FutureJacked

Looking for Fault Lines

Published on 2010-08-23 16:09:00

Apologies on the lack of posts recently. My day job responsibilities have increased dramatically and combined with this "calm before the storm" period I think we are in, there has not been much I've wanted to comment on.One thing to do, in addition to enjoying each and every day (we'll look back on this summer as the last "normal" summer before the Great Collapse, in my opinion), keep an eye out for local "fault lines" - how you think public rage will express itself (and who will be on the recei

The Deficit Wants to Eat Your Children

Published on 2010-08-17 15:41:00

Busy here busily trying to stay afloat at the day job. Here's a little Jon Stewart to get you through the day:The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Free Steve Slater

Published on 2010-08-10 11:54:00

Beer in hand, Steve Slater makes his exit from the Airline Industry.While mercifully a far less deadly workplace "rampage" than the tragic events in Connecticut last week, we could see more and more of this as "early adopters" of the continuing wave of negative mood pop off, both literally and figuratively. What's more intriguing is that he has rapidly become on online hero. Having worked retail for several years back in the early 1990's, I deeply, deeply sympathize with him. Good luck to him an

Peak Pretending

Published on 2010-08-09 08:40:00

Another gem from Jim Kunstler's weekly jeremiad:The Queasy Season...Peak pretending now joins peak oil, peak credit, peak rare earths, and all the other peaks visible to us humble valley dwellers. Pretending bought America two years of respite from the ravages of fraud and mismanagement, but now the true condition of this society reveals itself like the disfigured ghoul in the sewer lowering his mask. Further pretending is unnecessary now. We're even beyond the "modified limited hang-out" stance

HFT and Odd Patterns

Published on 2010-08-05 14:27:00

The KnifeIf you like trying to puzzle out Elliott Wave patterns in trading charts, here's another puzzle for you to chew on:Market Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Tradersby Alexis Madrigal, The AtlanticMysterious and possibly nefarious trading algorithms are operating every minute of every day in the nation's stock exchanges.What they do doesn't show up in Google Finance, let alone in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. No one really knows how they operate or why. But over the past

More the Rare Earth Minerals Trade Dispute

Published on 2010-08-03 14:22:00

I don't know if we are ready to call it a real trade "war" yet, but the building of walls to trade and exchange continues, with China throwing a few more bricks up. We've touched on the rare earths controversy before. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard gives us an update:Hot political summer as China throttles rare metal supply and claims South China Seaby Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The TelegraphThe United States and Europe have been remarkably insouciant about supplies of rare earth minerals so crucial to

Lawfare Can Cut Both Ways

Published on 2010-07-30 13:14:00

UPDATE:Looks like there is lawsuit software out there for specialized niches like debt collection (from the New York Times, 12 July 2010):...Collection law firms are able to handle such large volumes of cases because computer software automates much of their work. Typically, a debt buyer sends a law firm an electronic database that contains various data about consumers, including name, home address, the outstanding balance, the date of default and whether interest is still accruing on the accoun

Some Odds and Ends

Published on 2010-07-28 09:18:00

Some odds and ends that show the power of mass mood at work:How crisis PR hasn't kept up with the turbulent timesBy Matthew DeBord, The Big Money (Washington Post)...[a] veritable deluge of crises since 2008 has shown that crisis PR is no longer up to the job. The BP oil spill, Apple's Antennagate, the fall of Goldman Sachs, Toyota's Great Recall, the sexual travails of Tiger Woods, the trysts of Al Gore, the loose lips of Gen. Stanley McChrystal -- all these combustions would have been fixed, i

Socionomic Alarm Bell: Secession

Published on 2010-07-23 15:08:00

Get those pens handy, friends. We'll be making a lot of changes to the map in the coming decade. An early warning sign of the coming wave of secessionist movements was just given a level of international approval:For you Stratfor subscribers, George Friedman has a more in-depth and strategic review of this issue here.

A Few Thoughts on Surfing the Waves Down

Published on 2010-07-23 14:27:00

I finally finished the huge 40 page Elliott Wave Theorist for July-August where Mr. Prechter does a study correlating the career of the Beatles and relates it to waves of social mood.  It is a fascinating study and well worth your time if you have any interest in trying to enter politics, create works of art for mass consumption or otherwise enter a field that is reliant upon mass cultural trends to support your efforts.Different people will take various lessons away from this study.&n

Stupid Is...

Published on 2010-07-20 10:20:00

I'm not sure I can blame the context of declining social mood and the associated correlation with bad decisions and accidents (Mark Galasiewski did an interesting study Aircraft Accidents correlated to stock market performance back in 2007) for the level of abject stupidity and petty lying that BP, PLC has stooped to in the ongoing oil spill disaster in the Gulf. This has got to be an upper management corporate culture thing:Altered BP photo comes into questionby Steven Mufson, Washington PostAp

Another Socionomic Alarm Bell Goes Off

Published on 2010-07-19 16:25:00

Think about this story in context of persistent high unemployment, a society that very likely is entering an extended period of deep negative sentiment (and all the baggage associated with that) and a budget crisis looming ahead that could force a significant number of men and women to move from military life to civilian life in a hurry:'Scary' growth of gangs in war zones by Frank Main, Chicago Sun-TimesBeing in a street gang is now forbidden for members of the U.S. armed forces. But you might

Little, Really Little, Pink Houses for You and Me

Published on 2010-07-19 07:52:00

Whether in teen-agers or cultures, you can often see a reaction against the "normal" way of doing things go to extremes in the opposite direction. Having lived for a time in an absurdly large McMansion in a subdivision where the houses were so similar I pulled into the wrong driveway on multiple occasions coming home from work (I wish I was joking), I can see how the following trend might get picked up in an era where, in addition to anger and polarization, you will also see frugality, learning

Happiness as Disease...

