Economic pressures

[Danny B]

The last decade has been pretty screwed up. The next will be much worse

50 Numbers From 2019 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
50 Numbers From 2019 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
The decade of debt.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKBN1YY09Y
12/31 U.S. population makes fewest gains in decades, Census Bureau says – NY Times
12/31 Nullify government tyranny; harness the power of your discontent – Rutherford
China's Planned Bitcoin-Killer Sparks Major Concerns
""The currency is not for speculation," Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency research institute, said over the weekend, according to the official Shanghai Securities News and reported by China's South China Morning Post newspaper.

"It is different to bitcoin or stable tokens, which can be used for speculation or require the support of a basket of currencies," Mu said, with the newspaper adding "the top-level design, formulation, functional research and testing of the Digital Currency Electronic Payment had been completed," with "the next step" to roll out pilot programmes."
Everybody else wants a token to use to speculate. Maybe, this is the real deal.

Australia wins the porn race.
https://sputniknews.com/society/2019...17-63665&ues=1
This is a cross post about the end of globalization.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/477112-roar...ation-end-era/

State Dept Official Slams Russia, China for Joint Naval Drills With Iran, Urges Sanctions on Tehran
"WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A senior State Department official on Monday criticized Russia and China for holding joint naval exercises with Iran and urged them to instead join the campaign of sanctioning and isolating Tehran.

"Now it’s not the time for governments to be doing any sort of military exercises with this regime."
Yep, with israel in the driver's seat, we MUST have war with Iran.
Facebook busts Israeli influence campaign that targeted elections on 3 continents
https://www.rt.com/news/459542-faceb...ign-elections/
I'm shocked, I tell you,,, shocked.
http://themillenniumreport.com/2017/...can-be-broken/

Zero Hedge
Consumer Confidence Disappoints As Hope Fades
Different Acronyms, Same Disaster: Bond Ratings Are Once Again For Sale
Yep, the rating agencies are once again going to blow smoke.
Trump Encourages Iraqi "Freedom" Uprising Against Iran; Esper Sends More Troops To Embassy
Surprise, surprise, they attacked the American embassy in Iraq
Trump Blames Iran After Protesters Storm US Embassy In Baghdad
We murdered millions of Iraqis but, that isn't relevant here.
Watch: Apache Gunships Attempt To Disperse Iraqi Mob As Kataib Hezbollah Flags Erected Over Embassy Walls
I'm sure that they have their reasons. Could some third party be encouraging them to force Trump into war with Iran?

We Were Warned About The Deep State, But Refused To Listen
"What has happened to Donald Trump can happen to any of us. It is time to put the intel agencies back into a properly monitored corral. Otherwise, we will lose this Republic."
ZH, New Zogby Poll Shows Trump Beating All Dem Candidates
12/31 Trump will easily be defeated in 2020, perhaps a landslide – Mish
California's Woke Legislation For 2020: Students Can't Be Suspended
"Because of course... racism"
So, we can't grade them, discipline them or, get rid of them.

"Political correctness recently took a dangerous turn in the UK when the National Health Service announced that hospital patients who use offensive, racist, or sexist language will cease receiving medical care..."
Lefties in action.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/...rk-campus-2019
Here's an article that I just can't judge.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-12-...ing-stars.html

[Danny B]

The Blob State, California edition

WHY CALIFORNIA IS BROKE – Gary K

[Danny B]

Everybody loves to make predictions

Everybody is up skiing and, markets are quiet for now. Those who are not on holiday are all making predictions for the coming decade. I found a good article that you should read. I'll do a couple of excerpts.

"Adam Smith noted that a nation can take a lot of ruin. For decades Westerners have been doing their best to figure out how much. Not only that, but a progressive cultural revolution starting in the 1960s has upended all Western traditional values and morals, and so the present generations are ill-prepared to cope with the massive challenges that lie ahead."

1 . The productivity of debt in most major economies is already below 1, meaning that it takes several dollars in new debt to create a dollar of GDP. This is particularly the case with government debt,

2 . This in turn means that interest rates can never be normalized, otherwise such debt loads would become immediately unsustainable. Financial repression will thus continue
So, pension funds, et al have NO chance in the future

8 . This situation is particularly serious in the US, where it is very possible that the government will lose control of its budget deficit at some point

9 . Mass migration into the Western world will continue unabated driven by massive demographic imbalances between developed and developing countries, and Western elites seeking to maintain control by "dividing and conquering" their societies and absorbing the spoils into supranational compacts that they control;
Uh, don't count on having ANY control.

