Economic pressures

[Danny B]

Of course, wars are NECESSARY,,,interest rates

There are many millions of people who suffer (and die) and chafe under the control of the Khazarian Mafia. The press and military establishment have it all under control. War spending must grow and go on forever. Trump demanded that the Germans spend tons more money for NATO if they are so worried about Russia invading. He pointed out that the Germans send many billions to Russia for oil. So, are the Russians an enemy that justifies a big army or, NOT.
Italian infrastructure is falling apart and crashing down. Trump asks; what is the justification of spending billions on armament when the country is disintegrating.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...e-too-far.html
Putin is doing his part. No matter how much provocation is piled on Russia, he refuses to respond belligerently.
Kim and Moon are trying to do their parts and end the state of war.
North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. Role in Delaying Peace | Time
time.com › History › Opinion
4 days ago - How the U.S. Helped Prevent North Korea and South Korea From declaring peace.

The one thread that you see constantly is; NO spending on infrastructure. lavish spending on "defense". In spite of the presence of NATO, "they" are pushing for a European army.
Peace must be avoided at all costs, The Report From Iron Mountain.
Trump, Putin, Xi and many others are trying to pull the world OUT of a constant war mentality and, into a mentality that does NOT include HUGE expenditures for arms. The army is still a convenient place to stash all the young males who would be shiftless and problematic in the general society. The huge arms budgets are an entirely different story.

The debt is growing faster than exponentially and, a spending solution will be forced on the world before long. NONE of this is something new. Our Bretton Woods credit card has managed to carry us along far longer than thought possible. Just the same, belligerent empires go bust.
"In reality, the United States and its Western European allies are now discovering the hard way the same lesson that drained and exhausted the Soviet Union from the creation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955 to its dissolution 36 years later. The tier of Central European nations has always lacked the coherence, the industrial base and the combined economic infrastructure to generate significant industrial, financial or most of all strategic and military power."

"Far from strengthening the Soviet Union, those nations weakened and distracted it. Today, NATO is repeating the Soviet Mistake and that fatal move is inexorably draining the alliance of all its strength and credibility."
https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...rsaw-pact.html

"The New York Times also played an outsized role in another event that has cost America dearly in trillions of dollars of fiscal spending and an economy that has experienced subpar economic growth for a decade.
We’re speaking of the New York Times editorial page’s incessant cheerleading for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act – the 1933 Banking Act "
"banks holding Federally-insured deposits from the casino investment banks on Wall Street. The Glass-Steagall Act had kept the U.S. financial system safe for 66 years until its repeal in 1999 – at the urging of the New York Times and Wall Street lobbyists. Just nine years after its repeal, the U.S. financial system collapsed, producing the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, including the loss of millions of jobs and millions of homes to foreclosure."

Keep in mind that "we" got the FED in 1913. By 1929, the economy collapsed. The FED is a creature owned by the banks. It will always work to preserve the banks.
"In the leadup to the bogus U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, it was the New York Times using its bullhorn to cheer on the attack. As media watchdog Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert wrote in 2014:"
U.S. Media’s Use of Its Collective Voice Reveals a Tragic Truth about America
Arthur Gregg (A.G.) Sulzberger is the front man for the Khazarian Mafia in NYC.
Much of the rest of the article is pure BS.

Way back when, money had intrinsic value. You loaned money and had to forego consumption to do so. Interest was the reward that you earned for risk and lack of consumption. When money is created by the peta-pixels, does anyone forgo consumption? Is there truly any risk if you can just conjure up boatloads more money. The whole family of ZIRP, NIRP, QE and QT distorts the cost of money. What should interest rates be?
Well, we are at a 5,000 year low for interest rates AND a bubble beyond anything ever seen before.

"Yet despite the false leads and dead ends, Sylla believes he’s penetrated the mysteries of interest rate cycles throughout history:

“It seems like there is a U-shaped cycle for each civilization.”
Beginning at the top left of the “U,” interest rates begin a downward cycle.
Critically, Sylla’s research shows that as interest rates fall… civilizations rise.
Civilizations crest as interest rates near the bottom of the “U.”
These civilizational heights bring heroic deeds… great achievements… and golden ages."
"The higher a people’s intelligence and moral strength, the lower the rate of interest."
Ah yes, morality & business
"Rates start rising off the bottom of the “U,” up the right side of the slope.
The burden of accumulated debt rises with them.
The added weight throws chains upon civilization… the flame of achievement flickers… and it finally fades.
In this manner, each civilization Sylla studied “declined and fell.”
The message, clear as gin:
Civilization rises with falling interest rates. Fattened by debt… civilization falls with rising interest rates."
The bankers move in and try to squeeze out more wealth than the underlying economy can pay.
https://dailyreckoning.com/interest-...-civilization/

[Danny B]

Fulford and the battle for Planet Earth

One ring to find them,, one ring to bind them.
Creating the "goddess". The super artificial intelligence.
"Representatives of an Asian secret society explained the goals of the new Goddess project to this writer earlier this summer. As it now exists, the Goddess can identify anybody’s face and within 7 seconds pull up all the data available on that person “such as their blood type.” The data also almost certainly includes (to those who are authorized access) the person’s educational records, medical records, criminal records (if any), their address, family members, close friends, insurance, private messages, financial situation, gaming duration, smart-home statistics, preferred newspapers, shopping history, dating behavior, their “social credit score,” etc. All of this within 7 seconds. They can also follow a person “anywhere on earth,” the sources say."

