07.23.18- What Happened To Our Country? These Are Not Our Values, This Isn’t Who We Are
J.D. Pendry

I think I’ve figured it out.  There’s multiple Americas.  I don’t mean North, Central and South.  I mean multiple US of As.  What other explanation could there possibly be.  When I hear a windblown politician, a television yakking head, or the wholly ignorant in the streets making these comments I think:  That’s exactly what should be happening in our country!  That is exactly what I value.  That is exactly who I am.  So, here we rest our weary hearts and minds.  In a standoff across an ever-widening abyss.  An abyss of wayward ideologies, ignorance, directionless baseless hatred, stupidity… multiple Americas.

As they like to declare over there in East Virginia, let me be clear.  There are rational people who consider themselves either liberal or conservative.  There are irrational people who are used as a broad brush to categorize them all.  Not every liberal is a progressive socialist.  Not every conservative is a white supremacist.  There are conservatives more liberal than self-identified liberals.  There are liberals more conservative than self-identified conservatives.  I would say the same about self-identified Democrats and Republicans except with each passing day, that nom de plume is becoming more meaningless. Read More

07.21.18- Four Obvious Areas for Improvement in America
Phil Spencer

“Make America great again!”

That was the slogan used by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and it propelled him to the most powerful and coveted job in the world – commander in chief of the United States. However, since Trump’s inauguration there has been much blustering and many unpopular policies that don’t seem to have been made with the promise of making America great again.

While the United States makes worldwide news for the President’s tweets, other countries are implementing changes that are benefitting their citizens and helping to change the world positively. Read More

07.20.18- Russiagate Is Constructed of Pure Bullshit, No Facts
Paul Craig Roberts

All day today the presstitute scum at NPR went on and on about President Trump, using every kind of guest and issue to set him up for more criticism as an unfit occupant of the Oval Office, because, and only because, he threatens the massive budget of the military/security complex by attempting to normalize relations with Russia. The NPR scum even got an ambassador from Montenegro on the telephone and made every effort to goad the ambassador into denouncing Trump for saying that Montenegro had strong and aggressive people capable of defending themselves and were not in need of sending the sons of American families to defend them. Somehow this respectful compliment about the Monenegro people was supposed to be an insult. The ambassador refused to be put into opposition to Trump. NPR kept trying, but got nowhere. Read More

07.19.18- What the Origins of Money Teaches Us About Spontaneous Order
Luis Pablo De La Horra

Money has been around for most of human history. From Mesopotamia (or even earlier), all civilizations have employed some kind of medium of exchange to facilitate transactions regardless of their geographical locations, legal and economic systems, religious beliefs or political structures. Have you ever wondered why? In a brief essay entitled “On the Origins of Money,” the nineteenth-century Austrian economist Carl Menger provides an answer to this question. Menger argues that money emerged spontaneously in different times and places to overcome the disadvantages of barter and facilitate the expansion of trade. Which disadvantages? 

Imagine Sandy, a farmer in the Midwest, produces wheat, which she expects to exchange for barley. Two problems arise at this point. First, she needs to find a barley producer with whom to barter her products. This problem can be easily overcome if Sandy goes to a market where another farmer (let’s call him Billy) sells barley. Since both products are harvested during the same time of the year, the exchange would easily take place. Read More

07.18.18- Our Rules of the Game: US Constitution
Walter E. Williams

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, leading to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, has thrown progressives, the Democratic Party and the news media into an out-and-out tizzy. The online magazine Slate declared, “Anthony Kennedy Just Destroyed His Legacy as a Gay Rights Hero.” The New York Times’ editorial board said about a second Trump court appointment, “It is a dark moment in the history of the court and the nation, and it’s about to get a lot darker.”

It’s indeed a “dark moment” for those who’ve for decades used the courts to accomplish what would have been impossible through federal and state legislatures — such as same-sex marriage, abortion and preferences with regard to race and sex. With this Supreme Court pick — and possibly another during his term — President Trump can return us to the Framers’ vision of the judiciary — a vision that’s held in contempt by many liberals and conservatives. Read More

07.17.18- The Trade War Is Already Having A Huge Impact On The U.S. Economy
Michael Snyder

The trade war has barely just begun, and yet significant ripple effects are already being felt all across the U.S. economy.  Once thriving businesses are on the verge of failure, workers are being laid off, and some sectors of the economy are witnessing enormous price hikes.  Right now the mainstream media is absolutely fixated on the drama surrounding the recently concluded Trump-Putin summit meeting, but the consequences of this trade war will ultimately be far more important for the lives of most ordinary Americans.  As more tariffs continue to be implemented, this will perhaps be the biggest disruption to the global economic system that we have seen in decades.  Perhaps you have not been affected personally yet, but for many Americans this trade war has changed everything.  For example, just consider the plight of soybean farmer Tim Bardole…

The U.S. is China’s second-biggest source of soybeans at 34% of the imports, after Brazil, which ships 53%. The staple is used to make cooking oil and seasoning, and soybean meal is found in pig feed.

Now the tariffs have taken the bottom out of U.S. soybean prices, delivering a gut punch to farmers like Tim Bardole. He was already $100,000 in the red last year due to a yearslong slump in cereal prices, and the current predicament has driven him into a corner.

“I’m not sure if I can get a loan from the bank to finance our next year’s crop,” said Bardole. Read More

07.16.18- Complete Idiocy Engulfs The U.S.
Dave Kranzler

William Shakespeare at his creative pinnacle could not have written this screenplay:

The first time I watched this I thought it was a joke – product of National Lampoon. Then the reality of it hit me like a ton of bricks. Is this really a productive use of Congressional time? The entire U.S. system is hurling toward a debt-induced financial and economic apocalypse. At the same time the Deep State, using Trump as its hand-puppet, is alienating the U.S. from the EU/NATO, this country’s last remaining allies. 

The “trade war” is nothing more than the Deep State’s set-up for a military war. The dollar is being removed by China as the reserve currency, which will in turn take away the power enjoyed the elitists running the U.S. since Bretton Woods. If you are unsure how this story ends, take another look at history. Read More

07.14.18- Hope and Change Are At Hand
James Howard Kunstler

It seems unfair that the earnest polymath Elon Musk should go broke in the electric car business while Kylie Jenner becomes a billionaire at age 20 hawking lip gloss on Snapchat, but that’s how the American Dream rolls these late days of empire. Perhaps the lesson here, for all you MBA wannabes, is that Mr. Musk could switch his production facilities from cars to lip gloss. Of course, to successfully market his new line of cosmetics on social media, Elon might have to consider sexual “reassignment” surgery — unless he could persuade American men via Facebook and Twitter, that lip enhancement boosts male self-esteem almost as much as the purchase of a Ford F-450 pickup truck at a laughable fraction of the cost.

Which raises an interesting question: if President Donald Trump’s most winning personal feature is that magnificent golden hair-do, why doesn’t he (or his family) get out of the pain-in-the-ass hotel business, with all its construction and maintenance issues and dirty sheets, and just put out shampoo? He is obviously adept at Twitter marketing and surely scores high in global brand recognition. Read More

07.13.18- Public Pensions: The Ultimate Ponzi Scheme
Todd J. Stein

State and local governments are running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history.

They've promised full pensions to their workers. But they aren't putting aside enough money — or generating high enough returns — to fulfill those future obligations. Soon, they'll have to cannibalize current workers' pension contributions to pay retirees. Young and middle-aged government employees will likely never receive the retirement benefits they're counting on.

It's too late to prevent this crisis. But there's still time to mitigate the financial fallout — by trimming benefits, raising contributions, and transitioning younger employees to 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans.

Most importantly, it's time to recognize that government officials are too short-sighted and underqualified to manage public pensions.

For decades, politicians have underfunded public pensions. They've decided to spend tax revenues today, rather than set them aside for future pension liabilities. Read More

07.12.18- The Uncivil Civil War: Economic and Market Implications of Political Transformation
Michael Lebowitz

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’

The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan

America’s populace is politically divided in a way that has not been seen in decades. The growing rift is rapidly changing the landscape in Washington D.C. and has major implications for the nation. Amazingly, as voters from different parties espouse views that are worlds apart, they share a strikingly similar message.

This article considers the juxtaposition of colliding worldviews and the unified message that voters across the political spectrum are sending. While many investors are aware of the political change afoot, it seems that very few have considered how said changes might affect the economy and financial markets. In this article, we share some of our thoughts and encourage you to give the topic more consideration going forward.

Given the importance of the subject, this article will likely be the first of several discussing the intersection of politics and markets. Read More

07.11.18- Globalists Are Telling Us Exactly What Disasters They’re Planning For The Economy
Brandon Smith

Years ago when analysts used the term “globalist, there was an immediate recognition among liberty advocates as to who they were referring to. This was back when the movement for small government, the non-aggression principle and true free markets was small but growing. These days, it’s difficult to gauge how many liberty groups there are or even if they know what small government and the non-aggression principle represent, let alone what makes a “globalist” a globalist.

There are a lot of new and very green members to the push for freedom, and a lot of them seem to think “MAGA” is the pinnacle of the movement’s philosophy. But MAGA doesn’t represent much of anything tangible. Making America great again is not a plan, it’s just a goal. Or even less, just a catch phrase. Without concrete plans, the notion of achieving a goal is laughable.

Make no mistake, the globalists have concrete plans, some of them simple, some of them rather elaborate. But who are the “globalists”? There’s really no secret to it: ANY person or institution that promotes the philosophy of global centralization of economic or political power into the hands of a select few is probably globalist. Read More

07.10.18- America Is Now A 3rd World Nation
Charles Hugh Smith

I know it hurts, but the reality is painfully obvious: the USA is now a 3rd World nation.

Dividing the Earth's nations into 1st, 2nd and 3rd world has fallen out of favor;apparently it offended sensibilities. It has been replaced by the politically correct developed and developing nations, a terminology which suggests all developing nations are on the pathway to developed-nation status.

What's been lost in jettisoning the 1st, 2nd and 3rd world categories is the distinction between developing (2nd world) and dysfunctional states (3rd world), states we now label "failed states."

But 3rd World implied something quite different from "failed state": failed state refers to a failed government of a nation-state, i.e. a government which no longer fulfills the minimum duties of a functional state: basic security, rule of law, etc. Read More

07.09.18- Survival of the Richest
Douglas Rushkoff

Last year, I got invited to a super-deluxe private resort to deliver a keynote speech to what I assumed would be a hundred or so investment bankers. It was by far the largest fee I had ever been offered for a talk?—?about half my annual professor’s salary?—?all to deliver some insight on the subject of “the future of technology.”

I’ve never liked talking about the future. The Q&A sessions always end up more like parlor games, where I’m asked to opine on the latest technology buzzwords as if they were ticker symbols for potential investments: blockchain, 3D printing, CRISPR. The audiences are rarely interested in learning about these technologies or their potential impacts beyond the binary choice of whether or not to invest in them. But money talks, so I took the gig.

After I arrived, I was ushered into what I thought was the green room. But instead of being wired with a microphone or taken to a stage, I just sat there at a plain round table as my audience was brought to me: five super-wealthy guys?—?yes, all men?—?from the upper echelon of the hedge fund world. After a bit of small talk, I realized they had no interest in the information I had prepared about the future of technology. They had come with questions of their own. Read More

07.07.18- Summer of Tough Love
James Howard Kunstler

The golden Colossus of Trump looms over the national scene this summer like one of Jeff Koons’s giant, shiny, balloon-puppy sculptures — a monumental expression of semiotic vacancy. At the apogee of Trumpdom, everything’s coming up covfefe. The stock market is 5000 points ahead since 1/20/17. Little Rocket Man is America’s bitch. We’re showing those gibbering Asian hordes and European café layabouts a thing or two about fair trade. Electric cars are almost here to save the day. And soon, American youth will be time-warping around the solar system in the new US Space Corps!

Enjoy it while you can. Events are converging ominously this summer in the direction of unwinding expectations and serial train wrecks of finance and politics. Mr. Trump has made hubris simple by bragging on the supposed triumphs of “his” economy. When it blows up, he’ll own that, too, and the second half of 2018 liable to be a debris-field of shattered national economies, zombie corporations, and floundering institutions. Read More

07.06.18- Here’s a great example of a company using Blockchain to solve a real problem
Simon Black

Today I just wanted to send you a quick note to highlight a great example of a company that’s using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to solve a real-world problem.

I thought this would be important given that most of the noise in the crypto space these days is still almost invariably focused on the Bitcoin price.

A quick Google search for “Bitcoin” reveals headlines from CNBC to Fortune Magazine, all about whether or not Bitcoin can come out of its price slump:

“Wall Street’s Tom Lee cuts his year-end bitcoin price target by about 20%”, and “3 Bullish Signs Return For Bitcoin”

Similarly, “Blockchain” and “DLT” news is generally dominated by reports about various government policies:“Spain’s Securities Regulator Undertakes a Blockchain Pilot” Read More

07.05.18- Would the Founding Fathers Recognize Modern America?
Bill Bonner

The metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly is one of the most remarkable things in nature. The animal apparently digests itself, using enzymes triggered by hormones. Then, from the pupa, a whole new animal develops – one with wings.

Time and growth produce changes in institutions, too. Sometimes, they merely get bigger and older. Sometimes, they go through a metamorphosis and change into something very different.

We recently moved back to France for the summer. We lived here for nearly 20 years… and still have a house in the country, to which we retire every summer.

Here, we find our old friends and acquaintances… our old clothes and shoes… our tools and workshop… our tractor… and our favorite office.

And what a pleasure… there, on the table next to the bed, was a copy of Michel De Jaeghere’s great book, Les Derniers Jours: La Fin de l’Empire Romain d’Occident (The Last Days: The End of the Roman Empire in the West). Read More

07.04.18- Economic Collapse 101: Food Americans Ate To Stay Alive During The Great Depression
Janine Acero

Here’s some dishes that helped Americans survive and keep their bellies full in hard times. Number 5 is, well, interesting to say the least…

(Natural News) The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic downturn that began in 1929 and continued until about 1939. It affected North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world. It was the most serious economic tragedy ever experienced by the industrialized Western world in modern history.

The full burden of the economic crisis fell squarely on the shoulders of the nation’s working class. They struggled badly for their survival during this most difficult period, which led them to find a number of ways to put food on the table. The following Great Depression foods helped them live from day to day when nothing else was available. Read More

07.03.18- A Turn for the Worse
James Howard Kunstler

The Democratic Party has steered itself into an exquisitely neurotic predicament at a peculiar moment of history. Senator Bernie Sanders set the tone for the shift to full-throated socialism, and the primary election win of 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a New York congressional district seems to have ratified it. She promised voters free college tuition, single-payer health care, and free housing. Ah, to live in such a utopia!

One can actually understand why New Yorkers especially would fall for that agenda of promises. When I was a child there in the 1950s and 60s, New York was a mostly middle-class city. City College of New York, with a really distinguished faculty, was free. That’s right, stone free. Much of that middle-class was educated there, including most of my high school teachers. In the 1950s and 60s, it cost a few hundred dollars to have a baby in the hospital, and less than that to receive three stitches in the ER. Back then, New York real estate was mostly rental housing and not subject to the deformations of wandering global capital. Read More

07.02.18- How to Create Your Own Personal Gold Standard and Currency Reserve
Tom Kirkman

Did you know that for 99.2% of recorded human history, money was backed by a gold standard?

And only for the last 47 years has the world largely moved away from the gold standard.

It is easy to feel like we are on top of the world in 2018. Technology has never been better or more easily accessible. The standard of living is rapidly rising.

But does that mean we should dispense with 5,000 years of monetary policy which led us to where we are today?

Okay, but how do we get the financial system back on the gold standard? Read More

Libertarian? Conservative? Classic Liberal? Leftivists don’t just believe you’re a bad person — they WANT to believe it
By A Journalist Who Wishes to Remain Anonymous

Editor’s note: The following comes from a longtime journalist who specializes in writing for major media outlets and private companies about robots, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

I’m not a social media person, but a few days ago, I posted my very first comment on Instagram, in response to a woman whose site I had read for years. Enraged by the border story, she had just posted an Instagram ordering those who didn’t see the world her way to take a hike.

It puzzled me at first. Hers is not a political site – far from it. And though she claimed she didn’t care about likes, I know that she has struggled for years with the classic insecurity bloggers often face when confronted with the popularity contest that is the Internet. She was posting in order to vent — and to let others know that she was, unlike half the country, kind, good-hearted and moral. Read More

06.29.18- How to Survive the Civil Unrest That’s Coming to America
Daisy Luther

The rhetoric in the United States is heating up and we’re sounding anything but…well…united. It seems to most media pundits like we are too far down the path to Civil War 2.0 to turn back now. Activists are laying siege to government offices. Threats toward people who disagree are growing in ferocity. It’s ugly and getting uglier. It’s a powder keg that is about to erupt. (Here are some thoughts on what a full-fledged Civil War might look like.)

It is only a matter of time before civil unrest begins to escalate and spread throughout the country. Many people are wondering, how do you keep your family safe during widespread unrest? It’s not about being fearful. It’s about being prepared.

My thoughts on this manipulated division are fodder for another article. (You can find it here.) This article is apolitical (to the best of my ability, anyway) and focuses strictly on what you need to know to survive should the unrest come to your neighborhood.

You need to understand how riots unfold. Read More

06.28.18- Media Creates Caricatures of Political Parties.
And People Believe Them!
The Daily Bell Staff

Political parties help us construct straw men of our opponents. They help us see our fellow Americans as opponents in the first place. They have us joining teams not because we like what they stand for, but because we hate what the other team stands for.

A Pew Research Center poll from last year found that about 40 percent of both Democrats and Republicans belong to their party because they oppose the other party’s values, rather than because they are particularly aligned with their own party.

Or at least, we hate what we think the other team stands for. A poll asked Democrats and Republicans to estimate statistics about the other party. The answers we pure caricatures.

For example, Republicans thought that 38% of Democrats were gay. That’s about twice as many gay people as actually exist in the USA by most estimates. Actually, only about 6% of Democrats are gay. Read More

06.27.18- The Danger Is Real: We Need a New Declaration of Independence for Modern Times
John W. Whitehead

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”—Thomas Paine, December 1776

Imagine living in a country where armed soldiers crash through doors to arrest and imprison citizens merely for criticizing government officials.

Imagine that in this very same country, you’re watched all the time, and if you look even a little bit suspicious, the police stop and frisk you or pull you over to search you on the off chance you’re doing something illegal. 

Keep in mind that if you have a firearm of any kind while in this country, it may get you arrested and, in some circumstances, shot by police.

If you’re thinking this sounds like America today, you wouldn’t be far wrong. Read More

06.26.18- Things Just Went Nuclear In Our Trade War With China, And A Giant Shockwave Is About To Hit The U.S. Economy
Michael Snyder

It is difficult to find the words to describe just how serious America’s trade war with China is becoming.  As you will see below, the two largest economies on the entire planet are on a self-destructive course that almost seems irreversible at this point.  The only way that this trade war is going to come to a rapid conclusion is if one side is willing to totally submit and accept an extremely bitter and humiliating defeat on the global stage, and that is not likely to happen.  So in the short-term, and probably beyond that, we are going to experience a tremendous amount of economic pain.  In fact, if one wanted to create a recipe for economic disaster, it would be hard to beat having the Federal Reserve dramatically raise interest rates at the exact same time that the U.S. government is starting trade wars with all of the other major economic powers simultaneously.  Unless something drastically changes in the very near future, there is no way that the U.S. is going to be able to get through this without experiencing severe pain.

