My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking — to talk with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you…
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President. 12 March, 1933
It’s been ninety years, and we still haven’t learned the lesson.
(more…)“Climate change is an existential threat to humanity!”
No matter how many times I read that line, it fails to speak to me. For one thing, the idea it encapsulates is just too big; it’s too short a sentence to properly describe what’s about to happen. Oceans will rise, wildfires will spread, flash floods and mudslides and hurricane seasons more severe than ever before — that’s all intelligible. But adding them together and saying that “Humanity is doomed unless we do something!” just doesn’t mean anything to me. The scope is far too broad and ill-defined for the imagination to easily grasp.
(more…)Note: The Not Fake News does not give investment advice; the following is opinion only. If you come to us for advice on what to do with your money, you probably deserve what you get anyway, but it needed to be said.
It’s counterintuitive as all get-out, but it’s happening anyway. In the face of massive business closings, record unemployment due to COVID-19, and the Federal government effectively printing trillions of dollars based in nothing but faith in the future, the stock markets nevertheless are booming. So — how is this possible?
(more…)The Not Fake News, as a general rule, tends to focus on events that fell out of the headlines too soon, or angles on stories that have plenty of merit but somehow get discarded by the major media. My reasoning behind this is simple: CNN has a zillion reporters, a massive staff, and a huge budget. I’ve got me, my internet Brain Trust of volunteers, and whatever spare change people kick into the pot to pay my web costs.
There’s no need for me to repeat work that CNN (more…)
The Not Fake News 