Economic pressures

[Danny B]

Wealth sequestration / destruction is crashing

J.M. Keynes aid in 1930 that; in the time of his grandchildren, we would be so rich that we would only need to work 15 hours a week. The people of the world would have so much accumulated wealth that they wouldn't need to work very much. This is very problematic if people only generate the productivity needed to maintain themselves.
I've listed the various ways that the bankers inflate the currency to siphon off it's value for themselves. Since they are always first in line at the printing press, price inflation does not bother them. They take all that wet-ink money and, buy up everything that you need. They are always ahead of the game and, price inflation boosts the nominal value of the assets they hold.
Well, there are just too many of them and, they got too greedy. 95 million Americans of working age are not in the workforce. The rest are working at the global mean wage.
The income just isn't there for the banks anymore. The CBs pump in $trillions to keep confidence up.

I suppose that there was some way that we still could have held on to all that accumulated wealth that America had produced.... even after the bankers robbed us.

Shumpeter came up with the idea of "creative destruction" as a means to keep everybody working. If you don't continue to produce for the bankers and bureaucrats, they might go hungry. We are directly taxed heavily. We also pay heavily for the inflation-tax.
The Grace Commission created by Ronald Reagan reported that not one dime of federal tax money went to the FED GOV. Various other high level bankers and politicians have said that the GOV does not need to tax.

Walter Burien has completely proved that the FED GOV does NOT need to tax. Their own financial reports prove that they don't need the money. This is also true for much of non-FED GOV.
CAFR1 Home Page

The bankers and bureaucrats take all our money one way or another. The CAFR reports show that the money is just stuffed off to the side.
The State/military takes a lot of money too. Rather than producing lasting wealth, they spend the money to produce things to later blow them up.


"A baseline survey to assess the vulnerability of the military’s more than 7,000 bases, installations and other facilities is nearly complete"
" The global shipping and aviation on which peak profit-making depends is, like the military, exempt from the Paris Accords. "
" US empire is the world’s largest consumer of fossil fuels or because the same military is the enforcer of the global fossil fuel regime "
The wealth that we produced has to be constantly fleeced and / or destroyed
NOBODY complains as the military budget rises past $1 trillion. This $ 1 trillion serves 2 purposes. It keeps contractors and soldiers working. It allows the destruction of $trillions of would-be wealth.
The Report From Iron Mountain states that peace must NOT be allowed to break out at any cost. We build to destroy.
The CAFR report from GOV REPORTS shows that <40,000> GOV entities are collectively holding in excess of $200 trillion. The University of California alone system reports that it has $90.1 billion. This wealth accumulates and compounds.
BUT, Wall Street has sucked out $22 trillion since 1970. Aggregate wages have crashed and the financial services sector needs at least 6% growth a year.
MMT and UBI are a hoped-for solution. The financial sector is trying to suck ever-more blood from a shrinking / dying host

[Danny B]

Capital inflows,,, Iran &amp; the dollar,,, nat gas

There are a couple good articles on our bizarre markets.
"According to Bloomberg, the amount of negative-yielding debt globally jumped Thursday to a record $13.4 TN. Rising almost $2.2 TN over the past "
"However, inflows to bonds were truly out of this world with over $25 billion –a more than 45% increase over the prior record from October of 2014."
"it’s worth noting M2 “money supply” has surged almost $210 billion over the past six weeks (up $638bn y-o-y) to a record $14.773 TN."
" outstanding Commercial Paper has jumped almost $80 billion in five weeks to an eight-year high $1.164 TN. Where’s all this “money” coming from?"
A fair amount of it si coming from European capital flight.
Credit Bubble Bulletin : Weekly Commentary: Abject Monetary Disorder

"GDP is slowing. Earnings warnings issued by publicly-traded companies are at a 13-year high. The most reliable recession predictor of the past 50 years, an inverted US Treasury curve, has been in place for the past quarter.

Yet the major stock indices hit all-time highs earlier this week. And every one of the 38 assets in the broad-based asset basket tracked by Deutsche Bank was up for the month of June — something that has never happened in the 150 years prior to 2019."
"More than 170 U.S. shale companies have declared bankruptcy since 2015, affecting nearly $100 billion in debt, according to Haynes and Boone. There have been an estimated 8 bankruptcies already this year, with some $3 billion in debt restructured."
https://www.peakprosperity.com/bizar...ruly-gone-mad/

Armstrong, "But much the real trend driving the inverted yield curve is capital inflows seeking long-term yields. Much of the capital has moved in from Europe. In addition, the amount of money in fixed-income exchange-traded funds passed $1 trillion last month, an ascendance that has reshaped the market in which countries and companies raise money to pay their bills. This has also altered the yield-curve. These forces have changed the dynamics of the marketplace and the traditional inverted yield curve does not necessarily mean what it once did "
Everybody is pointing at the yield curve inversion as an inflexible indicator of recession. With huge capital flight, this is no longer true.

RenTech Pulls Cash From Deutsche Bank As Insider Warns Of "Lehman-Style" Scene
This is probably the LAST nail in the cofin for Deutsche bank.
Mexico Murder Rate Soars To Ave 94 Per Day
How Mexico Became the World's Second Largest Opium Producer
7/06 New lows in Germany lead the rest of the world down – Alhambra Partners
7/06 Ten big steps down the road to recession – Great Recession
7/06 Three job-market data points investors are overlooking – The Street
7/05 It wasn’t all great news: multiple jobholders soar to record high – Zero Hedge

7/06 Fed dumps MBS at record pace, exceeding “cap” for first time – Wolf Street
So, the FED is dumping mortgage backed securities. I wonder why?
7/06 Bitcoin uses more energy than the whole of Switzerland – and it’s getting worse – Ind
7/06 State of Indiana argues in Supreme Court for right to seize anything – ZH
Well, of course.

"For almost two centuries, Sterling reigned supreme as the world's reserve currency, propping up the vast British Empire which was the world's superpower during the 19th century and the early 20th. Then, in the span of just a few months, everything changed and the US Dollar took over after a series of dramatic events."
"Chris Andrew describe the series of events in which Iran and its oil reserves proved to be the final nail in the coffin of sterling and the British Empire. However, what is far more interesting, is their suggestion that the current tensions between Washington and Tehran, and what happens to Iranian gas, could also be the event that results in the end of the dollar's own reserve status."

"But American oil partnerships in Venezuela and Arabia, based on a 50/50 US/local ownership rule, made Britain’s 70/30 structure in Iran untenable. Iranian nationalists now started to demand, and ultimately obtain, full control of their natural resource.

With the nationalisation of the AIOC (Anglo Iranian Oil Company), Britain was deprived of sterling oil, and thus became utterly dependent on the Americans to earn enough dollars to pay for their energy. Immediately this started a rapid exodus from holding sterling as a settlement currency and reserve. Iranian oil joined its other dollar-denominated brethren.

Fast forward 70 years and once again Iran stands at the fulcrum of how the energy source of the future is to be priced."
"Britain’s loss of sterling- denominated oil was the final nail in the coffin of sterling being a global currency. Its collapse was imperceptible and then a precipice.

As of today the US finds itself in a similar position as it remains to be seen what currency natural gas will be priced in. The world is transitioning from oil to gas, as, 70 years ago it had transitioned from coal to oil; once again Iran holds the key for this critical resource.

Today, natural gas is priced in US dollars in America, in euros for Russian gas in Europe, in renminbis for Russian gas in China, and US dollars for Qatari gas. It shall be the pricing of Iran’s massive reserve of gas that will determine the future global currency denominator of this energy source."
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...serve-currency

Pox Americana is demanding that Europe ignore and abandon the Russian gas line Nordstream. We demand that the European buy much more expensive American gas.
The Europeans have SPECIFICALLY designed alternatives to SWIFT so that they could buy Iranian and Russian gas.
So, what is a hegemon to do? Simple, find some pretext for war..

Bolton Welcomes UK Seizure of Tanker Containing Iranian Oil
Yeah, I bet he does.. He's worse than McCain.
Syria & Iran To Defy Sanctions By Building Railway From Tehran To Mediterranean
The article mentions that israel will probably bomb the railway.
Iran Calls Seizure of Its Tanker Maritime Piracy
Bolton is praying that Iran does something stupid.

America has a gas problem.
"In its relentless pursuit of oil, the shale industry continues to burn more and more gas into the air.

The rate of flaring in the Permian basin reached a record high in the first three months of this year, averaging 661 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd), according to Rystad Energy. That is more than double the amount of flaring for the same period from a year earlier.

There is little chance of a reduction in the next few months. “We anticipate that basin-wide flaring will stay above 650 MMcfd"
They don't even mention the Eagle Ford basin.

[wayne.ct]

Negative Interest Rates

The elites seem to have a problem in that they must pay dearly to keep the EU operating. I don't know for sure but someone must be keeping track of the spread between keeping "money" in EU banks vs. US banks. The EU elites see their capital eroding and as much as possible "sell" Euros and "buy" USD. The US elites see their capital eroding as interest rates go up and their bonds collapse. The FED can't raise rates because they will (in their view) collapse the economy and start a revolution. The situation grinds forward with inflation in the US and depression in the EU (not to mention Japan) meaning anyone with sense (and money) is saving not spending.

Result? EU goes down first then US suffers inflation. Until then, US holds its own.

IMO.

[Danny B]

Print money with no plan B,,, rain &amp; food

Wayne, I'm surprised that more people are not contributing here,,, as you are.
I can't possibly have all the info,,, all the insight.
Instant global transfer of jobs and capital has wreaked havoc on all but a few. BUT, as globalism selected a few winners, it eventually destroyed the buying power of the losers. The winners like China and Germany are now crashing because their customers are broke. I firmly believe that the vast majority of people are NOT taking this seriously enough. The PTB do not have a CLUE of how to boot up a new system. We also have to consider that part of the PTB who want to do a gross population reduction.
How can we have a crash of credit markets and NOT have a crash of carbon energy deliveries? How can we have a crash of Sovereign debt and NOT have a crash in the part of the population who depend on State money?
As our magnetosphere weakens, the increased cosmic ray bombardment will cause a big increase in precipitation and cloud cover. Our albedo will increase. Cooling and crop destruction will increase.
Irrigated agriculture represents 20 percent of the total cultivated land, but contributes 40 percent of the total food produced worldwide.
So, 80% of our cultivated land depends on reliable rain,,,, NOT floods.
Amazon, "The researchers also looked at the severity and duration of floods and found that extreme floods have tended to be higher and longer-lasting, with water levels over 97.5 feet for more than 70 days occurring once every three years, compared to once every 50 years in the 1900s."

"More records for both wet and dry weather are being set around the globe, often with disastrous consequences for the people facing such extremes, according to a study published Wednesday that offered new evidence of climate change’s impacts in the here and now.

Extreme rainfall, and the extreme lack of it, affects untold numbers of people"

[Danny B]

How long can printing hold things together?

I found another one of those articles that should be read in it's entirety. I will cite and comment on it though.

There are growing signs that the global economic slowdown is for real. As was the case in 1929, the combination of the peak of the credit cycle coupled with trade protectionism in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act are similar conditions to those of today and potentially pose a serious economic challenge to the post-Bretton Woods fiat currency system. Therefore, we must consider the consequences if monetary policy (printing) fails to contain the developing recession and it turns into a full-blown slump. Complacency over broken markets is no longer an option, with rising prices for gold and bitcoin signalling the prospect of a new round of currency debasement (printing)to avoid market distortions unwinding. This article shows why this outcome could undermine fiat currencies entirely and looks at the alternatives of bitcoin and gold in this context.
$9 Million Lost Each Day In Cryptocurrency Scams - Investopedia
Crime still plagues cryptocurrencies; $1.7 billion was stolen last year


Never in all recorded history have financial markets been so distorted everywhere. In our lifetimes we have seen the USSR and also China under Mao attempt to do without markets altogether and fail, having starved and slaughtered millions of their citizens in the process. The Romans started a long period of currency debasement, lasting from Nero to Diocletian, who wrote prices in stone (the origin of the phrase) in a vain attempt to control them. While the Roman Empire was the known world at the time, it was essentially restricted to the Mediterranean and Europe. Subsequently, there have been over fifty instances recorded of complete monetary collapse, the vast majority in the last hundred years, which have led to the breakdown of every society involved.[i]And now we could be facing a global totality, the grand-daddy of them all.
The last 100 years has seen a huge rise in the unconstrained fractional reserve banking. If a little is good,,,, then more must be better.

We have become inured to cycles of credit expansion, driven by fractional reserve banking at least since the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which legalised fractional reserve banking. Extra impetus was given by central banks from the 1920s onwards.
Absolutely,, the wars must go on.

In Denmark, mortgage lenders are even offering negative-yield mortgages: in other words, Danes are being paid to take out loans with negative interest rates.
The French government has debts roughly equal to France’s GDP and by any analysis is not a very good credit risk, but it is now being paid by lenders to borrow. Only forty per cent of her economy is the productive tax base
Investors, particularly pension funds and insurance companies are forced by their regulators to invest nearly all their funds in regulated investments. Their compliance officers, who are effectively state-sponsored bureaucrats, control the investment decision process.
Additionally, with their highly-geared balance sheets state-licensed banks complying with Basel II and III are also corralled into “riskless” assets, which according to the regulators are government debt.
The federal government should default on its debt | Fox Business
Between them, central banks and sovereign wealth funds that are buying equities in increasing quantities further the scope of quantitative easing.
So, just how long can this levitation go on?

By all these methods, state control of regulated public and private sector funds coupled with the expansion of bank credit has cheapened government borrowing, and it would appear that governments are now enabled to issue limitless quantities of zero or negative-yielding debt. So long as enough money and credit is fed into one end of the sausage machine, it emerges as costless finance from the other.
Never mind the destruction wreaked on key private sector investors, such as pension funds, whose actuarial deficits are already in crisis: that is a problem for later. Never mind the destruction of insurance fund finances
This is now the key question: are we entering a new phase of low-inflation managed capitalism, or are we tipping into a mega-crisis, possibly systemically destructive?

If the latter, there’s a lot to go horribly wrong. The Bank for International Settlements, the central banks’ central bank, is certainly worried. Only this week, it released its annual economic report, in which it said, “monetary policy can no longer be the main engine for economic growth.” Clearly whistling to keep our spirits up, it calls for structural reforms to boost government spending on infrastructure. Translated, the BIS is saying little more can be achieved by easing monetary policy, so Presidents and Prime Ministers, it’s over to you. You can create savings by making government more efficient and you can spend more on infrastructure.
The last thing that government wants is to be efficient. That would wipe out State jobs. YES spend more on infrastructure. It didn't work for Japan but, don't worry about that. As long as you borrow this money from us, everything will be fine.

