Saturday Broadcast 48

Key topics:

✔️ ICYMI news, 5/8 - 5/12.
✔️Are wealthy Americans hit harder or are they pulling back precisely because they don't want to go broke in the middle of this mess?
✔️Profiteering from bank failures?! Say it ain't so. 😒
✔️The fat cats will also find a way to profit from this debt default mess. Whether The Fed turns on its fiat currency printing press yet again or we're allowed to default (which I doubt), someone at the top will make a boatload of money from it. 'Twas ever thus.


Links:

https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/warning.html

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/slack-coming-back-labor-market-other-happenings-world-taylor-borden/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthy-americans-are-getting-hit-hardest-by-the-economy-slowing-down-160522161.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-lender-that-made-nearly-10-billion-from-silicon-valley-banks-failure-170338489.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-are-worried-about-the-economy-that-could-make-a-debt-default-even-worse-181551172.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prime-age-workers-are-flooding-back-into-the-workforce-older-workers-are-staying-home-131339316.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-america-nation-caregivers-expert-131304883.html

Links where I can be found: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/01/30/updates-housekeeping/

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/

Transcript

Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And now, here's your host, Sara Causey.

Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in. Today it is Monday, May 8. I don't know about you and where you are in the world. But for us here in the Midwest, it was like this weekend, someone pressed a cosmic button and kaboom, instantaneous summer, heat, humidity, it feels like a swamp. It's crazy. I mean, I hope that since we're supposed to get quite a bit of rain, and potentially some thunderstorms over the next week, week and a half, maybe that will help with the drought conditions that we faced last year. It would be wonderful for the grasslands and the pasture lands that get mowed to become hay for animals. It would be fantastic for those to rebound. I know a lot of farmers and ranchers that are ready for that. But the heat is crazy. And I feel like we've not had the appropriate amount of build up for it to go from being 70 to 90, you don't get that acclimation period. So one of the things that I want to say in this episode is as someone who has had heatstroke before, and I know how terrible it feels. And then it sort of leaves you sensitive to the heat after that. So even after you've recovered from that illness, it's like if you start to get into a heat exhaustion again, it can rapidly deteriorate into something more serious. Like yesterday, I was outside working and it was pleasant when I went out in the morning. But as the day went on, it just became very hot, very sticky. And it snuck up on me. And even though I had I thought plenty of hydration, I really didn't. And I just became overwhelmed by the heat. So today I'm inside, I have copious amounts of fans running, you may be able to hear that in the background. It is what it is. I really did not feel great when I woke up this morning. So I'm focused on nutrition, hydration, staying cool and just not over exerting myself while I try to recover. Please stay aware of the weather conditions. The heat, do not play heat exhaustion or heat stroke like it's a joke, it's a game it's maybe it only happens to little kids or maybe it only happens to people that are elderly or that have an underlying health condition. But hey, if I'm a healthy adult, I'm in my prime years I should just be able to go out and 90 degree heat and be Superman or Superwoman. no wrong answer, especially when you have not yet acclimated to the heat. It hit me upside the head like a brick. So public service announcement, make sure that you're doing what you need to do to stay safe and to stay healthy out there. Because heatstroke is not a game. It makes you feel awful. In terms of today's headlines over on Yahoo Finance, we find Chicago Feds Goolsbee warns the credit squeeze is beginning. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, the Chicago Fed President said a recession is also a possibility. Yeah. Okay, so the credit squeeze may very well be beginning in terms of a recession being possible wink, really. Are we not still in a recession as we have been for quite some time now? I feel like I put this in the same category as someone who's binge eating pizza and drinking soda pop and ice cream. If they haven't figured out by now that that's not a healthful way of eating all day, every day. What can you really do to help them? Somebody hasn't figured out by now that the economy is not in great shape. What are you really going to be able to do or say that's going to convince them? What it's going to boil down to, unfortunately, is a very personal reality. Like my heat exhaustion situation, getting out there and being like the frog in the pot. The heat crept up on me slowly and the next thing I know I'm like, Oh God, I don't feel well. I feel dehydrated. My Heart Rhythm feels like it's off, which, that's the last thing that I freaking want after the cardiac problems that I had posed. So, no, no, no. But see, that's, that's what it is. This economic situation will be like, Well, okay, whatever, there's this gal on this podcast. And she's been warning people ever since last year about how bad it is in the job market and went on. But I'm not gonna listen to that until I lose my job. I'm not gonna listen to the fact that the housing market was an artificially inflated bubble, until I lose my house until I can't sell my house until I can't buy a house. I feel like you have a plethora of people out there that are not going to prepare and they're not going to listen to anybody else. They're going to play everything like it's a joke until it happens to them. And then they're going to be looking around in a state of bewilderment like, well, how come nobody's here to bail me out? That is sad. But that is what I see coming. Stocks drift regional banks, pear games, Tyson Foods post surprise loss as beef and pork prices full. remote work is a trend that's not going away, says almanac see? Oh, no, it's not gonna go away entirely. You'll still have some companies with a commitment to remote work that are serious about that freelancers, like myself that say, look, I carry my own benefits. I make my own rolls, you want this or you don't, I'm remote only. There will be some amount of remote work left, just as there were people working remotely before the pandemic. It's just not going to be as ubiquitous as it was when everybody was sent home to quote flatten the curve back in 2020. I wish that I had better news for you on that. Oh, God handed over on LinkedIn today on their work shift magazine thing. Slack is coming back to the labor market and other happenings in the world of work. Here we go again, Billy likes to drink soda. Miss lipis Car is green. In this article we read despite an overall healthy picture, there's a small and probably growing pocket of labor market distress guy Berger, LinkedIn is principal economist added. If you're in a situation where you've lost your job, and you're in an industry that's undergoing a lot of layoffs, you might be starting to get concerned about your ability to find a job again and quote. God, I just have to rub my temples on my forehead when Gordon Ramsay does when he's in a bad restaurant, and people just don't want to listen. Oh, it's frozen, but that's fine. It's whatever frozen seafood is gonna taste just as good as seafood straight out of the ocean. And he's like, no, no, it's not. No, it's not Oh, a frozen beef patty that we've had in the freezer for the past five years is going to be just as good as fresh ground beef. No, no, it isn't. It isn't. Let's just pick this apart. I'll do what I can with it. You know, being tired and worn out from heat exhaustion. I'm just kind of like, not not into it, man. Not feeling it not feeling the bullshit today. Despite an overall healthy picture now. Nope. Wrong. I don't personally believe that we have a 3.4% unemployment rate to legitimate open jobs for everyone unemployed person, that everyone in America who gets laid off from white collar work can go be a burrito maker at Chipotle or go be a barista at Starbucks, and that will somehow keep the economy going. I just don't see that happening. An overall healthy picture, right? It's an overall healthy picture. If you just pay attention to snippets of headlines from the mainstream media. That's the only way you're going to think this is an overall healthy picture. Because if you are in the job market every single day, either as a subject matter expert, a recruiter, an HR person or a job seeker who's trying to find a job right now, you're going to know it's not an overall healthy picture. There's a small and probably growing pocket of labor market distress. I would agree that the pocket is growing. But I don't think it's small. No, I don't think so. Remember, all these economists, so called experts that told you we would not have mass layoffs, that just would not happen? And then when we had mass layoffs, they decided to spin it as well. Okay, mass layoffs, but it will just be relegated to big tech and Silicon Valley. And then when it wasn't relegated to just big tech and Silicon Valley, we didn't hear anything. I don't think that there's a small pocket of labor market distress. I think there are a lot of people that are freaked out and suffering right now but we're just not hearing their stories. Now I do because I'm a recruiter. I'm in the job market every day as I have been for over a decade now. So because I I'm on the front lines, and I have a front row seat to the madness. I'm the one that gets to hear those stories. I'm the one that gets to hear well, I got laid off in January. And I thought that I would already have a job by now. It's May and I'm freaking the eff out because I didn't think it was going to take this long.

