WEEKEND WRAP: Why A Return To Normal Won't Happen; Bitcoin Battered, Gold, Silver Gain

What better way to start off a Sunday morning than with a bit of a rant.

Why the heck not? The world, as we all knew it a little more than a year ago, is vastly different. Comparisons of 2021 to even just 30 years ago, are like night and day. Not that we didn't all have iPhones (though that's certainly a big part of the problem) or streaming video on the internet, it's that we didn't have maniacs and sociopaths at all the highest levels of media, medicine, and government running - and ruining - our lives.

Lockdowns, mandates, constantly changing medical recommendations, stolen elections, people dressed up in masks, social distancing rules, government checks doled out like candy, massive budget deficits, rioting and looting characterized by the press as "mostly peaceful" protests, talk of systemic racism, 56 genders, anti-white bias and hatred of "white privilege", media censorship, stock markets that always go up, and now, a mass shooting nearly every day are not normal. Not even close.

30 years ago, normal was a house in the suburbs, two kids, two cars and a dog or cat. People were generally happy, well-adjusted. The government was kind of over the top, but not criminally insane as it is today. Most people had decent jobs, stable lives, prospects for a future for their kids.

Now, what do we have? CRAP. Utter garbage out of the mouths of politicians and the media. A virus that isn't harmful to 99.97% of the population has been unleashed to bring about total control, a return to medievalism, neo-feudalism and slavery. The aim of the fake crisis was to create an environment ruled by fear, uncertainty, and doubt - the fabulous FUD - and, by most measures, the elitists operating behind the faces of the politicians and media mouthpieces have been highly successful.

These people in government and media are not the real enemies. They are just the faces of the new world order. They're all controlled, ordered from another authority to continually frighten, harass, shame, and above all, demean the human spirit. They all have handlers and take orders from people we do not see and do not know. The world is now effectively a massive plantation run by twisted sociopathic monsters.

Do you think Anthony Fauci says the - mostly moronic - things he says because he believes them? Do you think Joe Biden makes policies and decisions for the United States? Get a grip. They have handlers, controllers who design their every word, every action.

People have been scolded, hounded, rounded up, told what to do and when to do it, and most have responded like good little sheep. Don't go out. Don't hug your husband or wife or kids. Wear a mask. Take the jab. Twice. No, make that every six months. Bleat, bleat, bleat.

You go to bed thinking everything is OK, then wake up the next day to realize that the narrative has changed again overnight. People are maskless in Texas and Florida while the province of Ontario wants to lock people down for months on end, still.

This won't end. As soon as you think the crisis is over, the psychopaths will trot out their media minions to scare you with new variants and hold TV specials urging you to get vaccinated with an experimental drug. How sick is that? NBC will air Roll Up You Sleeves Sunday night, featuring politicians, including Joe Biden, former president Barack Obama and his wife, and Hollywood stars urging you to become a guinea pig.

They have to do this because there's a lot of what's called "vaccination hesitancy", otherwise known as "heck no, don't stick me with your Frankenstein potion!" Millions of people aren't getting vaccinated because they neither trust the government, the media, nor the medical community.

Some people get it. Other people get shots. The world is not going back to normal, however that's defined. There is going to be massive dislocation, disruption, and more insanity. If you thought this episode of oligarch madness or the ruling elite versus the serfs was over, forget it. It's just getting new legs. End of rant.

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Like just about every other week, stocks had ample reason to be on the rise. The Dow was up for the fourth straight week and the 11th in the last 15, which covers all of 2021. By contrast, the NASDAQ has had eight winning weeks in 2021 and seven losers, though it has managed to climb to within 43 points of it's all-time closing high (14,095.47, February 12).

The S&P 500 and NYSE Composite, like the Dow, are now both on four-week winning streaks. For the year, both have been up 10 weeks, down five. The Dow, S&P 500, and NYSE Composite each closed out the week at record highs.

