Economic pressures

[Danny B]

The main pieces on the game board

"The ceiling already has been breached, but the Treasury Department has been using extraordinary measures to keep the government open."
"Failure to raise debt ceiling would be 'more catastrophic' than Lehman collapse, S&P says"
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/debt...nd-p-says.html
You never know when a "game changer" will come along.
"Tests to determine the electrical property of the material revealed it was indeed a super capacitor, and its 367 Farads/gram recorded capacitance was over three times higher than graphene super capacitors."
Chinese Researchers Develop Supercapacitor From Dried Leaves Three Times Better Than Graphene

Armstrong, "Remember one major thing. This is the move that has to suck people in on the wrong side in order to create the energy to swing back in the true direction. This is true in stocks as well as in gold. I have warned that we can get a potential HUGE false move, which can even be the biggest in history. The bigger the false move, the bigger the REAL move."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...fore-the-rise/
"They do not seem to grasp that injecting money by buying government debt and then raising taxes on individuals will not stimulate the economy. Nearly 10 years of this insane policy and we have less than 2% inflation. They seem incapable of comprehending that simply increasing the money supply does not produce inflation. The only thing that counts is the increase in net disposable income."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...1st-half-2017/

"However, after the U.S. markets opened, MAGICALLY everything reversed because the nuclear threat with N. Korea, Biblical flooding in Texas and the upcoming debt ceiling issue no longer mattered. Those of us in the Alternative Media find this quite hilarious that nothing negatively impacts the financial markets anymore"
The divergence, https://dj0s31cxqi9ot.cloudfront.net...VIX.png?x65756
Trump said that he wanted a weak dollar. https://dj0s31cxqi9ot.cloudfront.net...ART.png?x65756
https://srsroccoreport.com/death-of-...king-up-speed/

The attacks on crypto are picking up, https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...to-currencies/
The feces-for-brains at the FED have been trying to inflate away the pain of paying the national debt. They have been wildly successful in inflating the upper loop where people don't actually produce anything. They have completely failed at inflating the lower loop where people have to actually be productive. The upper loop just rolls everything over and re-invests. Nothing ever gets produced. There is a price spiral in the upper loop. There is no spiral in the wage & price structure of the lower loop where it actually counts.
The State is very keen to devalue the dollar. Historically, currency inflation was used to inflate away 50% of the pain of repayment of GOV bonds. Historically, many States have revalued gold higher to revalue their currency lower. The CBs dumped thousands of tons of gold to try to drive it out of the monetary system. Once again, they lost that battle. They are buying about 385 tons a year.
Rickards speculates that the FED? treasury? will revalue gold UP to value the dollar DOWN.
I can't say that I am convinced.
http://www.goldcore.com/us/gold-blog...year-rickards/

[Danny B]

The end of currency reserves

The foreign exchange markets (FOREX) trade about $5 trillion every day in currency swaps. All States hold huge reserves of foreign currency to control and / or offset valuation problems in their domestic currency. Many States try to control the value of their currency by "pegging" it to a more stable currency,,, like the U.S. dollar. These pegs usually don't last very long if there is an underlying problem OR advantage to the domestic currency.

The Bretton Woods agreement set the U.S. dollar locked into gold and, the various other currencies locked into the dollar. After the crash of the gold standard in 1971, the various currencies just floated. The FOREX market taxes advantage of small variances.
The current currency system is stretched to the max. Jim Rickards claims that gold will go to $ 10,000 on January 1 of 2018. Any time that a State plans to make a huge devaluation, it never announces it ahead of time.
The U.S. debt can never be paid down with the current value of the dollar. The State may very well be cooking up a scheme to radically devalue the dollar. Who Knows?

