Economic pressures

[Danny B]

Notes, taxes & wars,,,forced work / poverty


Historically, it had always been forbidden to tax a man's wages. He produced it and, it was his to keep. Taxes were laid on commerce. This, of course, varied with time and place.

Before 1913, federal government revenues came mainly from taxes on goods—tariffs on imported products and excise taxes on items like whiskey. The burden of these taxes fell heavily on working Americans, who spent a much higher percentage of their income on goods than rich people did. When a tax takes a larger percentage of a poor person's income than a rich person's income, economists refer to it as "regressive."

Although an income tax was proposed as early as 1812, Congress did not enact one until 1861, when the Civil War began. The enormous costs of waging war had plunged the Union into debt ($75 million in 1861) forcing Congress to seek a new source of revenue.

When the Union debt reached $500 million in 1862, Congress next passed the nation's first graduated income tax. Those with an annual income between $600 and $10,000 were taxed at the rate of 3 percent while those earning over $10,000 paid 5 percent. Thus, individuals with more ability to pay were taxed at a higher rate. This graduated tax structure is often called a "progressive" tax.

During the war, Congress raised the tax rates. After the war, however, Congress reduced income tax rates and then finally abandoned the income tax altogether in 1872.

The election of 1892 produced a Democratic president (Grover Cleveland) along with Democratic control of both houses of Congress. This ended the long reign of the Republicans who had opposed restoring the income tax

Unlike the Civil War income tax, this one was not graduated. Everyone with an income over $4,000 paid the same 2-percent tax rate. This type of income tax is sometimes called a "flat tax."

Opponents of the new income tax claimed that it was a socialistic confiscation of wealth by the federal government. Barely a year after it was enacted, the Supreme Court declared the tax unconstitutional. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court decided that the income tax was forbidden by Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution. This prohibits direct taxes on individuals unless apportioned on the basis of the population of each state.

In just a few days during the summer of 1909, the proposed 16th Amendment was approved by the Senate (77-0) and the House (318-14).

The main argument for ratification was that the amendment would force the wealthy to take on a fairer share of the federal tax burden that had in the past been largely carried by those earning relatively little. Only a few critics spoke out forcefully against the amendment. John D. Rockefeller, one of the country's richest men, stated: "When a man has accumulated a sum of money within the law. . . the people no longer have any right to share in the earnings resulting from the accumulation."

A few years after the income tax amendment was ratified, the United States entered World War I. As in the Civil War, Congress turned to the income tax to quickly raise large amounts of revenue

(Keep in mind that the civil War had been precipitated by the Morill Tarrif)
For 72 years, Northern special interest groups used these protective tariffs to exploit the South for their own benefit. Finally in 1861, the oppression of those import duties started the Civil War.

The Law That Never Was: The Fraud of the 16th Amendment and Personal Income Tax is a 1985 book by William J. Benson and Martin J. "Red" Beckman which claims that the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, commonly known as the income tax amendment, was never properly ratified.

When the United States entered the war, the Board of Governors issued a statement indicating that the Federal Reserve System was “. . . prepared to use its powers to assure at all times an ample supply of funds for financing the war effort”

Plans for financing the war were devised by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. These organizations met frequently to determine how to finance the war and organize machinery for marketing United States government securities.
The plan called for financing the war to the greatest extent possible through taxation and domestic borrowing

To keep the costs of the war reasonable, the Treasury asked the Federal Reserve to peg interest rates at low levels. The Reserve Banks agreed to purchase Treasury bills at an interest rate of three-eighths of a percent per year,

A second amendment authorized the System to purchase government securities directly from the Treasury.
(FED war finance)

We've come a long way since then.


How Long Do I Have to Work to Pay Off My Taxes? | The ...

Jan 3, 2019 - This calculator can help you figure out how much time you spend essentially working for the IRS.

.Surprise! You Work Nearly 4 Months Every Year Just to Pay your taxes
Surprise! You Work Nearly 4 Months Every Year Just to Pay your taxes.

Thanks to the miracle of regulatory capture, the tax burden has been shifted from the rich to the poor.
91 Fortune 500 companies paid no federal income tax in 2018 Not just Amazon: 60 big companies paid $0 in taxes under Trump law

Warren Buffet claimed that his secretary paid more taxes than he did. The big companies just claim that they create all the jobs so, they shouldn't have to pay taxes.

Keep in mind that all the big companies make huge use of American infrastructure. The people who pay taxes underwrite the cost of this infrastructure.
Regulatory capture served to lay the taxes most heavily on those who could least afford them.

In 1930, British economist John Maynard Keynes made a series of predictions about the state of the Western world 100 years hence. One prediction was that technological change will have progressed far beyond anything he could imagine. For another, compound interest will continue to accrue at 2%, such that the standard of living will increase four to eight times over. Finally, because of all this, no one will have to work.
Keynes was not totally bonkers when he claimed we'd be working 15 hours per week right about now.

