Economic pressures

[Danny B]

Capital flows out of control

Peak oil; " World petroleum production will exceed consumption by an average of 1.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2015, " Oil Bankruptcies Hit Highest Level Since Crisis And There's "More To Come", Fed Warns | Zero Hedge
This problem should be re-named, "Peak Bankruptcy". Oil is headed for $ 20 a bbl.
Job Programs; "In the 70 years since the end of the Second World War, the US has waged war, overtly and covertly, against upwards of 70 countries."
(Pre emptive nuclear attack); "Kennedy to his eternal credit was disgusted by the military plan and ruled it out. On hearing about it from his Generals, led by Lemitsov , Kennedy reportedly threw it out, saying to an aide with revulsion: “And we call ourselves the human race.”
Read more: Christmas Then? and Now
Erdogan thought that he could do anything he wanted while he had American backing. "Quote by veteran Turkish journalist Cengiz Gandar, who recently wrote in Turkey's Radikal newspaper that "if you invite a bear to dance, it is not you who decides when the dance is over –it's the bear."
Read more: Why Erdogan is Terrified Over Prospects of Russian Dialogue With Kurds

"You also know the Fed has been going around warning banks that their models are wrong" "The Fed can see that negative interest rates have FAILED to work. Even QE has not worked in Japan or Europe. This alone disproved that the idea of increasing money supply will cause hyperinflation."
Armstrong makes a very good argument that capital flows control the economy. Globalism has greatly influenced the volatility and magnitude of capital flows.
GOV made lots of promises to lots of people. It looks like those who rely on SS and interest income are going to get a real screw job. http://armstrongeconomics-wp.s3.amaz...risis-2917.jpg "This is the government’s own forecast for the budget crisis. 2017 will be the year from hell all around the globe."
Blog | Armstrong Economics | Forecasting the World

Puerto Rico is in default, https://www.yahoo.com/news/puerto-ri...211247012.html
U.S. GOV pays very well; http://www.cheatsheet.com/money-care...-compare.html/

"The International Monetary Fund last week made a big push to position its SDR currency as a replacement for the US dollar. The US Congress finally (after 5 years foot-dragging) approved IMF voting reform, diluting G7 power, after which the organization announced it was doubling its money to 477 billion SDR (US$660 billion) from 238 billion SDR (about $330 billion)."
OK, so they just doubled it with a keystroke. How much confidence does that inspire? "Somebody apparently was not pleased because, immediately after this announcement, French police pressed criminal charges against IMF head Christine Lagarde.

http://indianexpress.com/article/ind...-tapie-payout/

"The last IMF head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested on trumped up rape charges and dismissed from office when he tried to push the SDR as a US dollar replacement. The CIA was behind that operation, according to CIA sources. Let us see if Lagarde does any better."
"The real reason for this rate hike was to protect the no-longer American US Dollar, not the US economy. In any case, the rate hike was a failure in that the dollar fell instead of rising. Long term interest rates also fell, meaning the market expects deflation and not the supposed inflation the rate hike was supposed to stop.

The US government finally agreeing to dilute its power at the IMF while the Fed raises interest rates are probably connected to US corporate government efforts to stave off bankruptcy. In other words, as a condition for additional funding, the US was forced to hand over de facto control of the IMF and pay more interest to foreigners who own US dollars.

The fact the US sent B52 bombers over Chinese territory last week was also almost certainly connected to high level, secret, negotiations to keep the US corporate government afloat. " http://benjaminfulford.net/

From 2008 to 2015, the Fed purchased over $4 trillion worth of bonds to stimulate growth in the economy. To sterilize the vast sums of money that would otherwise circulate throughout the economy and cause price inflation, the Fed pays an above-market interest rate of 0.50% to banks on reserves, or digital cash, held at the Fed. Currently, banks are holding $2.5 trillion at the Fed and are paid $34.5 million per day in interest.
The FED prime rate was set at 0--.25%. The FED raised it to .25--.50% BUT, when it was at 0-.25%, it only floated up to .13%. There was NO DEMAND. The FED gave the banks $2.5 trillion and kept them at the FED. "would otherwise circulate throughout the economy and cause price inflation" BUNCHA BS. So, the FED created trillions of digital dollars and kept them in their digital basement so that they could justify giving the banks $34.5 million a day. This is soon to double. Banks don't lend their reserves, they create new money with your signature. "Assuming the Fed raises rates four times‑-once at each of the meetings that are accompanied by a press conference--payments to banks at the end of 2016 would amount to $103.6 million per day."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/federa...65253054.html#

So, we pay the Treasury,, the treasury pays the FED,,, the FED pays the banks. NONE of these entities creates anything of any value or social use.
"Not only is the Fed a creature of the Financial markets, it is beholden to the markets. For some treasury durations, the Fed became the market.