FOFOA has just written a VERY important paper concerning the advent of cleanly floating currencies. The world is now operating on the dregs of the Bretton Woods system. The U.S.trade deficit is about $ 1.5 billion a day. Triffin's dilemma clearly explains why many States buy U.S. treasury debt as reserves. It's a bad system for the rest of the world and, it is coming to an end.
"One way to address the issue of the management of foreign exchange reserves is to start with an economic system in which no reserves are required. There are two. The first is the obvious case of a single world currency. The second is a more useful starting point: a fully functioning, fully adhered to, floating rate world."
All requirements for foreign exchange in this idealized, I should say, hypothetical, system could be met in real time in the marketplace at whatever exchange rate prevails. No foreign exchange reserves would be needed.

If markets are functioning effectively, exchange rates are merely another price to which decisionmakers--both public and private--need respond. Risk-adjusted competitive rates of return on capital in all currencies would converge, and an optimized distribution of goods and services enhancing all nations' standard of living would evolve."
-Alan Greenspan (1999)

The problem is that the global financial system is basically the remnant of the past 45 years of using the dollar as the reserve currency after it wasn’t really necessary. It's like a giant abandoned nest, or hive, or house of cards, built upon the dollar being used as a reserve currency for decades after it was no longer necessary to even have a reserve currency.

Central bank reserves are no longer needed for clearing, delivery, allocation or withdrawal, now that Bretton Woods has ended and currencies are no longer redeemable in gold from the central bank. The only thing central bank reserves do in a clean float is sit there. If they move, if they change, then it's not a clean float.
You can't run out of a currency you can print, but you can run out of reserves if you fix or peg your exchange rate.
In both a common currency area and in a clean float, the adjustment mechanism is automatic, but under fixed exchange rates, imbalances just pile up until the fix breaks.

So, any change in the monetary authority's reserves, either up or down, is exchange rate manipulation. An exchange rate peg or fix requires increasing or decreasing the monetary authority's reserves in defense of the fixed or pegged exchange rate. Fix. Peg. Reserves. No fix, no peg, no reserves. Get it?
Gold being a currency prior to the 70s is different from it being either money or a metal used for coinage.
So when the definition of a dollar as a specific weight of gold was voided in 1971, gold went from being a currency to being an asset. This is relevant to the subject matter of floating, fixed and pegged currency exchange rates because, as a member of the currency club, gold flowed in the monetary plane, opposite the physical plane of goods, services and assets, both physical and financial.

As I said, gold changed from being a currency to being an asset as soon as the dollar's golden definition was voided.
"In ANOTHER master stroke, the BIS knew that the entire bullion house structure was endorsed and supported politically, to frame gold in a dollar price band. Outside that band, up or down, these paper markets cannot function. Especially if the driving force becomes a physical demand that drains all settlement credibility from contract gold. There will be no squeeze in these markets now, as they will be allowed to kill themselves by trying to save themselves.

They knew this was how the paper gold market worked, because they were the ones who "endorsed and supported" it politically, for a purpose. And because they knew how it worked, they also knew how it would end. It hasn't ended yet, but that doesn't change a thing. This is, and always has been, how the paper gold market will end—just how the gold-denominated dollar ended.

I was able to finally finish the Freegold puzzle. Freegold is not a complex currency management scheme to achieving 0% price inflation through "functioning" gold, it is simply the clean float. It is the most simple of systems, because the adjustment mechanisms are all automatic. It's what Alan Greenspan called an "idealized" system, "a fully functioning, fully adhered to, floating rate world," in which "no foreign exchange reserves would be needed," and in which "an optimized distribution of goods and services enhancing all nations' standard of living would evolve."
But, But, what about the bankers?

Don't get me wrong, though. This in no way negates or delegitimizes the genius of MTM gold on Line 1 of the Eurosystem's balance sheet. That was a master stroke in terms of promoting gold within the current system (the $IMFS), and "signaling" that it's an asset, not a currency, that can rise without competing with the euro currency. It was also a master stroke in terms of weathering the transition away from the dollar reserve system.