For those of you who are miffed by now – cheated of the 15-hour workweek you were promised – here are five possible explanations for where Keynes went wrong in his prediction, and why he's unlikely to be proven right in the next decade.
"It seems like there's plenty of wealth, at least in the U.S., for most of us to be able to live on 15 hours per week of work," Schneider said. "One problem seems to be massive wealth inequality."
As Schneider points out, while it may be possible to work less with the average American wealth, that's not possible when it's concentrated among a select few.

Finally, there's something Keynes failed to consider that's probably foremost on everyone's mind – work is fulfilling. A cynic may call it workaholism, or blame it on America's Puritan roots, but for many, work gives meaning to one's life and can even be enjoyable.
In fact, perhaps even more surprising than Keynes' 15-hour workweek prediction is his "general disparagement of working overall," said economist Richard Freeman in an essay on Keynes. "Evolution presumably imbued us with a work ethic for our survival and not a Garden of Eden existence. That is fine with me."


You can see that; if we only worked 15 hours a week, there would be far less wealth produced for the rich to siphon off. WAR is the answer to keep the economy perpetually stimulated. We create, not to accumulate wealth. We build to destroy stuff in a war. That way , we don't get so rich that we kick back and, take it easy.

Believe it or not, the government reports every year that it has FAR more money than it needs. 37,000 GOV agencies report that they have cumulatively stashed away $237 trillion. There is no need at all to tax. They are very clear and precise in their reports.
http://cafr1.com/


Just the same, a heavy tax burden is laid on the working man. After all, what would happen if he stopped working?
According to Goldman Sachs, 50% of the stock market wealth is owned by the wealthiest 1%, up significantly from 39% in the late 1980s.
"While American consumers are drowning in trillions of dollars of debt, the Federal Reserve’s money-printing machine has created a massive asset bubble that has helped the rich get richer. With income inequality jumping to the highest level ever recorded, it’s no surprise that young people are embracing socialist rhetoric.

One 2019 poll suggested that 70% of U.S. millennials are leaning far-left and believe that a welfare state is a solution to their problems. They are more likely than ever to vote for a socialist candidate."
Yes, the chosenites never stop trying to spread socialism

"In 2018, a single average worker in the U.S. faced a 29.6 percent tax burden on their pre-tax earnings, or about $17,596 in taxes, according to the Tax Foundation.”
Gates, who’s worth an estimated $114 billion after he added $22.7 billion to his fortune in 2019, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, proposed several steps to make the U.S. tax system “more fair.” Those included raising the capital gains tax “Probably to the same level as taxes on labor”

https://northmantrader.com/2020/01/20/backlash/
So, the poor working man who creates wealth must hand over 27% of it to the state. later, he pays the inflation tax to the banks. They use his savings to front-run everything that he needs to buy.

The Report From Iron Mountain claims that we must have perpetual war and that, peace must be avoided at all costs.
SO, most of the tax burden is forced on the poor. Gates thinks that the speculators (et al) should pay the same tax rate as the laborer.
Heaven forbid that the rich speculators should pay any tax. There have long been demands for them to pay a small percentage of their gains.

"Each taxable party in a transaction would be taxed at the rate of 0.01 per cent of the notional value for derivatives and 0.1 per cent of the market value for other financial instruments.

[Danny B]

Everybody has power except for you and me

"Leverage funds with huge interest rate derivative positions. And who is on the hook if they blow up? The big banks who are on the other side of the trade."
So, the FED is trying to save all the banks and, all the counterparties to all the derivatives.
It was regulatory capture that brought on most of these problems.
"Greenpeace’s Connor Gibson has described ALEC as “a one stop shopping outlet for large companies seeking state legislators to move their agenda through statehouses coast-to-coast.” And it is a “pay-to-play service” for corporations."
https://www.wakingtimes.com/2020/01/...e1702-54347961
A corporation has no brain, heart, mind, nor soul.
If ROUNDUP will make money, sell it,,, no matter the long range damage. If wars will make money, cause them,,, no matter the long range damage. If depleted uranium bombs will kill more effectively,,, use them.
Kill the bees, bats, fish and birds. Cut all the trees and, poison the soil,,, as long as it makes money.
"Charles Koch’s and ALEC’s underlying philosophy about national and state governance is that the heads of private industry are far more qualified to lead the country"

"The greater public good represented by the leaders of civil society are completely absent from the conversation. The titans of industry run the show. Benefits to private corporate interests, revenues and stock prices are all that matters."
"Verizon quit ALEC after a human rights campaign was launched against the Council for David Horowitz’s racist keynote hate speech against women, Blacks and Muslims at ALEC’s annual convention in New Orleans"
So, powerful financial interests have brought war, poverty and biosphere degradation. BUT, WE are too stupid to make decisions in our own best interests.
So, BIG business is definitely looking out for itself over the needs and concerns of the little guy.

What about the State?

Parkinson't Law pretty much proves that the cadre of government employees will grow by 6% a year regardless of the work load. This is also true of large organizations in the private sector if they have access to enough funding. If they don't have adequate funding, it is a different story.