https://benjaminfulford.net/

[Danny B]

Fallout from low wages

China moved 300 million + self-sufficient peasants off the land and, into the cities. This wasn't a natural, organic change. It had to be paid for with enormous State debt. Now, there is no looking back. If China wants to keep all these millions working, it has to create and maintain employment. China may dream of being a world power but, it must keep it's people employed. Jim Rickards says that China will sacrifice it's stock market to keep employment going.
Repost; https://dailyreckoning.com/chinas-pl...-stock-market/

China will continue to break all the rules just to keep going. State debt is way past 300% because organic growth just isn't there. It is all financed by State credit.
"Shen Weipeng is a 29-year-old trust manager in Beijing, working in one of the highest-paid vocations in China. His after-tax income last year was about 260,000 yuan (US$38,000)."
"Even as households have been borrowing more, data indicates they have been spending less. Banks’ outstanding loans to households jumped 19 per cent year on year in May and 18.8 per cent in June, but China’s overall retail sales growth rate dropped to a 15-year low of 8.5 per cent in May"
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/econ...-out-trade-war

To get the most for your money, you must work where the wages & prices are high AND, spend where the wages & prices are low. The wages in China are just too low. Without foreign markets, China shrinks. The PBOC printed up more than the BOJ, ECB, and FED combined. Sovereign bonds are paid back with money skimmed off in taxes. China, like most of the world, was counting on a wage-price spiral to deflate away the pain of paying back the debt. As China's foreign markets shrink (from low wages), China must rely on money printing to support the sovereign bond market. Skimming taxes off wages just won't do it.
The trade wars are all about exporting unemployment.

8/17 China vows to control debt despite fresh stimulus for cooling economy – AFR
China must continue to print to keep jobs going.
China must stop printing to preserve it's bond market.
The ECB must stop printing to try to preserve it's bond market.
The ECB must continue to print to preserve it's banking system.
8/17 Bond default in Xinjiang the latest sign of stresses in China’s financial system – SCMP
8/17 Trump’s trade war is rattling China’s leaders – New York Times

Yeah, I'll bet. They are most worried about social stability.
Armstrong said that emerging markets go first. America will struggle along until the beginning of 2020. The emerging markets are definitely going.
https://dailyreckoning.com/this-is-w...t-u-s-markets/
Both China and Turkey are fighting the currency speculators. They will run out of ammunition unless they are willing to sell gold.
8/17 Turkey slashes capacity of banks to bet against struggling lira – CNBC
Erdogan has feces-for-brains. He can murder and incarcerate ANYONE inside Turkey. He has made the logical jump that he can control those outside Turkey. The bond markets have told him to GET STUFFED.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...regime-change/
America won't sell him the F-35s because he just doesn't have the money to pay for them.
Time to update your scorecard. Turkey seemed to be sliding down the fastest. After Venezuela, of course. Now, there is a new contender. Keep in mind that Spanish banks will crater when Turkish debt defaults. Just the same, Italy is seen as the next blowout.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/14/ital...trategist.html
Now, Poland is a contender to be the crash du jour.
8/17 Poland, the next turkey? Spotlight on the zloty and external debt – Mish
https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/econo...EO4ZRhENTmnNA/
You can well imagine that default contagion is coming from MANY sources.

8/17 Hyperinflation has destroyed Venezuela – Gold Telegraph
Actually, socialism destroyed Venezuela. Socialism seems to bring "leaders" with a peculiar brand of stupidity. Chavez fired experienced oil execs and put his cronies in. Oil production has crashed.

Globalism and the corporatocracy used regulatory capture to rig all markets in their favor. Naturally, the loser was the common man. Parasites can't suck rocks. They need to suck blood from an actual producer. The health of the host is of no concern until the blood stops flowing. The parasite is now printing up mega-tons of debt that it intends to load up on the host. The markets will eventually come to the conclusion that the host can't bear the burden. The latest pronouncement from the Italian GOV sent a shock through the markets,,,, by stating the obvious.
The corporatocracy is not about to give up power. The host has quit reproducing. In the coming default cascade, the corporatocracy will be reduced to a fraction that is commensurate with the earning power of the host.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com...endent-on.html

[Danny B]

ECB, up against the wall,,,Contagion, Lira to the Yuan

The new Italian government came out and said that the EU would crash if it stopped QE. Everybody already knew that this was true but, they ignored it. After the pronouncement, things started to fall apart.
"The Euro has fallen to 113006. Once again, the dangerous game here is when we cross that line of demarcation between CONFIDENCE in government and the REALIZATION that there is nobody in control but the free markets. Once all the talk and all the promises are no longer considered to be worth listening to, that is when the monetary crisis begins to really shake the foundations. We are moving closer to that point of no return."
"The ECB has had the Eurozone on life-support. They cannot pull the plug without the collapse of the Euro and with that, lies the jobs in Brussels. This is why they will become draconian and attempt to outlaw selling the Euro all to maintain their jobs. They will lose. The free markets ALWAYS win!."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...ng-to-dollars/
The blob State in Brussels will eventually take some kind of action to preserve their cushy jobs. This future action will be EXACTLY the wrong thing.

