The Curious Engineer

All blogs / Society / politics / economy

Weblog of Charles Hugh Smith

oftwominds.com

The weblog, feature articles and books of Charles Hugh Smith

Society / politics / economyEssays / personal

’05’10’15’20’25
Posts
611 from 10 Sep 2001 to 26 Oct 2026
Posting
monthly (16 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
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2026 16

  1. Our Vaunted Technology Is Rubbish
  2. The Homogenization of Decay
  3. Moral Collapse / Corruption Rewards the Worst and Penalizes the Best
  4. The Hidden Looting by the Rich leads to the Physical Looting by Those Who've Been Looted
  5. America Is Already Great; Its Leadership Class Is Not
  6. Truth Be Told
  7. Essays on AI
  8. September 2026 posts
  9. August 2026 posts
  10. July 2026 posts
  11. June 2026 posts
  12. May 2026 posts
  13. Aoril 2026 posts
  14. March 2026 posts
  15. February 2026 posts
  16. January 2026 posts

2023 1

  1. Weaponizing Global Depression

2022 1

  1. No, The Economy Is Not Wonderful

2016 1

  1. Introduction (free)

2014 1

  1. Extra-Special Bonus Aphorisms:

2011 1

  1. December 2011 entries

2010 12

  1. December 2010 entries
  2. November 2010 entries
  3. October 2010 entries
  4. September 2010 entries
  5. August 2010 entries
  6. July 2010 entries
  7. June 2010 entries
  8. May 2010 entries
  9. April 2010 entries
  10. March 2010 entries
  11. February 2010 entries
  12. January 2010 entries

2009 12

  1. December 2009 entries
  2. November 2009 entries
  3. October 2009 entries
  4. September 2009 entries
  5. August 2009 entries
  6. July 2009 entries
  7. June 2009 entries
  8. May 2009 entries
  9. April 2009 entries
  10. March 2009 entries
  11. February 2009 entries
  12. January 2009 entries

2008 12

  1. December 2008 entries
  2. November 2008 entries
  3. October 2008 entries
  4. September 2008 entries
  5. August 2008 entries
  6. July 2008 entries
  7. June 2008 entries
  8. May 2008 entries
  9. April 2008 entries
  10. March 2008 entries
  11. February 2008 entries
  12. January 2008 entries

