Economic pressures

[Danny B]

Inescapaple demographics crash with growing debt

As the developed world becomes more effed up,,, as birth control becomes more widely available, people have decided not to bring children into this mess. Things are so polluted in China spends 15% of it's gdp fighting pollution. China created it's great leap forward to prevent the West from carving it up. The cost of rapid industrialization has been horrible for the flora and fauna. Man is a part of nature and can not simply divorce himself.

"While China has embarked on ambitious plans for economic and military domination over the next several decades, they may end up defeating themselves without a single shot fired - thanks to their longstanding birth restrictions, shrinking fertility rate and exploding elderly population.
"In a worse-case scenario, slowing growth and a labor shortage could leave China unable to care for hundreds of millions of retirees," notes the Wall Street Journal.

China’s clinging to birth restrictions defies a clear demographic trend: Its workforce is shrinking and the population is rapidly ageing. By 2050, there will be 1.3 workers for each retiree, according to official estimates, compared with 2.8 now.
About the same for America,,, in spite of leaving the southern border open. https://www.ssa.gov/history/ratios.html

"While some experts have argued that slower population growth could mitigate pressure on China to create new jobs as technology increases productivity,"
China is a leader in robotics. Technology will increase productivity but, it won't increase jobs.
"will see an average annual decline of nearly 6 million Chinese"
The Japanese show all of us the way forward.
“China will learn what many other countries have learned—that it is much more difficult to get people to have more babies” than to force them to stop having them."
" Moody's cited China's rapidly ageing population as a major factor in their decision to downgrade their sovereign rating,"

Then, there is the whole corporate mentality.
"When Ms. Li, the Qingdao professor, refused to abort her third child, she said, her university employer accused her of selfishly putting at risk her supervisors’ careers, the school’s future and co-workers’ bonuses."

"Singapore, for example, has very liberal immigration policies and offers a "baby bonus" as high as 10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,500) along with grants available for parents which can be used for healthcare and education. "
"President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the need to breed - stating in 2015 that China needs more births"
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ions-set-stage
Excellent infographic on population growth, Visualizing Global Population Growth by Continent - The Sounding Line

Nobody wants to live in an Orwellian world NOR bring children into it.
Giant Chinese companies are outfitting millions of employees -- everyone from factory workers to military personnel to pilots and train drivers -- with special uniform hats containing an unspecified neurological sensor package claimed to be capable of detecting "depression, anxiety or rage"
Chinese Factories Employ "Brain Scanners" To Stop Workers' Mistakes Before They Happen
China's "SkyNet" facial recognition tools can compare up to 3 billion faces per second to help the government enforce its new "social credit score" - the Communist Party's latest and most widespread tool of political repression.

" the Chinese government is pushing to double the size of the economy by 2020 (setting this goal in 2010). "
Have the government idiots taken a look at Japan and their falling population?
"Increasing debt without a concurrent economic gain has inevitably led to the economic downfall. Out of 43 countries that experienced an increase of credit-to-GDP of more than 30 percent in five years, 38 of those countries faced a financial disaster. "
Yep, printing money without a corresponding increase in wealth never seems to work out.
" In 2016, 41 banks wrote off 576 billion yuan in bad loans, up considerably from the 117-billion-yuan bad loan write-offs in 2013."
The Global Debt Addiction: China's Out of Control Debt - Gold Telegraph

Bonds pay very little but, as long as they pay a higher percentage than the percentage lost to price inflation, people buy them. Even using artificially depressed GOV figures for inflation, bonds have been losing for years.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...nded-years-ago
Keep in mind that people who bought bonds with free money aren't particularly concerned about a drop in value.
If you buy high-yield bonds, you get a higher return but, more risk.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...nk-bond-market

[Danny B]

Cyber crime,,, paper money

Cyber Crime Costs Projected To Reach $2 Trillion by 2019 - Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/.../cyber-cri...llion-by-2019/
5/01 Bitcoin: One cryptocurrency to rule them all – Aier
4/30 Cryptos are the most heavily manipulated market in history – Bob Moriarty
China's Shutdown Of Bitcoin Miners Isn't Just About Electricity - Forbes
Gold has attributes that BTC does not have.

4/30 US stocks jump on dealmaking, earnings – CNBC
5/01 Stocks fall as market awaits Apple earnings – CNBC

Kunstler, "Our financialized economy — like everything else we do — operates at levels of complexity so baffling that even its supposed managers at the central banks are flying blind through fogs of debt, deception, and moral hazard. When that vessel of pretense slams into a mountain top, the effects are likely to be quick and lethal to the economies on the ground below."

