Falling on the stairs
"A certain klutz (not naming names) fell on the stairs last night trying to carry the recycling down to the garage, and out to the outside bin."
https://janetannelogan.com/2024/08/10/falling-on-the-stairs/
#instability
A good read.
#China’s #loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of #collapse
A dozen #poor #countries are facing economic #instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.
An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including #Pakistan, #Kenya, #Zambia, #Laos and #Mongolia — found paying back that #debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. And it’s draining foreign currency reserves these countries use to pay interest on those loans, leaving some with just months before that money is gone.
Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.
Countries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants.
In Pakistan, millions of textile workers have been laid off because the country has too much foreign debt and can’t afford to keep the electricity on and machines running.
In Kenya, the government has held back paychecks to thousands of civil service workers to save cash to pay foreign loans. The president’s chief economic adviser tweeted last month, “Salaries or default? Take your pick.”
Since Sri Lanka defaulted a year ago, a half-million industrial jobs have vanished, #inflation has pierced 50% and more than half the population in many parts of the country has fallen into poverty.
Experts predict that unless China begins to soften its stance on its loans to poor countries, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals.
Federal Reserve Policy Errors
The entire notion that central bank policy makes or breaks the economy is the original Policy Error #1. That is to say, whatever policy a central bank pursues is a policy error because every policy is an attempt to manipulate the self-organizing cycle of credit / economic expansion and contraction.
#FederalReserve #bank #policy #wealth #inequality #instability #fraud #mismanagement
Log Home Builders Association ( #LHBA) teaches you how to use #logs that almost all other #builders would reject. Here's my buddy pulling some logs out of a pile I had my neighbor make while clearing his driveway. My friend is going to build a 20x20 #hunting #cabin on his property with them. The excavator operator THANKED ME for saving him the money he would have to spend to dump these logs at the #landfill. You can see my cabin in the background - I got my logs the same way (well - I had to cut them myself, but still....)
You see all the #doom and #gloom on the news - what with #covid, #vaccine #mandates, threats of #unemployment, a #devaluing #dollar, #instability in the world, #evil #bankers pushing for a new world order #NWO, and you wonder what you can do about it. Getting out of #debt is a great way to #StickItToTheMan. #Building a #home with no #mortgage is a great way to stay out of #debt.