09.19.19- Democracy Is a Scam
Bill Bonner

The news this week, so far, has focused on Saudi Arabia and the oil market.

Somebody launched an assault on a refinery. Immediately, a group called the “Houthis” claimed responsibility. And immediately, too, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that it was the fault of Iran… and U.S. President Trump said he was locked and loaded for a retaliation against someone. Read More

09.18.19- Financially Transmitted Diseases
Marin Katusa

I came up with Financially Transmitted Disease, or FTDTM for short, a couple of years ago.

It all happened when I was having dinner with some colleagues discussing quantitative easing (QE) and negative interest rate policy (NIRP).

NIRP will have the biggest impact on our global markets moving forward. Read More

09.17.19- The Black Swan Is a Drone
Charles Hugh Smith

What was "possible" yesterday is now a low-cost proven capability, and the consequences are far from predictable.

Predictably, the mainstream media is serving up heaping portions of reassurances that the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities are no big deal and full production will resume shortly. The obvious goal is to placate global markets fearful of an energy disruption that could tip a precarious global economy into recession. Read More

09.16.19- Tectonic Rumblings
James Howard Kunstler

The memory hole that appeared in America’s zeitgeist around 2016 is expanding like some evil cosmic rot. Things happen and then things unhappen and after a while it’s like they never happened. For instance, little seems to have happened all summer long with the matter known as RussiaGate, the attempt by high US government officials to overthrow the result of the 2016 election by pretending that Russia was trying to interfere in the 2016 election. Read More

09.14.19- Everything I Know About Business I Learned From The Godfather
Robert Gore

As rich and powerful as the Godfather becomes, he never loses sight of the reciprocal strands of respect, obligation, honor, and loyalty due family, friends, fellow Sicilians, and the Catholic church. These are not ties that bind. They are bonds, sources of strength, foundational stones of his life and empire. Such bonds have bolstered the human race for most of its history. That they are now under sustained assault would strike Don Corleone as foolishness. Their proposed replacement would strike him as madness. Read More

09.13.19- Has America Become One of the Most Evil Nations on the Entire Planet?
Michael Snyder

How will history remember us?  As Americans, we like to think that we are a light to the world and that other countries should be using us as a model for how to properly do things.  But the truth is that we have become unspeakably evil, and after reading this entire article I doubt that there will be anyone that will disagree with me. Read More

09.12.19- Tulsi Gabbard Suggests Government Is Run By A “Small Group Of Political Elite”
Joe Martino

Democratic candidate and congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard is an unconventional political figure in this upcoming election that has been turning heads. Whether it’s sharing truths about the Syrian war and the US arming terrorists or whether she was exposing establishment candidates like Kamala Harris, Gabbard is someone who many people are seeing as ‘the only viable Dem candidiate.’ Read More

09.11.19- Just when you think you own your own private property…
Simon Black

The year was 1967. Ronald Reagan had just become governor of California. Aretha Franklin was belting out R-E-S-P-E-C-T on the radio. Marxist revolutionary leader Che Guevara was captured and executed in Bolivia.

And a restaurant chain called The White Spot opened its newest location in Denver, Colorado. Read More

09.10.19- 9/11 After 18 Years
Paaul Craig Roberts

I would appreciate hearing from readers whether they have come across a report in the print, TV, or NPR media of the highly professional four-year investigation of WTC Building 7’s demise.  The international team of civil engineers concluded that the official story of Building 7’s destruction is entirely false.  I reported their findings here.

I suspect that the expert report is already in the Memory Hole.  Popular Mechanics, Wikipedia and CNN cannot label a distinguished team of experts “conspiracy theorists.” Read More

09.09.19- Gun control is ‘NOT‘ the answer… Idiot control ‘IS‘ the only answer!
Jeffery Bennett

Interesting statistics!  The following jives with the research of Prof. Lott at the University of Chicago, who is a noted expert on gun laws and stats. ~ Ed.

There are 30,000 gun related deaths per year by firearms, and this number is not disputed. The U.S. population is 324,059,091 as of June 22, 2016. Do the math: 0.00925% of the population dies from gun related actions each year. Statistically speaking, this is insignificant! What is never told, however, is a breakdown of those 30,000 deaths, to put them in perspective as compared to other causes of death: Read More

09.07.19- It’s The Pace Of Change That Kills You
Chris Martenson

And it has now sped up beyond our means to control it

A treasured member of my family is in the process of dying right now. She has lived a full, rich life; but her passing is a sad affair for us.

I’ve spent a lot of time recently with hospice workers. I’ve learned that they’re often asked by their patients, “How much time do I have left?” Read More

09.06.19- The king of Ponzi schemes was an amateur compared to this
Joe Jarvis

Ten years ago, a man was forever separated from his $40,000 slippers.

Posing as an investment firm for decades, Bernie Madoff’s company defrauded thousands of investors out of their money.

In 2009 Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for running the $64 billion Ponzi scheme. Read More

09.05.19- Free-Riding Investors Set up Markets for a Major Collapse
James Rickards

Free riding is one of the oldest problems in economics and in society in general. Simply put, free riding describes a situation where one party takes the benefits of an economic condition without contributing anything to sustain that condition.

The best example is a parasite on an elephant. The parasite sucks the elephant’s blood to survive but contributes nothing to the elephant’s well-being. Read More

09.04.19- Truth is an Endangered Species
Paul Craig Roberts

Dear Readers, you have kept this website going longer than I had hoped.  It is a lot of work for me.  My columns and those of guests generate a lot of appreciation and also a lot of demonization and expressions of hatred toward me.  The slightest criticism of Israel labels one an anti-semite.  People who are aware understand that this word is so over-used that it has become meaningless, but the insouciant conclude that if you are labeled an anti-semite you are some kind of monster who wants to harm Jews.  If you point out the double-standards that white people suffer, you get branded a “racist white supremacist.” If you point out that #MeToo feminists are criminalizing heterosexual sexual attraction, you become a misogynist. Read More

09.03.19- In Coming Currency Wars, Gold Is the Only Practical Way to Preserve Buying Power
Tom Dyson

Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing. – J.K. Rowling

OLD TOWN HOTEL, HANOI – This month, we are billionaires.

As longtime Diary readers know, a year ago, my ex-wife Kate and I packed up our things and left America. Then we converted our savings and investments into gold and silver. Since then, we’ve been traveling the world. Read More

09.02.19- Mass Layoffs Are Back.
Are You At Risk?
Adam Taggart

Millions are going to lose their jobs in the coming recession. Will you?

Imagine the following scene playing out at work tomorrow:

You arrive in the morning to find a note reading ‘HR wants to see you’. About what?, you wonder.  Read More

08.31.19- Trade War Tariffs to Hit U.S. Consumers and Retailers
Peter Reagan

U.S. consumers and retailers may not escape the next round of tariffs set to roll out on September 1. Turns out, they won’t be delayed until December as originally stated.

The new tariffs will be raised to 15% from 10% in response to China’s additional tariffs on $75 billion of American goods.

According to a Newsmax piece, POTUS said that “the $250 billion of goods and products already being taxed at 25% will see that rate hiked to 30% starting on Oct. 1.”  Read More

08.30.19- “Monster” Hurricane Dorian Is Projected To Be “A Very Big Hurricane,
Perhaps One Of The Biggest”
Michael Snyder

Well, that certainly escalated quickly.  On Wednesday we were told that Hurricane Dorian would only be a Category 3 storm when it hits the Florida coastline, but now we are being told that it will be a Category 4 storm.  Hurricane Dorian is rapidly gaining strength over very warm waters in the Atlantic Ocean, and the latest forecast has it making landfall somewhere along the east coast of Florida on Monday.  If it is officially a Category 4 storm when it arrives, it will be the most powerful storm to hit the east coast of Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Read More

08.29.19- How to become a billionaire
in five easy steps
Simon Black

Every morning here in Puerto Rico, I wake up around 6am as the sun rises over the ocean in front of my house. And I pretty much head straight to the gym.

Once there, one of my favorite medieval torture devices is a fairly new exercise bike called a Peloton.

In case you haven’t used one before, a Peloton is like any other stationary exercise bike. You pedal a lot, and it sucks. Read More

08.28.19- The Next Recession Will Destroy Millennials
Annie Lowrey

Millennials are already in debt and without savings. After the next downturn, they’ll be in even bigger trouble.

The trade war is dragging on. The yield curve is inverting. Investors are fleeing to safety. Global growth is slowing. The stock market is dipping. The Millennials are screwed. Read More

08.27.19- Peter Schiff Compares Trade War to “Battle at Little Bighorn”
Gage Skidmore

Political commentators are increasingly critical of U.S. trade policy, particularly tariffs and the trade war with China. Radio host Peter Schiff went so far as to compare U.S. trade policies to General Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn. Meanwhile, some economic red flags seem to support their worries.

In today’s polarized political climate, there is one topic both the Left and the Right seem to agree on: the trade war with China is eventually going to hurt the average American. Read More

08.26.19- Save The World By
First Saving Yourself
Chris Martenson

We each have a role to play in how the world recovers from the coming crisis

At this point we can only ride out the consequences as the systems we depend on collapse and then ebb away — exposing that the structure of our modern way of life is really a just an edifice built of sand.

That may be true. But not necessarily. Read More

08.24.19- A Critical Threshold Has Just Been Crossed, And Things Will NEVER Be The Same Again…
Michael Snyder

Just when things seemed to be settling down a little bit, our conflict with China has suddenly escalated to a dangerous new phase.  This is not simply just a “trade war” any longer, and our relationship with China will never be the same again.  As you will see below, President Trump just referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as our “enemy”, and this is something that the Chinese are going to take extremely seriously.  In China, the national leader is a representation of the government as a whole, and the government as a whole is a representation of the entire county. Read More

08.23.19- What a Nobel Peace Prize, the Federal Reserve, and endless war have in common
Joe Jarvis

It was ten years ago that Congressman Ron Paul released his book, End the Fed.

It immediately shot to number six on the New York Times Bestsellers list.

Paul’s message was that the Federal Reserve was created to bail out banks. It privatized profits for them and socialized losses for the rest of us.

He said the system works against us by killing competition among banks and hiding taxes through inflation. Read More

08.22.19- The “Hidden Tax” That Could Hurt Your Retirement Savings
Birch Gold Group

Retirees have enough potential problems to deal with when it comes to providing security for their retirement, including the disturbing fact that 42% of Americans may retire broke.

You can see in the GoBankingRates chart below that 61.6% of retirees have less than $100,000 saved for retirement, which is far from the amount some experts claim is needed on average: Read More

08.21.19- Something Stinks About The “Booming Economy” Narrative:
J.C. Penny To Sell Used Clothes
Paul “Half Dollar” Eberhart

Apparently J.C. Penny didn’t get Trump’s “Consumers are in the best shape ever” memo…

J.C. Penny, yes, that same J.C. Penny that has been a staple, for decades, in malls throughout America, is getting into the business of selling used clothes. Read More

08.20.19- Censorship of Conservative Voices on the Internet is Virtual Book Burning
Justin O. Smith

Americans are currently in the midst of a virtual “book burning” akin to the ones we look back on in shame.

* Catholics torched the writings of Protestant reformer Martin Luther.

* The Nazis lit a towering bonfire of books by Jewish and leftist writers such as Franz Kafka, Sigmund Freud and Upton Sinclair.

* And many 1950s Americans, spurred by Senator Joseph McCarthy, hunted for pro-communism books to burn. Read More

08.19.19- 'Con'-fidence
Sven Henrich

Markets are subject to a giant con game. The game of CONfidence. Confidence must be maintained under all circumstances or we’re heading into a global recession first and then a US recession to follow.

Consider the macro context here: Nine major economiesare either in recession or on the verge of it. This includes Germany, UK, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, South Korea, Russia. Everything else is slowing down hard. Read More

08.17.19- Bubble Bubba
Isn’t Doing Fine Anymore
David Haggith

Let’s take a look at how the average consumer is doing. I’ll call this typical consumer “Bubba” because I just read an article that claimed “Bubba’s doing better today than at any time since before the Korean War.” It disgusted me because I found it to be such a disingenuous set of lies wrapped in half-truths, all contrived to pacify the trickle-down peasants as that philosophy continues to short-change the middle class with its fake promise. Read More

08.16.19- Inflation Rising: Consumer Goods Prices Increase by Most in Seven Years
Nathan McDonald

The trade wars are taking root, and finally the damage is starting to ripple through not only Wall Street, but Main Street as well, as inflation steadily ticks higher.

This comes on the heels of a rate cut last month, in which one of the reasons given by the Federal Reserve was because they believe inflation was too low. Read More

08.15.19- Major Recession Alarm Sounds
Brian Maher

Red, red, in every direction we turn today… red.

The Dow Jones shed 800 scarlet points on the day.

Percentage wise, both S&P and Nasdaq took similar whalings.

The S&P lost 86 points. And the Nasdaq… 242.

And so the market paid back all of yesterday’s trade-induced gains — with heaps of interest.

Worrying economic data drifting out of China and Germany were partly accountable. Read More

08.14.18- The “R” Word Is Rearing Its Ugly Head
Mark Nestmann

It’s here, or at least nearly here. “It,” in this case, is another recession.

We can debate the causes – an escalating trade war between the US and China, too much dodgy debt, the end of the longest bull market in history, or perhaps all three. Read More

08.13.19- The True Story Behind China's 'Currency Manipulation'
Mike Maloney

View Video

08.12.19- Isn’t it obvious? Jeffrey Epstein was murdered because dead men don’t talk
(about the Clintons)
Mike Adams

This post won’t be lengthy. The story is so simple that everybody already knows what happened here.

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell at 7:30 am this morning, according to police. He was under “suicide watch,” which was of course a designation placed on him roughly two weeks ago to set up the back story for what just happened. Jeffrey Epstein was “arkancided” / murdered for the simple reason that dead men don’t talk. Read More

08.10.19- To Avoid A Collapse Means Restoring
Glass-Steagall (Without The Green New Deal)
Matthew Ehret

With the recent discussion of the collapse of the western system of banking (and neo-liberal ‘post-truth’ values more generally) a serious overview of the post-WWII stripping down of nation states is in order. Over the past couple of weeks, various figures like France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and American Senator Elizabeth Warren have called for a re-organization of the banking system with Le Maire saying on July 13 that the Bretton Woods “has reached its limits”, and Warren stating on July 22 that “the country’s economic foundation is fragile.Read More

08.09.19- Heading for civil war
Peter Skurkiss

Donald Trump's opponents are completely unhinged. The hate and slander directed toward the president and his supporters is off the charts.  The vitriol comes not just from the Democratic Party, the media, and the world of entertainment, but also from a sizable proportion of the federal bureaucracy and many seemingly ordinary people. Read More

08.08.19- The Middle Class is Getting Destroyed!
Mac Slavo

Youtuber Jeremiah Babe tells it like it is, and doesn’t mince his words.  The middle class is getting eviscerated and it’ll be so much worse once the economy comes crashing down again.

In his recent video, Babe says far too many Americans are staring the boogeyman in the face and yet they still ignore the “dangers that are coming with this [economic] collapse.” He added: “I’m absolutely dumbfounded by the lack of common sense here in America in regards to what is happening to this economy.” Read More

08.07.19- “Worst Year Ever”: The Chinese Ban On U.S. Agricultural Products Will Be A Death Blow For Countless U.S. Farms
Michael Snyder

U.S. farmers have never experienced a year quite like this.  During the first half of 2019, endless rain and unprecedented flooding were the major problems.  As a result of the incredibly wet conditions, millions of acres of prime farmland didn’t get planted at all, and tens of millions of other acres are going to yield a lot less than usual.  Even without anything else happening, we were going to see farm bankruptcies soar to absolutely crazy levels, but now the Chinese government is essentially cutting off U.S. agricultural imports. Read More

08.06.19- Why We’re Keeping Our
“Crash Alert” Flag Up
Bill Bonner

POITOU, FRANCE – Watch out, Dear Reader, this could be a tough week for investors.

Investor’s Business Daily reports:

Dow Jones futures sold off sharply Sunday night, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures, as China’s yuan tumbled to a record low. That follows a tough week for the current stock market rally as new Trump tariffs escalated the China trade war.

So far, the big, fat, ugly Dow has sat on the wall and stubbornly refused to tumble. But last week, Donald J. Trump gave Humpty a shove. Read More

08.05.19- Scarcity vs. abundance: How globalists enslave humanity by creating artificial scarcity in everything: Money, health, knowledge, energy and more
Mike Adams

How do evil globalists control the world and enslave humanity? By creating artificial scarcity in everything from energy to money to food.

Abundance is the enemy of globalist control. When people experience abundance, they become more self-reliant and realize they don’t need big centralized government to run their lives. Abundance leads to economic mobility and human dignity, and these must be crushed by globalists to keep humanity suppressed. Read More

08.03.19- Weekend Rant: Fiscal Conservatism Is Dead. Republicans Killed It.
Josh Hammer

"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword and the other is by debt." – John Adams

"Fiscal conservatism," R.I.P. And while the Democratic Party has been an aider and abettor of this untimely death since at least the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, it is the Republican Party — the purported partisan home for fiscal conservatism — that ought to be credited with the fatal coup de grâce. Read More

08.02.19- America's Poverty Trap: How A Small Financial Setback Can Spiral Into An Inescapable Disaster
Daisy Luther

When you are living a financially fragile life, it seems like someone somewhere is trying to keep you poor. Why is it so hard to get ahead? Well, because the system is rigged against you when you’re living paycheck to paycheck with fee after fee after fee. Because what makes more sense than charging someone who already can’t pay their bills even more money? Read More

08.01.19- How Real Mind Control Works
Brandon Smith

When people are confronted with the idea of “mind control” they often think of something out of television or film media; a lone prisoner tortured, chemically dazed and conditioned into a hollow zombie as his captors squeeze information from him or use him to complete a task he would not normally do or morally accept. And while there is actually some truth to this kind of Hollywood depiction, as is evidenced in the exposure of government programs like MK Ultra, the most insidious forms of mind control are far more subtle. Read More

07.31.19- Johnstone: How the Question "Who Benefits From This?" Can Change Your Life
Rich Winkel

“Cui bono?” is a phrase you’ll often see used on conspiracy-minded Youtube videos and discussion forums. It’s Latin for “Who benefits?”, and it refers to a perspective in legal analysis that the one who stands most to gain from a crime is often the perpetrator. It’s the “motive” part of “means, motive and opportunity“. Read More

07.30.19- What I Learned from Eating Candy
Nilus Mattive

I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but it was either late single digits or early doubles.

I was looking through the local newspaper and saw a big, bold ad. Or maybe my parents showed it to me… I can’t remember that part either.

What I do remember is what the ad said, and how exciting it was to me at the time: Topps, the famous baseball card and candy company, was looking for taste testers.

More specifically, they wanted children taste testers. It was a one-day job. You’d go there, taste some sweet stuff, and get paid to tell them what you thought. Read More

07.29.19- Boomer Retirement
Larry LaBorde

It happens if you live long enough. You finally get old enough for social security. Even though we are in our early 60’s and not planning to retire I was curious when my wife’s social security statement arrived in the mail. She glanced at it and then handed it to me.