Unfortunately, it's not just the Fed.

Global Crisis Coming Up

Global imbalances have never been worse.

The Bank of Japan is the only market for Japanese government debt.
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogsp...sSPFxXQ7VG4.99
As Armstrong said, it is always corrupt GOVs that crash the system.

[Danny B]

the crab mentality

"But it speaks to a certain psychological element that we see in many aspects of society — lots of people are only happy with success when it means that others around them are worse-off. It’s “crab mentality” at its finest — the view that the world is a zero-sum game, and that instead of everyone being better off, we need to have some losers."
The $70,000 Minimum Wage Experiment Reveals A Dark Truth - Part 2

"Most people look at their everyday encounters as if they were all zero sum games, where they can only get ahead by knocking someone else down."
"Crab mentality is a phrase popular among Filipinos, and was first coined by writer Ninotchka Rosca, in reference to the phrase crabs in a bucket. It describes a way of thinking best described by the phrase “if I can’t have it, neither can you.” The metaphor refers to a pot of crabs. Individually, the crabs could easily escape from the pot, but instead, they grab at each other in a useless “king of the hill” competition which prevents any from escaping and ensures their collective demise. The analogy in human behavior is that members of a group will attempt to “pull down” (negate or diminish the importance of) any member who achieves success beyond the others, out of envy, conspiracy or competitive feelings."
https://www.intellihub.com/crab-ment...-human-beings/

[Danny B]

QE for the people... standard of living

This is a cross-post of a VERY important article about peace on earth; Christmas 2015—–Why There Is No Peace On Earth | David Stockman's Contra Corner
"The fact is, the modern Warfare State has been the incubator of American imperialism since the Cold War, and is now proving itself utterly invulnerable to fiscal containment, even in the face of a $19 trillion national debt."
It remains to be seen just how long Pox Americana can add $ one trillion a year to the debt.
Max Keiser and Steve Keen discuss QE for the people,,, helicopter money,,, debt jubilee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f0ndVNbDO8

From the comments;
It won't work. How will they decide who gets the money? Then everyone will want more. It creates a moral hazard. No one will want to work and will scream at the government for more money. It would also ignite massive inflation. All the new printed money handed to consumers would chase the same goods and prices would go up. No one would be wealthier. Money printing is a tax on everyone - everyone's money gets diluted. If someone gets money from the government and I don't, then the value of everyone's money is diluted and goes down. Then I need more money from the government for being diluted. It's a death spiral of the currency. RT and Keiser do some great reporting, but this is just ridiculous. We have to stop the propaganda that money printing works. There should be no money printing at all for anyone. It doesn't. Let the free market determine which currency it wants to use. The government should not be controlling the currency (it does this so it can tax the people). We will have no inflation or deflation if we stop manipulating the currency through money printing and buying back money. This professor is clueless about economics and how markets work. He needs to study this book: https://mises.org/library/what-has-g...done-our-money

OK, the commenter claims that people would stop working. There are currently over 100 million people in America of working age who are not in the labor force.
The problem is a question of efficiency. Capital is always looking for the lowest-cost producer and the highest-price consumer. After a while, it all levels out.
Armstrong created the study of global capital flows. We can have global capital flows and global commodity flows, but, we can't have global labor flows. We eventually end up with a global-mean wage regardless of the cost of living in our particular area. The prices in any given area are dependent on the wages in the same area. As the wage base shrinks, prices and commerce must shrink. That includes credit and banking.
BUT, fractional-reserve banking, Keynesian economics and debt service all depend on credit expansion.
Credit is shrinking and the banking system is in danger.
The obvious answer is to give them free-money to keep going, "payments to banks at the end of 2016 would amount to $103.6 million per day." This is digital money that has no "reference" to actual wealth. Imagine giving 3 holographic pints of blood to a severely injured person.
Value-added industry, wealth creation, aggregate income, employment,,, all severely diminished by our global competitors. GOV and banks are trying to "paper over" the problem with money printing when it is wealth creation that is lagging. Our consumption and standard of living are related to wealth, rather than money.

