No Joy in the Land of Labor

The Biden administration will do nothing helpful to stave off the coming disaster. [Gilder's Daily Prophecy] September 06, 2022 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Biden to Replace US Dollar? [Click here to learn more]( Thanks to Biden’s Executive Order 14067, every dollar you own could be in serious jeopardy. They could be made worthless, or even confiscated – practically overnight. [Read More ]( No Joy in the Land of Labor [Jeffery Tucker] JEFFREY TUCKER Dear Reader, The recent jobs report was the usual unimpressive combination of low unemployment and low labor participation. But the spin doctors got to work right away to tell the world that things are finally getting back to normal. Oh sure. That’s an improvement over last month and the depth of lockdowns. What they don’t tell you is that you have to go back to September 1977 to find the most recent rate that low. Isn’t it amazing how journalists are so quick to adapt to the new weirdness and stop calling it out? Wall Street wasn’t buying it, and the markets very quickly hit the skids. It’s not even clear why. Some days it just seems like financial markets are looking for any excuse to issue sell orders. Or maybe it had something to do with Jamie Dimon’s incredible prediction yesterday, that the U.S. economy is headed into a hurricane. Yikes. Many things are fundamentally broken and are not being fixed. I’m increasingly convinced that this labor shortage is really about more than early retirement, moms leaving the workforce, and temporary dislocations. It’s more serious than that. It is a reflection of population demoralization, the draining of ambition, the diminished confidence in the future, and the growing unwillingness on the part of all classes of people to make the necessary sacrifices to build a good life. Life Brutal, Solitary, Short Back to basics for a moment. The natural state of humanity is one of grueling poverty and short life. Digging out of that more requires intelligence, sacrifice, long-term thinking, and a vision of progress. Once that catches hold, growth and wealth make an appearance as if by magic, followed by capital investment, expanded division of labor, and more complex production structures. All that requires the cultivation of the bourgeois ethos, backed by sound money and a reliable rule of law. You can’t have a gang of thugs wandering around pillaging people’s wealth and expect people to keep investing and working to build a prosperous society. When all of that is in place, beautiful things can happen. If it doesn’t come together, societies never really get off the ground. There are thousands of examples around the world of societies large and small that never got it together to generate that thing we call progress. We’ve taken it all for granted for a very long time, operating under the assumption that nothing could break the glorious things we’ve built together. Then arrogance took hold. Elites started hammering at the system in multiple ways at once. They dismantled trade relationships. They mucked with the money. They spent like crazy, running up debts that are impossible to pay. Then finally they locked down economic life in the name of virus control. We are living through the effects of that, the dominant one of which is the decline of the culture of the bourgeoisie. Instead of work, we get sloth. Instead of saving we get into debt. Instead of investment and the future, we are just getting by. The energy and confidence in the future we’ve long taken for granted are all being fundamentally challenged. My own view: this accounts for the labor problem, more than any other factor. How to Ride The $14 Trillion Metaverse Boom [Click here to learn more]( Silicon Valley insiders are OBSESSED with [this 9-letter word](. That’s because the Metaverse is set to trigger a projected $14 TRILLION market run. Tech giants like Mark Zuckerberg are already going “all in.” And some companies behind the tech megatrend have enjoyed 5x… 11x… and even 77x gains since 2020. Now, one legendary tech expert is revealing his #1 Metaverse investment for FREE to give you the best chance to profit off this megatrend. [Click here now to see the full story](. Energy and Prices There is some kind of symbolic poetry to the Biden administration’s massive attack on fossil fuels and coal because it shows that energy itself is being undermined in fundamental ways. I was digging through price data this morning and found an incredible thing. The category called transportation is now moving up at 22% year-over-year. That’s just an incredible figure in a country that has prided itself on stable energy prices for decades. Who is the culprit? It’s almost everything really. It includes gas, plane tickets, shipping costs, natural resource costs, new and used car prices, and more. But the margin of increase right now is being driven by a surprising source: coal. Stockpiles are getting low and inflation is eating it all away. Here is the coal price chart. [chart] That’s pretty ugly, but look at the percentage increase year-over-year. [chart] That hockey stick you see at the end there is a 43.5% increase. In coal! It just so happens that the Biden administration is a hater of coal. I’m increasingly of the view that all of this is deliberate. These crazy people actually believe that they can harm traditional energy sources enough to the point that they can somehow goad civilization into adopting their preferred “renewable” sources of energy like wind and solar but the whole thing is ridiculous. They are going to drive us all back to the Stone Age if they keep this up. Let’s revisit Jamie Dimon’s forecast. He says that the combination of inflation, war with Russia, and Fed tightening is going to create a hurricane. We’ve talked that much about the war. The critical issue here is not the war but the response to the war (just as with the virus). The financial and trade sanctions against Putin have proven that he can weather just fine. The main parties hurt are in Europe and North America. We are paying a heavy price, not just now, but for years to come. This much is for certain: the smart money is preparing for a storm. That involves a completely different strategy from the index-fund magic of the last 30 years. The performers are going to be the particular companies that specialize in particular sectors under deep distress now, including and especially commodities, housing, and infrastructure technology necessary to keep the appearance of civilization alive. This much everyone knows for certain. The Biden administration will do nothing helpful to stave off the coming disaster. Their only plan, so far as I can see, is to take your guns and inject your kids with a serum. Is it any wonder that the job approval of that Biden has reached new lows? It’s not even clear that he cares that much. Regards, [Jeffrey Tucker] Jeffrey Tucker Expert Predicts New Opportunity Is “Bigger Than The Industrial Revolution” [Click here to learn more]( A top venture capitalist says cryptos will be “bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” But according to MarketWatch, only about 1 in 10 Americans own any crypto at all… In other words, 90% of people are about to miss out on this once-in-a-generation opportunity. That’s why one Bitcoin millionaire just put out a brand-new book, where he shows you exactly how to get started. [To see how to claim your complete crypto guide, click here now]( [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( Gilder's Daily Prophecy is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. 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