While the BIS washes it hands of the problem, history and reason tell us increased state involvement in economic outcomes will only make things worse. It is in the nature of government bureaucracy to be economically wasteful, because its primary purpose is not the efficient use of capital resources.
Following the Lehman crisis, the expansion of money and credit fed into asset inflation, creating an illusion of improving business prospects. The suppression of interest rates was the come-on to businesses to invest in production. The government’s budget deficit created extra spending as a further encouragement. The government’s economists say it’s all down to reviving those animal spirits.
Those animal spirits. are now working 3 part-time gigs to try to put some food on the table.

Credit cycles have been generally worsening, at least since the inflationary crisis of the 1970s, which followed the abandonment of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971. Central banks have debauched their currencies increasingly over successive credit cycles, building up to an inevitable apocalyptic crash. The approaching one could be our global totality, the grand-daddy of them all.
The collapse of the Bretton Woods Agreement was an event in a larger cycle of government intervention and failure. Von Mises knew it would happen, and he explained why in his The Theory of Money and Credit, first published in German over one hundred years ago. Ten years before it happened, he predicted the collapse of the mark and other European currencies in the early 1920s. Since then, we have proved that collectively we have learned little.
This is a lesson that the bankers do NOT want to learn

In 1929, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was legislated at the end of the 1920s credit expansion, and it was the combination of the two that changed the similarly benign conditions of the 1920s to those of today into the 1929 crash and the depression that followed.
He mentions the 1920s credit expansion, but, does NOT say a word about the FED. He makes no mention of the fact that FED head, Benjamin Strong was illegally selling Treasury bonds on the secondary market,,,, causing even more effective monetary inflation. 1913, we got the FED and, massive monetary inflation. 16 years later, we got a disastrous crash.
It must not be assumed that today’s stock markets will fall by nine-tenths, as was the case between 1929-32.

If an attempt to fully restore confidence fails to do more than provide a short-term fix, government finances will deteriorate further, and monetary inflation will be tried in even greater quantities than we have seen heretofore. Flooded with fiat money, most economies will then experience rising price inflation that can no longer be camouflaged by government statistics
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/g...gmrefcode=gata

[Danny B]

Captive bond markets

Armstrong is claiming that the world will have a sovereign debt crisis. Here is a chart of what happened last time.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/armstrongeco...ebtdefault.jpg
"I have warned continually that the Sovereign Debt Crisis will unfold not so much by people selling government debt, but by the lack of people buying new debt. The greatest peril is when there is NO BID for the new issues because all governments are operating a PONZI scheme. They sell new debt to pay off maturing debt."

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, What comes first? The banking Crisis or the Sovereign Debt Crisis?
ANSWER: The central banks are trapped. They can no longer even hope to sell the bonds they have bought in a vain attempt to stimulate the economy. So government can, in theory, keep their rates at zero as long as the central banks buy it, but they won’t be able to sell it to the public. The Sovereign Debt Crisis is already here. The liquidity is collapsing and central banks are rapidly becoming the only buyer.
As for banks, well, in Europe they are like the “Walking Dead.”
commerce, having no nationality, will leave in search of more fertile ground; but the wage earner, first to suffer under the ravages of a depreciated currency, remains incapable of prospering from the fluctuations in price and frustrated by his inability to hoard his own labour from the ever encroaching demands of taxation. His dilemma is without peaceful resolution

ALL governments eventually collapse. The PTB printed up an extra $248 trillion hoping that some of it would flow into sovereign debt. The ECB and BOJ are very transparent and, it is obvious that nobody is buying their bonds. The FED is a different story when it comes to transparency. They just pick a name out of hat and say, "this entity" is buying our bonds. This has successfully attracted fleeing capital.

There are treasury bills, treasury bills and, treasury bonds.
"U.S. Treasury securities ("Treasuries") are issued by the federal government and are considered to be among the safest investments you can make, because all Treasury securities are backed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government. This means that come what may—recession, inflation, war—the U.S. government is going to take care of its bondholders.

Treasuries are also liquid. A group of more than 20 primary dealers are required to buy large quantities of Treasuries every time there is an auction and stand ready to trade them in the secondary market."
https://www.finra.org/investors/us-treasury-securities
The primary dealers are required to buy these notes. Selling them is where the obfuscation comes in. But, the State gets some help in this matter. MANY entities are required to buy treasury paper.
U.S. Treasury securities:

Depository institutions
U.S. savings bonds
Pension funds – private
Pension funds – state and local governments
Insurance companies
Mutual funds
State and local governments
Foreign and international institutions
Other investors
Since the regulatory changes in '71, investors can buy treasury paper and then, use this paper as collateral to buy something else. A big part of treasury debt is held by parties that have no choice in the matter. Social Security holds about $3 trillion in non-negotiable treasury debt.
Presumably, a collapse of sovereign debt would collapse everybody on the list.

Erdogan is getting worse.
Nuclear weapon material worth $72 MIllion seized in a car in Turkey
7/07 Erdogan says Turkish cenbank chief ousted for refusing rate cuts – Reuters
7/07 Earnings recession risk increases as a flood of warnings hit – MarketWatch
7/07 SocGen chairman warns economic risks are building in Europe – Bloomberg
He can't name Deutsche bank by name.
7/07 Trump administration is ‘inept and insecure’, says UK ambassador – BBC
They are REALLY pissed off about Trump and Farage getting on so well.
7/06 Bitcoin uses more energy than the whole of Switzerland – and it’s getting worse – Ind

Politics is going to get quite a bit dirtier.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...n-epstein-case
Trump - 'I've Known Jeff For 15 Years... Terrific Guy'
President Bill Clinton And Alan Dershowitz Said Frequent Flyers On The Lolita Express - See Flight Logs Here...

In 'Radical Overhaul' 20,000 Deutsche Bankers Will Be Fired As 'Bad Bank' Soars To €80BN, 5x DB's Market Cap

[Danny B]

Pox Americana winding down

After WW II, pox Americana rode roughshod over the whole world, especially Germany and Japan. They are still occupied. When Europe was in ruins, America still had an army. When Europe was flat broke, America was very rich. The military - industrial - banking complex had no interest in going quietly into the night. We found a communist behind every tree and, we had to kill every one of them. This was the excuse to re-arm instead of seeking world peace. Lately, we have found a terrorist behind every rock. This calls for spending a LOT of money.

Pox Americana ruled the world with 2 main "instruments". That would be the American military (budget) and, the Federal Reserve. The Marshall Plan eventually saturated Europe with U.S. dollars. We had out Bretton Woods credit card. How else could we finance 7,000 bases and countless wars of choice? In addition, to the FED and the dollar, we also controlled the IMF and, later, SWIFT. Later, we had the petro-dollar. We made Saudi a deal that they couldn't refuse.
The U.S. military seemed to grow without limit. No budget was too big. No project was cut for lack of money. As long as it was market Top Secret, congress would never see a budget. Reportedly, the military has $22 trillion that they can't account for.
CENTCOM thrashes anybody who sells oil for other than dollars. The IMF and FED play tag-team at bankrupting any State that they fancy has something worth stealing.