Think about it this way. When the dollar dies, most of the reserves on most central banks' balance sheets will go *POOF*. Simultaneously, the gold portion will be revalued and will fill that hole, and then some. So it's good to have gold reserves for the transition, and it's good to promote gold for the people.
FOFOA: Nine!

The system is broken. The CBs have printed up $ 200 trillion to try to save the power of the bankers. It's only money, NOT wealth. Their current attempt at maintaining control is the creation of the SDR. IF China was all on-board with the SDR, they wouldn't be stashing every gram of gold that they can get their hands on.
The State wants to maintain ALL control on all stores-of-wealth. The banks want control on all movements of money. The economy just can NOT survive having the mega-parasites running the show.

Meanwhile, back at the FED, the CB is trying to manouver itself into a continuing access to the jugular vein of the economy.
https://dailyreckoning.com/feds-race-time/

[Danny B]

Armstrong,,,, trying to save the lower loop

Armstrong has a good grasp of the reasons for the rise and fall of societies. Here are a few short articles to think about.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/q...netary-policy/

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...nti-democracy/

"When I travel to the USA, I notice the younger generation pay with their cell phones and are not even interested in paper money. In Europe, the younger generation is also disinterested in gold. Could it be that gold is becoming obsolete as the horse and buggy?"
"Yes, gold is still relevant for the older generation."
"The older generations are much more focused on gold and privacy issues than the younger generation."

"The only thing that will possibly prevent gold fading into memory once again is a political reset and revolution where the course of society is again shifted. This is why governments have been selling bullion coins. There is no intent upon returning to any form of a gold standard. They are looking to eliminate even paper currency and any return to a gold standard is not on the table"
"There is a risk of a Dark Age if the whole thing collapses because government turns against its people rather than reforms. If we go that far, I have said before, then you reset to square one and value becomes food and it will gradually build back up from that point"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...till-relevant/

"Let us hope that we do not go into a Dark Age. I certain do not think we are going all the way to a Dark Age. The reason I warn about that is to hopefully make people aware that this is one of those times when such events take place. I do not believe that the cycles can be altered. What I do believe is we possess the power to understand and reduce the volatility."
"What we face is rising tension and dysfunctional government. It is always government that causes the Dark Age. Their greed and obstinate desire to maintain power results in them turning against the people to retain control. If we understand what they WILL do, we can intelligently counteract those measures. The army will be a key component. If some divisions support the government and others the people, there is your civil war. Then we have the Marxists who are in a clear trend to retake government. So this is the battle we will have to confront."

What we face is rising tension and dysfunctional government. It is always government that causes the Dark Age. Their greed and obstinate desire to maintain power results in them turning against the people to retain control. If we understand what they WILL do, we can intelligently counteract those measures.
If we can neutralize government then we can save the future."

"The White Supremacists see their life style diminishing and blame immigrants, minorities, and the Jews because of their dominance in banking. The problem is always government. It consumes more than 50% of the GDP which is just wasted. That reduces the standard of living for everyone. Hunting the rich causes them to hoard and invest less so you then have economics also declining and today 2% growth is hailed as fantastic. The larger government becomes, the lower the economic growth, the higher the taxes, and the lower our standard of living since government produces nothing"
"Workers are being replaced ONLY because of taxes and healthcare costs."
" We have to reboot government for that is what is destroying society. Fix that, and we can advance in society rather than go into a Dark Age because they turn against the people as has been the case throughout history"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...ts-v-dark-age/

Armstrong is a trader / investor. The job of a trader / investor is to intelligently and productively guide and allocate capital to where it is most productive. Traders don't actually produce anything. Traders hate taxes. Armstrong and his ilk have lost sight of the fact that; all this great productivity is useless if people don't have a living wage.