[Danny B]

The corporation (again)

It is a truism, as stated by Lord Acton that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". It is only oversight and force-of-law that can limit corruption. Once the corrupt class get control of the legislature and courts, there is noting to stop them short of violence. A corporation is a pile of money looking to grow larger by any means possible. It has no heart, soul, nor brain. The corporate structure gives it very diffused responsibility. Immunity from prosecution is a sure ticket to "immunity from responsibility".
At the apex, a corporation is immortal and devoid of a conscience or responsibility. The shareholders are demi-gods and outsiders are just fodder.



THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS -- A READING OF THE SPEECH PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS BY ENDMUND BURKE FOR THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

The greatest moral and political battle for good government and the rule of law was led by two Irishmen in the British Parliament over the great crimes of the the East India Company -- the first and most terrible of all multinational corporations. Evil won. Edmond Burke and Charles James Fox in the House of Commons made the perfect case against the Company and its governor general and their crimes against humanity committed in India. But a third of the membership of the House of Lords died during the trial and only 23 Lords were permitted to render a judgement in the case. To the ever lasting disgrace of Parliament and Crown the Lords succumbed to intimidation probably augmented by murder of those of higher principle and found Warren Hastings innocent on all counts. Today the Biritsh aristocracy continues with the poison of evil it never contolled -- with the crimes of the Opium Wars, the crushing of the taiping Christian Republic in China (with as many dead as were killed in World War One), the world wars for corporate profit and the treachery and atrocity of the September 11, 2001 false-flag attacks and the great bloody war against innocent Islam that the deception provoked. Edmund Burke contended for justice, truth and compassion against corruption and every intelligent person of good will who opposes the continuation of the very same evil into the 21st century needs to know how good men argued the case for right . Dick Eastman

Text; https://books.google.com/books?id=Rq...stings&f=false

Everyone remembers the $ 2.3 trillion that went missing from the Pentagon. The military-industrial complex is far larger than any individual corporation. It can claim that anything and everything is a secret for national security. It has the guns too. It has the corruption that one would expect; US Military Outclasses Russia's in Only One Area?Corruption

We were warned about the danger of standing armies. We were warned about foreign entanglements. We were warned by Eisenhower about the military-industrial juggernaut. We have 800+ military bases around the world. Germany and Japan are still garrisoned. Germany is yoked up to support israel. Japan is holding about $ 850 billion in U.S. bonds.
Empires are NOT cheap and the deficit is climbing at $ 1 trillion a year.
Some corporations are doing well,,, some are not. "U.S. Banks Posted Record Profits in Second Quarter, FDIC Says"
Our new immortal god has no ears to hear the suffering. No heart to feel the pain. No brain to contemplate the collateral damage. No eyes to see the devastation. No conscience to suffer from all the destruction. It has no imagination to foresee the violence that is coming.

[Danny B]

Capitalism needs organized crime

There is much talk about the emerging "cashless society". There is another side to this story; CRIME.

"Capitalism,” says Saviano, “needs the criminal syndicates and criminal
markets… This is the most difficult thing to communicate. People – even
people observing organised crime – tend to overlook this, insisting upon
a separation between the black market and the legal market. It’s the
mentality that leads people in Europe and the USA to think of a mafioso
who goes to jail as a mobster, a gangster. But he’s not, he’s a
businessman, and his business, the black market, has become the biggest
market in the world.”"
The man who exposed the lie of the war on drugs | Books | The Guardian
" Narco cartels like Guzman’s are not adversaries of global capitalism,
nor even pastiches of it; they are integral to – and pioneers of – the
free market. They are its role model."
"Here it is, the lie of any dividing line between legal and illegal. Here
it is, laid bare: cartel as corporation, corporation as cartel; cocaine
as pure capitalism, capitalism as cocaine, known in its purest form as
zero-zero-zero – a wry reference to the name of the best grade of flour,
ideal for pasta."

"For some reason, he says, the Anglo-Saxon world is slower to understand
the innate criminality of the “legal” system than Latin societies. “I
think the Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American world is infused by a kind of
Calvinist positivism; people want to believe in the health of their
society,” says Saviano, even though “what this all means is that, for
instance, the City of London is a far more important centre for
laundering criminal money than the Cayman Islands”.