All of this changed on 2015.75,,,,, as predicted by Martin Armstrong. The new Russian arms made Russia unassailable in any non-nuclear confrontation. CENTCOM can't attack Russia nor China. In addition to the long range missiles, there are the hypersonic missiles. They can hit anything on the ground. What about space?

China Will Soon Be Able to Destroy Every Satellite in Space
Pentagon: China, Russia Soon Capable of Destroying U.S. Satellites
India Successfully Tests Satellite-Killer Missile - WSJ
: American forces depend on satellites way more than other countries do—to guide bombs, help troops communicate, observe a battlefield, and a thousand other tasks.
"China took in 2007 when it shot down a weather satellite.
More than two-thousand distinct pieces of debris from that Chinese interception continue to orbit the Earth at high speeds, threatening other satellites. Hundreds of pieces will remain threatening for decades"
With the Donald Cook confrontation, Russia proved that they had superior weapons.

What about the FED and IMF?
Europe Launches SWIFT Alternative To Send Money To Iran | Zero
Russia Joins Europe's Effort to Create SWIFT Alternative - Russia ...Europe Launches SWIFT Alternative To Send Money To Iran | Zero ...
https://www.zerohedge.com/.../eu-lau...sanctions-iran
Feb 2, 2019 - The launch of INSTEX — "Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges" — by France, Germany, and the UK this week to allow "legitimate trade" ...
Russia backs global use of its alternative SWIFT system - Reuters
https://uk.reuters.com/...swift/russ...wift-system-id.
Europe's Alternative To Swift Another Nail In The Dollar's Coffin
Germany urges SWIFT end to US payments dominance | Business ..
Switzerland Would Join Alternative to US-Dependent Payment System ...

We abused all this power and the world is trying to get loose from American control.

[Danny B]

Hoping that gold will bring peace

The Bretton Woods agreement was an attempt to stop wars by blocking the genesis of war using credit to arm up. It tied State reserves to gold. Seeing as how, Europe had very little gold post WW II, it used the U.S. dollar as a proxy for gold. This meant trusting the Americans. Well, wealth and power attract corruption and, this opportunity was no exception. America went on a permanent war footing.
The world is working towards a new gold standard for international payments. Domestic currencies will float wherever the home state allows.
America runs a trade deficit if a couple $ billion a day. When the new arrangement comes into force, this won't be possible. The B.I.S. is the world's Central Bank. All settlements from the B.I.S. are already done in gold.
Imagine of State "A" owed 10 billion to State "B".. They could just print up 10 billion currency units and, hand them over.

Not any more. No more trade deficits. This means that most imports to America will come to an end. Trump is trying to ease into this new arrangement by bring back some American industry. He doesn't want consumption to come to a crashing halt when credit collapses. This will necessarily bring price inflation. Can't be helped.
If you have any doubts about the return of the gold standard, consider this;
7/08 Ronan Manly: Poland joins Hungary with huge gold purchase and repatriation – GATA
7/08 China announces seventh month of adding to gold reserves – GATA
Countries Around The World are Bringing Gold Home - Gold Telegraph
The Netherlands. Germany. Belgium. Switzerland. Austria. India. Mexico.
Still trust London with your gold? Poland latest to repatriate its bullion from the Bank of England
Is Gold Repatriation A Trend? Turkey Gets Its Reserves Back From
Gold Repatriation Could Be Sign of Things to Come - CoinWeek

There is a famous picture of the Queen inspecting a gold vault in London. All the bars have a number. She probably assumed that all that gold belonged to England.
Unfortunately, America has neither gold nor oil.
Rubin got rid of the gold and, the U.S. military burned up much of the oil.

7/08 Morgan Stanley downgrades global equities on fears of slowing growth – CNBC
7/08 PART III – debt crisis to be reborn in 2020 – Technical Traders
7/08 Dow falls as Apple leads tech slide – CNBC
7/08 Deutsche Bank retreat depends on uber optimism – Reuters
Deutsche bank is a very large domino. Their market capitalization is only $14 billion but, their derivative book is about $50 trillion.
7/09 The era of investment glut and inverted yield curves will come to an end – SA
7/08 India state lender plunges after uncovering fresh $554 million fraud – Bloomberg

The past few decades has seen central banks cut loose from the constraints of gold. The ensuing credit bubble was to be expected. Neither State nor bank will willing assume any constraints on their ability to create credit. This has brought all the usual ills. Seeing no other recourse, gold will be brought back in to offer some stability.

Kunstler covers the political scene.
https://kunstler.com/cluster****-nat...-train-acomin/

[Danny B]

Downturn,,, ZIRP,,, liquidity trap,,,unemployment

Well, we're definitely getting closer to crunch time. Trump's ratings are very high but, can they survive a credit collapse? He definitely wants a second term. Publicly, he states that the FED doesn't know what they are doing. But, he had a very good idea of what was coming when he appointed Powell. Is he trying to distance himself? The unwinding is picking up speed. It will not hold off til after the election.
7/09 Global stocks drop for third day, BASF warning stings Europe – Reuters
7/09 Is US shale cannibalizing itself? – Oil Price
7/09 Global recession risks are up, and central banks aren’t ready – NY Times
They already tried NIRP and, didn't fix anything.
7/09 Scenes outside Deutsche Bank offices evoke Lehman Collapse – Zero Hedge Do tell?

7/09 ‘The incredible disappearing bond yields’ – Reuters
The dollar is down only 1.8% but, gold is up about 9%. The rise in gold is mostly due to the fall in bonds, not a fall in the dollar.
7/09 Stock market cycle top and fearless VIX signal turning point – Technical Traders
VIX is the "fear gauge" Investors watch VIX to get an idea of what their fellow money renters are doing. The FED, ESF and PPT buy long futures in the VIX.

"In the simplest possible terms, the concern is that the bond market is "saying" something dire about the outlook for growth and stocks are simply ignoring that warning. The myriad curve inversions we've seen over the past several months lend credence to "looming recession" narrative which, again, stocks aren't heeding." foreign capital inflows.
7/09 How much will healthcare cost you in retirement? Try $369,000 – Motley Fool
Good article on commodity money.
https://www.aier.org/article/workings-gold-standard
Good article on LaGarde and the ECB
"There is no macroprudential measure that mitigates the risk created by negative rates and almost three trillion of asset purchases. More than half of European debt has negative returns and the ECB must maintain the repurchase of maturities, injections of liquidity and even announce a new program of quantitative easing in the face of the lack of sufficient demand in the secondary market for those negative yielding bonds. That is a bubble."
Yep, capital flight.

"The eurozone has been in stagnation for several months, with many leading indicators worsening, and it is not due to lack of stimulus, but due to excess.

1.- 64% of the sovereign debt of the eurozone hs negative yields. Five trillion euros . Completely unjustified looking at solvency, liquidity or growth ratios."|
https://www.dlacalle.com/en/lagarde-...e-next-crisis/
We MUST have socialism. https://internationalman.com/article...e-implemented/

" it also doesn’t confirm the conventional wisdom that $33 Trillion in bailouts and liquidity, zero interest rates, and surging stock markets, are conducive to stronger economic growth for all.
However, what the data does confirm is the Fed is caught in a “liquidity trap.”
"Of course, that money didn’t flow into the U.S. economy, it went into financial assets. With the markets having absorbed the current levels of accommodation, it is not surprising to see the markets demanding more,"
"The issue of monetary velocity is the key to the definition of a “liquidity trap.” As stated above:

“The signature characteristic of a liquidity trap are short-term interest rates that are near zero and fluctuations in the monetary base that fail to translate into fluctuations in general price levels.”
https://realinvestmentadvice.com/she...iquidity-trap/

I figure these 2020 Democrats have proposed upwards of $70 to $100 trillion in new spending over, say, a decade. And no one on the NBC ‘news’ panel bothered to ask a single candidate how they would pay for all of this new spending.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-06-...-collapse.html

Employment;
"Every month, the BLS adds numerous jobs to the non-seasonally adjusted payroll count to “adjust” for the number of “small businesses” being created each month, which in turns “creates a job.” (The total number is then seasonally adjusted.)