Many had hoped that President Trump would settle down after the initial salvos in this new trade war, but instead on Sunday evening we learned that he has decided to go nuclear.  The following comes from CNBC… Read More

06.25.18- The Entire Western World Lives In Cognitive Dissonance
Paul Craig Roberts

In this column I am going to use three of the current top news stories to illustrate the disconnect that is everywhere in the Western mind. 

Let us begin with the family separation issue. The separation of children from immigrant/refugee/asylum parents has caused such public outcry that President Trump has backed off his policy and signed an executive order terminating family separation. 

The horror of children locked up in warehouses operated by private businesses making a profit off of US taxpayers, while parents are prosecuted for illegal entry, woke even self-satisfied “exceptional and indispensable” Americans out of their stupor. It is a mystery that the Trump regime chose to discredit its border enforcement policy by separating families. Perhaps the policy was intended to deter illegal immigration by sending the message that if you come to America your children will be taken from you. Read More

06.23.18- Social Security benefits buy 34 percent less than in 2000, study shows
Sarah O'Brien

If you feel like your Social Security check doesn't stretch as far as it once did, there's a likely explanation for it.

Since 2000, the buying power of monthly benefits has fallen by more than a third, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group based in Alexandria, Virginia.

In other words, the cost of goods and services common among retirees have collectively risen faster than the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, that Social Security recipients get every year.

"People who recently retired might have seen only a [small] decrease in buying power," said Mary Johnson, a policy analyst for the league. "But those retired for a long time are feeling the cumulative effect of this."

About 47 million older Americans receive Social Security. Overall, the benefits comprise about a third of income among those age 65 or older, according to the Social Security Administration. Read More

06.22.18- The Dumbing Down of America Is Deliberate and Deadly
Dave Hodges

We hear the mantra quite often: The dumbing down of America. Former senior level education official in the Reagan administration, Charlotte Iserbyt, even wrote a book by a similar name.

Is America getting dumber? Is this presumption even measurable? The answer to both questions is an unqualified yes!

In a related to vein to the purpose of this website, could this happen by design because controlling a population is made infinitely easier if the population is dumbed down. Some would even go as far as to say that the process of dumbing America down is not only real, but it is deadly. Read More

06.21.18- I Remember When America Was A Free Country
Paul Craig Roberts

I remember when America was a free country. You could get on an airliner without an ID. Driving licenses didn’t even have photos. If a friend was coming through your city on a flight and had a few hours layover, you could meet them inside the airport for lunch or dinner. You could meet friends, children, and relatives at the gate or see them off at the gate. Parents could actually put children on the plane and grandparents could take them off.

Your flight ticket was good at any airline. If something happened to your flight or you missed it, you could use the ticket on another airline going to the same place. On international flights you were permitted two free stopovers prior to your destination. If you were going to Athens, Greece, for example, you could first visit Paris and then Rome. It worked both ways, over and back. So one air ticket, six cities.

I can remember when you could enter a Manhatten office building without having to show an ID, be looked up on a list, and cleared in, and when you could check in a hotel without an ID and paid your bill when you checked out, with cash if you preferred. The only evidence of your name was the one you gave when you checked in.

Cars didn’t beep at you and neither did appliances nor construction machinery. The world was a quieter, less noise-disturbed place. Read More

06.20.18- John McAfee Says He's No Longer Pitching ICOs "Due To SEC Threats"
Tyler Durden

The SEC crackdown on ICOs has, apparently, finally extended to one of the industry's most enthusiastic and prolific promoters: former software security pioneer John McAfee, who has earned a reputation for outrageous behavior (including promising in July 2017 to eat his dick on national television if bitcoin doesn't hit $500,000 in three years) in recent years.

McAfee, who hasn't been affiliated with his namesake company since 1994 and lost most of a fortune once worth $100 million in the years since the crisis, was at one point pitching a new ICO every day. And since before last year's boom, McAfee has been a regular on the cryptocurrency conference circuit and is part of what Bloomberg calls "a vast network of social media influences" who have helped ICOs raise billions.

In his characteristic voice, McAfee said the SEC had warned him about recommending ICOs, forcing him to step aside, despite declaring the treatment "unjust." Read More

06.19.18- A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
Adam Taggart

Après moi, le déluge

~ King Louis XV of France

A hard rain's a-gonna fall

~ Bob Dylan (the first)

As the Federal Reserve kicked off its second round of quantitative easing in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis, hedge fund manager David Tepper predicted that nearly all assets would rise tremendously in response. 

"The Fed just announced: We want economic growth, and we don't care if there's inflation... have they ever said that before?"

He then famously uttered the line "You gotta love a put", referring to the Fed's declared willingness to print $trillions to backstop the economy and financial makets.

Nine years later we see that Tepper was right, likely even more so than he realized at the time. Read More

06.18.18- Americans Need Plain Sight: The IG Report Hides the Truth
Justin O. Smith

The FBI brass must have needed hazmat suits to scrub DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on agency misconduct in the 2016 elections, since the evidence of treason at the highest level of government was abundant. The truth is being hidden, and the result is a fiction representative of something out of Orwell’s ‘1984‘; and so, we must do everything within our power to force the issue in opposition to status quo voices in government and the media, who are not representing the U.S. Constitution and objectives based on our founding virtues, We must hold these criminals, these traitors, in the FBI, the DOJ and elsewhere within the government, accountable for illegally working to prevent Donald Trump from winning the election and afterwards trying to unseat him from power. 

The five-hundred page IG Report was released on June 14th 2018, and it barely scrapes the surface of previous known acts of sedition and espionage, if not treason. It doesn’t really address anything that the American people were not already aware had occurred. I made note of the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page texts in January 2018, just as the IG Report recently did. Read More

06.16.18- 7 Huge Mistakes Real Estate Investors Make
When Running Their Numbers
G. Brian Davis

What's the big advantage of real estate over equities and other investments?

You can predict the returns!

Having said that, your ROI forecasts are only as good as the numbers you start with.

Here are the seven of the most common mistakes real estate investors make when running their numbers  — and how to avoid them for a perfect win record in your investing.

We’ll start with numbers that affect all real estate investors, then narrow our focus to rental investors and cash-flow forecasting. Read More

06.15.18- Currencies – Truth and Confidence
Gary Christenson

In 1967 the Jefferson Airplane sang

“When the truth is found to be lies,

And all the joy within you dies…”

Restate this for global currencies and it becomes:

When the truth is found to be lies,

Confidence in currencies dies.

WHAT LIES? There have been many. Examples specific to the United States:

President Lyndon Johnson: In 1965, after decades of excessive government expenditures which caused rising consumer price inflation and rising gold and silver prices, Johnson removed silver from U.S. coins. He stated,

“If anybody has any idea of hoarding our silver coins, let me say this. Treasury has a lot of silver on hand, and it can be, and it will be used to keep the price of silver in line with its value in our present silver coin. There will be no profit in holding them out of circulation for the value of their silver content.” Read More

06.14.18- Clock is Now “3 Minutes to Midnight” on Social Security and Medicare Benefits
Peter Reagan

A recent 270-page report put out by The Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds is shedding light on an alarming trend.

In it, the financial data indicates that both Medicare and Social Security could start “riding off into the sunset” sometime within the next two decades.

This is mainly due to the addition of millions of retirees aged 65 and older and reducing the average number of taxpayers that support each retiree on Medicare and Social Security.

The financial pressure on the system may bankrupt it in the near future.

When we reported on this in December of 2017, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation revealed the two points of data that illustrated this stark reality: Read More

06.13.18- The most successful investor in modern history is selling… here’s what it means for you
Simon Black

It’s typically pretty hard to find anything exciting to say about drywall.

Yes, drywall… as in, the building material that’s used for interior construction.

Drywall, also known as wallboard, is manufactured from rehydrated gypsum to produce a calcium sulfate plaster, that’s later mixed with mildew-resistant foaming agent. . . hello? Are you still there?

Seriously, though, in this particular case, drywall is a big deal.

I’ll explain.

The largest distributor of wallboard in the United States is a company called USG.

USG is quite large– the company has been around for more than a century and generates billions of dollars in revenue.

(Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol USG.) Read More

06.12.18- Last Exit to the Road Less Traveled
JD Alt

We now stand where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one less traveled by—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.

Rachael Carson, Silent Spring

What’s important to keep in mind in this quote from Rachael Carson’s 56-year-old warning shot over the bow of corporate civilization is that there are two roads being traveled now. We are no longer at a fork. The fork is half-a-century behind us. The goal is not to get the superhighway to somehow re-route itself and follow the path less traveled. It can’t. The superhighway will, and must, continue accelerating in its inevitable direction, simply because the greed and power of the people driving that highway will not allow them to alter course. But if there is any truth to Rachael Carson’s warning (and there seems to be growing evidence of it) the other path—the Road Less Traveled—will become the surviving branch of our evolutionary diagram. The present goal, therefore, should be to create as many exits from the superhighway as possible—and to encourage and enable as many people as possible to take those exits to explore and follow the other path. Read More

06.11.18- The Clock Is Ticking: "Modern Slaves Are Not In Chains, They're In Debt"
John Mauldin

Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt. - Benjamin Franklin

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? - Adam Smith

There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting out of debt. - Dave Ramsey

Modern slaves are not in chains, they are in debt. - Anonymous

Debt isn’t always a form of slavery, but those old sayings didn’t come from nowhere. You can find hundreds of quotes on the Internet discussing the problems of debt. Debt traps borrowers, lenders, and innocent bystanders, too. If debt were a drug, we would demand it be outlawed. Read More

06.09.18- Feeling Isolated?
Adam Taggart

• Does anyone else in your life share your concerns for the future?

• Is there someone you talk with regularly about the unsustainability of our current economic and ecological trajectories?

• Do you have friends and/or family members who support your efforts to develop a more resilient lifestyle?

If you answered "no" to these questions, you're not an outlier. In fact, the #1 most commonly-reported complaint we hear from Peak Prosperity readers is that they feel alone and isolated when it comes to the warnings delivered in The Crash Course.

The end of economic growth. Declining net energy. Accelerating resource depletion. These are MASSIVE existential threats to our way of life -- to our species' survival, even. Most PPers can't comprehend why *everyone* isn't obessively talking about these dangers. Read More

06.08.18- Are You The Fish?
Zach Scheidt

There’s an old saying in poker that if you sit down at a table and you can’t figure out who the fish is, that means YOU’RE the fish!

The basic idea here is that you need to know your opponents. You need to understand their strengths and weaknesses. You need to know what type of edge you have over them.

And if you can’t figure out what advantage you have over the other players… Or if you can’t figure out who the weak players at the table are… Then you’re in big trouble!

In markets there’s a similar dynamic…

If you’re going to be successful in the market, you often have to be different from most other investors. Read More

06.07.18- Cognitive Dissonance Will Not Save America From the Collapse of the Dollar
Dave Hodges

I know that most of you are probably tired of hearing about the endless predictions that the US economy is going to crash. Stock up now, buy survival gear, get your food, water, guns, gold, ammunition and medicine!  Blah, blah, blah. We have all heard it before. Right?

The Inevitable End

I recently received that dreaded call “rush to the hospital, she only has a short time left, hurry!” So, you arrive at the hospital and the person hangs on, and hangs on, but everyone knows the final outcome is inevitable. The next day arrives and the person is still with us. And then like a thief in the night, our friend finally slipped away and went to be with the Lord.

This is what the economy will soon do. I do not know if it will be next month, next year but I know we do not have five years. This economy is going to die. Why? Because the lifeblood of the economy has been withdrawn. Read More

06.06.18- When They Shall Say “Peace And Safety”: Polls Show Americans Are The Most Optimistic They Have Been
In A Very Long Time
Michael Snyder

By a very wide margin, this is the most optimistic that Americans have been about the future since I started The Economic Collapse Blog in late 2009.  Even though the middle class is shrinking, 102 million working age Americans do not have a job, and we are now 21 trillion dollars in debt, most people are feeling really good about things right now.  Especially among Republicans, there is an overwhelming consensus that the United States is starting to head in the right direction and that better times are ahead.  As a result, so many of the exact same people that were “prepping” while Barack Obama was in the White House are now partying now that Donald Trump is president.  But none of the long-term trends that are systematically destroying our nation have been significantly altered, and none of our long-term problems have been solved.  We are still steamrolling down a path toward national suicide, but most Americans simply do not care. Read More

06.05.18- Ten Ways the Democratic Northern Hemisphere Nations Became the Orwellian West
JP Koning

In his book, “1984”, George Orwell envisioned a future crushed by the iron grip of a collectivist oligarchy. The narrative told of the INGSOC Party which maintained power through a system of surveillance and brutality designed to monitor and control every aspect of society.  From the time of the book’s release in 1949, any ensuing vision of a dark dystopia depicting variations of jackboots stomping on human faces, forever, has been referenced as being “Orwellian”.  This is because Orwell’s narrative illustrated various disturbing and unjust conceptualizations of control, crime, and punishment.

For example, “Newspeak” represented the language of mind control, whereas “crimethink”, “thoughtcrime”, and “crimeface”manifested as transgressions against the state.  Guilty citizens were captured by the “Thought Police”, and the ultimate punishment consisted of “vaporization”; which eliminated every last vestige of a person’s existence. Read More

06.04.18- “Teen Culture” is the New Imperialism,
and it is Destroying the World
Joe Jarvis

You know how missionaries used to run around the globe forcing everyone to be a Christian? And in the process, they destroyed native cultures and traditions?

Well, the same thing is happening today with Western “teen culture.” It is being exported around the world with disastrous effects.

Manufacturing Adolescence

Preindustrial societies mostly exhibit a continuum from childhood to adulthood. There is generally no random cut off age where suddenly teens are given rights and expected to become adults. Children seamlessly and gradually integrate into adulthood, with puberty rites being the only major benchmark. Read More

06.02.18- Calling All Broke Millennials: Vermont Will Give You $10,000 To Move There And Work From Home
Tyler Durden

The Governor of Vermont has introduced an unusual law that will pay people who move into the state and work remotely for an out-of-state company - $10,000 over a two year period to cover relocation costs, office equipment, internet, and other work-related expenses.

Governor Phil Scott approved the legislation on Wednesday (May 30) in hopes to bottom out the rapidly shrinking tax base, and, of course, sucker in those heavily indebted millennials from large cities.

According to the Vermont House of Representatives, the “Remote Worker Grant Program” will start on January 01, 2019, and will cover a variety of business-related expenses of a worker’s transition to the state, including relocation services, computer software and hardware, broadband access or upgrade, and membership in a co-working or similar space expenses. Read More

06.01.18- ‘Three Wise Men’ Warn Crash Coming, Own Gold
GoldCore

‘Three wise men’ are warning that the next financial crash is coming and that one of the ways to protect and grow wealth in the coming crash will be to own gold.

The men who have recently warned are Jim Rogers (video below), Martin Armstrong (blog below) and Tony Robbins (video below). Each come from somewhat different backgrounds and are respected experts in their respective fields.

Each has different views in terms of asset allocation and how best to weather the coming financial storm but all are united in believing that gold will act as a wealth preservation tool and will likely rise in value when other assets fall. Read More

05.31.28- Huge Economic “Blind Spot” that May Damage the Dollar and Crash the U.S. Economy
Birch Gold Group

When you poke a bear through a cage, eventually that bear becomes enraged enough that it will want to reach through the bars and take a swipe at you.

The U.S. has been poking a global trade “bear” through the economic cage by placing various sanctions on trade since 1951. The U.S. uses this tactic to keep the dollar as the central currency on the world stage.

But it seems the U.S. has poked the “bear” enough, as China, Russia, Iran and Turkey are now coming out swinging. The effect on the U.S. dollar could be damaging, to say the least. It’s likely that this is what these countries want: to damage the dollar and replace it.

They’ve been preparing for this moment for quite some time, too. Read More

05.30.18- Capitalism vs. Socialism
Walter E. Williams

Several recent polls, plus the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, demonstrate that young people prefer socialism to free market capitalism. That, I believe, is a result of their ignorance and indoctrination during their school years, from kindergarten through college. For the most part, neither they nor many of their teachers and professors know what free market capitalism is.

Free market capitalism, wherein there is peaceful voluntary exchange, is morally superior to any other economic system. Why? Let’s start with my initial premise. All of us own ourselves. I am my private property, and you are yours. Murder, rape, theft and the initiation of violence are immoral because they violate self-ownership. Similarly, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another person, for any reason, is immoral because it violates self-ownership.

Tragically, two-thirds to three-quarters of the federal budget can be described as Congress taking the rightful earnings of one American to give to another American — using one American to serve another. Such acts include farm subsidies, business bailouts, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and many other programs. Read More

05.29.18- The 2020s Might Be The Worst Decade In U.S. History
John Mauldin

I recently wrote about a looming credit crisis that’s stemming from high-yield junk bonds. The crisis itself will have massive consequences for investors. But that’s not the worst part.

The crisis will create a domino effect and trigger global financial contagion, which I usually refer to as "The Great Reset."

The collapse of high-yield bonds will hit stocks and bonds. Rising defaults will force banks to reduce their lending exposure, drying up capital for previously creditworthy businesses.

This will put pressure on earnings and reduce economic activity. A recession will follow. Read More

05.28.18- Whose Country Is This? Is the Constitution
Even Welcome Here Anymore?
John W. Whitehead

“The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out ‘stop!’ When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.” — Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems

There are days I wake up, and I’m not sure what country I live in anymore.

There are days I wake up and want to go right back to sleep in the hopes that this surreal landscape of government-sanctioned injustice, corruption and brutality is just a really bad dream.

There are days I am so battered by the never-ending wave of bad news that I have little outrage left in me: I am numb. Read More

05.26.18- The Poverty of the Truth
Kevin Scott King

One cannot serve two masters. You either serve God or mammon (wealth). Christians should know this from the teachings of Jesus. And yet we have entire Christian denominations today that cater to those who serve mammon. Mammon is what is now worshiped in many nations, much more so than any God. Especially in ‘first’ world nations. And yet there are so many claiming to serve both, claiming they have the truth. But this cannot be. One cannot server two masters.

Many will be unable to hear this. But it is true. Truth is the enemy of wealth. Why is this? Because wealth accumulation by the few is always at the expense of the many. Because deception is used by the few to control the many. Because the love of wealth is a corrupting force, and corruption exist in the shadows, never in the light of the Truth. And thus those who love wealth and power will always despise the Truth. Because Truth is a direct threat to their power. Read More

05.25.18- A Summer Of Disappointments Will Lead To An Extended Economic Crash
Brandon Smith

The summer season is often about renewed hope and revelry in comfort, and this goes for economic comfort as much as anything else. In parallel to the old tale of The Ant And The Grasshopper, we are all tempted to act like the grasshopper, forget about the trials and tribulations of the world and take a vacation from awareness.