[wayne.ct]

The progressive collapse of (or chipping away at) the USD

The general US population maintain the illusion of stability or deflation because they choose to continue to operate in that imaginary mode for their own individual reasons. The public psyche is not something to be changed or manipulated directly. However, as people wake up to reality or perhaps some element of reality affects them directly, they then change their beliefs or actions and a tipping point is reached.

If you know some of the things that are happening beneath the surface, you can begin to see where things are headed. I think, Danny, that is what we are exposing here. The following is copied from an email I received from the inflation.us web site.

Quote: <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The U.S. financial media continues to ignore how foreigners are dumping their U.S. Treasuries at a record pace – at a time when the Federal Reserve is no longer adding to its U.S. Treasury holdings! During the 5-year period of June 2009 through June 2014, outstanding U.S. government debt increased by $5.65 trillion of which $2.6 trillion was financed by foreigners and $1.74 trillion was monetized by the Federal Reserve. Our foreign creditors plus the Fed purchased a combined $4.34 trillion or 77% of the net increase in U.S. Treasuries outstanding.

Since June 2014, outstanding U.S. government debt has increased by $1.04 trillion of which $27.6 billion was financed by foreigners and $64.66 billion was monetized by the Federal Reserve. Our foreign creditors plus the Fed only purchased a combined $92.27 billion or 8.89% of the net increase in U.S. Treasuries outstanding.

We just went from the Fed+Foreigners financing 77% of our deficit spending to less than 9%!

U.S. Treasuries Held by Foreigners have now officially declined on a trailing 12 month basis for the first time in 15 years. However, back in 1998-2001 the U.S. had a budget surplus – so a decline in foreign held debt was expected. The last time that foreign held debt declined year-over-year during a period of U.S. budget deficits was in 1979, right before gold exploded for a gain of 179% over the following 12 months – its largest short-term rally in history! Our current budget deficit is equal to -2.5% of GDP compared to our 1979 budget deficit equal to only -1.03% of GDP.

If foreigners continue dumping their U.S. Treasuries, we could see a debt crisis in 2016/2017 that is far worse than 1979/1980 where gold soars again by 179% or more! See for yourself, check out these shocking NIA charts: Media Ignoring America’s Unfolding Debt Crisis | National Inflation Association

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> end quote

I think this means that the balance of this debt was assumed by US banks, corporations and individuals. It looks to me like a trend. Plotting this trend in my head and extrapolating, it looks to me like the US is almost completely isolated from the rest of the world on a net basis. This makes the US and those of us who live in the US extremely vulnerable to any economic shock. For me, I want to be very very careful what I do going forward from here.

[Danny B]

So,,, you're going to retire off SS benefits

Wayne, U.S. GOV has always used BS accounting to manufacture surpluses. History of Deficits and Surpluses In The United States Even when they report a surplus, They are excluding future obligations. These obligations currently amount to $ 212 trillion. David Walker, the U.S. Comptroller-General for many years refused to certify that the U.S. budget was honest.
The drain of entitlements that people have PAID for is really pulling things down. NO PROBLEM !! "They" have a solution.
"The Supreme Court ruled against Nestor, saying the government had the right to terminate Social Security at any time."
In its ruling, the Court rejected this argument and established the principle that entitlement to Social Security benefits is not a contractual right.”

"Read that again…
You have no contractual right to Social Security.
It could end tomorrow, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
President Obama and Congress know this. Obama was a constitutional scholar, after all.
That historical precedent means they have the power to cut Social Security any time they want." Supreme Court Rules: U.S. Seniors Not Entitled to Social Security? – American Spotlight
When push comes to shove and GOV has to choose between the military and the safety net, the net will disintegrate.

[wayne.ct]

I don't get it.

Hey, Danny, I must say I don't understand why you reply the way you did. I don't think Social Security is going to be enough to live on after the collapse, even if the electronic digits keep showing up in everybody's checking account. It will be like Wiemar Germany or Zimbabwe. Who will want to mess with something with no value? Do you still think I am under some delusion? It is certainly not in regard to the government promulgated Social Security "system". Then you bring up the reliability of government accounting. I think that many people are going to get hurt because they don't take the time to think about what is happening in the world around them. At least I am making the effort to try and I think I have some understanding. Sure, the government figures are unreliable, fake, fraudulent, BS, whatever. However, it is also true that enough people still believe the numbers enough to act on them.