Here is my problem with the adjustment.

The BLS counts ALL business formations as creating employment. However, in reality, only about 1/5th of businesses created each year actually have an employee. The rest are created for legal purposes like trusts, holding companies, etc. which have no employees whatsoever. This is shown in the chart below which compares the number of businesses started WITH employees from those reported by the BLS."
"How big of a difference are we talking about?

Well, in the decade between 2006 and 2016 (the latest update from the Census Bureau) the BLS added roughly 7.6 million more employees than were created in new business formations."
"This data goes a long way in explaining why, despite record low unemployment, there is a record number of workers outside the labor force, 25% of households are on some form of government benefit, wages remain suppressed, and the explosion of the “wealth gap.” "
https://realinvestmentadvice.com/qui...bout-07-05-19/

[Danny B]

Rich dad, poor dad

Just one vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBeTIDv8Vg

[Danny B]

China is slipping,,,Libra is BS,,,Malthus

Time to point the finger at China again. The Chinese are born gamblers. Their recent arrival in the world of capitalism has made them a bit too euphoric. Add to that, their inborn, natural tendencies to skirt the law.
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank of China
Transparency International has compiled a list of the biggest corruption scandals over the past quarter century, which “involve politicians across political parties and from the highest reaches of government, staggering amounts of bribes and money laundering of epic proportions”.

Shocking they all most certainly are - but even more shockingly, Nicholas Wilson, a whistleblower embroiled in a 16-year-long one-man crusade against HSBC, has noted the bank - one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world - crops up in 18 of the historic calumnies, and may have played a role in at least three others.
So, on the corruption scale. HSBC is in a class of it's own.
Criminal enterprises always tend to get over-extended.
https://sputniknews.com/world/201907...international/

" In 2018, the country was known for creating four billionaires a week and is number one globally in self-made fortunes."
"Over the past decade, the overall debt of the country has quadrupled to about three times the value of last year's national output. Corporate debt makes up 2/3 of the total, amounting to more than $26 trillion last year."
""Many Chinese entrepreneurs tend to borrow as much as possible, even if the core business doesn’t need it."
"The country desperately needs companies that might lead China to a new stage of development that’s less dependent on construction and exports. The debt load is making it difficult for business owners to reinvest in the economy and the trade dispute with the United States continues to wear away at the country's confidence."
NO accident there. China wants to switch over to a consumer economy. NOT going to happen with peasant wages.
"Chinese companies last year had $1.72 trillion in debt securities outstanding, which was the second highest after American companies, who carry $5.81 trillion."

"More than 18,000 companies filed bankruptcy petitions in Chinese courts last year, which is about twice as many as the previous year. Bankruptcy had previously been a rare action to take in China. Bond defaults also hit record numbers last year at 125, which was five times the number in 2015. Defaults are running at an even faster pace in 2019 so far."
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...ents-skyrocket
Trump is diligently trying to push China off a cliff.

The Libra Coin
"Since Libra can move freely across borders, it "won’t be sustainable without the support and supervision of central banks," Mu Changchun, deputy director of the PBOC’s payments department, said. That's because the currency could create new monetary policy and foreign exchange risks for developing economies."
CBs are quite worried about transactional devices that they can't control. Most countries manipulate their currencies to gain some kind of export advantage. The Libra is a P.O.S. in that it is directly referenced to currencies and bonds. BUT, it would block much of the actions of the Central Bankers.
"Though Facebook is banned in China, Mu believes it could one day endanger the yuan, unless the Chinese currency becomes freely convertible.
"In the longer term, the yuan will be damaged by Libra if it’s not convertible," Mu told Bloomberg.
Mu also said the PBOC had tested Libra's code and that it isn't "stable."

I've already written a couple of times that the Yuan faces "the impossible Trinity" and can never be freely traded.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...acebooks-libra
The PBOC and BOJ and ECB are all very transparent regarding reflation schemes. The FED is not transparent and, the dollar zone has a big advantage because of this.

" The Malthusian trap describes a situation that keeps population growth in line with available resources. The increase in income per person was not sustainable in the long run, as economic growth was inevitably consumed by population increases."
"Western European countries, however, managed to escape the Malthusian trap through the Industrial Revolution which accelerated in the nineteenth century. Escaping the Malthusian trap meant an increase in both population growth and economic prosperity for the vast majority of people. "
"Economic historians explained that the phenomenon resulted from technological advances, demographic shifts due to European marriage patterns (marrying in later years, establishing a separate household, having fewer children), and increased human intelligence. All of the above are supposed to secure the systematic excess of output growth rates over the overpopulation growth rate. It seems that one crucial factor needs to be added to the list: capitalism itself, "

This is a pretty informative article but, it leaves out the biggest influence of all... carbon energy. They just say, "technological advances".
It takes X amount of food calories for a man to produce Y amount of food. If you replace human calorie expenditure with carbon energy, you completely change the whole picture.
" Socialism, in general, encroaches on private property rights, controls the economy, and subordinates individual decision-making to the collective. In this regard, it is appropriate to assume that socialism would push society back toward the Malthusian trap."
"The economy was exhibiting negative growth, hyperinflation, extreme impoverishment of the population, the deficit of basic food and consumer products. How can one explain such unfortunate events? Socialism adversely affects personal and economic freedoms—the essential components of socio-economic systems that are subject to universal and natural economic laws. The implementation of socialistic measures inhibited the natural flow of market forces in the official economic sphere and funnelled them to the shadow ."
https://mises.org/wire/socialism-man...althusian-trap

"They" are only barely starting to factor in the negative pressures from climate change.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...eek-180972573/
As we get deeper into solar cycle 25, the death & destruction will become much more apparent.