I am seeing quite a lot of this in the past month as mounting global tensions appear to have subsided. But appearances can be deceiving…

I am reminded of the summer of 2008 when those of us in alternative economic analysis were warning of the overwhelming evidence of a debt based deflationary disaster. There seemed to be widespread complacency back then as well. September finally struck and reality began to sink in, and the rest is a history we are still dealing with to this day. Right now, economic optimism is desperately clinging to news headlines rather than data fundamentals, but this can just as easily sink markets as it can keep them artificially afloat. Read More

05.24.18- The Next Recession Will Be Devastatingly Non-Linear
Charles Hugh Smith

The acceleration of non-linear consequences will surprise the brainwashed, loving-their-servitude mainstream media.

Linear correlations are intuitive: if GDP declines 2% in the next recession, and employment declines 2%, we get it: the scale and size of the decline aligns. In a linear correlation, we'd expect sales to drop by about 2%, businesses closing their doors to increase by about 2%, profits to notch down by about 2%, lending contracts by around 2% and so on.

But the effects of the next recession won't be linear--they will be non-linear, and far more devastating than whatever modest GDP decline is registered. To paraphrase William Gibson's insightful observation that "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed": the recession is already here, it's just not evenly distributed-- and its effects will be enormously asymmetric.

Non-linear effects can be extremely asymmetric. Thus an apparently mild decline of 2% in GDP might trigger a 50% rise in the number of small businesses closing, a 50% collapse in new mortgages issued and a 10% increase in unemployment. Read More

05.23.18- 'Russiagate' Unveils The Depths Of
Corruption In American Politics
Seraphim Hanisch

The Hill exposes how unusual it was for Donald Trump to buck the plan.

For the last seventeen months now, the daily serving of American political news has included a generous helping of Robert Mueller, the Russiagate investigation that has morphed into an “is there any way possible we can get rid of Trump?” investigation, and a never changing but frothy lack of evidence to show that anything dishonest or disingenuous happened in Donald Trump’s campaign to be President of the United States.

Now, according to an opinion piece released by the Hill on Sunday 20 May, one of the issues that has been hiding in plain sight is getting some attention.

That issue is the increasingly evident amount of corruption in the US government agencies, notably the intelligence services and the Justice Department.

Mark Penn, the writer of this piece, puts his thought forward: Read More

05.22.18- Top Five Reasons To Vote With Your Feet
Anthony Wile

People routinely “vote with their feet,” meaning that they choose to relocate to a better environment when the opportunity arises.

This could be as simple as moving closer to a job to shorten the commute or it could mean obtaining citizenship in another country that offers more personal and economic freedoms. The search for a better life is the main driver of immigration across the world. 

Have you ever considered voting with your feet? Have you ever asked why would someone make such a daring change? Here are five reasons why you should vote with your feet and move to a better place. Read More

05.21.18- The Great Oz
Jeff Thomas

For eight years (2008-2016), the US liberal media touted the brilliant accomplishments of the liberal president, whilst the conservative media groused that nothing he did was of value.

Today, the conservative US media are touting the brilliant accomplishments of the conservative president, whilst the liberal media grouse that nothing he does is of value.

So, which is it? Who is correct here? Well, actually, neither is correct.

Neither president is the great Oz. Neither one is in fact, “running the country.” Behind the scenes, the great machine of government churns along, often in complete disregard to the president or his stated policies.

However, the media credits or lambastes the president of the day as though he and he alone is in charge of the country. Whatever happens is treated as his accomplishment or failure. Read More

05.19.18- Record High Lumber Price:
Another Warning That The Market Is In A Bubble
Steve St. Amgelo

As the price of lumber reaches an all-time record high, investors better take this as another warning that the market is in a massive bubble.  However, a large percentage of investors today are unable to spot bubbles because everything is in a bubble.  So, to see the price of lumber hit the highest price ever, doesn’t phase the market one bit.

Well, maybe the home builders understand the dangers of rising lumber prices, but the overall market is clueless.

The price of 1,000 board-feet of lumber reached a new high of $629 today, up from $592 last week when I wrote my article, The 3 Stage Housing Bubble Collapse.

The lumber price is not only up a staggering 42% this year, but it’s also up 175% since the beginning of 2016: Read More

05.18.18- The Long Death of America’s Middle Class
Nick Giambruno

Editor’s note: In America, what separates the “haves” and the “have nots” has never been wider. It’s a genuine crisis. And yet, few people know why this is happening.

Casey Report editor Nick Giambruno just shared all the details about this crisis in his latest issue. Read on to see what’s really dividing America… why this situation is only going to get worse… and finally, four time-tested ways to build lasting wealth as this trend plays out. 

The American middle class is dying.

In 2015, it dipped below 50% of the population for the first time since data collection started on the issue. It’s now an official minority group.

Meanwhile, nearly half of Americans don’t have enough money to cover a surprise $400 expense. Many are living paycheck to paycheck, with little to no cushion. And US homes are less affordable than they’ve been in decades—possibly ever.

I’ll tell you why this is happening and how to secure your spot among the “haves” in a moment. But first, let’s take a look at the America that was. Read More

05.17.18- The Stairway To Heaven
Gary Christenson

This article was written for Miles Franklin by Gary Christenson, with appreciationfor Led Zeppelin who wrote and performed “Stairway to Heaven.”

“There’s a lady who’s sure

All that glitters is gold

And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.”

Led Zeppelin released the iconic song “Stairway to Heaven” in 1971, shortly after President Nixon released the dollar from gold backing. The dollar plummeted in purchasing power. The following provides a perspective on inflationary price increases. Read More

05.16.18- Individualism is a Product, But It Has Never Truly Been Available… Until Now
Joe Jarvis

Modern governments and industries work in collusion to control the individual. But ironically, they were only able to grow powerful by exploiting the desire to be an individual.

According to Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, governments started out as simple gangs, collecting protection money.

Many kingdoms and empires were in truth little more than large protection rackets. The king was the capo di tutti capi who collected protection money, and in return made sure that neighbouring crime syndicates and local small fry did not harm those under his protection. He did little else.

Governments needed to rebrand if they wanted to expand into family and community affairs. This is how the great partnership of government and industry was born. They needed each other, they fed off one another. Read More

05.15.18- Central Bankers Won't Tolerate Deflation —
No Matter the Cost
Alasdair Macleod

Naïve inflationism demands an increase in the quantity of money without suspecting that this will diminish the purchasing power of the money.” 

~ Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit

It is hardly surprising that with equity indices stalling, the financial community is increasingly worried that the long, steady bull market is coming to an end. Naturally, this makes investors look for reasons to worry, and it turns out that there are indeed many things to worry about.

In fact, there are always things to worry about. Ever since the Lehman crisis, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been casting long shadows across the financial stage. But as financial assets have continued to rise in value over the last nine years, bearish fund managers, spooked by systemic risks of one sort or another and the perennial threat of a renewed slump, have been forced to discard their ursine views. Read More

05.14.18- Jim Rogers: Extreme Bear Market Coming
Sumit Roy

When Jim Rogers talks, investors listen. One of the world's most famous investors, Rogers is known for his no-nonsense style and investment wisdom. He is the author of several best-selling books, such as “Hot Commodities” and "Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets." ETF.com recently spoke with Rogers about the latest financial market developments, including why he sees a big downturn taking shape in the next year or two.

ETF.com: You recently said you see the worst stock market correction of your lifetime coming next year. What’s going to cause that?

Jim Rogers: I can give you lots of possibilities. These things always start small and with nobody noticing.

For instance, in 2007, Iceland went bankrupt when most people didn't know there was an Iceland, much less that it could go bankrupt. And then the next thing you knew, Bear Stearns collapsed; and then Lehman Brothers collapsed. Finally, everybody said, “Oh, there's a problem.”Read More

05.12.18- How To Get Ahead In Today's Economy
MN Gordon

This week brought forward more evidence that we are living in a fabricated world. The popular storyline presents a world of pure awesomeness.  The common experience, however, grossly falls short.

On Tuesday, for example, the Labor Department reported there were a record 6.6 million job openings in March.  Based on the Labor Department’s data, there were enough jobs available – exactly – for the 6.6 million Americans who were actively looking for a job.  What a remarkable feat!

In fact, this is the first time there’s been a job opening for every unemployed person since the Labor Department began keeping track of job openings nearly 20 years ago.  Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, took one look at the jobs and labor report and exclaimed: “The labor market is literally on fire it is so hot with job openings!”  Read More

05.11.18- The Worst Man In Modern History
Alasdair Macleod

It seems extraordinary that in defiance of all factual history and philosophical knowledge anyone should celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx. More than anyone, through wrong-headed ideas, he bears responsibility, indirectly admittedly, for the deaths of an estimated one hundred million people in the last century, and the severe suppression though economic and social servitude of fully one third of the world’s population. And if you also include those who have suffered under the yoke of Marxist-inspired modern socialism, the philosophy that says the state is more important than the individual, you could argue nearly the whole world is influenced by Marxian philosophy today.

That might seem an extreme statement, but you only have to ask almost anyone anywhere, which do they consider is more important, the individual or the state, to see if this supposition is correct. The only explanation for the continued adoration of the man is that with such universal influence, there are bound to be legions of supporters remaining, ignorant of and blind to the reality. However, during his lifetime – he died in 1883 – he was hardly known. It wasn’t until the Russian revolution thirty-four years later that Marx began to be taken seriously. Read More

05.10.18- Stagflationary Crisis: Understanding The Cause Of America’s Ongoing Collapse
Brandon Smith

It is at times frustrating, but also interesting, to witness the progression of the mainstream’s awareness of economic crisis within the U.S. over the years. As an alternative economist, I have had the “privilege” of perching outside the financial narrative and observing our economy from a less biased position, and I have discovered a few things.

First, the mainstream economic media is approximately two to three years behind average alternative economists. At least, they don’t seem to acknowledge reality within our time frame. This may be deliberate (my suspicion) because the general public is not meant to know the truth until it is too late for them to react in a practical way to solve the problem. For example, it is a rather strange experience for me to see the term “stagflation” suddenly becoming a major buzzword in the MSM. It is almost everywhere in the past week ever since the last Federal Reserve meeting in which the central bank mentioned higher inflation pressures and removed references in its monthly statement to a “growing economy.” Read More

05.09.18- You Can Accomplish More Than You Think In Two Years. Here’s How, Step by Step
The Daily Bell Staff 

Steph and Matt hated the cold, hated the crowds, and hated their corporate work. But they lived in densely–populated, and often frigid, Massachusetts. They worked 9-5 Monday through Friday, and were lucky to get three weeks off per year. And to top it all off, high Massachusetts taxes took a big chunk of their earnings.

Enough was enough. They would find a way to move somewhere warm and rural, where they could live off the land and keep what they earned.

When they told their friends and family the plan, most thought it was just a dream.

“Ah, winter is rolling in, and it’s really getting to them this year. It will blow over when spring comes.”

But they were serious.

Did they just up and move, quit their jobs, and embark on a doomed adventure that would leave them in a bind when their money ran out?

No. They planned and they prepared. Read More

05.08.18- Everything You Need to Know To Grow a Big Crop of Cucumbers
Tess Pennington

Nothing beats the summer heat like a fresh cucumber from the garden. These sun-loving vegetables are great for first-time gardeners and easy to grow.

Pickling cucumbers, like Boston Picklers are prolific when they get going and are perfect for canning, but slicing cucumbers are best for salads. Did you know that cucumbers have electrolytes and are high in potassium? So they’re a wonderfully refreshing snack to help you beat the Summer heat!

Here are some cucumber growing facts: Read More

05.07.18- Wisconsin and Welfare: Work Works
Edwin J. Feulner

“It’s so evident that work is the only way to get people out of poverty.”

Chris Kapenga, a Wisconsin state senator, said the sentence above in regard to welfare reform legislation recently passed in the Badger State. “We’re going to help people get 30 hours of work and move them closer to being self-sustained.”

Of course, the state senator is only half right; the other steady road out of poverty is a healthy marriage. But the basic facts about the gains of work and marriage still seem to elude some people.

Promoting work and marriage are the goals of welfare reform. Contrary to the caricature painted by liberals, conservatives don’t lack compassion for the poor. Quite the opposite. We know a failure to institute work requirements robs those in poverty of their dignity — that if they’re able to work, we do them no favors by engaging in a simple handout. And the collapse of marriage in low-income communities has had devastating effects on men, women and children. Read More

05.05.18- Shocking Of What Is Being Taught To Our Children
Dave Daubenmire

I continue to be amazed at what we are teaching our children. Those (whoever they are) that are in charge of what is being taught to our children in America’s public schools have lost their stinkin‘ minds.

They’re “public” schools, you know. Meaning that what is taught is what is commonly seen as “normal” in the public sector. 

Webster’s 1828 dictionary is my favorite place to go when I get stuck on words and especially the meaning of them. So I recently visited my favorite online resource http://www.webstersdictionary1828.com as I watched the tomfoolery masquerading as education in this nation.

Natural, as defined by Webster’s, “Pertaining to nature; produced or effected by nature, or by the laws of growth, formation or motion impressed on bodies or beings by divine power.” Read More

05.04.18- Can We Please Try Capitalism? Just Once?
Mike Mish Shedlock

Capitalism is under attack. Charlatans in every corner cry for more state intervention. Trump is even in on the attack.

Stop!

Enough is enough. I have had enough of people attacking capitalism as if they have the faintest clue what they are talking about.

The latest example of total cluelessness comes from Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of the Economics of Innovation at the University of Sussex. 

Mazzucato asks, Is it time for the state to be entrepreneurial? 

As you might have expected, she answers that question, wrongly, inEconomic Myth: Private Sector Works Well and the Public Sector Just Gets in the Way.

Academics do not live in the real word. They live in some fantasyland world where benevolent governments make wise choices on how to spend money. 

Amusingly, Mazzucato calls the US government investment of $465 million in Tesla S (through a guaranteed loan), as a "remarkable success".  Read More

05.03.18- Banks, credit card companies explore ways to monitor gun purchases
Daniel Terrill

Banks and credit card companies held informal discussions about identifying transactions involving firearms, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Although the discussions resulted in nothing tangible — and ideas may never come to fruition — ideas tossed would help companies monitor gun purchases, which includes information on buyers, from retailers, the newspaper reported.

Financial companies explored the concept of creating a new credit-card code for firearm dealers, similar to similar to how restaurants or department stores identify their transactions, the newspaper reported. Another idea would require retailers to share info about specific firearm products purchases. Read More

05.02.18- Deficits and Gold
Tom McClellan

If you are a gold investor, then the one thing you want most is rising deficits. Luckily for you, Congress appears to have granted just what you want.

This week’s chart compares the trailing 12-month federal deficit (as a percentage of GDP) to gold prices. The correlation is not perfect, but it is pretty good over time. The implication is that rising deficits should be bullish for gold prices.

That certainly was the case during the 2000s, following the supposed surpluses of the late 1990s. Those were not actual surpluses, as the total federal debt actually went up in every one of those years. But for federal bookkeeping purposes, they were counted as surplus years. And gold certainly did poorly while that was going on. Read More

05.01.18- Inflation Is Back: Maybe The Phillips Curve Was “Just Resting”
John Rubino

Economists have been struggling to explain how unemployment can fall to 4% without wages starting to accelerate. The following chart shows paychecks rising at about the rate of inflation over the past five years, which means the average worker’s earnings don’t buy much more now than in 2013. 

The reasons for this glacially slow recovery include demographics, debt, foreign competition and automation. But it now appears that the delay was temporary rather than permanent. Different industries are getting desperate for workers at different rates, but those that are are are behaving pretty much the way the much-maligned Phillips Curve says they should, with surprisingly big raises.  Read More

04.30.18- And . . . Yet Another Wells Fargo Banking Scandal
Simon Black

Is it Friday again? Must be time for another banking scandal!

Seriously– these banking scandals are happening with such regularity and predictability it would be almost comical. . . were it not for the millions of people who have had their lives turned upside down.

The latest transgression involves, once again, our old friends at Wells Fargo.

Bear in mind that the ink isn’t even dry yet on the $1 billion check that Wells Fargo wrote last week as a penalty to settle its previous scandal, where they defrauded 570,000 clients in a car insurance scam. Read More

04.28.18- The End Of Our Empire Approaches
Chris Martenson

History is clear on where we're headed

Do you have the nagging sense that our empire is in decline?

If so, don't be embarrassed by it. Historically speaking, we’re in very good company.  Far larger and longer-lived empires than ours have come and gone over the millennia.    

This was hit home for me on a recent trip. I scored a major "dad win" by taking my youngest daughter, Grace, to England for her 18th birthday (we live in Massachusetts, USA).

All on her own, Grace developed an abiding love of mythology at a very young age: Greek, Roman, Norse, Native American, Aztec…you name it.  She’s read the Iliad four times, a different version each time, as each has the biases of the translator subtly woven throughout. Read More

04.27.18- Underfunded American Pensions Are
“An Unsolvable Problem”
Lance Roberts

Math is math. It does not play politics. It does not care who has enough to eat or a place to live. It barrels ahead, executing equations, no matter what. To lament math is to lament the truth.

The math locomotive that is barreling down the railroad tracks to which criminally underfunded pensions are bound is inevitably going to make things extremely messy. There are going to be a whole lot of impassioned speeches, political posturing, and chest-thumping about this over the coming years.

None of which will slow the train one bit.

It is no surprise that public pension funds are completely overwhelmed, but they still have not come to the realization that markets do not compound at an annual return of 8% annually. This has led to a continued degradation of funding levels as liabilities continue to pile up. Read More

04.26.18- How The Globalism Con Game Leads
To A 'New World Order'
Brandon Smith

When globalists speak publicly about a “new world order” they are speaking about something very specific and rather sacred in their little cult of elitism. It is not simply the notion that civilization shifts or changes abruptly on its own; rather, it is their name for a directed and engineered vision — a world built according to their rules, not a world that evolved naturally according to necessity.

There are other names for this engineered vision, including the “global economic reset,” or the more general and innocuous term “globalism,” but the intention is the same. The ultimate goal of the new world order as an ideology is total centralization of economic and governmental power into the hands of a select and unaccountable bureaucracy made up of international financiers. This is governance according the the dictates of Plato’s Republic; a delusional fantasy world in which benevolent philosopher kings, supposedly smarter and more objective than the rest of us, rule from on high with scientific precision and wisdom. It is a world where administrators become gods. Read More

04.25.18- Without Mass Delusion About the USD, We’d Have a Currency Crisis Today
Thorsten Polleit

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”, quipped Mark Twain in response to a newspaper report that said he was on his deathbed. The same could be said about many fiat currencies. Whether we are looking at the US dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen or the British Pound: In the wake of the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009, quite a few commentators painted a rather bleak future for them: high inflation, even hyperinflation, some even forecast their collapse. That did not happen. Instead, fiat money seems to be still in great demand. In the United States of America, for instance, peoples’ fiat money balances relative to incomes are at a record high.

How come? Central banks’ market manipulations have succeeded in fending off credit defaults on a grand scale: Policymakers have cut interest rates dramatically and injected new cash into the banking system. In retrospect, it is clear why these operations have prevented the debt pyramid from crashing down: 2008/2009 was a “credit crisis.” Investors were afraid that states, banks, consumers, and companies might no longer be able to afford their debt service — meanwhile, investors did not fear that inflation could erode the purchasing power of their currencies as evidenced by dropping inflation expectations in the crisis period. Read More

04.24.18- Perspective
Neal Ross

In a recent move the President ordered 4,000 National Guardsmen to the city of Boston, Massachusetts, to work in conjunction with local government and law enforcement officials to restore order after tax protestors engaged in a series of violent protests in response to recent tax laws. These protests have resulted in vandalism, destruction of government and private property, and assaults upon those charged with collecting the taxes imposed by recent changes in the tax code.