Now I plan on working until the day I die. I just want to work less and less every year. Fortunately I am in a position where I can slow down, downshift a gear and not quit. I still want to work but I want to take more time off and travel a little more. Most people run at their jobs full speed until one day they just jump off (or are pushed off) the merry-go-round and all of a sudden find themselves unemployed. Read More

07.27.19- Non-Profit Hospitals
Are Making a Killing
Richard Menger

The annual cost of health care for the average American family hovers around $20,000. Premiums increase yearly, and this is a primary driver of why real wages for average Americans don’t seem to improve. Meanwhile, the CEO of non-profit Banner Health, based out of Arizona, raked in $21.6 million last year. Nearly half of the CEOs of America’s leading non-profit health systems made more than $2.5 million. Only eight of the 82 executives of non-profit companies earned less than $1 million. Read More

07.26.19- How to Buy “the Next Amazon”
Jeff Brown

The date was May 15, 1997.

A small company founded in Bellevue, Washington was set to go public. With the modest ambition of selling books online, Amazon (AMZN) listed for just $18 a share.

We all know what happened next…

On a split-adjusted stock basis, Amazon rose from $1.50 per share to where it is trading today around $1,975 per share. That is an incredible 1,317 times your money, or a 131,567% return on investment. That turned every $1000 invested into more than $1.3 million. Read More

07.25.19- Free-Riding Investors Set up Markets for a Major Collapse
Jim Rickards

Free riding is one of the oldest problems in economics and in society in general. Simply put, free riding describes a situation where one party takes the benefits of an economic condition without contributing anything to sustain that condition.

The best example is a parasite on an elephant. The parasite sucks the elephant’s blood to survive but contributes nothing to the elephant’s well-being. Read More

07.24.19- California’s nuclear power plants found to be sitting on top of a massive supervolcano filled with
240 cubic miles of magma
Michael Snyder

We have raised an entire generation of Americans that have no respect for the law, and now we are reaping what we have sown.  I cannot even begin to tell you how alarmed I am by some of the videos that I have been watching lately.  As you will see below, all over the nation young people are brazenly flouting the law, obstructing and assaulting law enforcement officers, and committing criminal acts in large groups.  I think that “lawlessness” is perhaps the best word to describe what is happening, and many believe that what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning.  Read More

07.23.19- Beware, the IRS is eyeing your inherited money
Bill Bischoff

One little-noticed tax grab is already on the table, and another waits in the wings

One of the perils of being well-off is the constant risk that the federal government and/or your friendly state and local tax collectors will figure out new and different ways to snatch more of your wealth. Especially wealth that you earned the old-fashioned way: by inheriting it. To raise your paranoia to the appropriate level, here are two new things to worry about. Read More

07.22.19- Badly Screwed: The Elite Are Spitting in Your Face!
Tom Beck

For the past two months, I’ve sunk my mind into the subjects of income inequality and wealth inequality. It took me on a journey that included over 13 lengthy books, countless recorded lectures, and numerous all-nighters to finally articulate my main conclusion on the matter, based on the facts.

Bottom line: America’s politicians, wealthy businessmen, and CEOs do not, in their heart of hearts, give the slightest thought to the average person’s well-being. Read More

07.20.19- Trump's Fight With The Fed Over Interest Rates Is A Scripted Farce
Brandon Smith

There is a very bizarre narrative being circulated in the mainstream economic media and it goes a little something like this:

“The Federal Reserve has capitulated on liquidity tightening yet the US economy is “stronger than ever”, isn't that weird?” Read More

07.19.19- The Greatest Hoax of All
Donald Jeffries

Fifty years ago, our government and its state-run media tell us, Americans sent men to the moon. Neil Armstrong said “One small step,” and all that, and the photographs of the event were startlingly clear. Well, except for all the shadow anomalies, and lack of stars in the sky, that is.

As a twelve year old, and a huge astronomy junkie, I followed the Apollo program nearly as closely as I memorized Major League Baseball batting averages. I knew all the astronauts’ names, and even had a favorite; Jim Lovell, who would head the ill-fated Apollo 13, denying him the honor of walking on the moon. Read More

07.18.19- Eugenics, Infertility & Population Growth CRISIS Part 5
Corey Lynn

Eugenics emerged with a bang in the early 1900s with a primary focus of controlling the population. What began as fairs and baby contests for the best pedigree and maintaining ancestral records to distinguish traits, evolved into a cesspool of genetic manipulations and infertility by the hands of scientists, “philanthropists” and the entire medical industry, whether some knew it or not. But that wasn’t enough for the masses – GMOs, big tech, geoengineering, and AI moved to the forefront to pick up the slack – and suddenly health began. declining everywhere. Read More

07.17.19- Promise The Moon
Jeff Thomas

In the 2018 US general election, a spate of liberal candidates appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, each making dramatic promises for a more collectivist US.

Until the 2016 election, the US hadn’t seen many openly collectivist candidates since before World War II, but since the campaign that gave rise to avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, socialist candidates have appeared in abundance and have become “the other democrats.” They’re not only plentiful, but unapologetic in their socialist stance.

But why should this be? And where will it lead? Read More

07.16.19- The Next Industrial Revolution
Doug Casey

What you’re going to read in the next few minutes will be shocking and unbelievable. But it’s also factual and logical. That will make it upsetting and disturbing. Most people are at least vaguely aware of what’s happening. But very, very few are aware of its degree or the implications.

As you probably know, I believe times are about to get quite rough economically and politically. But, at the same time, I’m very optimistic about what’s happening in science and technology. So let me hazard some predictions. And break the old rule about how, if you predict an event will occur, to make sure you don’t predict its timing. Read More

07.15.19- Eugenics, Infertility & Population Growth CRISIS Part 4
Corey Lynn

Eugenics is all about controlling the population. This is not a lost art – it is an evolved art that they have perfected. The U.S. population growth hit a historic 80-year low last year and the entire world population growth is on a downward spiral, particularly in western countries. This is due to a decrease in the number of births and an increase in the number of deaths, along with an infertility crisis. How did this happen? Read More

07.13.19- Do You Truly Have Free Will? 
Chris Martenson

How we’re constantly at war with our biological programming

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

~ Carl Jung

I love that Jung quote.  I’ve used it generously in conversation, seminars and writings throughout the years. Read More

07.12.19- Eugenics, Infertility & Population Growth CRISIS Part 3
Corey Lynn

Since the dawn of eugenics, they’ve tried to trace the pedigree and traits of human beings so as to control the masses. Through DNA, they have not only accomplished this, they have extended a branch to the population to show off their ancestral trees. Much like in the days of pedigree fairs, people had no idea what they were signing up for. Read More

07.11.19- Are White People
Too Stupid To Survive?
Paul Craig Roberts

There is a strong case that they are.  Having been demonized for many years and intimidated from defending themselves, white people are now intentionally discriminated against by the racial “minorities” (actually vast world majorities) of the people they have been pressured to elevate above them.  Once the “oppressed” are put in charge by dumbshit whites, the whites are really oppressed.  Read More

07.10.19- Major Red Flags Are Causing Many To Doubt Whether Justice Will Be Done In The Jeffrey Epstein Sex Scandal
Michael Snyder

It won’t just be Jeffrey Epstein that will be on trial in the months ahead.  As this scandal unfolds, the entire U.S. legal system will be on trial, and if justice does not prevail many Americans will lose faith in the system for good.  And of course the rest of the world will be watching too, and so what are they supposed to think about us if we are not able to put Epstein and all of his dirty friends in prison?  As I detailed in part three of this series, the evidence against Jeffrey Epstein and his partners in crime is mounting.  Read More

07.09.19- Goodbye Dollar, It Was Nice Knowing You!
Philip Giraldi

The significance of the European move cannot be understated…

Over the past two years, the White House has initiated trade disputes, insulted allies and enemies alike, and withdrawn from or refused to ratify multinational treaties and agreements. It has also expanded the reach of its unilaterally imposed rules, forcing other nations to abide by its demands or face economic sanctions. While the stated Trump Administration intention has been to enter into new arrangements more favorable to the United States, the end result has been quite different, creating a broad consensus within the international community that Washington is unstable, not a reliable partner and cannot be trusted. Read More

07.08.19- You Are Being Trolled
Dmitry Orlov

The world is on the brink of war, again. And again. And, yes, yet again. And then it’s not on the brink of war any more… but wait, there’s more! Of course there’s more, there always is. US aircraft carrier battle groups are steaming toward North Korea… or not. They are steaming about aimlessly, nowhere near North Korea, but in a very threatening manner. Then Trump and Kim Jong Un meet, get on great, sign a piece of paper that means nothing and part friends. Now the aircraft carriers are steaming about far less menacingly. Then Trump and Un meet again, to sign some other meaningless piece of paper, but then John Bolton shoots his mouth off and the deal is off. Read More

07.06.19- Eugenics, Infertility & Population Growth CRISIS
Corey Lynn

Over 60,000 Americans were sterilized in the U.S., in the name of eugenics, but it didn’t end there. The phenomenon of men’s sperm declining by 50% and infertility in females rapidly rising – stumps no one – they just won’t tell you the truth.

• Over 60,000 Americans were sterilized in the name of eugenics and the Supreme Court law wasn’t repealed until the 1970s. Read More

07.05.19- Central Banks Will Keep Easing "Until Parliaments And Palaces Burn"
Bill Blain

“There must be someway out of here, said the joker to the thief...”

Oh, what a beautiful morning… It’s a Friday in July, so I may as well have an off the wall rant! If you are stuck in the office, send me a mail and we can bemoan we’re not working from home in the back garden! Read More

07.04.17- Rediscovering America:
A Quiz For July 4th
Jason Stevens

Near the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson described the Declaration of Independence as “an expression of the American mind.” On Independence Day, Americans should remember not only the Founding Fathers and the Revolutionary War but, more important, the fundamental principles and ideals that created and sustain the nation.

The quiz below, from the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, provides an opportunity for you to test your knowledge of the 4th of July .Read More

07.03.19- The Only Thing Worse Than The World Dying Would Be If It Died Unseen And Unappreciated
Caitlin Johnstone

ABC News put an article out the other day titled “Was Tulsi Gabbard’s nuclear war warning during Democratic debate hyperbole, or all too real?“, which makes a surprisingly reasonable appraisal of just how close we all are to losing everything all at once.

It’s a mainstream media piece, so of course it ends with a couple of think tank denizens claiming that Gabbard’s dire warnings during the debate are hysterical nonsense, but the first half of the article quotes authorities on nuclear disarmament confirming that we may very well be as close to nuclear annihilation as we were at the height of the last cold war. Read More

07.02.19- AT&T Fires Up Sweat-Inducing 5G in “Sin City” With Plans for 20 More Despite Anticipating More Lawsuits
BN Frank

Last February, telecom executives gave congressional testimony that they could NOT provide any studies that prove that 5G technology is safe.

Unfortunately, plenty of research already proves it isn’t (see 1, 2, 3).

Not only that – cybersecurity experts, (see 1, 2), environmentalists (see 1, 2, 3) meteorologists, NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Navy, and utility companies have ALL warned that installing 5G everywhere could lead to widespread catastrophic events. Read More

07.01.19- It's No Bitcoin: Facebook's Libra Currency Is Tied to Government Currencies
Ralph Fucetola

Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek was, as he says in the 1990 introduction to his Denationalization of Money: The Argument Refined, one of the chief “gold bugs” of the 20th century. And he reminded us, so long as politicians want to control money, gold-backed currency is essential to protect our liberty from the politics of inflation.

But his concern for money and market reached back to his earlier work, as noted in a number of articles posted in recent years at mises.org. As noted by Nikolay Gertchev: Read More

06.29.19- Weekend Rant: Freedom and
Liberty At Risk
Justin O. Smith

“Even under the best forms of government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Anyone who listened to Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren share her horror over states making gains in halting abortion understands that true liberty and individual rights, even states’ rights, mean nothing to the Democrats. Warren called for a federal law that codifies Roe v Wade, with the certain knowledge that the federal government treasury would be used to coerce states to fall in line, as has been done regarding so many other federal laws.  Read More

06.28.19- Buy Gold, Sell Bonds
Michael Cannivet

As the first-half of 2019 draws to a close, investors have much to cheer about. A lot of money has been made across many asset classes.

If you're considering tweaking your strategy for the second-half of the year, I have four words for you: Buy gold, sell bonds.

Why Gold Is Attractive Again  

Gold has been dead money since 2011. But lately, it's showing signs of life again. Gold recently broke above an important resistance level at $1,350. Some technicians think this sets the stage for a run to $1,700. Read More

06.27.19- The Diminishing American Economy
Paul Craig Roberts

Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovered economy.  Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression.  However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored.

For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the work force to take advantage of the job opportunities.  During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through May 2019, the labor force participation rate fell from 65.7 to 62.8 percent.  Read More

06.26.19- The Pain Of This New Economic Downturn Is Starting To Show Up All Over The Country
Michael Snyder

It is going to take a miracle for the U.S. economy to pull out of this tailspin, because the economic numbers are really starting to deteriorate very rapidly now.  On Tuesday we got some more new numbers, and they were just as bad as we thought they might be.  But even before today’s numbers all of the data were telling us the exact same thing.  Read More

06.25.19- No Inflation? A Day Trip To The Regional Amusement Park Costs A Family Of Four OVER $1,000 This Summer (2019)
Paul “Half Dollar” Eberhart

Cedar Point is the closest “day-trip” amusement park to where my family lives.

This is arguably the best amusement park in the nation in terms of the number/quality of thrill-rides/roller-coasters, and sure, this is subjective opinion, but I’m saying that as having gone to amusement parks all over the country for most of my life, including many in California, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and In other states I’m sure I’m forgetting about because that data has not yet been de-fragmented in my brain, and by “most of my life”, I mean, I’ve gone to amusement parks as a kid, as a student, as a single, as a married fella, and as a family man. Read More

06.24.19- Why Legal Cannabis Will Be
Bigger Than Cryptos
Teeka Tiwari

Editor’s Note: Longtime readers may know Teeka Tiwari as a world-renowned cryptocurrency expert. He made his first crypto recommendation to his readers in April 2016, well before the crypto boom in 2017.

But Teeka has been diving deep into a new, booming industry – legal cannabis. He’s been flying all over the world… talking to the most important CEOs in the cannabis space. And, as he details below, he sees this industry as an even bigger play than cryptos… Read More

06.22.19- The Politics of Personality
Donald Jeffries

The election of Donald Trump planted a loud and divisive lightning rod into the middle of our political discourse. Everything in American politics now is channeled through this billionaire/reality TV star, and how one feels about him. It is not about issues now, not even the limited issues Americans are allowed to discuss.

The social justice warriors have won; all politics in this country are emotion driven now. There is no reasoning, no flexing of the intellect. It is all about how you feel,  and the larger, timeless principles America was founded upon have become irrelevant to a public that is basically ignorant of them anyway. Read More

06.21.19- The Advent of Truth-Destroying Technology
Paul Craig Roberts

Tyler Durden on Zero Hedge reports that the ability to falsify reality is growing by leaps and bounds.  Thoughtless geeks have now developed technology that makes fake reality indistinguishable from real reality:

“I don’t think we’re well prepared at all. And I don’t think the public is aware of what’s coming,” said the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He was discussing the rapid advance of synthesis technology. This new artificial intelligence capability allows competent programmers to create audio and video of anyone, saying absolutely anything. Read More

06.20.19- An Examination Of The Leftist Cult And Their Religion
Brandon Smith

There is a common misconception among newer activists in the liberty movement that the idea of the “false left/right paradigm” means that there is no political spectrum; that the entire notion of left vs right is a fabrication. This is not exactly the case. When we talk about false paradigms in regards to politics (or geopolitics), what we are actually referring to is the elitist class, otherwise known as globalists, and the fact that they have no left or right political orientation. They do not care about Democrats or Republicans, they have no loyalty to either party. Their loyalty is to their own agenda, and they will exploit BOTH sides to get what they want whenever possible. Read More

06.19.19- Americans Are Losing the Only Fight Worth Having
Bill Bonner

DUBAI – A man walks over the footbridge across an artificial lake in an artificial town. 

On the other side, he unrolls a mat, kneels, and bows in prayer, facing the Holy City of Mecca.

This morning at 6 a.m., it is already almost unbearably hot and humid Read More

06.18.19- Gold Standard Coming Into View…US Must Adapt Gold Trade Note
Jim Willie

A Perfect Storm is hitting the Gold market, with an internal factor (return to Quantitative Easing on steroids), an external factor (Shanghai Gold Exchange taking market share), and a systemic factor (Basel 3 Rule permitting Gold in account ratios). All three forces are positive in releasing Gold from the corrupt clutches of the Anglo-American banker organization. The Eastern Hemisphere has a planned coordinated and effective strategy to abandon the USDollar and to adopt the Gold Standard. It has happened first in the trade payment form, actually more like a global blossoming process. More progress can be inferred in its early stages. Read More

06.17.19- Waiting For The Black Swan
Chris Martenson

War with Iran would be the beginning of the end

Two more tankers were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday morning  (6/13/19) in the Gulf of Oman, and if hostilities advance we could be facing a ‘black swan’ event. One that changes everything, and divides the world into ‘before’ and ‘after’ periods. Read More

06.15.19- It’s Coming And It’s Going to SUCK
Karl Denninger

Those who believe there will never be another recession are flat-out insane.

The business cycle has never been repealed.  Every person who has predicted that someone has “conquered” it over the decades has been wrong.

Let me repeat that for emphasis: EVERY PERSON who has made such a prediction or claim through the last roughly 100 years HAS BEEN NOT ONLY WRONG THEY’VE BEEN DISASTROUSLY WRONG. Read More

06.14.19- FAANG Companies Facing Impacts from Imminent Antitrust Probe
Birch Gold Group

On June 3, a total of $137 billion in market cap was wiped from existence in one day as, according to Wolf Richter, four of the infamous FAANG companies became targets of an imminent antitrust probe (emphasis ours):

It’s a rare moment in recent years that US government regulators are suddenly going after four tech and social media giants simultaneously – Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple. … The index dove 4.3% today, the biggest percentage decline since the infamous 4.6% drop on December 24, 2018. In terms of dollars, $137 billion in market capitalization was wiped out. Read More

06.13.19- How the Stock Market Actually Works
Rick Ackerman

Here is the best explanation I’ve seen to date of how the U.S. stock market works.  It is from John Jay, who posts regularly in the Rick’s Picks Forum: “The stock market is the primary bag-man the Federal Reserve uses to transfer the U.S. Dollars they create from thin air to the .01%.” Just so. When you consider how many hundreds of billions of dollars find their way into the pockets of the very rich when just a half-dozen mega-cap stocks rally sharply, you begin to understand how the U.S. economy actually works. Read More

06.12.19- The American Bolsheviks
Are Coming…
Bill Bonner

It’s coming. It’s happening.

Our dark fears and midnight tremors are coming to life. In the broad daylight.