I think a thought experiment is in order. Let's say that you and I are part of the small minority that "know" a gallon of cooking oil is really valuable and a pocket full of paper money is really worthless. Let's say we go to the local market and trade some of our paper money for some cooking oil, etc. etc. Are we going to berate all the stupid people we come in contact with? They have confidence in the value of worthless paper and we don't. When they also lose confidence in the paper money they will suffer, not you and I. (Because, at least in concept, you and I have some cooking oil they gave in exchange for paper.)

Now, transfer that scenario into the international market. The numbers are telling. And, it really does not matter whether the numbers are accurate or not. It is not the numbers themselves that reveal the truth. It is the relative size of the numbers and the trend. I was trying to point out the trend. In this case the trend is (or is not) your friend.

Come back at me again if you think I am missing the point.

[Danny B]

Wayne, I don't judge most other people. I have no idea of the totality of your knowledge. All I do is to report what I see. I try to add interpretation and clarity at times. I try to show connections and patterns. Most people are lost when trying to understand the larger picture of the economy. I've been studying it intently for 10 years. I'm not trying to convince or convert anybody.
If people want to cling to their normalcy bias, it's not my problem. BUT, when the wheels stop turning and they come after my stuff, THEN, it is my problem. I have a prepper friend in Nevada who is well set up and plans to bring in quite a few people. I told him that he is going to have to find someone who can discreetly do the necessary killing.
Social Security is bankrupt,, many pension funds are bankrupt. When the cascade of defaults takes out the banks, the old folks are going to be dying by the millions.
A simple majority of all Americans receive a check from GOV. Democracy always breaks the bank. What does Mother Nature have in store for members of a species that do not pay attention to survival? GOV has armed the SS offices. They have fortified the congressional buildings in the district of corruption. They have a couple of billion bullets with our names on them. They have provided bug-out-bags to members of the FED.
I'm not grading or judging anybody on this forum. I only judge people in power who can have an effect on the situation.
Here is a link to a good analysis of stock vales from Stockman; When’s The Crash Happening——-Right About Now! | David Stockman's Contra Corner
If you pull back ALL the curtains, this crash is just one facet of a depopulation agenda. It will be successful.

[wayne.ct]

Thanks for clearing that up

Nevada may be a good place to be. Part of a mob is not a good place to be.

[Danny B]

Spending down your savings

Headlines;
Another jobs program; Endless War, Undeclared and Undebated - Antiwar.com Original by -- Antiwar.com
Same; The Permanent War State
12/29 Age of bubble finance → crackup phase – Daily Reckoning
12/29 The herd is heading for a cliff – Burning Platform
12/29 Factories forecast to shed tens of thousands of jobs in 2016 – Guardian
12/29 Weak demand, vessel surplus to create horror 2016 for commodities shipping – CNBC
2/29 Brazil government posts biggest primary budget deficit on record – Bloomberg
12/29 Oil may drop under $20 in the short term, but what is its price floor? – Zero Hedge
12/29 Oil bankruptcies mark devastating end of the year for US oil drillers – Oil Price
Yes, oil bankruptcies because of $ 40 oil. What about $20 oil?
12/29 2015 - the year of FX reserve rundowns – Zero Hedge
Yep, everybody is running down their savings.
12/28 Shale's running out of survival tricks as OPEC ramps up pressure – Bloomberg
They are ramping up pressure because they are going broke;
Saudis Responsible For Oil Market Destabilization – Russia
Saudis Raise Gas Prices By 40%, Dismantle Welfare State
Saudi Arabia Hits Record $98 Billion Deficit, Doubles Gas Prices

"Ever since 2008, the entire world economy has been kept afloat by the $25 trillion or so that China printed to build overleveraged overcapacity. And now that is gone, never to return. There is nowhere else left for our economies to turn for growth"
"Of course, since many of the funds hold the same or similar investments, we can add yet another risk factor: contagion. Things will blow up first where the risk is highest. Then everything else becomes riskier."
" But there’s another, again interlinked, development that is very poorly understood. Which is that in a debt deflation, the ‘money’ that appears to be real and present in leveraged investments more often than not doesn’t get pulled out of one ‘investment’ only to be put into another, it just goes POOF, it vanishes.

