“Happy premise number three: even though I feel like I might ignite, I probably won’t.” – Bowfinger
My ex-wife was more versatile than carbon: she could form more than four bonds at the same time.
The economy recently feels to me like a(nother) bad sequel to The Matrix: smoke, mirrors, simulated steaks and guys pretending to be girls directing everything.
It made me think of Bowfinger, a 1999 Steve Martin flick. Steve Martin plays the titular producer, Bobby Bowfinger. His character drops this gem while trying to scam a crew into working on his latest film:
“That’s after gross net deduction profit percentage deferment ten percent of the nut. Cash? Every movie costs $2,184.”
The rest, it’s like Hollywood? Fake sets, fake stars, fake everything. Our economy, I think, has officially hit 8.9 out of 10 on the Bowfinger scale.
It’s a façade of trillions propped on fraud, fiat, and fairy dust. The evidence is everywhere: from federal slush funds laundering cash to “charities” that fund political hit squads, to Somali scams siphoning billions for terrorist toys, to the AI hype train where Nvidia’s® GPUs vanish into vaporware voids. It makes me ask one question:
Have we peaked at “peak fake”?
Genghis Khan stayed in shape during conquests by making sure he hit his steppe goal each day.
Start with the government’s golden shower of “aid.” In the last few months, we’ve watched as the public found out that billions flood from Uncle Sam’s coffers to “nonprofits” and foundations that, surprise, boomerang right back to commentators, politicians, and partisan ops that give the opinions to the Democratically-appointed judges to make sure that their cash lifeline is safe from scrutiny. Sibling marriages are less incestuous.
Remember the post-election blitz Democratic blitz? A Free Press® investigation uncovered a $27 billion rush-out-the-door bonanza, with $20B hitting eight leftist nonprofits faster than Kamala could say “unbourboned by what has been.”
It would be one thing if these were soup kitchens serving the starving, but these are slush funds for radical agendas, exploiting tax dollars to bankroll everything from election meddling to “community organizing” that looks suspiciously like astroturf Antifa® activism. It’s like if United Way™ funded Trotsky but funded by the Czar.
Robespierre, Trotsky, and Pol Pot walk into a bar. There were no survivors.
And USAID? They shelled $44K to Politico™ for subscriptions chump change, but emblematic of how federal funds feather media nests. Nonprofits are NGO scams, funneling billions to progressive power grabs, sometimes even recycling it from overseas. Ukraine is the country that just keeps giving. I mean, if you’re a Democratic politician.
House hearings exposed how these networks weaponize your taxes for ideological insurgency. You’re paying for the people who keep bleating: “muh democracy.” This is Bowfinger budgeting: real costs hidden, profits pocketed by players who script the narrative.
Speaking of Minnesota Somalisota . . . (otherwise known as Mogadishu on the Mississippi), the relentless spotlight has turned from Indian invaders to Somalian swindlers. The “Feeding Our Future” fraud, where Somali networks allegedly pilfered over $250M from child nutrition programs during COVID. That’s bad enough, but state audits have found broader scams at over $1 billion in taxpayer theft, with funds funneled overseas to anti-American terrorists.
Terrorist training: “C-4 yourself.”
I mean, not just anti-American Democrats, but actual “was given a dowry of AK-47s, goats, and C-4” dirka-dirka terrorists.
This isn’t petty theft: this is peak fake philanthropy that rivals the Clinton Foundation. “Charities” as cover for African clan cash grabs, shipping your dollars to fund foes abroad. If you watch videos of interviews with these people, they have no connection philosophically to the United States, wish to live under sharia law, don’t speak English, and don’t have jobs, other than stealing. I guess the only saving grace is that at least these “charities” didn’t pay for Chelsea Clinton’s wedding and the terrorists are fine with using standard NATO rounds.
The next fake? I’ve mentioned it again and again, Nvidia®.
It’s not so much Nvidia™ as the hype around A.I. Nvidia® seems to (mostly) be just selling computer chips. Mostly. Their stock has been exploding upward like a Somalian with a grenade, doubling since April, with a market capitalization flirting with $4 trillion.
Who is buying all those GPUs, and for what? Is it kids playing Fortnite®?