The Central Bank of Turkey jumped in to save the currency. This will be short-term at best. Also, Quatar gave them a $15 billion loan,,, more short-term.
"Qatar has come to the aid of Turkey offering $15 billion in a loan, but keep in mind that the entire issue with Syria began with Qatar proposing a pipeline through Syria to compete with natural gas with Russia. Therefore, it is in Qatar’s best interest to keep Turkey trying to invade Syria. The price will be the pipeline, which we seriously doubt will ever take place."
As soon as Qatar comes to this same conclusion, the money will stop.

"Erdogan has threatened to walk into the arms of Russia and Erdogan is simply not someone the West should trust. I have been warning that NATO should absolutely withdraw from Turkey. Until the people overthrow this guy, he should be distanced RIGHT NOW!!!!! He has been against Greece and Israeli. He is by no means of a particular side. He has been fixed on his vision of restoring the Ottoman Empire and he has ruined the economy of Turkey. Erdogan is far more dangerous than any other world leader "
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...me-your-enemy/

State bureaucrats will always tell the State what the State wants to hear. More and more states are following what Armstrong recommends. If he recommends dumping turkey ASAP, many will listen and act. He brings a historical clarity to everything.
99.8% of Turkey is muslim and, Erdogan is appealing to religious fundamentalists for support. Theocracies never work out.
"It is curious how those who seek dictatorial power are the ones who dream of restoring the power of empires long since dead. Erdogan has wanted to recreate the Ottoman Empire"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...sis-is-turkey/
From a historical point of view, Turkey is on the most frequently travelled road to disintegration. Attaturk had tried to modernise Turkey so that it would continue to be a secular State and not a religious State. The Turkish military assumed the role of kicking out leaders who were to religious. Up to this point, they had done pretty well. Not this time. Erdogan beat them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/...s-yet-to-come/
Turkey does NOT have a domestic arms industry. They have to import everything.

Armstrong, "ANSWER: We have been warning that the first to crack would be emerging markets and Turkey was the focal point."
"This is SERIOUS. People have to understand that this is NOT my personal belief, opinion, or anything else based upon some predetermined conclusion. People attack me personally because they cannot defend a system that NOBODY in their right mind would have created from scratch."
"The countries who want help are generally the peripheral not the majors for this is too political. Hence, we just have to crash and burn and then puck up the burning embers."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...pon-the-world/

Not so strangely, the crisis in Turkey is bring down other emerging markets including CHINA.
Offshore Yuan, https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defa...15_7-00-52.jpg
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ans-collapsing
Comments; "

All those graphs just indicate that EM currencies across the board are collapsing in "exchange value" against the USD. We are going to see national defaults on dollar denominated debt, most of it owned by the TBTF multinational banks including the USA big 5. This will lead to a freeze up in the credit markets far more acute than 2008. The Fed and the ECB will print at warp drive 9 to reverse it as they did in 2008-9 which will result in hyperinflation this time and the collapse in purchasing power of all fiat including the USD and the euro.
This will set the stage of the Cabal's Hunger Games attempted reset, as the world cries out in pain for the institutions that planned and executed the collapse to save them. BTW, China and Russia have vast amounts of unrecognized gold in storage. They have been expecting this for at least a decade and prepping. China will let their bubble pop and deflate to some extent and then step in with fractional gold backing. Same with Russia though they are less debt ridden than Chinese corporations."

The Yellow Peril has a plan, https://dailyreckoning.com/chinas-pl...-stock-market/
All the EM debt will blow, https://dailyreckoning.com/you-shoul...t-debt-bubble/
8/16 90% of cryptocurrency market facing ‘extinction-level event’: Xapo president – Yahoo
8/16 The ‘gig economy’ is the new term for serfdom – Truthdig

[Danny B]

Contagion and the hunt for taxes

"They" wanted an integrated worldwide financial system. As a bonus, "they" got a worldwide platform for CONTAGION.
They wanted unlimited cross-border capital flows. In good times, capital flows to where it gets the best return. In bad times, capital flows to the State that promises the most stability. The States with the best return are usually very risky places to invest. As confidence shifts, capital shifts. The attitude shifts from return ON capital to return OF capital.
Many investors would rather buy stocks at nosebleed valuations than hold bonds... both sovereign and private.
8/15 Think Turkey, Argentine sovereign debt is bad? Look at companies – Bloomberg

Our world situation; the mega-parasite writes the laws. What can you expect?
"No matter what country we look at, governments are going broke. Consequently, they are all beginning to turn against their people in the hunt for money. Some governments have just completely crossed the line between a free society and moved directly into the classification of authoritarianism. Australia has just been hunting its own citizens and demonizing the rich. They even coined the phrase: “Cash of for Criminals!”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...out-australia/

"to to answer those who ask WHY will China surpass the USA, the answer is simple. The trend is already set in motion and the West just has to that Marxism not only violated the Ten Commandments, but it suppresses human ingenuity and stunts economic growth. The more we move to try to save the collapse of socialism, it is like Erdogan refusing to accept responsibility for the collapse of the Turkish lira."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...inst-the-west/

The German Government too is looking for every Euro that it can squeeze out of some producer.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...ests-for-cash/
Erdogan is a nut-case psychopath. He will never give up his megalomaniac dreams of a new Ottoman Empire. The IMF won't give Turkey money unless he gives up control. He approached Qatar and, was turned down. Turkey can no longer service it's external debt.