2007 289

  1. What Lies Ahead
  2. Paging Mr. Scrooge
  3. Who Decides What Is Art?
  4. What "Lies" Ahead (Part II)
  5. The Stock Market: Poised on an Edge?
  6. Thank You, Contributors!
  7. Reader Commentaries and Christmas Gift 'Hail Mary'
  8. Bailout: Could Government Actually Be Part of the Solution?
  9. The Politics of Atomization
  10. Feedback Loops of Doom III: Retail, Downtowns and Cash-Strapped Cities
  11. Financial Worry, Health, and the Reverse Wealth Effect As Housing Pops
  12. Muddling Through Malaise
  13. The Unintended Consequences of the Housing Bubble Bursting
  14. Stock Market Santa Claus: Rally or Lump of Coal?
  15. weblog November 2007
  16. The Economist Cover Dollar Indicator
  17. Exhaustion, Jobs and Housing
  18. This Old McMansion
  19. Depression in America
  20. Trends and Countertrends
  21. When an Old Friend Takes Her Own Life
  22. Thanksgiving Essay: In Praise of Average
  23. Speculator or Investor? Does It Matter?
  24. A Power Not To Be Denied: Santa Claus
  25. The Great Fall: How Suburbs De-gentrify to Ghettos
  26. Changing Tides V: A Return to Average
  27. Speculation: Private Profit, Public Losses?
  28. Changing Tides III: Reversal of Wealth
  29. Changing Tides I: Interest Rates and Bonds
  30. Changing Tides II: Could Municipal Bonds Become Risky?
  31. When "Buy on the Dips" Becomes a Pampers Moment
  32. Behind the Curtain II: The Destruction of the Dollar
  33. Behind the Curtain III: The Destruction of Trust
  34. Empire of Lies III: Ministry of Propaganda
  35. Empire of Debt II: The Dollar
  36. Empire of Debt I: The Great Unraveling Begins
  37. Self-Interest in an Interconnected World
  38. weblog October 2007
  39. Empire of Lies II: Japan and Credit Crunch "Solutions"
  40. How To Win the Election in 2008 (Fed Meeting Special)
  41. Beware of Speculative "Sure Things"
  42. Empire of Lies, Kingdom of Magical Thinking
  43. Is a Weak Dollar Really That Wonderful for the Nation?
  44. Why Mortgage Rates Will Rise Despite Fed Rates Cuts
  45. Web of Deception and What Must Be Hidden
  46. Housing Declines: Don't Forget About Inflation
  47. "I'll Just Rent It Out"--Don't Be Too Sure
  48. The Yen Revisited
  49. Thanksgiving Essay II: In Praise of Opportunity
  50. Behind the Curtain I: Do Google Ads Actually Work?
  51. Bottom-Fishing Fallacies
  52. Reader's Choice: World War II books
  53. Hooray for the Small Press--and the Web
  54. Torture
  55. Insight: or, In a New Light
  56. Changing Tides IV: Private Gold Currency
  57. World War II Books
  58. The Christmas Letter I'd Like To See
  59. The Yen, the Dollar and the Dow
  60. Why You Should Pay More Taxes--Yes, You
  61. Feedback Loops of Doom: Healthcare, Taxes and Municipal Bankruptcy
  62. How We Can Have Both Inflation and Deflation
  63. weblog September 2007
  64. How Does a Hedge Work? Here's How
  65. What's Behind the Door?
  66. How the U.S. Media Failed Homebuyers
  67. Privatizing Profits, Socializing Risk: Hypocrisy and Housing
  68. Homeowners, Defective Houses and Big Builders: Justice Is Not Blind
  69. The State of the Novel
  70. Credit Markets: Unregulated and Pathologically Addicted to Lying
  71. 1984 + 23 = 2007
  72. The Slow Strangulation Death of a False God: Debt-Based "Prosperity"
  73. Something Has Changed (Northern Rock)
  74. Surprise Air Attack Destroys Syrian Nuke Site
  75. The Rot Within (or: We Are The Frog in the Pot)
  76. Trade Imbalances and the Dollar
  77. The Closing of the U.S. Home ATM Dooms the Global Economy
  78. The Big One Just Hit
  79. Will Foreign Owners Dump U.S. Stocks and Bonds?
  80. Could Oil Prices Collapse?
  81. The Home ATM (a.k.a. Equity Extraction) Is Broken
  82. Who Wins in the Housing Bust?
  83. The Moral Argument Against All Bailouts
  84. weblog August 2007
  85. What Can We Do About Peak Oil?
  86. Quick Glance at Gold
  87. Production Versus Consumption: Incentives, Soulless Work and a FIRE Economy
  88. Why Any Real Bailout Is Impossible
  89. Financial Extinctions: The Subprime Meteorite Has Hit
  90. If All the Gold's In Private Hands, Is a Gold-Backed Currency Possible?
  91. Two Irresistible Reasons Housing Will Retrace to 1997 Prices
