Do You Have the Right to Feel Safe?

RIP to the American IQ [Morning Reckoning] September 21, 2023 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Do You Have the Right to Feel Safe? - My IQ dropped a few points after listening to Louis CK on Rogan. - Louis CK on America: “It shouldn't be so great here.” - “Folks die, and folks do labor in unsafe places so that we can keep the prices where we like 'em.” [$32.8 Billion PER DAY!]( [Click here to learn more]( Forget AI, cryptocurrency or anything else – [THIS]( is the biggest profit opportunity of your lifetime. It’s an obscure corner of the market… one which is quietly creating an average of $32.8 BILLION in new wealth PER DAY. [That’s $1.2 trillion per year…]( And if you act fast, you have the chance to get in on the action starting right away. [Click here now for details](. [LEARN MORE]( Asti, Northern Italy September 21, 2023 [Sean Ring] SEAN RING Good morning Reader, Greetings from lovely Northern Italy. I hope all’s well. Thank you for last week's fantastic stories and feedback about the IRS piece. I may publish that part of the mailbag later. But right now, I’m unsure if any readers who wrote in would want me to divulge their cases. Again, thanks for writing (and the kind words as well)! Today, I'll talk about the citizenry rather than the government screwing things up. The rich citizenry. Louis CK is a comedian, but I’ve never watched his stuff. He became famous from 2000-2018 when I didn’t care much about America besides its movies. When I settled in the Philippines in 2019 and bought a TV with YouTube automatically uploaded, I caught up on much of American culture of the past two decades. I learned about Louis CK and Joe Rogan, whom I had never heard of. I saw why people thought Tom Brady was better than Joe Montana. LeBron, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin…. I had lots of catching up to do. I also saw [when Louis CK was caught with his pants down]( (really) and was canceled. By then, most people with a modicum of gray matter knew what a degenerate hive Hollywood was. So, it surprised no one. Whatever. But about seven months ago, Louis CK was on the Joe Rogan Experience. I missed it because I have no idea how anyone has two hours a day to listen to podcasts. Yesterday, writer Ryan James Girdusky, author of the [National Populist Newsletter]( and [They're Not Listening: How The Elites Created the National Populist Revolution]( posted this on X.com, which I retweeted with a comment: Credit and follow me at [@seaniechaos]( [Man Who Predicted Bitcoin Warns: “Don’t Buy Bitcoin!”]( [Click here to learn more]( James Altucher first predicted Bitcoin all the way back in 2013… And ever since, he’s been one of the biggest advocates for it. But now, he’s warning Americans that buying Bitcoin could be a big mistake… [Click here now to see why](. [LEARN MORE]( Welp, I’ve given my opinion away. But to be fair, here is the transcript of the drivel Louis CK spouted: I think that the most, I don't know, there's a form of life. It's a weird thing because you're not supposed to be happy, and you're not supposed to be safe. I think that that's the problem is that people expect that, and it's not a good way to… you're not happy when you're safe. You're not happy when you're happy. When you're secure. …I was really listening to something about the border, these people just trying to come into America, and some people are like, “Well, if we let just a few in, it's a mess.” There's no good answer. What if we just let the ones in who are really upset? Yeah, but we can't let 'em all in. When liberals try to say, it's like the dumbest position they get into, it's like, “Well, we can, no, we can't keep let 'em in here. Got to keep 'em out. But we really like 'em and it's great that they're brown and sorry, but there's an impossible…” And then the right takes over, and they sound racist. And then the left takes over. They just sound stupid. But my feeling is they should open it, the border. And just let 'em pour in, let everybody pour in. And then the answer, which is, “Well, then there'll be all these problems.” Yes, there should be. It shouldn't be so great here. It shouldn't be so great here is what I'm saying. In America, it shouldn't be. It's a weird thing to sequester a certain group of people and try to keep upping their lifespan and their lifestyle and just keep trying to increase that for this group of people and then this pressure of people trying to come in so they can enjoy it. There's something wrong with that. That's not a system that's working, and it forces people to do cruel things to other people. There are a lot of people that die so Americans can be safe. They're just dying… Weddings that are drone bombed in Yemen because the guy said something that might have resulted in American insecurity. Not even definite American deaths, but just so we can breathe a little easier. Folks die, and folks do labor in unsafe places so that we can keep the prices where we like 'em. There's so much about American life that other people pay for it. That's part of it. But also it's not good for us either. It's not a good way to live in a gated community. If you let folks pour in any other wave, it'll kind of slosh, and then just things will be different. I don't know what'll really happen. A bunch of people will they just come with knives and start killing everybody? I don't think so. I don't know what'll happen, but it's just weird to me. I mean, I lived in Mexico when I was a kid. My dad's Mexican and I remember my first cogent thoughts were in Mexico, and then I came to America. I mean it was Mexico City. It was beautiful. Also, it was a city before America had anything. It's this very old European kind of place. Mexico, it's a beautiful country, and it's got a lot more depth to it than anybody knows here. And we're not really sharing with them because they're kind of like the other guys because