Italy came out and said that QE had to continue "to infinity and, beyond"
QE is necessary for the non-producers. The producers actually create something and, have an income. The overlay of the EU bureaucracy on top of the existing state bureaucracy reduced the GDP of Italy (for instance) by 20%.
"The Euro has continued to fall dropping at the time of this post to 11343. The bottom of this channel lies at the 11315 area and behind the curtain, our phone is in meltdown mode. After’s Italy warning that the ECB has to keep QE going or the entire bond market will collapse forcing the breakup of the EU has finally made many of the dollar-haters start to realize that indeed Draghi has destroyed the European economy and bond market."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...pe-in-reality/
Keep in mind that super Mario Draghi is from Goldman Sachs. I suspect that he believed that; once he got hold of the keys to the printing press, everything would be fine.
He tried to rescue all his banking buddies. When the bond market collapses, he is going to be very unpopular.

8/15 Household debt hits record high $13.29 trillion, led by mortgages, student loans – TM
8/15 Forget about Turkey. Asia is the elephant in the room – Talk Markets
The Asian leaders aren't near as stupid as Erdogan.
8/15 China banks bad loans surge most on record amid deleveraging – Bloomberg
The Chinese seem to gamble without conscience. The shrinkage in working population and, the shrinkage in world markets was never figured into the equation.

[Danny B]

Still wouldn't post

"
Seen the other way around, as the chart below shows, the value of 1 lira has now dropped to 14.4 US cents, from 25 cents just four months ago,"
https://wolfstreet.com/2018/08/13/pr...-come-unglued/
Maybe Erdogan shouldn't have shot down the Russian plane and pilot a few months ago. He says that he doesn't need the West. He is going to get new friends.
The BRICs are getting whacked one by one.
8/14 Indian rupee drops to all-time low against dollar as Turkish crisis hits EMs – Ind
Corporate bonds in Emerging Markets look worse that public debt.
https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb...ies#gs.TepldLk

[Danny B]

Had to break it up for some reason

Here is the chart for the Argentine peso, https://wolfstreet.com/wp-content/up...2018-08-13.png
"and this from a country that over the past 67 years, has defaulted six times on its foreign currency debts: in 1951, 1956, 1982, 1989, 2001, and its “selective default” in 2014. "
"instead of trying to address the problem, or beg the IMF for a bailout, the Turkish government has heaped scorn on the West. In return, the Turkish lira plunged another 8% against the dollar on Monday, to 7.04 lira to the dollar.

[Danny B]

Space Force,,,hari kari in Turkey

Twitter's 13 Funniest Responses To Trump's Ridiculous 'Space Force ...
Trump Has Ordered A "Space Force" And The Jokes Are Practically...
Pentagon Had Spurned U.S. Space Force, Prompting Trump's Decree
AND,
"data used to prepare the year-*end financial statements were unreliable and lacked an adequate audit trail. The report indicates that just 170 transactions accounted for $2.1 trillion in year-end unsupported adjustments. No information is given about these 170 transactions. "
"In addition many thousands of transactions with unsubstantiated adjustments were, according to the report, removed by the Army. There is no explanation concerning why they were removed nor their magnitude.”
https://www.wakingtimes.com/2018/08/...-the-treasury/
You paid for a Space Force. You might as well get to see it.

14 Aug, https://www.rt.com/business/435897-a...ed-attack-fbi/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-i...-idUSKBN1KY0Y5
" More specifically, the forecast remains that the country will impose capital controls enforcing a near total loss of US$500bn of credit assets held by the global financial system."
"Turkey will almost certainly be the largest EM default of all time, should it resort to capital controls as your analyst expects, but it could also be the largest bankruptcy of all time given the difficulty of its creditors in recovering any assets. "
"Strong form capital controls produce a de facto debt moratorium, and very rapidly investors realize just how little their credit assets are worth. A de jure debt moratorium at the outbreak of The Great War in 1914 bankrupted almost the entire European banking system -"
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...fault-all-time

[Danny B]

Turkish contagion,,, ECB & QE

Turkey is the problem du jour. If it's currency drops 45% in value, all those dollar-denominated loans become VERY expensive to service. This is what Armstrong warned about. This is what is happening. Investors get nervous and, contagion spreads.
8/14 Goldman warns of US companies’ emerging market exposure – CNBC
8/14 What happens in Turkey won’t stay in Turkey; this crisis is different – CNBC
8/14 Three things are deadly for emerging markets, and Turkey might be the trigger – ZH
Kunstler,,,, just read it.
Close Up and Long Shot - Kunstler
Remember that, as a currency falls, the State has to raise interest rates to attract / retain investors.
8/14 Argentina to increase benchmark interest rate to 45 pct – Reuters

8/14 22-year-old crypto millionaire scammed out of 5,500 bitcoins – Mashable
8/14 Wave of crypto mining at colleges, businesses raising hacking concerns – CNBC
CONCERN, you say. Crypto coins have no future. 10% have already been stolen. Quantum computers will make it worse.
8/14 Bugs in mobile credit card readers could leave buyers exposed – Wired
You can go cashless,,,, I’ll keep my paper.
8/13 Gold clinging to $1,200 for dear life as fiat crisis goes global – Silver Doctors
8/13 Why rising inflation won’t help gold prices this time – SafeHaven
That which doesn't go up,,,, doesn't go down either.