Ed Zitron, tech industry writer, estimates Big Tech needs $2T in AI revenue by 2030 just to justify their A.I. spending binge, or it’s going to lead to a fall that will leave a mark. We’re back to Wilder’s A.I. Paradox: if A.I. is valuable enough to be worth the money that’s being invested in it, it will wreck the economy with a wave of unemployment. If it’s not, it’ll wreck the economy because it failed.
Yay! It’s almost like we don’t have a choice!
My quantum computer wasn’t working, so tech support told me to turn it on and off at the same time.
It’s a lot like the French having a military: if they fight, they lose, and if they run, they lose.
Who is buying this stuff? The usual suspects: OpenAI®, Microsoft™, Oracle©, Amazon™, and Google©. As we’ve shown here before, this investment simply doesn’t have the infrastructure like electricity, PEZ®, or clean water production to support it even if they could build all that stuff. It smells like tulips in the Dutch Republic back around 1637.
Me? I think it’s entirely possible that we’re building a multi-trillion-dollar computer that might wreck our economy if it works. And it might wreck the economy if it doesn’t.
So, is this peak fake?
We’ve got governments gifting billions to grifters on an endless cash spin-cycle. We’ve got immigrants importing scams and exporting cash to jihadi Jamal in Jowhar. Also, we have A.I. alchemists turning silicon into massive debts that might be decadal mistakes.
If it was just that, yeah, it might all work out. But there’s this: the economy is a house of cards built on counterfeit confidence: $36 trillion in fiat debt, infinite inflation, and innovations that might wreck everything if they don’t become a robotic overlord. Is it any wonder that the smallest pebble dropped onto this slope might cause a landslide?
How much dirt is in a six foot deep, three foot diameter hole? None. It’s a hole.
Fake fails eventually, but often lasts longer than almost anyone would believe during inertia.
Will we reset? I think that’s almost certain. When will we reset?
That I can’t tell. As long as everyone agrees that the market is up, the market is up. But Wendy’s™ is getting ready to close 5% of its restaurants because the business is so great. I think the lower end of the income spectrum has thrown in the towel.
“A Dave’s Single™? What, do I look like a Rockefeller?”
Going back to The Matrix: “You know, I know this steak Dave’s Single® doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.”
Ignorance, bliss? What do those words even mean? In other news, I’m in a great mood!
Disclaimer: This isn’t investment advice, this is an Internet humor column. You might want to try those little cartoons they had in Bazooka Joe® gum for better advice on timing and market direction than I could give you. I don’t own any positions in any stock mentioned in this post, and I also do not own (much) real estate on the Moon, though I was sold a 1/10th share in some bridge in New York by an Albanian.
Can’t believe you missed out on “unBourboned by what has Gin”.
If you miss out on placing a pun, it’s no joke.
I guess I just was in low spirits.
It isn’t just big tech, financial services is an enormously profitable “industry” that in general doesn’t provide anything of any actual value.
Exactly.
I’m guessing AI will be like PCs and distributed powerful computers that readers here grew up on starting in the 80s. They were predicted to radically reduce headcount, and did somewhat, but what the futurists forgot is in biz and engineering there is an endless need to know and do more. So people were hired back to run the machines to create more (data mostly) which managers continued to largely ignore.
AI can help create more of the same and people will be needed to drive the machines. So yes, some dislocations for while, but total numbers will stay similar.
Do note that as soon as we become useless, we will be cast aside, not withstanding Musk’s benevolence thinking that the machines will care for us. The “poor” in the US are fed because their vote is important for appearance sake despite the machines obvious faking of a couple of elections. The fake elections were even upheld by the system refusing to look (because they too understood the truth). If the “poor” only understood that eventually someone will decide that the machines can throw an election perfectly well without the “poor”.
Yup, there are some skills that will still be in demand, and some that will go away with no equivalent skills jobs available. This is a big deal, until, as you note, the poor no longer serve a purpose.
Great pun humor once again, John. As for your correct thesis and observations, I have no snide remarks anymore. I am just dumbfounded by the economic hellscape that extends as far as the eye can see and beyond. As you note Ed did a great job on focusing on NVIDIA (thanks for sharing that item with me, I read every word) …
https://www.wheresyoured.at/nvidia-isnt-enron-so-what-is-it/
I honestly don’t see how this junk pile of an aircraft we call “the economy” stays aloft. It’s astounding. And it’s gotta / gonna crash soon.
NPR just announced that saving Western Civilization was racist and that was taxpayer / borrowed funded.