The upper loop of the economy was re-capitalized. This just didn't work because of the falling wages and falling employment in the lower loop. The clamor is getting louder and louder to re-capitalize the lower loop.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/31/1000...-trillion.html

Germany forced austerity on Greece because Schauble and the other German boneheads just didn't understand inflation. Actually, the CBs have little understanding of economics in general.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/4cd71d3...after-the.html

[Danny B]

Inescapable deflation

A bit more from C.H. Smith, " Despite all the happy talk about "recovery" and higher growth, wages have gone nowhere since 2000--and for the bottom 20% of workers, they've gone nowhere since the 1970s.
Gross domestic product (GDP) has risen smartly since 2000, but the share of GDP going to wages and salaries has plummeted: this is simply an extension of a 47-year downtrend.
Why do stagnating wages for the bottom 95% doom our status quo? As I noted yesterday in Why Wages Have Lost Ground in the 21st Century, our system requires ever-higher household incomes to function--not just in the top 5%, but in the top 80%.
If 95% of the households are earning less money when adjusted for inflation, and their wealth has also declined or stagnated, then how can we pay for programs which expand by 6% or more every year?"

Here is a graph that shows income inequality. The critical thing to remember is; All that wealth that flows to the upper loop and the richest 1% is LOCKED OUT of circulation in the general economy. The boneheads don't seem to realize that this is DEFLATION of the money supply.
http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2017...y-NYT8-17a.png

"The conclusion is sobering: wages/salaries are no longer an adequate means to distribute income or paid work. Our system is broken at the deepest levels--not just economically broken, but socially broken as well. Clinging to this broken model and filling the widening gap between the super-wealthy and everyone else with more debt will doom the system."
The rich write the laws. They wrote them in THEIR favor. Crashing deflation of the general economy is the result. $ 200 trillion created and, we still have deflation.
charles hugh smith-Weblog and Essays

The GDP numbers are just bogus BS to anaesthetise the investors. GDP just keeps going up. What about actual productivity?
"And he recently caught our attention by surfacing this chart of the change in annual Real Value Added to the US economy, a metric that hadn't been on our radar beforehand. This has been a reliable indicator of recession in the US for nearly 70 years, and is now signaling that we've likely already entered one: "
http://realinvestmentadvice.com/wp-c...08/graph-1.png
"financial markets are not just overbought, but dangerously overvalued at this point. Similar to John Hussman (another producer of market indicators we value highly), Lance shows that, because today's prices are the result of pulling so much of tomorrow's valuation into today (e.g., via the suppression of interest rates and overexuberant speculation), we are living at a rare time in history where the average market return for the next 20 years may well be negative:"
This article has GREAT Graphs. You can skip the first part though. Another graph. https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/LN...13907ad337f2fe
https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/
110568/van-halen-mms-and-next-market-downturn

This shows the FED rate going up as the economy goes down, http://media.peakprosperity.com/imag...rse-chart2.jpg

Jim Paulsen just told CNBC that he believes that this current bull market “could continue to forever”…

The stock market “has an awful good gig going,” with the economic recovery reaching all corners of the globe and U.S. inflation and interest rates still at historic lows, Leuthold Chief Investment Strategist Jim Paulsen told CNBC on Friday.

“We’ve got a fully employed economy, rising real wages. We restarted the corporate earnings cycle. We’ve got strong confidence among business and consumers,” he said on “Squawk Box.”

“The kick is we can do all of this without aggravating inflation and interest rates,” he said. “If that’s going to continue, I think the bull market could continue to forever.”

" former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan believes that the bond bubble actually presents an even greater danger. When you look at the long-term charts, you will see that an epic bond bubble has been growing since the early 1980s, and when it finally collapses the financial carnage is going to be unlike anything we have ever seen before."
http://themostimportantnews.com/arch...about-to-burst

[Danny B]

About that bond bubble

"While the politicians and the mainstream media are playing down any concerns about the US debt ceiling, Treasury Bill market participants are seeing chaos as the yield curve has snapped across the Sept-Oct divide with panic-buying in bills that mature ahead of the September-end (Q3-end liquidity needs), and dumping of October bills."
Ah yes, the debt ceiling contagion. Just how contagious is it going to be?
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defau...debt1111_0.jpg
With the short-end bid and anything maturing just after September is getting crushed...