I would not say that it's okay. Well, a person here and there may be somebody that's a refugee from big tech, maybe somebody that was in Silicon Valley. This is the same kind of narrative that we're getting with bank failures. Remember that video that I linked to from old Dave Ramsey, play yours? Oh, you don't have to worry about your bank where granny has her CD and Little Billy has his paper route money. You don't have to worry about that bank failing. Like he has any way of knowing that like he's God, I'm sure with his ego. Maybe he thinks he is but he ain't. Spoiler alert. He's not. I am going to make another public service announcement before I sign off about Mad levels of ego and some of the shenanigans I see going on in the freelance market right now. But I digress just for a moment. There's no way that Dave Ramsey is going to know about the solvency and the health of the banks of every person listening to that video. No effing way. But yet he presents it in this YouTube as like, if you worry about the solvency of your bank, just because of Silicon Valley Bank, then you're just being foolish, you're worrying yourself for no reason. And that's just nonsense. That bank was full of venture capitalists and high rollers and play AWS. They took big risks trying to get big rewards. And they did some things that were silly that they shouldn't have done. But that's not going on at your bank. Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure about that same narrative, though. Well, now, just because the people in big tech and Silicon Valley dealt with mass layoffs, that doesn't mean that a mass layoff is coming to a city near you. And then when that does happen, crickets, tumbleweeds, these people who I don't know, if they were being paid to push a particular agenda, they are being paid to push a particular agenda, or they've just drank so much Kool Aid. They don't know the difference anymore. Those people are not going to be accountable. They can get online and tell you anything, and they're not accountable for it. They can make crappy predictions that never come true. Whether you're talking about the doomsday people that want to foment fear, and they're making fear porn to get likes and comments and shares or whether you're talking about nothing to see here, people move along, move along. If you worry if you prep in any way, then you're just an idiot. Those people are not ever accountable, nothing happens, they get to just keep on spewing BS. And that's that caveat and tour. If you listen to the BS that's on you. You have the ability to think critically, and to weigh and measure the evidence for yourself. If you think that somebody is sitting there giving you bad intel, do some research and figure it out. But don't just blindly listen to somebody because it's like, Well, this guy has a million subscribers on YouTube, where this guy has a huge following on Facebook or Tik Tok or Instagram. So I guess he's credible or this, this person has a column in some mainstream media news outlet and so therefore, they must be going through rigorous rigorous journalistic standards and an editor is fact checking everything. I wouldn't bet on that. No, no, I wouldn't bet on that. In a situation where you've lost your job, and you're in an industry that's undergoing a lot of layoffs, you might be starting to get concerned about your ability to find a job again. I agree. And so far as what I said, toward the beginning of this recording, you've got a cache of people that are not going to believe anything negative is going on in the economy until it happens to them. They're going to continue to believe 3.4% unemployment rate. Corporations had to outsource work and they had to bring in AI because and then insert clickbait here. Gen Z Gen Z didn't want to work. The millennials didn't want to work entire segments of the male population did not want to work. People are laying at home with their 2020 stimulus checks that three years later they still freaking have. And like Jesus turning water into wine and the loaves and the fishes. They've made this money last all this time. So they're just lazy and we love that narrative because we're Neo cons drinking not flavor. kool-aid Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So yes, you're going to have a category of people that refuse to believe anything is, quote wrong in the job market until it happens to them. But here's the thing, by the time you're in a mass layoff, it's too late, you've waited too late to formulate a game plan. It's like the expression about planting a tree. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today. If you haven't done anything better late than never. But I've been so passionate about getting on the air on a regular basis to publish the Saturday broadcasts, which I intend to do, at least until we get some kind of official announcement. How long will that be? I don't know. Will we ever get an official announcement? Will we just be in a second version of the Great Depression before anybody says, Oh, oops. The economy's looking pretty bad, y'all. I don't know. I don't know. But I'm gonna keep driving the message forward. Because there may be one person, there may be some divine appointment where the right person tunes in at the right time and says, holy crap, I am so glad I found this information. I'm going to right now figure out a job loss survival plan. That's what it's about for me is that even if it's just helping that one person that has ears to hear? Do you have an RTO survival plan? Do you have a job loss, Survival Plan roughed out? It's better to be prepared ahead of time than to get blindsided and to be that person that loses their job discovers they're in an industry that's undergoing a lot of layoffs. And then oh, I'm struggling to find a job again. It's not about getting panic stricken, and automatically assuming the worst or being an ER, it's about Wargaming the strategy out ahead of time and thinking about what you would do? What if What if the person that I talked to that was laid off in January and is still unemployed in May? And is freaking out? What if that was you? How would you handle that? What steps could you take to not be unemployed for that length of time, I feel like all of this is legitimate food for thought. In the same way that I made my PSA about heat exhaustion and heat stroke. And please don't play that like it's funny games and Haha, no big deal. Something that I am noticing both myself and my own freelancing practice, as well as things that I'm hearing from peers in the industry that also freelance. And this is not just limited to HR and staffing related work. By the way, I have also spoken to freelancers involved in finance and accounting it and technical work and other types of professional services that don't have anything to do with HR and they are also encountering the same thing. That is more shenanigans and chicanery taking place. Because companies have figured out what some individuals want to bury their head in the sand on which is the economy is not in good shape. The job market is not in good shape. We don't really for real, for real, for real, have a 3.4% unemployment rate. And they are taking advantage of that. You know, I have linked to that leaked memo that was published on the intercept. I don't even know how many dozens of times because I want to really make sure that people see that and understand it. Where the leaked memo said We hope conditions get worse for American workers. It's time for the balance of power to get away from them and come back to corporate America. Well, corporate America knows that they know that the pendulum has swung in the other direction. They they have no delusions of grandeur about that.
 
