Men in the city are yelling fire and rushing for the exits. Another eventful week ends a fiery March. What began as a small brush fire in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) followed by a harried weekend buyout of Credit Suisse that almost certainly bore an uncanny resemblance to the Emergency Meeting in Margin Call (see below) is setting off smoke alarms everywhere. More of the financial elite are worried about contagion, about tremors in a wobbly housing market and overstretched consumer credit. Some are skewering the Fed for reckless rate hikes trailing decades of bubblenomics. The rats are jumping ship because a fire sale is coming.
Where there's smoke, there's fire and Deutsche Bank is smoky. On Friday the 24th of March, a flurry of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) (insurance against bankruptcy) abruptly spiked in price signifying markets are soon to set Deutsche ablaze. Speculators are moving into attack formation like white blood cells in search and destroy mode. The besieged German Chancellor Olaf Sholtz – like his fellow embattled technocrats in DC, London and Paris delivered a shrill message of calm to uneasy investors. If there was any doubt, there is none anymore. No one believes the gerontocracy except Baby Boomers, and that will soon change.
No one believes the gerontocracy except Baby Boomers, and that will soon change.
Rats Jumping Ship
Meanwhile, celebrated Wall Streeters have started sounding off. As Fed Chair Powell adeptly buried the lead in remarks at the latest Fed meeting (he barely mentioned SVB), Bill Ackman warned of further bank runs, and Barry Sternlicht and Leon Cooperman admonished the Fed and warned investors to prepare for significant economic pain, real estate risk, and deeper stock sell offs ahead. Weeks earlier, Sam Zell told Bloomberg pointedly that America is on track to become the Weimar Republic (see below). After trillions printed in the last two years alone, trillions more since 2008, and hundreds of billions fire hosed direct-to-consumers-and-businesses via stimulus checks, the US dollar is trending toward monopoly money status. The world is forced to use the Greenback until someone stops using it – what we call de-dollarization – an unraveling that began in March 2022 when Russia pegged the Ruble to oil and natural gas exports.
German and Swiss banks are not the only ones in trouble. Euro markets received another detox of rate hikes from the Bank of England (BOE) and the European Central Bank (ECB) in sync with the Fed. Where will turmoil strike next, what is the next Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI) to fall before the “chamber of mirrors” breaks? We can only speculate of course (Commercial real estate?), but who would have thought that inflation – the proxy crisis – would so blind central bankers to financial instability – the existential crisis? Perhaps they are downplaying the risks, simply trying to restore street cred after years of ZIRP, or, more disconcerting – they know something we don’t? Either way, there is no amount of money to secure honor among thieves.
Broken Trust
The generational divide between Baby Boomers and their offspring is once again at play. Men in the city turned away from legacy media years ago. We stopped listening to devious politicians, tenured professors, and divested from a corrupt and broken system. Baby Boomers – America’s wealthiest and most empowered demographic – has not sold its stock yet. Their reaction to the banking bedlam so far has been tragically complacent, to double down on 20th century “safe” havens like too big to fail banks and US Treasury Bonds (USTs), to believe flailing septuagenarians that all is fine. For the moment, their faith is intact.
The trigger that shatters Baby Boomer trust might be close at hand.
The trigger that shatters their trust might be close at hand. A very fraught situation is worsening in Paris where President Emmanuel Macron is barely holding onto power. There is open carnage in the streets as enraged Frenchmen wreak havoc against a House of Lies drowning in decades of deception. Parisians were lied to about pensions, they were lied to about economic mismanagement and political corruption. A recent visit from Larry Fink (BlackRock) further antagonized widespread suspicions of Globalist scheming. Undoubtedly, top of mind for Frenchmen is what other truth bombs await them.
American Baby Boomers face the same disillusionment. They have been lied to about everything: crooked wars overseas, emptied Social Security trusts, Wall Street bailouts, fair elections, and a violent national border crisis. Last year in November, while in Paris, I wrote: when Parisians thunder, the world changes. What will American born Baby Boomers do when they realize their wealth has evaporated, that a wretched gerontocracy sold them out, that everything they believed in is no longer true? What will they do when they realize America has fallen?
What will Baby Boomers do when they realize America has fallen?
In a sentence, they will fire sale America’s toxic assets. There will be a mass exodus out of SIFI banks, a Blitzkrieg off loading of US government debt, much of which is held by US pension funds, debts that will never be repaid. Eventually – maybe before, maybe after – a global liquidation of USTs will ensue. The reckoning is close at hand and the ire of deceived American Baby Boomers will shock the world when it does. Hopefully, Boomers will remember Ralph Waldo’s dictum, “There is no knowledge that is not power.” Let truth be salvation not damnation.
Neo-Masculine Leadership
Lately, I have been on Telegram and Twitter interacting with various groups from Bitcoiners to investors and political junkies. From what I see, Millennials and Zoomers are ready for what is to come. Men in the city are more awake than is widely appreciated. It’s true, many welcome financial Armageddon as the gateway to a better monetary system (Bitcoiners,) some hope to punish a wayward world for its sins (Red Pillers), others see the end of times (Doomers), and still more are simply bored and eager for excitement. Regardless, these young men have come to terms with the demise of the old system and that is the first step.
Awakening is always traumatic as it has been for Millennials and Zoomers over the last decade.
Neo-Masculinity is a movement of restoration. It is not simply about empowering new voices, evangelizing a new ethos, and spreading adoption of cryptocurrencies. It is also about leadership. Awakening is always traumatic as it has been for Millennials and Zoomers over the last decade. More savvy Baby Boomers will adapt and quickly jettison the old ways to embrace a new epoch. Others will be shaken and some inconsolable. It is incumbent upon us to help them convalesce, to restore a broken faith in the generation that raised us. Perhaps that moment will commence our reign?
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