09.20.18- The Donald in Wonderland
Once upon a time, there was a little-known energy company called Enron. In its 16-year life, it went from being dubbed America’s most innovative company by Fortune Magazine to being the poster child of American corporate deceit. Using a classic recipe for book-cooking, Enron ended up in bankruptcy with jail time for those involved. Its shareholders lost $74 billionin the four years leading up to its bankruptcy in 2001. A decade ago, the flameout of my former employer, Lehman Brothers, the global financial firm, proved far more devastating, contributing as it did to a series of events that ignited a global financial meltdown. Americans lost an estimated $12.8 trillion in the havoc. Despite the differing scales of those disasters, there was a common thread: both companies used financial tricks to make themselves appear so much healthier than they actually were. They both faked the numbers, thanks to off-the-books or offshore mechanisms and eluded investigations... until they collapsed. Read More |
09.19.18- Leave Home
The simple (and tragic) answer to this question is that there is no such solution. The two objectives are mutually exclusive. Throughout the ages, whenever an empire has begun its inevitable collapse, no country has ever woken up and reversed the process. In every case, the government rides the decline to the bottom. And, along the way, a series of policies is invariably undertaken to save those in government in the downward rush. These policies are always at the expense of the populace. Invariably, as the decline worsens, governments drag out the same policies that all other failing empires have implemented before them: Devaluation of currency, default on debt, increased warfare, creation of a police state and, finally, the looting of all those citizens who have even a modicum of wealth. The question is not whether we like our home country as it presently is, but whether we’re prepared to accept what it’s about to become. Read More |
09.18.18- “Lehman - Ten Years Later”
2008 had already had more than its share of financial turmoil. In the months leading up to 9/15/2008, Bear Stearns, Fannie/Freddie, and AIG had already had major blowouts. The stock markets were very itchy and everyone was on edge. Most who worked in the industry knew it was just a matter of time until something much more systemic took place. Up until this time, the contagion had been mostly limited to the US, with some minor external collateral damage. We were both heavily involved in the financial/economic landscape at this time. Andy was running his investment advisory and economic consultancy firm and Graham was a strategy analyst for a major G7 central bank. We had already both come to independent conclusions that this was going to be a long emergency as coined by James Kunstler. This was not going to be a 3 or 6-month event and then it would be roses and cherries and cream for the whole world. Read More |
09.17.18- What Keeps Them Up at Night
The tenth anniversary of the Wall Street created financial catastrophe brought back some bittersweet memories this week. I wrote my first articles during the summer/fall of 2008 for Seeking Alpha. They included: Is The U.S Banking System Safe? (Aug 2008), The Great Consumer Crash of 2009 (Aug 2008), Looming Financial Catastrophe: A Real Inconvenient Truth (Aug 2008), Is Wachovia the Worst Run Bank in America (Sept 2008), The U.S. on the Precipice (Sept 2008), On Board the U.S.S. Titanic (Sept 2008), Our Coming Depression (Oct 2008), among others. I was pumping out 5,000 word articles every 2 or 3 days. Read More |
09.15.18- California’s War on the U.S. Dollar
Californians have historically been on the cutting edge of social and political change. Whether it was protesting the Vietnam War or advocating for free speech or civil rights, California has always been among the first states to get involved. And it’s on the front lines once again. Its opponent: the federal government. The latest battle is over fuel efficiency rules for cars. The Trump administration wants to strip California of its right to set its own air quality rules. California isn’t backing down, though. It says the proposal “is contrary to the facts and the law.” And it’s looking to change its rules to make any federal changes null and void. California attorney general Xavier Becerra said, “We’re going to do everything we must do to continue to move forward rather than backslide.” In fact, California has already threatened to sue the federal government. There’s a lot at stake. Read More |
09.14.18- America’s False History
Griffin’s book is a humdinger and will certainly upset brainwashed American super-patriots, but it throughly documents how Washington’s aggression toward other lands is covered up by politicians, media, and court historians with moral verbiage. In my view the hubris, arrogance, and ignorance of “American exceptionism” has the world locked on a trajectory to its extinction in nuclear Armageddon. Curtin points out that Griffin makes an extraordinary mistake, unusual for a scholar as careful as Griffin, in his assessment of President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy was the president who tried to move America’s trajectory off of its demonic path and was murdered by his own government for his attempt. But as I have said, none of us knows everything. We often have to rely on others, and others, also, make mistakes. Read More |