So you have employers not the right word clients who want to play games and act the fool. And I think it's important for you to decide what you're willing to put up with and what you're not what are you willing to do to uh, to obtain money and what are you not willing to do? Because there are a lot of people out there right now that want to test the boundaries, and they want to act the fool they just do. Earlier when I was having my lunch I've just like there's not gonna be any working out today. There's me going outside, there's only rest, staying under the fan, making sure that I'm hydrated and getting plenty of rest and just focusing on letting my body repair itself. So I sat in the living room and watched an episode of the show called the hotel inspector popped up on my YouTube one day like hey, you apparently seem to like British TV. So watch this. And the episode that I watched today. I'm not gonna say anything about the hotel or the name of the owner involved. But wow, what an arrogant jerk gwad. That guy was so annoying. And he wanted to argue every step of the way with the expert. And he he would make pompous grandiose statements about himself and his pedigree and how important he was and how much more he knew than she did. And I don't know if there was some sexism there. Or if he's just an arrogant, no at all with everyone, regardless of gender, but he was so annoying and so obnoxious. And at one point, I cracked a smile, because I'm like, Oh, God, He reminds me so much of this client I've had to deal with. I will also be necessarily vague on this point. But I, not long ago, I had to deal with a client who is the same way. And I don't know if he was sexist. I don't know if he's just arrogant. And I know it all a right fighter with everyone that he meets. But God bless America, he was annoying. And I felt like there was a definite sense on his part of, well, the job market is not good. And I know that it's not good, the economy's not good. And I know that it's not good. So I should be able to get my way. I want you to come in and clean up the process and change things. We know that we need to make changes, but not really. We want you to wave a magic wand and make our old process work again, because we don't really want to make any changes. We know that we need to make changes, but we don't really want to do it. I think back to that other British show I've mentioned before secret eaters, no, we don't eat, take away we don't go to drive throughs. We don't have sugary soda pops and candy bars. We don't do any of that. And we just don't know why we're gaining weight. And then when they're filmed eating, they're eating all the things that they told you they didn't eat. Really? Same thing here, we know that we need to change but no, not really. We don't really want to change anything. We want to be able to keep eating candies and cookies and cakes and takeaway meals. But we want to somehow lose weight while we eat junk food at the same time. Is there any way that you can like make that happen for us? It's the same kind of energy when you get stuck with a no and all arrogant turd of a client. Well, we want to make changes wink wink, but not really what we actually want you to do is to be a scapegoat. Or what we actually want you to do is make our old process work again, as if you are a magician from olden times a sorcerer, and wizard. It's not just me. As I mentioned, I'm hearing the same thing from other freelancers saying, Yeah, I don't know what it is. But I have had a spate of obnoxious people coming in. They think like, well, because the economy's bad, you should just be glad that I'm knocking on your door asking you to do this for me, you should just be glad that I have money to spend. There's a real arrogance going around amongst clients that have money to spend. Be careful. Caveat emptor, get as much out of the intake process as you can. Sometimes we have to do what the crisis demands. And if you're hurting for money, then sure you might have to deal with somebody that is an arrogant, no at all prick. Pardon my language. That's what some of them are. Someone who is just flat out annoying that makes you want to tear your hair out you may have to in order to get some money. I feel like this is another area where preparation will put you in the right direction. Because if you've been able to save an emergency nest egg of money, it makes it easier to turn down bad business you're not in that panic mode of well shit. Dammit, I need this money. I've got this bill coming in, or I've got this unexpected payment that popped up. And now I can't do this. I'm gonna have to deal with these people even though they make me want to scream. The more that you can put a hedge of protection around yourself and your finances. In my opinion, the better off you will be. Today it is Tuesday May 9. Over on CNBC, we find stocks fall as investors await inflation data debt ceiling progress. McCarthy rejects short term debt limit fix ahead of key meeting with Biden and congressional leaders. College graduates are overestimating their starting salaries by 30 grand I'm a little bit surprised that it's not more than that. Because if you are involved in the job market, if you're in recruiting or HR and you're talking to people fresh out of school, sometimes their idea of a starting salary and reality especially in an economic downturn are miles apart. But I don't entirely fault them for that because I don't know what the hell they're being told in school. But I do know what they're being taught All by the hot air and hopium crowd that we find on social media and on LinkedIn, in particular, hold the line, demand a huge pot of cash demand work from home demand, demand, demand, demand demand. And it's like, well, we're not in the great resignation anymore. There was an article published on the Guardian on the seventh about how the pendulum has swung back in the employers direction. And I thought, okay, better late than never, I guess. But I was talking about that in April of last year. If you've been with me on my blog, if you've been with me, especially going through the Saturday broadcast, where I have been sounding the alarm and ringing the bell, you already know. If there is a friend or a family member in your life that is still relying on mainstream media, or they're still smoking hot air and hopium, with that group of people telling you whatever it is, they think you want to hear for likes, clicks and comments and shares, say a prayer for him. Send him some good vibes because they're really going to need it. Harvard expert says us CEOs are failing workers. We're in a crisis of trust. Indeed, what else is new? Over on Yahoo Finance, it's a very similar scene. Stocks fall is focused turns to debt ceiling talks and inflation data. New York Feds Williams says inflation remains too high. Ya know, Papa John's co sees place for AI in the pizza business and it shows this weird like, robotic creature thing with a pizza on a sheet pan. Pay Pal and IBM turned to AI to cut costs. I'll be talking about this in an upcoming article, especially as it pertains to staffing and recruiting. In other words, are the recruitment bots coming? If so, should we care? What should we think about such a thing? If nothing else, please be careful with any type of bias towards exceptionalism, or it might happen to someone else, but it would never happen to me, I don't need to think up a plan B or Plan C, I'm just going to let everything ride and wait for it to be a crisis. And maybe then I'll try to cobble together a parachute on the way down. Then they're done that if you heard the podcast episode that I recorded with Michael for choose quite some time back called Embrace the splat. It's one of the things that I discuss my first iteration of self employment failed and it failed hard. I know what it's like to think that you're doing everything right. And then have a spectacular fail anyway. And what it looks like to try to climb out of that pit. But this idea of I'm gonna wait until it's a full blown crisis. And then I guess I'll do something about it. I'll try to make a parachute on the way down and hope I survived the fall. I don't give you advice, and I don't tell you what to do. I can only say that, based on my very personal very real, very painful experience doing that. It's not not something that I ever care to repeat in my life. Chili CEO says why half pound burgers are a hot seller? Well, because this is America. You really don't even need any further explanation. Well, because this is America. Nobel economist Paul Krugman says the possibility of a US default is very real, and the debt ceiling should be abolished as it gives extremists an issue to weaponize God. I've talked about this exact economist on my blog before. Just speaking in general, as I've also warned you about in the past, like, I feel like some of you are going to listen to these economists and follow them right off a cliff.