Published on 2010-07-15 09:48:00

Here is a fascinating study that would seem to validate some of the tenets of socionomic theory:Happiness and Sadness Spread Just Like Diseaseby Brandon Keim, Wired ScienceThere may be a literal truth underlying the common-sense intuition that happiness and sadness are contagious.A new study on the spread of emotions through social networks shows that these feelings circulate in patterns analogous to what’s seen from epidemiological models of disease.Earlier studies raised the possibility, but

A Few Items

Published on 2010-07-14 16:35:00

Sorry for the lack of activity - very busy at the moment.While I get the day job attended to, here are some articles/thought pieces that, in my opinion, will play well (socionomically speaking) assuming we plunge into a deeply negative mood phase:John Robb:  Building Resilient Communities From ScratchPaul Saffo (h/t John Robb):  The Bay Area needs to act like a city-state Terrence Aym:  Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' eventThe Aym article i

Friday

Published on 2010-07-09 15:41:00

Have a great weekend, friends. Here's hoping we can continue along this choppy plateau of mildly net-negative mood. Every month the illusion holds is one more month we've delayed the chaos. Of course, it also means the coming wave of despair and anger will be that much deeper, but hey, take it like you can get it. Enjoy the moment.

More on Walls and Barriers

Published on 2010-07-08 08:38:00

As I've blogged before, I think that walls and security cordons are going to flourish once the Bear Market returns in a big way.  Here's a story about an early adopter of that strategy - the NYPD - and the effects on the surrounding community:'Like a war zone': Some NYC residents living behind barricades, checkpoints 9 years after 9/11 NEW YORK (AP) — The street below Danny Chen's window in lower Manhattan has changed over the last decade from a bustling four-lane thoroughfare to an empty

Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends

Published on 2010-07-07 16:49:00

I think the DJIA probably has a few hundred more points at most to the upside left in this short squeeze.  Regard this as a gift from the Bear, allowing those who wish to exit the equity markets to do so and be able to tell their grandchildren that they sold when the market was still above 10,000...

Odds and Ends

Published on 2010-07-06 14:42:00

I find it interesting that Robert Prechter's call for a DJIA under 1,000 is starting to get traction in various "mainstream" media outlets.  Is mood shifting enough that the media outlets are feeling the need to feed growing bear constituency?  Who knows, but considering his call for a crash into triple digits has been around since Conquer the Crash was first released, I find the timing interesting if nothing else:Reuters: Prechter says Dow could fall to 1,000New York Times: A Market F

Great Quote About Panic

Published on 2010-07-05 09:14:00

Something to keep in mind as the U.S. plunges down deeper into Primary Wave 3 down:...Systemic panic is a precursor to governmental and political collapse, the third stage in Dmitry Orlov’s five stages of collapse. (Financial, Commercial, Political, Social and Cultural). It’s happening in Greece right now. It signals the beginnings of the end. And even though systemic panic is far more devastating than individual panic, the adaptive response in both cases is the same. Get out of the way, “

Happy Independence Day

Published on 2010-07-04 16:59:00

Today, as we celebrate our independence from the United Kingdom, the cancer of corruption continues to feast on the entrails of the Republic. Enjoy celebrating as a British Corporation has strong-armed a branch of the U.S. military into suspending the First Amendment on the Gulf Coast.Media, boaters could face criminal penalties by entering oil cleanup 'safety zone'by Chris Kirkham, The Time-PicayuneThe Coast Guard has put new restrictions in place across the Gulf Coast that prevent the public

When in the Course of Human Events

Published on 2010-07-02 10:29:00

Happy Fourth of JulyEnjoy the weekend. The rest of the summer may turn into quite the fireworks show.

East Texas Doomstead

Published on 2010-06-30 09:05:00

Anyone interested in a turnkey survival retreat, George Ure has his East Texas ranch up for sale - equipment and solar panels included:George Ure Ranch Sale It's not quite the Vivos Underground Shelter, but it looks like a nice place to ride out the storm...

We Just Broke Dow 10,000! Oh, Wait...

Published on 2010-06-29 15:36:00

Well, I put my increasingly worn Dow 10,000 rally cap back in the drawer today. Please continue to watch the DJIA 9850 level and S&P 1040. A significant break under those levels spells real trouble - in my opinion (this should in no way be construed as trading advice - this is just me discussing the markets used as a measuring stick for socionomic modeling purposes only).

NIL?

Published on 2010-06-29 08:44:00

No incumbents left?Seems like a radical notion to float before the upcoming elections given the track record of the politburoesque nature of incumbents getting re-elected. After a shakeup in the South Carolina primaries, some are starting to think that maybe, just maybe, we may be on the verge of a big shift in the political scene:South Carolina: Outlier or National Precursor?By Patrick Caddell and Kendra StewartThe character of South Carolina has always been distinguished by one very important