11 . "Automation, the replacement of humans with machines, will accelerate and start replacing enough jobs to generate even more income inequality between workers and capital owners,"
Having most of the population out of work will result in "income inequality"

14 . "The political landscape will massively change in the US. The fragmentation of political views and aspirations already means that a two party-system is incapable of dealing with differing objectives inside their respective electorates. "
respective electorates " This means that the free $hit army will never get along with people who actually do productive work.

15 . immigrants tend to vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party. As a result Texas and other states will likely swing Blue by the end of the decade, meaning that Republicans will be locked out of power for a generation+

18 . Societal fragmentation will not be limited to the US, far from it. French President François Hollande warned in 2016 (after he left office, of course) that his country would eventually break apart.
Of course, it has nothing to do with the muzzies
"In fact the new decade was inaugurated with dozens of cars set on fire in Paris."
Almost 1,000 cars torched around France on New Year's Eve
The number of vehicles set alight on the night of December 31st 2018 climbed to 1,031 compared to 935 the previous New Year's Eve,

19 . "The EU will become increasingly authoritarian to prevent more BREXITs and keep that political project going. Any dissent of its main guiding policies, from the environment to immigration, is already being stamped out under the guise of "hate speech".

22 . The West thrived when its working and middle classes thrived. These are the people who consume, who largely maintain the national traditions, who fight their wars. Financially and demographically they are in a very tough spot, with birth rates far below replacement levels and life expectancy plunging due to drugs and health problems.

24 . "Thanks to incredible short-sightedness and (frankly speaking) stupidity from the NeoCons in Washington DC it will now embrace its Eastern future. "
Most of the immigration to israel is from Russia. Why would israel be so adamantly against Russia?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/edge-...atias-tavares/

The U.S.S.R. had their collapse in 1989. Russia sold oil out the back door to earn money however they could. Since then, they have recovered and, gotten their house in order. Their national debt is zero. Corporate & private debt are very low. Russia has all the natural resources that everybody needs. Investment capital is flowing in.
https://www.rt.com/business/477107-r...nts-sanctions/

[Danny B]

FED independence, wars and elections

As everybody and their dog already know; the U.S. military admitted that the Gulf of Tonkin incident never happened.
"CNN) -- In public, President Lyndon Johnson never wavered in his support for the U.S. military's role in Vietnam. "
"Russell, one of Johnson's political mentors, describes the precarious situation of South Vietnam as "the damnedest worst mess that I ever saw ... I do not see how we are ever going to get out of it without getting in a major war with the Chinese "
"Johnson said he had felt the same way for six months, and told Russell his top advisers were telling him the United States had no choice but to show power and force in Vietnam. If not, Johnson said, South Vietnam would collapse, leading to a domino effect"

Johnson needed to pay for this war.
"he had proceeded to bully the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates as low as possible. When the Fed made a show of resistance [in 1965], Johnson summoned William McChesney Martin, the Fed chairman, to his Texas ranch and physically shoved him around his living room, yelling in his face, "Boys are dying in Vietnam, and Bill Martin doesn't care."
"58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War."
How could the FED be independent when there was always an election coming, just around the corner?

"Governments can pay their bills in three ways: taxes, debt, and inflation. The public usually recognizes the first two, for they are difficult to hide. But the third tends to go unnoticed by the public because it involves a slow and subtle reduction in the value of money, a policy usually unarticulated and complex in design.

In this article, I will look under the hood of the Federal Reserve during World War I to explain the actual tools and levers used by monetary authorities to reduce the value of the public's money in order to fund government war spending. "
"the Federal Reserve used inflation to help pay for US participation in World War I. It did so by creating and issuing dollars in return for government debt. In effect, the Fed's balance sheet became a repository for war bonds."
"Because the 100% "real"-backing requirement for notes could not be satisfied by Fed holdings of government debt, the Fed could only issue a limited number of notes for government debt before running up against the 100% requirement."