The possibility of a US default is very real. Okay. I'll agree with that. It probably is. The debt ceiling should be abolished. What level of accountability? Does that put? Oh, this just makes my head hurt. It's like, they just want to keep going with the quantitative easing and turning on the printing press and making all of this free money. Remember that documentary that I talked about the age of easy money? We got we just we go through these patterns and we go through them and we go through them and then people will sit back and be like, Well, I had no idea. I didn't think it ever happened again. The warning signs and signals. The things that we saw 2006 2007 leading up to oh eight and oh nine. I am seeing so many of those same warning signs again. And if you choose to ignore them if you choose to put have a positive spin on it that is completely and totally your choice to do so. I would be really, really leery of behaving that way if it were me. Also on Yahoo Finance and anvil, not a shoe, Elon Musk warns of a crushing blow to the commercial real estate market. This is another thing where I feel like if you want to get in with the LARPers, and the hot air crowd that remote work will ask for everyone forever, go right ahead. Because even though a lot of the man's planers and the argument of trolls and who knows bots, corporate shills, whatever, have gone away, I really do not get the volume of mansplaining and right fighting that I used to get, because you have to understand and feel free to fact check me on this, go back through my blogs, go back through my podcast episodes, I invite that because I know my track record, I've been on the leading edge of telling you that I do not believe the hot air and hopium crowd, I do not believe that remote work or work from anywhere arrangements were going to last for everybody forever. Regardless of what a company said, regardless of what a boss, a manager, a company owner, whomever, regardless of what they said out in the public, or what they said, in a sales meeting, or a staff meeting, were work from anywhere forever, no plans to change, we have a strong commitment to it. Yeah, or whatever they put out in terms of recruiting materials, get somebody on the phone that looks like a great candidate that we want to hire promise and work from anywhere forever. And then in three months, we're going to call everybody back anyway. So it doesn't matter. They either want the job or they don't. These are the kinds of maneuvers that go on behind closed doors. And I was on the leading edge of warning you about that. When everybody else was telling you work from home work from anywhere gonna last forever. If they promised that it would be work from home or work from anywhere forever, they're going to honor that people will rebel, they will have a petition and it will be successful. Mm hmm. I was the voice of contrarian behavior. I was the one raising my hand up slowly in the air and saying, I don't think so. Like, are you sure about that guy? Oh, really? You're sure about that? Because I knew it was nonsense. If corporate America says you're going back, you're going back. The Fed has not been shy in saying they want to crash the job market. And they're not doing a bad job so far. But listen, at the risk of sounding incredibly dour, incredibly Debbie downer, which I'm sure someone will write in and accuse me of that, which is fine. I know how to hit the delete button. I just don't feel like you've seen anything yet. Remember the 89 Batman such a good Batman? You know, I'm an XOR. I remember that movie. And it was just so freakin cool. Jack Nicholson made such a cool Joker. You know, there's that scene where he's got the newspaper in front of them. It's talking about Batman. And he's like, wait till they get a load to me. Why don't you get a load of the job market after the Fed crashes it really well. It is going to suck. I just I hope I'm wrong. I pray that I'm wrong. I feel like we could easily see another situation like we did with unemployment. During the Great Recession slash global financial crisis. People on TV crying people saying I've never had to use a food bank before. This is the first time but we're desperate. You're already seeing that. This this little shindig hasn't even gotten started all the way yet. For a while I felt like we're in opening act hasn't quite gone into the meat of the play. I feel like at this point, we're probably in the first act. But we have not seen the nightmares that we could see in act two or act three. I hope I am wrong. I pray that I'm wrong. And I will happily have the hype man record another audio clip. Sara was wrong on this one. And thank God for it. Be happy to do that. I just don't think I am. Now remember what that was like to have people calling people walking in people calling people walking in and day after day. Can I just leave a resume? Is there anything I can do? I'll sweep the floors. I'll go work in the shop. I'll clean the toilets. Do you need a janitor? I mean, it was it was brutal. It was brutal. And I don't even think the Midwest saw the worst bouts of unemployment. I think there were other metropolitan areas that got hit harder than we did in the Midwest. So I can only imagine what it was like there. But people want to plug their ears. They don't want to think about even the possibility Have something like that happening again, they want to think of that as being a once in a lifetime affair. I just don't think so. I just don't think so. I've been watching this documentary on and off as I've had time about the juxtaposition of the Great Depression with what's going on in the current economy, or current ish economy. I think it's really more like a, here's all the different possibilities that tell us a great depression could happen again. And on that documentary, there was a video from Art Linkletter I don't know how long ago it was recorded, but he was talking about being a typist at a company, somewhere close to Wall Street, or maybe even on Wall Street when the stock market crash happened in 29. And he was remembering people crying, people, sobbing, people breaking down, people wanting to sell stock, but being unable to, and just this feeling of despair, and of being trapped and of having no way to help yourself. You have to just sit and watch whatever assets that you had in the market go up in smoke instantaneously. And you have to cope with that reality. Now that is a situation have you go to bed the night before and everything's fine. You wake up the next day and you're in hell. That is a very palpable real example of that saying, scary, it's, it's scary to even contemplate those types of things. So I do understand why people would rather be in denial why they would rather listen to the hot air and hopium crowd, because it feels good. It feels good to have somebody on LinkedIn, Geek you up and tell you the great resignation is still going on. You should demand a huge salary and work from anywhere arrangements. And you should hold out and you should do this. And you should do that. It that sounds really good. It sounds empowering. It sounds inspiring. Whereas to me, what's really empowering is getting your shit together. Getting your mind right, getting your finances right, nobody's perfect. I'm still having to pay off medical debt from it kicked off with viral food poisoning and I felt like I was gonna die from that. Then I got that. And strep throat at the same time had cardiac problems. God that was a nightmare. And I published a post the other day where I was talking about having to go in the flying donut. I've talked on the air about that before you can breathe now do not breathe. I had a British accent I don't know. But that was $4,500 to go in a freaking fine doughnut. Still getting built. There was a cardiologist that sent me a bill. I've never heard this guy. I've never seen this guy don't even really know how he factors into the picture at all sent me a bill for $25 which is petty as shit when you think about it, compared to how much that guy probably rakes in, let's be real, sends me a bill for $25 because he looked at one of my cardiology tests. Nice work if you can get it, I guess. I sure would like to charge $25 Every time I look at a piece of paper, I'd be a millionaire by the time the years out good God. So I'm not trying to I'm not trying to discourage anybody. I'm really trying to encourage you in my own way to get your mind right. To get prepared to be in as good a shape as possible, physically, spiritually, mentally, all of it. Get all of those things tight and right. While we're in Act One. Because if we do get up to that 1415 20% unemployment rate, which I don't really know what the current unemployment for real, for real for real is right now. I can tell you I damn sure don't believe it's 3.4%. I don't believe it's going down. In the face of all of these layoffs. Are you kidding me? Who would believe that?