Not only have all the major averages done bang-up so far this year, the gains from the start of November, when the office of the president was decided, have been dramatic, to say the least. Since October 30, which pretty much marked the bottom of a slight downward blip in markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 7,699.07 points, from 26,501.60 to 34,200.67, a 29% rise in just more than five months. Joe Biden? Yes, thank you.

The S&P hasn't skipped a beat either. On October 30, it closed at 3,269.96. Through Friday, it's up 915.51 points, or 28 percent. The NYSE bottomed a few days before the other indices, closing at 12,415.42 on October 28. Through Friday's close at 16,186.29, it's up 3770.87 points, a gain of 30.37%, outdoing the others by a smidge. The NASDAQ, though it's been seen as a laggard, actually isn't. It's October 30 close was 10,911.59. With Friday's close at 14,052.34, it's up only 3140.75 points, 28.78%, a bit better than the Dow, but behind the NYSE and S&P. How will the tech billionaires cope? Anyone with basic match skills might question the probability of all four major indices all up by nearly the same percentage, only 2.37% separating their gains.

Is it rigged? Please, although we've been told "there are no dumb questions," this one actually is. The rich have to get richer, no matter which stocks they own.

The coming week is going to be heavy with fist quarter earnings reports as the bulk of stocks listed on the major exchanges report this week and next. There are simply too many good ones to list. Consult your favorite website or source for all the headlines which are certain to be positive.

With that in mind, there's plenty of evidence that the stimulus checks boosted the stock market and the stimulus is far from over. Most of the $1400 checks to individuals have been sent out (and probably spent), but the ongoing unemployment enhancement and child tax credit adjustment are rolling right along. Unemployed people are getting an addition $300 a week on top of their state benefit. People with kids are doing OK as well. A couple earning less than $150,000 or an individual making under $75,000 is slated to get a $250 monthly payment for each child aged 6 to 17, from July through December. For children under 6, the payment is $300, according to the schedule laid out by the IRS as part of the expanded child tax credit.

It's not like people with kids need any extra money - some do for sure, others largely don't - but it's more of the government's way of letting you know that they control you and, especially, your kids. The expansion of the child tax credit is nothing more than a test run for Universal Basic Income (UBI). Eventually, your kids won't have to work. They'll just get a monthly stipend from the government to pay for their rent, food, video games, cell phone and whatever else people will do in a few years time. That is, until the government figures out how to eliminate them, quietly, little by little, there will be no useless eaters left.

So, buy more stocks. They're good for everything, including little dogs, insects, and even the New York Yankees, losers of four straight through Saturday.

Bonds did their part to keep the stock market flying high with a fairly significant rally at the long end of the treasury curve. Yield on the 10-year note dropped eight basis points, from 1.67% to 1.59% over the course of the week. The 30-year bond yielded 2.26% by Friday, down from 2.34% the prior week, losing eight basis points as well.

Lower yields keep things like stocks on the bid. Fixed income earning less than the dividends on popular stocks is a recipe for huge risk asset purchases. How the Fed manages to keep treasuries in the doghouse is a very nifty trick. Some people actually know how they do it, but they might be sworn to secrecy. For the rest of us, we just marvel at the brilliance of the bond markets and rates that remain lower than inflation, continually debasing the currency until there is no purchasing power left.

On the subject of purchasing power, some Bitcoin hodlers awakened Sunday morning to the horror of a massive price collapse in their pet cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, on the heels of the Coinbase (COIN) IPO, recently topped out at $64,899.00 (Wednesday, April 14), but overnight Saturday into Sunday plummeted as low as $51.300, on reports of a mass power outage in China's Xinjiang province where much of bitcoin mining is done. This sent the hash rate cycling down, negatively affecting the price.

Around the same time, FXHedge tweeted that US regulators were about to charge some financial institutions with money laundering using cryptocurrencies. The tweet wasn't backed up by any credible news and it claimed anonymous sources, which makes is even less believable. Regardless, some people get agitated by FUD, and it wouldn't be a surprise if the story was planted by one of the three-letter agencies or if there's a false-flag event staged to spread fear of crypto. Some banks may get charged with crimes. Nobody will go to jail. There won't even be a trial. just a fine, but the media will be all over it, citing how nothing should be used as currency other than the usual fiat toilet paper.