09.13.18- Pandemic scare brewing as cabal faces doom
The pandemic scare comes as the execution of U.S. Senator John McCain sent shock waves through Khazarian mafia ranks, who are now activating all their resources in a desperate move to save themselves. Thus, this pandemic scare may be something like a schoolboy calling in a bomb threat to his school in order to avoid an exam he is going to fail. However, it is also possible the U.S. military-industrial establishment may be preparing a pandemic scare as a cover to stop all airline flights worldwide in order to prevent Khazarian mafia from escaping, as over 51,000 sealed indictments begin to be acted upon. Read More |
09.12.18- The World Is Ganging up Against the Dollar
As the U.S. wields the dollar weapon more frequently, the rest of the world works harder to shun the dollar completely. I’ve been warning for years about efforts of nations like Russia and China to escape what they call “dollar hegemony” and create a new financial system that does not depend on the dollar and helps them get out from under dollar-based economic sanctions. These efforts are only increasing. Read More |
09.11.18- How to Purge the Rot From American Finance
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09.10.18- Why Most Investors Fail to Beat “The Market”
But Chris Mayer, Bill’s ace stock picker, doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. As today’s guest editor, he shows readers how to look past the headlines and aim at the bigger picture. You probably keep hearing about how this bull market is now the longest on record. To me, it’s an interesting tidbit, but it doesn’t really mean much. For one thing, we don’t own “the market” – which, in these contexts, usually means the S&P 500 Index. We own individual stocks. As I always like to remind people, the ups and downs of those stocks can be very different from those of “the market.” Read More |
09.08.18- The pension crisis is bigger than the world’s
As you probably know, pensions are giant pools of capital responsible for paying out retirement benefits to workers. And right now many pension funds around the world simply don’t have enough assets to cover the retirement obligations they owe to millions of workers. In the US alone, federal, state, and local governments, pensions are about $7 TRILLION short of the funding they need to pay out all the benefits they’ve promised. (** And that doesn’t include another $49 trillion in unfunded Social Security obligations…) Read More |
09.07.18- The 10 most important lessons in finance
Jim is the editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer – one of the most-respected and followed financial publications in the world. In his 35 years writing Grant’s, Jim has seen a financial cycle or two. And he’s amassed a network of many of the most important people on Wall Street (who often share their insights in his publication). We’re excited to share a special piece from Jim in Notes today about the 10 most important lessons he’s learned in his 35 years in financial markets. It’s a bit long, so we’ll publish the first half today and the rest tomorrow. Read More |
09.06.18- Amazon is Far More Dangerous and Powerful Than You Want to Admit
– From my November 15, 2017 post: Amazon Poses a Serious Threat to Freedom and Free Markets Today’s post should be seen as an update to last year’s article referenced above. In the months that have followed, I’ve been consistently frustrated by the lack of interest when it comes to the dangers presented by Amazon and its richest man in the world ($165 billion as of last count) CEO Jeff Bezos. The following Twitter exchange is a good example of what I mean: Read More |
09.05.18- How People Become Easily Controlled By Tyrants
This is a very complex issue, but I’ll break it down as best as I’m able… The Psychology Of The Tyrant To come to terms with how tyrants control society, we must first examine how the mind of a tyrant operates, because these people do not in most cases think the way average human beings think. It is one of the few cases in which I would encourage people to “otherize” another group. Tyrants are psychologically abnormal to such an extreme that is is difficult to classify them as human. Read More |
09.04.18- The Terrifying Paintings by ArtificiaI Intelligence
And its one hell of a mutilated abortion. Words that spring to mind: monstrous, from hell, distorted, terrifying, soulless… Its like self-portraits of a family of aristocrats if they were each and every one of them a soul-sucking demon. If this is what Artificial Intelligence has to offer in terms of art, if these images are the seeds of that future, count me out. A French art collective, selling these little monsters at Christie’s for beaucoup bucks, fine. But I can’t tell.This collection is called Obvious. Obviously what? Obviously a horror show? Read More |
09.03.18- Progressives: The Real World vs. Neverland
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09.01.18- Forget who takes the mid-terms: Here’s how to personally repeal Obamacare