And though it may seem strange, conventional economics has a very hard time with that. In the eyes of that field, if you don’t spend your money, you must be saving it. The possibility of losing it altogether is not a viable option. Or, if you lose it, someone else must be gaining it, zero-sum style. "

"Colombia is nursing paper losses of more than $100 billion after its oil boom fell short of expectations, wiping out 90% of the value of what was once Latin America’s biggest company. From being the world’s fifth-most valuable oil producer at its zenith in 2012, worth more than BP, state-controlled Ecopetrol now ranks 38th. Its market capitalization has fallen to $14.5 billion, down from its peak of $136.7 billion."
2016 Is An Easy Year To Predict - The Automatic Earth
The best we can do is say ‘see you on the other side’, if we’re lucky.

[Danny B]

slipping away

Reportedly the bail-ins have started; A Crisis Worse Than Islamic State? Bank ?Bail-Ins? Begin - Truthdig
Excellent writeup about the movie that is about the blowup of the housing bubble; A Real-Life Trader Talks About “The Big Short” - Facts So Romantic - Nautilus
Armstrong said that all GOVs would be squeezing as much tax as possible; New Tax Hikes, Fees in Chicago Will Cost Every Household More Than $1K
Everyone is talking about hyperinflation. We've already had that. Here is a list of grocery prices in the 40s. Food Groceries and Toiletries in the 1940's prices 50 examples from The People History Site
Additionally; What Things Cost in 1945: Car: $1,250. Gasoline: 21 cents/gal. House: $10,000. Bread: 9 cents/loaf. Milk: 62 cents/gal. Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Retail Prices of Selected Foods in U.S. Cities, 1890?2011
The credit bubble raised most prices but, didn't raise our wages. After the final collapse of credit, we will buy what we can directly afford. We will have massive price deflation to go along with massive deflation of "wealth instruments". The consumer economy was all built on credit bubbles.
America has 5 times the retail space per-person that France has. America already has 1 billion of empty retail space. We're just getting started; http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...y-retail-space
We won't get hyperinflation until the helicopter drops begin. They are thinking about it; http://dollarcollapse.com/monetary-p...-its-own-cage/

[Danny B]

Losing to taxes,,, losing to bankers

When GOV raises taxes, it removes money from the productive economy and reduces it. There is general agreement that every $1 of additional tax diminishes the economy by $3. It can also diminish tax revenue.
This State Got a Harsh Lesson in Economics | American Action News
Besides tax losses and the black market, GOV drives out business. All GOV is socialist because all GOVs do redistribution. ALL democracies crash because people vote to receive more than they earn.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JjAc8-jDL...40/Crowder.jpg
There is no simple solution, especially now that automation is taking over.
Bankers and lawyers are the worst. Capital One sues 1/2 million of it's customers every year. That is 10,000 every week. Capital One wants you bankrupt: No lender sues more of its customers than the low-interest credit card company - Salon.com
The banks offered us money that we couldn't afford to pay back. That was the plan all along. The Big Short's Michael Burry Warns "The Little Guy Will Pay" For The Next Crisis | Zero Hedge

So, the economy crashes,,,, the bankers come in to buy up everything with a check from the bank. How do you know that this check has any money backing it? You take the check and deposit it in a bank.
9400 banks went under in great depression one. 3600 banks have gone bust so far in great depression 2. If the big banks can narrow down the field, any check that you get from them will be deposited in,,, one of their own. They can write unlimited checks to buy up distressed properties and no one will ever know.
"Will find themselves dispossessed in the land that their forefathers fought for. "
The FED owned by the BIG banks,,,, rescues the BIG banks,,, and they outlast the small banks. Then, it is back to "business as usual." They buy up everything and force us to rent from them.

[Danny B]

Turbulence in the markets

Things seem pretty quiet. The new year looks to get off to a rocky start.
Harry Dent; "Despite such endless financial engineering, sales for the S&P 500 have been declining for the last three quarters. And profits have declined for the first time since the 2009 expansion.
My forecast today: the stock market will start to crash by early February, if not sooner, when it gets this clear realization."
The Deadly Truth About the Great Boom and This ?Recovery?
Martin Armstrong; "The Forecaster shares his stock market forecast: expect 26,000 – 27,000, with a potential for 40,000 on the Dow Jones Industrials followed by extreme volatility into 2017-2020."
Martin Armstrong talks interest rates, markets, cashless society, trend forecasting & much more
"The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ are terminating stop-loss and good-til-canceled orders beginning Feb. 26, 2016. " NYSE & NASDAQ Ending Limit Risk Orders — You Are On Your Own | Armstrong Economics
The average fund only holds on to an investment for two hours. The algos hold for 2 seconds,,, at times.