That's just how they roll (sorry for the unintentional pun).

In any case, the price of Bitcoin has resurfaced, trading back around $56,000, where it was about three weeks ago. A 10-12% overnight price blink isn't anything Bitcoiners haven't seen before. As podcast host Steven Livera tweeted, "Just Bitcoin doing its thing on the way to $10M+." And that's how crypto podcasters roll.

In the commodities space, the price of crude oil (and everything else) was higher over the course of the week. WTI crude hit a four-week high on Thursday when futures closed in New York at $63.46 a barrel. That was up from the previous week's close at $59.32. Friday's trading backed it off a few cents, ending the week at $63.13.

WTI made a double top at just over $66 a barrel in March and has traded in a generally tame manner since coming back down, but with summer driving season on the horizon and many states in the USA reopening businesses and people simply wishing to get out more, there's reason to believe that gas prices will continue to hold at high levels, if not go to ridiculous extremes. According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline was stable, at 2.87. States along the West coast, plus Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Nevada are all averaging over $3.00 a gallon.

Gold bugs and silver stackers got some welcome relief from recent declines in the prices of precious metals. While rumors of shortages have persisted for months, the LBMA and their daily fixes and naked short selling in the futures markets have forced down precious metals from last August's highs.

Silver gained from $25.22 to close out the week at $26.14 as the LBMA released a report on the status of silver in a report titled Silver Investment 2021 [PDF]. Among other juicy tidbits, the report mentioned that silver bullion in London vaults was at low levels and virtually depleted during the so-called #SilverSqueeze engineered on social media, spearheaded by an unruly gang on reddit.com. Bullionstar.com' Ronan Manly dissected the report, penning an excellent "must read" piece on the website's blog, titled "LBMA acknowledges “Buying Frenzy” in Silver Market and silver shortage Fears."

Gold had a stellar week, rising from $1741.20 to $1774.45 as of Friday's close. With interest rates coming back down on the long end, gold may begin to look like a sensible alternative. Of course, to anybody skeptical of the purchasing power of Federal Reserve Notes or any other fiat currency, gold has always been an extremely attractive alternative and store of wealth.

Here are the most recent prices for sales of common gold and silver items on eBay (numismatics excluded, shipping - often free - included):

Item: Low / High / Average / Median
1 oz silver coin: 39.00 / 49.59 / 43.00 / 42.93
1 oz silver bar: 37.50 / 49.99 / 43.29 / 42.75
1 oz gold coin: 1,889.00 / 2,048.30 / 1,948.82 / 1,937.28
1 oz gold bar: 1,855.50 / 2,021.22 / 1,886.53 / 1,873.82

The results from this week's survey see gold stable, despite rising prices in spot and futures markets. The silver prices have been rather significant, however, reflecting not just the potential shortages in London vaults but the real possibility that shortages may persist for some time. Massive retail buying shows no sign of letting up, as the new Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark (SOSMPB) improved to $42.99, jumping by more than a dollar from last week's benchmark ($41.71).

On that positive development, that's a WEEKEND WRAP.

AT THE CLOSE, FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021:
Dow: 34,200.67, +164.68 (+0.48%)
NASDAQ: 14,052.34, +13.58 (+0.10%)
S&P 500: 4,185.47, +15.05 (+0.36%)
NYSE: 16,186.29, +69.45 (+0.43%)

FOR THE WEEK:
Dow: +400.07 (+1.18%)
NASDAQ: +152.16 (+1.09%)
S&P 500: +56.67 (+1.37%)
NYSE: +229.12 (+1.44%)

Federal Government Keeps Digging $28 Trillion Hole Deeper And Deeper

The Dow, S&P 500, and the NYSE Composite each closed at all-time highs Thursday, as initial unemployment claims fell to the lowest level in over a year and first quarter earnings by financial institution boosted sentiment.