Now before you run off to Google this to learn more about it, realize that it did not happen yesterday, it did not happen a week ago, and it did not happen within the past year; it happened in 1768 when King George deployed 4,000 British Regulars, (otherwise known as Redcoats), to Boston to restore order after protests erupted after the passing of a law that imposed taxes on all printed goods – The Stamp Act. Read More

04.23.18- A Better Way To Live
Hardscrabble Farmer

Homesteading is a better way to live. Period.

I came to it later in life after trying- and doing fairly well at the so-called American Dream life of high income/big house/more stuff lifestyle. Living a life dependent on other people to maintain your home, teach your children, look after your health, clean your house is a form of bondage. It’s bad for your body, your family, your soul and the better you do the more people around you envy what you have. You don’t inspire them to new heights, but to drag you down. And because you don’t want to lose what you have you make compromises in what you say and how you act and what you wear or drive, the list is endless.

A homestead is a place of refuge where the life you ought to live is possible. it requires effort, sure and discipline and hard work, but those things are not burdens, they’re rewards. You spend more time with the people you love the most, you keep your body and your mind functioning at their peak, you work in the most beautiful and varied environment in all kinds of weather dealing with challenges and hardships, and reaping the benefits of resolving them on your own terms, by the sheer will of your determination and grit. Read More

04.21.18- The Economy Is Cooked
Adam Taggart

Hours ago, European Central Bank chief Mario Dragho conceded: "The growth cycle may have peaked"

Of course, those paying attention to the data already knew this. Our politicians and central planers have been peddling to us the fantasy that the global economy is strengthening, finally ready to fire on all cylinders after nearly ten years of dependence on monetary stimulus.

That just ain't so.

The Federal Reserve of Atlanta's GDPNow measure, which gives a forecast of Q1 2018's expected GDP, is currently coming in at 2.0%, down from the much more vigorous 5.4% growth predicted as recently as early February: Read More

04.20.18- The War between Public Pensioners and
Tax Donkeys Is Heating Up
Charles Hugh Smith

The migration is only beginning, but that's only half the story.

You know it's serious when the newspaper of record finally reports it: A $76,000 Monthly Pension: Why States and Cities Are Short on Cash (New York Times).

It's a long article but the summary is brief: corrupt politicos promised the moon to public employees, and now the fiscal chickens of insolvency are coming home to roost.

Public pension obligations are rising so fast that even repeated tax increases can't keep up.Read More

04.19.18- Winter is Coming
Jim Quinn

“The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning 

The swirling fog of confusion enveloping the globe as the high lords of the universe play their game of thrones has even the most critical thinking individuals baffled by the course of events. The desperation and blatant lawlessness of the Deep State players in their endeavor to preserve their hegemony over the course of global affairs is palpable with every attack, false flag, accusation, and ratcheting up of their propaganda media machine. Read More

Crimes of a Monster: Your Tax Dollars at Work
John W. Whitehead

“Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”— James Russell Lowell, 19th century American novelist

Let us not mince words.

We are living in an age of war profiteers.

We are living in an age of scoundrels, liars, brutes and thugs. Many of them work for the U.S. government.

We are living in an age of monsters.

Ask Donald Trump. He knows all about monsters. 

Any government that leaves “mothers and fathers, infants and children, thrashing in pain and gasping for air” is evil and despicable, said President Trump, justifying his blatantly unconstitutional decision (in the absence of congressional approval or a declaration of war) to launch airstrikes against Syria based on dubious allegations that it had carried out chemical weapons attacks on its own people. “They are crimes of a monster.” Read More

04.17.18- Boycotting Big Oil vs. Boycotting Big Social Media
Aaron Clarey

I had received an incredibly rare call from an associate of mine.  He is anti-social, a veritable hermit, pulling it off so well we call him Eeyore.  He was concerned because my last podcast was "too depressing" and that he hadn't seen anything from me on Facebook for a while.  I assured him I was fine and that everything was OK.

I then received a text from a much happier and outgoing friend of mine from Reno.  He too was inquiring about my mental health and wondering if everything was OK.  I hadn't been responding to his Facebook messages and was wondering if I was banned recently or put in Facebook Jail.  I also assured him I was alright and everything was OK. 

Then a female friend of mine contacted me, wondering if she had upset me somehow and why I was giving her the silent treatment.  She hadn't heard from me in a while on Twitter, nor saw any updates or posts. "Did I go ghost?"  "Was everything alright?"  "Was I OK???"  I now thricely assured her I did not go ghost, everything was alright, and I was indeed OK. Read More

04.16.18- World War III Will Be An Economic War
Brandon Smith

There is a mass delusion in the mainstream created I think in large part by too much exposure to movie fantasy and TV fiction. It is an immediate assumption; one that I believe is far more dangerous than many people give it credit for. The assumption is that the next great war, should it occur, will inevitably be a nuclear one, and the doom surrounding it will end everything as we know it. Many people even get excited at the idea of World War III and the notion that it will “wipe the slate clean,” setting the stage for a positive human reformation from the ashes. I’m here to say that this is likely not how things will play out.

There are much more precise and effective weapons than nukes in the arsenal of the establishment globalists that manipulate political systems in various nations.

For example, the use of weaponized economics and false paradigms. As I have warned for years now, a conflict between East and West has been engineered to take place, and this conflict will primarily be an economic one. I outlined this dynamic in October 2016 in my article East vs. West Division Is About The Dollar — Not Nuclear War. Read More

04.14.18- 'For a Couple of Days There I Expected to Wake Up to Mushroom Clouds'
James Howard Kunstler

Idon’t know about you, but for a couple of days there I expected to wake up to the sight of mushroom clouds billowing across the horizon, all our exceptional hopes, wishes, troubles, and cares as a nation gone up in a vapor of smoking plastic. I think it was the Defense Secretary, nickname “Mad Dog,” who put the kibosh on the latest neocon temper tantrum against Bashar “The Animal” al-Assad. General Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee that the US was, er, “still looking for evidence” of an alleged poison gas attack against civilians in Douma, Syria.

That phrase “still looking for evidence” sounds like an elliptical way of saying we have no idea what, if anything, might have actually happened over there, just possibly even nothing at all. The Russians were busy looking for evidence on the ground in and around Douma, and they claimed to have found nothing — no traces of poison gas, no corpses, no gassing victims in the local hospital — and put out a call for international inspectors to come have a look. No reply on that from our side. Which does raise the question: are we even interested in the truth? Read More

04.13.18- Ten Days Before The End Of The World
Paul Craig Roberts

The criminally insane governments of the US, UK, and France are sending a flotilla of missile ships, submarines, and an aircraft carrier to attack Syria in the face of Russian warnings. What is the likely outcome of this outrageous act of agression based entirely on an orchestrated and transparent lie, an act of reckless aggression that is more irresponsible and more dangerous than anything done by the demonized Nazi regime in Germany?

There are no protests from European governments. There are no protesters in the streets of European and US cities. Congress has not reminded Trump that he has been given no authority by Congress to launch a military attack on a sovereign country that is likely to ignite a war, possibly World War 3. Everyone seems content with the prospect of the end of the world. The moronic American presstitutes are egging it on. Read More

04.12.18- China’s “Nuclear Option” in the Trade War
Birch Gold Group

The United States has been interested in economic relations with China since 1784, shortly after the American War for Independence.

At first, this interest was purely economic, because the British refused to deal with the U.S. (for obvious reasons). So the Americans bought Chinese goods, and the Chinese bought from the Americans.

And for most of U.S. history, things were good. But in 1949, with the rise of Mao and communist China, tensions rose.

Fast-forward to today’s relationship, as described by The Heritage Foundation:

Today, the United States and the People’s Republic of China are like the European great powers of a century ago. They trade with each other, but do not trust each other. They have the largest economies in the world, and they have a financial and trading relationship that shapes the global economy. But at the same time, they have different, and often opposing, views on many national security and foreign policy issues. Read More

04.11.18- The U.S. Should Be Reaching out to Russia —
Not Risking War
Jim Rickards

There’s no greater villain in the world today than Vladimir Putin. He stands accused in the media and global public opinion of rigging his recent reelection, imprisoning his political enemies, murdering Russian spies turned double-agent, meddling in Western elections, seizing Crimea, destabilizing Ukraine, supporting a murderous dictator in Syria and exporting arms to terrorist nations like Iran.

The list of bad acts laid at Putin’s feet is much longer than the one just recited, but you get the idea. He’s no Mr. Nice Guy.

At the same time, the country of Russia is more than Mr. Putin, despite his authoritarian and heavy-handed methods. Russia is the world’s 12th-largest economy, with a GDP in excess of $1.5 trillion, larger than many developed economies such as Australia (No. 13), Spain (No. 14) and the Netherlands (No. 18).

Russia is also the world’s largest oil producer, with output of 10.6 million barrels per day, larger than both Saudi Arabia (10.5 million barrels) and the United States (9 million barrels).

Russia has the largest landmass of any country in the world and a population of 144 million people, the ninth largest of any country. Russia is also the third-largest gold-producing nation in the world, with total production of 250 tons per year, about 8% of total global output and solidly ahead of the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Read More

04.10.18- The Impending Recession Is Following a Similar Script from 2008
Birch Gold Group

The reason the historic Great Recession of 2008/2009 happened is multi-faceted and complex.

The short version is the banks were allowed (through the repeal of Glass-Steagall) to invest savings into derivatives.

Here’s what happened:

This required security backed mortgages, which in turn led to “interest only” mortgage loans marketed to people who couldn’t afford the payment when the “low payment” disappeared.

And most of these were subprime mortgages, resulting in more and more people entering the housing market, thus increasing demand and lowering supply.

Then, defaulting home loans, rising Fed interest rates, and a hyper focus on inflation instead of lowering rates caused an asset bubble. People couldn’t afford the payments, and the asset bubble popped. Read More

04.09.18- …and Liberals Wonder Why Americans
Are Buying More Guns?
Ron Ewart

“Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion, that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors.” ~ James Madison, Excerpt from Federalist Paper No. 46 Read More

04.07.18- This Is The Turning Point
Charles Hugh Smith

The driving trends of the past decade are now reversing

The saying "the worm has turned" refers to the moment when the downtrodden have finally had enough, and turn on their powerful oppressors.

The worms have finally turned against the privileged elites -- who have benefited so greatly from globalization, corruption, central bank stimulus and the profiteering of state-enforced cartels. It doesn’t matter as much as the punditry assumes whether they are turning Left or Right; the important thing is that the powerless have finally started challenging their privileged overlords.

Though the Powers That Be will attempt to placate or suppress the Revolt of the Powerless, the genies of political disunity and social disorder cannot be put back in the bottle. It took a generation of rising inequality, corruption and the erosion of opportunity to create a society of the protected (the haves) and the unprotected(the have-nots), and rubber-stamping more regulations and distributing Universal Basic Income (UBI) will not rebalance a system that is irrevocably out of balance. Read More

04.06.18- Cashless society
Commander Zero

No doubt you’ve heard the term ‘cashless society’, right? Basically, it means a system where the usage of physical currency has been supplanted by the use of ‘cashless’ forms of payment….debit cards, electronic wallets, etc. They’ve already started experimenting with this sort of thing in parts of Europe (naturally) and this sort of thing is being hailed by the technology fans as a tremendous advancement in society…muggings and robberies will fade as people no longer have cash. Why hold someone up in an alleyway or knock over a MiniMart when there’s no cash there?

Who else lauds this move to the cashless society? Folks who feel they have an interest in keeping tabs on what you do with your money. I’m of the opinion that whether I’m buying a Slim Jim and a copy of Hustler at 3am in 7-11, or buying a duffel bag of AR mags out of the back of a van in the Domino’s parking lot, what I do with my money is no one’s business but mine.  Read More

04.05.18- Why Millennials And Boomers Both Stink At Saving
Nilus Mattive

According to a recent study conducted by the National Institute on Retirement Security, 66% of working millennials – those born between 1981 and 1991 – have nothing saved for retirement.

The study also points out that just 5% of working millennials are saving as much as financial experts recommend. The recommendation is 15% to 22% of salary, twice the amount recommended for previous generations.

It’s not all bad news, of course.

A separate Bank of America survey says one out of every six millennials currently has at least $100,000 in savings.

Even better, 47% of millennials said they had at least $15,000 in savings.

Of course, that still reinforces the idea that more than half of all Americans in their 20s and early 30s have nothing saved at all.

That was confirmed by a third study conducted by Go Banking Rates last year. It showed almost half of Americans between 18 and 34 without any type of savings at all. Read More

04.04.18- New technique stores summer heat
until it's needed in winter
Colin Jeffrey

Making the move away from using fossil fuels for heating is a necessary part of creating a sustainable future, but it's often a difficult ask for many people when turning up a thermostat on a gas or electric heater provides instant, trouble-free warmth. If people are to be convinced to switch to more renewable sources, it makes sense that there need to be easy-to-use systems available to encourage them to do so. A group of Swiss researchers claim to have come up with a process that stores heat captured during summer for easy, flick-of-a-switch use in winter, with the added benefit that the captured energy can be physically transported anywhere it may be needed.

Created by researchers working at EMPA (Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs-und ForschungsAnstalt or, in English, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research), the new system uses concentrated sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as the thermal storage medium, and a collection of largely off-the-shelf components to capture, convert, and release heat energy on demand. Read More

04.03.18- He Ran Into My Knife Ten Times
Gary Christenson

The song “Cell Block Tango” from the Oscar winning movie “Chicago” included the line, “He Ran Into My Knife Ten Times.”

Those seven words suggest anger, bleeding and murder… 

The American people have “run into a financial knife” many times in the last century. (Solutions listed at the end.)

1. In 1913 congress approved The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank which created dollar devaluation, massive unpayable debts, transfers of wealth to the financial cartel and more. This knife cut deep and caused huge economic blood loss.

2. The Income Tax (1913). Massive blood loss occurred from this knife blow. No discussion needed.

3. The 1929 stock market crash. “Good times” do not last forever. The economic boom of the 1920s suffered a death blow in 1929. Will 2018 be the new 1929?

4. President Roosevelt (1933) confiscated gold and made private gold ownership illegal. Exceptions occurred, but citizens lost most or all gold coins. Double eagles ($20 gold coins) no longer circulated. Silver dollars and paper certificates remained in circulation.  Read More

04.02.18- Guardianship … and how to avoid it
Nilus Mattive

No one plans on becoming incapacitated. That only happens to the other guy. But the hard truth is that the older we get the more likely we’ll suffer some loss of mental capacity.

In fact, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association cites says the risk of developing Alzheimer’s doubles every five years once you hit 65.

Once you get to age 85+, between 25% and 50% of people will exhibit signs of the disease.

It’s a sobering truth: As many as 5.3 million Americans currently have Alzheimer’s.

And by 2050, the number is expected to more than double due to the aging of our population.

To add insult to injury, our legal system has an unfriendly tool that could come into play if you can’t take care of yourself.

It’s called guardianship.  Read More

03.31.18- What If All the Cheap Stuff Goes Away?
Charles Hugh Smith

Nothing stays the same in dynamic systems, and it's inevitable that the current glut of low costs / cheap stuff will give way to scarcities that cannot be filled at current low prices.

One of the books I just finished reading is The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire. The thesis of the book is fascinating to those of us interested in the rise and fall of empires: Rome expanded for many reasons, but one that is overlooked was the good fortune of an era of moderate weather from around 200 BC to 150 AD: rain was relatively plentiful/ regular and temperatures were relatively warm.

Then one of Earth's numerous periods of cooling--a mini ice age--replaced the moderate weather, pressuring agricultural production.

Roman technology and security greatly expanded trade, opening routes to China, India and Africa that supplied much of Roman Europe with luxury goods. The Mediterranean acted as a cost-effective inland sea for transporting quantities of grain, wine, etc. around the empire. Read More

03.30.18- Investing for Freedom, Profit & Wealth Protection
Deepcaster, LLC

Surmounting Impediments to Profit and Wealth Protection in increasingly Volatile Markets requires Understanding and Surmounting Threats to Freedom, though these Threats to Freedom are not always obvious.

Here, we expose several Main Freedom Threats and indicate how to help Surmount them and thus enhance Opportunities for Profit and Wealth Protection, and Privacy.

Globalism vs Nationalism & Internationalism

It should be obvious that the farther away (physically and/or economically) Investors/Citizens are from centers of Economic, Financial and Political Power, the less Freedom and Clout (and often, accurate information) they have to protect their own interests. Read More

03.29.18- Tesla’s Irreversible Death Spiral Fait Accompli
Dave Kranzler

The inevitable is finally starting to unfold. The downgrade to triple-C by Moody’s came as a surprise, at least to me. Historically Moody’s has been the last to downgrade collapsing companies. The most famous was its failure to downgrade Enron until about a week before Enron folded. Perhaps this time around it decided to get out in front of the obvious. 

Tesla’s continued existence, despite obvious operational and financial problems that were growing in scale by the week, was enabled by the most lascivious monetary policy in U.S. Central Bank history. For me the coup de grace was the $1.5 billion junk bond deal floated last summer. It was emblematic of rookie money managers, unsupervised children in the sandbox, shoveling other people’s money into a cash-burning furnace. 

Most managers running retail and pension money have no idea what a triple-hook rating means for any company with massive cash flow deficits operating in a financial environment in which the Fed is not printing trillions of dollars that can be recycled into bad ideas. Read More

03.28.18- Bob Moriarty: Investors Should Be
Looking For A Cave To Hide In
Energy and Gold Ltd.

2018 has already been a volatile year across global financial markets and it doesn’t look like things are going to calm down anytime soon. In Energy & Gold’s March 2018 conversation with 321gold founder Bob Moriarty, Bob emphasizes that now is a time for investors to focus on capital preservation as opposed to rampant risk taking (which we have seen recently in the ‘klepto-currency’ bubble). Bob also offers us a stock which he has recently purchased which also happens to be located in gold’s favorite state, Nevada. Without further ado here is Energy & Gold’s March 2018 conversation with Bob Moriarty…

CEO Technician: The market is looking precarious after a rough finish to last week. Do you think there is a risk of a major crash soon?

Bob Moriarty: On Friday we got a sell-signal from Richard Russell’s Dow Theory signal. When the market goes down 800 points in a day it says something. Do you know the single biggest thing that made the depression of the 1930s worse? Read More

03.27.18- Global Economic Collapse July 20-27 2018?  Part 1
Marshall Swing

A year ago, January 26, I was scanning dozens of news sites, which is something I do every day, to ascertain trends in financial/economic, political, social/medical/health, and prophetic events.  What I saw on RT.com was unbelievable so I immediately wrote and posted Global Economic Collapse July 20, 2018 Tish B’av? with my thoughts but no one seemed interested to publish so it remained on my website, posted on Facebook and some shared Facebook groups, and shared with some close friends.