Robots to cut 200,000 US bank jobs in next decade, study says. Bloomberg
The robots are coming. While we might not have robot overlords anytime soon, changing technology is already making many of our workplaces increasingly dystopian. And as factories incorporate robots and automation, there will likely be job losses. Some studies estimate that up to half of the current workforce will soon see their jobs threatened by automation, and that more than four in five jobs paying less than $20 per hour could be destabilized.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...il-unrest-2020
"Political analyst firm Verisk Maplecroft predicts that 75 out of the world’s 195 countries will see some form of social disorder this year.
Nearly 40% of countries across the globe will see some form of civil unrest or riots in 2020, according to a new study.

Democracy has failed because big money bought the politicians. Political pressure to provide more freebies is rising. The working class is voting in the maternity wards rather than is the polling stations. The birth rate is crashing. They didn't provide us with adequate wages to produce our replacements. All of this is playing out against a backdrop of crashing sovereign debt. In the long run, there is no possibility of going forward with the current system.

Legacy costs.
https://economicprism.com/living-on-borrowed-time/

[Danny B]

Just a bit more news;
"Investors should keep in mind that market valuations stand nearly three times the historically run-of-the-mill valuation levels from which stocks have historically generated run-of-the-mill long-term returns," says John Hussman, president of the Hussman Investment Trust, in his latest note to investors.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/in...or-lose-67-now
"Authored by Mike Adams via NaturalNews.com,

In case you didn’t fully realize that something big is about to take place in America, file these two facts:
#1: The U.S. military, Carrier Strike Group Four (CSG4), is jamming GPS signals from Jan 16th – 24th
...which may overlap the planned deep state false flag event in Richmond, Virginia.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/...vision-devices

Haftar Blocks All Libyan Oil Exports Day Before Berlin Peace Conference






Vital oil sector, at over 90% of Libya's revenue, which also supplies Europe is headed for a tailspin...
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ace-conference

944 Trillion Reasons Why The Fed Is Quietly Bailing Out Hedge Funds






"If the banks are not benefitting, who is? Leverage funds with huge interest rate derivative positions. And who is on the hook if they blow up? The big banks who are on the other side of the trade, as they would be forced to recapitalize the clearinghouses."
https://www.zerohedge.com/

Living On Borrowed Time






...there’s no turning back. There’s no graceful way out. There’s no backing away from QE or repo madness...Quite frankly, this ‘going forward’ scenario is unworkable...

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/living-borrowed-time

[Danny B]

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/in...or-lose-67-now
I put in this link. The board zapped my post.

[Danny B]

America needs war
https://www.globalresearch.ca/washin...ce-tag/5700817
1/18 If promoting wealth inequality and social breakdown is evil, the Fed is evil – CHS
1/18 Retail carnage continues: Bose lays off 100s, shutters all retail stores – ZH
1/18 The great bond party of 2019 is ending – NY Times
1/18 IMF boss says global economy risks return of Great Depression – Guardian
1/18 China economic collapse due to debt – Watching Rome Burn
1/18 Manufacturing has peaked this economic cycle – Mish
Manufacturing has peaked because consumption has peaked, war production not withstanding.

1/18 Japan government grapples with mountain of debt – Reuters
1/18 Aging population is a bigger threat to Japan than China – National Interest
1/18 How fake unemployment numbers subdue anger at Wall Street – GATA
1/18 The Fed won’t avert the next ‘crisis,’ they will cause it – Seeking Alpha

"January 13 – Reuters (Marc Jones): “Global debt is expected to climb to a new all-time high of more than $257 trillion in the coming months, the Institute of International Finance estimated…, adding there was no sign of it retreating either. The amount works out at around $32,500 for each of the 7.7 billion people on planet and more than 3.2 times the world’s annual economic output, but the staggering numbers don’t stop there. Total debt across the household, government, financial and non-financial corporate sectors surged by some $9 trillion in the first three quarters of 2019 alone. In mature markets total debt now tops $180 trillion or 383% of these countries’ combined GDP,"
"China’s Credit Bubble saw Total Debt expand from 297.4% to 308.5% of GDP. China’s Corporate Debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 156.7% from 154.4%, while rapidly expanding government Debt increased from 49% to 53.6%. From Reuters (Marc Jones): “China’s government debt also grew at its fastest annual pace last year since 2009…, and household debt and general government debt are now at all-time highs of 55% of GDP.”
http://creditbubblebulletin.blogspot...is-insane.html
"In September, an unexpected shortage of available cash to lend sparked a surge in the cost of repo-market borrowing, prompting the Fed to intervene for the first time since the financial crisis. One potential solution is to lend cash directly to smaller banks, securities dealers and hedge funds through the repo market’s clearinghouse,"
Even the little guys need cash.

1/18 The great bond party of 2019 is ending – NY Times
Hmm, let's see how that works out.
All of this is completely unsustainable. The CB heads are meeting next week. There is NO possible exit plan that is compatible with human nature.