Thoughts on French military, they have won a bunch of little dirty wars that are not publicized. We have not won a war in fifty years, just sent good men to shitholes to die for the MIC
Actually we won the 1st & 2nd Iraq wars and Afghanistan. The the post-war goals were not realistic.
Iran runs Iraq and the Taliban runs Afghanistan is that winning?
Hence the note of post-war expectations.
We won WWII,, but NAZIs run Ukraine. We won the Cold War, but socialists run Euroope.
The real issue with this Unit money is not being able to convert the thing into actual gold (sorry didn’t read the whole article and too lazy to ask the AI to do it). Also, why would anyone trust this new system. The Russian Ruble was put back on the gold standard near the start of the Ukrainian War, but no one uses the Ruble because everyone suspects (reasonably) that Russia will just take your money and keep the gold. The US did it under Nixon, so wouldn’t Russia or this new Unit buzz do it.
I’m really doubtful of anything that throws a bunch of current buzz words into a blender to see if the resulting koolaid will be swallowed.
NPR, ah, yes, accidently ended up at their site where they were crying about a guy who was deported who had . . . a deportation order. Shocking.
Please don’t confuse a military operation for a war. The US-MIC hasn’t lost anything, they achieved all of their goals, human lives are just a liquidable commodity, not an investment to them.
From the coincidence of the day department, my browser (Firefox) desktop with no page loaded gives me about 90 dozen stories to click on with suitable clickbait headlines. The one that catches my eye is “McDonalds pulls AI Christmas ad after backlash.” Unfortunately, and regrettably, it’s a story from the BBC so they don’t let me see the ad. I assume that’s because, being from the “Free Speech UK”, it would probably get them thrown in jail. But since the ad is from The Netherlands, I probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Dude. Internet. Here ya go…
https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34728882/its-the-most-terrible-time-of-the-year/mcdonalds
Interesting commentary….
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/mcdonalds-ai-generated-commercial
It wasn’t bad, people were just sad they didn’t use fake snow and instead used AI snow. And it got them all that publicity.
AI is electrons that don’t exist without electricity. The switch is the economy, and the those that can flip the switch are hoping they can acquire enough wealth to flourish when the switch has to be thrown.
Thus, bitcoin.
Meanwhile, the BRICS countries have swallowed the red pill to escape from the US Dollar illusion matrix. Enter the UNIT, stage right….
https://www.ccn.com/education/crypto/dollar-debasement-fears-brics-gold-backed-unit-currency-explained/
Historical ratios of 17 to one since Roman times say silver should be $240 that ain’t fake
But you don’t explain why gold is worth $4K? Oil is really cheap at $55. And copper does show that extreme jump in value and they had the 2nd and 3rd largest mines shut down due to accidents. Cocoa and coffee have growing problems and commands that scaling.
Production of gold has increased due to more mines going online. How is it not a bubble?
It’s still (my guess) cheap.
Humor requires truth to be funny.
This essay was hilarious.
We are currently at the early Toto-grabbing-the-curtain-with-his-teeth stage of seeing how fake the economy is.
Unfortunately, when Toto gets all the way to the end, we transition rather rapidly to the Death-Star-after-the-photon-torpedoes-go-in-the-ventilation-shaft stage.
Buckle up, campers.
Oh, and Artificial Intelligence is what happens when you unbridle unlimited Natural Stupidity.
Imagine self-driving Titanics and Hindenburgs.
Wait and see.
It will be Idiocracy.
Agreed.
I heard a good joke about inflation last year, but it isn’t worth it anymore.
I tried an inflation joke, but it really blew up on me.
Everything is going to hell and there ain’t nothing we can do about it.
On the other hand, I enjoy it whenever someone uses the word “titular”.
That’s why I use it!
Somewhat related to the fake and gay thing…..I remember a comedian talking about going to the store and trying to buy a few snacks for his daughter. She loved lemon flavor and he was trying to be healthy, so he was looking at the labels. Lemon cookies had artificial lemon flavoring. Lemon soda….artificial lemon flavoring. Lemon cake….artificial lemon flavoring. He went down a long list of items but you get the picture….
The only thing with real lemon juice was furniture polish. As he pointed out…..how is that we as a society value real lemon juice more in furniture polish than in the actual food we eat?????
Just shows how fake and inverted our world really is.
JB
Yes, a fake world.