"Personally, I expect our collapse to be as sudden and unexpected as the USSR’s, but probably bloodier because there’s simply more stuff just lying around to fight over. Of course, I expect the collapse to express itself first in banking, finance, and markets — being so deeply faith-based and so subject to simple failures of faith. But it will become political and social soon enough, maybe all-at once. And when it happens in the USA, it will spread through the financial systems the whole world round."
That Collapse You Ordered...? - Kunstler
He never was a ray of sunshine. He does bring up the question of just how fast the unwind will be. Since our money has no tangible value, it is just information. How fast can information and contagion travel?
The repeal of the Glass-Steagal act gave our savings to the bankers to gamble with. The bankers are now looking everywhere for money.

US banks in 'arms race' for deposits as rates rise - Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/1bd2ca6c-...b-bc4b9f08f381
So, the banks took our money and, now, they need more.
YOUR money was just an unsecured investment in the bank.

A lot of people are getting nervous about their money in the banks. SO,
"Sky News has also found that the proportion of UK banknotes circulating outside the banking system - in people's pockets, stored at home and outside the country - has now hit the highest level since 1979, as a percentage of GDP."
The cure;
UK Demonetisation: Paper 10-Pound Notes Go Out Of Circulation In UK
It's time to offload these £50 notes | Money | The Guardian
Europe to Remove 500-Euro Bill, the 'Bin Laden' Bank Note Criminals ...
Obviously, if the State does not want you to hold paper money,,,, that is just what you should do.

[Danny B]

PPT, ESF,,, RISING debt,,, RISING energy

The Fed caused 93% of the entire stock market's move since 2008: Analysis yahoo Finance 2016
The stock market is an indicator of economic activity, not the economic activity in itself. The economy wouldn't budge on it's downward march so, they messed with the indicators.
The same is true for bonds. The FED was buying up all the slack. They claim that they have stopped. What about other groups? There is the ESF.

"Is it possible that the ESF, located conveniently at the nexus between US monetary policy, foreign policy and last but not least, a promoter of the interests of the US military-industrial complex,"
"officially in charge of defending the dollar, the ESF is the government agency which controls the New York Fed, runs the CIA's black budget, and is the architect of the world's monetary system (IMF, World Bank, etc). ESF financing (through the OSS and then the CIA) built up the worldwide propaganda network which has so badly distorted history today (including erasing awareness of its existence from popular consciousness). It has been directly involved in virtually every major US fraud/scandal since its creation in 1934: the London gold pool, the Kennedy assassinations, Iran-Contra, CIA drug trafficking, "
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/prese...rotection-team

Then, there is the PPT.
The Working Group consists of:

The Secretary of the Treasury, or his or her designee (as Chairperson of the Working Group);
The Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or his or her designee;
The Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or his or her designee; and
The Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or his or her designee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workin...ancial_Markets

All of this matters when the State wants money. How much money does the State want?
NOTES;
The U.S. Just Borrowed $488 Billion, a Record High for the First Quarter
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he’s unconcerned about the bond market’s ability to absorb rising government debt
Ability, yes,,,, desire,,, well, maybe.
Treasury said net borrowing totalled $488 billion from January through March, a record for that period and about $47 billion more than it had previously estimated
Who did the estimation?
https://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedi...7-ac162d7bc1f7

The U.S.’s need to issue more Treasuries is expected to grow as the fiscal picture deteriorates.
The Treasury said Monday that tax changes are “poised to underpin near-term consumption and investment” and “the stage is set for a pick-up in growth over the near term.”
There is no growth in the lower loop so, they print more and more.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...quarter-record
Investors are getting more comfortable with the idea of four interest rate hikes this year, "
Comfortable, huh? Interest rate hikes will blow out all the debt markets.
"Think in terms of higher consumer and producer price readings coupled with surging oil prices and a falling dollar,"
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/30/the-...may-ensue.html