"Thus, the real-bills doctrine as set out in the Federal Reserve Act significantly hemmed off the Fed's balance sheet from serving as a bin for the accumulation of government debt and claims to government debt. To help finance the war, which it had entered into in April 1917, the US government would have to open up the Fed's balance sheet to the Treasury's war debt."
"With the United States gearing up for the war, President Woodrow Wilson announced in April 1917 the first war-bond issues, or "Liberty-bond" drives. To help prop up the war-bond market, another change was made to the Act to further pry open the Fed's balance sheet to the acceptance of government debt."
"The modifications that freed up the Fed's collateral requirements now allowed the Fed's balance sheet to act as a very effective "sink" for the accumulation of government war debt."
"In this way a portion of war costs were paid for by everyone who held the weakening dollar. Indeed, Friedman and Schwartz estimate that 5% of the cost of the war was funded by Fed inflation.2"
"With the Fed's balance sheet widened to accept loans on government debt, the state's ability to fund wars via inflation has been ensured. Independent central banking, established in the 1950s, has only gone part way in reducing the Treasury department's ability to use the Fed to subsidize wars."
https://mises.org/library/how-fed-he...ay-world-war-i
How could the FED be independent when there was always a war to be fought?

[Danny B]

Our mysterious downturn,,, Our NEEDY government

John Mauldin is a real smart guy. He has been writing for a long time.
"last week I talked about the political side of this. Our embrace of either crony capitalism or welfare statism is going to end very badly. Ideological positions have hardened to the point that compromise seems impossible.

Central bankers are politicians, in a sense, and in some ways far more powerful and dangerous than the elected ones. Some recent events provide a glimpse of where they’re taking us."
The article is very good It talks at length about how bad things have gotten.
"Walter Bagehot, one of the early editors of The Economist, wrote what came to be called Bagehot’s Dictum for central banks: As the lender of last resort, during a financial or liquidity crisis, the central bank should lend freely, at a high interest rate, on good securities."
That is what the original charter of the FED allowed it to do. BUT, there was always an economy that needed 'padding" before an election,,, OR, there was always a war needed to overcome a downtrend brought on by crony capitalism and regulatory capture."Liquidity dried up, interest rates spiked, and the Fed stepped in to save the day. I wrote about it at the time in Decoding the Fed.

Story over? No. The Fed has had to keep saving the day, every day, since then."
https://www.mauldineconomics.com/fro...lude-to-crisis
The story goes on, examining in detail where this mysterious downturn came from. In 1920, FED head Benjamin Strong started illegally selling GOV securities on the secondary market. This combined with regulatory capture created the roaring 20s. The expansion resulted in the depression. The Smoot-Halley tariff act didn't help.

Today, we have the same monetary expansion. We have a tariff act. Regulatory capture has brought us the same wealth inequality. This time around, automation and fractional reserve banking have made the situation much worse.

Post WW II, America had 3% of the wrold's population and 50% of the manufacturing capacity. Manufacturing is the premier value-added industry. ALL of this has fallen by the wayside. Everybody rebuilt their manufacturing capacity. Our wages and purchasing power have crashed. Wages have barely gone up since 1971. The advent of the computer made us more productive but, less employed.
The ENTIRE system is trying to outrun fate. Our previous high-wage and high-income system has shifted to a low-wage and high-income regime. The CBs are pumping in $trillions trying to maintain high prices when the wages are gone. THAT is why the pumping can't taper off. There is no mystery.

1/02 Subprime will be back with a vengeance in 2020 – Liberty Nation Buy more popcorn.
1/01 Catastrophe awaits unless feds rein in the budget – Washington Examiner
RIIIIGHHT, stop spending.
1/02 The global financial system is a big Rube Goldberg machine – Bruce Wilds
1/02 Used heavy duty truck prices collapse as much as 50% on ugly outlook – Zero Hedge
1/02 Helicopter money is here as Fed monetizes bonds sold just days earlier – Zero Hedge
No, NO Armstrong said that all of that was temporary.

Charles Hugh Smith makes the point that the recent printing from the FED is tiny compared to the $33 trillion of the stock market.
Understood in this fashion--the modest size of "Not-QE" compared to the $33 trillion stock market, and the complete absence of direct Fed control of the stock market--the psychology of buying in anticipation of others buying in a Pavlovian response to Fed money-printing is fundamentally a form of magical thinking that reflects the durability of the Pavlovian reaction, not actual Fed control of the stock market.
The difference between the two will start to matter when a sell-off overwhelms the Fed's "Not-QE" popgun. Don't think it won't happen just because it hasn't happened yet.
oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: The Fed's "Not-QE" and the $33 Trillion Stock Market in Three Charts