we're afraid of how many of them are dying to come here to work for us for very little. Like this thing. I don't know. I don't know. This is shit I don't know about. But the feeling I get is that the more American security, this feeling of more oxygen in the air. It's not good in the end for everybody. I could write a book unpacking this nonsensical crap. Instead, I’ll pick apart the stuff I bolded above. “…you're not happy when you're safe. You're not happy when you're happy. When you're secure.” I genuinely believe people feel this way, and it’s part of the reason they move to big cities. I loved the dangerous grittiness of London… in my 20s. I proudly showed off my scar from that barroom brawl that left a titanium plate in my head. But as a father and husband? I wouldn’t move to London right now for all the tea in China. It’s just too dangerous. “It shouldn't be so great here is what I'm saying. In America, it shouldn't be.” When you have no conception of history, of what the men and women who first settled in America went through, it’s easy not to understand what made America great. And that’s a massive part of the problem. You live in the “city on the hill.” And you have no idea why it became that way. As libertarian economist Per Bylund once brilliantly tweeted: Too many Americans don’t have a damn clue because they’ve been riding on the economic momentum better men and women created. “It's a weird thing to sequester a certain group of people and try to keep upping their lifespan and their lifestyle and just keep trying to increase that for this group of people…” What if we called this group of people “family?” Is it weird to keep your family in your house as healthy, safe, and long-lived as possible? And let’s extend this to like-minded people who traveled across the world with you and settled in this magnificent new country. And what about the descendants of those settlers who love their country, inherited their ancestors’ property, and want to enjoy and improve it as much as possible? If you think about it, Louis CK’s statement is an indictment of private property. The most important thing you own is yourself. And if like-minded people enter into voluntary contracts with each other to do such nefarious things as “upping their lifespan and their lifestyle,” then it’s no one else’s business. “That's not a system that's working, and it forces people to do cruel things to other people.” Yes, Louis CK, the system is working. And no, keeping out those who don’t share the same values isn’t cruel. It’s the right of those owners (citizens). “There's so much about American life that other people pay for it. That's part of it. But also it's not good for us either. It's not a good way to live in a gated community.” Then why do all of your LA friends live in a gated community? As for countries that act like gated communities, I give you Singapore, the UAE, and Monaco. All of those places are fabulous, rich, and safe. “A bunch of people will they just come with knives and start killing everybody? I don't think so. I don't know what'll happen, but it's just weird to me.” No, Louis CK. Of course, a “bunch of people” aren’t going to come with knives and start killing everybody. This is called the fallacy of composition. Just because most people aren’t killers doesn’t mean they’re all not killers. The question is, “How many of those would you tolerate to let the ‘good people’ in?” “Mexico, it's a beautiful country, and it's got a lot more depth to it than anybody knows here. And we're not really sharing with them because they're kind of like the other guys because we're afraid of how many of them are dying to come here to work for us for very little.” For one, you can go back there. I thought Italy would be better for my family and me than America. There’s no shame in upping sticks and moving. Second, we’re under zero obligation to “share” with anyone. How about sharing with those Americans who live below the poverty line? Third, mass immigration kills wage growth. So, the “very little” part is accidentally poor salesmanship. Does Switzerland let in people who’ll do work for nothing? Of course not. That’s part of the reason their country looks like heaven. Wrap Up I know I’m not an American citizen anymore, and I haven’t lived there for nearly a quarter century. But my goodness, has the collective IQ of America dropped that much since I left? Do people inside the country want to sabotage the place? I hope not. The British think the US is the last, best hope for the world. I’m not sure about that. But I certainly don’t want America to sink because of its citizens’ staggering ignorance. All the best, [Sean Ring] Sean Ring Contributing Editor, The Morning Reckoning feedback@dailyreckoning.com X (formerly Twitter): [@seaniechaos]( [Urgent Notice From Paradigm CIO Zach Scheidt!]( [Click here to learn more]( Hi, Zach Scheidt here… I’m the Chief Income Officer at Paradigm Press. With inflation raging (and showing no signs of coming to an end any time soon), almost everyone in America is feeling the pain in a big way. Which is why, several months ago, I set out on a big mission… my goal was to create a [complete, step-by-step plan to surviving and beating inflation]( one that anyone could take advantage of. Today, after hundreds of hours of research, I’m revealing all of my findings. [Simply click here now to see how to survive America’s deadly inflation crisis](. [LEARN MORE]( In Case You Missed It… The Hype’s Demise… Farewell Meme Stocks Greg Guenthner, Editor [Greg Guenthner] GREG GUENTHNER Good Morning Reader, Last week, we set out on a search and rescue mission to find the [missing Bitcoin bros](. My working theory is that crypto is slowly floating out into the sea of irrelevance. Well, mainstream irrelevance. While Bitcoin and some of the other major players won’t wash away forever, their status as wealth-building speculations will continue to deteriorate and