Bloomberg has a stunning story out about Walmart’s dropping sales figures. In it, they cite leaked internal emails between company executives where they describe in plain language how bad sales are. The emails are only a few days old. Here are some quotes: On February 12, Jerry Murray, Walmart’s vice president of finance and logistics, […]
Author Archives: S.J. Kerrigan
James Howard Kunstler on PeakProsperity.com
This is a repost from Chris Martenson’s website PeakProsperity.com where he interviews author James Howard Kunstler on the state of the US society and economy. It’s a great interview and worth reposting here for posterity. Kunstler touches on a lot of themes, most notably the ongoing collapse of key infrastructure which amounts to an ongoing, […]
Rising Nationalism Pushes Nations to War
In early 1095 AD, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos sent a letter to Pope Urban II warning that the Turks were about to overrun Constantinople. Hoping to reunite the Church, which had been in schism for 50 years, the Pope gave an impassioned speech at the Council of Clermont decrying the atrocities being committed by the Turks in their westward […]
Superbowl Bullshit
It doesn’t take much to see the Superbowl as a parallel for our society. It is the ultimate display of consumerism, violence, nationalism and faux-Americana. Every year it gets a little worse. Equally unbearable are US families who decry the “edgy” advertisements as they try to “enjoy the game” with those spastic mental cases they […]
Hope Has Changed – It Died, By Monty Pelerin
This article is a reprint, posted here with permission and for posterity. It’s by an anonymous author using the name Monty Pelerin. It is originally available at EconomicNoise.com. Hope is dying in the US. The performance of financial markets affects everyone. For savers and investors, these markets represent the means to an improved life, at least […]
The Dependence on Food Stamps is a Ticking Time Bomb
Discussing the nation’s dependence on Food Stamps is likely to put many people into a defensive mode. Some feel resentful of those accepting government food subsidy. People on Food Stamps are sensitive to criticism in the media because often it comes with the implication that they are lazy or exploiting the system. Of course, fraud […]
History Rhymes: An Analysis of Nazi Germany
Mark Twain said, “History never repeats, but it often rhymes.” Indeed, the similarities between collapsing societies can be quite stunning. Rome comes to mind. It eventually rotted away through gross mismanagement, but collapse took centuries, while our rise and fall is being made manifest over the course of a single lifetime. While the bread and […]
Alien vs Predator: Election 2012 Post-Mortem
“Whoever wins, we lose.” That was the tagline for 2004’s critical bomb Alien vs. Predator where two franchises battle on Earth for supremacy. I haven’t seen it, but looking at the recent election, there seems to be something to the comparison — powerful forces fighting each other for control of the planet, it’s current inhabitants irrelevant […]
Questions You’ll Never Hear at the Debates
Sadly, you could also title this article “The Most Important Questions That Need to be Asked.” Today, our debates are merely a stage upon which candidates can exchange quips or attempt to act presidential. Most important issues are never discussed and those mentioned have little depth. Before we list some of the questions that should be […]
Is Greece an Omen of a Future America?
Imagine sitting on a beach. The tide is out. Things look static. You’ve set up your chair, beach towel, maybe you’ve even constructed a little sand castle. The tides come in slowly at first, then without warning a big wave comes rushing toward you, swamping you and your belongings. We think we’ve learned from history. We […]