China is toast;
"China is becoming increasingly unable to continue to pay into the base of the world’s largest pyramid scheme of an economy and the cracks in the bubble are showing. This past year, saw three of the 4,279 Chinese lenders almost fail, if not for the massive intervention by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) of immediate liquidity via more debt. The Chinese economic miracle is built on unsustainable debt-based infrastructure projects over the past two decades that have provided China with a face of prosperity to show the world, but this is only a mask to hide the limited countrywide success of the Chinese miracle into the rural areas. The injection of $Trillions in capital has seen China distribute these sums across the base of its economy creating a GDP that hit a high of 14.2 % in 2007 then averaged nearly 9% for the next decade before dropping yearly to 6.1% in 2018. All this growth had produced a personal affluence to a sub-set of Chinese society that has stoked this appearance of a flourishing economy.
Sounds familiar
This Chinese economic Keynesian trick of interjection of liquidity into national infrastructure is somewhat similar to the TVA and national works projects funded under Roosevelt’s depression-era New Deal. In this approach employment and therefore a growing tax base accelerated year after year as workers and corporations received the short-lived benefits of this massive windfall of available liquidity.

China’s method of stimulus is of course distinguished from today’s American model that merely shovels the injection of its own manufactured $Trillions by using multiple fiscal tricks to by-pass the citizenry and instead shovel the cash straight into the wallets of the already super-wealthy. Meanwhile, the US peasant once again pines in the “Hope” of yet another election."
Sounds familiar
https://watchingromeburn.uk/news/chi...omic-collapse/

[Danny B]

Well, today is the big date from Armstrong's program, Socrates. So far, I haven't seen the sky falling. Armstrong said that maybe today is the planning day of the big change.
I'll post some of his latest stuff.

"Even the 911 famous attack on the World Trade Center took place on the specific turning point in 2001.695 to the very day. Not all wars begin precisely on this model, it may reflect when the combination of trends forms to create the decision to go to war which may predate the event by months or years. It is difficult to determine that instant of a decision, but clearly war unfolds as the result of some trend set in motion previously."
Is that a hint of what he won't talk about?
"For example, the Economic Confidence Model also marked the very day of the high on July 20th, 1998 in the US share market from which the Long-Term Capital Management crash began in September. The 1987 turning point picked the very day of the crash and confirmed the low and the capital flow shift which resulted in selling US assets repatriating cash to Japan creating the Bubble on the peak of that wave in 1989.95."
"Anyone who attempts to argue against the existence of any business cycle is typically someone who supports the government against the people in true Marxist fashion"
"The questions we must now address are; has the stock market reached a temporary high? Will we face the abolishment of money in favor of electronic to prevent bank runs? Will governments seize cryptocurrencies and force the money to be transferred to their own cryptocurrency?"

"Welcome to ECM Wave #935. We should expect a very important turning point in 2022 which will market a serious Monetary Crisis. From here on out, the confrontation in government between left and right will intensify and the violence will rise with the rhetoric. Any hope of a responsible government is now extinguished.
The Democrats are facing the collapse of their party. They know they really cannot beat Trump in a fair election, so they have adopted the policy that if you cannot beat him, impeach him."
I guess that we just have to wait and se

Nearly a month after the signing of a $738 billion defense bill, the US Navy’s top officer is now arguing that the service’s portion of the Pentagon budget does not allow it to; Build a bunch of big expensive targets. This is the age of cyber warfare and ultra fast missiles.
The purpose of war is to run up big bills and and make the MIC rich.

[Danny B]

Still saving the bankers

The Bretton Woods agreement made the U.S. dollar the reserve currency. ALL States had to sell us stuff by undercutting our prices so that they could accumulate dollars. The dollar was locked in to the price of gold. America could only create a limited number of dollars. The supply of gold grows by about 2% a year. The wealth of the post-war Western world was growing much faster than this. The Plaza Accord is a 1985 agreement to weaken the dollar. America was forced to greatly expand the number of dollars in circulation to satisfy the demands of foreign Central Banks. We had to run a huge current account deficit to supply dollars to the world. This is all coming to an end but, who knows when. If the CBs are getting together next week, you can bet that they are very worried about the debt bubble and, rising hatred.
In Lebanon, they are attacking banks.
"Following an extended stand-off in front of the headquarters of the Central Bank, protesters came into conflict with security forces that resulted in at least seven wounded.

...Several people attempted to storm the Central Bank building, breaking through the outer fence and calling for “the fall of the rule of the bank” and the resignation of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh. "

"In fact, it is being projected that approximately 20 million manufacturing jobs around the globe could be taken over by robots by the year 2030…"
“As a result of robotization, tens of millions of jobs will be lost, especially in poorer local economies that rely on lower-skilled workers. This will therefore translate to an increase in income inequality,” the study’s authors said.

The good news is that the full extent of this ominous scenario is not likely to completely play out. The bad news is that this is because our society is rapidly moving toward complete and utter collapse."
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology...-millions-jobs

Armstrong, "So there is no logic to what Carney is saying unless it is a cover-up for the pension crisis that is unfolding. Governments have ordered pension funds to buy government debts and then they take interest rates down to negative. The governments, without climate change, are ensuring that pensions will be worthless. It seems that he is using climate change as the excuse for the pension system failure."