  92. 20 Years of Schooling and They Put Me on the Day Shift--at Starbucks
  93. Seeking Relative Outperformance
  94. The Boomer Wail: But We Deserve a Lifetime Bull Market!
  95. The Cervantes-Liquidity Crisis Connection
  96. The Grateful Dead Inflation Index
  97. Monday Haiku and Agape Community Center
  98. The Mother of All Bail-Outs?
  99. Notes on a "Free Market" and The Great Bail-Out
  100. How 4% of Mortgages Have Brought Down the Entire Market
  101. Friday Haiku and More
  102. Quadruple Whammy Meltdown
  103. The Yen Carry Trade, Risk, Fear and More
  104. weblog July 2007
  105. Housing's Three Black Swans
  106. Sublime Subprime: Beyond The Credit Implosion
  107. From Prophet to Profit(less)
  108. A Nation Obliviously at War
  109. Is the USA a Giant Enron?
  110. Department of Corrections
  111. Living in Extraordinary Times (Peak Oil)
  112. The End of Entitlements
  113. Reader's Journal and Dow-Oil Ratio
  114. China: An Interim Report
  115. Corporate America: Declining Quality, Fraud as Policy
  116. Shanghai Postcard
  117. Insanity and Complacency
  118. Denial, Fragility and a Schizophrenic Culture
  119. A Culture of Deception and Fantasy
  120. A Walled-In Bunch of Houses Is Not a Community
  121. Are People Sensing Something Is Deeply Amiss?
  122. Poor Diet and The Poor
  123. 1893, 1929, 1973, 2007: Echoes of Rolling Thunder
  124. American Identity Literary Contest
  125. Reader Haiku II
  126. weblog June 2007
  127. Food, Water, Weather and Other Interconnected Systems
  128. Science Matters: Global Warming
  129. The Price of Fear
  130. Does Short Interest Really Support the Market?
  131. Construction Defects Haiku and Black Swan Sighting
  132. The 9 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make
  133. China's Brand and the Product Liability Lawsuits to Come
  134. Sword of Doom
  135. An Economy and a Stock Market Built on Lies
  136. Profiting from the Housing Bubble Popping
  137. How the Housing Bubble/Credit Bubble Will Pop
  138. Lyrics/Poems for Our Age
  139. Gratitude
  140. When Lies Become Normal, Is Truth Dead or Just in Hiding?
  141. Our Schizophrenic Media
  142. What's Different Now
  143. The Long Cycles of Prosperity, Decline and Upheaval
  144. Oil, Dirt and Our Food Supply
  145. Context: A Semi-Long View
  146. What Makes a Bubble?
  147. Recklessness, Security and Fantasy
  148. The (Hairless) Monkey Trap
  149. Retiring in an Era of Declining Purchasing Power
  150. Journal May 2007
  151. Journal June 2007
  152. Journal July 2007
  153. Journal August 2007
  154. On-The-Ground Reporting in China
  155. The Hazards of Technical Analysis
  156. Can the U.S. Go Down and China Stay Up?
  157. weblog May 2007
  158. What Can We Learn from France About National Healthcare?
  159. Little Miss Sunshine and American Optimism
  160. A "Free Market" for Labor?
  161. Amazing Offer for the 100th donation
  162. Squelching Freedom of Speech with Lawsuits
  163. Why Interest Rates Will Have to Rise
  164. What To Do about Health Care?
  165. Why China's Growth Is Not Sustainable
  166. Stock Market Needs Suckers, John Q. Public Wary
  167. Am I Crazy, or Is America Crazy?
  168. A Short Meditation on Vineyards
  169. The Uncertainties of Creation
  170. U.S. Presidents: Two-Party Smoke and Mirrors
  171. Don't Cough
  172. The Moon's a Balloon--And About to Pop
  173. Yes, Real Estate Prices Can Drop in Half--Even in Manhattan
  174. Housing Affordability: Lunatics Rule the Asylum?
  175. The Coming Bankruptcy of Government
  176. Risk2
  177. Going to War with the Political Elite You Have
  178. Why China Is Being Scapegoated
  179. The Test of a Nation
  180. The Paradox of Plenty III: Consumerism
  181. Love in the Time of Syphilis and Master Narratives of Morality
  182. The Paradox of Plenty II: Manufacturing
  183. Shanghai Stock Market: the Top Is Near
  184. weblog April 2007
  185. Waste
  186. The Coming Energy Shortage
  187. Advertising, "Empowerment" and Feminism
  188. The Paradox of Plenty I: Resources
  189. Are Global Stock Markets Really That Much Higher?
  190. Health, Healthcare and Bankruptcy
  191. Media Disconnect
  192. Housing - Interest Rate See-Saw
  193. The "No Bad News" Market