The upper loop is over-stuffed with money. The vast majority of people are under-stuffed with money. Look at the price of gold. Gold has no price. It's value and demand varies very little over time. It's "price" is pretty constant. So, if you look at the price of gold, you are looking at the value of the currency. The CBs have all printed in unison cheapening all currencies at once so that no currency is seen as a haven from over-printing. The price of gold must be suppressed so that currency doesn't look quite as bad.
So, they drive down the value of the currency. What about oil? When will a "falling " currency be reflected in the price of oil? Paul Volker (FED head) raised interest rates to about 22% and the economy survived. Today, that would be instant suicide.
The same is true for the price of oil. The dollar goes down but, the price of oil remains subdued. How much longer can that go on? Oil and gold tend to move together.
Charles Maxwell, a veteran energy analyst (since 1957), is now predicting oil prices will climb to $300 a barrel in 2020,

"From a price in the $40 range a mere six months ago, we’re now into the $70s per barrel and higher prices are forecast."
"Rising energy costs are a type of inflation that we saw in the mid-2000s, during the previous runup to oil at over $130 per barrel in 2008"
That didn't work out so well, did it?
https://dailyreckoning.com/seven-pillars-gold/

Armstrong, " We simply have to let it burn down to the ground and start from scratch."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...ee-healthcare/

[Danny B]

Printing money to make people happy,, Jim Willie,,,

Central bank governor Gideon Gono was reported to have moved into his new 112-room mansion on the outskirts of Harare. The new residence was reported to feature an art gallery, a billiard room, a swimming pool with three islands, and four helipads.
He runs the Central bank of Zimbabwe. He is the one who printed the famous $5 trillion notes.
Nhalan Nene of South Africa said that he will force the reserve bank to print more money and, give it to the poor.
‘We will print more money and give it to the unemployed to end poverty in South Africa’, Says new minister of Finance – News Updates South Africa

It just never works out to print money that is not connected to labor or wealth creation. This is South Africa's gold production. The employment graph looks about the same.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Production.png

4/30 Fight for deposits erupts among banks, with winners and losers – Wolf Street
I'm going to copy the entire text of the 2 latest summations from Jim Willie.

April 21st: topics covered the most significant financial event in a generation, the launch of the Gold-Oil-RMB futures contract in Shanghai China, the gradual move toward Saudis selling oil in RMB terms,
Saudi is going broke. They were forced to sell off stakes in ARAMCO, the State oil company. It was way over-priced because they lie about their reserves. The Chinese came along an offered a good price that nobody else was willing to pay. Remember that China has to get rid of treasury notes by buying stuff. China now has leverage to force Saudi to sell in Yuan

the Chinese investment of RMB inside the Saudi Economy in its development, the path of the Chinese Yuan and valuation issues with expectations of eventual gold linkage with the Yuan currency, the Chinese march away from the USD Sphere with Belt & Road Initiative projects worth $8 trillion outside the USD framework coupled with non-USD platforms like the AIIBank, the Russian vulnerable situation with their Ruble currency easily fortified by gold huge reserves,

21 years ago, South Korea was close to bankruptcy. The State asked people to donate their gold to save the country. 8 tons were collected in just the first week. This shows just how important gold is for the stability of a currency.
the potential launch of a Russian gold-backed crypto money, the potential of a Gold Trade Note with a 1000 ton placement of gold, along with more discussion of personal investments in silver bars,
Both China and Germany have been on a silver standard in recent history.

and the Eurasian Trade Zone establishment and development which goes contrary to the George Orwell futuristic view (not in the US press), with conclusion that the Shanghai GOR futures being the death knell for the Petro-Dollar and the Saudi oil sales in RMB terms being the dagger in the Petro-Dollar’s heart

https://youtu.be/N3S1PBKOdvs
“Longstanding Chinese War: Intrigue & Betrayal”

The trade war with China has roots going back at least to the 1990 decade. It has been financial in nature in the past, only recently in trade & commerce. Note the tungsten laced gold bars sent to Hong Kong banks. Note the Hong Kong independence with FDI investment promised to China. Note the US gold lease with China, reneged upon in 2005. Note the hidden unravelling of the Vatican lord.
No idea of the true story of Vatican gold. Everybody agreed to send all the gold to Switzerland first before it went to China or Hong Kong. The Swiss were entrusted with getting the tungsten out of the system.

Note the Chinese property confiscations, seen in JPMorgan HQ. Note the Chinese dumping of Fannie Mae bonds, beginning in 2005. Note the quick consequence of the Lehman failure and subprime bond crisis. Note the Chinese dumping long-term USTreasurys. Note the construction of the vast array of non-USD platforms and channels. Note the death knell for the Petro-Dollar. Witness the gradual emergence of the Gold Standard, arising from the East.