fade from the financial media airwaves. Once they’re relegated to the financial depths, Bitcoin and the other survivors can pick up the pieces and do their thing (whatever that might be), without having to endure the scrutiny of analysts and short-term traders looking to make a quick buck. But there’s more to this story. We’ll get to this idea in a minute… But first, if we want to fully understand what’s happening with crypto right now, we must examine the quiet bursting of the Covid Bubble and how the pandemic mania of 2020-2021 could continue to affect markets for years to come. The most important piece of information you must understand is that crypto is not a unique, untouchable asset class that somehow exists beyond the realm of normal market forces. In fact, one could argue that Bitcoin is even more attuned to the whims of the crowd than most stocks because it has no earnings, analyst ratings, or traditional valuation metrics. Therefore, the raw emotional power of speculators is more likely to drive prices than fundamental events. We can support this theory by examining the Covid Bubble and immediate aftermath, comparing crypto’s performance with other speculative investments. It doesn’t take a technical wizard to see the relationship between crypto and the frothy tech trades that took the market by storm in 2020. In fact, crypto and the tech-growth trade have remained on the same wavelength and have reacted similarly to various market conditions. Both broke out in the summer of 2020 as the lockdown trading phenomenon picked up steam. They each posted their biggest moves in the second half of 2020 leading into the Q1 2021 blow-off top. They even fell off a cliff together into the bottomless 2022 bear market, holding hands through every short-lived relief rally last year… It wasn’t until this year when we finally saw crypto begin to diverge from the tech trade. Bitcoin, crypto-adjacent stocks, and the beaten-down tech names all rallied together off their lows in January. But many of these tech stocks continued to push higher throughout the summer months, well after the Bitcoin rally lost its mojo. Meanwhile, crypto has looked a little shaky. Bitcoin has been essentially marking time since its March rally toward $30K — a level it has yet to convincingly clear this year despite a strong showing in June that ultimately failed. That leaves Bitcoin stuck in a wide range between $25K - $30K for the past six months. No, we haven’t seen a major breakdown. Not yet… But the weakness in crypto is quietly spreading to another formerly frothy area of the market. Goodnight, Meme Stocks Has the sleepy action in crypto bored the post-pandemic speculators to death? More importantly, is this malaise spreading into areas of the markets beyond the cryptosphere? If you dig below the major outperformers in mega-cap tech, you’ll start to find some of these broken stocks. But you have to dig deep… Once you arrive at the wreckage, you’ll find a heap of the formerly unstoppable meme stocks that captured the market’s imagination just a few short years ago. AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) resides at the bottom of the pile, down a cool 99% from its 2021 highs. [chart] We don’t hear much anymore about the meme stock everyone couldn’t stop talking about in 2021. You might be able to dig up some stray articles about flagging share prices as the company raised hundreds of millions of dollars issuing stock to the deluded masses of online stock gamblers over the past two and a half years. But this was a stock that was on the news every single day in early 2021. You couldn’t escape the financial media pumping these ridiculous meme stocks to gullible viewers who believed they were somehow sticking it to the man by temporarily bullying the shares of a failing movie theater. Where Have the Speculators Gone? The meme stock “revolution” hit the market with a bang. And it dies with a whimper. AMC has fallen more than 85% over the past six weeks. Few seem to notice (or care). Of course, AMC isn’t the only garbage stock to parlay its pandemic fame into a couple more years of reverse splits and common stock offerings. It’s just the most egregious. There’s also GameStop (GME) and a now-bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond. And let’s not forget the pandemic round-trippers. Zoom Video Communications (ZM), Peloton Interactive Inc. (PTON), and others experienced an insanely brief boom-bust cycle that now appears to be coming to its inevitable conclusion. No one’s buying these stocks anymore. No one wants to talk about them. There was a time when these trades couldn’t lose. Now, we can’t seem to remember what all the fuss was about in the first place. I believe this action says something bigger about the overall state of the markets. Bitcoin is sputtering. Meme stocks are dying a slow, quiet death. The biggest, wildest speculations of the early part of this decade are no longer delivering the outrageous gains everyone has come to expect. So, the gamblers are cashing in what’s left of their chips and going home. They won’t be back anytime soon. Best, [Greg Guenthner] Greg Guenthner Contributing Editor, Morning Reckoning feedback@dailyreckoning.com Thank you for reading The Morning Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Sean Ring] [Sean Ring, CAIA, FRM and CMT]( is a former banker and financial educator and is the editor of the Rude Awakening. Sean has trained interns and graduates from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Bank of America, Standard Chartered Bank, DBS (Singapore), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Bank Indonesia (the central bank), HSBC, Barclays, RBS, and BlackRock. He knows the global economy is being corrupted by forces that most people can't understand and has used his unique and worldly experiences to help people navigate the markets. 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