Back in 2010, Congress and President Obama completely overhauled the US healthcare system with the “Affordable” Care Act (aka Obamacare). Their intention was to provide all US citizens with access to healthcare. But, the result of government interference in markets was – surprise – rising costs and lower quality service. Over the past several years, politicians have paid lip service to abolishing Obamacare. Even with a Republican-controlled House and Senate in 2017 and 2018, Congress couldn’t issue a repeal. And now, US midterms elections are looming. Read More |
08.31.18- Economic Doom Returns: Emerging Market Currencies Collapse To Record Lows As Global Financial Chaos Accelerates
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08.30.18- Making It in the United States:
Only a handful of politicians and media members are talking about issues affecting the day-to-day lives of people. Americans care about things such as obtaining health insurance, earning a decent wage, buying a home, and sending their kids to college. On the surface, it seems like the United States has turned the corner. Unemployment has now fallen to 4.1% which is actually below what economists call the “natural rate of unemployment”. But beyond this number, Americans still face many challenges. The truth is that we are in for a world of hurt if another recession hits us and we could be due for one soon after almost nine years without one. The recent bipartisan deregulation of banks, Donald Trump’s trade war threats, increasing debt loads, and declining savings by households all point to a potential recession soon. Read More |
08.29.19- Evade Market Weakness in the Summer by
In the last issue of Seasonal Insights we have talked to you about biotech and pharmaceutical companies as industries that withstand the traditional summer weakness in stock markets. Six weeks ago, we have shown that gold is an asset one can purchase in the summer months to offset this phenomenon. Warning: don’t let the media mesmerize you in the summer months – the stocks of media companies are a veritable seasonal minefield in August to October. [PT] Naturally, investors also have the option to use traditional patterns in a different way. In this issue we will show you how a distinct seasonal pattern which generates recurring losses represents an opportunity to profit by going short. Let us take a closer look at the media sector, which is traditionally performing very poorly in the month of August. Read More |
08.28.18- How the Socialism of Imperial Rome Ushered in Feudalism
The state had long since owned most quarries, salt deposits, and mines; now it forbade the export of salt, iron, gold, wine, grain, or oil from Italy, and strictly regulated the importation of these articles. It went on to control establishments producing for the army, the bureaucracy, or the court. In munition factories, textile mills, and bakeries the government required a minimum product, bought this at its own price, and made the associations of manufacturers responsible for carrying out orders and specifications. If this procedure proved inadequate, it completely nationalized these factories and manned them with labor bound to the job. Read More |
08.27.18- Most Americans Don’t Understand This Problem…
Though he was wealthy and didn’t need to, he said he liked the work because it reminded him that no matter how rich you are, you’re never too good to get your hands dirty. He also liked gardening because it was a metaphor for how he saw the world. “Building something beautiful takes much toil and patience,” he said. “You cannot rush gardening. You must plant well, understand what you’re doing, and pull all weeds up by their root.” Explaining further he said, “Many people want to quickly identify problems in their life and then cut them down. The problem is that, like a weed, they never dig up the root. So, later the same problem comes up. In life and in money, you must understand the root of your problems.” Several years ago, I read a great article by Barbara Kiviat entitled “The Case Against Home Ownership,” published in TIME magazine. In that article, Ms. Kiviat rightly identifies, in so many words, that the myth of your house being an asset has contributed greatly to our current financial crisis. Read More |
08.25.18- Services Rendered
The diner understands that he’s not obligated to order anything that he doesn’t want to receive, but that, for whatever he does order, he must pay the price on the menu. The subtotal is printed in large type on the charge slip. He may then decide whether or not the service he received was of particular value to him. Diners typically choose to pay somewhere between 10% and 20%, depending on the value they feel they’ve received. But the receipt above differs from the norm. After the “Tip” line, another line exists for “Voluntary Tax.” This is a very special coffee shop. In this shop, the owners and servers pay no involuntary tax and therefore, no tax is passed on to the diner. In this coffee shop, the diner decides what level of tax he feels he should pay his government, in accordance with what he feels his government’s contribution has been to his meal. Read More |
08.24.18- Why Do People Assign Value to Paper Money?