Many astute economic analysts were publishing warnings about global economic crash scenarios for 2017 so I waited patiently to see if my doubt and suspicions were wrong and unwarranted.  2017 passed without incident and the U.S. markets blasted off into the stratosphere very much like my end game scenarios written in Spring 2014 where I described and predicted 2015 capital inflows to the U.S. from all over the world just before the Global Economic Crash.  Martin Armstrong had long prediction similar scenarios for different reasons. Read More

03.26.18- The Great American Unspooling Is Upon Us
James Howard Kunstler

With spring, things come unstuck; an unspooling has begun. The turnaround at the FBI and Department of Justice has been so swift that even The New York Times has shut up about collusion with Russia — at the same time omitting to report what appears to have been a wholly politicized FBI upper echelon intruding on the 2016 election campaign, and then laboring stealthily to un-do the election result.

The ominous silence enveloping the DOJ the week after Andrew McCabe’s firing — and before the release of the FBI Inspector General’s report — suggests to me that a grand jury is about to convene and indictments are in process, not necessarily from Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s office. The evidence already publicly-aired about FBI machinations and interventions on behalf of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump looks bad from any angle, and the wonder was that it took so long for anyone at the agency to answer for it. Read More

03.24.18- Killing Each Other
Bill Gross

Some say humanity is making progress, and that civilization is becoming more "civilized", but I wonder. Optimists would point to the global political focus on human rights and the slow, although sporadic, steps forward on racial and gender equality, but these are social morés generally unrelated to humankind's tolerance for evil on a grander scale. "Thou shalt not kill" is a commandment on Moses' tablet for a good reason, and yet our killing of each other in mass quantities continues unabated. Stalin and Hitler's atrocities seem perhaps long ago to younger generations, but then the "killing fields" of Pol Pot, the millions of lost souls in the Middle East, and the ongoing tribal carnage in parts of Africa testify to the "evildoing" of governments or religious factions in defense of Fascism, Communism and yes – Democracy. "God", it seems, wears numerous hats, but almost always in defense of one particular ideology or another. "God Bless America"? Yes hopefully – but why not Cuba or the Congo? Chauvinistic mantras can be bonding but also destructive when used to kill masses of people for specious reasons. America – the self-proclaimed defender of freedom and equal rights – has proved vulnerable to those ideals in Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan and elsewhere. Read More

03.23.18- China Is One Signature Away From Dealing The Dollar A Death Blow
Peter Reagan

If you leave your sliding glass door open, you might let in a stray cat, raccoon, or bugs without knowing it.

Some intruders are worse than others. All can be annoying. But let in a thief, who robs your home… and it only takes that one time to change your life forever.

The U.S. has essentially left their “sliding glass door” open, and on March 26 China is set to become the intruder that may very well deal a death blow to the dollar.

China Prepares Death Blow to the Dollar

On March 26 China will finally launch a yuan-dominated oil futures contract. Over the last decade there have been a number of “false-starts,” but this time the contract has gotten approval from China’s State Council. Read More

03.22.18- Civil Insurrection:
03.22.18- A Modest Proposal for Ending the United States
Fred Reed

I see  that a man named Sessions, apparently  Washington’s Attorney General, threatens to unleash the coercive powers of the federal government against the state of Colorado, his reason being that he does not like the state’s policy with regard to marijuana.  This is most curious. Why he believes the policies of Colorado to be his concern is not clear. Equally mysterious is why he thinks the police of Colorado should arrest Coloradans for doing a thing that the people of the state have determined to be acceptable.

Mr. Session’s expansive view of his importance in the universe is seen again in his menacing of the state of California because he does noi approve its policy toward its immigrants. Common sense suggests that if he does not like California’s policies, he should live in another state. I am sure this would suit California well. Read More

03.21.18- Are Alt-Coins On The Verge Of A Break Out?
Justin Spittler

In my last article I stated that we had the potential for a lasting bottom in the crypto market, starting with a low in most coins on February 6th. However, in that article I also gave the conditions for that bottom to fail.

Those conditions, unfortunately, became reality. We have since seen both Ether and Verge, highlighted in that article, slide to new lows below the February 6th low. Bitcoin and Ripple did not fall below their February 6th levels, but did confirm the unlikelihood of that low marking the beginning of an impulsive wave.

In the process, Ripple is largely acting as expected.

As stated, we believe Ripple has seen a major top. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is now signaling a more complex correction than our previous expectations, and eventually it should see a new low below that of February 6th. Read More

03.20.18- Triggering War. A Manufactured “Catalytic Event” Which Will Initiate An All Out War? Are We Going to Let this Happen Again?
Prof. Graeme McQueen

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 led to the outbreak of World War I. The Gulf of Tonkin incidents on August 2 and August 4, 1964 enabled what we call the Vietnam War

Russi-Gate, Novichok, Eastern Ghouta, False Flags?

This carefully research article by Professor Graeme McQueen presents a timely historical viewpoint which is  routinely “censored” by the mainstream media as well by the search engines. The danger of World War III is not front-page news.

Kindly consider forwarding it Professor McQueen’s article to your friends and colleagues, crosspost it on alternative media and blog sites. Read More

03.20.18- 74% Of Americans Believe The "Deep State"
Is Running The Country
Tyler Durden

For the past two years, the long-running narrative, at least that promulgated by the mainstream media which continues to "explain away" Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump, is that Americans had fallen for a massive, long-running fake news scam (in part aided and abetted by the likes of Facebook), which boosted Trump's popularity at the expense of Hillary's as part of some giant "Russian collusion" conspiracy theory between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin (which Mueller was supposed to uncover, but has instead shifted to investigating obstruction, seemingly unable to find anything).

But what if that entire narrative is dead wrong: what if Americans have become so skeptical in the government process and structure, they never needed a "fake news" boost to vote for an establishment outsider? Read More

03.19.18- How to negotiate directly with physicians and hospitals.
hedgeless horseman

As the post-vasectomy head of a healthy household, do I really want to be swimming in the Obamacare risk pool with millions of morbidly obese, perpetually pregnant, HIV infected drug abusers? ­­ hedgeless_horseman

This is the written version of the talk that I gave last June at the First ZeroHedge Symposium and Live Fight Club in Marfa, Texas.  The symposium theme was disintermediation, and this talk was titled: How to negotiate directly with physicians and hospitals.

I have more than 15 years of experience negotiating physician practice and hospital payment agreements.  I have worked on site at more than 100 hospitals, surgical centers, and medical practices, in more than 20 states.  Regarding healthcare pricing, billing, and collections practices, I have been a conference speaker, author, and an invited witness at congressional committees.  I am not a doctor, attorney, or accountant, nor am I giving you any medical, legal, or tax advice.  I am not selling anything.  I am merely sharing my experiences and personal opinions.  I am not receiving any compensation or financial benefit for doing this. Read More

03.17.18- New Jersey’s Desperate (And Disturbing) Plan to Save Its Public Pension
Birch Gold Group

Pension plans across the U.S. have been doomed to fail since 2008. But surprisingly, that’s not the most alarming news regarding pensions…

New Jersey (NJ) has the 2nd worst credit rating and the most underfunded public pension fund in the U.S.

In a move that resembles “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” NJ is now preparing to raise taxes. But they’re taking the simple idea of raising taxes to a whole new level…

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy proposed taxing online-room booking, ride-sharing, marijuana, e-cigarettes and Internet transactions along with raising taxes on millionaires and retail sales to fund a record $37.4 billion budget that would boost spending on schools, pensions and mass transit. Read More

03.16.18- The egregious errors of static statistics
Alasdair Macleod

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. Lord Macaulay wrote this nearly two hundred years ago. His aphorism is particularly apposite of modern politicians, and also of the modern state itself, which is meant to be selfless in the interest of the common good. We can be certain that when a person moves from outside to inside the machinery of the state, he or she changes from representing the people to representing the state. Presumably there are honourable exceptions to this rule, but offhand, it’s hard to think of any in contemporary politics

The failure of the test of a politician’s real character goes much deeper. Once he is embraced by the state, he has at his hands the tools of propaganda and disinformation. He can stoke up nationalism to swing a nation behind him. Some of us will have read Machiavelli’s Prince, that masterwork of the political arts, which instructs a politician how to retain and exploit political power. But very few of us are fully aware of the far darker arts of monetary debasement. It is no longer so crude as reducing the silver content of the denarius or issuing notes without the gold to cover it. No, with the panoply of treasuries, central banks and statistical departments, monetary debasement is subtler today, providing cover for the fraud committed by the state on its population. Read More

03.15.18- Trump Is Bringing Control of the Secret Space Program Under the Control of the Elected Government
Dave Hodges

For the past 3 years i have been writing about how the secret space program was the dominant program and it had its origin in the 1950’s and the technology behind it was light years ahead of anything NASA was doing.

The technology was obtained from captured German scientists. In 1983, my father, who had worked with captured German scientists from 1957 to 1965,  told me that he was convinced that NASA was a fraud used to secretly funnel money to the secret space program. He told me that the technology that he was reverse engineering, from 1957 and on,  was hundreds of years beyond anything NASA was working on and as he watched NASA unfold, the technological development of the agency, covering nearly three decades was stagnant and did not reflect the level of sophistication that he would have seen in NASA. NASA was, and is, an unmiigated fraud. Read More

03.14.18- Immigration and California
John Velisek

Let’s discuss the current debacle taking place in California. Progressivesocialists like Jerry Brown, Xavier Becerra, 2020 Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, the mayor of Oakland Libby Schaff and others are turning the state into a third world hellhole for two reasons. One is the accumulation of more progressive votes in order to keep them in power. This is being accomplished by giving these illegal aliens benefits that are meant for American Citizens. The other is a complete disregard of our laws to prove to President Trump that can do what they want and he is powerless to stop them. These socialists are the Deep State on a state level. 

At one point, California was the golden standard of the country. If offered the fulfillment of dreams and opportunities of a better lifestyle. Today, because of the progressive socialist who have pushed their Marxist principles upon the American people. Our cities are littered for miles with homeless people, the downtown areas of our major cities are littered with needles and feces, and exorbitant taxes to coddle illegals criminals and overregulation of all facets of life. Along with the support of open borders and extravagant spending of boondoggles such as Gov. Jerry Browns high-speed rail to nowhere that already has the budget for it tripled. Read More

03.13.18- The New Color Line: American Suicide Is In The Cards
Paul Craig Roberts

Identity Politics is turning white people into a delegitimized group that it is permissible to hate and to discriminate against. White Americans are being turned into undesirables and are being delegitimized just as Jews were delegitimatized in Nazi Germany. Curiously enough, as I understand it, the Identity Politics being used to delegitimize white people has its roots in the Jewish cultural Marxism of the Frankfort School.

Most Americans are unaware of Identity Politics, and those who hear about it dismiss it as something silly. But it is the core politics of the Democratic Party and the liberal/progressive/left that is rivaling the neoconservatives for control over the American psyche. Read More

03.12.18- Faux fasting diet regenerates pancreas to reverse diabetes
Darren Quick

Using stem cells to create insulin-producing beta cells that could be transplanted into diabetics is being investigated as a possible cure for type 1 diabetes and treatment for type 2, but new research suggests that a special diet could reprogram cells in the pancreas to do the same thing. Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) claim that a diet that mimics the effects of fasting spurs the growth of new insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreases of mice, essentially reversing the disease.

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes center around insulin, or rather, the lack thereof. Put very simply, in type 1 diabetes, the body – specifically, the pancreas – stops producing insulin, while in type 2 diabetes, the body doesn't use insulin properly and eventually is unable to produce enough insulin to compensate. In both type 1 and late-stage type 2 diabetes, insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are lost, meaning many diabetics need to take insulin to replace what's not being made by the pancreas. Read More

03.10.18- Big Alcohol Hasn’t Been This Scared Since Prohibition
Justin Spittler

Big alcohol is terrified of marijuana.

I don’t mean alcohol executives have watched the propaganda film Reefer Madness one too many times… I say this because marijuana is a grave threat to their business.

Even Molson Coors admits this. Coors is one of the largest U.S. beer companies. It sells the popular brands Blue Moon and Miller Light (among many others).

And it recently identified marijuana as one of the biggest threats to its business. Here’s a direct quote from its latest annual report published on February 14:

Although the ultimate impact is currently unknown, the emergence of legal cannabis in certain U.S. states and Canada may result in a shift of discretionary income away from our products or a change in consumer preferences away from beer. Read More

03.09.18- The Heart of the Problem
Jeffrey Bennett

It matters not what the problems of the nation are – illegal immigration, gun (read, “people“) control, employment, abortion, health, education, welfare or anyone of a hundred or a thousand different issues – the problems will NEVER be resolved by those who we have been repeatedly sending over back to Washington, D.C. – some of them for many decades. 

Not a one of them represents ‘We the People‘ – they only represent BIG Corporate lobbies, and/or those who serve the military industrial complex, or Israel – or whomever THEY feel will line THEIR pocketbooks.

Those who sit in the united States House of (non) Representatives or the united States Senate – and all of those who are employed by the largest corrupt cartel (United States of America, Inc.) in the world, will be this nation’s undoing. Read More

03.08.18- The Anti-China “Silver Bullet”
Zach Scheidt

“Oh yeah? Well, I’m going to charge you extra for every piece of steel you send our way!”

“Really? Try this: We’re not going to sell any more Harley Davidson’s in our country!!”

“Fine!! See how you like it when we don’t buy any of your fancy BMW’s or Audi’s!!!”

“Well in that case, we’re going to ban Levi’s jeans. In fact, to hell with ALL American apparel brands!!”

And so the shouting match has started. It seems we’re on the cusp of a global trade war. Read More

03.07.18- How China’s Social Credit Score Will Shape
the “Perfect” Citizen
James Rickards

If you have too much debt and bad credit, it may be tough to get credit cards and loans. The idea is that people less likely to pay pack lenders get less credit.

Well imagine if there was a social credit system. But it was the government that used it to decide who could travel, or live in certain apartments. Imagine if your social credit was too low to send your kids to a private school, or get a better job.

But what kind of behavior would warrant such a score? 

China is about to answer all our questions. Read More

03.06.18- America’s Pension Crisis Is About To Detonate
Dave Kranzler

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts sent me an article by Catherine Austin Fitts and asked if I had read it.  The article is titled, “The State of America’s Pension Funds.” The article is worth reading, though I believe Ms. Fitts underestimates significantly the degree to which political and Wall Street criminality – along with money management incompetence – has infected and destroyed the U.S. pension system – both public and private. Furthermore, I believe she errs in her believe that the pension crisis can be fixed.

I’ve re-posted below my view of the looming pension system melt-down that I shared with Dr. Roberts.

“My guestimate for the amount stolen or shifted illegally through these mechanisms is $50 trillion, although I can argue the number higher.” I agree with her assessment there. Read More

03.05.18- Why You Should Ignore Market Experts
Ben Felix

Market experts want you to believe that their insights can help you make better investment decisions. Sell this, buy that.

People want certainly.

David Freedman, in his 2010 book “Wrong” offers the example of a person suffering from back pain.

He visits two doctors to review his MRI.

One doctor says that he has seen many similar cases and that it’s hard to say exactly what’s wrong.

He suggests trying out a treatment and going from there.

The other doctor says that he knows exactly what is wrong and knows what to do.

Which doctor will he choose?

Most people would choose the doctor who seems certain about his diagnosis, but that doctor may very well be wrong. Read More

03.03.18- What the Latest “Warren Buffett Warning” Means for You
Peter Reagan

In his annual letter to investors, Warren Buffett made a somewhat shocking disclosure. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, now has a cash-on-hand balance of more than $116 billion.

That massive pile of cash exists because Mr. Buffett makes decisions that end up producing stable, consistent returns. Each year, Berkshire releases an annual letter, and investors take his insights to heart because of their respect for his success.

This year’s letter was quite unique, as Buffett announced a decision that should serve as a warning for stock investors…

He isn’t buying stocks (or companies). Why? Read More

03.02.18- In Defense of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Andrew P. Napolitano

The Ash Wednesday massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, seems to have broken more hearts than similar tragedies that preceded it. It was no more senseless than other American school shootings, but there is something about the innocence and bravery and eloquence of the youthful survivors that has touched the souls of Americans deeply.

After burying their dead, the survivors have mobilized into a mighty political force that loosely seeks more laws to regulate the right to keep and bear arms. The young people, traumatized and terrified with memories of unspeakable horror that will not fade, somehow think that a person bent on murder will obey gun laws.

Every time I watch these beautiful young people, I wince, because in their understandable sadness is the potential for madness — “madness” being defined as the passionate and stubborn refusal to accept reason. This often happens after tragedy. After watching the government railroad Abraham Lincoln’s killer’s conspirators — and even some folks who had nothing to do with the assassination — the poet Herman Melville wrote: “Beware the People weeping. When they bare the iron hand.” Read More

03.01.18- FBI and Sheriff Either Failed Miserably Before Parkland Shooting… Or Much Worse
Joe Jarvis

We’re supposed to trust the government to keep us safe. But the two main law enforcement units that should have protected students against the Parkland shooter failed miserably.

The shooter was handed to the Broward County Sheriff’s office and the FBI on a silver platter multiple times. There were tips that specifically mentioned school shootings. There were threats made by the shooter, which again, specifically mentioned school shootings.

There were calls about violence, including the shooter putting guns to people’s heads. Deputies visited many times after concerned friends, family, and strangers called. The suspect once called the police on himself!

Then a sheriff’s deputy failed again by refusing to go into the school during the shooting and engage the shooter. He was on the scene. He knew what was happening. And he shirked his duty Read More

02.28.18- Goldilocks Is Dead
Jim Quinn

“Once you strip out the effects of the debt binge, the artificial stimulus via currency depreciation, and the fabled ‘wealth effect’ from the equity market runup, real GDP growth stripped-down to its core was the grand total of 0.7% last year. Potemkin would be proud.” – David Rosenberg

It appears every president finds the religion of false economic narrative once they ascend to power. Trump never stops babbling and tweeting about the fantastic economy and raging jobs market since his election. He has embraced the stock market bubble as proof of his brilliant leadership, rather than the tens of trillions in debt propping up the most overvalued market in world history. Every president takes credit for any good news, spins bad news as good news, or blames the previous president for bad news that can’t be denied. The president has absolutely zero impact on the economy or stock market over the short term. It’s like taking credit for the sun rising in the east each morning.Read More

02.27.18- John McAfee: "Bitcoin Will Reach $1 Million by 2020"
Sean McCloskey

According to my colleague Ray Blanco,“the biggest blockchain stock explosion of 2018 is set to erupt, unleashing a tsunami of wealth for investors.”

After what I experienced last weekend at the Bitcoin, Ethereum, & Blockchain SuperConference, I couldn’t agree more.

Expert after expert specifically noted that blockchain tech is the equivalent of the internet in 1996.

And we’re now just waiting for the “Netscape moment.”

A way to bring the complexity of blockchain to users in an easy-to-understand format, much like Netscape did for the highly complex system known as the internet. Read More

02.26.18- How Puerto Rico Could Turn Disaster into a
Decentralized Paradise
 Daily Bell Staff 

Could the massive failure of the Puerto Rican government-run energy grid be a blessing in disguise? It has the potential to set Puerto Rico on a course of self-sufficiency and individual empowerment for decades to come.

Many Puerto Ricans are still without power from the large-scale grid failure after Hurricane Maria last fall. Some are not expected to be reconnected to the grid until April or May.