"The first option would extend maturity and coupon payments, where payment decisions are explicitly announced by Treasury one day at a time, and both coupon and principal payments are ultimately made in full once the debt limit is raised. These securities would be able to be transferred normally, and a market for them would develop. While the security is not “defaulted” as its maturity date has been extended in systems, the extension would likely constitute a change in terms that triggers CDS. "
Can't forget about those credit default swaps.
"there is nothing immediately apparent in the Federal Reserve Act that would preclude the Fed from purchasing defaulted Treasury securities. This would likely not be a proactive step, as the Fed would not want to be seen “bailing out” the Treasury,
Is A US Default Imminent: Liquidation Panic Grips T-Bills Market | Zero Hedge

The government regulates the banks. BUT, the banks hold and buy so much GOV debt that the banks can dictate their desires and terms. The FED talks about shrinking their balance sheet. The GOV NEEDS for them to increase their balance sheet.
What happens if the banks pull back from buying GOV debt. They are already shunning certain maturities. They are looking for alternatives.
"Barclays, Credit Suisse, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, HSBC, MUFG and State Street have joined UBS, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Santander, NEX and blockchain startup Clearmatics in a project to create a the “utility settlement coin”. The currency was originally started by UBS."
"The currency being developed by the banks will be backed by traditional cash."
""The settlement coin will be a collateralized digital currency, backed by cash assets at a central bank, which allows us to transfer ownership easily through the exchange of USCs, thus reducing process complexity and the time taken for settlement," Kaushalya Somasundaram, the head of fintech partnerships and strategy at HSBC, told Coindesk.

In other words, the utility settlement coin allows financial institutions – banks, hedge funds and others -to pay each other or to buy bonds and equities, without waiting for traditional money transfers."
Something stinks here. Wire transfers take milliseconds to clear.
https://www.rt.com/business/401693-b...in-blockchain/

Why would the BIG banks want to bypass the SWIFT system? CURRENTLY the banks are locked out of doing business with States that are under sanctions.

[Danny B]

Oil, gold, China, more oil, Venezuela

ALL liquidity produced by Central banks flows into general finance worldwide. China has an enormous bubble risk that demands enormous capital creation. Much of this flows right out of China.
"The Impossible Trinity theory was advanced in the early 1960s by Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Mundell. It says that no country can have an open capital account, a fixed exchange rate and an independent monetary policy at the same time.

You can have one or two out of three, but not all three. If you try, you will fail — markets will make sure of that."
"he reason is that if more attractive total returns are available abroad, money will flee a home country at a fixed exchange rate to seek the higher return. This will cause a foreign exchange crisis and a policy response that abandons one of the three policies.

But just because the trinity is impossible in the long run does not mean it cannot be pursued in the short run. China is trying to peg the Yuan to the U.S. dollar while maintaining a partially open capital account and semi-independent monetary policy. "
"China cannot keep the capital account even partly closed for long without drying up direct foreign investment. Similarly, China cannot raise interest rates much higher without bankrupting state-owned enterprises."
"Under the unforgiving logic of the Impossible Trinity, China will have to either devalue the Yuan or see its reserves evaporate.

In the end, China will have to break the Yuan's peg to the dollar in order to stop capital outflows without killing the economy with high rates. The Impossible Trinity really is impossible in the long run. China will find this out the hard way."
https://dailyreckoning.com/china-bat...sible-trinity/
China desperately needs for investors to have confidence in the Chinese economy. They are betting on gold and oil. The U.S. has done quite well with an oil-backed currency,,, the petro-dollar. The East is in the process of destroying the petro-dollar. THEY have cheap oil and, We do not.
We would definitely like to steal the oil from Venezuela.
We are all hot & bothered about democracy there. We will go in and lock down the oil to bring democracy back. China and Russia are currently helping Venezuela to keep us out.
In the meantime, China is working on gold-backing. Gresham's Law ensures that they can't successfully back the Yuan with gold. But, they can back their bonds with gold.

