ericbj

Blackrock is a major purveyor of Private Credit, which risks pulling down the global economy. Of course they try to shift the blame. More here about potential repercussions:

A rising dollar and falling gold at the beginning of a global economic crisis is not a unique phenomenon if this video is correct: https://youtu.be/9jvXbysJbWI But the rise in the dollar and fall of gold is short-lived. They say that war does not of itself cause the gold price to rise sharply. Inflation is the cause. "Inflation" is a deceptive word meaning currency devaluation. Currency devaluation is caused by excessive debt-creation, also known as "money-printing". To cut to the heart of the matter, the war in the Persian Gulf is, amongst other effects, creating conditions for widespead shortages of petroleum-derived substances needed for food-production, etc. Spiralling inflation is on the horizon. Let's be prepared.

In times like these one either needs to be out of the stock market (and the bond market) - or else following things closely and being very proactive. Index-linked funds which allow you to sit back and benefit are fine when times are good. but not what you want when the overall market is going down. And note that they are loaded in favour of the biggest market caps such as NVidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon, since these account for much of the total market value. When the overall market is going down, a few sectors may be doing quite well. For a while. But these favoured sectors will tend to change in favour of others. So one needs to be on the ball and ready to jump ship. Petroleum, Shipping, Precious Metals, Grains might be favoured for a while. But to benefit fully one needs to know something about the individual companies within the Sector. An oil or gas company may do well when prices are through the roof, so long as not reliant on Persian Gulf supplies. Precious metals could still have a lot going for them. But it is a mine-field if you do not understand what you are buying. Passive investing is not for difficult times. How soon the market "comes back" is very uncertain. Hopefully not as long as the Japanese stock market crash of 1980. We are entering uncharted waters.

In Thailand, think gold not dollars:

Might be of interest regarding dollar strength: https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/10/09/why-is-the-us-dollar-gaining-value-right-now

Trump's performance would be comic if it were not catastrophic.

According to information I read some months ago (but do not have the source at my fingertips), the big-time well-informed investors were slowly but steadily withdrawing from the stock-market. However the oligarch-owned mass-media were promoting investment in it, encouraging "mom-and-pop" investors to rush in and thereby prop up share prices. The market is allowed to crash once the plutocrats have withdrawn. Anyway, believe what you will.

Is a Private Credit crisis really of no consequence for the broader economy ??? The European Banking System Just Did Something VERY Strange https://youtu.be/1HcW3mfuggs

Looming crisis ? https://www.worldaffairsincontext.com/p/the-3-trillion-time-bomb-the-private

Could Trump be a less-believing 'Christian' Zionist than some of his entourage, so hesitant to push the button that will unleash the nuclear 'rapture' ? On the other hand Netanyahoo and fellow cultists are clearly looking forward to, and promoting, global Armageddon with a view to the coming of their Messiah and the building of the Second - or isn't it the 3rd? - Temple. By themselves, the survivors.

IMHO, the global economy never fully recovered from the Great Recession of 2008, which was a essentially a liquidity crisis resulting from the popping of a credit bubble that fuelled over-investment in non-productive assets. [defining "non-productive assets" as those that produce no returns nor prospective future returns commensurate with the level of investment, i.e. speculation on appreciation of capital irrespective of potential profits. A form of Ponzi scheme, fueled by enthusiasm rather than rationality]. The sub-prime mortgage crisis was a private credit crisis. The U.S. Government successfully mastered the crisis, creating liquidity by 'printing money out of thin air', to save the Too-Big-To-Fail Banks and the rest of the financial system. But it then continued in the same manner, way beyond what was required. To produce yet another 'bubble', where excess liauidity once again gave rise to nominal fiat-currency values far in excess of real value. It was claimed that this money printing would lead to runaway inflation, but official statistics (doctored as they are) did not show this. For a simple reason: government largesse was distributed to the big commercial banks, who in turn passed it on, at very low interest rates, to their wealthiest clients. Who had little need for extra offerings from Main Street. They invested it instead on Wall Street and in real estate. Which is where prices inflated. The richest grew richer, the rest of society was left to wallow. To cut a long story short, because I wish to turn in, and few if any will have read this far: we are likely on the verge of another mega-recession, but on a far greater scale than the last, and without the tools that existed before. It could be the end of the global economic system as we know it. But rest assured that a portion of the "0.1%", or whatever one likes to call them, are planning to come out on top once again. More definitively this time.

Blackrock, Blackstone, Morgan Stanley: their Private Credit Funds are what is involved. The explanation of the built-in dangers of private credit can be found here: https://europeanbusinessmagazine.com/business/blackrock-just-told-investors-they-cant-have-their-money-back-and-the-entire-private-credit-industry-is-shaking/

Typical Canuck with a name like that ! :-)

Where is the source of this garbled article which confusedly mixes abusive shipment of Rohingya refugees - on unseaworthy boats with inadequate supplies and no fixed destination - with supply of aviation kerosene on "ghost ships" which are presumably oil-tankers of some kind ??? This is all I can find on-line: https://www.un.org/Depts/los/general_assembly/contributions80/32UNHCR.pdf

Joe Kent on Charlie Kirk assassination: Charlie Kirk, who was close to Trump, was advising him against war with Iran and on distancing the U.S. from Israel. The FBI forbade the Counter-Terrorism Center to investigate who killed Charlie Kirk. More here: