Are you dumb enough to still buy stocks

No really, are you? It’s an honest question.

Anyone not born like 4 years ago should remember when the stock market tanked and millions of people lost most of everything they owned. Well maybe not their houses but at least 80-90% of their stock portfolios. Ok many lost their houses too.

Why did it happen? Because you’re still dumb enough to spend your cash on stocks. You’re a paper millionaire, you login and look at the glowing screen in front of you with all its digits and figures, and you feel rich. Congrats, well done. You’re so smart. All your many years and decades of hard work distilled into some digitized numbers on a screen at a bank website. You don’t realize that stocks are a joke, a massive bubble. You don’t even know know how the federal reserve has been artificially pumping up stocks for the last 20+ years with debt. You don’t realize that inflation causes “stonks go up”. You don’t know what a bail-in is, do you? And you don’t know that another massive collapse is around the corner, when all the truly smart and rich people will scoop up the broken fragments of your shattered life for pennies on the dollar. As per usual and all part of the plan.

But what’s most amazing to me is that all these years when you were “rich”, booming boomer town times, it never occurred to you to take some of that speculative digital “money” and quantify it into hard cash to purchase actual real assets. Oh I don’t know, things like… real estate, commercial property, large acres of land; diamonds, gold and silver; high-value artwork, vintage collectibles; intellectual property rights, actual operational businesses… Maybe buy something that actually exists in the real world and has actual real value as an ASSET CLASS.

Stonks go up. That’s all you know. Until they don’t. But then you’ll get the satisfaction of being part of the in-crowd of losers who were “scammed” out of their well-earned money somehow. You just can’t figure out how it happened though, can you. Despite that you never wanted to learn. If I know anything about booming boomer town it’s that the primary currency traded there is units of willful ignorance. Because either you get an unearned payout or you get an earned right for some serious psychological excuse-making. Feels good either way, doesn’t it?

With inflation so high, this “record-breaking profit” is a joke. It’s a scam.

The Normie doesn’t understand inflation, and how if milk costs $10 a gallon, that a grocery store is not actually making “record profit”. They’re just struggling to stay alive. Same with the oil industry, “record profits” accusation from the Liberal-Left.

Yet this is what Mass Media has pumped down the throats of the masses in the US, to prevent the inevitable collapse of the Democrat party. Not even the media gaslighting is working anymore. People know they’re going broke; Normies can’t pretend away a zero-account balance in their banks.

Yes, but I am more focused here on people who aren’t poor, who have (or had) the ability to use their wealth to purchase things of actual value. Real things, assets that physically exist and aren’t going to disappear in a collapse or because of inflation. But they didn’t do that, they were brainwashed into believing all they need to do is build up a 401k. It’s like they are unaware of the cyclical nature of large economic collapses and failures of the markets, which seems to occur every 20 years or so.

joker is that you?

Sounds more like origami, which had a background in money matters.

it’s the doom and gloom sky is falling bit that made me think it was joker

If he was joker, then the board would be littered with 20 new topics of Anarchy the next morning.

Haha, no I am not “joker”, I assume that is another user here (or was).

K: this rise and fall and rise and fall of the economy was in fact predicted
by Marx…in 1870 or so… it is a built-in feature of capitalism…

score another one for Marx…

Kropotkin

_
The current state of the economy is a man-made divisive affair, and the result of this in-built economic prediction has resulted in global catastrophes and unprecedented modern problems, that never existed before.

Some change is inevitable, but such unparalleled changes are going against the natural course of progression, leading to an artificial hyper-reality that does not exist… but it exists because it suits somes’ agenda.

How helpful is that agenda?

K: and what exactly is the “natural course of progression?”
what does this even mean? In a universe like ours, that is
about chance and probability, what would a “natural course of
progression” look like?

Kropotkin

Well for starters… here’s not a universe, here’s a planet. Locality?