By the time that mainstream media would tell you? Oh, unemployment has doubled. Oh, unemployment has tripled. It's not the lowest it's been since the 1960s. You guys sorry. By the time that you would get any sort of admission like that, if you ever do. That's a big if in my book right now, because I believe we are being lied to spec ticularly by these idiots. But by the time you would get an admission like that it would way, way be too late in my opinion. I don't give you advice. I don't tell you what to do. If it were me. I think back to what I did to survive the Great Recession. I was a grown ass adult. I had a mortgage to pay and car payments. I had insurance. I had a 401k that didn't do jack diddly because they took that away from us and bonuses too but I had adult responsibilities. I remember what it was like. I mean no disrespect to the young folks. But if you're listening to somebody, it was fun. Five years old, they were living at mom and dad's house, they were kindergarten kid during the Great Recession. What are you going to get from them? You need to be talking to people, older people that have been through it. I wish that we had access to people that went through the Depression as adults. And that's one of the reasons why I've been watching those sorts of documentaries, at least we can get the knowledge as it was recorded by people who were there. Jerry Stiller is also in that documentary. And he was talking about how his father was a cab driver. And his mother was really mad because there was no milk in the house. And she told the father, like you go out there and you find somebody to drive for. And he was trying to explain to her nobody's taking taxes right now nobody has any money, I'm not going to be able to find anybody. And she was just insistent. So after he had been gone for hours, he came back with a quarter and set it down on the table and said, Okay, you can buy milk now. These are the kinds of realities that we just so often have, we just have no understanding, not even really a basis to understand it. The level of poverty, the level of lack, then on top of that you had the Dust Bowl, where people couldn't even grow anything. That was a very, very difficult time. In this nation's history, the stock market crash, the depression, the Dust Bowl, huge levels of unemployment, stories of suicide, I get it, I understand that that's a very depressing and dark topic to go into. I get it, I do. I would rather have some type of strategy ahead of time and to be making my maneuvers. Before before. I'll be publishing a blog post about that article in The Guardian, but it's like, Good grief, I was warning people about that a long time ago, when other people were still telling you bullshit about the great resignation, how it was gonna go on forever. And this was a permanent sea change, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, Are you sure about that? Because I don't freaking think so. I published that story from the intercept about the leaked Bank of America memo, I don't even know how many times I've, I've read linked to that they probably look at their site traffic. And they're like, man, that Galat causing consulting, LLC loves the shit out of this post. Because we get so many references for backlinking to it. Because that's my style, I'm gonna tell you until you until you until you until you because the day is going to come where it's over and done with, it's too late, you will have waited too late. If you don't have some kind of something put together, how to find another job, how to work for yourself, how to manage your money. I'm not I'm not here to tell you exactly how to go about that. I do not give you advice, I do not tell you what to do or what not to do. My point is really simply to say, get your mind right. Get yourself together. Before, before things really roll downhill to a point where it's going to be bad for a period of years. If you want to believe that the hype that oh, we'll have a slow session, we'll have a mild recession, it will just be a blip and then it'll be over with you go ahead. But I would much rather be WarGames and prepared for something like the Great Recession of Oh 809. Something that was really going to take a chunk out of your life for two to three years before you start to see relief. I would rather know that I had at least tried than to sit back and do nothing. Today it is Wednesday, May 10th. Over on Yahoo Finance, we find wealthy Americans are getting hit hardest by the slowing economy. Hmm, I don't know about that. Let's click on it and get the scoop. wealthier Americans aren't spending or earning like they used to. Data from Bank of America Institute out Wednesday reveals households making more than 125k have seen wage growth slowed down faster than lower income households. While spending trends have followed a similar pattern. higher income households discretionary spending on Bank of America credit and debit cards has slipped below lower and middle income groups since the start of this year. I want to hit the pause button right there. It's not like everybody in the country has a Bank of America credit or debit card specifically. So I mean, just ipso facto the data is going to be limited. But just because higher income households discretionary spending on these particular credit and debit cards has gone lower than lower and middle income groups. Doesn't mean that they're cutting back because they're already in some kind of economic distress they could be, especially if they're already living paycheck to paycheck. And they have quite a bit of debt as it is, it's possible. But the point that I want to make here is having a correlation is not the same thing as having causation. So, in my mind, they could be pulling back precisely because they don't want to go broke, they might be saying the fund budget needs to stop. I mean, we've done that. Totally. I think I've said before on the air, the last time that we went to the movies was in 2019. I mean, we really sat down and thought about that the other day, I'm pretty sure that Joker was the last movie that we went to the theater to see, which was in 2019, this was all pre COVID. And we just haven't been back. And that's for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the pandemic and the shutdowns and everything, but it's so expensive, and then you get in there and you don't know if the movies even gonna be any good. Or if somebody's gonna bring in squalling kids that are gonna ruin the experience for you. We don't really like the theater food either, like I don't have any desire, especially as I'm going through this process of trying to biohack myself, I don't want to eat candy, and cookies, and popcorn with fake butter smeared all over the top and a gallon of soda. That's just not for me. So it could be that these households are not putting that discretionary spending on these credit or debit cards simply because they want to tighten the belt. They see what's coming, and they want to prevent a problem before it starts. I think that's really the point that I want to make here. It may be that some of these households are reading the tea leaves, they see what's going on. They're not in economic distress yet, and they want to prevent that from happening. I'll continue to read. The data is notable Bank of America argues because the highest earning 40% of households by income accounts for more than 60% of overall consumer spending. Its calculation of wages includes bonuses, which tend to fluctuate more than base pay. A labor market slowdown driven by the higher end of the income scale could have an outsized impact on the overall economy. Bank of America wrote in a note to clients, see, whenever they're writing to clients, investors, the Board of Directors, the shareholders, that's much more important in my opinion, then junk and dribble that gets put out for those of us in the unwashed masses us peons. As of now the labor market is beginning to soften from a very buoyant initial position. So it will likely take quite some time before the full impact on consumer spending comes through. Let's just decipher that a bit. The shitstorm is starting according to them, we're already in a shitstorm in my opinion, but according to them, the labor market is beginning to soften what nonsensical language so it's going to take some time before the full impact on consumer spending happens. I think for me, I would just say you better buckle the hell up because it's getting ready to get bad.