"#18 In one recent year, 17 million more American adults were diagnosed as having “a major depressive disorder”. It is critical to understand that is not the total of all Americans that have been diagnosed with “a major depressive disorder”. Rather, that is just the number that were added to the overall total in one year."
http://endoftheamericandream.com/arc...er-been-before
1/17 “Buy gold and silver” – Robert Kiyosaki warns of looming global pension crisis – MS
1/17 China posts weakest growth in 29 years as trade war bites – Reuters
1/17 Deutsche Bank sees ‘distressed debt cycle’ starting in China – Bloomberg
I believe that China has no future.

1/17 Cass year-over-year freight index sinks to a 12-year low – Mish
1/17 NY Fed considers becoming sugar daddy to hedge funds as distress grows – GATA
1/17 Student loan debt is over $1.6 trillion and balances aren’t going down – CNBC
1/17 Trump tax cut hands $32 billion windfall to America’s top banks – Yahoo
YES, but he cut millions of support to America's poorest children.
1/16 The Fed “just let the cat out of the bag”, admits being forced to fuel asset bubble – ZH

1/16 The Fed is at it again: another $100 billion cash injection – Schiff Gold
1/16 The zombification of America – 40% of listed companies don’t make money – ZH
This is ALL about employment.

[Danny B]

https://original.antiwar.com/danny_s...ies-they-tell/
I had a great anti-war post and, the board ate it when I added this link.

[Danny B]

Just a few notes;
"

• Famed economist and global financial market consultant David Rosenberg expects household debt to spark the next recession.
• Terrifying consumer credit and auto loan data are a colossal debt bubble in plain sight. They’re on the verge of crashing the economy.
• $16 trillion in household debt and soaring auto debt puts Americans in a precarious position to weather headwinds and shocks."
• https://www.ccn.com/the-next-recessi...ash-economist/
• Not one word about public debt or corporate debt
• "Fed Quietly Confirms Fears About Stock Market’s $10 Trillion Powder Keg"
• https://www.ccn.com/fed-quietly-conf...on-powder-keg/
• Ho-Hum

1/16 Second hottest year on record capped warmest-ever decade – Bloomberg
ALL the models are severely handicapped because they ignore so much energy flow that isn't included. The next IPCC report will include the plasma flows that change everything.
1/16 Americans have been brainwashed to accept war without question – SHTF Plan
MSM and the war profiteers have done a good job.
1/16 Honda, Isuzu Power up fuel cell partnership for heavy-duty trucks – Reuters
I'll believe it when I see it.
1/16 Nigel Farage gets his way, and last laugh Brexit is coming – Mother Lode
Why is this story from Mother Lode? Won't the MSM touch it?

1/16 1/4 of prospective millennial home buyers have less than $1,000 saved – ZH
That won't even get you first & last on a decent apartment.
1/16 The zombification of America – 40% of listed companies don’t make money – ZH
This isn't about money. It is about jobs.
1/15 Global debt-to-GDP ratio has now hit an all-time high of 322% – Financial Post
I searched on ... central bankers meet next week... Really got nothing.
Armstrong has this,
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...t-week-on-ecm/

Lagarde and MANY others have talked about a RESET. OK, that's nice. What does it mean?
"They" formed the EU knowing ahead of time that it would fail because it lacked a debt union.
China has doubled down on Marxism even though they know that it has always failed.
Wishful thinking seems to rule the day. "They" want to crash the currencies bad enough that we will demand a State Crypto or an SDR or world GOV.
I suspect VERY bad planning.

[Danny B]

NO LEAKS in Kansas
Dunno where to put this.
"This description is not accurate. Sources in Kansas are saying the "briefing" was a "life-altering" event which "utterly horrified" attendees.

In fact, the subject matter was so dire, Kansas Deputy Attorney General Jay Scott Emler sent a letter to Speaker Ron Ryckman Tuesday saying that the DHS briefing should be given in a closed Party Caucus, one for Democrats, the other for Republicans. This way, no one had to comply with any Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or Open Public Meetings disclosure requests! ! ! ! !
Reporters and staffers were not allowed on the buses."
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index...urity-briefing

[Danny B]

The thread view count is WAY down. I must have lost an army of bots.
Armstrong said that the collapse would start in Europe. European banks are definitely short of liquidity.
"The banking crisis in Europe is expanding. European banks have no liquidity and the negative interest rates have done so much harm to traditional banking in Europe, we are witnessing excessive fees unfolding. HSBC is raising its overdraft rate of 39.9% for UK customers from March 2020. Santander’s latest bank to set a 40% overdraft rate. Savings accounts which were soliciting people at 3% are dropping to 1%."
They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for cash.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...king-up-steam/
Armstrong criticised the ECB for not bailing out European banks. The FED is bailing out American banks but, will this make any difference in the long run?

Russian troops test-fire latest S-350 anti-aircraft missile system
This is just one more weapon that will limit Neo-con warmongers from attacking any State that doesn't like the delirious-duo FED + CENTCOM.