The Bolsheviks are invading the suburbs and cities… and even the Corn Belt… all across America.

American Jackassery

Both Democrats and Republicans are turning to three-part programs – one part Soviet economic claptrap, one part Mussolini’s political bamboozle, and one part pure American jackassery. Read More

06.11.19- Sometimes Things Turn
James Howard Kunstler

A February night in 1924, in a Manhattan concert hall owned by the Aeolian piano company… the wailing, warped, and flatted clarinet glissando that opens George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue announced the 20th century’s self-recognition that something new was up in the world, and especially in the USA. The composer tried to represent the stupendous energy of the maturing industrial culture in a symphonic cacophony with a core of the deepest tenderness — capturing all the wonder and grace of the moment. For America, everything was on the move. Love and power were in the air. Read More

06.10.19- Socialism Rises Due To The Great American Economic Growth Myth
Lance Roberts

There is little denying the rise of “socialistic” ideas in the U.S. today. You can try and cover the stench by calling it “social democracy” but in the end, it’s still socialism.

Since 1775, millions of Americans have given their lives in defense of the American “idea.” The tyranny and oppression which arise from communism, socialism, and dictatorships have been a threat worthy of such sacrifice. I am sure those patriots who died to ensure the “American way of life” would be disheartened by the willingness of the up and coming generations adopt such ideals. Read More

06.08.19- The State of the Economy
Paul Craig Roberts

The story line is going out that the economic boom is weakening and the Federal Reserve has to get the printing press running again.  The Fed uses the money to purchase bonds, which drives up the prices of bonds and lowers the interest rate.  The theory is that the lower interest rate encourages consumer spending and business investment and that this increase in consumer and business spending results in more output and employment. Read More

06.07.19- How $30 Trillion Disappears…
Bill Bonner

Stocks went up on Tuesday and Wednesday – a total gain of 207 points for the Dow. Futures markets are predicting another up day today.

But the economy continues to sink. The longest expansion in U.S. history seems to be approaching its end. Here’s CNBC:

Job creation skidded to a near-halt in May in another sign that the U.S. economic momentum is slowing.

Companies added just 27,000 new positions during the month, according to a report Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP and Moody’s Analytics that was well below Dow Jones estimates of 173,000. Read More

06.06.19- The Trade War Is About To Become An Economic World War III
Brandon Smith

For many years I have examined how wars of all types have been used by the money elite to distract the masses and maintain a certain level of influence over social and political systems. But war is not only a useful tool for keeping the status quo. Some wars, particularly world wars, are often catalyzed and exploited by those with a globalized agenda as a way to change the way civilizations function and think. The goal? To influence the masses to abandon their attachments to concepts like individualism, nationalism, free markets and sovereignty, and to embrace total globalization.Read More

06.05.19- 32 Tips For Navigating A Society Full Of Propaganda And Manipulation
J. Johnson

For as long as there has been human language, humans have been using it to manipulate one another. The fact that it is possible to skillfully weave a collection of symbolic mouth noises together in such a way as to extract favors, concessions, votes and consent from other humans has made manipulation so common that it now pervades our society from top to bottom, from personal relationships between two people to international relationships between government agencies and the public. Read More

06.04.19- The War On Truth
Paul Craig Roberts

“The ability of the owners of the political/media class to discredit and neutralize anyone who poses a threat to their interests simply by rearranging the narratives about them is one of the most destructive psychological weapons in their arsenal. The main reason it’s so hard to convince the public that they have been taken in by propaganda and smear campaigns is because for some stupid reason, one of the most shameful things anyone can do in our society is be fooled. If we are to overcome the narrative dominance of the powerful, it is essential that we find a way to shift that shame from those who have been fooled onto those who have been fooling them.”  — Caitlin Johnstone Read More

06.03.19- Do We Face a Global Food Disaster?
F. William Engdahl

No, this is not at all an endorsement of the apocalyptic scenarios of AOC or that famous young Swedish climate expert, Greta. It is, however, a look at unusual weather disasters in several key growing regions from the USA to Australia, the Philippines and beyond that could dramatically affect food availability and prices in the coming year. That in turn could have major political implications depending on how the rest of the growing season develops. Read More

06.01.19- These Are The ‘Good Old Days’
Chris Martenson

At tipping points like now, the steps we take in the present determine our future

Bill was 48 when his wife stunned him with a request for divorce. Right up until that moment, he’d thought everything was fine.

He’d been pouring all his energy into his work to provide a very comfortable life for his wife and 2 children. But she was unhappy and fell out of love while Bill wasn’t paying attention to matters at home. He’d taken her for granted and forgot to be present for the most important people in his life, and to be grateful in the moment. Read More

05.31.19- Globalists Only Need One More Major Event To Finish Sabotaging The Economy
Brandon Smith

As I predicted in my article 'Trump Trade Wars A Perfect Smokescreen For A Market Crash', published in March of 2018, as well as in my article 'The Trade War Distraction: Huawei And Linchpin Theory', published in December of 2018, the US/China trade dispute has escalated into an all out war with no end in sight. The claims of many analysts and skeptics a year ago that the trade war would be over quickly and that China would fold to US tariffs has been proven incorrect. The reason why these analysts got it so wrong centers primarily on their misunderstanding of the true purpose behind the events. Read More

05.30.19- Why A “Safe Retirement” Is Becoming Too Difficult to Obtain
Birch Gold Group

It used to be that you could save money for retirement, put some of it into Treasuries and/or CDs, and your “nest-egg” would be primed to give you retirement security.

That clear retirement path ended in 2000, according to John Mauldin in a recent SeekingAlpha article (emphasis ours): Read More

05.29.19- Monsanto is finally getting a taste of its own poison
Joe Jarvis

Monsanto is the quintessential evil corporation.

In the 1960s it created Agent Orange, a defoliant–hardcore weedkiller–which the USA used during the Vietnamwar. The military sprayed vast swaths of the jungle causing horrible health effects like cancer and birth defects in American veterans and Vietnamese civilians exposed to the chemical.

Then Monsanto brought their products home to the USA and started dumping its poison on the homeland. Read More

05.28.19- Pain Is Inevitable;
But Suffering Is Optional
Adam Taggart

How to avoid becoming collateral damage in the coming crash

Sometimes you really do find enlightenment at the top of the mountain.

I spent this week hiking in Montana’s Bitterroot mountain range, as a participant in the pilot run of a new personal-growth-through-adventure-travel startup.

In our group was a famous professional cyclist, who had been a superstar on the Tour de France for many years. Read More

05.27.19- The CPI Is Underrepresenting Food Inflation By 40%: Here's The Proof
Tyler Durden

The "muzzle" on reported inflation has policymakers and analysts perplexed.

As Joseph Carson, former director of economic research at Alliance Bernstein writes in his follow up to a "New Working Theory on Inflation", numerous economic explanations and theories have been offered, and policymakers are considering making changes to their operating price-targeting framework. Yet, before any decisions are made policymakers should consider all of the factors that could be keeping a "muzzle" on published inflation. Read More

05.25.19- The Ongoing Destruction of the Minds of Children
Gary D. Barnett

There can be no greater stretch of arbitrary power than to seize children from their parents, teach them whatever the authorities decree they shall be taught, and expropriate from the parents the funds to pay for the procedure.

Compulsory schooling is a travesty. To call it education is absurd. Real education is lifelong learning as an individual, while compulsory public schooling is the indoctrination of children as a collective exercise to bring all down to the lowest level. Prisons called schools are simply the forced means to stifle individual brilliance while promoting sameness and monotony. The result of this brainwashing is meant to teach children to obey orders, and to be satisfied spending their lives in a virtual cage of ignorance, to never become entrepreneurs and dissenters. Read More

05.24.19- How to Survive the Journey Ahead: A Graduation Message for a Terrifying Age
John W. Whitehead

“No matter who you are, no matter how strong you are, sooner or later, you'll face circumstances beyond your control.” — Cersei Lannister, Game of Thrones

Those coming of age today will face some of the greatest obstacles ever encountered by young people. Read More

05.23.19- Why Imminent Pension Crisis Reveals a Grim Future for All Retirees
Birch Gold Group

Whether or not you’re relying on a pension for part of your retirement, there is a grim future on the horizon for retirees tied to the pensions’ demise.

John Mauldin shines a light on the math that seems to explain why public pensions aren’t living up to their task:

So, when we say a plan is “fully funded,” it may not be so if the assumptions are wrong. Almost all public pension funds assume investment returns somewhere around 7% (and some as high as 8%+). That’s highly unlikely due to the debt we’ve accumulated, and debt is a drag on future growth. Read More

05.22.19- Origins of the Deep State in North America Part 3: What is the Fabian Society and to What End was it Created?
Matthew Ehret

Our first two installments have dealt with the origins of the Deep State in North America by reviewing the creation of the Rhodes Scholarship/Chatham House network at the end of the 19th century and the infiltration of indoctrinated scholars into every governing branch of western society. We traced the key players in this Oxford-based network who were formed with the intent of fulfilling the will of Cecil Rhodes to “form a church of the British Empire” and undo the effects of the American Revolution as a global phenomenon. Read More

05.21.19- The Origins of the Deep State in North America Part 2: Milner’s Perversion Takes Over Canada
Matthew Ehret

Canada’s history has remained clouded in misinformation and outright lies for over 200 years, while basic truths which were once well understood by leading statesmen in Canada a century past are now treated as little more than myth or “conspiracy theory”. Yet as the above quote written by the pen of Lord Alfred Milner indicates, the crafting of the Canadian identity has been bought for the price of a national soul. The greatest obstacle to Canadian sovereignty today is found in the fact that Canada’s synthetic identity has been constructed over the past decades with the intention of obstructing the establishment upon this earth of a world of sovereign republics, which was and still is the outgrowth of the success of the American Revolution. Read More

05.20.19- The Origins of the Deep State
in North America
Matthew Ehret

“Two systems are before the world; the one looks to increasing the proportion of persons and of capital engaged in trade and transportation, and therefore to diminishing the proportion engaged in producing commodities with which to trade, with necessarily diminished return to the labor of all; while the other looks to increasing the proportion engaged in the work of production, and diminishing that engaged in trade and transportation, with increased return to all, giving to the laborer good wages, and to the owner of capital good profits… One looks towards universal war; the other towards universal peace. One is the English system; the other we may be proud to call the American system, for it is the only one ever devised the tendency of which was that of elevating while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world.” Read More

05.18.19- Trump's Last Stand
Peter Schiff

General George Custer met his doom charging into a battle he thought he could win, against an opponent he did not understand. Based on his views about the fast-emerging trade war with China, it looks to me that Donald Trump, another blonde with a very high opinion of himself, is charging into an economic version of the Little Bighorn. By mistaking the real nature of international trade, the costs of tariffs, the effects of currency movements, and the supposed ease with which the United States could quickly re-establish itself as a low-cost manufacturer, Trump risks shredding the safety nets that have undergirded the U.S. economy for decades and plunging us into a war we are ill-equipped to fight. Read More

05.17.19- The Darkness Rising - Twilight of Those Who Would Be Gods
Jesse's Café Américain

The retail sales number came in rather badly this morning.

There is no real recovery. Just a papering over of the rot endemic to oligarchy.

Gold and silver are struggling at overhead resistance.  

Gold is much more interesting to watch here because of its nature as a safe haven. 

And of course its central role in the changes in the monetary regime which have been called currency wars. Read More

05.16.19- We Have 3 Years Before The National Debt "Death Spiral"
Mac Slavo

According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Debt Management, the U.S. government is just five years away from the point of no return.  With the national debt spiraling quickly out of control, there are only a few years left before every single dollar the government borrows will go toward funding interest payments on the national debt. Read More

05.15.19- The Economy Has Fundamentally Changed In The 21st Century...
And Not For The Better
Charles Hugh Smith

The net result is we have an economy that's supposedly expanding smartly while our well-being and financial security are collapsing.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other metrics of economic activity don't measure either broad-based prosperity or well-being. Elites skimming financialization profits by expanding corporate debt and issuing more loans to commoners while spending more on their lifestyles boosts GDP quite nicely while the security and well-being of the bottom 90% plummets. Read More

05.14.19- 5 Memes… because if you can’t laugh about government, you’ll cry
Daily Bell Staff

Read More

05.13.19- The World To America: "You're Fired!"
Dmitry Orlov

Some ironies are just too precious to pass by. 

The 2016 US presidential elections gave us Donald Trump, a reality TV star whose famous tag line from his show “The Apprentice” was “You are fired!” Focus on this tag line; it is all that is important to this story. Some Trump Derangement Disorder sufferers might disagree. This is because they are laboring under certain misapprehensions: that the US is a democracy; or that it matters who is president. It isn’t and it doesn’t. By this point, the choice of president matters as much as the choice of conductor for the band that plays aboard a ship as it vanishes beneath the waves.  Read More

05.11.19- A compound in pomegranates can trigger cancer cell death
Michelle Simmons

The interest in fruits rich in polyphenols has recently increased due to their cancer-fighting potential. In a study published in the journal Nutrition Research, a team of researchers from China found that a compound in pomegranates called punicalagin can fight against cancer by triggering cancer cell death.

A previous study carried out by the same researchers revealed that punicalagin induces autophagic cell death in papillary thyroid carcinoma cells. For the current study, the research team hypothesized that punicalagin triggers DNA damage associated with cell death because DNA damage was previously reported as an inducer of autophagy. Autophagy can encourage tumor suppression during cancer initiation and protect tumors during progress. Read More

05.10.19- "Get The Popcorn Ready" - Why The World's Most Bearish Hedge Fund Thinks The Biggest Crash Is Almost Here
Tyler Durden

Conventional investing wisdom would have you believe that anybody who has remained bearish on global markets since the financial crisis has not only lost a boatload of money, but has missed out on the opportunity to cash in on one of the most torrid bull markets in recent memory.

However, as Horseman Global's Russell Clark has proven over and over again, this simply isn't true. A few years back, we anointed Horseman with the title "The world's most bearish hedge fund" for a very simple reason: Read More

05.09.19- Border Crisis: Most Arrests In 12 Years; Over 168,000 Released Into US; Measles, Chickenpox Found
Tyler Durden

More than 168,000 illegal immigrants have been released into the US this fiscal year - a number sure to surge as the border crisis worsens, according to Nathalie R. Asher, acting chief of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's deportation branch.

In Wednesday comments to Congress, Asher added that according to the results of a pilot program, 87% of released immigrants fail to show up for their court hearings, resulting in judges ordering them deported in absentia, according to the Washington Times, which adds that tracking them down has been a daunting task. Read More

05.08.19- Seven Laws of Investing
Gary Christenson

Lance Roberts listed James Montier’s 7-Immutable Lawsof Investing. They are:

1. Always insist on a margin of safety.
2. This time is never different.
3. Be patient and wait for the fat pitch.
4. Be contrarian.
5. Risk is the permanent loss of capital, never a number.
6. Be leery of leverage.
7. Never invest in something you don’t understand.

Those sensible rules apply to gold and silver. Read More

05.07.19- The Old World is Dying
Michael Krieger

Yesterday, Trump took to Twitter and unexpectedly threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods this coming Friday. This caught most people by surprise given incessant commentary over the past several months about how good trade talks were going and how close both sides were to signing a monumental deal. Although Trump’s tweet led to immediate turmoil in global financial markets, U.S. equities have gone up in a straight line since the market opened and are barely down as I write this. Investors appear to assume this is just theater meant make the U.S. public think he’s being tough, so that when he ultimately signs a largely meaningless sham deal with no teeth he can talk it up and pat himself on the back for being a brilliant negotiator. I’m not convinced this is correct, but it’s what markets seem to be pricing in. Either way, we’ll have answers soon enough. Read More

05.06.19- Which SHTF situation is most likely to actually happen?
Zoey Sky

The prepping lifestyle can be overwhelming for most people but at its core, preppers prioritize readiness in all aspects of their lives. But amid all the talk about prepping skills, survival gear, and food supplies, how do you know which disaster event has the highest chance of occurring within your lifetime? (h/t to TheSurvivalistBlog.net) Read More

05.04.19- Why Does Time Seem Like It’s Speeding Up?
Truth Stream Media

Does constant exposure to digital technology change the way we perceive time?  I would have to agree with the following video from Truthstream Media and say yes.  When human attention is hyperfocused on a single point, all other environmental stimuli tends to be cut off. When we completely cut our experience off from our surroundings, this often makes us feel as though we are suffering from what is sometimes called "time loss". Add to this the neverending quest for a new hit of dopamine that digital culture provides and you have a recipe for the mass warping of human brains. Read More

05.03.19- Covington Gives a Glimpse of
Civil War Two
Matt Bracken

During the attempted electronic lynching of the Covington Catholic high school boys on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the mask hiding the Left’s genocidal rage slipped and was momentarily visible. The reality of the confrontation was inverted 180 degrees by the duplicitous mainstream media so that a smiling white teenager was made to face the wrath of an Orwellian two-minute hate that stretched on for days, even after the factual record was corrected. Read More

05.02.19- Show Me the Real Money
Gary Christenson

Those circulating dollar bills, euros, pounds, and yen are DEBTS (notes) issued by central banks to extract wealth from citizens and the economy, dilute the purchasing power of the currency, and nourish the banking cartel.

I’ll show you real money. It looks like this: Read More

05.01.19- How the Financialization Scam Works
Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – Financialization is our subject…

What is it? How does it happen? Does it matter? Who cares?

Let’s begin with the last question: Who cares?

Answer: Nobody… until it blows up. Read More

04.30.19- Tom Petty was Right
James Howard Kunstler

How to account for Americans being the most anxious, fearful, and stressed-out people among the supposedly advanced nations? Do we not live in the world’s greatest democratic utopia where dreams come true?

What if the dreaming part is actually driving us insane? What if we have engineered a society in which fantasy has so grotesquely over-run reality that coping with daily life is nearly impossible. What if an existence mediated by pixel screens large and small presents a virtual world more compelling than the real world and turns out to be a kind of contagious avoidance behavior — until reality is so fugitive that we can barely discern its colors and outlines beyond the screens? Read More

04.29.19- Wealthy Elitists Freak Out As Hordes Of Homeless People Take Over Their Neighborhoods All Over The West Coast
Michael Snyder

The elite are very “tolerant” of the homeless until they start showing up in their own neighborhoods.  Even though the mainstream media keeps telling us that the U.S. economy is “booming”, the number of Americans living on the streets continues to grow very rapidly, and this is particularly true in our major west coast cities.  More than half a million Americans will sleep on the streets of our cities tonight, and they need help, care and shelter.  Sadly, as economic conditions deteriorate that number is likely to double or even triple.  Of course many among the elite are all in favor of doing something for the homeless, as long as they don’t have to be anywhere around them. Read More

04.27.1- No One Is Coming to Rescue You — Especially Not a Presidential Candidate
Brittany Hunter

No one is coming to help you, so you might as well stop waiting and start fixing your own life today.