The fear & greed gauge is absolutely maxed out at greed.
https://realinvestmentadvice.com/30-...d-you-sell-it/
Gresham's Law states that the best currency/ money will go into hiding. A currency is a currency and,,, a bond is a bond. Nobody wants U.S. bonds. EVERYBODY wants U.S. currency. There is over a $trillion hiding in vaults around the world.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/st...ve-disappeared

[BroMikey]

Central banks will collapse

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRw9f2VhuyY[/VIDEO]

[Danny B]

System dis-integration

Bro Mikey, that is an interesting vid But, I find too many omissions and inaccuracies. Wealth transfer via the fractional reserve system is definitely a big problem. The VID makes no mention of automation.
Society and, our standard of living improve physically by continuing price deflation in relation to wages. Automation and outsourcing have driven down wages. That genie can't be put back in the bottle. If outsourcing is cut way back, foreigners have fewer dollars to buy our exports. There is a general recognition that globalism has only benefited 6 nations.
America still needs to import a LOT of stuff. With fracking dying, we're definitely going to have to import a lot more oil in the future. Import-export can't just be shut down. What about our trade deficit going forward?

"Speaking of magical thinking, take a look at Apple's operating income, which has actually declined while its price per share doubled from $145 in January 2019 to $293 in January 2020."
Everybody may want to get rid of the FED but, monetary stimulation is the only thing holding up the house of cards in the face of falling incomes and, falling consumption.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tw...ess-youre-bear

The FED seriously altered the economy. It held back our complete fall to a global mean wage. That doesn't mean that everything was fine for the last decade.
The Cold, Hard Facts Which Prove That The Past Decade Was Actually Quite Awful For The U.S. Economy

[Danny B]

Armstrong and the global crisis.

Armstrong is predicting a crash of the world economy on January 18, 2020. He knows very well what will precipitate this crash.
Looking for hints.
" My question is this. Do you think you will be able to assist central banks in avoiding such a meltdown?"
ANSWER: I wish I could answer that question in a positive manner. Unfortunately, in this instance, the epicenter is outside the domestic jurisdictions of even the Federal Reserve. To avoid this crisis, it will require political action, not just central banks. Thus, I do not believe anyone can avoid this mess because it is being driven by politics which would require a major shift in thinking. "

J. M. Keynes said that we needed perpetual war to keep the economy stimulated. I don't think that he mentioned State bankruptcy as a result of perpetual war.

" When the Repo Crisis erupted, the Fed could no longer entertain lowering interest rates when the free market was raising them.
Even if the Fed called me in and gave me dictatorial powers over domestic policy, there is nothing I could do the prevent this crisis because it is outside the United States which is spreading and has become a cancer that threatens the global economy. The Fed has rejected negative interest rates for a very good reason."

OK, who are the candidates? Is it the actions of the ECB?? the BOJ,,, the PBOC??
Armstrong is really down on socialism. He probably thinks that the ECB is what will blow first. Dunno BUT, his program will be unbiased.

"These people come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories and claim this is helicopter money to just Quantitative Easing. In both circumstances, those theories were predicated upon a recession/depression which meant classic Keynesianism was being applied to increase the quantity of money to “stimulate” the economy. But unemployment is back to 1960s levels and the economy is ok."

He can't be that blind and stupid.
"They just spout out the same nonsense they have done since 2007 without ever noticing that QE was buying long-term debt BECAUSE central banks do not control the long end of the curve. Central banks have dominated the short-term interest rates. So when the Repo Rate shot to 10%, that exposed the fact that the central banks are LOSING control of even the short-term rates"

The rates shot to 10% because of the failure of derivatives from Deutsche bank. Socrates gets the RSS feeds. Surely, Socrates must know the truth.

"I warned that there had been a destruction of the bond markets and I did a video interview on that when I was in Germany last year which was published in April 2019. I warned about the liquidity crisis and Basel III, which has also contributed to creating the current Repo Crisis. I also warned that we would enter a liquidity crisis come September."
Did he mention that the bond markets were destroyed by war financing?

"Beyond that, I must be cautious with this crisis because it is the Mother of All Financial Crises and it seems only professionals even grasp the crisis. I have contacts at the very core of the marketplace who see this coming but cannot speak due to confidentiality agreements. The best I can do is keep it to a private service for the time being. I really do not have any choice. The implications can be too great and too broad. It is not something that will affect just Repo. That is simply where it begins. We are talking about a crisis that will dominate the next 8.6-year business cycle. Because this involves governments, they will search desperately for someone else to blame."