Following the view of Plato and Aristotle, economists regard the acceptance of money as an historical fact introduced by the government decree.1 It is government decree, so it is argued, that makes a particular thing accepted as the general medium of the exchange, i.e., money. In his writings, Carl Menger raised doubts about the soundness of the view that the origin of money is a government proclamation. Read More |
08.23.18- Why You Should Forget School and Let Kids Play
Seriously, it took the American Academy of Pediatrics to let us know that? Better yet, the doctors now recommend that parents even get involved in playing with their children, especially before they turn two.
It is great that they are getting this right, but it really shouldn’t take an Academy of doctors to know this. It should be pretty intuitive. Kids automatically run around, play, and make up games when left alone. So I suppose the only surprising part to some people should be that sometimes, you should leave your kid alone. Read More |
08.22.18- Most People Struggle Financially Because
Yet we hear countless stories about the multi-million dollar athlete who is homeless 10 years later. Or the guy who won the lottery only to soon find himself penniless. It’s not how much money you make. But how much money you keep. I cringe whenever I hear people ask me how to get rich quicker, or where they should start. I often hear, “I need to make more money.” I hate hearing any of that, because more money will often not solve the problem. In fact, it may compound the problem. Money often puts a spotlight on what we don’t know. That is why, all too often, a person who comes into a sudden windfall of cash—an inheritance, a pay raise, or lottery winnings—soon returns to the same financial mess, if not worse, than the mess they were in before. Read More |
08.21.18- How to Protect Your Money from Financial Warfare
I would put Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and a few others at the top of the list. Russia and China at the top of the list but Iran certainly has good cyber-warfare capability. They’re employing what they call Cyber Brigades that spend all their time basically hacking into the critical infrastructure systems I described above. It’s a good bet that all of these systems have already been penetrated. No one can beat the U.S. in a conventional war right now. China, especially, is catching up, but it’s not ready at this time. That’s why they’re focusing on attacking America’s critical infrastructure vulnerabilities. Read More |
08.20.18- The Telltale Signs of Imperial Decline
Check which signs of Imperial decline you see around you: The hubris of an increasingly incestuous and out-of-touch leadership; dismaying extremes of wealth inequality; self-serving, avaricious Elites; rising dependency of the lower classes on free Bread and Circuses provided by a government careening toward insolvency due to stagnating tax revenues and vast over-reach--let's stop there to catch our breath. Check, check, check and check. Sir John Glubb listed a few others in his seminal essay on the end of empiresThe Fate of Empires, what might be called the dynamics of decadence: Read More |
08.18.18- The West Continues to Rot at the Core as it Obsesses Over the Short-term
This is not to say that it does not have a purpose, because undoubtedly it does. This cannot and will not be denied, except by those who identify themselves as having anarchist traits. Yet, it is still a farce. It is corrupt, it is short-sighted and it is riddled with problems. But in our “semi” capitalistic system, it is what we have. And we have to make the best of it. This, however, does not stop us from striving to improve it. In fact, I believe this should be a major goal of Western society as a whole. The stock market, in tandem with the free market, has led to the most powerful economic engine this world has ever seen. Even if it is now riddled with disease, it is and will be for the foreseeable future a juggernaut in the economic landscape. We should constantly strive to weed out corruption within the system and work towards improving the function of the markets as a whole. However, one issue that has once again been pushed to the forefront is the fact that Western markets are incredibly short sighted. Read More |
08.17.18- Turkey: A Glimpse of America’s Future
This week, we began looking at Turkey, but only because Donald Trump sent an extraordinary tweet last Friday. In it, the president broke with tradition and common sense in a remarkable way. He used a crash in the Turkish lira to justify a new attack in the trade war. Instead of soothing words that might have calmed the crisis situation, his tweet made it worse. And instead of coming to the aid of an ally in difficulty, he piled on. We had never previously spent even two minutes thinking about Turkey or its finances. But then, after the president roused our curiosity, we saw what we think was a glimpse of the future. Read More |
08.16.18- A traditional plant native to Thailand effectively manages obesity, according to new study
For the study, researchers from Suranaree University of Technology in Thailand derived the extract of broken bones from the fruit pods of the plant. They looked at the effects of broken bones plant extract on the adipogenic and biomolecular change in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. They used the cell line 3T3-L1 to establish the potential toxic effects of broken bones plantextract during adipogenesis, the differentiation of pre-adipocytes into adipocytes. In addition, the researchers analyzed the inhibitory effect of broken bones plantextract on lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells. They also assessed the chemical components of broken bones plantextract derived from the fruit pods of the plant. Read More |