According to the US Department of Labor, 576,000 people filed for initial unemployment claims in the most recent reporting period. That figure is the lowest since March 14, 2020, when new claims totaled 256,000.

Though both finished lower on the day, Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) reported large earnings beats for the first quarter of 2021, largely by drawing down loan loss reserves. The reserves go straight to the bottom line, which is a neat accounting trick in vogue this earnings season. JP Morgan Chase used it to report a near-400% year-over-year EPS gain on Wednesday. While accounting gimmicks may boost a company's bottom line over the short run, they're essentially one-off events, an understanding by Wall Street which resulted in sending the bank stocks lower.

Banks and other companies have to report to shareholders, but that's not the case for the free-spenders in Washington, DC. Congress managed to set two new records in March, neither of which should be cause for celebration by US "shareholders", the American public.

In March 2021, the feds took in $267 billion in tax receipts but managed to spend $927 billion, producing a monthly deficit of $660 billion. The nearly $1 trillion in spending and the mammoth deficit are both record amounts. If the US government was traded publicly as a stock, in normal times it would be drug down and beaten by the Wall Street establishment and be begging for bids.

These, however, are not normal times. The spending and deficit are just more proof that the federal government is completely out of control, about 10 times as large as it should be, and that the people who pass these spending bills don't share an ounce of financial discipline between the lot of them.

The $660 billion just gets lumped into the burgeoning national debt, already at $28 trillion and growing by nearly a trillion dollars per quarter presently.

Media types often blame presidents for growing the debt, but it's congress that has to approve the spending. The president just signs it away, figuratively blowing up the budget with the stroke of a pen. The past few White House occupants have presided over massive spending. Under George W. Bush, the debt nearly doubled, rising from $5.67 trillion in 2000 to just over $10 trillion in 2008. Barack Obama's eight years (2008-2016) nearly doubled it again, to $19.57 trillion. Donald Trump, in his four years, was nearly on track for another doubling had he won a second term. Through fiscal year 2020, the federal debt stood at $26.9 trillion.

Under Biden, his congressional team has been hard at work bankrupting the nation. This year's deficit is already $1.7 trillion, through the first six months of fiscal 2021, and it looks as though it will top the prior year's record of $3.3 trillion. The total debt will be close to, if not beyond, $30 trillion.

Making it personal, since technically, US citizens are on the hook for all this debt (thank you, politicians!), it will amount to over $90,000 per person. To say that we're in debt up to our eyeballs would be an understatement. The country is underwater and drowning and there's no way that massive debt is ever going to be repaid, making all Americans nothing more than debt slaves.

Regardless of the fact that slavery in America was abolished more than 150 years ago, the simple fact is that our own government has run up a debt that puts every man, woman, child, and even unborn generations into financial chains, and we can blame politicians for nearly all of it. In 1913, the year the Federal Reserve System was approved as a central bank by congress and then-president Woodrow Wilson, the total accumulated national debt was just short of $3 billion. The government now spends that in a matter of hours.

World Wars I and II, plus the Great Depression began the borrowing blowout. By 1946, the debt had risen to $269 billion. We scoff at these numbers today as inflation (otherwise known as debasing the currency) has driven economic reality to extremes. Still, in the first 33 years of the Fed, the banking elites had managed to increase the national debt nearly 100-fold. It took another 75 years to increase the debt another 100-fold, putting the government into its present state of insolvency. At the current pace, which happens to be approaching hyperbolic, the government will be borrowing $7 to $10 trillion a year by 2030 and the debt will have risen at least to $65-75 trillion.

Last year, fiscal 2020, interest on the debt alone accounted for more than $500 billion, and that's at ridiculously low interest rates. The size of the federal debt and annual deficits are a primary reason interest rates can never go up again, at least not until some basic laws of mathematics are repealed.

Congress should get to work on that... right after they pass another spending bill and take another two-week recess.