"Commodity Futures Trading Commission tried to subpoena me for a list of all our clients worldwide. I had to defend against them in court and prevailed ironically because there is no law against manipulating the world economy and that is just a joke. So please respect, with this one, I just need to be cautious. I can only discus that in a limited service."

He knows the when, where and why. He does not want to get blamed.

[Danny B]

The original sin

So, who do we blame for the endless wars?
The Romans kicked things off to a good start. But, they debased the Denarius so badly that the empire fell apart. The Roman emperor forbade Romans from going out into the countryside to do subsistence farming. The population of Rome fell from one million down to 20,000.

"Central banks were first established in the 17th century, with the primary purpose of providing war finance to governments"
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...JQzKeomBa-F8QE

Winston Churchill;
"WW II could have been avoided but, the bankers wanted it"
'Hitler's only crime was in trying to take Germany out from the control of the European bankers"

So, the bankers initiated WW II by signing a mutual-defense pact with Smigly of Poland. Smigly attacked Germany believing that France & England would save him. They didn't but, they had a causus beli to invade Germany. This resulted in the Pound Sterling losing it's status as the reserve currency. England handed off the baton of empire to the Americans.

The original charter of the FED was not expansive. It allowed overnight loans to member banks for good collateral only. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. The FED was forced to buy war bonds.

I would have to say that militaristic expansion and empire building were the prime cause of the "inflation tax" that is dragging us all down.

[Danny B]

Bubbles,,, new lies & old lies

As we get closer to our crash date,,, whatever that may be, things just get crazier.
"(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The U.S. economic recovery that began in June 2009 is now in its 127th month, which is a record."
"Breaking things, in the literal sense, is also at an all-time low. Major powers have been at war with each almost continuously for over 500 years. But starting in 2000, they have stopped fighting in an unprecedented period of peace in human history."
"There is, however, an unconventional source of strength that emerged in the last decade that also doubles as its biggest risk: central banks. As of November, the collective balance-sheet assets of the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Bank of England stood at 35.9% of their countries’ total gross domestic product, up from about 10% in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

At the same time, the latest World Bank data show that developed country GDP expanded to $54.2 trillion at the end of 2018 from $46.1 trillion a decade earlier. Restated, central bank balance sheets grew at faster rate, by $9.9 trillion, than their underlying economies, which have expanded by $8.1 trillion,"
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/centr...100042416.html

"Physical damage from more powerful natural disasters is on the rise. 2017 and 2018 were the costliest back-to-back years for economic losses related to natural disasters"
https://www.rt.com/business/475559-n...tdown-trigger/
According to Suspicious Observers,, weather damage will get far worse.

"In order to combat California wildfires, we need to abandon “aspirations of home ownership, and belief in the importance of private property.” "For the greater good, we must collectivize and live on communal (i.e. government controlled) land."
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2020-...ias-wild-fires

[B]Half the world's banks are too weak to survive downturn - McKinsey [/B
https://www.rt.com/business/471496-b...k-to-survive/]

Here is a good explanation of REPO from Armstrong.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...e-repo-market/
NB, he is lying through his teeth.

Follow the money;
New York Times Reveals America's Weapons-Makers Drive Trump-Impeachment
"included powerful evidence that the impeachment-effort against US President Donald Trump is motivated, in part if not totally, by a desire by US Senators and Representatives - as well as by career employees of the US Departments of Defense, State Department, and other agencies regarding national defense - to increase the sales-volumes of US-made weapons to foreign countries. "
"Times states repeatedly that boosting corporations such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Northrop-Grumman, has been a major — if not the very top — motivation driving US international relations, and that at least regarding Ukraine, Trump has not been supporting, but has instead been trying to block, those weapons-sales "
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...mp-impeachment

"As we witnessed during the Great Depression, or in 2008, the system can only be propped up artificially for so long before the bubble pops. In past instances of central bank intervention, the window for manipulation is around ten years between events, give or take a couple of years"
"Central bankers and their cohorts manipulate economic data and promote the false notion of a boom before almost every major crash because they WANT to ambush the populace. They WANT to create panic, and then use it to their advantage as they rebuild and mutate the system into something unrecognizable only decades ago. Each consecutive crash contributes to the collapse of the whole, until eventually the society we once had is barely a distant memory.