Jim Willie has long predicted that this would happen.
" the profound effects on the dying Petro-Dollar, the new Russian oil consortium to link Venezuela & Iran & Saudi (maybe Mexico soon) for mixture management and exclusive non-USD oil sales"
"namely the Gold Trade Note and the gold-backed RMB & Ruble currencies, the two primary arenas in crude oil & Gold for big upcoming events that will have price impact, the surrender of the USMilitary to the dual RMB-USD universe"
Jim Willie Golden Jackass Hat Trick Letter interview | TF Metals Report
"the fraudulent upcoming gold-backed Dollar prospects with details on likely fraud, the effects of depressed oil price with unlikely spike upward, the Russian oil consortium with anti-USD effect toward killing the Petro-Dollar, the Chinese dumping of USTreasury Bonds featuring collusion with JPMorgan (their new lackey), the reported Rothschild Family exit from US stocks, the USMilitary retreat with peaceful coexistence for USD/RMB dual universe
https://ochelli.com/all-american-finance-fraud/

OK, another source;
"The world’s top oil importer, China, is preparing to launch a crude oil futures contract denominated in Chinese Yuan and convertible into gold, potentially creating the most important Asian oil benchmark and allowing oil exporters to bypass U.S.-dollar denominated benchmarks by trading in Yuan, Nikkei Asian Review reports."
"The crude oil futures will be the first commodity contract in China open to foreign investment funds, trading houses, and oil firms. The circumvention of U.S. dollar trade could allow oil exporters such as Russia and Iran, for example, to bypass U.S. sanctions by trading in Yuan, according to Nikkei Asian Review. To make the yuan-denominated contract more attractive, China plans the yuan to be fully convertible in gold on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges."

"But according to analysts who spoke to Nikkei Asian Review, backing the yuan-priced futures with gold would be appealing to oil exporters, especially to those that would rather avoid U.S. dollars in trade.

“It is a mechanism which is likely to appeal to oil producers that prefer to avoid using dollars, and are not ready to accept that being paid in yuan for oil sales to China is a good idea either,”
China Readies Yuan-Priced Crude Oil Benchmark Backed By Gold | OilPrice.com

The whole world hates the petro-dollar and unending wars that it facilitates. They have devised work-arounds for the petro-dollar AND future sanctions.
"the fraudulent upcoming gold-backed Dollar prospects with details on likely fraud" DO NOT WORRY. Fraud is definitely in the pipeline.
"Since 1996, the number of listed U.S. public companies has fallen by 54% (yes, more than half) although at that same time the economy and population have grown. "
"Given current economic realities we may indeed see a continuation of QE ad infinitum, or until actual values are reassessed and the market realigns accordingly…. a volatile unpleasant thought."

"US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin paid a visit to Fort Knox. He is only the third Treasury Secretary in our history to ever visit Fort Knox, and the first since James Bond foiled Auric Goldfinger. Perhaps it is because the US Treasury is running out of cash and should Congress not increase the debt ceiling by September 29 there will be anxiety in the markets.

Perhaps however the Treasury could magically conjure at least $355 billion in cash from thin air without increasing the debt by marking the value of U.S. gold to the market. Sound outlandish, or even simple-minded? Consider that the bullion held by the United States is today officially valued at approximately $42 per ounce on the Treasury’s ledgers. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to appreciate that if it is marked to market at say $1200, $1300, or more per ounce, the volume value gets a little larger, no? Should US gold be revalued the Treasury could then issue new “gold certificates” to the U.S. Fed and in exchange demand newly printed money (QE continued) in the Treasury’s account under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934."
Could the US Use Its Gold Reserves to Avoid a Debt Ceiling Showdown?