Community Solutions

One of those communities took matters into its own hands and set the local school up with solar panels. Plans to set up rainwater collection and filtration are also in the works. This would make the school entirely off-grid, and a perfect community shelter in the event of other natural disasters. Read More

02.24.18- Dow Jones Tanks As Silver Market Price Bottoming
Steve St Angelo

During the last 90 minutes of trading on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Index tanked by 400 points.  Supposedly, the steep selloff had something to do with the release of the Fed minutes.  However, today, the market has reversed once again and is up by 200 points.  Unfortunately for mainstream investors, it doesn’t matter what the Fed or Wall Street have to say; the broader markets will continue to fall precipitously over the next few years.

Interestingly, as the indicators point to extreme leverage in the markets, the opposite is true for the silver price.  In my newest YouTube video, I discuss the different fundamental market indicators for the Dow Jones Index, the oil, gold, and silver price.  While the Dow Jones Index and oil price are closer to a top, the silver price is reaching a bottom.

I also discuss the tremendous increase in U.S. public debt over the past five months.  The U.S. Government is increasing debt at the fastest rate ever.  One of the negative side-effects of adding a great deal more debt to the public’s balance sheet is that the U.S. Treasury has to pay an ever-increasing amount of interest to service that debt. Read More

02.23.18- This Time Is Completely Different---But Not In A Good Way!
David Stockman

If you don't think the stock market is a giant accident waiting to happen, just consider the two most crucial developments----soaring stocks and soaring deficits--- since November 7, 2016.

First, on the lunacy side of the equation, the S&P 500 was up 35% at its 2873 peak on January 26, and now the dip-buyers, chart-readers and robo-machines are trying mightily to retest that level after the short-lived 10% correction at the turn of the month.

But here's the thing. The pre-Trump market at 2130 on the S&P 500 was already trading at a nosebleed 22.4X LTM earnings of $94.55 as of Q4 2016. Consistent with the pig-through-the-python profits mini-cycle of the last four years, which flows from the parallel commodity/industrial/trade cycle, LTM earnings for Q4 2017 have now come in at $106.84per share. Read More

02.22.18- 5 Best Performing Cryptocurrencies In 2018 (So Far)
Jesse Cohen

The start of 2018 wasn't particularly auspicious for cryptocurrencies...to say the least. The value of the market dropped by a whopping $93 billion, to hit a low of $276 billion on February 6, well off the all-time high of $834 billion reached in the early days of January.

Bitcoin for example, the world's biggest virtual currency by market capitalization, lost about 25% in January, its biggest monthly percentage decline in three years, amid increased fears over regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and Asia. Despite its modest recovery in recent days, Bitcoin prices remain down about 18% since the start of 2018.

Bitcoin isn't the only mainstream cryptocurrency to endure a rough start to the new year. For instance, Ripple, the third biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap, has declined 55% since January 1, making it one of the worst performing digital currencies of 2018. Read More

02.21.18- Do You Believe In BLS Unicorns?
James Quinn

The chart below says there has been 55.6% inflation over the last 20 years. That is just less than a 2.4% annual level of inflation. What a load of bullshit. Let’s look at a couple of categories listed below and do a smell test. Everyone knows the prices of TVs have fallen dramatically, but 99% – I don’t think so. I was able to find the price of a 28 inch Samsung TV in 1997 – $750. The same size Samsung TV costs $200 today. That’s a 73% decrease. The good old BLS says the decrease is really 99% because the new TV does so much more. They call this a hedonic adjustment. 

It gets better. The BLS shows the cost of housing up about 56% over the last 20 years. Here are a couple indisputable facts from the same government peddling this inflation drivel. The average new home cost $175,000 in 1997. The average new home in 2017 cost $380,000. For the math challenged, that is a 117% increase. The average monthly rent in 1997 was $576. In 2017 it was $1,021. That is a 77% increase. Housing is the biggest weighting in the CPI calculation. Since using actual cost increases would show at least a 90% increase in housing, the BLS drones created a fake calculation called owners equivalent rent which no one can question. That’s how you fake housing inflation. Read More

02.20.18- The System Is Breaking Down:
Collapse Is All But Guaranteed
Michael Krieger

“It’s mind-boggling that tens of millions are so easily divided and conquered…avoiding at all costs what’s really going on in this country, such as…”

Oligarchs, though they speak of deconstructing the administrative state, actually increase deficits and the size and power of law enforcement and the military to protect their global business interests and ensure domestic social control. The parts of the state that serve the common good wither in the name of deregulation and austerity. The parts that promote the oligarchs’ power expand in the name of national security, economic growth and law and order. – Chris Hedges, The Deadly Rule of the Oligarchs Read More

02.19.18- How Ending The Gold Standard
Impacted The US Economy
Daniel Carter

Politicians, economic “experts” and the talking heads in mainstream media will never tell you that monetary policy is the most important issue facing the United States. Whether you realize it or not, monetary policy has a direct and significant impact on all our lives. When the US abandoned the gold standard in the early 1970’s, it steered our economy toward a cliff that we are closer than ever to driving over.

Once the gold standard ended, the Nixon administration went to Saudi Arabia to strike up a deal that would give immense power to the US’s rent-seeking elites for many decades to come. This deal created what’s known as the Petrodollar system. In exchange for weapons and military support, the Saudis agreed to sell their oil exclusively in dollars. Eventually this deal spread to almost every other oil producing nation. Read More

02.17.18- Bankers and Policy Makers Sowing Seeds
of Next Banking Crisis
Peter Reagan

The U.S. has a long list of economic challenges. But over the last few years, complacency by bankers and economic policy makers has been added as a big part of that list.

The scary thing is, this complacency is sowing the seeds for the next banking crisis, which could start this year.

The Seeds of the Next Baking Crisis

Let’s begin with this gem from a Reuters report on Janet Yellen:

[Former] U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said that she does not believe that there will be another financial crisis for at least as long as she lives, thanks largely to reforms of the banking system since the 2007-09 crash. Read More

02.16.18- A Million Dollars a Minute
Andrew P. Napolitano

Imagine you open the faucet of your kitchen sink expecting water and instead out comes cash. Now imagine that it comes out at the rate of $1 million a minute. You call your plumber, who thinks you’re crazy. To get you off the phone, he opines that it is your sink and therefore must be your money. So you spend it wildly. Then you realize that the money wasn’t yours and you owe it back.

Now imagine that this happens every minute of every day for the next three years. At the end of the three years, you owe back more than $6 trillion. So you borrow $6 trillion to pay back the $6 trillion you owe.

Is this unending spigot of cash reality or fantasy? Read More

02.15.18- Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming Present Legislation Supporting Cryptocurrency
Brenden Weber

Lawmakers in Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming have all recently taken legislative action that seeks to further support cryptocurrency.

On Thursday, the Arizona Senate passed a bill that would allow residents to pay income taxes using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This implementation has practical significance, allowing the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment option in a state revenue system legitimizes them as an everyday alternative payment medium.

A provision in the bill mandates that the cryptocurrency payments be exchanged for fiat currency within 24 hours. This provision seeks to address the volatility of cryptocurrency and mitigate state revenue concerns. Read More

02.14.18- The Threat of Contagion
Jim Rickards

To understand the risk of contagion, you can think of the marlin in Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. The marlin started out as a prize catch lashed to the side of the fisherman Santiago’s boat.

But, once there was blood in the water, every shark within miles descended on the marlin and devoured it. By the time Santiago got to shore, there was nothing left of the marlin but the bill, the tail and some bones.

In this metaphor, the marlin is XIV. During regular trading hours last Monday, there was not much blood in the water. But, once traders saw the damage to VIX, they smelled blood in terms of the value of XIV.

At that point, markets (the sharks) no longer traded XIV in relation to other instruments. Instead markets systematically traded against XIV in an effort to force every holder, sponsor and guarantor to suffer a total loss. They were out to break it. Read More

02.13.18- Crypto Alert: Relief is Ahead
Rich Jacobs

The crypto market took some massive hits this week, mirroring action we’ve seen in the stock market.

On Tuesday 99% of the top 100 coins by market cap were in the red.

Stories about banks cutting off services to companies and individuals who work with crypto, shutting down their bank accounts, turning off their crypto-loaded credit cards, shutting down their merchant accounts and even freezing their assets have sent coin values spiraling.

I know a lot of you are concerned about the state of the crypto market.

Today, I’m here to tell you not to worry. Read More

02.12.18- Has YOUR computer been ‘cryptojacked’?
Bill Buchanan

Experts reveal how to tell if hackers are using it to mine bitcoin

Nothing comes for free, especially online. Websites and apps that don’t charge you for their services are often collecting your data or bombarding you with advertising.

Now some sites have found a new way to make money from you: using your computer to generate virtual currencies. 

Several video streaming sites and the popular file sharing network The Pirate Bay have allegedly been ‘cryptojacking’ their users’ computers in this way, as has the free wifi provider in a Starbucks cafe in Argentina.

Users may object to this, especially if it slows down their computers. Read More

02.10.18- Revisionism
Jimmie Moglia, The Saker

On hearing the word ‘revisionism,’ suspicion lurks in the mind of some, and alarms sound in the mind of others. Suspicion is the elder sister of twins, credulity and incredulity. And of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate and wonderful is that of zealots; of men who resign the use of their eyes and ears, and resolve to believe nothing that does not favor those whom they profess to follow.

Hence the law of truth, which most would accept in principle, is broken without penalty, without censure, and in compliance with inveterate prejudice and prevailing passions. Men are willing to credit what they wish, and encourage rather those who gratify them with pleasure, than those who provide them with fidelity, (or at least try to.)

Still, revisionism implies nothing else but an effort to seek historical truth and to discredit myths that are a barrier to peace and general goodwill among nations. There is nothing upon which more writers, in all ages, have laid out their abilities, than revisionism. And it affords no pleasing reflection to discover that a subject so controversial is anything but exhausted. Read More

02.09.18- Alan Greenspan's Critical Warning for the Economy
Peter Reagan

On January 31, two full days before the stock market’s recent sell off, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan issued a warning.

Speaking on Bloomberg Television, he said:

I think there are two bubbles. We have a stock market bubble and we have a bond market bubble.

Experts are always making predictions about how the markets are going to go. However, when a former head of the Fed tells us his opinion, it’s best to pay attention.

Appointed by Ronald Reagan back in 1987, Alan Greenspan served as Chairman until 2006 — the second-longest tenure in the Fed’s history. He’s famous for labeling the frenzy which drove up stock prices during the dotcom bubble as “irrational exuberance”. Read More

02.08.18- And Now, for Something Entirely Different:
When Injustice Takes Hold: Freedom – Liberty – Really???
Ed Lewis

In the Beginning

As I last asked, if an official swears to uphold the Constitution for the united States of America, your state’s constitution, and laws thereof, how the heck can they do so if they do not know the laws they must uphold?

I had a terrible thought that woke me after a couple of hours sleep. I have believed most of my life that America began because of people that wanted religious freedom and to escape the absolute rule of so-called “Royalty”. In reference to the latter, they wanted to be free of the “feudal system” of Europe.

In case one is not aware of the feudal system, it is such that the Royal family, the King and/or Queen, that is, own everything. The people – the peons – are but ‘tenants” upon the land. They are subject to whatever the ruler or rulers want of their production during the year or whenever.  Read More

02.07.18- Yesterday’s Collapse Was Just The First Stage
of a Rude Awakening
Graham Summers

The markets just changed.

Few understand what happened to the financial system after 2008. What happened was that the debt based financial system began to implode as debt deflation took hold. The scary thing is that it wasn’t even a large amount of debt deflation.

Remember the 2008 Crisis? That time when everyone thought the world was literally going to end? It’s that small dip in the dotted line below:

To stop a full-scale collapse, Central Banks attempted to corner the sovereign bond market via interest rates and QE programs. I realize that many will fail to grasp the significance of this so let me explain.

In our current financial system, in which no major currency is backed by Gold or any other finite asset, sovereign bonds represent the bedrock for the system. They are the “risk-free” rate of return or the standard against which all risk assets are valued.

Put simply, Central Banks attempted to corner ALL risk by controlling the baseline against which it was valued. Read More

02.06.18- Former Lehman Trader:
"There’s More Pain To Come For Markets
Tyler Durden

Some apt observations on the morning after the biggest VIX move in history (in percentage terms) by Bloomberg macro commentator and former Lehman trader, Mark Cudmore, who has certainly been here before.

There’s More Pain to Come for Global Equity Markets: Macro View

There’s been a rapid deterioration in market fundamentals and that means that, even at these much lower prices, global stocks don’t look attractive yet.

It’s true global growth is still supportive, and so this is unlikely to be the start of a long-lasting bear market. But, one of the other pillars behind the rally has been severely weakened during the past month: liquidity.

Two-year U.S. yields closed Thursday 90 basis points above their finish on Sept. 8. That speed of tightening hasn’t been seen since the first half of 2008. And we all know how that year ended. Read More

02.05.18- The U.S. Dollar’s “Hidden Tax” Could Spell
Disaster for Your Wealth
Birch Gold Group

For over a year now, the U.S. dollar has experienced a steady, continuous decline in value.

It’s partly because that’s the stated desire of many within the White House, who may very well be playing a shell game of sorts. You see, right now, the U.S. economy is projecting several signs of strength — at least according to many mainstream metrics. But this “shell game misdirect” might be coming at the expense of the dollar.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has even endorsed the dollar’s recent decline, going so far as to essentially say that it’s part of the plan. That’s because, as he sees it, a weaker dollar would benefit the American economy, as it will be beneficial for trade opportunities. It’s part of the Trump Administration’s plan to focus on “America First” exporters and propose a more anti-global trade initiative. Read More

02.03.18- Trump’s Financial Arsonists - The Next Financial Crisis -- Not If, But When 
Nomi Prins

There’s been lots of fire and fury around Washington lately, including a brief government shutdown. In Donald Trump’s White House, you can hardly keep up with the ongoing brouhahas from North Korea to Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation, while it already feels like ages since the celebratory mood over the vast corporate tax cuts Congress passed last year. But don’t be fooled: none of that is as important as what’s missing from the picture.  Like a disease, in the nation’s capital it’s often what you can’t see that will, in the end, hurt you most.

Amid a roaring stock market and a planet of upbeat CEOs, few are even thinking about the havoc that a multi-trillion-dollar financial system gone rogue could inflict upon global stability.  But watch out.  Even in the seemingly best of times, neglecting Wall Street is a dangerous idea. With a rag-tag Trumpian crew of ex-bankers and Goldman Sachs alumni as the only watchdogs in town, it’s time to focus, because one thing is clear: Donald Trump’s economic team is in the process of making the financial system combustible again. Read More

02.02.18- Introducing "Trumpfrastructure"
Zach Scheidt

Did you watch Trump’s State of the Union Address? The whole thing??

I don’t blame you if you skipped out early. Because according to one commentator, this was the third longest speech of its kind in American history!

But if you did turn off the TV to call it a night early, you may have missed the latest information on Trump’s $1.5 trillion plan. And as an investor, you do NOT want to miss out on the opportunities behind this spending plan.

So today, we’re going to take a look at the President’s newest priority, and zero in on the best ways you can use “Trumpfrastructure” to build your wealth… Read More

02.01.18- Stormy Weather
James Howard Kunstler

For those of us who are not admirers of President Trump, it’s even more painful to see the Democratic opposition descend into the stupendous dishonesty of the Russian Collusion story. When the intelligentsia of the nation loses its ability to think — when it becomes a dis-intelligentsia — then there are no stewards of reality left. Trump is crazy enough, but the “resistance” is dragging the country into dangerous madness.

It’s hard not to be impressed by the evidence in the public record that the FBI misbehaved pretty badly around the various election year events of 2016. And who, besides Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, and Dean Baquet of The New York Times, can pretend to be impressed by the so far complete lack of evidence of Russian “meddling” to defeat Hillary Clinton? I must repeat: so far. This story has been playing for a year and a half now, and as the days go by, it seems more and more unlikely that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is sitting on any conclusive evidence. During this time, everything and anything has already leaked out of the FBI and its parent agency the Department of Justice, including embarrassing hard evidence of the FBI’s own procedural debauchery, and it’s hard to believe that Mr. Mueller’s office is anymore air-tight than the rest of the joint. Read More

01.21.18- Immigration Lies and Hypocrisy
Walter E. Williams

President Donald Trump reportedly asked why the U.S. is “having all these people from shithole countries come here.” I think he could have used better language, but it’s a question that should be asked and answered. I have a few questions for my fellow Americans to consider. How many Norwegians have illegally entered our nation, committed crimes and burdened our prison and welfare systems? I might ask the same question about Finnish, Swedish, Welsh, Icelanders, Greenlanders and New Zealanders. The bulk of our immigration problem is with people who enter our country criminally from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. It’s illegal immigrants from those countries who have committed crimes and burdened our criminal justice and welfare systems. A large number of immigrants who are here illegally — perhaps the majority are law-abiding in other respects — have fled oppressive, brutal and corrupt regimes to seek a better life in America.

In the debate about illegal immigration, there are questions that are not explicitly asked but can be answered with a straight “yes” or “no”: Does everyone in the world have a right to live in the U.S.? Do Americans have a right to decide who and under what conditions a person may enter our country? Read More

01.30.18- Did the NSA Create Bitcoin to Usher in One World Currency?
Joe Jarvis

It is true, the National Security Agency created part of the code for Bitcoin.

When you first hear that, it is pretty jarring. It seems like a smoking gun! Case closed, conspiracy theory proven.

But the NSA creates a lot of cryptography code. Some of it works and is widely adopted.

The piece of the Bitcoin code created by the NSA is a hash function called SHA-256. SHA stands for Secure Hashing Algorithm. The hash is the expected outcome. An algorithm can be executed on a piece of data, and the output of that algorithm should match the hash. But you can’t figure out what the data was with just the hash. It only works in one direction. And there are enough different combinations that it is virtually impossible for any two pieces of data to create the same hash. Read More

01.29.18- Proof That 50 Years of Drug Policy is Based on Lies
The Daily Bell Staff

More terrifying than monsters, murderers, snakes, and rats: politicians. They create horror stories that go on for decades. And their tales are real.

It is not just the likes of Hitler that destroy generations. Countless much more subtle politicians have exerted influence on hundreds of millions of lives for decades after their stint in government. Yet most people don’t even blink an eye at that kind of power. They shrug it off. And that is truly terrifying.

Case and point is research that laid the foundation for half a century of drug policy.

This video summarizes Psychologist Bruce Alexander’s research. Information the government used concerning drug addiction came mainly from experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. These experiments isolated rats into small cages, placed a syringe into their blood stream, and gave them a dose of heroin every time they pushed a petal. Read More

01.27.18- Hidden In Plain View / Eyes Wide Shut
Dave Kranzler

The impending economic collapse is hidden from most. People only see a rising stock market, not the negative underlying factors that will cause the whole system to crash.– Peter Schiff

The average middle class household is getting squeezed by an income that is not keeping up with the cost of living. Unfortunately, a major portion of the cost of living has become debt service. Most car buyers assume an almost insane amount of debt to buy a new car. Credit card debt is being used to make ends meet. Low-to-no down payment mortgages have funded most of the homes sold over the last few years. The problem, however, is that the financial system enables this behavior. One has to wonder if this was not intentional…

The quote above is from a recent Peter Schiff podcast. He goes on to say the it’s unclear how quickly the financial system will unravel but “it is close” to happening. I wanted to use that quote because one of the goals of the Short Seller’s Journal is to present hard evidence that brings to your attention the “negative underlying factors” which contradict the “official” narrative about the economy and financial system. Read More

01.26.18- 5 Reasons Why I think Bitcoin Will Hit $100,000
Andrew Keene

“Buy and hold” isn’t a trading strategy.