We are only a few months into 2019, and already the 2020 presidential election season is well underway. Each week, it seems that more candidates are entering the race, especially in the Democratic field. And as the country cycles through its political flavors of the week, social media has become overrun by passionate posts that read more like stump speeches in support of a given candidate. Read More

04.26.19- Nearly 102 Million Americans Do Not Have A Job Right Now – Worse Than At Any Point During The Last Recession
Michael Snyder

Wouldn’t it be horrible if the number of Americans without a job was higher today than it was during the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009?  Well, that is actually true.  As you will see below, nearly 102 million Americans do not have a job right now, and at no point during the last recession did that number ever surpass the 100 million mark.  Of course the U.S. population has grown a bit over the last decade, but as you will see below, the percentage of the population that is engaged in the labor force is only slightly above the depressingly low levels from the last recession. Read More

04.25.19- A horrible future awaits for anyone who depends on government
Joe Jarvis

Lice, cockroaches, and root canals all have better approval ratings than Congress.

Congress controls government spending. And nine out of every ten people say the government doesn’t spend tax dollars wisely.

57% say tax rates are too high. Read More

04.24.19- Here’s an easy way to tell if your bank is actually safe
Simon Black

March 15, 2013 was a pretty normal day in Cyprus. It was a Friday, and most people were looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

The next morning the entire nation woke up in horror. Their politicians had been up all night, negotiating with international lenders to provide an emergency loan to the country, and its banks. Read More

04.23.19- Now who would have thought it would be this simple to explain!
Jeffrey Bennett

The author, Rick Mathes, is a well-known leader in prison ministry. The man who walks with God always gets to his destination. If you have a pulse you have a purpose.

The Muslim religion is the fastest growing religion per capita in the U S, especially in the minority races. Not the Catholics, not the Mormons. Last month I attended my annual training session that’s required for maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by 3 speakers representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant & Muslim faiths, who each explained their beliefs.  Read More

04.22.19- The Best Case For Free Trade
Is a Personal One
Sterling Terrell

Business is personal. And all barriers to trade are restrictions on personal freedom.

The best case for free trade—the best argument in favor of unbridled commerce—might be a personal one.

Let me explain. Read More

04.20.19- Are “Conspiracy Theories” Tearing Society Apart Or Saving Us From Destruction?
Brandon Smith

The phrase “conspiracy theory” is often used by establishment agencies, the mainstream media and useful idiots as a tool to dismiss legitimate evidence or viewpoints that disagree with their predetermined version of events. This method of propaganda was not always as widespread as it is today. The phrase was not “created” by the CIA, but it was in fact weaponized by them in the 1960's after the assassination of John F. Kennedy with the express purpose of shutting down rational debate.

CIA memo 1035-960, circulated within the CIA in 1967 and exposed through a freedom of information act request by the New York Times in 1976, outlines strategies the agency would use to shut down critics of the Warren Commission Report. Read More

04.19.19- The House on Lake Minnetonka That Never Existed
Aaron Clarey

A Tale of Two Lakes 

Allow me to regale you with the tale of two lakes - Lake of the Isles and Lake Minnetonka.

Many years ago, when the Captain was but a wee corporal, he was attending the University of Minnesota- Minneapolis.  Close to the campus was "the lakes." "The lakes" included four lakes that were chained together and formed the "crown jewel" of the Minneapolis parks system.  These lakes were: Read More

04.18.19- How to Make Your “Embarrassing” Investments Pay Off
Whitney Tilson

I’ve learned a lot of things over my 20-year career on Wall Street.

But perhaps nothing is as valuable as talking about investing with average folks. I call it the “cocktail-party indicator.”

Whether it’s your trainer at the gym, a neighbor who has never shown any interest in the markets, or the proverbial shoeshine guy… When you hear these folks talking about how much money they’ve made in bitcoin, 3D printing companies, or the latest hot IPO… run, don’t walk, the other way. Read More

04.17.19- Guess who ends up paying those taxes meant only for the rich…
Joe Jarvis

Imagine starting a small business in the USA in 1875.

Imagine working for yourself, or building a company from scratch. With no corporate taxes, and no income taxes, you kept the full rewards of your risk and labor.

It’s not surprising that in about 100 years the United States went from non-existent, to having the largest economy in the world. Read More

04.16.19- Japanified World Ahead
John Mauldin

Regular readers may have noticed me slowly losing confidence in the economy. Your impression is correct and there’s a good reason for it, as I will explain today. The facts have changed so my conclusions are changing, too.

I still think the economy is okay for now. I still see recession odds rising considerably in 2020. Maybe it will get pushed back another year or two, but at some point this growth phase will end, either in recession or an extended flat period (even flatter than the last decade, which says a lot). And I still think we are headed toward a global credit crisis I’ve dubbed The Great Reset. Read More

04.15.19- The Bull(y) Rally
Adam Taggart

Something unnatural is going on

"A bully is always a coward."

~ Thomas Chandler Haliburton

The current market rally is like a playground bully; shoving to the ground anyone in its path.

But like all bullies, the braggadocio belies an underlying cowardice.

Those in charge of the status quo must be absolutely terrified to resort to the unnatural lengths they are going to right now to keep the current rally intact. Read More

04.13.19- Trump Calls for New Quantitative Easing to Prop Up U.S. Economy
Stefan Gleason

As gold and silver markets continue in choppy trading this spring, bulls are hoping a dovish Fed will sink the dollar and lift the metals.

Now that the Federal Reserve is on “pause” – presumably for the rest of 2019 – perhaps investors can stop obsessing over interest rate decisions by central planners. Perhaps markets can finally trade based on actual market signals and underlying fundamentals. 

Perhaps ... not. Read More

04.12.19- World Faces "Uphill Battle" With Average IQ Of Just 82!
James Thompson

David Becker has released a new version of the World’s IQ. Each country has a score showing the cognitive abilities of their citizens, this being a blend of genetics and the environment of each country, particularly as regards education and health. The world’s global score is 82. This is 12th percentile rank on the Greenwich Mean Intelligence benchmark of IQ 100. As school teachers used to say in end of year reports: “Could do better”. Read More

04.11.19- Growing Public Pension Crisis an ‘Existential Financial Threat’
Emel Akan

WASHINGTON—Unfunded liabilities of nearly $6 trillion in state pension plans pose a significant risk to public workers, retirees, and taxpayers across the United States, according to a new study.

Almost every state struggles with massive unfunded pension obligations due to the “risky and uncaring attitudes” of lawmakers, according to a report released March 20 by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative public-policy organization.

State pensions in the United States are funded at an average of 35 percent of what they should be, according to the report. And that means an average of $18,300 in unfunded pension obligations for every resident in the country. Read More

ANOTHER “Bomb Cyclone” Will Bring More Flooding To Parts Of The Midwest That Were Hit By A “1,000 Year Flood” Last Month
Michael Snyder

Less than a month after a “bomb cyclone” caused a “1,000 year flood” in the middle portion of the country, another “bomb cyclone” of similar strength is going to bring even more flooding to the High Plains and Upper Midwest.  According to meteorologists, it is being projected that this new “bomb cyclone” will be “similar in intensity and in snowfall” to the last one, and the latest forecast is calling for “more than 30 inches in some areas”.  The floods that we witnessed last month absolutely devastated communities throughout the region, and now it is going to happen again. Read More

04.09.19- The Curse of the Thinking Class
James Howard Kunstler

How might we account for the strange melding of neuroticism and dishonesty that has gripped America’s thinking class since the ascent of Donald Trump as an epically reviled figurehead on our ship of state? It all seems to come down to shame and failure.

There is, for instance, the failure of America’s leading economic viziers to arrest the collapse of the middle class — and with it, the disintegration of families — that more than anything produced the 2016 election result. What is a bigger emergency: the destruction of all those towns, cities, and lives in flyover-land, or the S & P stock index going down twenty points? Read More

04.08.19- Why a Ruinous Deflation Is Coming
Rick Ackerman

I’ve been writing on deflation since the early-1990s, when I had the topic all to myself and was regarded as a voice on the lunatic fringe. Scary essays that I freelanced to Barron’s, the San Francisco Examiner and a number of other publications turned out to have been premature, but I’ve never doubted that the endgame for a global economy glutted by debt would be a deflationary collapse. Skeptics say the Government will make this impossible by simply revving up the printing presses, creating enough money to bail out ‘the system’ regardless of how many dollars it takes. Oh really? How would this work if, as is extremely likely, a state pension system goes bust? Read More

04.06.19- The Growing Opposition To
Factual Knowledge
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

News From Information Clearing House

I just heard from Tom Feeley:

“I have been unable to determine why the website has been  suspended, I have sent lots of, emails, telephone calls and faxes and have not received any response.

“The really frustrating thing is that I am locked out of the C panel and am unable to access files I need in order to migrate to another company’s servers. Read More

04.05.19- Read this if you believe that you will never need a semi-automatic rifle.
Hedgeless Horseman

“Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back --
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
― Rudyard Kipling

Day in and day out I observe that The Rule of Law is being eroded in America, especially the Highest Law of the Land, The Constitution of the United States and The Bill of Rights.  If you disagree with me, then maybe you simply do not know what it is that you are looking for, so you do not miss it.  Here is a list with four things to help you better see what exactly it is that we are slowly but surely losing. Read More

04.04.19- US government’s net worth is now NEGATIVE $75 TRILLION
Simon Black

Usually around the middle of February each year, the US Treasury Department releases an annual report of the federal government’s financial condition.

It’s called the Financial Report of the US Government… and it looks a lot like an annual report that you might see filed by a big company like Apple or Facebook.

Except that, unlike Apple and Facebook, the US government’s annual report is absolutely gruesome. Read More

04.03.19- Missouri bill will ban
all federal gun-control laws
Fellowship Of The Minds

I thank God that our Founding Fathers, whose greatest fear was a tyrannical government, had the wisdom and foresight to institute curbs on government power in the form of numerous checks and balances.

One of those checks is the creation of a federal republic, in which the constituent geographic states have their separate powers — a founding principle that is enshrined in the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which spells out the powers of the constituent (geographical) states and of the people. Read More

04.02.19- Open the Age of Reason
Harley Schlanger

"There, in the stars, lies mankind's entry into the long-awaited Age of Reason, when our species sheds at last the cultural residue of the beast." — Lyndon LaRouche, 1985

In unveiling his five-year U.S. manned-Moon mission and succeeding international Moon-colonization and Moon-Mars missions when he did so, immediately after the collapse of the "Russiagate" coup against him one week ago, President Donald Trump acted exactly as Lyndon LaRouche might have advised him—if only LaRouche were still alive to see these signal victories for his ideas.

The British beast may have suffered a big setback, but it is still active and still working to shred the U.S. Constitution; we must go on to inflict its final defeat. Read More

04.01.19- Here’s What Pops the
“Everything Bubble”…
Nick Giambruno

As regular readers of the Diary already know, the Fed responded to the 2008 financial crisis with unprecedented amounts of easy money. It claimed it would “stimulate the economy.”

But as Bill has been showing you all week (catch up here, here, and here), all that “stimulation” did absolutely nothing for the real economy. All it did was push up the price of financial assets, specifically stocks and bonds. Read More

03.30.19- The Financial Panic of 2019?
Martin Armstrong

The distortion in the yield curve is building with tremendous force. There are vast bids for US 90-day T-Bills from around the world and no offers. The shortage in US government paper is now being reported to us from repo desks around the world. There is a MAJOR PANIC in to the dollar as emerging markets come under a financial crisis, in part, instigated by Turkey. The government simply trapped investors and refuses to allow transactions out of the Turkish lira. Turkey’s stand-off with investors has unnerved traders globally, pushing the world ever closer to a major FINANCIAL PANIC come this May 2019. Read More

03.29.19- How to Play The Game of Life & Go Into Extra Innings
Bill Sardi

Now you and your loved ones can play the game of life into extra innings and they aren’t going to have to send in a pinch runner for you, and you won’t be forced to retire and you can still hit home runs! 

Biologists just figured out how people living in developed countries are going to live 100 healthy years and the masses aren’t going to have to wait for some high-priced drug to achieve it. Read More

03.28.19- Behind the Mueller Distraction…
a Hellish Catastrophe
Bill Bonner

The last two years have been full of absurd distractions. The Mueller Report, for example – one big, fat, waste of time.

So were the trade wars… first with Canada and Mexico… and now with China. Lots of blah, blah… gumming and jawing…

And there was the “taking the knee”… which many people took seriously. And remember Stormy Daniels? And two summits with North Korea?

What was the point? Why the circus? Read More

03.27.19- For The Average Investor, The Next Bear Market Will Likely Be The Last
Lance Roberts

Just recently Anna-Louise Jackson published an interesting article asking if “The Financial Crisis” still haunted your investing. To wit:

“This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the current bull market’s beginnings. Yet, many Americans remain reluctant to invest in the stock market, a scary hangover from the 2007-09 recession. Read More

03.26.19- How the Perfect Prepper Plans
Still Go Wrong
Daisy Luther

When a disaster strikes unexpectedly, there’s nearly always some kind of monkey wrench that causes your well-thought-out prepper plans to work less effectively than expected.  When describing the situation, the person says sheepishly, “Normally we wouldn’t have had X circumstance going on when it happened, and our preps would have worked just fine.”

Or, in the eloquent words of Mike Tyson, “Everyone’s got a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.” Read More

03.25.19- France Is The Socialist Future We Should Dread
Veronique de Rugy

A lot of attention and ink are being poured these days in trying to explain to a generation of voters why socialism always fails. Not only does socialism always fail to deliver the economic goods; it is also a source of massive oppression and pain.

I get why so many are devoting such amounts of energy to this task. First, the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and few others have made the notion of socialism acceptable in some circles and even hip. Also, according to a poll from August, more Democrats approve of socialism than of capitalism. Read More

03.23.19- 18 Statistics That Prove That America Has Become An “Idiocracy”
Michael Snyder

Once upon a time, America had the greatest system of education on the entire planet, and our people were sharp, capable and extremely well informed.  Sadly, none of those things are true anymore.  In 2006, Mike Judge made a movie entitled “Idiocracy” in which an individual of below average intelligence wakes up after being asleep for 500 years thanks to a military hibernation experiment.  When he wakes up, he quickly realizes that he is now the smartest man in America, and that is not a good thing.  The film became an instant classic, but when I originally watched it I thought that such a thing could never actually happen in this country.  Unfortunately, I was wrong. Read More

03.22.19- Government Warns Of Historic, Widespread Flooding “Through May” – Food Prices To Skyrocket As 1000s Of Farms Are Destroyed
Mixhael Snyder

We have never seen catastrophic flooding like this, and the NOAA is now telling us that there will be more major flooding for at least two more months.  On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that “historic, widespread flooding” would “continue through May”.  More than 90 percent of the upper Midwest and Great Plains is currently covered by an average of 10.7 inches of snow, and all of that snow is starting to melt.  Read More

03.21.19- Social Security “Tipping Point” Could Be Arriving Faster Thanks to Congress
Peter Reagan

The Social Security system is expected to have enormous financial pressures placed on its back for the next two decades.

If nothing is done, in 2034 the clock will be ticking for this and other entitlement programs like Medicare.

But a “tipping point” may be coming faster than most people think. Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan had a prescription to offer in a  Newsmax piece. There’s his “easier said than done” part: Read More

03.20.19- A Recipe for Massive Government Spending
Peter Reagan

I try to avoid partisan politics in my analysis. And I never try to tell people how to vote or what they should think. I trust my readers to make their own judgments. But sometimes I can’t avoid partisan politics because they can have a major impact on markets and the economy.

Leading Democratic presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders have expressed desires to increase income taxes to 70% or even 90% on the rich, impose “wealth taxes” on their net worth and impose estate taxes that are equally onerous when they die. Read More

03.19.19- How States/Empires Collapse
in Four Easy Steps
Charles Hugh Smith

The promises cannot be met, and so society decays into warring elites and competing constituencies.

There is a grand, majestic tragedy in the inevitable collapse of once-thriving states and empires: it all seemed so permanent at its peak, so godlike in its power, and then slowly but surely, too many grandiose, unrealistic promises were made to too many elites and constituencies, and then as growth decays to stagnation, the only way to maintain the status quo is to appear to meet all the promises by creating money out of thin air, i.e. debauching the currency. Read More

03.18.19- Internet Censorship and False Flag Fake wars coming to a city near you
Global Intel Hub

\This recent shooting in NZ was not just a 'shooting' it was a crossing of the Rubicon into a new sea of Orwellian fear and loathing.  As we explain in our book, NOTHING is as it seems.  Everything is about OPTICS and what really goes on is largely disregarded.  New Zealand is a testing ground: Read More

03.16.19- The Government’s Greatest Con Job
Peter Reagan

Yesterday we documented our personal frustrations with contemporary technology.

Today we file a protest against contemporary money.

We begin with the “evolution” of United States currency…

We refer you to this $10 bank note, dated 1928: Read More

03.15.19- World War 3 Coming? Israel Is On The Brink Of War With Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria And Iran All At The Same Time
Michael Snyder

On Thursday, rockets were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time since 2014, and Israel responded by hammering Hamas with airstrikes.  This latest exchange has brought Israel closer to another war with Hamas than ever.  But as you will see below, Israel is also on the brink of war with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.  And on top of everything else, the most pivotal election in Israel in many years is on April 9th.  If more rockets are fired at Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot afford to look weak because that could cost him a lot of votes in this very tight election.  Read More

03.14.19- Why Do Some People Live Paycheck To Paycheck?
Tom Chatham

It is common place today to hear of people living paycheck to paycheck. If so many people are living so close to the edge one must ask why? There are many reasons why someone might be in financial distress but one looming question remains. If they lack sufficient funds to live as they do, why do they continue on that path?

It has become evident to me that many people live paycheck to paycheck because they choose to. It seems that many people today decide what standard of living they want and start living it. They get the home, car, clothes, jewelry and other items they view as their birthright. Then they try to find a job that will pay for it all. They are basically doing things ass backwards. Read More

03.13.19- Shoot Now Or Be Shoved In The Oven
Karl Denninger

The title of this article is not hyperbole.

Gene Sperling was just on CNBC saying that health care must be treated as a right and essentially deferring the debate as to how to pay for all of that -- and of course he trotted out the trope of a kid born with severe disabilities bankrupting his or her parents.

Health care is, today, almost 20% of our economy.  One dollar in five. Read More

03.12.19- Civil War Would Erupt If “Green Deal” Socialists Actually Get What They Want
Brandon Smith

In the months preceding the 2016 presidential election, I predicted a Trump election win but tried to temper expectations with the reality that there were multiple scenarios exploitable by globalists which could turn the conservative elation into confusion and chaos. Just after the election, I published an article titled 'Order Out Of Chaos: The Defeat Of The Left Comes With A Cost'. In that article I warned that the political Left, when confronted with failure, has displayed a habit of doubling or tripling down and becoming even more extreme in their rhetoric and policies. Read More

03.11.19- Third Reich Redux: Don’t Say We Weren’t Warned
Erik Rush

As widely reported in the press and widely discussed on social media venues, a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey indicated that nearly two-thirds of registered voters believe that the Democratic Party supports socialism; further, that a whopping 56 percent of those aged 18-24 and 48 percent of those aged 25-34 favor a “mostly socialist” system.