A prospectus on war with Iran.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-majo...ucture/5682514
What we can't do with invasion, we try to do with chokehold.
7/10 U.S. wants military coalition to safeguard waters off Iran, Yemen – Reuters
7/11 Trump threatens to ‘substantially’ increase sanctions on Iran – Reuters

7/11 Boris Johnson’s pivot: goodbye EU, hello U.S. – Atlantic
Yep, that was the plan all along.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVYqB0uTKlE
7/11 ECB seen readying the pumps for return to massive bond buying – Bloomberg
There is no plan B
7/11 Chicago pensions are no longer 27% funded (it’s now 23%) – Forbes
7/10 Class 8 truck orders crash 70% in June after a 71% drop in May – ZH
Great graphs, https://northmantrader.com/2019/07/1...-rings-a-bell/

[Danny B]

Criminal bankers,,, Brexit battle, ,,Boeing blowup

Yes, it is time to start worrying a bit more.
7/11 Wall Street banks bailing on troubled U.S. farm sector – Reuters
Fracked shale oil wells drying up faster than predicted, Wall Street pulling out.
One Climate Crisis Disaster Occurs Every Week, U.N. Official Warns
So, finance is pulling out of food and oil.
Major Wall Street banks are telling clients to be ready for a sudden rip higher in the market May 2 2019
Two major banks highlighted the possibility of a rapid, surprise jump in the stock market known as a “melt-up,” driven by investors looking to get in on a positive momentum shift.
7/12 Dow rallies 200 points to close above 27,000 for the first time ever – CNBC[/B]

How Wall Street Enabled the Fracking 'Revolution' That's Losing Billions
This Fed Policy Enabled the Fracking Industry's $280 Billion Loss.
I just don't see this ending well.
"Federal funds futures give the odds of a July rate cut at 100%.
They further indicate three are likely by January."
They say that the economy is great but, they "telegraph" that it is terrible.
“Traders Take Fed Message as License to Buy Everything.”
Yes, yes,,, do NOT abandon the markets.
"Yesterday they drove the S&P past 3,000 for the first time. "
Interesting article positing that the crash of Boeing may bring it all down.
https://dailyreckoning.com/a-license-to-buy-everything/

7/12 Earnings season is here and it won’t be pretty – CNBC
Shoulda bought gold.
7/12 Bullied Fed chief may have put US on dangerous path – SMH
That would be Rubin or Greenspan.
7/12 Many Americans will never stop working – Safe Haven
95 million American workers not in US labor force - CNBC.com
21,995,000 to 12,329,000: Government Employees Outnumber Manufacturing Employees 1.8 to 1
You can see why many Americans can't retire. They are carrying TOO MANY dependents.

7/12 Fed chair says relationship between inflation and unemployment is gone – CNBC
No kidding When did he figure that one out?
Capital is instantly mobil, labor is NOT.
7/12 Merkel’s shaking episodes fuel debate about German power handover – Reuters
Maybe the old communist tart is going to be outed by Epstein for wild orgies.

Armstrong, Everybody is predicting a crash because stocks are so over-bought. Armstrong points out that; as investor confidence turns, they just want to preserve value and are NOT worried about income. It doesn't matter if there are earnings as long as investors expect valuations to hold up. The capital flight from Europe is a result of the lack of confidence in the ECB vs the FED. It is doubtful that the coming rate cuts will turn this confidence around.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/f...rom-economics/

Armstrong writes about the '29 crash. GOV went after banks rather than bankers. They could collect MUCH bigger fines that way. They weren't interested in setting an example by prosecuting bankers.
"ANSWER: The bankers own the reign of government from the courts to the White House. In the years that followed the 2008 financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against more than 150 people and institutions and won $2.68 billion in penalties. The SEC loves big fines. Keep in mind if they charge the individual banker, it will never be profitable. Charge the bank and promise no criminal prosecutions and you get the big bucks. So yes, not one of the bankers went to jail from that financial meltdown that they created which left 8.8 million Americans jobless. I"
1932 "The Pecora Commission, as the investigation came to be known, led to indictments for several of the era’s finance giants. However, this was all before the SEC and Glass-Steagall, which Goldman Sachs had the Clintons repeal. Since banking laws did not guard against the kind of speculation that fueled the crash, most escaped prosecution for they did not violate any law."
Glass-Steagal was / is an absolute necessity to protect the average person.
" At the height of his success, Insull controlled businesses worth as much as $500 million in assets with just $27 million in equity. When the crash hit, 65 of his businesses failed, ruining 600,000 investors."

"However, this was all before the SEC and Glass-Steagall, which Goldman Sachs had the Clintons repeal."
"The Pecora Commission went after the individuals. The SEC and Justice Department protect those bankers today. The Securities and Exchange Commission is now controlled by the people from Goldman Sachs. The likelihood of the SEC ever prosecuting anyone from the banking industry is ZERO,"
Without personal and / or moral hazard, you can expect exactly the situation that we have today. Regulatory capture in the courts and SEC ensure that the situation will not change easily. The crimes from slick Willy against Americans just keep mounting.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...at-depression/

"There comes times like in 2009 where capital no longer trusts the banks, governments, and is just looking to get its money back intact."
If the State does not pump up the markets, fear of missing out becomes impotent.
Armstrong;
"EU Refuses to Negotiate Fairly with Britain – Demands of a Customs Union"
"France Refuses any Negotiation on BREXIT & Demands to Punish Britain"
France especially is determined to punish GB to ensure that nobody else gets the idea of leaving. You can also expect that the London bankers are pushing "remain".
The French are stupid about this. There is NO future for the EU in it's present configuration. Germany is crashing. What other indicator do they need to finally see failure?

7/11 France passes digital tax on US tech firms despite trade threat – CNBC
The Yellow Vest protests have made it impossible to raise taxes on the French so, they raise taxes on Americans.

7/12 Tropical storm Barry nears Louisiana, New Orleans under state of emergency – ABC
With one weather disaster a week, they are just going to have to abandon New Orleans. There was a town on the Texas coast that got destroyed years ago. They rebuilt everything. After if got destroyed so badly that they couldn't even find debris, everybody just left the area.
Anthropogenic global warming is FINALLY dying a death of attrition.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...exist-practice
Carbon taxes were originated to fund World Government. The base reference of global warming studies was that the out[put of the sun does NOT vary.
Some of the feces-for-brains who advocate world GOV have finally come to the realization that world GOV just can't work when Capital is mobil and, labor is not. Evidently, they believe that they can rectify this problem by destroying all borders so that labor can be mobil.
Take the poor and the stupid out of a country who have NO opportunities in their home country AND send them to some advanced country that has a low birth rate. They are still poor and stupid. Putting them on permanent government welfare isn't going to improve anything. Using generous welfare payments to attract unemployable people is definitely a recipe for disaster.

Boeing engaged $9-an-hour Indian engineers to build 737 Max ...
https://www.business-standard.com › International › News
Boeing lost $26.6 billion of market value since Sunday's 737 Max crash
https://www.cnbc.com/.../boeing-lost...-since-sundays...

Mar 13, 2019 -
Boeing's 737 Max woes just cost it a $5.9 billion order — Quartz
https://qz.com/1660253/boeings-737-m...billion-order/
5 days ago
"And Boeing is the largest individual component on the Dow Jones. It presently enjoys an 11.6% weighting.

When Boeing goes up, the index often goes with it. When Boeing goes down, the index often goes with it also."
"Boeing has just announced its H1 [first half] deliveries in 2019 are down 54%. It has only delivered 90 new aircraft this year. Yet it is producing 42 new B-737 MAX’s each month and is having to store them on airport parking lots! It isn’t getting paid for these aircraft, but it still has supply chain commitments to meet. Boeing is hemorrhaging cash to build an aircraft no one can fly…"
" At least one airline is said to be refusing to accept aircraft built outside Seattle. The U.S. Air Force stopped deliveries of new KC-46 tankers for a while when they found engineers had left hammers and other tools in wing and control spaces — a clear indication of “safety standardsgotten too lax” said Defense News… This has massive implications for Boeing."