"This only reinforces my theory that the system is due for another major engineered crash event, and that the ongoing collapse of the US is soon to accelerate."
"The only concern of the banks is that they do not take the blame as their engineered collapse of the old world order hits the public with increasingly painful consequences. These consequences are already becoming visible."
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ke-us-collapse
I'm doubtful of the conclusions drawn here. "They" tried to get a carbon tax to finance the NWO. Causing a devastating worldwide crash is not going to usher in the NWO. The only people who would be interested in causing this much damage would be the people who are pushing for drastic population reduction.

The Last Time Markets Were This Over-Valued, DotComs Crashed & The VIX Complex Collapsed
This time IS different.
1/04 U.S. mfg slump worsens in December as ISM index falls to 10-year low – MW

"China saw record total system Credit growth (approaching $4.0 TN) in 2019 – as double-digit Credit growth compounds year after year. In the first 11 months of 2019, Aggregate Financing (excluding central government borrowings) expanded $3.028 TN, 19.3% ahead of comparable 2018 growth. November Consumer (chiefly mortgage) borrowings were up 15.3% y-o-y (36% in two, 66% in three and 139% in five years), as stimulus doused gas on China’s historic mortgage finance and apartment Bubbles."
http://creditbubblebulletin.blogspot...in-review.html
The credit tiger in China is going to get loose eventually.

1/04 Doomsday machine returns with Citibank’s $800 billion credit default swaps – GATA
1/04 Rail traffic continues to plunge amid industrial recession – Zero Hedge
1/04 Fed may need new approach to boost inflation, Daly says – Reuters
They pumped in $5 trillion or so and, only got inflation in the upper loop. Stocks are up to the stratosphere but, they just aren't happy unless WE see price inflation.
1/04 Impeachment trial in limbo as Senate leaders trade blows – Politico
So, who was blowing who?
Kunstler writes about war.
https://kunstler.com/cluster****-nat...e-dogs-of-war/

[BroMikey]

Bro Mikey, that is an interesting vid But, I find too many omissions and inaccuracies. Wealth transfer via the fractional reserve system is definitely a big problem. The VID makes no mention of automation.

I think his approach is simple, not complicated. Whites control everything
where black hats use to. The endless predictive programmed news
bulletins have never been accurate, nothing has played out the way
it was suppose to in the last 70 years. Go figure.

Winning the war means getting into it and America has not been permitted
to enter the economic war until Trump and the Q-Team. Game over.
The FED IS AS GOOD AS DEAD.

Meanwhile it is good to have a backup plan hey?

It has taken since the 1930's til now to get us into this fix so be patient
help is on the way, but not by morning. Little by little you will see it
coming. BOOM. No running water, no internetno ice cream,
no electric for approx 30 min's and the entire north American continent
will fall into the sea. That is how I see the MSM's predictive programming
us thru fear, troubling ourselves day and night. Let it fall.

[Danny B]

I have a lot to catch up on. I'll start with 2 writers from left field. Best to read both short articles.
https://benjaminfulford.net/

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldenJackass/1575051608.php
I've been corresponding with Jim Kunstler about the problems with israel. He finally fell back to a position of asking me if I hate jews.
This is what I had previously sent him..

Here is what you must remember as far as corruption.

General Douglas MacArthur warned in a speech to the Salvation Army, December 12, 1951, stating:

"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline.

There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."
Also,
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/2...corrupt--poll/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/is-isr...a-mafia-state/

James, you can rail against despots and, megalomaniacs. But, systemic corruption is a precursor to economic crash. This is true everywhere in the world. My antipathy against corruption is universal.
The moral decay of America is no different from the moral decay around the world. This will play
out in the fullness of time.

Excellent article from
Club Orlov.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2020/0...for-2020s.html

• The U.S. financial system transfers wealth from pensions, savings, individuals and businesses to the political and financial elite. Deficit spending, massive debt, consumer price inflation and the Federal Reserve enable wealth transfer.
• The official national debt increased by 8.8% per year since 1913. The rate has been the same since 1971. $23 trillion in 2019 at 8.8% per year grows to over $50 trillion by the end of next decade, and well over $100 trillion by 2040.
• Inflate or die will lead to a reset.