"The promise that a single currency would produce a single interest rate has been a complete failure.

This is what I have been warning about. Ten years of QE has FAILED to stimulate the economy of Europe, it has only made governments addicted to the ECB buying their debt at absurd low levels in rate. The Eurozone will indeed break apart once QE stops for rates will soar and tensions will then rise among the 28 member states for the promise of a single currency would produce a single interest rate pointing to the USA as their proof was a lie. The USA federal debt had a single rate because it was a single authority issuing the debt, not 28 separate states."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...e-of-eurozone/

[Danny B]

Gold standard,,, EU debt,, Wolrd monetary base

ALL government is parasitic. Only gold can keep the mega-parasite in check. The world is reluctantly returning to gold. Pox Americana benefited the most from the abandonment of the gold standard and, pox Americana is most reluctant to return to a gold standard.
Jim Willie,
"REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GOLD STANDARD

Eliminate the $21 trillion USGovt deficit
Source 10,000 tonnes Gold to support the currency
Re-industrialize to work down $600 billion trade deficit"
"Back in 2017, US President Trump commissioned a study to verify the status of the US gold reserves. He and Vice President Pence, who led the study, were shocked to learn that the Fort Knox gold had been stolen. Of course, such a discovery never reaches the national news in broadcast or printed form. Thus the long delay in any conceivable effort to set up the $1 trillion infra-structure program promised during his campaign for office. The gears switched to locating and rescuing the stolen gold, with dirty fingers identified for ex-Presidents Papa Bush and Bill Clinton, along with the Wall Street crowd of criminals led by Robert Rubin. Rumors are ripe that the gold has been recovered, which also never reaches the controlled news networks. The eager await confirmation."

"The unique aspect of the current RESET with respect to gold is the many reports of hidden large gold treasure troves. Behind the scenes for the last 20 years or more have been focused battles, complete with murders, downed aircraft, hired high power attorneys, hidden projects, protected leaders, bribery by bankers, captured websites and false identities, confiscated income, and much more. History might someday tell the stories properly, but since such large scale, and so critical to forming new global boundaries, only the victors will recount the stories. Each gold trove is worth in the multiple $trillions for magnitude. In the Fort Knox case, only half $1 trillion. Any usage of multi-$trillion treasure troves brought forward for implemented usage, "
https://www.silverdoctors.com/gold/g...-tons-of-gold/
The thought comes to mind that America will discover a LONG hidden treasure trove of gold. Will it be the gold manufactured by John Bedini's process. Reportedly, Cejka said that the process did work but, it wasn't time yet to be manufacturing gold.
Ref: Part 20, The Cjeka Files.
Petrovoltaics
Jim Willie also had an interesting claim about hidden flash drives.
https://www.silverdoctors.com/headli...bytes-of-data/
8/13 More than 100 seats that backed Brexit now want to remain in EU – Guardian
Yeah, the City of London is buying votes to stop Brexit.
8/13 Lira crisis: action by Turkey’s central bank fails to quell contagion fears – Guardian
8/13 In America, wage growth entirely wiped out by inflation – Chicago Tribune

Armstrong said that the Eurozone project was doomed from the start because they didn't have a common debt market.
“The situation can’t be resolved, and it is going to explode,” Claudio Borghi told Reuters after Italian, Spanish and Portuguese government bond yields rose in the wake of the financial turmoil in Turkish markets. "
“Either the ECB offers a guarantee or the euro will be dismantled,” said Borghi, who is president of the lower house budget committee.

The extra yield that investors demand for holding Italian bonds over top-rated German ones rose to its highest since late May earlier on Monday, briefly rising above 280 basis points before easing back to around 275. "
No kidding!! What a surprise
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-i...-idUSKBN1KY1N2

Here is a good article on the World Monetary Base.
"The first effect to watch out for is a contraction in international trade as a consequence of the US dollar shortage. Every time in the past that there has been a contraction in the WMB, six or so months later there has been a steep decline in the volume of world trade (at least since 1994"
https://blog.evergreengavekal.com/th...ssion-of-2019/

[Danny B]

Turkey and European banks.,,, P2P lending meltdown in China

YOU might not care about the currency crisis in Turkey but, you are not an Italian Bank or a Spanish bank,,, or a French bank. Turkey is rapidly melting down. Erdogan bought his popularity by borrowing enormous sums in dollar-denominated loans. The lira has lost 45% so far this year and, the loans are getting VERY expensive to service.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-mediterranean
The banks are required to hold a percentage of reserves. What happens when the value of the currency falls?
8/12 Turkish lira dives 10% at open; Turkish banks now insolvent – Mish

TAE talks about Turkey starting a war with Greece to deflect attention from domestic problems. IMAGINE that. One NATO member going to war with another NATO member.
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/20...k-cold-turkey/
Turkey made a VERY big mistake by shooting down the Russian plane and pilot.
8/12 Turkey meltdown “should be valuable lesson for risk-ignorant investors” – Zero Hedge
The first of MANY lessons. The contagion is moving FAST.
8/13 South African rand flash-crashes 10% in Turkey contagion – Zero Hedge
The end result to all this is; the scenario that Armstrong warmed about the most.
8/13 Geopolitical concerns spike US dollar to highest level of year – FX Empire