AT THE CLOSE, THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021:
Dow: 34,035.99, +305.10 (+0.90%)
NASDAQ: 14,038.76, +180.92 (+1.31%)
S&P 500: 4,170.42, +45.76 (+1.11%)
NYSE: 16,116.85, +116.70 (+0.73%)

Banks Report Blowout 1Q Earnings, Smashing Expectations by Releasing Loan Loss Reserves

Bank earnings are out. Oh, those paragons of fairness, honesty, and everything good about America. They're kicking in doors and taking names with their first quarter results so far.

Goldman Sachs was the first to rock onward into the second quarter with stunningly-positive results from the first. The investment bank reported revenue of $17.7 billion and GAAP earnings of $18.60 per share, crushing analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue. Goldman Sachs declared a quarterly dividend of $1.25 per share, in line with the previous dividend. The investment banking segment generated record quarterly net revenues of $3.77 billion.

Goldman Sachs was up two percent after the news, but the clincher is how well its done since the start of the manufactured crisis of 2020. The stock has risen from a low of 138 last March to its current price of 335. That's a 142% gain in just over a year's time. Even Bitcoin hodlers can be impressed by those numbers.

JP Morgan Chase, however, really set the tone for the narrative of the current earnings season. By slashing their credit loss reserves by some $5.2 billion - all recorded on the books as profit - they smashed analyst expectations, delivering a quarterly EPS that was nearly 400% better than what they posted in the same period a year ago.

Those results came in on Wednesday. Thursday morning, prior to the opening bell, Bank of America reported, and, right on cue, dropped $2.7 billion from its credit loss reserves, sending that money straight to the profit column. The bank reported EPS of 0.86 per share, as opposed to expectations of 0.65. Without the credit loss provision reclaimed, BAC may have still beaten the estimates, but only by a slim margin.

Citigroup was next up. Net income tripled to $7.94 billion, or $3.62 per share, from $2.54 billion, or $1.06 per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected a profit of $2.60 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

The bank's bottom line was bolstered by its decision to draw down $3.85 billion in reserves it had built up for expected loan losses. So, subtract the reserves from net income and they did $4.09 billion in the quarter. EPS would have been $1.86 per share. Better, but not nearly the blowout quarter they reported.

And so it goes. Banks have everybody believing that the economy is buoyant and thriving and recovering. Other companies in other industries may not meet up to the standards of bang-up earnings the banks have provided because they just don't have as many ways to cook the books.

Sure, it's fine to finally be done with the fake crisis, maybe, and things are getting better, but certainly not as good as the banks' earnings would have one believe.

Stocks are set for a monster open after the Labor Department reported first time jobless claims at 576,000 in the reported week, a one-year low.

Hang on. It's going to be a busy Thursday.

AT THE CLOSE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021:
Dow: 33,730.89, +53.62 (+0.16%)
NASDAQ: 13,857.84, -138.26 (-0.99%)
S&P 500: 4,124.66, -16.93 (-0.41%)
NYSE: 16,000.15, +37.80 (+0.24%)

Bitcoin Surging Prior To Coinbase IPO; CPI Highest In 8 1/2 Years

Two seemingly unrelated stories are today's focus, though they may be more relevant to each other beyond a first glance.

On Tuesday, the BLS reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.6 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.4 percent in February. The month-over-month increase was the largest since a 0.6 percent increase in August 2012.

Not seasonally-adjusted, the tally over the past 12 months was 2.6 percent, the highest in 2 1/2 years.

Contributing to the gains were gasoline prices, which were up 22.5% over the past year. Fuel oil and natural gas were respectively 20.2% and 9.8% higher over the same period. Food gained 3.5% and used vehicles gained 9.4%.

Both the Federal Reserve and the White House characterized the increases as temporary, which is what they said last month when the year-over-year number was 1.7%, and the month before that. The problem with "temporary" inflation is that it often becomes permanent. Prices, once they rise, seldom come back down significantly. When they do, the adjustment is either sudden, as in market crashes, or very gradually, as consumers adjust, seek alternatives, or hold back on purchases.