https://deviantinvestor.com/11166/fa...s-next-decade/

The concept of a U.S dollar collapse goes mainstream – Traders Magazine
1/08 German ‘misery continues’ as industrial orders fall unexpectedly – Reuters
Misery has only started.
1/07 Experts doubt Fed has all the tools it needs to fight recession – MarketWatch
The FED has a toolbox that contains a hammer and, a machete.
1/07 China pledges ‘prudence’ in diversifying its foreign exchange reserves – SCMP
This is "China speak" for; we won't touch the Euro or Yen
/08 China steps up Communist party control in state-owned firms – Bloomberg
Too little,,, too late

1/08 U.S.-led coalition says it will withdraw from Iraq – Trust
Wait and see
1/08 “If I’m a criminal, it’s open season”: Atlanta police to stop chasing criminals – ZH
The chief of police said that there is no point in chasing criminals. The courts will just let them go anyway.
1/08 One billion animals now feared dead in Australia’s fires – Bloomberg
1/06 Nearly 200 people arrested across Australia for deliberately starting bushfires – Summit
Soros, the stinky old fossil has 1 less enemy,
https://europeansworldwide.wordpress...-and-aschberg/

Just Two Companies Accounted For Nearly 20% Of The Market's Entire 2019 Return
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ju...re-2019-return

"Last October, the International Monetary Fund said that almost 40% of the corporate debt in eight leading countries – the US, China, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain – would become so expensive during a recession that it would be impossible to service. In other words, tens of thousands of businesses, employing millions of people, would have gambled with high levels of borrowing and lost, making themselves insolvent.

Worse, the IMF said the risks were “elevated” in eight out of 10 countries that boasted systemically important financial sectors,
https://www.theguardian.com/business...ing-population

"This is because the story of 2019, as it will be in 2020, was of the re-emergence of fiat currency debasement. Particularly in the last quarter, the Fed began aggressively injecting new money into a surprisingly illiquid banking system through repurchase agreements, whereby banks’ reserves at the Fed are credited with cash loaned in return for T-bills and coupon-bearing Treasuries as collateral."
The banks know what is coming and, they are dumping T-Bills and Treasuries.
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/g...tlook-for-2020

[Danny B]

Still Sliding Down.

Deutsche bank had a market cap of $14.2 billion. Deutsche bank suffered withdrawals of $1 billion a day. The bankers all sleep together and, everybody knew it's predicament. The counter parties to DB derivatives had a big problem and, couldn't get overnight loans. The FED stepped in to provide emergency liquidity. The problem tapered off for several days.
Repo Panic Returns As Fed Injects Another $108 Billion In Liquidity, Including First Oversubscribed Term Repo In Three Weeks
Federal Reserve admits pumping $6 Trillion to Wall Street in last 6 weeks
You can see where this is going.
This new board is cumbersome. I keep getting error messages if I try to post an incomplete URL.
German Car Production Crashes To 23 Year Low
‘Buffett Indicator’ Warns Stocks Doomed for Worse Crash Than 2008


New Delhi (Sputnik): Indian trade unions and government employees have long been agitating against the Modi government’s policies, such as privatisation of state-run entities to deal with the ailing Indian economy.

Leading a mass agitation against the “anti-labour policies” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in India, trade unions representing nearly 250 million workers have called for a nationwide shutdown on Wednesday.
https://sputniknews.com/asia/2020010...bour-policies/
This is going to get VERY bad.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/tan...-strait-hormuz
Iran has shown that it can kill most of the world economy. Pox Americana has to either leave them alone OR, nuke them.
The UN is in financial distress and the US still owes $491 million for 2019
Maybe they should ring up Trump and remind him.
France wants to push reset button in economic relations with Russia
Nothing will save France.

A corporation has no brain, no heart, no soul and CERTAINLY, no family. It considers the family to be a nuisance and, a hindrance to smooth business operation.
The corporate takeover of health care has made it prohibitively expensive to have a baby.
https://sorendreier.com/the-high-cos...by-in-america/
The fires in OZ have a new problem.
https://sorendreier.com/australian-r...lush-out-prey/

1/09 Was Marx right about capitalism destroying itself from within? – Charles Hugh Smith
Regulatory capture is the tool used to accomplish this.
1/09 Why a bustling labor force could signal a recession looming in the near future – MW
1/09 Kansas governor turns to pensions for budget breathing room – Raleigh News
Right, raid the pension fund. It's the Argentine solution.
1/09 Big week for NJ’s debt: state to issue $800m+ in bonds – manual
N.J. is so broke that no bonds will ever be repaid.