For the entirety of my trading career I have tried to avoid buying and holding. Every time I put on a trade I do so with a clear exit plan in mind. I NEVER go into positions with the intention to hold them for an undetermined amount of time.

Until now…

There’s one market and one investment that has made me completely change my attitude about “buy and hold” as a trading strategy…

That’s the bitcoin market.

I know, bitcoin has come down a lot this past week (it’s since stabilized). But to me, that’s perfectly fine. I’m happy about it, in fact. You should be too. It just gives you the opportunity to buy cheaper before bitcoin rises again.

And it will rise again… Read More

01.25.18- Crypto-Currencies Hack Changes Wallet Addresses
Joseph P. Farrell

Earlier this week I blogged about some of the dangers that I believe to reside in the new crypto-currency fad. To recapitulate, in my opinion those dangers are twofold, as they relate to (1) the closed nature of the system itself which is a deep sort of philosophical issue that I have addressed in various books and interviews about the relationship of one's "physics" to one's "financial views", and (2) to the inherent vulnerability of all cyber-systems to hacking, external manipulations and so on. It is the latter possibility with which I have been concerned of late, for when these crypto-currencies first emerged, my first thought was that they were - because of cyber-vulnerability - almost a perfect way to augment and enhance a hidden system of finance. Even if that high octane speculative possibility was wide of the mark or "off the end of the twig," they were a romper-room of possibilities for fraud. Read More

01.24.18- Prepare for the Downfall of the Dollar
Jason Hanson

Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all emergency plan that will protect you from every kind of crisis. Part of prepping is taking all precautions you can and remaining flexible — because you never know what may happen.

Financial crises — like a stock market crash or a complete devaluation of the dollar — are a little trickier to plan for than a hurricane or blackout, for example. Preparing for an economic disaster isn’t a simple matter of saving money at home or acquiring a stash of gold and silver (although you absolutely should). There are other options you should look into as well.

Take a look at the first two of this week’s must-read articles and you’ll see what I mean. Then read on to discover 30 ways you can reduce your risk of catching the flu, five deadly mistakes to avoid when threatened by mudslides and what you must do in the first 60 minutes after the SHTF.

Ready? Let’s go. Read More

01.23.18- First the Battle Flag, Then What Remains
Boyd D. Cathey

The Attack of the Orcs

Occasionally I will read articles on the ostensibly conservative web site, Townhall.com. Indeed, my good friend Jack Kerwick has published some fine pieces there. Recently, Paul Gottfried forwarded on to me an essay written by a Neoconservative Republican operative, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, “The Confederate Flag is Anti-American,” and I wanted to make a few comments on it while my blood pressure is sky high. 

One of my bete noires continues to be the group of East Coast, mostly New York, largely (but certainly not exclusively) Jewish intellectuals who now dominate and generally control what is called “Conservatism.” This control extends to the point that just about any opposing conservative view, whether that of Pat Buchanan, Donald Trump, or Paul Gottfried, is condemned out of hand as “racist,” or “isolationist,” or “anti-immigrant,” or—and very ironically in Paul Gottfried’s case as he is Jewish–”anti-semitic.” The Neocons are now, in fact, the “brain trust” for the national Republican Party (although I use the term “brain trust” advisedly). What should be very disturbing to grass roots conservatives (but mostly isn’t) is that the Neocons propound a basic philosophy which, if anything, is over on the historic Left, and encompasses across-the-board-egalitarianism, moral relativism, and a zeal for imposing globally a system of governmental and economic control they label “liberal democracy.” Read More

01.22.18- Asteroid Strikes, Plague, and Economic Meltdown: Government Shutdown 2018!
Joe Jarvis

Asteroid strikes, flu plague, and economic meltdown.

According to CNN, that is what we should fear from this “government shutdown.”

People have to hype it up in order to give the impression that the government matters.

In reality, this just reveals why we shouldn’t trust the government to do anything essential in our lives.

If political fights in DC can put people at that kind of risk, then we should get these services from organizations that have incentives to deliver.

Congressmen won’t lose their jobs over this, except in the unlikely event the voters from their district fire them. More likely they will blame representatives from other districts. Read More

The Social (IN)Security Charade
Dennis Miller

I’m frequently asked, “Should I count on social security when doing retirement planning?” The best approach is to discuss what my wife Jo and I have experienced.

I compared our 2018 benefit statement with 2015. Our Cost of Living Increase (COLA) was 2.3% – (1.15% annually). Our net payments dropped approximately 1.75% – we are clearing less today than we did in 2015. Why did that happen?

The government reduces our benefits for Medicare and drug insurance premiums. In 2015, we paid a combined $2,517.60 in Medicare premiums and $575.40 for drug insurance premiums. The government increased our 2018 Medicare Premiums 23.9% to $602.40. Our drug premiums increased 161% to $924.60. Since 2015, Jo’s net monthly benefit dropped by 5%. That does not bode well for the future. Read More

01.19.18- How To Capture a Wild Pig: The Allure of Free Stuff and New Tech
Joe Jarvis

The tale of how to catch a wild pig deserves more detail.

A smart farmer knew that if he went out with his dogs and nets and cattle prods to capture wild pigs that the pigs would run amok. It would take tremendous energy to round them up. They would violently resist. Some would get away. Some would fight back and possibly injure him or his dogs.

And when he finally got them in the pen, his troubles would only be starting. He would have to build the pen to withstand extreme pressure from within. The pigs would try to escape. They may refuse to eat. They would resist any kind of intervention he may attempt, from medical treatment to pen improvements. Read More

01.18.18- The Organized Government Attack On Cryptocurrency - The Revolution Can't Be Stopped
Ryan Christian

Today we saw a major drop in the cryptocurrency market, and simply by looking at the coordinated timing of the different government statements and releases, it becomes clear that this was a concerted effort to bring down the market. Now whether that was to be able to slide in and scoop up all the currency for pennies on the dollar, or just to collapse it all together, is up for you to decide, but I no longer think that is possible. The revolution can no longer be stopped. Stay Vigilant.

(Before checking out the YouTube version below, please consider checking us out on DTube first, as we attempt to being pulling away from YouTube and Google in general) Read More

01.17.19- This fund’s investment performance rivals Bitcoin, puts Warren Buffett to shame.
Simon Black

There’s a really unique investment company in Europe you ought to know about… because they are insanely profitable.

In fact, a few days ago the company announced that they expect to report an annual profit of $55 BILLION for 2017.

That’s more money than Apple makes… which makes this European group THE most profitable company in the world.

Its stock price has more than QUINTUPLED in the past three years, and nearly tripled in the last nine months.

Those are practically cryptocurrency returns. And it crushes the stock performance of Apple, Amazon, etc. Read More

01.16.18- Social Security proposes “immediate and permanent reduction” in benefits
Simon Black

On a deep, dark evening last June in the spectacularly celestial deserts of northern Chile, scientists made a phenomenal discovery.

It was a supernova… one that they named ASASSN-15lh.

This wasn’t just any supernova. It was the BIGGEST and BRIGHTEST supernova ever recorded.

Supernovas are exploding stars whose ejected mass and energy can create a light show so brilliant that they can sometimes be seen with the naked eye in our own night sky.

At its most luminous, ASASSN-15lh was over 500 BILLION times brighter than our own sun, and FAR greater than the previous record holder.

This is so bright that, according to one of the lead researchers, if it had been located within our own galaxy there would have been no darkness on earth for weeks. Read More

01.15.18- Has This Country Gone Completely Mad?
Old Woolfy

It appears that every non-conservative individual or group in this Country has lost their freaking minds!! I have never seen such utter chaos than what we are seeing today!! And an awful lot of it is downright ugly, immoral and vulgar both in words and actions, and in many cases unlawful.

Pick a subject. Any one you want. Write about it. And no matter what it is…you’ll soon see a firestorm of responses filled with hate, bigotry, foul language, bitterness, race-baiting, name calling and even threats on your life. Is this what the most advanced society and freedom-loving Country in the world has come to? 

I am appalled. A celebrity woman (or maybe man in her mind) responded to somebody on Social Media. telling the Male recipient to “Suck “her” dick”????? Really? Another celebrity held up a cut-off bleeding head resembling our President and thought it was funny/okay to do this? And then she blames Trump for the fallout from HER actions? Read More

01.13.18- Productivity:
A Question of Focus, Health, Politics & Money
Axel Merk

Last week, I asked, “What would make 2018 more productive for you? Please email me the first thing that comes to your mind.” Before I summarize the responses, a big thank you to the 800+ people who sent me personalized responses. Someone pointed out that asking the question itself already helped because it motivated her to review her plans and targets. 

My question had been intentionally open, and as such, I received feedback on productivity ideas pertaining to both personal and professional life. In some ways, answers were all over the place, including numerous answers that I had no idea were somehow related to productivity. That said, as themes emerged, at times, I could sense some respondents have their productivity initiatives under control with others strugganling. I’ll touch on the main themes below.

First off, to the classic definition of productivity. A lot of respondents mentioned they wanted more time:

My first thought was more time – but then I quickly realized that is the wrong answer - as it is not possible - and productivity is “return on time” not time itself Read More

01.11.18- My Two Big Bets on the Pension Crisis
Nick Giambruno

Public pensions are a financial time bomb… and I see two ways to profit from the explosion.

In the US, unfunded public pension liabilities have surpassed $5 trillion. And that’s during an epic stock and bond market bubble.

Predictably, the government’s go-to “solution” is already making matters worse.

At first, distressed states simply increase taxes.

The state comptroller of Illinois—the most financially troubled state thanks to its pension crisis—summed it up well. He said: “We can’t go bankrupt and we can’t print money. Taxpayers are going to have to pay this bill.”

State governments always squeeze property owners the hardest.

In 2016, Americans paid over $300 billion in property taxes. In Illinois and other states, property tax bills exceeding $10,000 per year are not uncommon. Read More

01.10.18- Why does money inflate?
24hGold

People who live in developed nations have grown used to inflation of around 2% a year over the last few decades. Why do prices generally rise by that amount? What drives the purchasing power of money in these countries? Why can’t prices stay constant year-over-year rather than increasing?

To help answer some of these questions, let's go far back in time. We'll divide the last one thousand or so years into three monetary eras: the silver coin period, metal-backed notes, and fiat money. How would the nature of inflation have changed as you passed from one era into the next?

The medieval coin era

Silver coins were the chief medium of exchange in the first five or six centuries of the last millennium. Even though coins were composed of scarce metal, inflation was a fairly common occurrence in medieval times. Coins were not perfectly durable. They suffered from wear and tear, both from sweaty hands and as they came into contact with other coins while in a pocket or purse. Since the value of a medieval coin was ultimately determined by the amount of silver in it, the purchasing power of the coinage would naturally decline each year as it shed silver. So rising prices, or inflation, was inherent to medieval coin systems. Read More

01.09.18- Signs of Impending Economic Recession Pile Up
Early in 2018
Peter Reagan

Signs of a coming recession are becoming clearer every day. And when one of the world’s biggest brokerage firms cuts its high-yield bonds to zero, it’s imperative to pay attention.

After all, these were the actions of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, a financial institution responsible for managing two trillion dollars.

The company’s CIO, Mike Wilson, revealed the company’s reasons for doing so in a note he distributed on Wednesday, explaining:

“We recently took our remaining high yield positions to zero as we prepare for deterioration in lower-quality earnings in the U.S. led by lower operating margins.” Read More

01.08.18- ALERT: Climate Engineering out of control -
Go long defense
Elite E Services

If you live in USA you may have noticed recently the weather is really weird.  As this is not being widely reported in the ALT media, we felt an obligation to start a conversation.  So let's lead into this with a bombastic statement - Raytheon (RTN) controls the weather.  How is this possible you say?  Let's start with a background on GeoEngineering / Climate Modifcation whatever you call it.  There's basically one site, well documented, that has a list of information and documents including but not limited to laws passed by the US Senate, Patents filed on climate modification technology, and related issues, start with the documents section here.

This recent ZH article outlines the latest info bits from the winter freeze.

So why do 'they' do this you ask?  There are several clear answers to this.  Like anything, follow the money.  America, Inc. has commercialized everything from child care to even the weather. Read More

01.06.18- How quickly will the dollar collapse?
Alasdair Macleod

This might seem a frivolous question, while the dollar still retains its might, and is universally accepted in preference to other, less stable fiat currencies. However, it is becoming clear, at least to independent monetary observers, that in 2018 the dollar’s primacy will be challenged by the yuan as the pricing medium for energy and other key industrial commodities. After all, the dollar’s role as the legacy trade medium is no longer appropriate, given that China’s trade is now driving the global economy, not America’s.

At the very least, if the dollar’s future role diminishes, then there will be surplus dollars, which unless they are withdrawn from circulation entirely, will result in a lower dollar on the foreign exchanges. While it is possible for the Fed to contract the quantity of base money (indeed this is the implication of its desire to reduce its balance sheet anyway), it would also have to discourage and even reverse the expansion of bank credit, which would be judged by central bankers to be economic suicide. For that to occur, the US Government itself would also have to move firmly and rapidly towards eliminating its budget deficit. But that is being deliberately increased by the Trump administration instead. Read More

01.05.18- Why You Should Embrace the Twilight
of the Debt Bubble Age
MN Gordon

People are hard to please these days.  Clients, customers, and cohorts – the whole lot.  They’re quick to point out your faults and flaws, even if they’re guilty of the same derelictions.

The recently retired always seem to have the biggest axe to grind.  Take Jack Lew, for instance.  He started off the New Year by sharpening his axe on the grinding wheel of the GOP tax bill.  On Tuesday, he told Bloomberg Radio that the new tax bill will explode the debt and leave people sick and starving.

“It’s a ticking time bomb in terms of the debt.

“The next shoe to drop is going to be an attack on the most vulnerable in our society.  How are we going to pay for the deficit caused by the tax cut?  We are going to see proposals to cut health insurance for poor people, to take basic food support away from poor people, to attack Medicare and Social Security.  One could not have made up a more cynical strategy.” Read More

01.04.18- Victim Blame: Let the People Go Their Separate Ways
Joe Jarvis

The United States was founded on secession. It didn’t have to be violent, but it was. Whose fault was that? Was it the United States’ fault for insisting on more local governance? Or was it England’s fault for ignoring the consent of the governed?

In 1991, when Ukraine and Belarus declared their independence from the USSR, things did not end violently. They were allowed to exit the union peacefully. The Soviet Union dissolved without further violence.

Of course, there was plenty of past violence the Soviet Union had used since 1922 to keep Ukraine under their control. This included the orchestrated famines in the 1930’s which killed around 4 million Ukrainians.

But why is it so clear that places like Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and many other countries were justified in declaring their independence from the USSR? Read More

01.03.18- Simple wisdom from one of the most famous people
to go broke
Simon Black

In the late 1800s towards the end of his life, Mark Twain wrote one of his greatest observations of humanity:

“When you remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”

Twain’s quote was primarily a commentary on himself.

A lot of people don’t know this, but Mark Twain went bankrupt late in life.

His enormous fame as an author had brought him substantial wealth. But Twain squandered it all on countless business and investment blunders.

Twain’s publishing company, for example, racked up record sales of its 11 volume “Library of American Literature”.

The problem, however, was that the books cost him $25 to produce… but he only collected $3 up front from customers.

The more volumes he sold, the more money his company lost. Read More

01.02.18- Happy New Year, America! Are you really ready for 2018? Here’s a list of 20+ things that could erupt without warning…
Mike Adams

Happy New Year, America! Somehow, we all survived 2017 and we’re still breathing. America hasn’t been shattered yet, North Korea hasn’t yet nuked us and Baltimore still has at least a few citizens who aren’t heroin addicts. The dollar hasn’t collapsed and neither has the stock market. Heck, even Bitcoin is still over $12,000 right now… at least for the moment.

So drink up and party down while you still can. You’ll want to sober up quickly so that you can face 2018 with a degree of seriousness, because a lot of the craziness that didn’t quite bubble to the surface is 2017 is now primed for a 2018 eruption.

Every conflict gets worse in 2018

2018 is looking like it will be a year of incredible global conflict. I’ve already posted a list of my top ten predictions for 2018, so I won’t repeat them all here, but the convergence of disturbing events in 2018 is shaping up to be nothing less than epic. Here’s a list of just some of the global conflicts that are accelerating toward uncontrolled eruptions in 2018: Read More

01.01.18- Part 3 Sleaze, Various Other Truth Bombs
Bill Holter

We scratched the surface on Government, finance, politics and the rule of law so far.  Today, let’s take a look at sleaze and fraud.  The sleaze part is not just “sensational”.  It is important because in many cases it crosses any decent person’s red line and should piss anyone off who reads it or discovers it.

The first part is certainly not all inclusive but is wide ranging.  That said, 2018 looks to be shaping up as barn burner for the arrests of child molesters and human traffickers.  Not only are there over 10,000 sealed indictments, President Trump shocked the world by signing this executive order. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-persons-involved-serious-human-rights-abuse-corruption/   I do have concern over this as I believe it steps over the line of considering someone guilty before being proven innocent.  Seizing assets prevents one from defending themselves, but if this is necessary to stop what is going on in the world of pedophilia, so be it. Read More

12.30.17- Freedom: Achieved By The Positive Or Negative? 
Tim Bryant

What is freedom? That seems like a simple, straightforward question, but I don’t think I would be sitting here writing this article if that were the case. What one person considers freedom, another might perceive as tyranny. For example, one man might see the police state as freedom in the form of security, while another person might consider the police state a form of tyranny on individual liberty. Getting to the root of what freedom is requires delving into some of the most fundamental philosophical questions, where answers tend to lie in the grey area, as opposed to the black and white.

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that is designed purely around the concept of freedom. In libertarianism, there is a great divide amongst ideological thought all stemming from a fundamental disagreement in the definition of freedom. On one end, there is the belief that freedom is the absence of external forces having any control over you. This type of freedom can be thought of as the freedom “from” approach, and is often referred to as negative liberty. On the other end, is the belief that freedom is the absence of internal limits due to having the power and resources to fulfill ones potential. This type of freedom can be thought of as the “capacity to” approach, and is often referred to as positive liberty. Read More

12.29.17- “Insidious White Spaces”: Liberal Professors Claim That Farmers Markets Are Now Racist
Alex Thomas

Two liberal professors from San Diego State University are now claiming that the existence of farmers markets in urban areas, outside the control of corporations, is racist and normalizes the eating habits of white people.

Pascale Joassart-Marcelli and Fernando J Bosco made the insane claims in a chapter of a new anthology released this month that “researches” the correlation between how white a specific farmers market supposedly is and the gentrification in said area.

As Campus Reform notes, “The anthology, which features contributions from a variety of professors, aims to highlight the harms of “environmental gentrification,” a process in which “environmental improvements lead to…the displacement of long-term residents.” Read More

12.28.17- Change is Upon Us, it is Time for the People to Act
Ryan Christian

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

A time comes when all must open their eyes to an unsavory truth. Americans find themselves questioning whether the decisions being made are in the best interest of the people, or in the interest of secrecy, power and money. There are still those in the government who believe in the constitution; what seems to have become no more than a historical relic to far too many. There are a few courageous and honor bound individuals who have the strength of heart to stand up for what they believe to be right even in the face of insurmountable opposition.