1/15 Is France beyond reform? – American Thinker
The French GOV spends 57% of the GDP. They pass money out to militant muzzies who have 5 wives and 15 kids. They squeeze money out of working people and pensioners.
Marseilles appears to be the role model for the rest of the country. The Kalergi Plan has run amuck. France is beyond salvation.
France has over $43,000 debt per-person.
https://learnbonds.com/Top-30-Countr...bt-per-Citizen
The whole list here is pretty scary.

Systemic distortion
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com...0-will-be.html
Here is an interesting graph comparing FED stimulus to the stock market.
https://dailyreckoning.com/wp-conten...moking-gun.png
It can be considered 100% correlation.
https://dailyreckoning.com/central-banker-comes-clean/

[Danny B]

The economic future of the world is inextricably tied to falling population

"The best definition ever offered came from John Maynard Keynes in his 1936 classic, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Keynes said a depression is, “a chronic condition of subnormal activity for a considerable period without any marked tendency towards recovery or towards complete collapse.”
"In my 2014 book, The Death of Money, I wrote, “The United States is Japan on a larger scale.” That was six years ago now.

Japan started its “lost decade” in the 1990s. Now their lost decade has dragged into three lost decades. The U.S. began its first lost decade in 2009 and is now entering its second lost decade with no real end in sight.
What I referred to in 2014 was that central bank policy in both countries has been completely ineffective at restoring long-term trend growth or solving the steady accumulation of unsustainable debt."
https://dailyreckoning.com/helicopte...is-no-panacea/
So, what brought about Japan's decline,,,, America's decline?

"Family formation and child rearing ultimately drive spending and consumption. The chart below shows what is at the heart of global inflation; the year over year change in the female childbearing population (red columns), mirrored by the Federal Funds rate (yellow line), and the impact on annual global births (black line). The soon to be declining quantity of females of childbearing age coupled with ongoing declining fertility rates means births will continue declining...and organic demand declining...and only via destructive federal government / central bank ZIRP, NIRP, and market manipulation, can consumption and asset prices be manipulated upward."
Here is the most important graph of al.
https://static.seekingalpha.com/uplo...9735977671.png
The graph shows that the federal funds rate TRACKS the yoy change of 20--40 year old females.
The article is loaded with all the graphs and info you could ever ask for.
https://econimica.blogspot.com/2020/...-potenial.html

Just as Japan has NEVER been able to escape their downward economic trajectory, the same will happen to the rest of the world. We have a shrinking population and, a shrinking birth rate. The debt pile ABSOLUTELY must grow. The State has been commandeered to grow the debt pile. Armstrong said that the State debt is going to crash.
NOT a surprising forecast. The bankers have engineered a wealth transfer from the middle class to the very rich.
https://pentoport.com/playing-taps-f...-middle-class/

"period without any marked tendency towards recovery or towards complete collapse.”
Don't worry, the collapse has been held at bay for decades but, will eventually make an appearance. The bankers have engineered a wealth transfer because normal business activity was insufficient to keep all of them rich. The fallout from our impoverishment has been a reduction in population. The more that they steal, the fewer future victims are born. We have a rising pile of debt with a falling population and falling earning power to service it.

[Danny B]

Fast rising pressures,,,wildcard, external sources.

I'll start with Armstrong;
"Not even the central banks understood what was going on because even they tend to be domestically oriented. Despite the obvious fact that we live in a global economy, all the economic theories, analysis, and experience have been domestically focused. Unless someone has been in the trenches globally," [B]they will never see the wildcard coming from external sources.{/B] This POS new board will NOT do bold when you use "controlV"
"The question that is now dominating everyone’s inquiries, can the Fed exit the repo market after being the dominant source of liquidity for more than three months? What will it take for the Federal Reserve to withdraw from its daily liquidity operations in this $2.2 trillion market for repurchase agreements (repos)?

All I am prepared to say publicly is that the solution is beyond the powers of all the central banks combined. The solution is not attainable without political concessions, which politically are just off the table."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...e-repo-market/

Side note on the dems;
The fact that Joe Biden is now running in fourth place has the Democrats insisting that there needs to be an investigation because Russia must be behind the fact that Biden cannot save the party.

The Democrats have insisted that Russia is behind trying to kill Biden’s run for President. U.S. officials are now investigating whether Russia is trying to undermine Joe Biden."
AND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uIDiZP6u5I&t=20s

C.H.Smith, "but the Fed can't conjure up wage increases the way it can conjure up $6 trillion to boost Wall Street and the banks: Federal Reserve Admits It Pumped More than $6 Trillion to Wall Street in Recent Six Week Period (via U. Doran)."
"
For a suitable warning about the consequences of this unlimited hubris, let's turn to Darth Vader, in paraphrase:
Don't be too proud of this financial terror you've constructed. The ability to control a market is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Put another way: Those whom the gods would destroy they first make powerful."
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com...th-vaders.html