  194. Books: Readers' Recommendations
  195. The Rhythm of War
  196. The Sorrow of Europe
  197. Brave New Online World: Marketing, Advertising and Spin
  198. Kurt Vonnegut
  199. Corporate Rot II--Readers Views
  200. Financial Armageddon
  201. Real Estate: Disconnect from Reality
  202. Inflation: Official Denial
  203. Trade War with China: Who Benefits?
  204. A Stock Operator's Intuition
  205. Corporate Rot USA
  206. China Reflections
  207. Euphorestra Side Effect Alert
  208. The Panic of 2007: No Buyers at Any Price
  209. America Now (2007 'debt prosperity') and Then (2011 Depression)
  210. weblog March 2007
  211. The American Diet: Manufacturing Ill Health
  212. Readers On What Makes a Blogger Engaging
  213. China's House of Cards
  214. Diets, Genes and Health
  215. Gordian Knot: Healthcare
  216. The Mortgage Mess: The Soft Underbelly Beyond Subprime
  217. Ads and Donations
  218. Are Blogs the New Newspapers?
  219. Lies, Corruption and Deception in the Global Village
  220. A Look at Gold
  221. Is There Something Rotten in the Market?
  222. The Recession Is Coming
  223. The Subprime Mess: A Personal Account
  224. The Financialization of Oil
  225. Peak Oil: Denial Won't Fill Your Tank
  226. Self-Reliance II
  227. The Healthcare Solution: A Proposal
  228. Kroika! Tower: World's Tallest Bamboo Structure
  229. The Bull: Only a Flesh Wound?
  230. Fiasco: The Derivatives Market Explained
  231. Sub-Prime Meltdown and the Derivatives Fiasco To Come
  232. Market Manipulation
  233. Bonds, Interest Rates and Gold
  234. Readers' Insights 1
  235. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence
  236. "I Wonder". . . If the Media Has Accurately Represented the Risks
  237. weblog February 2007
  238. The China Syndrome--Financial Meltdown
  239. "I Wonder". . . If the Recession Has Already Started
  240. "I Wonder". . . What Will Happen in China
  241. Barrons Says "Buy:" Is This Really The Bottom?
  242. How Does Your Garden Grow?
  243. In 'Managed Care,' Who's Doing the Managing?
  244. Healthiest Cold Cereal Revisited
  245. Who gets Burned in the Subprime Meltdown? Everybody
  246. Hedge Funds and the Pareto Principle
  247. Causality and Patterns (and stock markets)
  248. six (Random) Films
  249. Who's Getting Alpha?
  250. "I Wonder". . . If the Stock Market Will Roll Over
  251. Hedgies Anonymous
  252. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Medication Alert
  253. Can 4% of Homeowners Sink the Entire Market?
  254. The Cover of BusinessWeek as Lending Implosion Bellwether
  255. Recession Warnings
  256. More on Pensions, and a Stock Market Correction?
  257. Will "Creative Destruction" Save the U.S. Economy?
  258. Public Employee Pension Greed and the Gutting of Downtowns
  259. Scale Invariance: Is Your Neighborhood Sliding into Recession?
  260. Japan's Runaway Debt Train
  261. Really Simple Recession
  262. weblog January 2007
  263. Brittleness
  264. Brittleness and Risk, or, Hedge Funds As Rats
  265. Portrait of the Artist II
  266. Archive07
  267. Aspiring Writers: the Worst Advice You'll Ever Read
  268. Portrait of the Artist as... Scullery Maid
  269. Vulnerability, or, Thinking About the Unthinkable
  270. Medicare Waste--50%?
  271. Readers Weigh In--Taxes, Entitlements
  272. U.S. healthcare--Reports from the Front
  273. A Closer Look at Department of Defense (DoD) Spending
  274. Tax Rates and Tax Waste
  275. Tax Rates: Are The Rich Really Different?
  276. The Economics of Racial Prejudice
  277. A Short Essay on Wealth
  278. Wealth Distribution
  279. How Close Are We to Recession and a Bear Market?
  280. Inflation/Deflation V: Bonds and the Dollar
  281. Inflation/Deflation IV: Why Is Gold Outperforming Global Stock Markets?
  282. Inflation/Deflation III: The Limits of Deflation
  283. Inflation/Deflation II: Is The Answer How We Measure?
  284. A Fibonacci Analysis of the Housing Market: Where We're Heading
  285. Inflation/Deflation I: Is Japan an Accurate Model?
  286. Charting Housing's First Dead-Cat Bounce
  287. Charting Housing's Dead-Cat Bounce: TOL and LEN
  288. A Doom and Gloomer Gives Up
  289. Will Thailand Lead the Global Economy Down--Again?