Now, for those who may be exclaiming that it’s time to put a fork in America “because we’re done,” the latter two stats are admittedly pretty worrisome, even if one factors in the unreliability of some polls due to selective sampling and subjective interpretation. The numbers in question are even up from those of a 2016 Harvard University survey of adults between the ages 18 and 29, which reported that 51 percent of these did not support capitalism. Read More

03.09.19- Stunning Prediction of a Global Battle to Replace Fiat Money
Lior Gantz

Revolution is ugly and messy, but it’s sometimes necessary when tyranny exists. Tyranny can take many forms, including economic tyranny, which is manifested through the monetary supply in today’s world. Getting back to the gold standard would require nothing less than a revolution, and one widely-regarded commentator is predicting that we’ll see a revolt on a global scale.

Wealth Research Group actually had the chance to speak with this daring individual, who happens to be none other than Mr. Bob Moriarty. Read More

03.08.19- How To Earn an Income? What Do You Tell Your Kids?
Bill Sardi

Get good grades.  Get a good job.  Get a college education.  Work your way up the ladder.  You might become a millionaire.  But you are always relying on someone else determining how valuable you are.  According to the U.S. Debt Clock, in this land of capitalism and free enterprise, there are only 8,826,490 Americans out of a labor force of 156 million who are self employed and have no imposed cap on their income. Read More

03.07.19- The Trade Deficit Continues To Explode, Factories Continue To Be Closed, And U.S. Jobs Continue To Be Sent Overseas
Michael Snyder

The long-term trends that are gutting the U.S. economy continue to get even worse.  As you will see below, our goods trade deficit with the rest of the world hit a brand new record high in 2018, and most Americans simply do not understand why this is such a massive problem.  Every year, we buy far more from the rest of the world than they buy from us, and that means that the amount of money going out of the country far surpasses the amount that is coming in.  This constant outflow of cash is one of the reasons why we are unable to pay our bills, and so we have to keep begging the rest of the world to lend us our money back.  Read More

03.06.19- 3 Top Cyber Security Threats and How To Protect Yourself Against Them
Sam Bocetta

The mass expansion of technology and global communication has made the world a smaller place. Never before has it been easier to speak with someone across the world in an instant. 

This information has its perks, but greater connectivity can open your data to everyone. The good news, there are ways to mitigate the risks and protect your data. Read More

03.05.19- Bannon Predicts 2019 Will Be “the most vitriolic year in American politics
since before the Civil War”
Daisy Luther

Who can forget the hostility during the 2016 election? The battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump caused the ends of friendships, strained family relationships, and set the tone for an angry new “normal” in the United States. And Steve Bannon, who was in the thick of the fray, predicts that this next election will be even worse … and that the problems will start this year, in 2019. Read More

Where Did AOC Get Her Sweet Potatoes?
Jeffrey A. Tucker

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was trying to explain to me that the world is going to melt, we are all going to die, and probably we shouldn’t be having any more children, but I was distracted by the dinner she was preparing on camera. She was carefully cutting sweet potatoes before putting them in the oven.

She put salt and pepper on them. Salt was once so rare that it was regarded as money. Ever try to go a day with zero salt? Nothing tastes right.  That was the history of humanity for about 150,000 years. Then we figured out how to produce and distribute salt to every table in the world. Now we throw around salt like it is nothing, and even complain that everything is too salty. Nice problem. Read More

03.02.19- The Debt Accrued Through Dollar Hegemony Is Unpayable (Except In Hyperinflated Dollars)
Michael Doliner

The United States Entity lost the war in Iraq. That fact determines the Entity’s position in the Middle East today.

After having destroyed Saddam’s army and dispossessing the Sunnis in favor of the Shi’ites, after Abu Ghraib and it’s indelible pictures, after the total destruction of Fallujah, in short after a victory achieved with the utmost brutality, contempt and humiliation of Iraq and Iraqis, the Entity was in charge. Then the “insurgents” appeared. They put improvised explosive devices along the roads so, with a phone call, they could destroy patrols of the Entity. They made car bombs so that every vehicle approaching a check-point might spell doom. They donned suicide vests to blow themselves and any nearby Entity soldiers up. Entity soldiers couldn’t go into the streets. Read More

03.01.19- Ginseng May Work Better Than Chemo and Radiation. Here’s How…
Sayer Ji

Known for thousands of years as a powerful tonic for health, new research reveals that ginseng and other cancer stem cell killing plants may provide highly effective treatments for cancer.

Cancer stem cells are one of the keys to understanding both the root cause(s) and the most appropriate treatment approaches for cancer. Read More

02.28.19- In Washington, Regime Change Is Truly and Urgently Needed!
Andre Vltchek

I am surprised that no one else is saying it, writing it, shouting it at each and every corner:

It is not Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Iran that are in dire and crucial need of ‘regime change’. It is the United States of America, it is the entire European Union; in fact, the entire West.

And the situation is urgent. Read More

02.27.19- How to Truly Measure
Standards of Living
Aaron Clarey

Economics has one goal in mind - to maximize standards of living.  This noble and never-ending goal sits at the heart of economics and has, by consequence, driven the majority of financial decisions made by government, corporations, academia, and other institutions (at least nominally anyway).  Our decisions are to get us out of poverty, increase our incomes, extend our lives, and drive towards the unattainable goal of unlimited wealth so that at some point in the future we attain a "Star-Trekkian" future where money is eliminated because wealth is infinite.  And it is in this pursuit of unlimited wealth, the economics profession has settled on a measure by which we measure standards of living today - GDP or "income" per capita. Read More

02.26.19- You Can't Stop The Cycle: The Next Few Years Will Change Everything
Michael Krieger

2018’s valuation records are astounding in that they show the S&P 500 to be more fundamentally over-valued than it was at the prior two historic stock market valuation peaks in 1929 and 2000, bona fide speculative manias.

– Crescat Capital

Cycles are perhaps the most natural and common occurrence in the universe. The planets orbit the sun, seasons change, day turns to night and night back to day, humans are born, grow old and die. Read More

92.25.19- The Freedom Fairy
Jeff Thomas

For some time, it’s been apparent that the former “free world” countries (the US, EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, etc.) have been on a downward progression – socially, politically and economically.

But, in the last ten years, the awareness of this has become increasingly pronounced. With each successive year, more and more people recognise that all facets of life in these formerly great countries are heading in a decidedly negative direction.  Read More

02.23.19- Class Warfare
Doug Casey 

Justin’s note: Are billionaires bad?

Many Americans on the left are asking themselves this question. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – the Democrat’s new rising star – is certainly no exception. Just look at what AOC said in a recent interview.

It’s not to say someone like Bill Gates, for example, or Warren Buffett are immoral people. I do not believe that.

I do think a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong.  Read More

02.22.19- 12 Steps You Can Take if
You Lose Your Job
Nilus Mattive

Losing your job is one of the most devastating life events both emotionally and financially.

Open the paper or do a quick Google search online and you’ll see all the recent corporate layoffs happening in America.

This month, General Motors said it was starting to hand pink slips to about 4,000 salaried workers in the latest round of restructuring. Read More

02.21.19- Plunder: An American Way of Life
Wolf Richter

Frederic Bastiat, a French economist and member of the French National Assembly, lived from 1801 to 1850. He had great admiration for our country, except for our two faults — slavery and tariffs. He said: “Look at the United States. There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of every person’s liberty and property.” If Bastiat were alive today, he would not have that same level of admiration. The U.S. has become what he fought against for most of his short life. Read More

02.20.19- Greatest Bubbles of All Time
Growth to Retire

Economic bubbles are one of the most difficult events to spot of all. Thus very difficult to avoid, let alone do something about it. So why study them at all? History rarely repeats itself (at least not in the exact same way, with the exact same financial assets). 

On the other hand, we can extract some lessons from every bubble. Thus constructing some protocol for future guidance. Here I’ll write about 7 of the Greatest Bubbles of all time, and then highlight common aspects between them. Read More

02.19.19- Great Civilizations Aren’t Murdered, They Commit Suicide: The U.S.’s Likely Collapse
Mac Slavo

Historian Arnold Toynbee in his 12-volume magnum opus A Study of History was an exploration of the rise and fall of 28 different civilizations. Toynbee concluded that great civilizations don’t “get murdered,” rather, they kill themselves, and all the signs of a civilization collapse are here.

The Roman Empire, for example, was the victim of many ills including overexpansion, climatic change, environmental degradation, and poor leadership. But it was also brought to its knees when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455. Read More

02.18.19- A gold backed alternative to the dollar may finally be here in the Iranian PayMon cryptocurrency
Ken Schortgen

Yesterday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence severely chastised members of the European Union for defying Washington and for their plans to create an alternative to the SWIFT system.  Additionally, he threatened these nations with sanctions or worse if they continue to follow in their support of Iran and the JCPOA.

Yet ironically, Europe's defiance to the U.S. regarding the Iranian JCPOA could have triggered the final battle for dollar hegemony in the world as multiple nations within both Europe and Eurasia are being recruited to ditch the reserve currency for a new gold backed cryptocurrency replacement. Read More

02.16.19- The Uncertainty Hiding in the Recent Market “Rally”
Birch Gold Group

If you look at the Dow year-to-date, you might think the market has rallied fairly well for the start of 2019. You might even think the uncertainty from 2018 was accounted for to some degree.

But not so fast. According to a recent report, Liz Ann-Sonders from Charles Schwab highlighted concerns about an imminent earnings recession.

Ann-Sonders said that an earnings recession – two straight quarters of year-over-year profit declines – is possible. It’s just not “something that the market is forecasting right now.” Read More

02.15.19- The Democratic Party's Secret Attack On The Middle Class
Charles Kadlec

Democrats repeatedly claim their goal is to promote middle-class prosperity.  Yet, their policy of increased spending financed by higher taxes and rising debt are a direct threat to the middle-class standard of living and economic security.  That is the conclusion of new research I have just completed based on an analysis of state taxes, spending and debt policies and their economic consequences based on data provided by the Tax Foundation, Sales Tax Institute, U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. government. Read More

02.14.19- Avoid the Financial Circus
Gary Christenson

From Dr. Maya Shetreat, MD:

“Don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus.”

THE WALL STREET CIRCUS DISTRACTS PEOPLE

Wall Street cheerleaders assure everyone stocks go up in the long term. Yes, they rise because the dollar is devalued every year, which they seldom discuss. Their cheerleaders avoid stating that corrections and crashes occur every five to ten years. Wall Street generates fees by encouraging individuals and pension funds to stay invested for the long term. Read More

02.13.19- Trump Missed His Last Great Opportunity
Bill Bonner

Lies and Claptrap

No one wants to hear about the State of the Union speech (SOTUS). Full of bluff and bluster… lies and claptrap – all of them are best forgotten, and fast.

But we return to last week’s SOTUS, as to the site of a murder, not to bury the corpse but to praise him.

For there lies DJT… Donald John Trump… slain. Like Caesar, smitten in the Capitol, but by his own hand.

Our guess is that he will never rise again. A further guess is that he will take the nation down with him; we will look at that tomorrow. Read More

02.12.19- If This Isn’t Stock Market Manipulation, Then I Don’t Know What Is
Jesse Felder

Executive teams have leveraged up their companies to record levels while paying record valuations for share buybacks…

There is a growing chorus surrounding the topic of stock buybacks and whether they should be banned. Most recently, Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders wrote a piece for the New York Times arguing that buybacks are nothing more than corporate self-indulgence that leads to long-term harm to both companies and the economy. This may be true and, with equity valuations at or near all-time highs, buybacks certainly appear uneconomic at current prices but this is no reason to ban them. Companies should be allowed to throw money down the drain if they so choose. It’s a free country, as they say. Read More

02.11.19- Dreams Die Hard
James Howard Kunsler

Somewhere between the fevered Zzzz’s of American Dreaming and the blinding shock of being “woke,” there is a recognition that an awful lot about contemporary life is not working and can’t go on. At the bottom of this discontent is the mistaken notion that the unwind of modernity can be arrested or mitigated by “smart” and “green” this-and-that.

The disappointment over it will be epic when we discover that the laws of physics override the bright ideas of politicians. America has been blowing green smoke up its own ass for years, promoting oxymorons such as “green skyscrapers” and “clean energy,” but the truth is we’re not going to run WalMart, Suburbia, DisneyWorld, and the interstate highway system on any combination of wind, solar, geothermal, recycled Fry-Max, and dark matter. Read More

02.09.19- Weekend Rant: Luciferianism: A Secular Look At A Destructive Globalist Belief System
Brandon Smith

Over many years of investigating the mechanics of global events and the people behind them I have become perhaps a little obsessed with one particular subject – the source and motivations of evil. This fascination does not stem from a simple morbid curiosity, but a strategic need to understand an enemy. Much like an exterminator needs to understand the behavior of cockroaches to be effective, I seek to understand the behavior and nature of organized evil. Read More

02.08.19- Telltale Signs Of Recession
Charles Hugh Smith

I'm seeing lifestyles that are out of stock and no longer available, even in China.

Though every recession is unique, all recessions manifest in similar ways in the real economy. By real economy, I mean the on-the-ground economy we observe with our own eyes, as opposed to the abstract statistical model reflected in official declarations of when recessions begin and end.

One characteristic that never makes it into the abstract statistical representation of recession is the light switch phenomenon: business suddenly dries up, as if someone turned a light switch off. This is especially visible in discretionary purchases, which include everything from smart phones to vehicles to eating out. Read More

02.07.19- “The Value Of The Dollar Has No Guarantee Whatsoever”
Egon von Greyerz

The statement above is of course totally accurate for a country running budget and trade deficits for over half a century with a total debt, including unfunded liabilities, in the hundreds of trillions of dollars.

It could have been said today, but it actually dates back to August 1971 when the People’s Daily in China declared the beginning of the end for the monetary system of the capitalist world. Read More

02.06.19- CounterThink: How the Cancer Industry Will DESTROY the New Cure for Cancer
Mike Adams

View Video

02.05.19- Home Sales to Get Even Uglier
in Near Future
Wolf Richter

“Dripping down, down, down. Frustrating that the housing market is not recovering”: National Association of Realtors

What will home sales look like in January and February? Very, very lousy, according to pending home sales, a measure that counts how many contracts were signed. Contract signings run roughly one or two months ahead of when the sales close and are reported as sales. The measure of pending home sales for December projects actual home sales in January and February. To that tune, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that its Pending Home Sales Index for December fell to the lowest level since April 2014: Read More

02.04.19- If You Are Warm Right Now,
Thank Capitalism
Raymond Niles

Last night the temperature fell 3 degrees an hour. As I write this, it is negative 10 degrees outside. A “once in a generation” polar vortex has swept into the American Midwest from the Arctic.

I am lucky to be alive. It would take me just a couple of hours to die from hypothermia if I were outside in such weather. But I am not just alive, I am comfortable. It is a balmy 73 degrees in my home. I am relaxing by my gas fireplace that gives off a warm heat as gentle flames dance about and please my eye. I can hear the gentle whir of fans blowing heat around my living room, generated by my furnace. I write this on my comfortable sofa with a computer on my lap powered by electricity and fed information via the Internet, itself powered by electricity and glass-fiber conduits that carry information to me from computersfrom across the earth. Read More

02.02.19- How Rich Is Rich?
Tyler Durden

With an ever-growing chorus of ‘soak the rich’ rising from the left-er of the leftists, it is becoming increasingly important to know what “rich” is – How much would you have to earn in a year in the U.S. before someone considered you rich?

Statista’s Niall McCarthy has the answer. According to a recent YouGov poll ,that depends heavily on you ask…

The research found that the American public considers an annual income between $90,000 and $100,000 necessary to be deemed rich. The fieldwork for the survey was carried out in September 2018 and it found that 76 percent of respondents think an annual income of $10,000 constitutes being poor. Read More

02.01.19- How Do You Beat The Bankers At Their Own Game?
Tom Chatham

Those that have been following events for several years know they are under attack by an enemy that has no face and means to do them great harm. Nothing less than their sovereignty and freedom is at stake. Absolute control over people and resources is the ultimate goal.

People need to understand that the bankers need to collapse everything and leave the population in want of resources. Just like after a natural disaster when the government shows up to provide help to those that have lost everything, the bankers want to show up after the population has lost everything in a collapse, to be their savior and gain control of everyone by offering resources in exchange for compliance. Read More

01.31.19- U.S.-China War May Be
“Just A Shot Away”
Jim Rickards

I have warned repeatedly that currency wars and trade wars can lead to shooting wars. Both history and analysis support this thesis.

Currency wars do not exist all the time; they arise under certain conditions and persist until there is either systemic reform or systemic collapse. The conditions that give rise to currency wars are too much debt and too little growth.

In those circumstances, countries try to steal growth from trading partners by cheapening their currencies to promote exports and create export-related jobs.  Read More

01.30.19- So You Want to Get Rich: Focus on Human Capital
Charles Hugh Smith

Wealth is flowing to those who earn money from their human capital and enterprise. 

So you want to get rich: OK, what's the plan? If you ask youngsters how to get rich, many will respond by listing the professions the media focuses on: entertainment, actors/actresses, pro athletes, and maybe a few lionized inventors or CEOs. 

The media's glorification of the few at the top of these sectors masks the statistical reality that those who attain wealth in these pursuits number in the hundreds or perhaps thousands, not in the millions. As in a lottery, the odds of joining such a limited group are extremely low.  Read More

01.29.19- Bunnies, Bombers and Butter
Gary Christenson

The welfare people and the warfare people control congress, appropriations, corruption and national policies. Implications are grim.

If a nation subsidizes butter, it will get more butter. The U.S. and most other western governments subsidize welfare and warfare. Those expenses inevitably increase and are inescapable, like the mathematics of debt.

The U.S. federal and state governments created a huge network of government programs, giveaways, entitlements and public assistance. The welfare people have increased the number and cost of those programs every decade. Giveaways will expand next decade when the U.S. elects a welfare-oriented politician as President. She will push for Universal Basic Income, Medicare for all, guaranteed jobs, free tuition, wealth taxes and more. Read More

01.28.19- Feminism Is A Disease -
And Masculinity Is The Cure
Brandon Smith

It seems these days like everyone and their genderfluid grandma has some “profound” insight into the minds and world of men. Men and masculinity are spoken of in the media with sharp tones of fear mixed with disdain, as if we are a dangerous aberrant genetic anomaly that needs to be studied under a special microscope that will protect the observer from being influenced by our vitriolic pheromones. The problem is, most of these “experts” on manhood are not men at all, or, their observations of male behavior are tainted with deep-seated resentments.  That is to say, they are hardly objective. Read More

01.26.19- Weekend Rant: Toxic Masculinity and White Privilege
Doug Casey

Just a forewarning, this is one of the most controversial Conversations With Casey we’ve ever published. You might want to skip reading this one if you’re easily offended.

Justin: Doug, what did you think of that Gillette ad?

