My Turn to Turn or Turn In
Two years ago when I was weary of writing about the economy for nothing, I said I would only continue to write on this subject if I could achieve, at least, $500 in monthly support. (Prior to that I never asked for support and gave away my thoughts for years to anyone who would listen.)
Having lost a lot of Trump supporters due to relentless truth, I'm now back below that benchmark. I saw that coming but chose not to stop saying what I believed I had to say about Trojan Trump. Before he even became president, I said he would clearly fail to drain the swamp based solely on how he was going about it. (I often say what others don't want to believe just because it is so.) I also said repeatedly that Trump had no 4-D chess moves that were suddenly going to change the game as QAnon believed, and I said he would leave with the establishment richer than ever and the swamp having swamped him.
It is all no surprise at all to me that it turned out that way, but you don't get rich telling people what they don't want to hear. I understood all along that many of my anti-establishment readers hated hearing it because they wanted to believe someone would take down the establishment that never looked out for them. I get that. Regardless, it ended how I said it would, and that is why I said it. I don't write what I do to be popular. I write with purpose of seeking out truth.
I am thankful to those who stayed with me. As I said two years ago, however, support below the $500 per month level indicates to me there is not broad enough interest to make this writing worth all the time I put in, and I don't mean to make it worth it to me financially because even $500 a month is well shy of $10 an hour. It is a way, however, of measuring how much value others find in it. If there are not even 500 people who find it worth a buck a month or just a hundred who find it worth five bucks a month, what am I doing it for?
So, I'm OK with dropping it and moving on to a new interest. I may anyway. I am considering whether to continue because I am weary of writing about the economy only to watch as it endlessly get stupider and stupider, regardless of my efforts. I don't really presume my efforts will change things. What matters more is whether they help people in some way that I can measure and whether that help grows over time or diminishes.
So, I'm not sure how long I'll continue; but I give you my word that I will let supporters know I am stopping well before I actually pull the plug so they can stop their support and get value past the time of their support. In the meantime, I'm going to try a new strategy.
What I post for free for everyone will be much more limited, and what I post for Patrons will be more frequent. I'll write basic overviews on this site freely to all, but I will go deeper into most of those stories only in my Patron Posts. That will help keep both kinds of articles a little smaller and break complex topics into separate reads on separate days to give your mind a break.
Thus, I recently wrote what I hope is an informative and slightly entertaining overview of the recent Gamestop shorting scandal, and have now added my latest Patron Post, which goes deeper into the story, describing the following:
More on how T-Rex (the big investors) got eaten by the velociraptors (the Robinhood/Reddit crowd).
Who is now really stocking whom in this game of big-game hunters.
How the dinosaurs are already fighting back and winning again as they always do.
Thus, the retail investment crowd is already feeling the teeth of the old wounded Wall-Street warriors.
And the regulators are rushing back in to re-rig the game.
How this can be cleansing for the long-rigged market only IF the old gamers fail at taking back the game.
While that would create a huge crash, it would be a great but unlikely outcome.
Examples of how the last stage of exploding bubbles always looks just like this.
It's an old story, told by many of the market's old story tellers, whom I quote, yet it replays at every major bubble burst because too many people never learn the lessons of history. As I say, people reject truth they don't want to hear.
As I ponder my new year resolutions, thank you to all who have been regular in support even when you don't agree with me because you value someone who, at least, TRIES to tell the unvarnished truth plainly. That doesn't mean I always know what the truth is, but I try to; and I tell it like I believe it, regardless of cost. It's why I write, but there are many things more fun to write if I'm mostly just writing for myself.
(And fair warning to those who stayed with me because they hated Trump anyway: I'm not likely to be any easier in the months ahead, if we continue, on Biden & Co., as I am totally non-partisan and think party loyalty is a big part of our nation's problem. So, it will depend on what Biden does.)
Update: If you're a Patron at the $5 level or above, I've just posted another Patron Post titled "QAnon and on and on."