Chance… yes, but I don’t believe in or buy into probabilities… that’s only a notion, for predictable occurrences and outcomes.

What do you think a “natural course of progression” would look like?

Silhouette?

Well for starters… here’s not a universe, here’s a planet. Locality?

Chance… yes, but I don’t believe in or buy into probabilities… that’s only a notion, for predictable occurrences and outcomes.

What do you think a “natural course of progression” would look like?

K: This would go a lot faster if you just admitted that you have no idea what
a “natural course of progression” actually looks like…
you have never given it any type of thought… it just sounded good to you…
and for no other reason you wrote it…

Kropotkin

Yes… Silhouette.

I’ll leave you with your assumptions… coz you can think what you like, coz I won’t be proffering anything up, to make ‘this go a lot faster’.

You seem to always think that you know better, but not in this instance huh.

If you don’t want brain cancer I suggest you avoid future interactions with that trollbot.

Hard to believe this place tolerates such… creatures. Then again I have seen zero moderatorship since I joined, so. Yeah maybe there isn’t any.

In this thread… most definitely.

I would purport, that Peter’s mind is permanently set in stone… on all things.

Incredible.

The US stock market will continue to slide downward as long as gasoline prices ascend, since that is the driving force to inflate all other values. Inflation has propped-up the stock market decline (since its dollar value is artificially raised) and ‘softened’ its descent. The real values of assets are higher on paper, because of that inflation, but the buying-power of the poor and middle class is down significantly. People are going to stop consuming, start saving, just to survive. Thus liquidity in the markets dissolves.

Since the Republicans did not win as strongly as they predicted, the Progressives are not yet rebuked. The economy will continue to worsen for the foreseeable future (next 4 years).

If I had millions to trade, then I’d be buying cheap used cars and reselling them marked up. Used cars are incredibly lucrative right now. Also betting against the US Dollar, using digital or foreign currencies, would be very profitable. But most have capitalized on that already. The ‘Easy’ money is already mostly gone, but there will be many more opportunities as the economy worsens.

Wait until operation sandman kicks in. It’s already starting to form as BRICS solidifies toward more multi-polar economic global trade relations.

Dollar dominance is existing on a shrinking timescale. Anyone left holding dollars when the house of cards comes down is going to lose almost everything. And that’s not even factoring in the probably hyperinflation that would kick on as the Fed tries to print its way out of the end of its global fiat currency dominance and all that debt flowing back into America suddenly.

Or they can just keep raising rates and bankrupt themselves having to reissue treasury bonds at interest rates impossible to ever pay back. There’s plenty of ways the current corrupt system is fatally vulnerable.

Yes, but it’s all fake anyway. Elections don’t matter anymore, we know now they are able to be rigged. We saw it happen in 2020 and again in 2022. So we at is the point of voting? There is only the possibility of sustaining the current system by giving it an artificial image of legitimacy. That’s what you do when you vote. Your vote only “counts” as one more in the heap which the state will use to declare “look how many people voted! See, the system is legitimate!” And they’re not wrong, even though the system is a fraud if people accept it then it’s their own fault.

I was already seeing a month ago how media was propping up the “red wave” thing so hyped in order to raise expectations artificially. They never had any intention of allowing republicans to “win big” outside of their careful controls and limits. And now they get to do the reverse psyop on the people with the whole “looks like the red wave fizzled” thing. Problem reaction solution.

I wouldn’t know, I don’t invest or care about any of that. Making money beyond ensuring your own survival and that of your family is stupid and a waste of time.

The big problem is for Foreign holders of US dollars, especially China. They want to offload their dollars, which means buying American goods and services. This stagnates the world economy and boosts the US economy a little bit, only enough to stop or slow a complete financial failure. Foreign interests, and those aligned against US hegemony, don’t have a route to offload their Dollars. Saudi Arabia, OPEC, have the final word on the “Petrodollar”. So as long as they’re happy, they’ll let America sink slowly until they’re in a position to trade out dollars for other foreign economic interests.