08.15.18- Generation Z: The Intolerant Ones
Generation Z is racially diverse, increasingly secular, and very much online. Non-Hispanic whites make up just over half of this cohort, compared with 72 percent of Baby Boomers. In religious terms, 13 percent of Generation Z identifies as atheist, compared with only 7 percent of millennials. And according to a 2015 Pew report, 92 percent of teens access the internet daily and 73 percent have access to a smartphone. Born in 1997 or later, Generation Z was too young to form a coherent memory of the September 11th terror attacks. They have no memory of a pre-9/11 world or a time when the U.S. didn’t have a military presence in Afghanistan. Many are too young to remember a time before smartphones. Apple released the iPhone in 2007, and by 2012, more than half of all Americans owned a smartphone. Read More |
08.14.18- The Law As Weapon
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08.13.18- Pater Familias
In the award wining series, Downton Abby, the pater familias of that family, Lord Grantham, loses a great deal of money on a single investment and is horrified that he will be the one to lose the family estate and bring shame to generations that came before him. The oldest family business in the world was Kongo Gumi in Japan. They built and repaired temples since 578 and went bankrupt in 2006 after 1428 years of continuous operation due to excess debt. While I do not know the details of the bankruptcy I would have not have wanted to be the pater familias at the time of that bankruptcy – especially in a society that so greatly values family honor. Read More |
08.11.18- Experts Warn That The “Scariest”
Doug Ramsey, the chief investment officer at Leuthold Group, is one of those that is sounding the alarm. Unlike price to earnings ratios, price to sales ratios are very hard to manipulate, and he has pointed out that price to sales ratios are higher than we have ever witnessed before. Read More |
08.10.18- This Time Is Different — No, Really
The wise man remembers. The fool forgets. The wise man listens. The fool talks. He ignores both the living and the dead… the immemorial dead, whose whispers carry the distilled wisdom of history. No — this time is different, comes the fool’s eternal cry. The past is of no use to me. Rising economic interdependence had rendered war obsolete, argued the foolish author of The Great Illusion in 1909. Read More |
08.09.18- Students Say 'Young Democratic Socialists Of America'
The YDSA National Coordinating Committee has two “Co-Chairs” and four “at -large” members, all of whom are elected annually at the organization’s Summer Convention. The Committee oversees “activities, fundraising, publications, education, general political direction, and coalition work” of YDSA chapters nationwide. Read More |
08.08.18- Even Lefties Get it… Today’s Housing Bubble
We are too some of those 3.5 million views. Of course not many of us also enjoyed that same day’s obvious record high volume, $100 gold market intervention swing. But we digress, to the reflated, now larger housing bubble ongoing. Unlike the previous housing bubble of yore (the 2007 version). These now humbled, left ideologues can also see the writing clear on the wall. Read More |
08.07.18- Welcome to Bad Faith
When this big glob of shit hit the Internet fan, The Times’s HR department cranked out the pathetically lame explanation that Ms. Jeong was merely “mirroring” or “counter-trolling” malicious tweets she had received over the years, “imitating the rhetoric of her harassers.” That left the old newspaper and its readers gratified for a day or too… until a whole new bale of Sarah Jeong tweets was discovered dissing The New York Times and virtually all of its other op-ed writers in the most opprobrious terms. Read More |
08.06.18- Here's Why 3D-Printing Guns Are A Win For World Peace And A Potential Death Blow To Tyranny
For generations, advocates of private gun ownership have been fighting exhaustively through political channels to protect their right to keep and bear arms. Gun owners even have one of the strongest lobby groups in Washington, the highly disappointing NRA. Yet over the years, gun rights continue to diminish in America, despite the constant political campaigns by the NRA and politicians that claim to support gun rights. However, in the past few years, one guy with a good idea has managed to do more to protect gun rights than the NRA has in decades of political involvement. Cody Wilson is the founder of “Defense Distributed” and the “Wikiweapon” project, which allows anyone with a 3D printer to create their own untraceable gun in the privacy of their own home. Read More |
08.04.18- Here’s What the “Doom Index” Is Telling Us Now…
The index is monitored by the able Joe Withrow. As Joe will show you below, after reaching our “extreme warning” level earlier this year, the Doom Index has cooled off. But that’s only half of the story. Read on… Today, we check in on our Doom Index reading for the second quarter of 2018. Regular Diary readers will remember that the Doom Index is made up of 11 key indicators. These indicators track the health of both the Main Street and Wall Street economies. [For a full review of the Doom Index, go here.] After reviewing all the data from Q2, here are the results… The Good News For the second quarter of this year – from the start of April through the end of June – the Doom Index level is at 6. That’s down from 7, where the Doom Index ranked for Q1. Read More |