Doug: The first thing that came to mind was that, when I was a kid in the ’50s, Schick razors used to sponsor boxing on television. Boxing, ritualized unarmed combat, is about the height of masculinity. It was, logically, sponsored by a razor company. Read More

01.25.19- Do This to Profit in a Bear Market
Jeff Clark

“Why on Earth,” a concerned reader asked recently, “would you even consider recommending buying any stock in a market you describe as bearish? After all, if the market is going to fall this year, then most stocks are going to fall with it…”

That’s a fair question. Most stocks are strongly correlated to the performance of the S&P 500. So, if the broad stock market falls in 2019 – as I’ve argued it will – then buying most stocks is going to be a mistake. Read More

01.24.19- Experts Uncertain About Social Security’s Future Prove One Thing is Certain
Birch Gold Group

A lot can happen between now and 2034. If you were to listen to a consensus from experts, you’d hear Social Security could run out of money in about 15 years.

This idea was recently addressed in a MarketWatch article, which included this potential result:

As most retirees and soon-to-retirees already know, Social Security is slated to run out of money in 2034 and, unless changes are made between now and then, beneficiaries beginning in that year will receive only 79% of what they otherwise would be owed. Read More

01.23.19- Three Ways the Government Shutdown forecasts a totally boring federal collapse
Joe Jarvis

Imagine: the federal government collapses, poof, gone.

Maybe it’s 2034, the date the government admits it can’t pay it’s $50 trillion Social Security bill.

Or maybe it’s earlier. The national debt is at almost $22 trillion, plus the massive everything-bubble created by the federal reserve money printing. Those don’t bode well for the future of the dollar.

It is inevitable that all this debt and the debasing of the US dollar will eventually hurt. Read More

01.22.19- What Will Take the Place of America?
Phil Butler

The dog and pony show that is US leadership is an ongoing embarrassment for millions of American brought up to believe in excellence. Big talk, never-ending controversy, and mudslinging, and disastrous decisions on a daily basis have made a mockery of freedom and democracy. Trump-Russia, propaganda, and the rewriting history and truth are bigger threats than terrorism. Here’s another brief look at the mayhem from Washington. Here’s some food for those who think.

Investigative genius Gordon Duff wrote recently about the psychopathic killer, former Vice-President Dick Cheney in a piece about the indecency of Washington. Discussing a new film called “V-I-C-E,” which fries Cheney on the spit like a big fat hen, Duff encapsulates what mucky slime our nation’s capital is infested with the following passage: Read More

01.21.19- C.S. Lewis Sounded the Alarm on the Dangers of Progressivism
Benjamin Hutchinson

While most of us associate C.S. Lewis with theological literature, the renowned author sounded the siren against progressivism’s clear dangers not only to the political rights and liberties of man, but also to our very perception of the reality of mankind…

C.S. Lewis: World-renowned author, philosopher, theologian. Christian apologist. Mere mention of his name fills our minds with images of faith-based allegory, of lions, witches, and wardrobes, of rational defenses of the Christian faith. Read More

01.19.19- The U.S. Economy and the Ponzi Scheme
Dr. Kal Kotecha

In a Ponzi scheme, money is taken from one source to pay for another, without actually having a real foundation or solid guaranteed future store of funds.  The initial returns generate excitement leading to more spending based mainly on reporting of false gains and the continuing propagation of unrealistic ideals.  At some point, the scheme loses its’ viability and fails to deliver as promised resulting in collapse and loss of funds, leaving victims’ scrambling to try to make up in some way for their losses.

The most famous Ponzi scheme of modern day was run by Bernie Madoff from New York City who managed to turn $5,000 saved from a lifeguarding job and installing sprinkler systems into nearly $65 billion of accounts.  During the run of the scheme he was able to amass an impressive list of clients including numerous celebrities and other well-known public figures.  Arvedlund, E. (2018). Read More

01.18.19- This problem is 10,000 times bigger than the border wall
Simon Black

We are in the midst of the longest government shutdown in history.

Don’t get me wrong, I like having the government shut down. As I’ve said before, I believe it is my moral duty to pay as little taxes as possible.

The government does some really stupid things with your tax dollars. I’d rather not pay for a $2 billion Obamacare website that doesn’t work, or to defend Congressmen against sexual assault allegations.

So, by starving the beast, I at least ensure they’re not squandering my money. Read More

01.17.19- This New Market Could Make You a Fortune in 2019
E.B. Tucker

He stared down his opponents, with his eyes barely visible under the broad brim of a Stetson cowboy hat.

He had a rattlesnake with its jaw open and fangs exposed glued to the front of it. With a Texas drawl, he’d tell the other players how he had killed it himself.

At 6’4’’ and 170 pounds, Amarillo Slim was the greatest gambler to ever live. He made his first million in 1947 when he was only 19. His unforgettable look helped make poker a mainstream game around 20 years ago. Read More

01.16.19- Where Will You Be Seated at the Banquet of Consequences?
Charles Hugh Smith

To get a good seat at the banquet of consequences, the owner of capital has to shift his/her capital into scarce forms for which there is demand. 

The Banquet of Consequences is being laid out, and so the question is: where will you be seated? The answer depends on two dynamics I've mentioned many times: what types of capital you own and the asymmetries of our economy.

One set of asymmetries is the result of the system isn't broken, it's fixed, i.e. rigged to favor the few at the expense of the many. There are many manifestations of neofeudal asymmetry that divides neatly into two classes and two systems, the nobility and the serfs. Read More

01.15.19- Here’s What an American Economic Collapse Could Actually Look Like (And How It May Be a Lot Different Than Folks Expect)
Daisy Luther

When we think of “economic collapse” our imaginations usually lead us immediately to the desperation we’ve witnessed in places like Venezuela or Greece. We think of starvation, a complete lack of medical care, and waves of suicide by people who simply can’t survive. We imagine an apocalyptic societal breakdown that is immediately visible.  Read More

01.14.19- Why I Will No Longer Recognize
the Week
Aaron Clarey

One of the main problems with life is that to merely survive takes all (and more) of your youth.  That to just get by you need to work two jobs, double time it to earn yourself a degree, double time it again to pay off the associated debts, and then still double time it a third time to establish yourself in a career.  If you do it right and are frugal along the way, you inevitably "win" where you have the American dream, no debts, and an adequate retirement account.  You are free to live your life and you're lucky if this happens before 40. Read More

01.12.19- This Technology Will Be Bigger
Than the Internet
Jeff Brown

Last October, a modified Toyota Prius drove itself 3,099 miles – from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan.

There was a human in the driver’s seat, but he didn’t touch the steering wheel, gas, or brake pedals for the entire trip. The self-driving car drove itself the entire distance.

If any readers are curious about the trip, have a look at the time-lapse video of the entire coast-to-coast journey here.

This coast-to-coast, self-driving journey was the first of its kind. Yet it got little to no press. Read More

01.11.19- The Recession Will Be Unevenly Distributed
Charles Hugh Smith

The coming recession will be unevenly distributed, meaning that it will devastate many while leaving others relatively untouched. A few will actually do better in the recession than they did in the so-called "recovery."

I realize many of the concepts floated here are cryptic and need a fuller explanation: the impact of owning differing kinds of capital, fragmentation, asymmetry, opacity, etc. ( 2019: Fragmented, Unevenly Distributed, Asymmetric, Opaque).

These dynamics guarantee a highly uneven distribution of recessionary consequences and whatever rewards are generated will be reaped by a few. Read More

01.10.19- Here’s Where the Next Crisis Starts
Jim Rickards

The case for a pending financial collapse is well grounded. Financial crises occur on a regular basis including 1987, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2007-08. That averages out to about once every five years for the past thirty years. There has not been a financial crisis for ten years so the world is overdue. It’s also the case that each crisis is bigger than the one before and requires more intervention by the central banks.

The reason has to do with the system scale. In complex dynamic systems such as capital markets, risk is an exponential function of system scale. Increasing market scale correlates with exponentially larger market collapses. Read More

01.09.19- The Last Act Crowns the Play
Hugo Salinas Price

For uncounted ages, the world's thinkers accepted, unquestioningly, the fact that human life is what it is, and cannot be changed: that its nature is unalterable.

Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (306 -337 AD) legalized Christianity but allowed the existence of other religions. Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD; other religions were considered foolish. Read More

01.08.19- Our Politics Now: Up vs. Down,
Not Left vs. Right
Brandon Weichert

If you were to view the evolution of politics in the West in traditional left versus right terms, you undoubtedly would see the political preferences of most people have shifted leftward.

Just look at how most Americans view federal spending: total government spending (federal, state, and local) accounts for 37.7 percent of the country’s overall gross domestic product. In other words, 37.7 percent of America’s economic growth is set to be generated by government spending (which is why Wall Street and other analysts worry about a government shutdown). Read More

01.07.19- Why Trump Must Legalize Pot
Nick Giambruno

Editor’s Note: Today, we turn to our weekend guest editor, Crisis Investing’s Nick Giambruno. Below, Nick shows why President Trump’s defining legacy likely won’t be an infrastructure boom or The Wall. It will be bringing legal pot to America.

Legal pot is a bit out of our wheelhouse here at the Diary. As Bill often says, his usual beat is money. But cannabis is now legal nationwide in Canada. It is expected to be lawful in Mexico starting this year. And a majority of Americans now favor legal pot. With all these forces converging, this is a trend that should be on every investor’s radar. Read More

01.05.19- Tax Attorney: Social Security Participants About to be “Disenfranchised”
Bob Adelmann

If Rebecca Waiser is right, millions of Americans are about to be “disenfranchised”of their Social Security benefits. Waiser, a licensed tax attorney and certified financial planner writing for Fox Business, says the math is incontrovertible and irreversible.

According to the trustees running the program, Social Security will be forced to start cutting benefits by 2034, 15 years from now. According to Waiser the crisis will hit in three years. Read More

01.04.19- Markets are all about flows
Alasdair Macleod

This article looks at prospective supply and demand factors for financial assets in the New Year and beyond. Investors should take into account money flowing into and out of financial assets as well as stock flows, particularly escalating government bond issuance, which looks likely to accelerate significantly in the coming years. It adds up to the fundamental case for physical gold and silver.

At this time of year, the thoughtful soul considers prospects for markets. Pundits are laying out their forecasts, and they fall into two broad camps. There are brokers and fund managers who talk of value. Their income and assets under management depend on continually inflating prices. Then there are the pessimists, a ragbag of doom-mongers who sweepingly point to risks on a grand scale. The collapse of Italy, Deutsche Bank, China, Brexit… take your pick. Read More

01.03.19- 2019 From a Fourth Turning Perspective
Jim Quinn

“An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics.”

Strauss and Howe wrote their book in 1996. They were not trying to be prophets of doom, but observers of history able to connect events through human life cycles of 80 or so years. Using critical thinking skills and identifying the most likely triggers for crisis: debt, civic decay, and global disorder, they were able to anticipate scenarios which could drive the next crisis, which they warned would arrive in the mid-2000 decade. Read More

01.02.19- The World Known to Me Is Fading Away
Paul Craig Roberts

In a few hours it will be another new year, 2019. I can remember when 1984 seemed far in the future, both as a calendar date and George Orwell’s predicted dystopia, to which 9/11 and the digital revolution gave birth in the 21st century. Now I find myself 35 years past 1984 and a stranger in a strange land.

Over these holidays two occurrances brought the strangeness of the present time home to me. Read More

01.01.19- Opinion: Roubini: President Trump is flirting with mutually assured economic destruction
Nouriel Roubini

Now that financial markets see the danger of the Trump presidency, the risk of a financial crisis and global recession has grown

Financial markets have finally awoken to the fact that Donald Trump is U.S. president. Given that the world has endured two years of reckless tweets and public statements by the world’s most powerful man, the obvious question is: what took so long? Read More

12.31.18- Guess What These Four Fastest Growing States Have in Common…
Joe Jarvis

Keep the federal government shut down and let the states set policy.

“Non-essential” government workers… well then what the hell are they doing there?

Every penny of federal spending should be only the most absolutely crucial, necessary cent to keep the country’s most basic functions going… Read More

12.29.18- The Baby Boomer Survival Guide – Part 2
Bill Bonner

What is money really good for?

Money is our beat at the Diary. 

But money means nothing without philosophy. Beyond what we need to survive, money has no importance.

Is it good? Is it bad? It depends.

We need a simple philosophy to make sense of it – to guide us past the Gucci bags… past cable TV… and past the million-euro apartments of the 16th arrondissement in Paris. Read More

12.18.28- The Arrival Of The Credit Crisis
Alasdair Macleod

Those of us who closely follow the credit cycle should not be surprised by the current slide in equity markets. It was going to happen anyway. The timing had recently become apparent as well, and in early August I was able to write the following:

“The timing for the onset of the credit crisis looks like being any time from during the last quarter of 2018, only a few months away, to no later than mid-2019.” Read More

12.27.18- The Baby Boomer Survival Guide – Part 1
Bill Bonner

What should you do if you are running out of time and money?

This is the question we get from readers over 50… over 60… and sometimes, over 70.

We baby boomers were famously saying “Na… na… na… Live for today.” 

Now, it’s tomorrow. And many of us – often through no fault of our own – are having trouble making ends meet. Read More

12.26.18- “The Worst Is Yet To Come Next Year”
Michael Snyder 

When talking heads on mainstream news networks are using phrases such as “the worst is yet to come next year”, that is a clear indication that a new financial crisis has arrived.  And that is an extremely bold statement to make considering that this is already the worst quarter for the stock market in 10 years, this is the worst December for stock prices since 1931, and we just experienced the worst Christmas Eve that Wall Street has ever seen.  So when Mark Jolley made the following statement during a recent guest appearance on CNBC, it definitely raised some eyebrows… Read More

12.25.18- The Greatest Gift For All
Paul Craig Roberts

Christmas Column 2018

Dear Donors, thank you for your support in 2018. Although you have kept me working yet another year, I find it encouraging that there are some Americans who can think independently and who want to know. As Margaret Mead said, it only takes a few determined people to change the world. Perhaps some of you will be those people.

My traditional Christmas column goes back to sometime in the 1990s when I was a newspaper columnist. It has been widely reprinted at home and abroad. Every year two or three readers write to educate me that religion is the source of wars and persecutions. These readers confuse religion with mankind’s abuse of institutions, religious or otherwise. The United States has democratic institutions and legal institutions to protect civil liberties. Nevertheless, we now have a police state. Shall I argue that democracy and civil liberty are the causes of police states? Read More

12.24.18- How to Barter for Survival (not just a list): 100+ Items to Barter in a Post-Collapse World
SurvivalWoman

Editor’s Note: This resource has been updated and revised for 2018.

Do you know how to barter?  In preparedness circles, the term barter is used a lot when describing a post SHTF situation when goods and services may no longer be available through normal channels.  According to Wikipedia, ”barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money”. Read More

12.22.18- Do you really have to go to work?
Joe Jarvis

Monday through Friday, 9-5, are work days. You commute to the office every day. And then you have the weekend off.

That’s how it has been for decades and decades, right? And before that Sunday was the only day off, and the hours were much longer.

These traditions began in factory settings when everything had to be standardized. It’s not like farmers were clocking in and punching out… they worked when there was work to do. Which was basically always.

But as we turn over to 2019, do we still need to work the five day work week? Do we still need to commute to the office? And should work even be hourly or even salary for most professions, or task-based? Read More

12.21.18- The History of Banking Control in the United States
Alain Pilote

The dictatorship of the bankers and their debt-money system are not limited to one country, but exist in every country in the world. They are working to keep their control tight, since one country freeing itself from this dictatorship and issuing its own interest- and debt-free currency, setting the example of what an honest system could be, would be enough to bring about the worldwide collapse of the bankers’ swindling debt-money system. Read More

12.20.18- The 10 Daily Habits of Prepared People
Daisy Luther

For some people, preparedness is about the big things: the well-stocked retreat home, buying yet another firearm, or getting a super-fancy generator. While these things can certainly be classified as preparedness endeavors, it isn’t the expensive and dramatic gestures that make us truly prepared people.

The way prepared people spend their time before an emergency is the real key to survival, and this is something that no amount of money can buy. Read More

12.19.18- Anything Goes!
Hugo Salinas Price

The disturbing fact regarding human life on planet Earth is that we are, all of us, and I include myself, living the life of lunatics, because we are all out of touch with Reality. I except from this condition, the few remaining tribes of primitive people living in the remote jungles of places such as Borneo, the Amazon river basin and other similar locations.

Some few humans, among whose small number I count myself,  know that this is our condition, but the vast majority of humanity are not aware of the dire situation in which we live.

One result of the collective insanity which prevails in our modern world is that it has allowed the very worst of the lunatics, possessing destructive impulses, to rise to dominant positions in human societies. Read More

12.18.18- I Can’t Afford to Live in this Private Community. And I Wish Everywhere Was Like This.
 Joe Jarvis

Private government is really nothing new.

And I don’t mean some arrangement between coercive government and “private” companies that make their money from government contracts.

That arrangement actually produces the inequality that people blame on free markets.

Notice how everyone is taxed. Yet the government spends the money enriching the government defense contractors, handing out subsidies to already rich oil companies, bailing out sub-par automakers and predatory bankers… Read More

12.17.18- Why Speculators Should Love
the Crypto Crash
Greg Wilson

On February 12, 1827, financier George Brown hosted a meeting at his Baltimore home.

Joining him were 24 of the leading merchants of the day.

The topic: making Baltimore competitive on the Eastern Seaboard.

You see, New York had recently opened the Erie Canal… and it was a smashing success. Shipping prices decreased dramatically, and workers flocked to the state.

Other cities across the U.S. East Coast planned more canal construction. Baltimore merchants feared being left behind. Read More

12.15.18- Texas Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional
Sean Moran

A Texas federal judge on Friday ruled that Obamacare violated the Constitution, likely pushing the ruling towards the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Reed O’Connor, a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas appointed by former President George W. Bush, ruled that Obamacare violated the Constitution.

20 Republican state attorneys general brought the suit, Texas v. Azar, who asked the court to rule that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) violates the Constitution after Republicans managed to zero out Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty with the Jobs Act last year. The judge ruled that the law’s individual mandate violates the Constitution and therefore the entire ACA violates the Constitution. Read More

12.14.18- What is the Deep Web and How Do You Get There in 2018?
Gary Stevens

The deep web and dark web are terms that have enjoyed plenty of headlines in recent years. You could conclude — wrongly, it turns out — that nothing exists in that seedy cyberalley except for deals that involve contract killing, illegal drugs, human trafficking, weapons, pornography and other not-so-nice products and services.

The Silk Road, a website synonymous with shady dealings, was shut down twice by the FBI and its founder, the Dread Pirate Roberts, also known as Ross Ulbricht, imprisoned for life. Read More

12.13.18- A Bad Moon Rising –
Over Several Markets
Gary Christianson

John Fogerty (Credence Clearwater Revival) wrote “Bad Moon Rising” in 1969. The lyrics are relevant today.