But I digress. Maybe I'm wrong. When unemployment remains at historically low levels, Bank of America says unemployment benefits claims are rising the fastest in the highest income group. higher income houses filing for unemployment benefits Rose 40% In April from the same month a year prior more than five times the rate of the lower income bracket, according to Bank of America internal data on direct deposits into customer accounts in 30. States. Again, not everybody has a Bank of America account. Not everybody uses direct deposit. I mean, there there are factors that aren't telling the whole story in this information. But I do think based on what I'm seeing, as well as what we've seen, broadly speaking in Silicon Valley, and in big tech, yes, high income technical positions seem to be bearing the brunt of unemployment right now. And I hate to burst your bubble, but no, they're not going back out onto the job market and finding work like that. This whole crap about two legitimate open jobs for every one unemployed person now. Sorry, I don't believe it. I don't believe it. It's not as though somebody making 200 grand in a tech job can take a 15 $16 an hour fast food position and still make ends meet. Could they do it to have some money as opposed to no money? Yes, they could. Would it be enough to pay their bills and whatever they've obligated themselves for when they were living at 200 grand a year? Probably freaking not. So while the April jobs report showed an overall resilient labor market coming in hotter than expected for the third 10th straight month. Bank of America's data shows the cracks are occurring in the highest income bracket where headlines of layoffs have littered the tech industry for months. overall total card has been declined on a yearly basis in April for the first time since February 2021. Per Bank of America data within retail luxury fashion is one of the biggest laggards falling 15% Compared to 2022. In services, lodging fell more than 3% Compared to last year, while spending in airlines dropped 4.5% compared to the month prior. Retail sales fell double what analysts had predicted in March, as some economist pointed out that the picture was only growing worse. I'll scroll down a bit, we continue to forecast that the US economy slips into a recession, which we expect will be of moderate severity in the second half of the year in quote. Yeah, as I've said many times, I think we're already in a recession. And we have been, they changed the technical definition of a recession so they could avoid saying we were in one. And they keep pointing to this supposedly robust, let's try to put some real gusto to it. Most labor market that we supposedly have, which is a joke, we don't have this big robust labor market. We do not have to legit open jobs for everyone unemployed person labor shortage because, you know, in my opinion, that is all bunk. And it's being used as a major conscript propaganda. Point mu. You college, it's a steal. I think that it's being used as propaganda, so that the Fed can crash the job market. They can do whatever all of their little ratty cronies want them to do, whatever corporate America, whatever, government whatever is best for the eight holes at the top of the pyramid. That's what they'll do, and to hell with everybody else. I've also linked before to Jared a Brock's article about how the hyper elites are jonesing for a recession, because they want to take your stuff. And I believe they will, if you are not careful, if you are not prepped up and ready to go for this, you are putting yourself into some real financial peril. In my opinion. We we continue to forecast that the US economy will slip into a recession which we expect will be a moderate severity in the second half of the year. How mealy mouthed is that we continue to forecast slip into a recession wouldn't be moderate severity, second half of the year. Even if that were true, it's almost the middle of May. The second half of the year is not far off. I know I say this and I say this and I say this and I say this and I say this, I'm going to do it again. If you wait to be officially told in my opinion, you're waiting too damn late. If we ever get a proclamation of the recession has now officially started. You're screwed if you didn't already know ahead of time. What was reality? Heaven help you. We also find NASDAQ rises Dow falls after CPI report shows more cooling. Oh really windy sees more higher income consumers. Meanwhile, think about how expensive it is to eat fast food right now during the Great Recession, scrounging around for coins and maybe you left $1 in a coat pocket last winter and forgot about it. We did that. And I ate from the value menu at fast food joints several times. I'm not going to tell you that's healthy. Not going to tell you I wasn't overweight at that time because I was but at least that was an option to stay fed. With this inflation being the way that it is even though it's wink wink nudge nudge supposedly cooling, which I haven't freaking seen. higher income customers are having to turn to fast food. Crazy. But you're supposed to believe that everything's fine, fine, just fine. The lender that made nearly $10 billion from Silicon Valley Banks failure and there's a picture there First Citizens Bank. In this we find First Citizens got a discount from US regulators when it agreed to acquire loans and assume deposits from the failed Silicon Valley Bank on Wednesday. It disclosed just how profitable that deal was. The agreement provided the North Carolina lender with a one time gain of $9.8 billion net of tax, contributing to an overall first quarter profit of $9.5 billion. The game made the Raleigh North Carolina based institution the second most profitable US Bank for the first three months of the year behind only the $12.6 billion earned by industry Colossus JP Morgan Chase had bested several other giants making more than Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. Remember pink houses while there winners and there's losers, but they no big deal. Because it's the simple man baby that's gonna pay for the bills and the pills and the thrills that kill. There's so much profiteering that goes on these boom bust cycles, economic crashes, somebody wins. Follow the money trail, and that will tell you what you need to know.

Are you looking for more? Don't forget, you can find Sara on her blogs at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And at SaraCausey.com. You can also read her content on medium and substack. On with the show.

