Is the end nigh?

[Zeedox]

Partly. But there are things people thought they would miss during the pandemic timeframe and now they realized they now no longer need these things.

Gym's are a good example. People found substitutes that worked just as well and have no need to continue a membership. I'm pretty sure in the diet world there's equivalency somewhere whether it's ordering online or deciding it was no longer necessary due to lifestyle changes.

 

[Gomez Adams]

I'll just leave this here:

A growing number of Americans face potentially crippling credit-card debt

Americans are piling on credit-card debt just as interest rates are reaching historic highs. Multiple polls show American consumers sinking deeper into credit-card debt. A new survey from Ban…

thehill.com

Credit card debt in the U.S. hits all-time high of $930 billion—here's how to tackle yours with a balance transfer

U.S. credit card debt hit a record $930 billion with younger Americans having the highest delinquency rate. Select breaks down some tips on how you can pay off credit card debt.

www.cnbc.com

And the straw that's breaking the camel's back is inflation. They racked up all that debt during covid with free money, free rent and rock bottom interest rates and now they're paying 30+% interest on all of it.

Edit to add: that second article is from March of this year. It's already passed 1 trillion dollars since then.

 

[Gomez Adams]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/02/economy/jolts-job-openings-layoffs-march/index.html

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layoffs jumped by nearly 250,000 to 1.8 million — the highest level since December 2020 — while the number of new hires were unchanged at 6.15 million and quits ticked down to 3.85 million from 3.98 million.​

​

Here we go.

 

[Zeedox]

Employers market...

 

[Gomez Adams]

And I'm willing to bet that most of the hires you'll see in the second half of the year will be people they're hiring cheaper to replace people that they had to pay more to hire the last two years.

 

[Gomez Adams]

Wow.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1654169409378713602

 

[Zeedox]

Make mine a Rusty Nail.

 

[Gomez Adams]

I had to Google it.

Then I had to Google Drambuie.

I'm not a fan of mixing Scotch with anything, but that actually sounds good.

 

[Zeedox]

I had two scout leaders who fought in WWII. It was their one after dinner drink at the campfire during outings. Scouts was a lot different in the 1970's.

 

[Zeedox]

'In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight': China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya

Keeping schools open, the lights on and even food on the table is being threatened by debt payments from the $1 trillion Belt and Road program.

fortune.com

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.”

 

[Gomez Adams]

And of course, China will accept as payment deeds to all the property those projects were located in.

 

[Zeedox]

Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same. But why?

Scientists think a traumatized orca initiated the assault on boats after a "critical moment of agony" and that the behavior is spreading among the population through social learning.

www.livescience.com

Schaufelberger said he saw the smaller orcas imitate the larger one. "The two little orcas observed the bigger one's technique and, with a slight run-up, they too slammed into the boat." Spanish coast guards rescued the crew and towed the boat to Barbate, but it sank at the port entrance.

Two days earlier, a pod of six orcas assailed another sailboat navigating the strait. Greg Blackburn, who was aboard the vessel, looked on as a mother orca appeared to teach her calf how to charge into the rudder. "It was definitely some form of education, teaching going on," Blackburn told 9news.

Reports of aggressive encounters with orcas off the Iberian coast began in May 2020 and are becoming more frequent, according to a study published June 2022 in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Assaults seem to be mainly directed at sailing boats and follow a clear pattern, with orcas approaching from the stern to strike the rudder, then losing interest once they have successfully stopped the boat.

This one belongs in here.