Nonprofit hospital and health plan operator Kaiser Permanente on Friday posted a $4.5 billion net loss in 2022, compared to a $8.1 billion net gain in 2021, as the integrated system struggled with billions of dollars in investment losses, a rise in care volume and ongoing labor shortages.
Kaiser’s $4.5B loss in 2022 driven by labor expenses, investment losses — https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/kaiser-reports-13b-operating-loss-2022-driven-by-expenses-inflation/642595/
Yikes.
To the extent that the Fed knows anything, it knows this, and really, really wants to force that blue line down into negative territory if possible. But it also knows that doing so will send prices spiraling out of control – which is another way of saying the dollar will crash (not necessarily against the euro and the yen, which have similar problems, but against oil, lumber, eggs, milk, cars, and all the other things voters buy regularly). The result? Political and financial chaos.
Welcome To the Death Spiral — https://rubino.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-death-spiral
YIKES!
On a positive note I’ll likely be dead when the SHTF.
Millions of US Millennials Moved in With Their Parents This Year – https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/millions-of-us-millennials-moved-in-with-their-parents-this-year/ar-AA14Y5JT#comments
Most Expensive Zip Codes — https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/most-expensive-zip-codes
There is no mystery to controlling inflation. You just have to stop spending money you don’t have…stop lending out money at interest rates below inflation…and stop ‘printing’ up extra money to cover the holes in your budget. Instead, most governments continue to spend and print. Inflation is on the rise almost everywhere. And for the first time in modern history, much of the entire world’s middle class – the people who make the world work – is facing a grim period of higher inflation and lower real standards of living.
Three Strikes, You’re Out! More on the government’s middle class massacre – Bonner Private Research https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/p/three-strikes-youre-out
But wait…it’s worse in North America.
I’m just thankful I haven’t retired yet.
Cryptocurrencies are a social movement based on the belief that markings in a ledger on the internet have intrinsic value. The organizers of these ledgers call these markings Bitcoin, or Dogecoin, or offer other names based on the specific ledger. That’s really all a cryptocurrency is. There’s no magic. It’s not money, though it has money-like properties. It’s not anything except a set of markings. Sure, the technology behind the ledgers and how to create more of these markings is kind of neat. But crypto is a movement based on energetic storytellers who spin fables about the utopian future to come. In a lot of ways, cryptocurrencies are like Florida land that no one ever intends to use. It has value in the moment it is traded, but only because there’s a collective belief that it has some intrinsic worth.
Matt Stoller BIG newsletter 12.07.21 — https://mattstoller.substack.com/
FTX seems to be a textbook example of how many investors are easily hoodwinked by media narratives about the latest investment genius who has magically discovered some new way of delivering unprecedented returns.
How Easy Money Fueled the FTX Crypto Collapse – https://mises.org/wire/how-easy-money-fueled-ftx-crypto-collapse
Good book. It should be required reading for everyone before they invest a single penny.
Update 12.01.22
One more extra credit reading assignment. FTX’s Collapse Was a Crime, Not an Accident
HT to Barry Rithotlz at https://ritholtz.com/ for finding and posting cool charts.
I pass them along because they’re scary.
How’s your 529 plan doing?
Oh shit.
Read the entire article https://mishtalk.com/economics/there-is-only-25-days-of-diesel-supply-the-lowest-since-2008
Now where are all of those electric 18-wheelers to transport goods in a virtually non-existent network of charging stations all dependent upon an aging electric grid prone to failure gonna get here?
Just don’t forage for food unless you know your mushrooms – Fatal Fungi.
HT – The Big Picture
Source: Strategas
DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR brokerage account, IRA, 401k, 403b, 457b, 529, fixed benefit retirement pension annual or any other statement funded with stocks and bonds.
This is a public service message for your mental health.
Hat tip to Mike Shedlock, a registered investment advisor at SitkaPacific Capital Management for highlighting the following video for his blog readers.
This is the portion of the blog post where I typically add a snarky comment.
Nope. Not going to joke about this.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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