These moral bound individuals of substance, who may be this country’s last hope at reviving what America once stood for, at least in the hearts of those with which the ideals truly resonate, are too few and far between. There is just no career in being outside the club house. One must play the game to move up a square or two in the monopoly board that is the current political system. In a structure where it is not only smart but beneficial to follow the pack, why would any self-respecting businessperson fight for what they believed to be right? The word “businessperson” is used and not politician because this is the mask they choose to don. When personal gain outweighs the needs of one’s constituents, one is no longer a politician but a dishonest and immoral entrepreneur making money on the slow decline of the rights of the country’s citizens. Read More

12.27.17- The Logic, Wisdom and Scientific Evidence for the Homeopathic Treatment of Influenza
Dana Ullman, MPH, CCH

This is the time of year that Big Media seeks to appease its biggest advertisers, Big Pharma, by helping to spread fear and panic about this year’s “flu epidemic.” They commonly quote sensationalized statistics, suggesting that you will die or become very ill unless you vaccinate. However, conveniently enough, even the Lung Association admits that the vast majority of these deaths associated with the flu are not from this illness at all but from pneumonia.1

This merging of statistics is rare in medicine or science, except when the economics of Big Pharma (or another big industry) are involved, as their bible seemingly becomes “Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics” (in other words, how to use statistics to create fear and sell drugs). The fact that last year’s flu vaccine was a dismal 42 percent effective2 is completely ignored by the media, though the 2014-15 flu vaccine was only 23 percent effective (and not surprisingly, virtually no major media reported on this fact). Read More

12.26.17- GERALD CELENTE – Get Prepped for Global Systemic Collapse New 2018
Amy S.

Global Systemic Risk

There is no better indicator of increasing globalization.The interdependence of massive global interactions and structures has caused systemic risk to increase exponentially in recent times. Tangible risks—in systems as diverse as energy exploration and production, electricity transmission, computer networks, healthcare, food and water supplies, transportation networks, commerce, and finance—now threaten global political, economic, and financial systems that affect citizens of every nation. As a result, the study of risk has the potential to become an important and influential academic and policy field.

Global Systemic Risk will focus on the robustness and fragility of global human-made organizational systems and is concerned with risks that have short- to medium-term likelihood and consequences. Read More

12.25.17- America The Beautiful!
Dennis Miller

I’m grinning like a Jack in the box clown today. I haven’t felt this good in a long time. I’ll be doggone if I will let anything change my mood. When you are done reading, I’m hoping you feel the same way.

In 2016, I was bummed out. The negative political crap from the election left much of the country exhausted and frustrated. I was ready to turn the corner from the daily hysteria and melodrama in the media.

In 2017 things just got worse, by December I was exhausted, mentally worn out!

Television today is a constant barrage of hateful political rhetoric, senseless murders, sexual harassment, scandals, hypocrisy, corruption, illegal immigration, violent protests, disrespecting our flag, and outrageous statements by politicians promoting class warfare. How many times have you heard someone ask, “What the heck happened to the country we grew up in?” “What has America become?” Read More

12.23.17- Political Pizza
Jeff Thomas

Over the years, I’ve often been asked to explain the political party system in a simple, easy-to-grasp way. Several years ago, I came up with the following explanation and, for some people, it’s helped to remove the complexity and smoke and mirrors created by the political world. Let’s see if you agree.

Picture this: You live in a relatively small town. It’s a good place to live, with most townspeople being mutually supportive and often quite helpful. There are just a few local restaurants, each owned and operated by your fellow townsmen. You go out to eat often, to support your community.

Then, one day, in an old, brick commercial building in the centre of town, with two vacant storefronts, you see signs announcing the opening of a new pizza shop in one of the vacant spaces. It will be called, “Blue Pizza.” Read More

12.22.17- A Review Of The Most Disturbing Events Of 2017
Brandon Smith

With events like the British vote to leave the EU, the peak of the mass Muslim immigration into Europe, the "surprise" (for some people) upset win of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election and the subsequent leftist riots, it may be difficult to top the absolute geopolitical and social mayhem of 2016. However, when examining recent history and ongoing trends, it's important to understand that these shifts are often cumulative; they tend to build upon each other like sheets of ice on a mountainside, storing up energy for a great avalanche.

We witnessed what I would consider a moderate build up and "avalanche" in the economic world in 2008, and of course this merely set the stage for an evolving form of fiscal collapse for the ten years that followed. This time around though, that ongoing collapse will surface in the form of currency crisis and treasury bond crisis, as well as all the international tensions and conflicts that come with these financial atom bombs. If I was to define the year of 2017 and its place in the grand scheme, I would say it represents the moment that the path became obvious for the next decade, at least for those that have been paying attention. Read More

12.21.17- More Tail Winds for Cryptos
James Altucher

“I’m serious when I say that bitcoin could go to $1 million by the end of 2020…”. It’s all tail winds from here, and it’s only getting started…

More Tail Winds for Cryptos

As of late, I’ve had a lot to say about cryptocurrencies. I announced on CNBC, for example, that I predicted bitcoin could easily reach $1 million by the end of 2020.

I compare the current crypto boom to the dot com boom of the late ‘90s. Most of the dot coms went bust and you never heard from them again. But some of the survivors went on to great things.

Think of Amazon.

Amazon was trading for $10 in early 2001. Now it’s trading for almost $1,200.

If you miss out on the crypto boom, I’m convinced you could be denying yourself the only chance you’ll ever have to turn $100 into an absolute fortune. Read More

12.20.17- Aristotle said there are three types of friendship, but only one we should strive for
Zat Rana

The best kind of relationship is based on a mutual appreciation of the virtues that the other party holds dear.

At age 17, Aristotle enrolled in the Platonic Academy. He would stay there for 20 years.

Founded by the father of Western philosophy, the Greek philosopher Plato, Aristotle was the most promising student around. He asked many questions and answered even more.

The exact time of his departure from the Academy is disputed, but it’s said that he left soon after Plato died due to his dislike of the direction that it subsequently took. In the years following, he would even go on to argue against many of his late teacher’s core ideas. Read More

12.19.17- Zach’s #1 Favorite Year-End Tax Tip! - Plus, 5 Must Knows For The Week Before Christmas
Zach Scheidt

Whew! That was a close one!

I was expecting to write to you today with some bad news about the new tax bill. One version of the bill that I saw placed restrictions on how you could sell your shares of stock. The restriction would have hurt smart retirees who invested wisely by charging higher taxes on investment gains.

But as it turns out, the new tax bill leaves a special loophole open for investors. Today, I want to make sure that you’re aware of this loophole so you can make your investment gains stretch as far as possible.

Let’s take a look at this perfectly legal tax loophole…

Dodge the Tax Man When Selling Your Shares Read More

12.18.17- BREAKING: Your Internet is About to Drastically Change
Sean McCloskey

Years ago I had one of the first renditions of satellite internet at my home in Baltimore.

It was simply amazing.

Download and upload speeds were exponentially faster than any cable or fiber internet available. At a fraction of what we were paying previously to one of the “Big Cable” companies too.

We were in internet service provider heaven.

The company, Believe Wireless, has since moved on to solely commercial services. It turned out that “Big Cable’s” grip on residential service in my area was too strong at the time to overcome.

But I had the proof that change was coming. Read More

12.16.17- What If Trump Really Is Draining The Swamp?
Indentured Servant

What would it look like? Would you recognize it if you saw it? What would you say if I said that Draining The Swamp has already begun? What if I told you World War III has already begun? 

Is it possible that you might not even recognize it?

I can’t definitively say what is going on. Hell, most of you know I have not been a Trump supporter. I’m of the opinion that ALL of our (s)elected leaders are vile, villainous scum that cannot be trusted and who would blame me based on the last nine years and even the last fifty years or more?

I want to give a Hat Tip to T4C for turning me on to all of this. I am of course referring to the now infamous Q or Q clearance or Q Anon. (google Q clearance & Q group) Read More

12.15.17- As Bitcoin Surges To New Record Highs, 5 Lessons For Every Crypto Investor
Tyler Durden

Once again the stories of the death of Bitcoin appear to greatly exaggerated.

Overnight Asian demand sent the cyrptocurrency to a new record high at $17,934 (Bitstamp).

Whatever you think of bitcoin and crypto currencies, there is plenty to learn from their ascent, even if it is still a small part of the global financial system. Forget the noise of “Biggest bubble ever” – the market cap of the NASDAQ was $3.7 trillion in 1999 and fell 70% (a total of $2.6 trillion) by 2002. That puts the total of $500 billion in all crypto currencies outstanding into the correct context.

Still, even if you are in the “Bitcoin Bubble” camp, don’t let that blind you to the lessons of what has happened in the past few years. It is tempting – but wrong – to simply dismiss a 5-digit bitcoin price as the illogical mania of crowds. Read More

12.14.17- What are Rights? Do Rights Even Exist?
Joe Jarvis

What is a right? Do rights exist? They are intangible, yet philosophical constructs can be real.

A right defines a state of being; it describes a condition. “Right of way,” is how we describe who has first use of a road. People can certainly ignore the concept of a right of way. But that doesn’t void the concept. Right of way still serves as a tool to establish who is liable should a car accident occur.

In the same way, a right serves as a natural basis for who is wrong in a given dispute. It establishes who should be held accountable in a legal setting. And “legal” does not just refer to our current court system. Common law is a natural law system which solves disputes.

Saying someone has a “right” is a statement about an individual’s condition in nature. That is why rights are expressed in the negative. It is not something that must be provided or given (positive action). A right is a declaration of the natural state of a human. A right is the concept that another human should not disrupt (negative action) this natural state.

Therefore, there is only one natural right, from which all other rights stem: self-ownership. Read More

12.13.17- U.S. Government Criminal Enterprise –
Catherine Austin Fitts
Greg Hunter

Financial expert and investment advisor Catherine Austin Fitts says the U.S. Government runs on massive criminal activity. Fitts explains, “The U.S. economy is deeply dependent on criminal cash flows.  We’re the global leader in money laundering.  If we stopped doing that, the economy would be in for a major, major change. . . . The preference for most Americans is to keep that system going as long as it works for them.  So, it you are a public official, you are between a rock and a hard place.  If you press the red button and stop the illegal cash flows, then all hell breaks loose. . . . The U.S. Government has been run as a criminal enterprise, and I have documented and proved that on multiple occasions.   The swamp that exists in Washington is from sea to shining sea.  It’s not just in Washington.  It’s in every county and every state house in the country.  If we are going to change and clean ourselves of enormous financial dependencies on criminal activities, we are talking about a very big change, and it’s not just in Washington.” Read More

12.12.17- The Magic Trick
Jeff Thomas

In 1791, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the US, Alexander Hamilton, convinced then-new president George Washington to create a central bank for the country. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson opposed the idea, as he felt that it would lead to speculation, financial manipulation, and corruption. He was correct, and in 1811, its charter was not renewed by Congress.

Then, the US got itself into economic trouble over the War of 1812 and needed money. In 1816, a Second Bank of the United States was created. Andrew Jackson took the same view as Mister Jefferson before him and, in 1836, succeeded in getting the bank dissolved.

Then, in 1913, the leading bankers of the US succeeded in pushing through a third central bank, the Federal Reserve. At that time, critics echoed the sentiments of Messrs. Jefferson and Jackson, but their warnings were not heeded. For over 100 years, the US has been saddled by a central bank, which has been manifestly guilty of speculation, financial manipulation, and corruption, just as predicted by Mister Jefferson. Read More

12.11.17- How Amazon and Google Smart Speaker Competition Reveals The Future of Government
Joe Jarvis

I wouldn’t invite the Amazon Echo or the Google Home into my home.

These smart speakers listen to everything that happens around them. Ostensibly this is to make shopping, playing music, and finding information easy. But the internet of things presents way too many risks to our privacy.

Internet-connected technologies are already used to incriminate their owners in court. And that is the main thing which scares me. Self-driving cars, smart watches, and smart homes controlled entirely from your phone sound really cool and convenient. But I don’t want the government to have that kind of knowledge about me. I might feel differently if I knew the info wasn’t going anywhere beyond Google or Amazon headquarters.

An Industry in Need of a Shake-Up

Government is an industry. Much like other industries, it can be upset by upstart competitors. But governments have monopoly status in given territories for their services. They don’t allow competition, and they enforce this ban on competitors by using their monopoly on “legitimate” force. Read More

12.09.17- Stranger Things
James Howard Kunstler

The hidden agenda in the so-called tax reform bill is to act as stop-gap quantitative easing to plug the “liquidity” hole that is opening up as the Federal Reserve (America’s central bank) makes a few gestures to winding down its balance sheet and “normalizing” interest rates. Thus, the aim of the tax bill is to prop up capital markets, and the apprehension of this lately is what keeps stocks making daily record highs. Okay, sorry, a lot to unpack there.

Primer: quantitative easing (QE) is a the Federal Reserve’s weasel phrase for its practice of just creating “money” out of thin air, which it uses to buy US Treasury bonds (and other stuff). The Fed buys this stuff through intermediary Too Big To Fail banks which allows them to cream off a cut and, theoretically, pump the “money” into the economy. This “money” is the “liquidity.” As it happens, most of that money ends up in the capital markets. Stocks go up and up and bond yields stay ultra low with bond prices ultra high. What remains on the balance sheets are a shit-load of IOUs.

The third round of QE was officially halted in 2014 in the USA. However, the world’s other main central banks acted in rotation — passing the baton of QE, like in a relay race — so that when the US slacked off, Japan, Britain, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of China, took over money-printing duties. And because money flies easily around the world via digital banking, a lot of that foreign money ended up in “sure-thing” US capital markets (as well as their own ). Mega-tons of “money” were created out of thin air around the world since the near-collapse of the system in 2008. Read More

12.08.17- The Inevitable Gravitational Dynamism of Entropy
Doug “Uncola” Lynn

Bronze Sculpture, “The Myth of Sisyphus” by Emile Gregoire (1871-1948)

Entropy is the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder.—James R. Newman (1907–1966), Mathematician and Math Historian 

Everything degrades over time without exception. Of course there are diverging regenerations within time’s decay but all is fleeting and cannot last. Just as the laws of thermodynamics universally define, a system will exist in a particular state and may cycle through varying states, but in the end, it will return to the equilibrium, or stasis, of inert uniformity. Life is a like a rotating heat engine of sorts, catapulting energy over the cold fabric of space-time as the lexicon of Physics continuously hold singular meaning in our daily existence: laws, work, heat, constant pressure, and cycles. Yet, sadly, total efficiency is achieved in theory only; this is because entropy precludes perfection within the confines of time. Read More

12.07.17- Why The Globalists Need A War, And Soon
Brandon Smith

It is difficult to gauge and understand geopolitical and economic events without first comprehending the fact that much of what happens in the world is engineered to happen and with a specific encompassing goal in mind. If you subscribe to the theory that all is random "chaos" and outcomes are circumstantial or coincidental, then you will be lost in the dark on most things. If you think a globalist "conspiracy" would require "too much control" or foresight, I would point out that organized conspiracy by people in power is a matter of history, not of theory. If such cabals were prevalent in the past, it is rather foolish to dismiss the reality that they are prevalent today.

In my articles "The Economic End Game Explained" and "The Economic End Game Continues," I outline considerable evidence supporting the following conclusion: International financiers and political puppets in Western AND Eastern countries share a deep rooted ideology called "globalism" or the "new world order." This ideology demands total centralization of economy and government resulting in a single global fiscal authority, a single global monetary system and a one world ruling structure. Obviously, such a pursuit would take extensive time and planning. It is a long term project, with moments of accelerated change. Read More

12.06.17- New York City Processed a Fake Property Deed.
THIS Innovative Country Won’t Have that Problem.
Joe Jarvis

Imagine having the power to declare something legitimate with the stroke of a pen, the press of a stamp, or the enter button on your keyboard.

The government has that power. But it is part of the magical myth of government legitimacy. That is the main service government provides: legitimacy.

It can make stealing legitimate. It can make kidnapping legitimate. It can make assassinations, genocides, and wars legitimate.

And the government can also make housing deeds legitimate. They do the official processing to make sure that everything is in order. In their sacred temple of city hall, they bless the official papers with holy stamps, and all is right.

Except when it’s not. Read More

12.05.17- The Individual vs. the Staged Collective 
Jon Rappoport

“The individual sees how a machine is put together. He sees the pieces and the systems. Because he is creative, he doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t automatically believe in the machine and accept it as the final THING. He can invent a better machine—or no machine at all. Something else. He has the latent power to go outside the machine and invent in a different way. He can CREATE HIS OWN WORLD. It isn’t a bubble that separates him from the commonly shared world. It is inserted into the common world. It is built on different ideas. He is alive, his creative force is alive, and so what he builds will be alive, too. This is a kind of natural magic. A magic that is inherent in him. It surpasses the ordinary strictures of society.

Am I talking about imagination? Absolutely. This is where it starts. This is where the new path originates. This is the dream and the vision. In my collection, Exit From The Matrix, I include a large set of imagination exercises that are designed to liberate that far-reaching quality of the individual. Does the quality have a limit? No. It isn’t a machine or a robot or a computer. It isn’t programmed. And that’s the whole point. The limitless nature of imagination wakes up the individual. He wakes up to infinity.” (Notes on Exit From The Matrix, Jon Rappoport)  Read More

12.04.17- JPMorgan Has Some Bad News For Bitcoin Bears
Tyler Durden

Just over two months ago, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he considered bitcoin to be a "fraud" that "will not end well," and would fire any JPM trader trading it. The very next day, one of JPM's most respected analysts, quant wizard Marko Kolanovic wrote a lengthy report to substantiate his boss' anger and skepticism, concluding that cryptocurrencies are most likely pyramid schemes and "that the future for cryptocurrencies will likely not be bright." 

Predictably, since then the price of bitcoin has tripled, ensuring that virtually all retail (and most institutional) investors are far more interested in trading highly volatile bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptos than stocks, and JPM has been dragged - kicking and screaming - into reversing its position on cryptos, and at the end of November the WSJ reported that the bank was willing to help clients trade bitcoin (for a hefty fee) even as the bank's CEO explicitly called the digital currency a fraud, effectively violating its fiduciary obligation.

And now, with just two weeks until December 18 when bitcoin futures will start trading on the CME and CBOE, JPM's reversal has gone so far as prompting one of the bank's top strategists, "Flows & Liquidity" author Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou to predict that the "introduction of bitcoin futures has the potential to elevate cryptocurrencies to an emerging asset class." Which sounds quite different from "Bitcoin is a fraud."  Read More

12.02.17- The Greatest Bubble of All Time Will Get Bigger:
Prepare Yourself and Your Money for the Coming Currency Wars
Marin Katusa

The next world war will not be fought by tanks, remote-controlled drones or even standing armies.

The war has started. It is erupting on graphic cards and mobile networks around the globe. A single negative tweet will create a firestorm of attention from both sides.

We are about to enter the melt-up phase of the global war on currencies.

For years, people speculated that China and Russia take on the U.S. dollar.

The Currency War is not one country’s central banker against another in a race for interest rate bottoms or tops. This is going to be a long, drawn-out battle of the citizens of the world using digital and modern means of exchanges (cryptocurrencies) against governments equipped with hard and fiat currencies.

Who will win? That depends on who you ask.  Read More