Today it is Thursday, May 11. I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet because I am tired. Over on Yahoo Finance we find Dow and s&p 500 slip as Disney sinks regional bank turmoil reignites Huh huh wasn't an old Jamie Dimon who told us the worst was over. Nothing to see here. People move along move along. Mm hmm. PacWest plunges after losing nine and a half percent of deposits last week. Disney sees biggest decline and six months after earnings. Miss Musk says he has found the new CEO for Twitter. You won't know it's AI taking your order at Wendy's to be determined, I guess. peloton tumbles as over 2 million bikes are recalled. Tesla stock jumps after Musk announced his new Twitter CEO Donald Trump says Republicans should let the US default. Will that happen? I highly doubt it. In the byline. We read negotiations around the US debt ceiling continue to drag on ahead of a looming deadline, as partisan wrangling potentially endangers the safety of the global financial system, conspiracy theory here, tinfoil hat and all that. But I mean, the fat cats and the global elites. It's not like they're gonna leave any of this to chance. I feel like the Fed is already jonesing to turn on the printing press yet again and start making up more free fiat currency. If credit gets tightened, we will see what we experienced in oh eight and oh nine. I mean, that could happen. It certainly could. I'm just skeptical about this whole debt ceiling default thing. I would be very shocked if we wound up in a default situation. It could happen. I'm just skeptical that that will happen. FDIC sales have failed banks leave private equity firms empty handed. The byline reads, no matter how dire the situation when a bank fails, private investment firms can't seem to get a nod for their salvage offers during us run auctions. Somebody's profits. We've seen that firsthand. We have seen it. Leaked email from Microsoft CEO says salaried staff will not get raises this year due to macro economic conditions coming to a company near you, probably so now I know that I think it was last week Saturday broadcast that was talking about like, let's start to fact check some of these predictions and not seeing food shortages. Not seeing coffee shortages is not a Mad Max situation where I go in the grocery store. And there's just nothing there. I should have more to report on later. But we did go to the store yesterday when we had some time. And I would say the canned goods aisle, the pet food aisle and the bread aisle had some substantial gaps. No, it was not that there was just zero food there. But there were definite noticeable signs of stock being low. Is this a blip? Is it an anomaly? Is it perhaps those predictions coming true? I don't know. I intend to check out a couple of other places maybe tomorrow or this weekend, as we have time to pick up a few things that just weren't available. But I will keep you posted in the event that I start to see more places having more gaps. I feel like that's something that we should take note of if it's a one off anomaly. Okay, one off anomaly, but if it is turning out that people calling for food shortages are correct. It's worth our time to sit up and pay attention to that. Today, it is Friday, May 12. I did visit a different grocery store. I went to another of the same ones in the same chain. But in the next town over and I did not notice any shortages. I didn't notice the same gaps that I saw in my local store. I did not see in that store. So I am remaining optimistic that some of the hoo ha about food shortages and coffee shortages. Hopefully that is a bullet that we dodged. I'm gonna at least think positive on that. Over on Yahoo Finance, there are a few headlines I want to call attention to Americans are worried about the economy that could make a debt default even worse. worse. So here we go more of just blaming john and jane Q Public for problems that they didn't create. The potential of a US debt default crisis is beginning to worry Americans. A new survey from the University of Michigan revealed that for the first time this year, the debt crisis standoff is one of the factors contributing to a decline in consumer sentiment. Overall, the US consumer sentiment index preliminary print was at its lowest in six months in May. And since consumers are already feeling gloomy about the economy, the fallout from a debt default could be even worse. Throughout the current inflationary episode, consumers have shown resilience under strong labor markets, but their anticipation of a recession will lead them to pull back when signs of weakness emerge into quote. Yep, so it'll it'll be the fault of John and Jane Q Public, you were gloomy. You were pessimistic, you pulled back on spending because you know, like, you need the basic necessities to live. So it's not really the fault of the Fed and the central banks and the printing press and the fiat currency and the fat cats and the crony capitalism. No, no, no, no, it is the fault of average working class people, right. prime age workers are flooding back into the workforce, older workers are staying home. But wait a minute, I thought that we had been told and told and told and told the toll that men from like age 25 to about 55 are just all universally sitting at home in grandma's basement, or with wives or girlfriends who have said it's okay, if you want to smoke dope and hang out on the couch all day. Remember that I did an entire podcast episode to debunk that crap. The US labor market remains robust after largely recovering from the pandemic. Though the makeup of that labor force has changed in significant ways. The overall US labor force participation rate is at 62.6%, the highest since March 2020. Furthermore, the labor force participation of primate workers those between the ages of 25 to 54. Is that 83.3% equal to that of January 2020. And the highest rate since September 2008.
 
Mm hmm.