2006 1

  1. The 7 Most Important Stories of 2007

2005 3

  1. Mainstream media articles, 1995 - 2006
  2. Today's wEssay
  3. 2005-2006

2001 1

  1. Books/Films

Undated 260

  1. Archive08
  2. Archive09
  3. Archive10
  4. Archive11
  5. Archive12
  6. Archive13
  7. Archive14
  8. Archive15
  9. Archive16
  10. Archive17
  11. Archive18
  12. Archive19
  13. Archive20
  14. Archive21
  15. Archive22
  16. Archive23
  17. Archive24
  18. Archive25
  19. My political-finance-education-career books (21)
  20. My Novels (9)
  21. Forbidden Stories
  22. Adventures of Daz and Alex
  23. I-State Lines resources and cryptological puzzle
  24. Video Interviews/Discussions
  25. Musings2011
  26. Musings2012
  27. Musings2013
  28. Musings2014
  29. Musings2015
  30. Musings2016
  31. Musings2017
  32. Musings2018
  33. Musings2019
  34. Musings2020
  35. Musings2021
  36. Musings2022
  37. Musings2023
  38. Musings2024
  39. Musings2025
  40. Songs, two jams & one studio (2004 - 2008)
  41. My Mr. McCartney Dream Song
  42. My Bio
  43. My Elevator Speech
  44. The Revolution Trilogy
  45. Our Mutually Reinforcing Crises
  46. The Wealthy Are Not Like You and Me: Our Terminally Stratified Society
  47. I'm Not Really Enjoying the Show
  48. The Child Within Is More Than "The Child Within"
  49. Our Three Taboos
  50. Livelihoods in a Degrowth Economy
  51. Doom Porn and Empty Optimism
  52. A Note on my One-Star Reviews
  53. The Community Economy Needs Its Own Money
  54. The Only Non-Totalitarian Solution to Resource Scarcity: Decentralized Degrowth
  55. CLIME: Community Owned Corporations
  56. The Architecture of a Labor-Backed Cryptocurrency
  57. My hidden history
  58. Website designs, 1998 - 2002
  59. List of resources (2005)
  60. book and film reviews (2005)
  61. What's New
  62. The Kroika Cookie and Biscuit Company
  63. Jank Coffee
  64. Cervantes Beer
  65. Musings
  66. © Copyright/Policies
  67. read samples for free
  68. Introduction (free)
  69. Introduction (free)
  70. Introduction (free)
  71. Introduction (free)
  72. Introduction (free)
  73. Introduction (free)
  74. Introduction (free)
  75. Intro (free)
  76. Intro (free)
  77. First chapters (free)
  78. social media/search
  79. How to Subscribe/ Contribute
  80. original music/songs
  81. my definition of success
  82. Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information
  83. Survival+
  84. November 2011 entries
  85. October 2011 entries
  86. September 2011 entries
  87. August 2011 entries
  88. July 2011 entries
  89. June 2011 entries
  90. May 2011 entries
  91. April 2011 entries
  92. March 2011 entries
  93. February 2011 entries
  94. January 2011 entries
  95. December 2012 entries
  96. November 2012 entries
  97. October 2012 entries
  98. September 2012 entries
  99. August 2012 entries
  100. July 2012 entries
  101. June 2012 entries
  102. May 2012 entries
  103. April 2012 entries
  104. March 2012 entries
  105. February 2012 entries
  106. January 2012 entries
  107. December 2013 entries
  108. November 2013 entries
  109. October 2013 entries
  110. September 2013 entries
  111. August 2013 entries
  112. July 2013 entries
  113. June 2013 entries
  114. May 2013 entries
  115. April 2013 entries
  116. March 2013 entries
  117. February 2013 entries
  118. January 2013 entries
  119. December 2014 entries
  120. November 2014 entries
  121. October 2014 entries
  122. September 2014 entries
  123. August 2014 entries
  124. July 2014 entries
