social credit scores. If you want to get a car loan, for example, it might get turned down if it's not an electric car. A business loan might get denied if it's not considered environmentally friendly enough, or if it's deemed socially unacceptable by one entity or another (a gun purchase, for example).
Right now you can still pay physical cash for things. A digital dollar, in theory, would allow the government to much more easily restrict them by denying all transactions of a given product. If some algorithm detects a milk shortage, for example, you might only be able to buy one gallon instead of two.
The advancements in artificial intelligence programs that would make all of this easier to solve is another piece of the machinery. The ultimate idea is to transition to something called "stakeholder capitalism" instead of our traditional idea of capitalism.
The recent embrace of Modern Monetary Theory (i.e., print as much money as you want and pretend there will be no consequences) is another component.

I know it sounds like kooky tinfoil hat stuff, and it's hard to get your head around. The World Economic Forum could quickly become mocked as a right-wing bogeyman like George Soros. But there sure are a lot of major corporations and very influential people (including current political leaders) who are buying into it all. And when you start piling up enough of those pieces it doesn't feel like a coincidence, especially when you see them floated in the mainstream press like this. If those stories are getting out there, then it usually means someone high up the chain is doing more than just thinking about it as an intellectual exercise.

Now is the time for a 'great reset'

Partners

 

I will read those links when I have more time, Batman.

You made me LOL at the thought of Ford F-150s being sold like cocaine, on the down-low.

 

I have a 40-year old Tunturi stationary bike and it doesn't need a subscription, just a little WD40 each year. The Tunturi brand is owned by Accell of the Netherlands which is trading on Euronext at its all-time high.

Elsewhere, I got an oil change the other day at Honda and asked to see the '22 Civic. There was all of one on the lot, and that was being puchased as we spoke. They can't get them due to supply chain issues, and whatever is on order are being pre-bought, sight unseen. The same thing happened when I leased in October 2020; the dealer was lousy with 21s, hadn't received the 22s yet, so I got a deal.

 

Maybe, just maybe, the CEO is the problem.

 

Getting rid of cash will make drug deals more easily traceable, but it's the presence of cash that tips LEOs off. Mixed bag, but the knock-on effects of a cashless society are interesting.

 

DOJ cleaning up something that Biden and Powell caused.