"It is on record that global planners want to ‘reset‘ the current financial system and replace it with a new set up underpinned by intangible assets. Global elites refer to this as either the rise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution or a ‘new world order‘ of finance. What is a carefully preordained agenda has been fashioned to appear as nothing more than the innocent evolution of technology.It is on record that global planners want to ‘reset‘ the current financial system and replace it with a new set up underpinned by intangible assets. Global elites refer to this as either the rise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution or a ‘new world order‘ of finance. What is a carefully preordained agenda has been fashioned to appear as nothing more than the innocent evolution of technology."
https://stevenguinness2.wordpress.co...ital-currency/

1/13 Iran protests: Crowds in Tehran refuse to walk on U.S. and Israeli flags – NBC News
So, the Iranians hate the ayatollahs more than they hate the Great Satans.
1/13 Stocks pinned near record highs ahead of US-China trade deal – Reuters
1/13 “Nothing can go wrong… right?” Trader warns everyone’s all-in – Zero Hedge

"We do not often quote Lord Keynes at the JWC, but here he is in 1923: “[t]he individualistic capitalism of today…presumes a stable measuring rod of value and can not be efficient – perhaps can not survive – without one.” "They seem to have been glacially unconcerned that modern economic life – indeed, any social organisation more sophisticated than a primitive barter society – needs a sound accounting unit in order for long-term obligations or depreciation schedules to have any meaning at all, let alone to be accurately calculable. An exponentially expanding stock of paper or electronic units does not contain the information needed for any large or lasting enterprise to match off values, any more than jelly can be nailed to the wall."
"radually, this easy calculation was replaced by a labyrinth of paper claims against paper whose expansion was not even readily susceptible to measurement, because the definitions of money and credit were now so close as to be virtually indistinguishable" (Bold turns itself on when I don't want it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/...assacre-theory
This is a very interesting article that lays out some of the pitfalls of MMT.

[Danny B]

The messy details

The globalists and "aristocrats" are all for total centralization and central control. The British House of Lords is completely against Brexit. The house of commons is completely
FOR Brexit. Here is a good vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4ZSgiMytBE
Armstrong said that GOV debt is going to crash.
"the Federal Reserve has continued its ‘QE-Not QE’ operations, which has dramatically expanded its balance sheet. Many argue, rightly, the current monetary interventions by the Fed are technically ‘Not QE’ because they are purchasing Treasury Bills rather than longer-term Treasury Notes."
The FED is buying up treasury paper with REPO money. FED money is also pumped out to cover failing derivatives from Deutsche bank.

The financialized economy – including stocks, corporate bonds and real estate – is now booming. Meanwhile, the bulk of the population struggles to meet daily expenses. The world’s 500 richest people got $12 trillion richer in 2019, while 45% of Americans have no savings,
In so doing, they help other financial markets to function smoothly. Thus, any sustained disruption in this market, with daily turnover in the U.S. market of about $1 trillion, could quickly ripple through the financial system.

U.S. Treasuries are the most rehypothecated asset in financial markets, and the big banks know this. [They] are the core asset used by every financial institution to satisfy its capital and liquidity requirements, which means that no one really knows how big the hole is at a system-wide level.

This is the real reason why the repo market periodically seizes up. It’s akin to musical chairs – no one knows how many players will be without a chair until the music stops.

YES, musical chairs while tossing hot potatoes.

"For my own part, my loss of trust in what is termed the ‘mainstream media’ (MSM) is nearly complete. Its sins of omission and commission have piled up too high to forgive – the bank of trust I once had in it has lost every penny and is now in deep overdraft.
In my opinion its gravest sin is the willful and deliberate fracturing of society into many disparate warring camps. The MSM has a lot to answer for in that regard.
Similarly guilty is our political system. "
So, who owns the MSM? Why have they been kicked out of 109 countries?
https://www.peakprosperity.com/surfs-up/

"The Fed’s minutes… acknowledge that its most recent actions have tallied up to “roughly $215 billion per day” flowing to trading houses on Wall Street. There were 29 business days between the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and the latest Fed minutes, meaning that approximately $6.23 trillion in cumulative loans to Wall Street’s trading houses had been made in that short span of time.
For emphasis: The Federal Reserve has extended $6.23 trillion of loans in 29 days. That is equal to $215 billion per day."

A $29 Trillion Bailout
Wall Street on Parade sets the backdrop:

During the 2007–2010 financial collapse on Wall Street — the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression — the Fed funneled a total of $29 trillion in cumulative loans to Wall Street banks, their trading houses and their foreign derivative counterparties between December 2007 and July 21, 2010.

A good comparison between 2000 and current conditions.
https://northmantrader.com/2020/01/1...hosts-of-2000/
It must be time to crash the markets. The "greed" gauge is maxed out.
1/12 Institutions, retail and algos are now all-in, just as buybacks tumble – ZH
1/11 Central bankers are quietly freaking out about the next recession – Forbes
Some very thick BS from the FED.
"At the same time, inflation has remained stubbornly below the Fed's 2% inflation target for most of the past seven years. While few people are concerned by low inflation, the Fed prefers to maintain a cushion against deflation, a destabilizing drop in prices and wages."
The FED claims that we MUST have 2% price inflation to maintain stability. ALL BS, of course.