A corporation has no brain, heart, conscience, nor soul. It considers people to be interchangeable. If Indian programmers work for less,,, send them the work.
" But there have been problems with B-787 Dreamliners built at its state-of-the-art Charleston factory — “shoddy production and weak oversight” said The New York Times"
But, But, the plant is state-of-the-art.
Yes, but, the wage scale in the deep south is lower than the wage scale in Seattle.
Boeing got lax, lazy and stupid. Airbus is eating them up.
"It presently enjoys an 11.6% weighting." They're going to have to change that real quick so that the apparent market level does not fall.

[Danny B]

Main CBs &amp; euthanasia,,,supporting zombies,,,RISING debt

Keep in mind that J. M. Keynes predicted and championed "Euthanasia of the Rentier" Hegel came up with the idea that; everybody should work for the government.
How would you bring this about? How would kill off the money-rental business?
Armstrong ;"Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda publicly stated that it may maintain ultra-low rates for a further period of well over a year. However, he also warned against the idea of propping up the economy through unlimited money printing to finance government spending. That may sound nice, but the Bank of Japan is trapped. Its holdings of the national debt have reached nearly 50%. The BOJ modified its forward guidance or pledge on how it will guide future monetary policy. It stated that current very low interest rates will continue at least until the spring of 2020. However, there is ZERO hope without the BOJ buying the government debt that interest rates will rise dramatically and a financial crisis will be in the making.

The BOJ will keep rates low for an extended period of time for they have no choice. There is no way out of this nightmare and the real inflationary cycle comes when the majority wake up and realize that the emperor has no clothes, and that means the central bankers worldwide."

The FED
"It’s not just zombie corporations that need cheap and easy money these days just to stay upright. It’s also zombie individuals. Millions of them.
They’re among us. They can’t exist without debt. And the economy can’t live without them.
Welcome to the Debt Zombie Apocalypse."
"But even once they’re in debt, they still carry on spending. Even while paying monthly interest that sometimes goes as high as 30%. "
"A look at the official data shows where we are today. Mortgage debt is now higher than it was during the peak of the bubble in 2008. Credit-card debts are 50% higher. Student debt has doubled and corporate debt has more than doubled. Car loans are 50% higher.
And Uncle Sam’s debt, as we know, has more than doubled, from $9.5 trillion in 2008 to $22 trillion today."

The ECB is charging ahead with stimulus to keep markets going.
"To show how desperate investors are for yield…

At the recent Italian bond auction, demand for the 50-year bond with an interest rate of 2.90% was 6 times oversubscribed.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has been a strong advocate for monetary stimulus and lower-for-longer interest rates."
The ECB is going to print just like the other CBs

"The banks charged off $8.8 billion in credit-card debt last quarter. They just gave up on it, and accepted they were never going to get back another nickel. The borrowers were bust."
"If this is what balance sheets look like when the economy is doing well, imagine what they’ll look like when the next downturn hits. Oh, never mind. The Fed can keep cutting rates, and Uncle Sam can just print up a trillion more dollars. "
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/th...of2&yptr=yahoo
7/12 Indebted Americans can’t cut back on luxury spending: poll – Credit Cards

7/12 Ray Dalio: there is as little as one year of Fed stimulus left in the bottle – ZH
7/12 A long shadow creeps over the economy this summer – Great Recession
7/12 China imports from US plunge 31% in June amid tariff war – AP
7/12 Japan firm says $32 mn missing in cryptocurrency hack – Yahoo

7/11 Iranian boats ‘harass’ British tanker in the Gulf – Reuters
Middle East Tanker Insurance Rates Soar 10-Fold :thumbsup
DHL Sounds Alarm On Collapsing World Trade: "Significant Downturn" Underway Zero hedge:

[Danny B]

euthanasia of the rentier, ,, too much debt liquidity but, not enough money

I'm straining my brain trying to put some ideas together. Keynes said that in the future (our present), there would be so much accumulated wealth that we would only have to work 15 hours a week. Keynes also said that this would bring full employment. This OBVIOUSLY doesn't work. The really talented people, who haven't been displaced by automation are working more hours than ever. The no-talent people will never have a job niche because automation displaces them first.
At the same time, Shumpeter advocated "creative destruction" to keep the economy stimulated and, everybody working. He said to go around town and, break all the windows. This would put people to work.
The U.S. military serially goes around and destroys nations so that they have to spend their oil money to rebuild. The military also burns up as much military hardware as possible, ostensibly to keep people working. Crushing taxes are required to pay for this transfer of wealth to the arms dealers and banks.
Keynes should have been aware of automation because; "Ned Ludd broke a knitting frame to protest automation and outsourcing."By 1812, organised frame-breakers became known as Luddites"
Apparently, Keynes couldn't envision widespread automation.

Suppose that I pay $1 trillion for a plane. Even if that plane is destroyed, the wealth still went to some bank account. The nominal amount of money is just transferred. General Dynamics pays it's suppliers and workers. Maybe the money goes to China for cheap junk. In a general sense, the money sits in a bank somewhere.

Keynes has another idea;
"Keynes explains that the major mistake people make about economics is the idea that capital is scarce, and must be rewarded heavily to encourage investment in job-creating projects. Keynesian theory says that this view is utterly wrong. Keynes says that the amount of capital needed to operate an economy at full employment is limited, and once achieved, the marginal return to capital will drop to the point that it merely covers depreciation, obsolescence, and a small return for risk and for managerial skill and judgment."
"Now, though this state of affairs would be quite compatible with some measure of individualism, yet it would mean the euthanasia of the rentier, and, consequently, the euthanasia of the cumulative oppressive power of the capitalist to exploit the scarcity-value of capital."

In recent years, the CBs have created an additional $248 trillion of debt liquidity.
At the same time, banks are charging 18% credit card interest.
The banks are trying to make capital appear scarce to justify charging interest. There just isn't enough demand for private credit. The State is trying to suck up available credit / liquidity to make it appear that capital is scarce.
7/13 U.S. budget deficit jumps 23% as spending hits record high – Japan News
7/13 US government is running out of money faster than expected, Mnuchin warns – CNN
The ECB, BOJ, FED and PBOJ are all running the printing presses in hyperdrive creating new liquidity. The Central Banks are creating megatons of liquidity to support the State. U.S. GOV spends 24% of the GDP,,, The French GOV, 57%.
7/13 US government will run out of money in September. CNN

Walter Burien uses GOV financial reports to show that 47,000 GOV agencies have a cumulative $248 trillion stashed away.
CAFR1 Home Page
The California University system claims that they have $91 billion.
Apparently, this mountain of accumulated wealth that Keynes predicted exists but, is walled off from the public who must therefore borrow from the banks.
https://shadowproof.com/2013/02/10/e...f-the-rentier/

"scarcity-value of capital."
The debt per person is reported to be $86,000 worldwide. This is debt that was incurred by the State in your name. But, this debt was incurred to keep you working.
"scarcity value of labor"
Decades ago, the fertility rate in America was about 3.2 per woman. Wages were good here because of our post-war lock on manufacturing. Capital is always at war with labor.
The fertility rate in Mexico was 6.2 so, the southern border was left open to allow a greater part of the profits to accrue to capital. When Mexican fertility fell to the current number of 2.6, new populations had to be drawn in to America to continue to depress wages.
Scarcity of labor had to be continuously alleviated.
Bring in unskilled labor in the face of rising automation seems like a bad idea.