Right. So all of the Bs, and the hot air and crazy nonsense that the MSM put out that I was on my blogs and on this podcast debunking now, they're starting to pull back on all of that and say no, people have have gone back to the workforce. I would argue that some of those people never left and that some of the stories we heard were just flat out wise. But let's think about why this would be. It's the economy stupid. It's costing so much to live, just to take care of your basics. The other day, there was a video that popped up on my YouTube, I think, because I had watched that video and even recorded a bonus podcast episode about is your office like a high school? Because I saw a video by the prepper Princess talking about why she did not want to ever work another nine to five job again, the antics and the bad behavior that she had seen in workplaces over the years. So I think because I had watched that video that she had recorded another one that she recently recorded popped up. And it was about how she's lived at the poverty level for all these years, and she just cannot do it anymore. I mean, she was talking about not having health insurance. First of all, I'm like, God, Well, no wonder I mean, as bad as my medical bills have been from. If I didn't have health insurance, I, I don't I don't want to think about that. I really don't even want to think about how bad it could have been. Same thing with dental care, I'm having to pay the piper because I went four years without having to have any major dental work done. And then Kabu and I had two areas where some enamel had worn down that need to be filled. And then I had two other areas of old crowns that Admittedly they had been on there for several years, and they had just worn out. I mean, you could see the cracks in the crowns and they needed to go. I cannot imagine as bad as it is as much as you have to pay in America to have medical care to have dental care with insurance without it. You are truly effed. I mean you are. So when she's revealing all this information about not having health insurance. At one point she shows like like a thermometer thing and the house saying that it's 56 degrees and she's wearing a heated vest. I'm like, yeah, it's becoming clear to me now how you're pulling off this living at the poverty level thing, because most people don't want to do that. And I would honestly say that in today's world, things like health and dental insurance or a flat out necessity, is not a luxury item and I understand not everybody can afford it. And that's sad. That's that's part of the problem as part of the mess that we're in it this is all about the economy, people, whether they're going back to work, in all honesty or whether they've been working and now these statistics are being re manipulated so we can get this oh, people are going back into the workforce and Roger that. Whatever the case may be, of course, people are working. How are they going to make it if they don't? If you have somebody like the prepper Princess sort of pivoting in a completely different direction from what she has been doing on the channel to saying I can't live at the poverty line anymore, I have to make a change. You know, stuff is getting bad. You know, inflation is still bad. You I mean, you just know it. You know, that it is. This is another reason why I say people that want to LARP and play games that everybody is gonna rebel against RTF they're gonna sit it down at home and start. No, they won't. No, they won't. And an article like this, further validates why I say that. People need the money. It is what it is. Another headline before I sign off, the US has become a nation of caregivers. Experts says the cost of caring for children growing old being ill or otherwise needing care has never been higher. According to a recent report from AARP, roughly 38 million family caregivers provide an estimated 36 billion hours of care in 2021, contributing an estimated economic value of approximately $600 billion. However, Family Caregivers often provide this financial, social and medical support for no pay. America has become a nation of caregivers. Jason Resendez, President CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving, told Yahoo Finance, yet their work often goes unrecognized by policymakers and employers. As a result, more than 40% of family caregivers report negative financial impacts. Due to their caregiving responsibilities, they leave work, stop saving for retirement and go into debt equal. This is, I mean, further proving my point, people are working because they need the money. They need the money. I would also add to this and this is just my opinion. And I could be wrong. I want to make that very big, bold disclaimer here. I think one of the reasons why the US has become a nation of caregivers. There's the obvious reason, as they mentioned, right up front, the cost of caring for people. And I would include pets also in that is it's never been higher. There are also childcare deserts, there are daycare centers that were open and 2019 2020, pre COVID that do not exist anymore. And if someone was working from home or how to work from anywhere agreement, so they thought they moved way off to the sticks. And now they're being told come on back or is your job. How are they handling that? I hoped that they had an RTO Survival Plan roughed out that included what will we do? If childcare, eldercare pet care is part of the picture for us? How are we planning to handle them? Unfortunately, have too many people that live in a state of denial. It's like that documentary I was watching where the man in the hospital said we I knew that I could have a heart attack. I knew that I could get diabetes. I knew that I could have high cholesterol and high blood pressure by eating cheeseburgers and pizza all the time. But I just assumed it wouldn't happen to me. People want to assume well, yeah, I mean, it could happen to somebody else is not going to happen to me. And then they don't plan ahead. They don't make appropriate provisions for what if it does happen to me. Another facet of this, I feel like really goes back to the standard western world American diet. I don't see any way around that. I feel like the standard western world American diet leads to the standard western world American diseases. And that's part of why people need this extra care. I think back to some of the members of my family, especially when we're talking about like the great greats and the greats. That it just it just never it never was a thing of well, somebody is going to have to take care of me all the time because I've gone blind from diabetes, or I've lost my legs due to diabetes. I have had five heart attacks already and I'm only 60 years old. That just that just wasn't going on. I mean, my dad has told me stories of my my great great grandmother farming and having livestock and going out and gathering eggs from the chicken coop and killing snakes when she was like in her 80s and 90s. I mean I just I feel like so much of this has to do with the crappy food and beverage that we're consuming Ultra processed junk. Again now that's just my opinion and I could be wrong. Maybe there are other factors, environmental factors. I don't know. I don't know everything. I just for me, I highly suspect that it's got a lot to do with junk food. And things that have a health halo around them that seem to be nutritious. I was alive and well, like I remember the whole low fat movement of the 80s and 90s, where you could find a seal of approval on candy. Like you could you could find candy that was absolutely riddled with sugar, but it would say fat free, or low fat as though like okay, well, I can eat five candy bars tonight because hey, it's low fat, or it's no fat ice cream that was nonfat that tasted like junk. I was trying to think of a polite word there sawdust Oh, and let the all the fake margarine products. Maybe somebody else can believe that it's not but can't believe that it's not butter, but I can't believe it. So I feel like unfortunately, not only has the cost of caregiving gone up and turned into a nightmare for a lot of people. I think there are more individuals in general who need to be cared for due to standard western world diseases that, in my opinion, come from standard western world American foods. I've said it before we'll say it again, I don't give you advice. And I don't tell you what to do, in my opinion, going into this downturn in as good a shape as possible, physically, spiritually, mentally, financially, all of it, getting yourself as tight and right as you possibly can. I feel like that is such a wise decision. We have made the choice not to hoard standard American diet foods. That's just not the appropriate thing for us to do. In our opinion. That's how we feel about it.

I am doubtful that all of Western society is going to collapse overnight and we're going to be in the Thunderdome or Mad Max, World War Z zombies eating your brains back to the Stone Age. I could be wrong. I don't know. Maybe one day I'll be recording this on a ham radio. We're sending out carrier pigeons to people that want to hear from me and saying yeah, I was wrong about that. Here. We are no technology. I just highly doubt it because I don't think the hyper elites want to live in the stone age. I think that they want to have this medieval type economy where they are the feudal lords and the courtrooms and we are the serfs. I think they want a world where we live in hovels and we do their bidding and we crap and we're dependent on Big Pharma while they live a life of luxury, but I don't think that they really want everything to get bombed back to the Stone Age, I could be wrong on that time will tell. But we've made the decision that stocking the pantry full of junk, fat, sugar, salt, I'm not talking about healthy fats, like you would find an avocado or some olive oil. I'm talking about manmade fats that will freakin kill you, in my opinion. We've decided that's just not the right move for us. And I know I caught some hate for that I did have some people saying well, what are you going to do? And how are you going to handle it. And that's the only thing you can afford right now. And you shouldn't even be talking about that. Because there probably will be a food shortage. You have to make your own decision. If you think that the day is coming, where you're gonna walk into a grocery store and it's flat out empty, you have to make your own decision about that. Or if you think we're going to be in like a Romania situation where you walk into the grocery store and the prices are changing while you're shopping. because inflation is so bad. You have to prepare for that as you see fit. I cannot tell you how to handle that situation. It's all a gamble. When you really think about it, it's all a gamble. I'm thinking back now to oh, that great book. If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. excellent book. If you've never read it before, I highly recommend it. But one of the things that the author talks about is that at any given moment in time, human beings are all making decisions on the basis of limited data. You're never going to know everything. You're never going to be able to anticipate every emergency or every problem. So like every other human being on this planet, I'm making decisions based on limited data. to unlimited information, but thus far, I have not seen anything that made me think we need to hoard coffee. And we need to hoard, salty, fatty, sugary foods just so we'll have something I could be wrong. I hope I'm not wrong on this is a this is a prediction where I want to be right. I want to be right that No, I don't think we're gonna have these dramatic food shortages and dramatic coffee shortages. I want people to have jobs, I want people to be able to find food and to not have to rely on this ultra processed crap that could put them in an early grave, in my opinion. I don't want that for anybody. So I hope and pray that my prediction on this and my leaning on this turns out to be correct. But at the end of the day, you have to do what you feel is best for yourself and your family. Stay safe, stay sane, and I will see you in the next episode.


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Transcribed by https://otter.ai