Armstrong claims that Turkey is going to abandon the West.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...uropean-banks/
Turkey says that it is going to reform and fix everything so that it can join the eurozone.
https://sputniknews.com/europe/20180...ssion-reforms/

OZ may be considered a Western nation but, they are very dependent on China and Asia.
8/13 58% of Australians worry about their mortgage and becoming homeless – Mish
New Zealand is making an effort to keep hot Chinese money from blowing up their RE market.
8/13 New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying homes – SMH

8/13 Russia says it will ditch U.S. securities amid sanctions – GATA
You almost get the idea that the sanctions are designed to take the dollar out of world trade.

"most at risk in China's economy: online peer-to-peer lenders who collect money from retail investors and dispense small loans to consumers, usually without collateral, putting the loans at risk of a default with zero recovery.

We pointed out that outstanding loans on P2P platforms rose 50% just last year to total Rmb1.49 trillion ($215 billion) - making the size of China’s P2P industry far bigger than in the rest of the world combined "
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...2-peer-lenders
NO collateral What could go wrong?

We are winding down towards the end of a super-cycle. Keynes advocated centralized control by the State. This never works and generally destroys the whole system.
8/13 Weekend tweets: Keynesian time bombs, emerging market black swans – Mish
Any time that a State allows unlimited debt creation, it eventually blows up.

Yanis Varoufakis, "The crisis of 1848 brought us the Marxist tradition. The great depression produced both Keynes’s General Theory and Friedman’s monetarism. Over the past decade, the 2008 crash has given rise to a cottage industry of books, articles, documentaries, even films but not, so far, an overarching theory. Now, a compelling new book has arrived which deserves to be at the top of the reading list of anyone interested in the events of 2008 and eager to make sense of the aftermath ."

"Many economies (Ireland and South Korea for example) that were run according to what the global establishment considered “best practice” (government and trade surpluses, light regulation of banks and employers) crashed the moment 90% of global money flows dried up. Why? Because the establishment’s prescription had skilfully left out the crucial truth that the main threat came from the banking system (not the state) and from private (not public) debt."
Armstrong claims the opposite.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...-crisis-review

This is an excellent article. Just as Armstrong sees no excesses in private capital, Varoufakis sees no excesses in public debt.
Sorry, but, they are TWINS.
The private banks in Europe loaned TONS of money to Greece even though it had spent 90 years of it's recent history in default. Since the lender is exposed to the most risk, it is incumbent on the lender to calculate the risks. The banks just figured that that the State would rescue them.... which it did. The State has regulatory power and is most at fault if excess credit creation is allowed.

Once again, you can see the power of gold in limiting State created expansion of debt.

[Danny B]

Turkey,,,stronger dollar,,,Armstrong,,, China

The sad story of the downfall of Turkey. Erdogan was / is the typical strongman politician with visions of grandeur from the past. He staged an attempted coup to have an excuse to get rid of everyone who disagreed with him.
August, 2016 "35,022 -- Number of people detained "
Jul 8, 2018 - "More than 130,000 people have been sacked"
So, what happens when a State attacks it's own people? They get nervous and lose confidence. What happens to the currency when the people lose confidence?
"A Revolution is brewing not just in Turkey, but also in Iran. More than 100,000 people have taken to the streets chanting death to the dictator. The currency has simply collapsed as it moves into hyperinflation. Once again, as we see this take place, CONFIDENCE in the government is collapsing. This is the key to revolution. Once the people lose CONFIDENCE, then the game changes."
"the more chaos that unfolds, the stronger the US dollar becomes. Capital will ALWAYS flee from wherever the war unfolds. In this case, do not consider that these governments will simply surrender power voluntarily. They will both turn toward Russia for help and portray their political crisis as a CIA plot. That is rather absurd but it will surface anyway. This is standard behavior whenever a currency moves into hyperinflation as the CONFIDENCE in the immediate government collapses. "
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...or-revolution/
I've travelled twice from London to Turkey by road. It's a nice country but, the leaders have messed it up.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, every State that weakens it's economy and the confidence sends investment to dollars and gold. As the dollar gets stronger, this weakens more and more currencies.
"The Fed has been shrinking its balance sheet and believe it or not, there has been growing a SHORTAGE of dollars"
"They have focused on selling to the USA rather than developing their own domestic consumer economies. China has shifted and understood that important distinction and has indeed turned its focus to developing a domestic economy. Europe has not and it is significant to comprehend that the structure of the European Union is disastrous. "
Where does Armstrong get this BS? China and Europe can NOT develop their domestic economies with 20% unemployment and excruciatingly low wages.