Inflation has been a hot topic since the Fed increased M1 money supply from $4 trillion to $18 trillion in 2020. It is still rising, though at a slower rate, in 2021. Many scholars of economics consider the government numbers to be flawed, as the measure of CPI has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. Hedonic adjustments and the overall makeup of the "basket of goods" the government employs contribute to lowering the CPI, which is used to calculate cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for government pensions and social security benefits. Private and public opinions on CPI range from mildly skeptical to calling it outright fabrication.

The other, still developing, story is that of the Coinbase IPO. The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States will begin trading Wednesday on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol COIN. Coinbase boasts 56 million users and the company became profitable in 2020, with growth accelerating in the first quarter of 2021. The exchange handles billions of dollars worth of transactions daily in Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin and other cryptos.

Late Tuesday, the company set a reference price to open at $250 per share in a direct listing, valuing it near $65 billion, well below estimates of $100 cited by some analysts and insiders. The company has foregone the traditional IPO route, instead opting for a direct listing, or DPO (Direct Public Offering), which makes shares available to the general public instead of engaging with a bank and underwriters. This option avoids the usual roadshow and fees while freeing up insider shares with no lockup period. Coinbase is not looking to raise additional capital, but rather to see what the public is willing to pay in a more democratic process. Recent direct listings were undertaken by Spotify and Slack.

Reaction to Coinbase listing as a publicly-traded company has been extremely positive, especially for prices of various cryptocurrencies. Over the past week, Bitcoin, the world leader by market capitalization ($1.2 trillion), has gained 11 percent over the past week, topping out at $64,899.00 Wednesday morning. Being listed on the NASDAQ gives Coinbase and the entire crypto universe credibility as a bona fide asset class.

How the Coinbase listing and the CPI release become interwoven is a matter of imagination and math. The CPI, as a measure of inflation, is based on fiat money in circulation. Since the national debt (actually money owed though bond issuance by the federal government) is a reflection of excessive spending, the more than $28 trillion in debt on the books acts as a drag on the natural economy, measured in fiat, which can be issued without limit. That causes inflation, which is why there is a CPI in the first place.

Most cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin in particular, have a set limit on the amount of issuance. In Bitcoin's case, that number is 21 million. There will never be more than that amount in existence, which adds to its appeal both as currency and as an investible asset. To put the CPI, national debt, and the Coinbase listing in perspective, at Bitcoin's current price and market cap ($1.2 trillion), it would only pay off 4.29% of the national debt.

Another way to look at it would be to figure how much Bitcoin would have to be worth to entirely extinguish the national debt. If all the Bitcoin to be mined (21 million) were mined today, the price of one Bitcoin would have to be $1,333,333.33 in order to pay off what the government owes. This is something the naysayers and no-coiners should bear in mind when dismissing crypto and Bitcoin. Cryptos are better money than what's currently used by the Fed (Federal Reserve Notes, or FRNs, US$) because it cannot be debased, as is happening now and has been happening since the Federal Reserve began issuing its debt notes in 1914.

The idea that some people would prefer a currency that isn't issued by a central bank, has a purchasing power that doesn't depreciate over time, and thus can act as a store of value (wealth) is not new. It's just been out of vogue for the past 100 years or so. Coinbase's public listing and the advance of cryptocurrencies are signals that the time for change is upon us.

AT THE CLOSE, TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2021:
Dow: 33,677.27, -68.13 (-0.20%)
NASDAQ: 13,996.10, +146.10 (+1.05%)
S&P 500: 4,141.59, +13.60 (+0.33%)
NYSE: 15,962.34, -15.16 (-0.09%)

Is There An Escape From The Matrix?

Clearly, something is wrong in what we call our world.

In America, we have imposters occupying the highest elected offices in the land. We are told by the propaganda outlet media that we elected these people, but hardly a man or woman alive believes that to be so.