Headlines;
• Asia’s Top Commodity Trader Ends a Turbulent Year With Cut To Junk (BBG)
Mom And Pop Are The Greater Fools (ZH) Not by choice. Their pension fund invested in junk.
• China’s Yuan Posts Biggest Annual Loss In 21 Years (BBG) Hmmm, is that bad?
China’s Financial Growing Pains Caused World of Hurt in 2015 (WSJ) They have barely started.
Turkey ‘One Step Away From A Civil War’ (NY Times) That is what happens when you dance with a bear,,, not to mention, mess with the Kurds.
Greek Pension Cuts Back On The Table (Kath.) No problem, they can get by on 5 bucks a day.
• Greek House Price Drop Second To Worst In The World (Kath.) Maybe because they have no money.
Merkel Urges Germans To See Refugee Arrivals As ‘An Opportunity’ (AFP) Quite true. An opportunity for complete destruction, Liberals Find Out What Happens When You Open Your Home To Muslim Refugees
12/31 European stocks plunge to worst December since 2002 – Zero Hedge
12/31 Battered yuan posts worst year since 1994 as HSBC preaches calm – Bloomberg Not to worry, the Yuan has just been included in the SDR basket.
12/31 You can't trust the Fed – Sovereign Investor ENTIRELY untrue. You can trust the FED to completely screw everybody but the banks.
And a bonus headline, 12/30 Sanders hits back after Trump calls him 'wacko' – Examiner What did he do? Whack trump up the side of the head.
The bankers would happily play us off against each other and leave them alone. Great wealth disparity often brings down a society.
Meet Madame Guillotine!

[Danny B]

Interest, what is it?

Interest is the rental value of money.
Interest is a non-monetary phenomenon. It is simply the discount human beings apply to the value of future goods vs. that of present goods. It is an expression of time preference, NOT the "rental value of money".

" standard r=MPK result–where MPK is defined as the increment in physical output from an additional input of capital into the production function–crucially assumes that the capital and consumption good are the same physical things, or at least, that they are always physically convertible into each other in a constant ratio."
Same thing, huh?,,, constant ratio, huh? One is made by work,, the other is created out of thin air with no effort. "It aggregates newly-produced consumption goods C with newly-produced capital goods I. It assumes they are perfect substitutes in production. "
Interest Does NOT Equal the Marginal Product of Capital, Even in Equilibrium
With ideas like this, WHY do we let academics control the economy?

Mises school; "Unemployment in the unhampered market is always voluntary" (Mises [1949] 1966: 599). Man works because he prefers the anticipated result of doing so to the disutility of labor and the psychic income to be derived from leisure. He "stops working at that point, at which he begins to value leisure, the absence of labor's disutility, more highly than the increment in satisfaction expected from working more" (ibid.: 611)."
No kidding? Not one mention of working to survive.

"A person is not employed, that is, not working as a hired laborer, either because he prefers leisure or because he is self-employed. In either case the person is unemployed voluntarily. But may it not be true that, on the free and unhampered market, someone is "unemployed" in the modern sense, that is, he is seeking work and cannot find a job? But such a construct raises many problems. "
No kidding,,, it raises many problems?
Do these mental towers have an equation for stupid people? Do they factor in low-wage competitors who can survive on less money than you can? Do they factor in robots and automation? What about crushing taxes and corruption? Did it ever occur to them that you can produce a robot for FAR less than it requires to produce a human child / worker?
https://mises.org/library/misesian-case-against-keynes
Imagine that you raise a human unit from birth to bachelor's degree for a cost of $300,000. There is no demand for this unit so, general productivity of human units falls off.
If you look at a bell curve for intelligence in people, there is always a tail end of less intelligent people. Since the private job market is competitive, the tail end can't enter.
The State provides make-work jobs for those who can't seem to enter the competitive sector. Now that man is competing against machines, the tail end is growing larger and larger.
The population is falling in the most advanced societies. Supply is adjusting for demand in the case of human units..