"So far, our computer has been spot on. We are headed toward a monetary reset in the years ahead but to get there, we must experience a STRONG dollar – not a WEAK dollar." "Turkey is a live example of the most vital element of all – CONFIDENCE. When that is lost, this is what produces hyperinflation – NOT the quantity of money."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...of-us-dollars/

(Minsky) "His hypothesis of financial instability argued that a financial crisis is endemic in capitalism because periods of economic prosperity encouraged borrowers and lenders to be progressively reckless. This excess optimism creates financial bubbles and then later busts. Therefore, capitalism is prone to move between periods of financial stability to instability. "
"He agreed also with Galbraith who blamed corporations and never even looked out the wholesale collapse of government debt on a major worldwide scale in 1931. There was NO MENTION of the Sovereign Debt Crisis of 1931"
"He agreed also with Galbraith who blamed corporations and never even looked out the wholesale collapse of government debt on a major worldwide scale in 1931. There was NO MENTION of the Sovereign Debt Crisis of 1931"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...minsky-moment/
This is AMAZINGLY STUPID. Without a gold standard (governor) on the printing presses, sovereign debt rises enormously.
"encouraged borrowers and lenders to be progressively reckless."
Periodic currency inflation is the birthright and trademark of bankers, NOT workers. Excessive currency inflation is an attribute of the State.
Budget Deficit Under Trumps Skyrockets To Worst In Six Years
US Spending On Interest Hits All Time High As Budget Deficit Soars To $684 Billion

Hyper-inflation of the sovereign bond market was always a prerequisite to gearing up for war. The Bretton Woods agreement was an attempt to short-circuit that maneuver. It depended on the honesty of politicians. The NEXT agreement will depend on the blockchain.
Armstrong is wilfully blind to the fact that currency inflation only helps HIS class. All the economic cycles that he writes about are tied to highs and lows in currency inflation. Just as the world recognised the need for the Bretton Woods agreement, it recognises that the blockchain must step in REFERENCED to gold.

8 measures that indicate the stock market is due for a crash. It is VERY difficult to know when investors go to equities JUST to protect their capital and, are not worried about earnings or return.
8-Measures Say A Crash Is Coming, Here's How To Time It | RIA

"Stockman's main warning is that there's no bid underneath this market -- that when perception shifts from greed to fear, the bottom is much farther down than most investors realize. In his words, it's "rigged for implosion"."
VERY interesting chart.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkKdQX3XgAIg0Iv.jpg
https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/...-epochal-pivot
China and Russia are trying to make it too expensive for America to start a war.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-...syria?ref=home
"With China headed for a record year of corporate-bond defaults, "
"Read: China’s Markets About to Face $80 Billion Bond-Redemption Test"
"8/11 Chinese investors panic over dubious products, authorities quash protests – NYT"
They need to start thinking about confidence, not quashing protests.
8/11 Pakistan is the latest emerging market crisis – CNBC
Pakistan is going to be a MAJOR problem for the foreseeable future.
Water crisis: Why is Pakistan running dry? | Asia| An in-depth look at ...
https://www.dw.com/en/water-crisis-w...dry/a-44110280
Jun 7, 2018 - Pakistan could "run dry" by 2025
Reportedly, OZ is going to get hit by blowback from the currency crisis in Asian markets.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...alias-doorstep

[Danny B]

Turkey, OZ,,silver,,, headlines

The speed of change is UNREAL. Turkey is collapsing at light-speed.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...throw-erdogan/
8/10 Stocks plunge on geopolitical concerns as Turkish lira implodes – CNBC

The Latest: Erdogan vows Turkish economy will grow strongly | News ...
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/bu...216430550.html
7 hours ago
Whatever Erdogan’s claims about enhancing the place of Islam in Turkish life, restoring Ottoman glory and turning the country into a regional power under his strong and capable leadership, "
About that Ottoman glory,,

OZ is trying to create a special place in world affairs. The OZ government wants the world to be their tax collector.
" The Australian government is violating international law demanding that anyone selling anything on the internet must collect a 10% tax from an Australian and pay it to the Australian government.

The Australian government has shifted a tax-collecting burden to the entire world."
"There is absolutely no foundation in International Law that allows a country to impose obligations upon business in other countries and force them to collect taxes. "
"We are looked at a naked greedy tariff. Simply said, Australia is really becoming the most anti-capitalist country in the West. The Australian dollar has been declining since 2011 and this hunt for taxes continues to expand with the most anti-free market laws in Western civilization"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...rnational-law/

"Collectively, U.S. households are 13.15 trillion dollars in debt, which is the highest level in American history." PARTY ON!
Bankrupt America: Bankruptcy Soars As The Country Grapples With An Unprecedented Debt Problem

Silver & gold have traditionally been used as a store of value,,, not so much as a transactional currency. They are the premier monetary metals. What about other metals as a store of value? Rhodium went for $230 to $10,000 in just a few years. Platinum has been pretty good.
Silver is a monetary metal that has done very well. silver may be the new "thing"
"there was three times the amount of silver above ground in 1980 than there is today. The six billion ounces that existed in 1980 has shrunk to two billion ounces of industry standard 1000 ounces bars."
"In 1980, there were less than 3 billion ounces of gold in all forms above ground throughout the world – the cumulative production of thousands of years. Today, 38 years later, the total amount of above ground gold has doubled, thanks to an explosion of gold mine production.While silver mine production has similarly exploded over the past 38 years, there is much less silver around now. "
" JPMorgan has been able to accomplish in the physical market. It has used the highly depressed prices it largely created to accumulate on the cheap 750 million ounces of physical silver and 20 million ounces of physical gold."
http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-...heodore+Butler
All the CBs hold gold but, none hold silver. That really doesn't matter.

