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January
30
2021

The Federal Reserve Is Manipulating the U.S. Stock Market
Dan Denning

Emma Walsh here, managing editor of the Diary.

Psychologists use the term “gaslighting” when a manipulator is trying to get someone else (or a group of people) to question their own reality, memory, or perceptions.

Today’s guest editor believes the feds are using this strategy to distract the American public from a massive power grab by the government… And COVID-19 is the Trojan Horse inside which all their monetary and technological fantasies have been smuggled.

Read on below for Bonner-Denning Letter coauthor Dan Denning’s take on where this will all lead…

Here’s a thought: The Federal Reserve is “gaslighting” the American public by pumping up stock prices. The soaring market distracts the people from the economic reality in America.

Reality is that first-time jobless claims of 965,000 earlier this month were the highest since August. Reality is also a $572 billion government deficit in the first three months of the fiscal year (October-December 2020).

The government in Washington spent $1.37 trillion in the first quarter of the fiscal year. Joe Biden is reportedly ready to spend another $2 trillion or so. Government debt is on the verge of going parabolic.

Meanwhile, trust in our institutions is crumbling.

In advance of Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States earlier this month, troops surrounded the Capitol Building.

How strong is our government when we have to deploy armed soldiers to guarantee the peaceful transition of power?

Psychological Warfare

And if you think I’m exaggerating when I say the stock market is a psychological operation run by the Federal Reserve on behalf of the Deep State, think again.

“Gaslighting” is when you psychologically manipulate someone into questioning their sanity. You tell them what they see isn’t really what they see. Or, as George Orwell predicted in his dystopian science fiction novel, 1984, you make them believe War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength.

It wouldn’t be the first time a small cadre of the Deep State has conducted psychological warfare on the American public.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ran Operation Mockingbird during the Cold War. It distributed U.S. propaganda through a willing (or gullible) U.S. news media.

Under a different project, called MK Ultra, the CIA explored methods of mind control and behavior modification using electro-shock therapy, hypnosis, and drugs.

Stocks aren’t drugs. But what would the effect be of the S&P 500 going to 4,500? Or the Dow to 36,000? Or bitcoin to $50,000? It would be euphoric! And it would distract the asset-owning public from a massive power grab by the government, aided and abetted by Silicon Valley. Is that an exaggeration?

Network Effect

Look at what’s happened in recent weeks.

The Empire struck back. First, Twitter kicked President Trump off its platform, swiftly followed by Facebook and other social media platforms. Then Apple and Google joined in, making it impossible to download Twitter alternative Parler (which had a significant user base of the President’s supporters) from their online stores. And for good measure, Amazon terminated Parler’s web hosting.

You might point out that Twitter, Google, Amazon, et al. are private companies, so they have a right to police their own platforms. True.

But now, if you want to speak out in opposition to the mainstream “narrative,” you have to do more than build your own competing app. You have to build your own internet.

This is the power of “the network effect.” Once a service reaches a critical size, it’s nearly impossible to compete with.

Service Denied

Make no mistake about what has happened. The “Social Credit Score ” we warned readers about over two years ago is here. 

It’s another virus from China. In China, it was rolled out by the Communist Party. In America, it was rolled out this month by Silicon Valley.

Perhaps Big Tech knows it has to please the Democrats in power in D.C., or risk getting broken up on antitrust grounds. Or perhaps the authoritarian billionaire CEOs are simply taking vengeance on people they disagree with.

It doesn’t really matter why it’s happened. What’s important is that you know it’s going to keep happening. And probably faster than we’ve expected.

For example, Airbnb temporarily halted rentals in the Washington, D.C. area earlier this month. Why? To prevent another “insurrection” by Trump loyalists at Biden’s inauguration.

If you refuse to accept the terms and conditions of a private company, they reserve the right to deny you a service (especially if it’s free).

Most of the time, you provide what the lawyers call “informed consent.” You know you’re giving up all your privacy when you download an app on your phone. But you enjoy or want the service. And you’ve got nothing to hide, right?

This is how we crossed the threshold into a surveillance society with permission-based living. Once you establish the principle that someone can deny your services based on a political view (or because there’s a public health emergency), you can extend it to almost anything.

For example, the UK bank HSBC says it reserves the right to cancel the accounts of customers who refuse to wear face masks inside its branches.

Trojan Horse

This all proves the point we began making in March of last year: COVID-19 has accelerated the financial and political trends we’ve been warning you about.

The centralization of liquidity in the stock market makes for record highs in stock prices (and record lows in bond yields).

Politically, COVID-19 has become the Trojan Horse inside which all the monetary and technological fantasies of the authoritarian mind have been smuggled.

The Social Credit Score… Universal Basic Income… Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)… the attack on free speech and the First Amendment… de-facto house arrest in America’s biggest cities… and the forcible impoverishment of millions of Americans by destroying their small businesses…

It’s all happening.

Regards,

Dan Denning
Coauthor, The Bonner-Denning Letter

P.S. We’re approaching the point of maximum personal and financial risk in America. The reckless spending of both parties in Washington is accelerating it. And COVID-19 is facilitating another power grab. The political and economic trends are accelerating. There’s a lot at stake.

A defensive financial plan is now more important than ever… Don’t let the stock market highs lull you into a false sense of security.

It’s a topic Bill and I discuss regularly in our monthly letter, The Bonner-Denning Letter. If you’d like to find out more about how you can protect your privacy and your financial wealth, why don’t you join us? 

Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [email protected].

 

 

Dan Denning is the coauthor of The Bill Bonner Letter. Every month, he and Bill pen their contrarian thinking to provide insights you won’t find anywhere else. 

Before joining Bonner & Partners, Dan was a founder of Southbank Investment Research, the leading independent financial publisher in the UK. Dan is also the author of the 2005 book, The Bull Hunter. 

Dan Denning’s belief in free markets, sound money, personal liberty, and small government have underpinned everything he’s done during his 18 years in the financial publishing industry.

 

 

 

  

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