We have reached a point where the CBs are printing with wild abandon. Capital has successfully depressed wages to where the solvent public are not doing much borrowing. The insolvent public owe $1.4 trillion on their credit cards.
Between the CAFR money and, the offshore American wealth, there is something like $300 trillion. This doens't include MANY other jurisdictions. Capital successfully depressed wages at the same time that automation and outsourcing wiped out job niches. The riches of capital are all denominated as debt owed by people who are not working.

From one angle, it looks like the CBs are trying to bring bankruptcy of the rentier with endless monetary stimulation.

FED chair Powell "‘There’s something going on with the growth around the world, particularly around manufacturing and investment and trade,’ he told the House Financial Services Committee"
"Record stock prices don’t matter. Booming corporate Credit is no issue. June’s big gain in payrolls and a 3.7% unemployment rate are not part of the decision function. A Friday afternoon Bloomberg headline resonated: “A Stock Market Dying to Know What Powell Knows About the Economy.”

The so-called “insurance” rate cut is all about the global environment, with monetary policy’s traditional domestic focus relegated to history."
You can thank the global-mean-wage. It killed consumption and trade.
"I don’t believe the primary impetus behind the global central bank swing toward additional stimulus is economic. Indeed, I see Powell, Draghi, Carney, Kuroda and the like confirming the Acute Global Financial Fragilities Thesis."
They have FINALLY noticed that the lower loop is DYING
"But a global financial “system” already excessively embracing risk, wallowing in liquidity abundance and generating record Credit growth will be only further destabilized by greater stimulus."
Yep, Plan "A" until the cows drop dead.

"Bizarro World, indeed. Why is financial history strewn with markets succumbing to bouts of end-of-cycle insanity? The obvious answer is greed – greed that became deeply ingrained after a protracted period of being richly rewarded (with fear and caution punished mercilessly). The longer the cycle the more intense and resilient the greed dynamic. The more of the “house’s” money available to gamble, the more extravagant the bets. I would add that prolonged cycles typically have some type of underlying government support that over time comes to underpin confidence and risk-taking (playing an especially critical role late in the cycle). "
"But greed and governmental support are insufficient to inflate Bubbles. Bubbles are fueled by Credit. I would add that “money” is also key. Credit booms can’t survive to become “protracted” without the expansion of perceived safe and liquid (money-like) Credit instruments"
Ah yes, Post gold-standard credit expansion.
Credit Bubble Bulletin : Weekly Commentary: Central Banker to the World

"They" use fear of missing out to keep money in the markets. Stocks depend on earnings. If earnings don't materialize, there is no reason to stay in stocks.
7/13 Market rally artificially inflated by growing corporate share buybacks – Birch Gold
All the buybacks were done with wet-ink money from the FED.
7/13 Chicago governor says no to statewide pension crisis fix – Daily Reckoning
7/13 Chicago mayor blocks ICE access to police databases ahead of raids – MSN
He better have his BOB handy. Get Wikileaks to hack the info.
7/13 The ‘yield curve’ is flashing warning signs – Phil’s Stock World
Short term debt is commanding way more interest than long term debt. "They" expect a crash in the short term.
7/13 Finance costs are killing the shale industry – SRSrocco Report
The free-money train from the FED to Wall St to frackers is on a different track now.

7/13 The world acquires more gold while China is dumping U.S. Treasuries – Daily Coin
The printing presses at the FED are starting to smoke a bit to make up the difference.
7/13 Michael Hudson: de-dollarizing may collapse the U.S. financial empire – GATA
Michael Hudson really knows his stuff. Plan "A" is for America to collapse last. Since our stimulus is hidden, capital is attracted.
7/13 Fed chair suggests bitcoin is gold’s biggest competition – CCN
$356 million in cryptocurrency stolen in first three months of 2019 - TNW
Crime still plagues cryptocurrencies; $1.7 billion was stolen last year

7/13 Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony postponed by one week – Guardian
7/13 Epstein has ‘secret’ steel safe in off-limits room on ‘Pedo Island’ – Zero Hedge
Buy more popcorn.

"And now there is the Epstein matter, which threatens not only former president Bill Clinton, but a cosmos of political, financial, and entertainment “stars” in countless ugly incidents that involve a kind of personal corruption that has no political context but says an awful lot about the obliteration of moral and ethical boundaries by the people who ended up running things in this fretful moment of US history. "
https://kunstler.com/cluster****-nation/nemesis-rising/

[Danny B]

Capital flight,,, ECB vs FED

Armstrong has long claimed that things will get much worse when the people lose confidence in government. He states that 35% of the people think that Us GOV is the problem. He states that this will become a BIG problem when 45% of the people have no confidence in GOV.
He has a vid talking about capital flight. The Chinese found BTC to be the perfect vehicle for getting capital out of China.
Beijing cracks down on Twitter users - Public Radio International
Chinese Censors Crack Down On Foreigners' Speech Online
China cracks down on aggrieved party cadres in Xinjiang and Tibet ..
The Hunt for Dissidents in China - Refworld
China's Hunt for DissIdents Expands to Foreign Countries | Time

China can crack down on protest but, this reduces trust in GOV.
China Cracks Down In Hong Kong, Shocks The Unsuspecting | WJR-AM
Hong Kong climbs to No 4 on World Bank's list of easiest places to do business
China's exports shrink most in 2 years, raising risks to global economy
Shrinking China factory activity, faltering exports inflame economic anxiety
Now, China wants to crack down on BTC and facebook / libra
China also wants the authority / power to extradite persons from Hong Kong.

The Chinese, like most politicians, believe that they simply have to pass a law and, everybody will comply,,, under pain of prosecution. China wants to be a world power but, they can NOT internationalize the Yuan as long as they are an authoritarian regime.

The structure of the FED essentially means that they can never go bankrupt. They might very well cause price inflation but, they won't go bankrupt.
Armstrong, "These people who do not really know what they are talking about assuming that just because the Fed has the power to create elastic money, that therefore the ECB can do the same thing. SORRY – WRONG!!!!"
"There is a substantial difference between the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB). The accounting at the Fed allows for it to CREATE money as needed. Now the fiat crowd will argue that the Fed can just create money in a very ELASTIC money supply. This is true and it was intended from the very outset that when economic declines appeared, the leverage within the system would implode and thus to ease that contraction in the supply of money. Originally, the money was created not by bailout banks, but by purchasing corporate paper directly to prevent layoffs. Hence, the shortage of money resulted in defaults BECAUSE banks would not lend and assets decline in currency value in proportion to the contraction in money supply. Therefore, the Fed was created with the power to create ELASTIC money that made sense because the corporate (unlike government) have to pay back."

" how does this contrast with the ECB? Here in lies the problem. The ECB is NOT authorized to create an ELASTIC MONEY SUPPLY. Germany would never allow that. Consequently, the ECB cannot continue to just buy-in sovereign debt of member states as the market forces come down upon them. The ECB, unlike the Fed, will run out of money and then there will be a very public crisis whereby the ECB will have to be recapitalized. I wrote about this before in Federal Reserve v ECB.

I warned back then that “Something will have to give in Europe.” The ECB was granted a ceiling to buy in government bonds. It cannot just print money with no end in sight. It must get approval, which the Fed does not require from Congress. The two are completely different animals."
The ECB is Insolvent Based on Their Standards | Armstrong Economics
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...-is-insolvent/

Dec 23, 2016 - Under their own rules, the ECB should now be declared insolvent... The Fed only has Federal debt, not state debt which would be more like the ECB.

Here is the Vid, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFrNf5VSfPs