08.03.18- Conservatives Banned From Social Media? Here's What They Can Do About It
However, in the wake of the social justice cult frenzy some companies have decided that ideology is more important than profit, and most of these companies are deeply involved in various forms of media. Some people will argue that the media has always been leftist in its orientation and that this trend is nothing new. But, I think it is clear to anyone who has worked in countering mainstream media disinformation that something is very different today. Conservatives are being “cleansed” from participation in these communications platforms, and conservative ideals are being erased or misrepresented on a massive scale. Not long ago, media companies at least pretended to be “fair and balanced” by tolerating a certain level of participation by conservatives. No longer. Read More |
08.02.18- FALSE FLAG WARNING: ‘Perfect Storm’
(Natural News) Today I’ve posted an urgent warning video, which you can see in full, below. This video — which would have been banned by YouTube and Facebook — is available exclusively on REAL.video. It explains that Aug. 4 is shaping up to be a “perfect storm” false flag event, where deaths are staged in order to blame conservative Americans and sway public opinion for the upcoming mid-term elections. While we hope no such events ever take place, this weekend is a prime target for anti-America forces to stage precisely such a crisis. What’s the motivation behind it? If Democrats gain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, they promise to impeach President Trump — an act that would likely set off a nationwide civil war. By staging events that allow them to blame Trump supporters for violence or deaths, they hope to sway public opinion against conservatives and “steal” the mid-term elections. Read More |
08.01.18- COURT DOCS: SPLC Co-Founder Accused of Trying to Molest Step-Daughter With Sex Toy
It has now been exposed that the organization is awash in pedophilia. George Clooney and his wife recently contributed $1,000,000 the the SPLC. Please take note of the number of Ashkenazi Jews that control the organization. The SPLC is an enemy of the Republic. - JSB The SPLC is known for doling out questionable “hate group” labels. A recently-uncovered court document from the divorce proceedings of a prominent Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) figure alleges horrific conduct on behalf of one of the most influential lawyers in America. Read More |
07.31.18- An Illustrated Glossary of Cryptocurrency Slang |
07.30.18- Why Americans Are About To Experience
It appears that the "short-term" part has now arrived, because after several rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs and retaliations between the US and China, American consumers are about to be hit with sharply higher prices as tariffs on industrial metals put pressure on U.S. manufacturers. In May, President Trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU, Canada, and Mexico to help preserve America’s manufacturing base. The response: steel and aluminum prices have risen 33% and 11% respectively since the beginning of the year, as manufacturers began to price in the tariffs. Read More |
07.28.18- The Treasonous Democratic Party
In this one TV broadcast - Carlson shows that the Democrats have gone far beyond “lying through their teeth political partisanship” into deranged hatred of President Trump and the American people who elected him. The Democrats’ insane hatred of “Trump deplorables” has firmly allied the Democrats with the corrupt military/security complex in a plot to overthrow the elected President of the United States. Carlson presents the former heads of US intelligence in the corrupt Obama regime accusing President Trump of treason against the United States for trying to normalize relations with Russia and endangering the United States for trying to make peace. Read More |
07.27.18- Valuing Gold In A World Awash With Dollars
In this article I point to the pressures on the Fed to moderate monetary policy, but that will only affect the timing of the next cyclical credit crisis. That is going to happen anyway, triggered by the Fed or even a foreign central bank. In the very short term, a tendency to moderate monetary policy might allow the gold price to recover from its recent battering. Unlike the last credit crisis when the dollar rose sharply in a general panic for safety, on the next crisis, the dollar is likely to fall substantially. The reason is that foreign ownership of dollar investments (typically in US Treasuries) appears greatly overextended, and an additional $4 trillion of liquidity is in the wrong (non-US) hands. This is likely to be unloaded during a general credit crisis, driving the dollar lower. Read More |
07.26.18- Get Ready for the “100-Year Flood”