We've spent the past year fighting a disease that kills fewer people than the annual seasonal flu. We've been told to stay indoors, close businesses, curtail travel, stay away from each other, wear masks and follow guidance from health officials that seems to change as often as the weather. All of it has been extremely dehumanizing.

We are living in a world that most people do not recognize. We long for a return to "normal" existence, whatever that was, but it may not be coming back. We're told to prepare for a "new normal," whatever that might be. It's likely to be distasteful to average working folks and profitable to the elitists and schemers who like to believe they have everything under control when it's obvious that they don't.

For instance, if they really had control over things, would there be $28 trillion in debt as shown graphically at the US Debt Clock? That's something difficult to overlook. Americans are told that we're all on the hook for it, but that's not true. The federal government owes that debt to rich people and other countries. Not really our problem, and most people go about their business without thinking much - if at all - about the burdensome debt overhanging what is essentially a bankrupt, insolvent government.

Instead, we have our own issues and our own debt. We're told that if we continue to make our mortgage payments, eventually, we will own our homes and have vast wealth. As of the fourth quarter of 2020, the median home price in the United States was $346,800. A down payment of 20%, or $70,000, gets one into such a place, granted he or she (usually two people, married) has excellent credit and enough income to make the payments.

Buy a home. Boom, all of a sudden, you're stuck in the matrix to the tune of $1,167 every month for the next 30 years. That's 360 payments totaling $420,120, and that's just the principal and interest. There's upkeep, property taxes, insurance, and the constant inner and external nagging about keeping your credit score high. Don't miss a payment, and, by the grace of God, don't ever lose your job or think about quitting it. You're stuck there and there's no escape.

Certainly, in what we call the real world, there's no chance to get out of what we used to call the "rat race." We now call it - because we're so much more sophisticated and conditioned by fear - the matrix. We can thank two sisters, Lana and Lilly Wachowski for the screenplay that brought about The Matrix series of films and a conceptualization of what our world really is. It was some groundbreaking work and most people are familiar with the story or at least the understanding of being trapped within a system.

Here's the original 1999 trailer:

Predecessors to the matrix "meme" were other dystopian realities, reflected in the works of George Orwell (1984), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), Franz Kafka (The Trial), and Jean-Paul Sartre (No Exit). Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot was a satirical drama written in 1952 which explored the frustrations of living in an uncontrolled reality.

Thus, the concept of being trapped or encaged or under the thumb of oppressive government or society is nothing new. We've been at this point for centuries, but today, it just seems to be worse than ever and maybe it is.

Financially, few can escape. Being very rich has virtues all its own, but there's the slavery of taxation at every turn, the banking system, differentiating currencies and plenty to worry about. Moving to another country may solve part of the problem, and there may be fewer restrictions on one's freedoms in other places, but few can afford to take advantage of such a luxury.

So, we're stuck here in the matrix. Perhaps the only way out is to free one's mind. It's at least worth a try and there are more than jsut a few people who have made their minds up about how they're going to deal with the rules and restrictions, the taxes and penalties for non-conforming, the stomping foot of authoritarianism.

Kirstie Pursey provides a step-by-step approach to freeing one's mind and offers some interesting observations.

The approach is similar to that of author, Carlos Castaneda, who ushered in new age understanding in his writings, especially in his seminal works, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, 1968,
A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan, 1971, and Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan, 1972.

Here is a selection of his quotations to help get to another level of knowledge and understanding, the beginning of enlightenment, and a forwardly-alternative approach to modern existence.

“Things don’t change, only the way you look at them.” - Carlos Castaneda

The point is that to escape the matrix of the modern world, as expressed in almost all of the references above, one needs to look inside as well as outside one's own perception. That is the beginning. How one proceeds from there is on a path of one's own making.

... to be continued.

AT THE CLOSE, MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2021:
Dow: 33,745.40, -55.20 (-0.16%)
NASDAQ: 13,850.00, -50.19 (-0.36%)
S&P 500: 4,127.99, -0.81 (-0.02%)
NYSE: 15,977.46, +21.09 (+0.13%)