“I see a bad moon a-rising (market correction/crash)

I see trouble on the way (inflation and war)

I see earthquakes and lightnin’ (defaults and bankruptcies)

I see bad times today” (polarized angry voters) Read More

12.12.18- A Crisis in the Making: Know Your Rights or You Will Lose Them
John W. Whitehead

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”—Thomas Jefferson

We are approaching critical mass, the point at which all hell breaks loose.

The government is pushing us ever closer to a constitutional crisis.

What makes the outlook so much bleaker is the utter ignorance of the American people—and those who represent them—about their freedoms, history, and how the government is supposed to operate. Read More

12.11.18- As Many as 8 Million Children Are Kidnapped and Trafficked Into Sex Slavery Every Year by Global Pedophile Network – of Which Many Politicians Are Members
Ethan Huff 

According to official statistics that you’ll never hear reported by the mainstream media, as many as 800,000 children in the United States, and eight million children globally, are being kidnapped and trafficked into sex slavery every single year as part of a massive pedophilia network that spans the entire world. And though it might not be comfortable to think about, many high-level politicians on both sides of aisle actively participate in, and partake of, this unimaginable evil. Read More

12.10.18- Dow 10,000
Bill Bonner

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – Trading continued yesterday… with stocks swinging lustily from tree to tree like drunken monkeys.

When the closing bell finally sounded, the Dow was down just 79 points. The monkeys were greatly relieved.

And today, the Fed sets up another drink. Here’s a headline from The Wall Street Journal:

Fed May Slow Rate Increase Pace

Our advice to readers: Relax… and enjoy the comedy show. Read More

12.08.18- What to Do When the Market Goes “Nuts”
Jeff Clark

According to the efficient market hypothesis, there’s nothing insane going on in the stock market. Stock prices reflect all of the currently available information and investors’ analysis of that information.

Hogwash.

In the long term, I’ll agree that markets are efficient, investors are rational, and stock prices generally end up where they are logically supposed to.

In the short term, though, the market is nuts.

Fear and Greed Read More

12.07.18- Things Change, But Not Always For The Better
Tom Chatham

The whole universe operates in cycles. Just as the seasons change on a regular basis, all other things change on schedule as well. A person is born, they go to school, they get a job, they get married and buy a home. Later they have children, buy a bigger home, send their children to school and save for retirement. Their children grow and leave home, they get a smaller home and retire. These are predictable cycles most people go through in life but never pay much attention to.

Knowing that these cycles occur can give a person an idea of what to prepare for in the future. We know that the national debt doubles about every 8 years. We know that the economy goes into a recession every 6 to 8 years. We know that the FED manipulates the economy with money printing and interest rates. We know politicians spend money we don’t have to get reelected. Read More

12.06.18- "Too Perfect to be Natural": Those Strange Seismic Waves
Joseph P. Farrell

My inbox has been veritably flooded with so many different versions of this story, I don’t know where to begin, other than to say thank you to all of you who drew it to my attention. The story has now rippled around the word from its point of origin – Madagascar – to the antipodes and back again more times than the seismic waves themselves. But this story is truly strange, and since we’re into “strange stuff” on this website, as one might imagine, I have some of our trademark “high octane speculation” to offer, but first, here’s one version of the story: Read More

12.05.18- Is An Offshore Account Safe?
Jamie Virjhof interviews Dennis Miller

In response to our recent articleabout investing offshore, many readers asked for more information. They expressed many concerns, particularly about safety.

Jamie Virjhof, Relationship Manager of Weber Hartmann Virjhof & Partners Ltd. recently interviewed me and addressed those concerns. Read More

12.04.18- Another Serious
Real Interest Rate Fallacy
Keith Weiner

What is the real interest rate? It is the nominal rate minus the inflation rate. I previously wrote about one problem with this notion (the nominal rate exists in the market, but the real rate is imaginary). Now let’s turn to another problem.

To visualize this problem, let’s make an analogy to someone who inherits a family farm. There are two approaches to making a living from a farm. In the first—we’ll call this investing—Farmer Brown determines how to produce the greatest amount of food at the least cost. He increases production of milk from his herd, and apples from his orchard. Read More

12.03.18- How “Laziness” Can Make You Wealthy
Mark Ford

The desire to work less is not a vice, but a fundamental aspect of emotional intelligence. When combined with commitment, persistence, and common sense, it creates economic efficiency, an essential component of building great wealth.

– From Principles of Wealth, by Mark Ford

The unpaid bills are stacked next to the unwashed dishes. You’ve been short about $1,200 per month since the divorce.

You need something to fill that income gap – some sort of money-making scheme that’s feasible, flexible, and profitable. It can’t be a financial investment because you’ve got no savings. What’s there to do? Read More

12.01.18- How to Profit From Trade War Hysteria
Justin Spittler

The trade war has claimed its biggest victim.

…Apple (AAPL).

Apple sells the wildly popular iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. It’s one of the most recognized companies on the planet. It was the world’s most valuable publicly traded company until Microsoft (MSFT) overtook it on Monday.

So how did a company this powerful get caught up in the trade war? Simple. On Monday, President Trump threatened to introduce a 10% tariff on consumer electronic products made in China.

This would impact the iPhone and other Apple products…Read More

11.30.18- Rothschild rule ends
after 250 years
Benjamin Fulford

The announcement on October 24, 2018 by Rothschild & Co that they are getting out of the trust business is a major historical turning point that almost slipped by unnoticed.

It was in 1769 that Mayer Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty, first started to manage money for royalty. Now, seven generations later, his descendant Alexandre de Rothschild has been forced out of the business by multiple international criminal investigations that are zeroing in on this criminal family, Pentagon sources say. It means that for the first time in 249 years, the Western financial system is freeing itself from Rothschild financial control. Read More

11.28.18- The Best Stock Investors: Dead People
Bill Bonner

BALTIMORE – The stock market got a healthy bounce Monday. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.

But you don’t have to guess. Because you don’t make money in the stock market from short-term moves. You’ll guess wrong as often as right, and you’ll end up getting nowhere. 

It’s the big, long-term moves that make a difference. And the trouble is, sometimes, those moves last longer than we do. Read More

11.28.18- The Best Stock Investors: Dead People
Bill Bonner

BALTIMORE – The stock market got a healthy bounce Monday. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.

But you don’t have to guess. Because you don’t make money in the stock market from short-term moves. You’ll guess wrong as often as right, and you’ll end up getting nowhere. 

It’s the big, long-term moves that make a difference. And the trouble is, sometimes, those moves last longer than we do. Read More

11.27.18- End This Madness
Justin O. Smith

It is a bit of an alienating experience for one to see the nation of his birth and the principles of our ancestors under constant assault, from foreigners and people born here who are amerikkans rather than Americans. I refer to those Muslims who desire Sharia law, the Black Muslims who simply hate America, LaRaza with its Hispanic communists and conquerors who want to reclaim the Southwest for Mexico, the communist Democrat Party that seeks the eradication of our Founding Principles and the destruction of our Constitution and Republic, and those communist proletarians, the TAKERS, who seek their upkeep and livelihood at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer.  Read More

11.26.18- Thoughts From The Precipice
Chris Martenson

Things are worsening. But we’re not over the edge quite yet.

As you already know, things are unraveling. The narratives of the past are being revealed as false and fraudulent — even harmful.

For example, the fallacy of pursuing “ever more” growth. Growth up to a point is beneficial, but it turns self-destructive when it exceeds what available resources can sustain.

As it is practiced, economic growth as pursued around the world today is now destructive. If we continue on our current trajectory, it will become fatal. Read More

11.24.18- Weekend Rant: Mad World
Jim Quinn

The haunting Gary Jules version of the Tears for Fears’ Mad World speaks to me in these tumultuous mad times. It must speak to many others, as the music video has been viewed over 132 million times. The melancholy video is shot from the top of an urban school building in a decaying decrepit bleak neighborhood with school children creating various figures on the concrete pavement below. The camera pans slowly to Gary Jules singing on the rooftop and captures the concrete jungle of non-descript architecture, identical office towers, gray cookie cutter apartment complexes, and a world devoid of joy and vibrancy. Read More

11.23.18- The Assassination of Bitcoin
Dan Denning

As Bill reported last week, central banks are toying with the idea of launching a bank-backed cryptocurrency. Dan believes that outcome is all but assured. Only one thing stands in the way… bitcoin.

The collapse of bitcoin – down 68% year to date and 78% from its all-time high of $20,000, set in December 2017, when it traded at $4,200.22 earlier this week – may have a perfectly normal explanation. 

It’s a bubble that popped. Or it’s happened before and is nothing to worry about. As my colleagues have shown their readers in the last week, bitcoin dropped 94% in 2010, 94% in 2011, 85% from 2013 to 2015, and 76% in a three-month period alone in 2013. Read More

11.22.18- How Not to be a Turkey on Thanksgiving
Joe Jarvis

Ask a turkey a week before Thanksgiving if the farmer loves him.

The farmer comes every day to feed the turkey and feed him well.

He provides free accommodations: a nice yard to peck around in, water, shelter from predators.

From the turkey’s perspective, a week before Thanksgiving, life has never been better.  Read More

11.21.18- An Odor of Perfidy
James Howard Kunstler

I suspect there’s a hidden agenda behind the announcement in The Wall Street Journal op-ed by former Hillary Clinton aide Mark Penn that the Ole Gray Mare is actually eyeing another run for the White House in 2020. No, it’s not just that she would like to be president, as she averred on video last week in a weak moment, or that she has decided late in life to go full Bolshevik policy-wise. It is to establish her in the public mind as a serious candidate so that when she is indicted a hue-and-cry will arise that the move is a purely political act of revenge by the wicked Trump. Read More

11.20.18- The globalist plan to exterminate humanity begins now: “Useless eaters” must be eliminated, say globalists
Mike Adams

Far beyond the distractions of political bickering and cultural trends, the big, big picture that’s unfolding across our world right now is a plan to exterminate 90% of the current human population in order to “save” the planet and protect what globalists see as the future of human survival on a cosmic scale.

This plan is under way now due to two important developments: Read More

11.19.18- Soaring Health-Care Costs Forced This Family to Choose Who Can Stay Insured
Aziza Kasumov

David and Maribel Maldonado seem the very definition of making it in America. David arrived in the U.S. from Mexico as a small child. His father supported the family by working long hours as a mechanic while his mother raised their 10 children. By the time David had a family of his own, his career as a salesman was flourishing. His wife Maribel, whose family is also from Mexico, worked as a hairstylist while caring for the couple’s two children. David’s annual salary reached about $113,000 by the time the children were in their teens. It was more than enough to live in a pretty suburban house outside Dallas, take family vacations, go to restaurants and splurge at the nearby mall. And to afford health insurance.

Then, in 2012, Maribel discovered she had breast cancer. “Your world comes crumbling down,” David says. Read More

11.17.18- Potential Impacts of the Midterm Elections on Your Retirement
Birch Gold

Now that the midterm elections are pretty much over, the Democrats control the House, and the Republicans control the Senate.

This may have several important impacts on your retirement over the next two years (and beyond, depending on policy adjustments). These potential impacts could be crucial because the economic foundation they influence appears to be on shaky ground.

In a peer-reviewed paper from the Indiana Legal Studies department, four authors collaborated and published an alarming discovery (emphasis ours):  Read More

11.16.18- Does Any of This Make Sense?
Charles Hugh Smith

Does any of this make sense? No. But it's so darn profitable to the oligarchy, it's difficult to escape debt-serfdom and tax-donkey servitude.

We rarely ask "does this make any sense?" of things that are widely accepted as beneficial-- or if not beneficial, "the way it is," i.e. it can't be changed by non-elite (i.e. the bottom 99.5%) efforts.

Of the vast array of things that don't make sense, let's start with borrowing from future income to spend more today. This is of course the entire foundation of consumer economies such as the U.S.: the number of households which buy a car or house with cash is near-zero, unless 1) they just sold a bubble-valuation house and paid off their mortgage in escrow or 2) they earned wealth via fiscal prudence, i.e. the avoidance of debt and the exultation of saving. Read More

11.15.18- Scum vs. Scum
Chris Hedges

There is perhaps no better illustration of the deep decay of the American political system than the Senate race in New Jersey. Sen. Bob Menendez, running for re-election, was censured by the Senate Ethics Committee for accepting bribes from the Florida businessman Salomon Melgen, who was convicted in 2017 of defrauding Medicare of $73 million. The senator had flown to the Dominican Republic with Melgen on the physician’s private jet and stayed in his private villa, where the men cavorted with young Dominican women who allegedly were prostitutes. Menendez performed numerous political favors for Melgen, including helping some of the Dominican women acquire visas to the United States. Menendez was indicted in a federal corruption trial but escaped sentencing because of a hung jury. Read More

11.14.18- Nikola Tesla’s Wireless Energy Dream
Is Going Mainstream
TraderStef

Big things are happening in the world of wireless technology and power transmission. Here is TraderStef to break-down what it means for the future…

Wireless power technology recently became popular with its application in charging wireless-capable devices, (such as a smartphone) via a Powermat interface. There is one company currently building out a true wireless power supply without the need for an intermediary “pad,” which could develop into an investment opportunity of a lifetime if it or another company successfully launches an IPO, not to mention the upstream manufacturing interface components.  Read More

11.13.18- Reading the Second Amendment
Sheldon Richman

The Second Amendment’s syntax permits only one reasonable interpretation.

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” - Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Is this sentence so hard to understand? Apparently so. Even some of its defenders don’t like how it is worded because it allegedly breeds misunderstanding.  Read More

11.12.18- How to Survive the “Deep State”
Doug Casey

Almost everyone looks for a political solution to problems. However, once a Deep State situation has taken over, only a revolution or a dictatorship can turn it around, and probably only in a small country.

Maybe you’re thinking you should get behind somebody like Ron Paul (I didn’t say Rand Paul), should such a person materialize. That would be futile.

Here’s what would happen in the totally impossible scenario that this person was elected and tried to act like a Lee Kuan Yew or an Augusto Pinochet against the Deep State: Read More

11.10.18- It’s a Fraud. A Pyramid scheme.
A Ponzi scheme. And a Lie.
Dr. Mehboob Makhdoomi

Many of us do think that something isn’t quite right with the world economy. One in a million actually understands, where does it go wrong? Powers that be, do not want you to know about it as it’s your ignorance which keeps them at the top of the financial food chain. I don’t know of any other example in history where so many were looted by so few.

Modern banking system creates money faster than our hearts beat. However, they make it so complex & unintelligible that none but they alone, understand it. All economies work pretty much the same way but since most of the global transactions use US dollar, making it the majority of the world’s currency, I will exemplify the US system. Read More

11.09.18- What Do We Make Of The Midterm Election?
Paul Craig Roberts

Readers are asking for my thoughts about the midterm elections. Looking at this CNN map–it seems that except for thin areas of the northeast and west coasts and hispanic and black enclaves in the southwest and south, the country overwhelmingly voted Republican.

In my opinion, flyover America voted Republican because the “deplorables” want to defend Trump. They want to defend him for two reasons. One is that he spoke to their economic plight caused by the US corporations exporting their jobs, leaving the American workforce and middle class hard-strapped. The other is that the adoption of Identity Politics by the Democratic Party has made the Democrats the party that hates white people—especially white heterosexual males who are defined as the victimizer of minorities, homosexuals, and women. Read More

11.08.18- America, the Tyranny of the Stupid
Gordon Duff 

People around the world are convinced that the United States is a nation run by criminal psychopaths and morons. A greater fear is that world leaders mistakenly assume that their American counterparts who do and say insane things continually are, in actuality, normal people operating inside some “master plan.”

Then, when time and time again, no such plan materializes, and it is demonstrated that America has blundered into a diplomatic, economic or military morass, for some unknown reason, a “reset” occurs, and the wrong assumptions are again made.

At every level, humanity errs in assuming that those in command are there because of talent and worth or that, because America is so wealthy and powerful, that its people are such because of moral and intellectual superiority. Read More

11.07.18- How do we keep getting dragged into this electoral spectator sport?
Joe Jarvis

Ah, elections…

Little more than a bare-knuckle boxing match. If you were to suddenly catch a glimpse of such a fight, you would see real blood, real punches, swollen lips, black eyes, and a final knockout.

It looks like a real spontaneous fight. But the match was planned, set up, with rules and parameters.

That’s an election. Except that it is shoved in all of our faces, while they lie and tell us it wasn’t a planned fight.

Not interested in seeing the blood and gore? Not interested in watching two people beat each other to a pulp? Well, you can turn off the boxing match, but good luck avoiding election coverage. Read More

11.06.18- Are You Prepared For Lockdown? How To Stay Safe When All Hell Breaks Loose In America
Daisy Luther

Tensions are incredibly high in the United States right now. I realized that over the past three years, I’ve written that they’re “at an all-time high” far too many times. So, I’ll just say, they’re high enough that all hell could break loose at any moment given the right (wrong) application of fuel to the flame. The number one thing you can do for this situation to keep your family safe is to be prepared for lockdown.

Pretending that it isn’t happening or hoping to hug it out is not a rational response to the chaos that is coming.  I know that some cling to their misguided views on the way the world works with the ferocity of a mother bear protecting cubs, but for the rest of us, there’s this thing called reality. When we accept it, we can prepare for it. Read More

11.05.18- The Fourth Turning and the
War of the Worlds
Jim Quinn

“In retrospect, the spark might seem as ominous as a financial crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party. The catalyst will unfold according to a basic Crisis dynamic that underlies all of these scenarios: An initial spark will trigger a chain reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies. The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way. If foreign societies are also entering a Fourth Turning, this could accelerate the chain reaction. At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action.” – The Fourth Turning– Strauss & Howe  Read More

11.03.18- This Radical Proposal for Social Security Underscores Its Desperate Future
Birch Gold Group

The ever-controversial Alan Greenspan was Chair of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, a period marked by relatively low interest rates and market self-regulation.

But the economic crisis that started in 2008 shed critical light on Greenspan’s economic policy. He’s 92 now, and as he promotes a new book, he’s sharing some rather radical economic ideas. Read More

11.02.18- Politicians Are Creating The Worst Economic Crash In History
Martin Armstrong

Politicians have totally and completely misunderstood the trends within the global economy and as a result, they are actually creating one of the worst economic debacles in history.

I have explained several times that the bulk of investment capital is tied up in two primary sectors – (1) government bonds and (2) real estate. Because of income taxes, real estate has offered a way to make money in capital gains without having to pay income taxes.  Read More

Shock Claim: The Media Is Reporting That Some In The 2nd Migrant Caravan Have
“Guns” And “Bombs”
Michael Snyder

A second migrant caravan has been attempting to breach Mexico’s border with Guatemala, and the media is reporting that some migrants in that second caravan are armed with “guns” and “bombs”.  This is a very serious claim, and it needs to either be confirmed or retracted, because it is not helpful to have unconfirmed reports spreading like wildfire on social media.  There have been endless discussions about these migrant caravans on all the major news networks in recent weeks, and they are getting so much attention that they are almost overshadowing the midterm elections which are going to happen next week.  And if this latest report is true, concern about these caravans is certain to reach a fever pitch…Read More

10.31.18- Is America Finished?
Paul Craig Roberts

The refusal of the Democratic Party and the military/security complex to accept the results of the 2016 US presidential election and the misuse of their positions of power to prevent Donald Trump from exercising presidential powers is a revolutionary step, well described by Angelo Codevilla here.