From the Black Death in the 14th century to the Thirty Years’ War in the 17th century to the world wars of the 20th century, gold has been a reliable store of wealth. There is no reason to believe that such existential events are no longer a danger. Below is a copy of Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut titled The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1498). That title is a reference to the New Testament Book of Revelation 6:1-8. Conventionally the horsemen are called Conquest, War, Famine and Death, but those names are subject to scholarly debate. The “Famine” passage refers literally to high prices for food, which could also be taken as a reference to financial ruin through inflation. Read More |
07.25.18- The Lonely Road of the Free Thinker
Definition is the opposite of free thought in that it is definite, distinct, or clearly outlined. There is no need to think about it since it is a distinctly defined concept. It is not to say definition and form is a bad thing because form does exist in some way or another, but for society to evolve, transcending definitional thinking is the essential key to growth. The problem is that society often gets fixated in the present paradigm of definition, which has a current set of rules, parameters, and accepted ways of thinking. The truth is always thought of in regard to how it applies to the here and now paradigm of accepted truth, not what truth might have looked like in the past or how it might look in the future. People are very conditioned and afraid to question the currently accepted truths. Going against group-think often leads to social isolation, ridicule and even physical harm on some issues. Accepting the current truths of the current paradigm is a much safer and comfortable existence for any human being. Read More |
07.24.18- The Imperial Naivete of the American Public
Whether it's stated or not, one source of the inchoate outrage triggered by Russian-sourced purchases of adverts on Facebook in 2016 (i.e. "meddling in our election") is the sense that the U.S. is sacrosanct due to our innate moral goodness and our Imperial Project: never mind that the intelligence agencies of all great powers (including the U.S.) meddle in the domestic affairs and elections of other nations, including those of allies as well as geopolitical rivals-- no other great power should ever meddle with U.S. domestic affairs and elections. In effect, meddling in the domestic affairs and elections of other nations is the raison d'etre of all great power intelligence agencies: It's Time for a Little Perspective on Russia (Current Affairs) Read More |
07.23.18- What Happened To Our Country? These Are Not Our Values, This Isn’t Who We Are
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
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
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07.19.18- What the Origins of Money Teaches Us About Spontaneous Order
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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07.10.18- America 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
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
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07.06.18- Here’s a great example of a company using Blockchain to solve a real 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?
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
(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
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07.02.18- How to Create Your Own Personal Gold Standard and Currency Reserve
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?
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Libertarian? Conservative? Classic Liberal? Leftivists don’t just believe you’re a bad person — they WANT to believe it
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
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06.28.18- Media Creates Caricatures of Political Parties.
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
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
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
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
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06.22.18- The Dumbing Down of America Is Deliberate and Deadly
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
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"
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
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
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
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
Restate this for global currencies and it becomes:
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,
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06.14.18- Clock is Now “3 Minutes to Midnight” on Social Security and Medicare Benefits
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
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
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"
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 |
06.09.18- Feeling Isolated?
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?
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
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
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06.05.18- Ten Ways the Democratic Northern Hemisphere Nations Became the Orwellian West
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,  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
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
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 |
A few weeks ago, 
The Governor of Vermont has introduced an unusual 
‘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.