Longstanding Chinese War: Intrigue And Betrayal
China buys up everything in sight, using U.S. treasuries. The West rolls all of their money into bonds and derivatives and, other non-tangible vehicles. China buys tangibles. Russia already has enormous tangible wealth and doesn't need to buy anything.

Armstrong, " Debt relief of 50% is needed on the entire (EU)national debt – not just the loans since 2010."
There will be no saving the EU. There is almost no possibility of the investors accepting a 50% haircut. Even if they did, the credit default swaps would kick in. Even a "clean" 50% haircut won't save them because the interest burden would just keep growing. The hunt for taxes to pay the State and banks just causes more economic deflation. As long as the money is stuck in the upper loop, it has NO value to the economy.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...e-debt-crisis/
Socialism gives resources to the poor based on NEED. Capitalism gives money to the poor based on work. Crony capitalism gives money to the rich based on influence. It is only pure capitalism that avoids high inflation of the money supply. Only capitalism provides the motivation for work to be performed. With the parasites in control, actual productivity always seems to diminish. They starve up out to keep us working so, we have fewer offspring.

[Danny B]

Ignoring history,,, GSEs,,, late stages of a credit super-cycle.

" Fundamentally, bull market psychology rests on the basic premise that underlying fundamentals are sound - economic growth, earnings, inflation dynamics, new technologies, global trade, etc."
" wise person said that it's not true that we don't learn from history. It's that our learning is dominated by recent history. It becomes too easy to ignore everything beyond the past few years. Over a relatively short time horizon, the previous bust cycle becomes ancient history. What matters for the markets - especially as the cycle evolves to the speculative phase - is the here and now."
" Not only do we not learn from our mistakes, we instead seem to go out of our way to create bigger ones. This time much Bigger."

" Our government is amassing debt and obligations it will not repay. There's the $21 TN of rapidly expanding debt, along with tens of Trillions of future entitlements. And let's not forget the government-sponsored enterprises. The GSEs ended 2017 with a record $8.857 TN of securities outstanding (record assets of $6.826 TN, along with a record $2.125 TN of guaranteed MBS)."
Yep, the bad loans were stuffed in the GSEs.
https://creditbubblebulletin.blogspo...al-wisdom.html

4/28 Retiring broke? More than half of Americans are at risk of it happening – USA Today
4/28 A pension ‘Hurricane Harvey’ could spread across the US – Birch Gold
The cash in the SS fund was stolen for wars and replaced with non-negotiable Treasury notes. The war-mongers are increasingly shrill in their demands that the entitlements be cut back and, the military budget raised.

4/29 A tsunami of US debt is about to hit the markets – Gefira
4/29 Speculators have never been more short bonds — ever – Zero Hedge
You're watching the slow march of history being made.

Interesting,,, stages of a financial bubble.
STAGES OF A FINANCIAL BUBBLE - Where Are We Now? - munKNEE dot.com
4/29 Freddie Mac launches “3% down” mortgage with no income restrictions – Zero Hedge
This is pure socialism overlaid on pure financial stupidity.
4/29 Brexit failure looks more likely every day – Bloomberg
The Eurocrats (socialists) are absolutely frantic to kill Brexit. They know that Europe is fast collapsing and they want to lasso in the London banking centers.

B of A; US 10 Year Treasury Notes Are Junk Bonds | Politics
beforeitsnews.com/.../b-of-a-us-10-year-treasury-notes-are-junk-bonds-2998610.html
Translation, Take your money out of GOV bonds and, stuff it in our banks.

[Danny B]

Notes and vids from Armstrong

When it comes to referencing history, NOBODY does it better than Armstrong and Socrates. Armstrong claims that we are in the final stages of a collapse of socialism. The Eurocrats make no bones about it. They Worship the idea of socialism. Maybe that is because the vast majority of politicians have NO job niche in the productive sector of the world. Here is an amazing article about Junker.
"We live in a very dangerous era for this is the collapse of Marxism and they will fight back with every ruthless means possible to save their theory of living off of other people’s money."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...-of-karl-marx/

America injected money into the upper loop. China injected money into the lower loop.
"Right now, China’s Debt to GDP stands at 250% mainly because to stimulate their economy, they actually lent money to people. The Western government bought their own bonds back to the “indirectly stimulate” the economy which never made it to the people."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...n-the-horizon/

"The Bank of England actually prints itself internally £1 million and £100 million pound notes. They are used only internally to back the paper currency issued by other banks such as the Bank of Scotland. "
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...million-notes/
So, they print paper money to back other paper money. There is no actual wealth backing anything.