1/09 U.S. spends $2,500 per person on health administration. Canada spends $550 – Time
The well-entrenched blob state
Armstrong writes about some of his previous consultations.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...-of-knowledge/
Rushing to thew final fall.
"China has announced they will ban all foreign materials from the classroom in order to keep students focused on the “Chinese” way. The Ministry of Education said that they will insist that education materials promote Marxism and reflect the Chinese style. “All primary and secondary school teaching materials must reflect the will of the party and the country,” said the Ministry which also stated the youth will “bear the great responsibility of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...anuary-8-2020/

Hoarding dollars and the transition to digital currency.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/p...rding-dollars/
Reportedly, Europe is going to crash first and, bring down the whole world.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/p...e-of-europe-2/
Interesting report on the "Dark Age Cycle.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/u...ark-age-cycle/

[Danny B]

This new P.O.S system erased my post when I added a link

[Danny B]

Europe is toast

I have to start with Europe. It is a sad tale that is coming to an end. It is battle between corporatism and socialism. The corporatism is dressed in a robe of fascism. It aims to extinguish democracy in Europe. Just remember 2 things; power corrupts AND The State is looking out for itself FIRST.
As the Industrial Revolution works it's way up the "ability ladder" more and more people look to the State for employment. The bureaucratic overlay of the EU reduced member states GDP by 20%.
Parkindon's Law. Government bureaucracy grows by 6% a year regardless of the actual work load. The French government spends 57% of the GDP to keep things going.
Socialism is the firewall between the non-producers and,,, Darwinian pressures. This is not "natural". In the good book, it says; The seed that falls on stony ground shall wither and perish. Some of the people slurping up at the State food trough are actually productive. Some aren't. Just the same, they have become too numerous. ALL democracies fail when the people learn that they can vote for a living rather than working. We approach the time when the State goes bankrupt from having too many claimants on it's generosity. Bankers, bureaucrats and beggars.

Armstrong, "Nevertheless, what this is showing is that it is impossible to restore the government. The hatred that is brewing is unprecedented.
There is no putting this all back together. Governments are crumbling. We are witnessing the same trend in Europe"
Armstrong, "First, when the Euro was being formed, the commission attended our WEC in London in 1997. I discussed directly on how the create the euro from scratch. We published detailed recommendations back then."

They ignored his warnings and recommendations Because they could never get Germany to sign up for a debt union.
"This report exposes the reality behind the curtain. The entire design of the EU is to deliberately deny any right of the people to ever vote on their own future. The politicians have assumed that the people are TOO STUPID to know what is best for them. In fact, Germany, the foundation of the entire European economy, was NEVER given the right to vote to join the Euro. Chancellor Kohl admitted that he acted as a dictator because he said if he ever allowed the German people to vote, he would have lost 7 to 3.'
Ah yes, the State was looking out for the State. Democracy is a situation of the people looking out for themselves. One world government had to start somewhere and, Europe was the first guinea pig.
https://proaurum.ch/aktuellwichtig/the-ecbs-mea-culpa

Historically, German productivity has always been hitched up to pull the European cart. That failed because of the lack of a debt union.
LaGarde has a solution for that.
"President, a lawyer with no previous central banking experience, comes from the political world. Lagarde’s vision for the central bank and her stated primary aims don’t include any concretely economic goals, nor do they revolve around traditional central banking considerations. Instead, she appears to be focused on healing the deep divides within the ECB and between Eurozone member states"

"healing the deep divides"
Germany has a $1 trillion current account surplus. The rest of the Eurozone has a $1 trillion deficit.
"This, of course, is no easy task. In Germany alone, over 40% of the population does not trust the ECB, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey. In Greece, a country Lagarde recently singled out for high praise for its “achievements” after many extremely painful years of large-scale economic strife, that figure rises to a staggering 71%."

No kidding. The ECB and IMF,,, along with Merkel raped Greece brutally.
https://claudiograss.ch/2020/01/the-...n-for-the-ecb/

Here is a detailed article on how lagarde has a new plan of dual interest rates.
https://www.bondvigilantes.com/blog/...it-dual-rates/
It just won't work on a population that is debt-saturated and jobless.

Brexit looks like it won't be stopped.
Brexit bill allowing Britain to exit EU on 31 January passes
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a9277281.html

Certain people are still trying to block an orderly exit. This would bring on a dis-orderly exit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDmVgy1wNwo
BUY MORE POPCORN.