In the US, there is stagnancy for the foreseeable future. The middle class and poor are essentially finished for a generation. Kids born today will be poorer than previous generations. This will create Depression in America; there is no Hope for financial gains within a generation. If Trump returned to office, turned the Oil and Gas back on full blast, this might change, but that’s doubtful at this point. Democrats are focused on enriching themselves and their personal gains, in sacrifice of the wider country.

It seems highly improbable to me that USA will return to the standard-of-living and distributed wealth spread, of the middle class, it had in the 1990s anytime soon. It’s not going to happen. There is no political motivation or organization that can, as Trump says, “make America great again”. The US Establishment has seen to its own destruction.

Agreed, to me money is only useful with direct correspondence to an Ideal, like building a spaceship. Elon Musk has the market on that, currently, but I believe more innovators and cultish personalities will come along, to lead Humanity into space exploration and development. That will take time though, decades.

Yes and we see this right now in the strong dollar, probably one of the safest ways to unload dollars is to buy treasury bonds. Plus China et al know that as the Fed raises rates it becomes more and more difficult for the US to service those bond debts when they come due. If I were China and wanted to fuck over the US I would gradually stop buying anything from America except its debt, knowing that as I contribute to adding to its debt I am always in the long term contributing to its eventual economic and financial ruination. And yeah it is going to take time, the US is still one of the largest exporters on the planet despite the massive trade deficit it constantly has. Despite doom and gloom apologists the US is still a very large and very strong economy and producer on a global scale.

But you are right, as demand for dollars declines the US will slowly lose its status as world reserve currency because trade will increasingly take place elsewhere and in other currencies. Plus the US dollar is backed by nothing, and the proposed BRICS-etc new currency would be backed by a portfolio of real assets including oil, gold and silver. And in addition, all of this is going to be very good for the world because we need to take down this American Imperialism somehow. Destroying the dollar and de-centralizing global finance amongst multiple central currencies would be one way to hopefully do that.

Yes, we have seen the irrationality, anti-intellectualism, herd mentality and over-emotionalism that underlies progressive politics finally culminate and spill over into the transformation of Democrats into totally evil creatures, basically devoid of humanity. They are like goblins now, utterly consumed by their sins.

Regarding economics, I did hear one analyst talking about how at least America has a large millennial generation, which Europe does not have. Europe is ahead of the curve of self-depopulation compared to America, which means when western economies go into depression again it will be America that is able to work and produce its way out of that, unlike Europe. But this would only last a short time, about a decade or so, before those same millennials will be nearing retirement age.

Yes, and especially because they put trust in Trump to make it better. MAGA is a slogan, little more. Yes Trump is obviously better in reality and as a symbol compared to other politicians, but in fact he is gaslighting everyone and especially the political right. His purpose is to coalesce the resistance to the authoritarian ‘communist’ (more like fascist) takeover of America and appease it a while longer until the takeover is complete.

For example, Trump allowed the coup to happen. He did NOTHING to stop it. He obviously knew more than we know about how the election was rigged and stolen, and how Jan 6 was a false flag. But he didn’t do anything and instead handed over the country to literal traitors. And don’t forget Trump pushed “warp speed” (blatantly irresponsible medicine development rate) and pushed the poison death jabs and is still pushing them.

He also never did anything about the fake news, censorship issues, online ISP spying (which came on full scale under his admin), or the rising out of control national debt. Granted Trump did do some good things, but even the good economic situation he presided over was to a large extent the result of the continued QE into oblivion and increasing inflation (which the official CPI underestimates). Trump also let Hillary go almost right away, after all that lock her up stuff. He didn’t lock up or even criminally charge even a single swamp creature in 4 years – that shows you what his true allegiances are.

Oh yeah, we need more Tony Starks in the world. Musk isn’t even on that level, although he clearly likes to think he is.