Armstrong vids;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67z6EE-As-I&t=148s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-hLpbc_Mg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnvHZGTGu2g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yf6iluOmM&t=88s

[Danny B]

Stockman, Amazon,,rising debt

Stockman,
1. police the planet via a massive Warfare State funded with borrowed money;
2. leave the $2.5 trillion Welfare State and its 110 million beneficiaries politically undisturbed on the theory that deficits don't matter;
3. Cut Taxes for the donors, the business lobbies and the affluent classes whenever they get the chance on the theory that tax cuts pay for themselves; and
4. Throw Spending Bones to farmers, small business, exporters, veterans, border control nativists and law and order conservatives to keep the rest of the GOP voters happy.
"Yes, American taxpayers surely deserve a Federal government that taxes less than 18.0% of GDP, which was the "current law" level for FY 2019 before the Christmas Eve bill reduced the take to 16.5%.

But even more so, they deserve one that spends well less than 21% of GDP today and upwards of 24% of GDP a few years down the road."
"However, the math got thrown into a cocked hat when the tax cut ballooned to double the intended size during a legislative bidding war in the summer of 1981---even as the initial spending cuts got stealthily restored by Congressional saboteurs in future years."
The article has a lot of good info.
Contra Corner » Yield Shock On Wall Street, Conservative Default In Washington

Stockman on amazon,
Last night Amazon reported a whopping 41% plunge in free cash flow for the March 2018 LTM period compared to prior year. Yet it was promptly rewarded by a $50 billion surge in market cap"
"A year ago Amazon's market cap towered at $425 billion---meaning that it was being valued at a downright frisky 47X free cash flow. But fast forward a year and we get $780 billion in the market cap column this morning and 146X for the free cash flow multiple."
"Already at the crack of dawn SunTrust was out with a $1900 price target---meaning an implied market cap of $970 billion and 180X on the free cash flow multiple."
"Fully 96% of Amazon's $5.0 billion of LTM operating income was accounted for by its cloud services business (AWS).

The e-Commerce juggernaut, by contrast, posted just $188 million of LTM operating income, which am0unts to, well, 0.1% of sales on a computational basis."
"meaning that there is $300 billion or even more of bottled air lodged in the implied $580 billion value of e-Commerce. "
GOOD article.
Contra Corner » Jumping The Great White Shark Of Bubble Finance
Keep in mind that the $300 billion in bottled air will eventually escape. Just the same, the pundits are forecasting hyperinflation. The upper loop has already been hyperinflated. THAT is where the air will leak out.

"But what happens when the economic pie is no longer expanding, yet the keepers of the system seem unable to turn off their own desires to grab more, more and yet more from that same pie?

That is where we find ourselves today. The economic oxygen is being sucked from the middle and lower classes and the social and political pressures are building"
"As we progress from here, the disparity between the haves and have-nots is only going to intensify, with debt (and our debt-based money system) being used as the primary weapon for controlling an increasingly dispossessed public."
https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/...ire-approaches

"The ultimate goal of the new world order as an ideology is total centralization of economic and governmental power into the hands of a select and unaccountable bureaucracy made up of international financiers. This is governance according the the dictates of Plato’s Republic; a delusional fantasy world in which benevolent philosopher kings, supposedly smarter and more objective than the rest of us, rule from on high with scientific precision and wisdom. It is a world where administrators become gods."
How The Globalism Con Game Leads To A 'New World Order'

A pretty good article on currency wars, http://aheadoftheherd.com/Newsletter...-has-begun.pdf
Here is an EXCELLENT collection of the best charts in recent history. The sixth chart down shows a pretty good rise in wages.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/th...ors-2018-04-26
BUT, wages have been static to falling. How do we account for that?
"From 1978 to 2013, CEO compensation, inflation-adjusted, increased 937 percent, a rise more than double stock market growth and substantially greater than the painfully slow 10.2 percent growth in a typical worker’s compensation over the same period."
So, you can discount the wages for the average productive worker.

