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Regardless of what happens with vaccines and Covid-19, debt and energy–inextricably bound as debt funds consumption– will destabilize the global economy in a self-reinforcing feedback. Back in the early days of the oil industry (1880s and 1890s), the product that the industry could sell at a profit was kerosene for lighting and heating.

There is no way a status quo that is completely dependent on the permanent expansion of these interlocking extremes, asymmetries and imbalances can unwind them all and retain its myriad parasitic elites. Thanks to my friend and colleague Mark Jeftovic, the audiobook of A Hacker’s Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet is now available.Hands-free grokking is now accessible.

Freeing ourselves of unwanted/unneeded gift-giving is not just heresy in a debt-funded consumerist economy–it is tantamount to treason. Did you see the new “gotta-have” coffee-pod flavors this Christmas? Crayfish, Spanish Moss, Pumpkin Spicy Radish and Jungle Rot. Yowza, it doesn’t get any better than this….

The idea that debt, leverage, speculation, greed, exploitation and parasitic elites can expand exponentially forever is magical thinking. Contrary to first impressions, I am not a doom-and-gloomer; I’m a systems-cycles-er meaning I’m interested in where systems and cycles are heading.

The incontestable incompetence of the USSA’s monopolies, institutions and agencies is about to take center stage in 2021. When I mention that the U.S.A. feels increasingly like the U.S.S.R., a surprising number of people tell me they feel the same way.

Sorry Fed, it’s too late. The dominoes are already toppling, and every point of failure is being exploited by the catalyzing effects of Covid. America’s many points of failure leverage points where a break brings down the entire system–are falling like dominoes, a process catalyzed by Covid.

If you still believe that America’s Sickcare is “the finest in the world” and is endlessly sustainable, please study these three charts and extend the trendlines. I’ve long been making the distinction between healthcare and sickcare: healthcare is the service provided by frontline operational caregivers (doctors, nurses, aides, technicians, etc.) and sickcare is the financialized system of Big Hospital Corporations, Big Insurers, Big Pharma, etc. and their lobbyists that keep the federal money spigots wide open.

An idea that’s simple as an abstraction–vaccine ID cards–turns out to be extremely difficult once real-world operational realities must be dealt with. Authorities around the world have made it clear that they will do “whatever it takes” to vaccinate their citizenry with one of the first available vaccines.

As for stock markets–the devil take the hindmost. Let’s keep it simple: US dollar up, stocks down. US dollar down, stocks up. Stocks up, billionaires get richer. Since that spot of bother in March 2020 when the US dollar (USD) soared and stocks cratered, the USD has been in a free-fall, boosting the wealth of America’s Robber Barons and various other skimmers, scammers and other undeserving scoundrels.

One sure way to identify a system “optimized for failure” is if all the insiders are absolutely confident the system is “optimized for my success”. I often discuss optimization here because it offers an insightful window into how systems become fragile and break down.

Our national claim of moral superiority is no longer plausible. A very strong case can be made that America is now a moral cesspool. Consider just three cases: Jeffrey Epstein, the CEO of Pfizer and JPMorgan Chase.

Our overweening faith and confidence in our wealth and power make this a dimly lit Thanksgiving. A public expression of gratitude by victorious sports stars, lottery winners, etc. is now the convention in America: coaches, teammates, family and mentors (or agents) are recognized as an expression of the winners’ humility and gratitude for everyone that contributed to the success.

The reality is the roulette wheel is rigged and only chumps believe it’s a fair game. It’s easy to lay America’s visible frustrations at the feet of Covid lockdowns or political polarization, but this conveniently ignores the real driver: systemic unfairness.

What we need is not a return to the corrupt, tottering kleptocracy of 2019, but a re-democratization of capital, agency and money. I’m hopeful about 2021, and no, it’s not because of the vaccines or the end of lockdowns or anything related to Covid. The status quo is cheering the fantasy that we’ll soon return to the debt-soaked glory days of 2019 when everything was peachy.