8/10 Sudden emerging market bloodbath – Talk Markets
Yeah,, and they owe us $trillions. Contagion writ large.
8/10 How automation will affect unfunded liabilities – Forbes
AND
8/10 Streaming companies generate massive revenue per employee – First Macro
They don't generate massive wages so, there will be no money for unfunded liabilities.
8/10 What have we done? Gig economy has become a monster – Vanity Fair
Bezos could pay higher wages but, he doesn't have to. So, Amazonians live in their cars and buy nothing.
Labor shortages have not brought higher wages.
https://www.dollarcollapse.com/labor...es-wage-hikes/

[Danny B]

China Melting,, stock bubble,,, no love for the EU

The Chinese are recent arrivals at a capitalist system. If a little credit is good, a LOT of credit is better. The cracks in the system are starting to show.
" The number of peer-to-peer lenders shutting down spiked from 28 in May to 218 in July,"
"became a magnet for the misrepresentation and criminality that can be expected in such loosely controlled off-market activities,"
https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/08/new...ing/index.html

Armstrong has a big report on China. "This is a report that will be a reference for the decade ahead. There appears to be a problem whereby some countries are blocking the purchase of books on any subject matter. Canada appears to be one of them. "
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/u...-digital-copy/

The Bretton Woods agreement was an attempt to block any state from blowing up it's bond market to pay for / generate a war. Nixon was forced to cancel this agreement and, the wars have gone on almost non-stop.
"Jacob Rothschild has voiced concern about the global financial system that was established after WWII."
This system died on August 14 1971 from the effects of the welfare-warfare state.
"According to Rothschild, the lack of a co-ordinated, international response to global challenges was unlikely in an era of populist and protectionist leaders"
No kidding, the CBs controlled by his buddies inflated the system to the breaking point so that a certain group of war-mongers could make enormous profits AND destabilize the whole world.

https://www.rt.com/business/435490-r...der-stability/
"If my sons did not want wars, there would be none."
Gutle Schnaper
Mayer Amschel Rothschild's wife

The CBs printed up about an extra $250 trillion to rescue the valuation of assets. Besides that, there is a lot of capital flight to American markets. Just the same, stock valuations are looking a bit crazy.
"He also shared a chart which he claims is “unfit for a family-friendly publication” that shows how in terms of median price to sales ratio, the S&P 500 is twice as expensive as it was in 2000."
"In a follow-up post, he then reiterates how 2018 is starting to increasingly look like 2000."
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/be...ket-2018-08-08

"The European Union has spent nearly one trillion dollars to unify the continent by delivering highways and trains into places where there were once gravel paths. In current dollars, that is over eight times the size of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II. The EU has built airports and bridges, trams and swimming pools. It has repaired castles and medieval churches."
https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/econo...0yxTxGSIiPkTA/

8/09 Federal deficit jumps 20 percent after tax cuts, spending bill – The Hill
8/09 ‘Dark cloud’ of trade war hovers over Chinese yuan’s globalization – CNBC
The impossible trinity bites China in the a$$.
8/09 New Hampshire Dems dump Clinton from fundraising dinner – Zero Hedge
Times must be tough. The happy rapist is looking for spare change.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...tions-welcome/

[Danny B]

No people = no economy

The trade war is bound to backfire on almost everybody.
"The German car manufacturer BMW actually produced 1.98 million passenger cars and light trucks built in the United States and were exported from there in the USA – not Germany. If we look at the dollar value of BMW exports from the USA, this accounted for $57.04 billion of U.S. international trade. BMW has actually become the largest manufacturer component that is being produced in the United States – not Germany."
"Are the BMWs exported from the USA German or American trade?"
"Germany is using an old world mercantilist philosophy and assumes that an export-driven economy is THE number one objective."
" We all cannot have trade surpluses. Someone has to have a trade deficit. This is their focus whereby I and looking at the structured design. I am writing that for China to become the Financial Capital of the World, they MUST abandon the Export Model of Germany and shift to the Domestic Model"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...trade-surplus/

The Chinese workforce is declining.
"The country's working age population fell by 2.44 million to 919.54 million in 2013, marking the second consecutive year of decline. ,,,, down 1.6 percentage points from the previous year.
China Must Grow Its Shrinking Workforce to Keep Up - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/.../china-...rce-to-keep-up
So, China has a rapidly shrinking workforce and a rapidly rising debt load.
China has a bigger problem than the trade war ? a 'mountain of debt' - RN - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
ALL the old models are worthless for a shrinking population. With 95 million Americans not in the labor force, the FED has to print the money that they are NOT earning just to uphold the price of assets that they are NOT buying and, the wealth that they are NOT creating.
The strain on the sovereign bond market will eventually be too much.

8/09 Turkish banks scramble to stave off debt crisis as lira plummets – WSJ
8/08 20% interest rates, crashing capital markets: Sanctions destabilize Turkey – CNBC
That will be a bonfire before long.
8/09 Italy’s economy minister sees lower growth, higher deficit next year – Reuters
Ah yes BUT, the ECB doesn't allow higher deficits.

Here is a good article about the worldwide attempts to uphold asset values after the consuming population has been unable to do so.
https://thistimeitisdifferent.com/ec...tals-july-2018