Peter Schiff, the perma-bear, https://www.rt.com/business/425291-p...-fed-mr-magoo/
'If trade stops, war starts,' warns Alibaba founder Jack Ma
Russia built a pipeline around the Ukraine because they were stealing gas. They are pissed off. https://www.rt.com/business/425191-r...nsit-conflict/
"I think the chances the U.S. experiences an imperial collapse similar to that of the USSR (or like any historically unmanageable and corrupt empire) has become increasingly likely. My view at this point is the U.S. and its global power position will be so dramatically altered in the years ahead, it’ll be almost unrecognizable by 2025, as a result of both economic decline and major geopolitical mistakes. "
https://russia-insider.com/en/russia...part-2/ri23252

[Danny B]

Pox Americana,,, a lawless mad dog

France’s President Macron Says He Wants to Build “The New Syria” Together with the US
More Trump BS Exposed - US To Expand Military Presence In Syria – Mattis
Pox Americana and the deep State have made it very clear that they have zero respect for ANY law anywhere in the world.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan: “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.”
THIS is the mentality that the rest of the world must face. America is not far from a credit collapse. I expect that the rest of the world will help us along. Strauss & Howe wrote Generational Turnings. America is in the fourth turning. Russia and China are NOT. They are expanding and growing. America has 15 times the debt per capita as Russia. America has 10 times the GOV debt that Russia has.
Russia is by far the richest country in the world in natural resources, priced $75 trillion, much higher than the second place US with $45 trillion.

China is doing some things right. Neither of these 2 States is cursed under the control of bankers and zionists. Even little North Korea has something going for it.
Privately-held SRE Minerals on Wednesday announced the discovery in North Korea of what is believed to be the largest deposit of rare earth elements anywhere in the world. About $ 10 trillion.
The West will fall very hard. The East Will muddle through because they do NOT focus on supporting the upper loop at the expense of the lower loop.
Our refusal to leave Syria, no matter what the circumstances, will make it very clear to the R.O.W. that Pox Americana must be starved out if the world is to see peace.
The Top-Secret Cold War Plan to Keep Soviet Hands Off Middle Eastern Oil
Well, now they have all the oil and, we don't.

[Danny B]

10 year note,,,hunt for taxes to preserve socialism

U.S. Treasuries are the safest investment in the world. The 10 year note is the benchmark for all credit. ALL interest rates are compared to the 10 year note. But, as sovereign debt shoots to the moon, how can it be as safe as it was when America had very little debt.
4/27 BofA: 10-year Treasury “is no longer a safe asset” – Zero Hedge
You can well understand why Armstrong makes such a big deal about confidence.
4/27 Global pension gap to hit $400 trillion; US leads the way – Mish
YES, America FIRST.
4/27 Blain: “Millennials aren’t buying cars or homes because they are debt slaves” – ZH
They have an average net worth of minus $ 1900.

4/27 Debt-enabled asset bubbles on crash course with demographics – Juggling Dynamite
The debt bubble was created, in part, because of the falling birth rate.
4/27 US exports nearly all gold mine supply to Hong Kong – SRSRocco Report
It won't be long before we regret that.
4/26 US dollar soaring with eagles, what does it mean? – Technical Traders
It means mega-default in dollar-denominated debt.

4/27 Official: Israel will strike Tehran if Iran attacks Tel Aviv – Herald
If Iran breaks through enough to attack Tel Aviv, That will bring Old Testament biblical destruction to ALL of israel. Iran does NOT want to attack israel. They just want to be left alone. They do NOT want to surrender their land to propagate a "greater israel.
4/26 S Korea sparing no effort to make summit with Kim a success – WaPo
Well shoot, the 30,000 troops in S Korea can just go home.

4/26 Gold price increasingly influenced by declining dollar – GoldCore
4/26 Sprott’s Craig Hemke: The soaring dollar crushes the commodity rally – GATA
Make up your mind.

" This insane process of borrowing with no intention of paying off the debt is starting to explode. A simple 1% increase in interest rates will send budgets soaring. We have reached the point of no return in the Sovereign Debt Crisis."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...d-and-the-bad/
"The British have again canceled their currency up to the ten-pound notes. Try and spend a 10’er and you cannot. Go to a currency exchange and they will take it at a 20% discount. As for the coins, you can donate them to a charity who can exchange them but you can’t. This is why the US dollar is also the Reserve Currency – it has NEVER been canceled. Europe has always done this to prevent people from hoarding cash."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...-curtain-talk/

Did you ever wonder why America got rid of large denomination Notes? The State HATES personally held cash because it is a bearer bond that can not be diminished by the courts or bankers. You see why India did away with a large denomination Rupee note. The British are now monkeying with their currency. Logan airport has cash-sniffing dogs. The State really hates stores of wealth that it can't easily steal.
The tax man will leave no stone unturned.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...out-for-taxes/

Crash of wages.
Crash of consumption and productivity.
Crash of the tax base
Crash of socialism
Make no mistake. The crash of socialism for the poor was brought on by the crash of socialism for the rich. All the entrenched corruption permeating the bank/State is what bled dry the Treasury.