  125. May 2014 entries
  126. April 2014 entries
  127. March 2014 entries
  128. February 2014 entries
  129. January 2014 entries
  130. December 2015 entries
  131. November 2015 entries
  132. October 2015 entries
  133. September 2015 entries
  134. August 2015 entries
  135. July 2015 entries
  136. June 2015 entries
  137. May 2015 entries
  138. April 2015 entries
  139. March 2015 entries
  140. February 2015 entries
  141. January 2015 entries
  142. December 2016 entries
  143. November 2016 entries
  144. October 2016 entries
  145. September 2016 entries
  146. August 2016 entries
  147. July 2016 entries
  148. June 2016 entries
  149. May 2016 entries
  150. April 2016 entries
  151. March 2016 entries
  152. February 2016 entries
  153. January 2016 entries
  154. December 2017 entries
  155. November 2017 entries
  156. October 2017 entries
  157. September 2017 entries
  158. August 2017 entries
  159. June 2017 entries
  160. May 2017 entries
  161. April 2017 entries
  162. March 2017 entries
  163. February 2017 entries
  164. January 2017 entries
  165. December 2018
  166. November 2018
  167. October 2018
  168. September 2018
  169. August 2018
  170. July 2018
  171. June 2018
  172. May 2018
  173. April 2018
  174. March 2018
  175. February 2018
  176. January 2018
  177. December 2019
  178. November 2019
  179. October 2019
  180. September 2019
  181. August 2019
  182. July 2019
  183. June 2019
  184. May 2019
  185. April 2019
  186. March 2019
  187. February 2019
  188. January 2019
  189. January 2020 entries
  190. February 2020 entries
  191. March 2020 entries
  192. April 2020 entries
  193. May 2020 entries
  194. June 2020 entries
  195. July 2020 entries
  196. August 2020 entries
  197. September 2020 entries
  198. October 2020 entries
  199. November 2020 entries
  200. December 2020 entries
  201. December 2021 entries
  202. November 2021 entries
  203. October 2021 entries
  204. September 2021 entries
  205. August 2021 entries
  206. July 2021 entries
  207. June 2021 entries
  208. May 2021 entries
  209. April 2021 entries
  210. March 2021 entries
  211. February 2021 entries
  212. January 2021 entries
  213. December 2022 entries
  214. November 2022 entries
  215. October 2022 entries
  216. September 2022 entries
  217. August 2022 entries
  218. July 2022 entries
  219. June 2022 entries
  220. May 2022 entries
  221. April 2022 entries
  222. March 2022 entries
  223. February 2022 entries
  224. January 2022 entries
  225. January 2023 entries
  226. February 2023 entries
  227. March 2023 entries
  228. April 2023 entries
  229. May 2023 entries
  230. June 2023 entries
  231. July 2023 entries
  232. August 2023 entries
  233. September 2023 entries
  234. October 2023 entries
  235. November 2023 entries
  236. December 2023 entries
  237. January 2024 entries
  238. February 2024 entries
  239. March 2024 entries
  240. April 2024 entries
  241. May 2024 entries
  242. June 2024 entries
  243. July 2024 entries
  244. August 2024 entries
  245. September 2024 entries
  246. October 2024 entries
  247. November 2024 entries
  248. December 2024 entries
  249. January 2025 entries
  250. February 2025 entries
  251. March 2025 entries
  252. April 2025 entries
  253. May 2025 entries
  254. June 2025 entries
  255. July 2025 entries
  256. August 2025 entries
  257. September 2025 entries
  258. October 2025 entries
  259. November 2025 entries
  260. December 2025 entries