Americans are now so polarized that they “no longer share basic sympathies and trust, because they no longer regard each other as worthy of equal consideration.” Codevilla blames the progressives and their attitude of moral superiority, but his explanation is independent of who is to blame. I blame both sides. The Constitution and our civil liberties took a major hit from the “conservative” Republican regime of George W. Bush.  Read More

10.30.18- A Perfect Storm Is Brewing
Michael Snyder

Will we someday look back on October 2018 as the turning point?  As the month began, people were generally feeling pretty good about things, and the U.S. stock market quickly set a new all-time high.  But from that point on, the wheels fell off for Wall Street.  We just witnessed the worst October for U.S. stocks since the financial crisis of 2008, and at this point more than 8 trillion dollars of global wealth has been completely wiped out.  But it isn’t just the stock market that is being shaken.  The horrific violence in Pittsburgh is just the latest in a string of events that have rattled the entire nation.  Sometimes I feel like I am literally watching the fabric of our society come apart right in front of my eyes.  It is almost as if there is a tangible presence of evil in the air, and it seems to be getting stronger over time.  Read More

10.29.18- End of the World – Part Two
Gary Christenson

Part one discussed the “what” and “why” of unpayable debt, an inevitable “reset” or the end of the current financial world. Part two addresses when.

REVIEW FROM PART ONE:

• A risk/reward analysis for 2018—202? points toward gold and silver, not stocks, bonds, corporate debt, student loans or most asset classes.
  
  
• The “everything bubble” will burst. Consequences will be dire for many individuals, businesses and governments. Read More

10.27.18- What a bunch of idiots
Brandon Smith

Tell me this isn’t crazy–

A few days ago the creator of the most famous consumer ‘credit score’ in the United States announced a major overhaul in how it rates borrowers.

Consumers live and die by this ‘FICO score’. A high FICO score means that it’s easy to obtain loans at lower interest rates.

And a bad FICO score (in theory) means that you have a history of not paying your debts… hence making it difficult to obtain loans. Read More

10.26.18- Deep State Rolls out Staged “Bomb” Attack on CNN Headquarters, Just as Mike Adams and Alex Jones Publicly Predicted on Multiple Video Broadcasts
Mike Adams

Exactly as publicly predicted by myself and Alex Jones, the anti-American globalists are now running pipe bombs false flags against CNN. This is not merely similar to what we publicly predicted would take place before the mid-term elections; it is exactly what we publicly predicted would take place. We even named CNN as the most likely target to be selected by the globalist operatives running the operation. Read More

10.25.18- Will there ever be a "freedom loving" majority? And do we even need there to be?
Joe Jarvis

The good old days never existed.

People like to romanticize a time when America was more wholesome… when everyone got along and put petty differences aside to fight wars and such.

A time when political campaigns were more civil… like in the Presidential election of 1800.

That was when a pro-Adams newspaper said that “murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will openly be taught and practiced,” if Jefferson was elected.

And the Jefferson supporters responded by claiming that Adams was more like a hermaphrodite than a man or woman. Read More

10.24.18- The Average Stock Is Overvalued Between Tremendously And Enormously
Vitaliy Katsenelson

My business is to constantly look for new stocks by running stock screens, endlessly reading (blogs, research, magazines, newspapers), looking at the holdings of respected investors, talking to a large network of investment professionals, attending conferences, scouring through ideas published on value investor networks, and finally, scouring a large (and growing) watch list of companies to buy at a significant margin of safety.

With all of that, my firm is having little success finding solid companies at attractive valuations. Read More

10.23.18- Weaker Dollar Helps Set Silver Prices for a Breakout
Birch Gold Group

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest stories involving precious metals and the overall economy. Stories include: Silver prices are set for a breakout as the dollar falls, gold buyers return after two-quarter absence, and gold could surge near $1,280 an ounce in the short term.

Why silver prices are set for a breakout as the dollar falls

With gold having recaptured much of its losses earlier this month, silver could be next in line for a breakout on the back of a weaker dollar reports Money Morning. As columnist Peter Krauth notes, silver moved as the stock market went through a tailspin and ultimately ended higher at $14.28 an ounce. Read More

10.22.18- Who’s financing the “spontaneous” migrant caravan trekking towards the United States? Here are some clues
JD Heyes

(Natural News) On his nationally syndicated talk show Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh discussed the growing migrant “caravan” currently making its way towards the United States.

In particular, Limbaugh talked about what it would take for hundreds and thousands of people to make such a long journey on foot, and through a number of countries after the caravan originated in Honduras. Read More

10.20.18- End of the World – Part One
Gary Christenson

Predicting the end of the world, physical or financial, is seldom helpful. If the prediction is correct, how do you profit from the insight? If the prediction is wrong and the “end of the world” is delayed (typical), you lose credibility.

An estimate of risk versus reward based on an analysis of current information is more useful. Read More

10.19.18- How to Make a Fortune in the Gold-Backed Crypto Revolution
Nick Giambruno

For thousands of years, gold has been the safe-haven asset. No government can easily confiscate, nationalize, freeze, or devalue it at the drop of a hat.

It’s simply the best way to preserve wealth over the long term.

Now, with the advent of cryptocurrencies and decentralized blockchain technology, people have a complementary tool for advancing their financial freedom. Read More

10.18.18- 4 Ways the Skyrocketing Budget Deficit Could Wreck Your Retirement
Peter Reagan

In many ways, the current U.S. budget deficit represents uncharted territory.

Investopedia defines a budget deficit when “expenses exceed revenue and it is an indicator of financial health.” Referring to the U.S. they added “Accrued government deficits form the national debt.”

According to an official statement released by Steve Mnuchin and Mick Mulvaney at the Treasury, the FY 2018 budget deficit rose 17% over the previous period to $779 billion. Read More

10.17.18- “When the bubble bursts, America will experience an economic crisis much greater than the 2008 meltdown or the Great Depression”
Michael Snyder

The bigger they come, the harder they fall.  Currently, we are in the terminal phase of an “everything bubble” which has had ten years to grow.  It is the biggest financial bubble that our country has ever seen, and experts are warning that when it finally bursts we will experience an economic downturn that is even worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Of course many of us in the alternative media have been warning about what is coming for quite some time, but now even many in the mainstream media have jumped on the bandwagon. Read More

10.16.18- UN Climate Change Report: A Choice between “Mad Max and Hunger Games”
Jonathan Miltimore

Humanity, we’re essentially told, is doomed lest people concede their freedom to the experts, lawmakers, and bureaucrats who can save us.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this week released a special report detailing all the ways climate change is predicted to wreak havoc on humans.

The report is about 800 pages long, so I’ll offer a summary to save you some time: Read More

10.15.18- International relations:
the calm before the storm?
Thierry Meyssan

All international problems are currently suspended, awaiting the results of the US mid-term elections. The partisans of the old international order are gambling on a change of majority in Congress and a rapid destitution of President Trump. If the man in the White House holds fast, the protagonists of the war against Syria will have to admit defeat and move on to other battle fields. On the other hand, if Donald Trump should lose the elections, the war on Syria will immediately be revived by the United Kingdom. Read More

10.13.18- The Last Rebels: 25 Things We Did as Kids That Would Get Someone Arrested Today
Daisy Luther

With all of the ridiculous new regulations, coddling, and societal mores that seem to be the norm these days, it’s a miracle those of us over 30 survived our childhoods.

Here’s the problem with all of this babying: it creates a society of weenies.

There won’t be more rebels because this generation has been frightened into submission and apathy through a deliberately orchestrated culture of fear. No one will have faced adventure and lived to greatly embroider the story. Read More

10.12.18- Dow 40,000 is coming, but only after ‘a large panic event’ passes, analyst warns
Shawn Langlois

‘Investors should be out of stocks for most of 2019’

Back in January 2016, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.15%was trading around the 16,000 level, Yves Lamoureux, president of macroeconomic research firm Lamoureux & Co., said the blue-chip index would topple 25,000 within three or four years. It didn’t take that long. 

Now, with the Dow clinging to a 500-point cushion above that milestone, Lamoureux is standing firmly behind another bullish call: Dow 40,000. 

Oh, but there’s a catch... Read More

10.11.18- The Human Drive for Inequality
Doug Casey

At the Foundation for Economic Education Conference (FEECON) in 2017, I met Bill Frezza. He’s been teaching a critical lesson about equality, learned from the horrors of the AT&T telephone monopoly. What follows, I mostly learned from him.

After the invention of the telephone in the mid- to late-1800s, innovators produced great accomplishments as they strived to improve the technology to. Read More

10.10.18- The Cracks In The Market’s Floor Grow Wider
Dave Kranzler

“The only time we’ve ever seen a confluence of risk factors anywhere close to those of today was the week of March 24, 2000, which marked the peak of the technology bubble.” – John Hussman, Hussman Funds, in his October Market Commentary

The yield on the 10-yr Treasury has broken out, hitting its highest level since July 2011:

By the end of June 2011, the Fed had only reached its half-way mark in money printing. It was shortly thereafter that the Fed had implemented its “operation twist.” Operation twist consisted of selling the Fed’s short term holdings and using the proceeds plus extra printed money to buy Treasuries at the long-end of the curve – primarily 10-yr bonds. Read More

10.09.18- The Biggest Threat to US National Security Is the US Government
Eric Zuesse

A dictatorship does not represent the public but only the aristocracy that, behind the scenes, controls the government.

Jonathan H. Adler, Professor at Case Western University School of Law, noted, regarding George W. Bush’s secret policy for the NSA to access everyone’s phone-records, that “The metadata collection program is constitutional (at least according to Judge Kavanaugh),” and he presented Judge Kavanaugh’s entire published opinion on that. Kavanaugh’s opinion stated that the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution could be shoved aside because he thinks that the ‘national security’ of the United States is more important than the Constitution. Kavanaugh wrote: Read More

10.08.18- With corruption like this, it’s no wonder so many pension funds are insolvent
Simon Black

Last week, the head of a New York state pension fund found herself a new job.

Vicki Fuller, the former head of New York’s $209 billion fund, now earns $275,000 per year working part time for a natural gas group called The Williams Companies– good work if you can get it.

It’s noteworthy that when Ms. Fuller ran her state pension fund, she invested $110 million of taxpayer money to buy bonds issued by none other than The Williams Companies.

Bear in mind that Moody’s, the credit rating agency, downgraded Williams’ financial outlook to “negative” because of the company’s high leverage and risk. Read More

10.07.18- Ask yourself: Why are there no prescription medications
without horrific side effects?
S.D. Wells

The reason there are no prescription medications available today where the side effects aren’t worse than the ailment being treated is because Big Pharma will not treat or heal anything without creating several new issues that keep their “customers for life” coming back for more. Most Americans do not want to stop eating junk food, fast food, corporate franchise restaurant food, microwaveable food, prepared food bar “stuff,” and “diet” food that’s mostly chock full of synthetic sweeteners, GMOs and MSG. Read More

10.06.18- Weekend Rant: Think You're Prepared For The Next Crisis? Think Again.
Adam Taggart

Even the best-laid preparations have failure points

No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force. ~ Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. ~ Mike Tyson

Scottish poet Robert Burns aptly penned the famous phrase: “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft a-gley.” (commonly adapted as "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.") Read More

10.05.18- The World Is Quietly Decoupling From the U.S. – And No One Is Paying Attention
Brandon Smith

Blind faith in the U.S. dollar is perhaps one of the most crippling disabilities economists have in gauging our economic future. Historically speaking, fiat currencies are essentially animals with very short lives, and world reserve currencies are even more prone to an early death. But, for some reason, the notion that the dollar is vulnerable at all to the same fate is deemed ridiculous by the mainstream.

This delusion has also recently bled into parts of the alternative economic movement, with some analysts hoping that the Trump Administration will somehow reverse several decades of central bank sabotage in only four to eight years. However, this thinking requires a person to completely ignore the prevailing trend. Read More

10.04.18- The Tyranny of the U.S. Dollar
Peter Coy

The incumbent international currency has been American for decades. Is it time for regime change?

There’s a paradox at the heart of global finance. The U.S. share of the world economy has drifted lower for decades, and now President Trump is retreating from the American chief executive’s traditional role as Leader of the Free World. Yet the U.S. dollar remains, as the saying goes, almighty. “American exceptionalism has never been this stark,” Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets and chief global strategist for Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said at a Council on Foreign Relations symposium on Sept. 24. Read More

10.03.18- How America Can
Free Itself From Wall Street
Ellen Brown

Wall Street owns the country. That was the opening line of a fiery speech that populist leader Mary Ellen Lease delivered around 1890. Franklin Roosevelt said it again in a letter to Colonel House in 1933, and Sen. Dick Durbin was still saying it in 2009. “The banks—hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created—are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill,” Durbin said in an interview. “And they frankly own the place.”

Wall Street banks triggered a credit crisis in 2008-09 that wiped out over $19 trillion in household wealth, turned some 10 million families out of their homes and cost almost 9 million jobs in the U.S. alone. Yet the banks were bailed out without penalty, while defrauded home buyers were left without recourse or compensation. Read More

10.02.18- Imaginary Monsters
and the Uses of Chaos
James Howard Kunstler

The Kavanaugh hearing underscored another eerie condition in contemporaryUSA life that offers clues about the combined social, economic, and political collapse that I call the long emergency: the destruction of all remaining categorical boundaries for understanding behavior: truth and untruth, innocent and guilty, childhood and adulthood, public and private. The absence of real monsters to slay, has become the party devoted to sowing chaos, mainly by inventing new, imaginary monsters using the machinery of politics, the way the Catholic Church manufactured monsters of heresy during the Spanish Inquisition in its attempt to regulate “belief.” Read More

10.01.18- Empire of Lies: Are ‘We the People’ Useful Idiots in the Digital Age?
John W. Whitehead

“Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union, a phrase evolved to describe gullible western intellectuals who came to visit Russia and failed to notice the human and other costs of building a communist utopia. The phrase was “useful idiots” and it applied to a good many people who should have known better. I now propose a new, analogous term more appropriate for the age in which we live: useful hypocrites. That’s you and me, folks, and it’s how the masters of the digital universe see us. And they have pretty good reasons for seeing us that way. They hear us whingeing about privacy, security, surveillance, etc., but notice that despite our complaints and suspicions, we appear to do nothing about it. In other words, we say one thing and do another, which is as good a working definition of hypocrisy as one could hope for.”—John Naughton, The Guardian Read More

09.29.18- Gold Investors:
It Is Time for a Logic Lesson
 Michael J. Ballanger 

Here is a question for any and all of you that have ever purchased a lottery ticket or played the slots or bet on a horse: If you had proof that the outcomes were all rigged, would you still play? If someone showed you a video of pit bosses stacking decks or tampering with dice, would you ever enter that establishment again? If your wife or mother or employer knew that you would constantly blow your paychecks in a rigged casino, would you ever be able to face them? The answer to all of the above-mentioned scenarios is a resounding "NO!" Yet millions of people (albeit that figure is rapidly shrinking) are still committing many hundreds of millions of dollars every week to the Crimex Casino, which has now proven that every single input into determining prices for gold and silver (Bitcoin, too) is completely controlled by the bullion banks, the Crimex bosses and the regulators. Read More

09.28.18- Investors Have Fallen Into a False Sense of Security
Jim Rickards

25In January 2018, two significant market events occurred nearly simultaneously. Major U.S. stock market indexes peaked and volatility indexes extended one of their longest streaks of low volatility in history. Investors were happy, complacency ruled the day and all was right with the world.

Then markets were turned upside down in a matter of days. Major stock market indexes fell over 11%, a technical correction, from Feb. 2–8, 2018, just five trading days. The CBOE Volatility Index, commonly known as the “VIX,” surged from 14.51 to 49.21 in an even shorter period from Feb. 2–6. Read More

09.27.18- The Real Reason the Government Won’t Hold Big Tech Accountable
Joe Jarvis

The villagers are marching with their torches and pitchforks. Big tech companies are in trouble.

The government is coming to regulate them.

Someone leaked a draft of an executive order from President Trump. It calls on various agencies to use all current laws to look into possible anticompetitive practices by Facebook and Google.

In fact, the EU already fined Google $5 billion in July for “abusing the market dominance of Android.” And now they’ve set their sights on how Amazon uses customer and seller data. Read More

09.26.18- Insider Selling Soars: Fastest Pace Of September Sales In Past Decade
Tyler Durden

One month ago, we reported that insider selling reached $450 million daily in August, the highest level this year; on a monthly basis, insiders sold more than $10 billion of their stock, the most of any month this year and near the most on record.

"As corporate buying is at least taking a breather, corporate insiders are ramping up share selling as the major U.S. stock market averages are at or near record highs," TrimTabs wrote in a note. Read More

09.25.18- TECH ALERT:
Big Bucks From “Blood Valley”
Patrick Stout

The Montreux Casino was going up in flames.

And along with it went the recording studio which a famous rock band had booked for a free session the next day.

The members of the band watched in horror as the flames leapt into the night sky.

It was 1971 and the fire in the sky and the smoke that hung over the waters of a nearby lake would soon inspire the band’s most famous song.

As some of you might have already guessed, the band was Deep Purple and the song was Smoke on the Water. Read More

09.24.18- These Three Items Will Be Hit The Hardest Thanks To Trump’s Tariffs
Mac Slavo

The Trump administration’s insistence on a trade war will affect three items the most. Americans will be footing the bill for president Donald Trump’s trade war and tariffs, and vacuums, tires, and computer parts will be the items hit the hardest.

By now, hopefully, Americans have put two and two together and figured out that it isn’t the Chinese government that will pay for Trump’s tariffs, but the Chinese consumer. Much like the American government will not pay for China’s tariffs, it will be the American consumer. Those costs are passed on directly to the public in the form of higher cost of goods. Read More

09.22.18- "The News Just Ain't The News No More"
Ilargi Meijer

Two thirds of Americans get at least some of their news on social media. Google and Facebook receive well over 70% of US digital advertising revenues. The average daily time spent on social media is 2 hours. Just a few factoids that have at least one thing in common: nothing like them was around 10 years ago, let alone 20. And they depict a change, or set of changes, in our world that will take a long time yet to understand and absorb. Some things just move too fast for us to keep track of, let alone process. Read More

09.21.18- There’s a New Crash Coming
Bill Bonner

Skyrocketing debt, Wall Street deregulation, a fraying social safety net, and a diminished dollar could soon leave the United States looking like Greece.

Donald Trump is the epitome of irrational exuberance.

You might remember that phrase from the 1990s. Alan Greenspan, the head of the Federal Reserve at the time, was describing how the tech boom was creating a bubble by generating enthusiasm way out of proportion to the actual value of the new companies. Read More

09.20.18- The Donald in Wonderland
Nomi Prins

Down the Financial Rabbit Hole With President Trump

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. Read More

09.19.18- Leave Home
Jeff Thomas