[Danny B]

Deutsche bank

The derivative book held by Deutsche Bank is larger that the gdp of Germany. Here are a few vids on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXantrCrip4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwbJQpHYGTg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GbR0ygQSkc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P77X2xX5K8U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gOJ0u91dvI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG2kbg6wd_Q

I built a woodgas truck and, I built a propane engine from my Chevy truck because I believe that the default cascade will bring interruptions of the oil supply. We frack out light distillates that we export and, we import heavy oil. Our refineries are not set up to handle the light distillates. Pox Americana, under the influence of the zionists has been hard at work trying to control the whole world. The world is quite tired of being blown up and, is in the process of uniting against us. Energy for transportation is our weak spot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a32nPhL5mEk
The economy is not in a good position to absorb any big shocks. The debacle with Deutsche bank will bring a real shock to confidence,,, not to mention the contagion from $80 trillion of failing derivatives. The counter-parties are spread throughout the system.

[Danny B]

The party is quickly winding down

In other news, investor sentiment has turned dark. Previously, every dip was bought by the FED and investors were encouraged to pile in on top. The FED always has your back. Earnings are weak. Stocks have only risen because of free money pumped into buybacks. People like Stockman have clearly pointed out that all of this is fake. The minute that the FED quits buying, investors (gamblers) know that the party is over.
https://dailyreckoning.com/dip-buys-gone/

Intravenous Viagra in the stock market has come to an end and everybody is assessing the situation.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...estors-on-edge

"Plot 50 years of official national debt on a log scale. The trend is unmistakable. National debt has increased exponentially 8% – 9% per year. National debt doubles every eight to nine years."
There are a LOT of parasites to be nourished.
https://deviantinvestor.com/9972/deb...ions-part-one/
So, the FED insists on 2% per year currency inflation. But, the parasite load grows much faster than 2%. They suck up to the State and use regulatory capture to ensure that the blood keeps flowing. 8% – 9% per year. has become problematic.

4/26 Momo massacre – “follow-leader” strategy suffers outflows – Zero Hedge
We don't want no stinking outflows.
4/26 Peter Schiff: why own US stocks? – Seeking Alpha
We don't want no stinking traitors.
4/25 CME Fedwatch has 48% chance of at least four hikes in 2018 – Mish The plan is to attract foreign capital with higher interest rates. Those same higher interest rates WILL wipe out most corporate and consumer and Gov debt.

4/26 Sprott’s Craig Hemke: The soaring dollar crushes the commodity rally – GATA
The crushing has only just begun.,
4/26 You’re not crazy for doubting establishment war narratives – Medium
You're both crazy and stupid to believe any of it.
4/26 Russia to send advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria – Zero Hedge
Israel says that sending good missiles is a prohibited red line.
Russia Starts Production Of S-400s for Turkey

‘Someone’ Is Jamming US Gunships Over Syria!
4/26 First drone warship joins navy; nearly every element classified – CNBC
Do not worry! I'm sure that the Russians can't possibly jam the drone ship.
4/24 Global solar PV installations to surpass 104GW in 2018 – Greentech Media
What about my oil wells?
4/26 Ex-Clinton ‘ethics’ aide resigns after taped tirade at cops – Zero Hedge
How can you say Clinton and ethics in the same sentence?
4/26 The great exodus out of America’s blue cities – Hill
I wonder why ???
https://reason.com/archives/2018/04/...-cars-innocent

4/26 Ethereum: stick a fork in it – Mish
4/25 Why bitcoin works – Medium
Blockchain, YES.... Crypto, No.

[Danny B]

Fitts and the entrenched corruption

Socialism is free money for the poor and fascism is free money for the rich. Since many of the poor actually do productive work, free money tends to actually reduce economic activity. Finland has just abandoned their experiment with passing out a basic income. If the people in the lower loop stop working, everything comes to a stop in the upper loop.