The blob state grows non-stop and, is feeling the pinch of price inflation/
1/11 Inflation surge will be driven by fees, tolls, and taxes – Advancing Time
This is deflation of the working man's wallet AND, inflation of the parasites.
1/12 Greta Thunberg tells world leaders to end fossil fuel ‘madness’ – Guardian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8JzyjHz0Y
Facebook Glitch Reveals Greta Thunburg's Father Posting As Teenage Climate Activist

Feds To Bill California Fire Victims If PG&E Doesn't Pay $4 Billion Owed: Report

"In State Of Shock" - Former CIA Spook Warns Dems, Deep State "Getting Desperate" To Stop Trump
"...[Deep State] are in a state of shock. They want to get rid of Trump because for the first time in their careers, they can be prosecuted for what they have done..."
"The Other 1 Percent": Morgan Stanley Spots A Market Ratio That Is "Unprecedented Even During The Tech Bubble"

"Currently, the top five companies in the S&P 500 (the other 1 percenters) make up 18% of the total market cap.
A ratio like this is unprecedented, including during the tech bubble. During 2019, the net income concentration for the 1 percenters didn’t keep pace with their market cap concentration, similar to what happened during the 1999 concentration peak.

I think this divergence is the result of the extraordinary liquidity being provided by the world’s central banks, which is flowing to the most liquid and largest names in the S&P 500. "
Fracking has lost $280 billion. This is FED money underwriting the energy bills of Americans.

Iran Says De-Escalation 'Only Solution' As Anti-Government Protests In Tehran Turn Bloody
Trump is blowing up China economically. "Death To Liars!" Iran Swept By Wave Of Protests Demanding Ayatollah Quit Over Airplane Downing


In the case of Iran, the current theocratic government is very unpopular. Trump is trying to exacerbate that problem.
With Stocks The Most Overvalued In History, Goldman Lists The 4 Biggest Risks
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/st...t-risks-stocks

Self destruction.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...self-destructs
Gridlock on pensions.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...e-of-gridlock/

[Danny B]

What WILL happen on 2020.05?

The bankers took $14 trillion that was safely locked away in retirement accounts and, used it to build up China inc. This was quite profitable.
The bankers report that they sweep accounts up to 28 times a month. They take all that idle money and, invest it.
The enormous growth of China demanded a LOT of raw materials. The bankers use your money to buy up these commodities and, sell them to China, et al.
This is / was hugely profitable. Not being satisfied with this amount of profit, they invented new ways of squeezing out more.
In the case of the 2008 crash, they put together terrible credit risk loans and. rated them AAA. They sold these to investors around the world. This was very profitable.
They made quite a killing selling these mortgage backed securities. When it all blew up, they got the expected bailout.
They then proceeded to focus on creating all sorts of other derivatives. The warnings sounded by people like Brooksley Born were all ignored by the GOV.
The mountain of derivatives eventually reached a nominal value of $ 1.45 quadrillion. This mountain started to look wobbly and dangerous.

The mountain was trimmed back to a bit under $ 1 quadrillion. The bankers were expecting the mountain to eventually blow up. Naturally, they expected to get bailed out once again. They are hanging on to their derivatives waiting for the explosion and, their payout.
True to form, Deutsche bank started to melt down. Monte di Paschi is not far behind.
The notional value of the collapsing derivatives is just TOO HIGH for any extensive bailout. The FED sent $264 billion to DB to satisfy counterparty claims.
Now, the FED is having to inject about $ 1 billion every week or,,, every day. Who knows?
Armstrong did a special report about the blowup in the REPO market. Everybody is cashing-in GOV debt to get cash. The blowup of the mountain is accelerating.
Armstrong indicates that the REPO crisis is what will shove the system off a cliff. I haven't bought the report so, I can only speculate.

Armstrong studiously avoids in predicting a shutdown of the banks. He doesn't want to be crucified for creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
He did say to have 1 month's worth of bill-paying cash at home. He also said to use this cash for essentials only,,, Forget your mortgage.
Failure to pay mortgages combined with a shutdown of most business activity will definitely push the banks off the edge of the cliff.
I've been searching for a long time to find out; will credit cards / instruments be accepted while the banks are shut down.
You need to read this article for yourself and, decide. It appears that checks just won't be accepted. I still don't know if credit cards will work, or not.
https://www.thebalance.com/bank-holi...counts-4152139



Armstrong's program, Socrates predicted in 1985 that a huge change in the confidence model would occur in 2015.75.
You probably didn't notice anything of note. On that very day, Russian military went in to Syria and, proved that they outclassed U.S. military weapons.
Since then, the American military has had to do whatever it takes to avoid showdowns with Russia and, the S-400 and S-300 missiles. This has had a dramatic effect on the projection of U.S. military power around the globe,
The date of 2020.05 is the date given for the collapse of the world economy. Does that mean that you will see great turbulence on that day? I doubt it.
Then again, a bank closure could happen on that date,,, or in following days.