The upper loop of parasites must continually invent ways to siphon off the wealth of the actual producers. There is no such thing as an honest parasite so, the wealth must be stolen outright or, through corruption. The upper loop works full time to create all-pervasive corruption. Most of this corruption is hidden away in State documents, rather than out in the open.

We all know that the illegal drug industry has been vertically integrated by the bankers. The State helps out by using the CIA and military to protect drug crops. When the Taliban stopped the growing of opiate poppies in Afghanistan, the U.S. invaded within a few months.
What about the other end of the equation? We spend more money per prisoner than we do per pupil. Law enforcement and the prison/court system is extremely expensive.

Catherine Austin Fitts developed software to bring ALL of this corruption out in the open. I hope that you can read this article in it's entirety.
https://dillonreadandco.com/hamilton-securities-group/
I found it linked to another article.
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2...s-are-tanking/

[Danny B]

Hang the politicians next to the bankers

Venezuela had a great economy when oil was very high. They should have tailored their spending to their income. Oil prices fell and they continued to spend. How much do they spend?
"The government insists education remains a priority and says that 75 percent of the national budget goes to the social sector."
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Amer...y-in-Venezuela
Armstrong said that it would all blow when the dollar got too strong.
" The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4 percent to the highest in almost 15 weeks.
The euro declined 0.5 percent to $1.2172, the weakest in almost 15 weeks.
The British pound decreased 0.3 percent to $1.3933, touching the the weakest level in almost six weeks.
The Japanese yen dipped 0.5 percent to 109.34 per dollar, after hitting the weakest in 11 weeks with its sixth straight decline. "

Armstrong writes with much trepidation about common, old stories of bankers hanging from lamp posts. It will eventually come out that the worst screwing that Americans received was when congress overturned the Glass-Steagal act. The graham-leachy act handed all your money over to the bankers to gamble with. Here is the vote on the act.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/L...ote=00354#name
This calls for 90 more lamp posts. They certainly were enthusiastic about giving away YOUR money.

Everybody is looking at the 10 year bonds. Apparently, the 2 year bonds are in even more trouble.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...an-a-3-10-year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yge311sFhC8

[Danny B]

Shoot the politicians first

All quiet with the same old problems getting a bit bigger.
"According to the Federal Reserve, pensions — public and private combined — were roughly 27% underfunded as of last year."
Daily Reckoning contributor Charles Hugh Smith:
" Corrupt politicos promised the moon to public employees, and now the fiscal chickens of insolvency are coming home to roost."

As the late Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King styled it:
“The politician’s promises of yesterday are the taxes of today.”
Zero Hedge’s pseudonymous Tyler Durden:
Funds collected from taxpaying Americans will be spent to satisfy the ridiculous retirement promises and obligations made over the past few decades, and while the immediate recipients of the funds, i.e., those looking at near-term retirement, will be made whole, everyone else, i.e., taxpayers, will lose."
"Politicians promise… taxpayers pay."
https://dailyreckoning.com/americas-...illion-crisis/

Politicians make promises that they will never have to pay for personally.
Politicians start wars that they will never personally have to fight.
With no risk and no accountability, what else do you expect?

So, we have hit a peak and, there is nowhere to go except down.
https://www.financialsense.com/sites...018/0419/1.png

Dollar bonds, https://i0.wp.com/dollarcollapse.com...00%2C376&ssl=1
You can see why a stronger dollar will wipe this out.
https://dollarcollapse.com/getting-t...ut-everywhere/

4/25 China prepares to mass produce hypersonic vehicles – Zero Hedge This is great news. M.A.D. without nukes. Nothing can be protected. This brings us that much closer to peace. Even the S-300 could bring peace.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...a-mulls-arming

[Danny B]

Time runs short, russia buys even more gold

Surging oil prices to enrich sovereign wealth funds: JPM
Benefits will fall more to stocks than bonds, euro than dollar
Right, all the oil producers are going to jump into the stock and bond markets.
4/24 Russia buys 300,000 ounces of gold in March – GoldCore
This is from Russia Today. I'm sure that they are going to jump into stocks.
https://www.rt.com/business/424854-m...sh-correction/
Nobody is going to buy the Euro. Even Draghi has admitted that growth has stopped, https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/...economy-cooked
Russia produces 240 tons of gold per year. They still went out and bought 10 tons more.