OK, so, oil contracts will be quoted in Yuan and executed in gold where demanded. This will be tough for China to uphold since they are so accustomed to printing Yuan without limit. The East has eastern oil locked up. Pox Americana desperately needs to lock up Western oil. That means Venezuela and Mexico. If the East locks in Mexican oil, times will be tough. Fortunately, Mexico is a lot closer than Venezuela so, it won't be very expensive to invade.
Syria has oil and Pox Americana says that we will take Syria over and garrison it permanently. The oil from the Golan Heights is very conveniently located right next to the Chosenites. Not one to forget important details, the pentagram says that Pox Americana will be in control of Afghanistan for at least the next 50 years.

The oil industry is burning through cash at the rate of $20 billion a year. Harvey made a direct hit on the biggest concentration of refineries.
If this new storm, Irma, does the same thing to Louisiana or NYC, I'm definitely going to be suspicious.

"In short, the Chinese economy is on hold until October, and not in a good way.

Bad debts are still piling up. Stress on the reserve position and the exchange rate remains. Yet, China has the policy levers and political muscle to force a stable outcome until Xi’s position is solidified in October."
"After that, investors should brace for a financial earthquake from China that will reverberate around the world."
https://dailyreckoning.com/chinas-red-october/
Because of the impossible trinity, China will probably de-peg the Yuan. THAT will be a major move.

9/01 NAR blames “staggering lack of inventory” – Mish (housing)
9/02 Hours worked drop, earnings and employment under expectations – Mish
9/03 The working class can’t afford the American dream – HowMuch.net
9/03 America’s manufacturers and builders are on a tear – Bloomberg

[Danny B]

Deflation lurking in the wings

Markets are pretty quiet because everybody is upset about the H-bomb explosion. A couple months ago, gasoline exports from China to North Korea were stopped. They are definitely in trouble. The army was told to go steal corn from the fields because there is not enough money to feed them. Kim is running out of time and money.

GOV and the FED, plus all the other CBs pumped in bazillions of currency units into the markets. With wages falling, there was no legitimate need for this money. Naturally, it went into mal-investment.
"the average yield on corporate bonds with very poor credit ratings has dropped to a record low of 2.3 percent in the euro area.

In other words, investors are willing to accept these very low returns to finance companies threatened by bankruptcy."
https://global.handelsblatt.com/opin...wn-risk-820647
It is said that ; "a rising market lifts all boats",,,, even the worthless boats.

"The Russell 2000’s P/E ratio is 78.7, not the 25.6 claimed by FTSE Russell, "
"Since nearly a third of the companies in the Russell 2000 index are losing money, this omission has huge consequences."
"To put this in context, compare the index’s earnings yield of 1.3% (the inverse of the P/E ratio) to the 2.2% yield on the 10-year Treasury. That means a 10-year Treasury note now yields almost a percentage point per year more than the small-cap sector."
Beware: Russell 2000’s True P/E Ratio Is 78.7, NOT the 20 to 26 Bandied About - munKNEE dot.com
1/3 of small-cap companies are losing money. What would the unemployment rate be if all these companies closed?

"Since 2007, China has added $24 trillion in debt at all levels, which is more than the U.S. government's total debt of just under $20 trillion."
"China used more cement in just two years — 2011 to 2013 — than the U.S. used in all of the 20th century. Let that sink in for a moment. Meanwhile, China now produces five times as much steel as all of Europe each month.

But where are the customers? China built cities without people, malls without customers, and roads without cars, in anticipation that all of those would soon be filled. But many remain empty"
"China's population is aging fast, and its growth is grinding to a halt. Still, many of China's heavily-indebted businesses continue to borrow from government lenders, who have no incentive to stop the game."

China has the fastest shrinking work force in the world thanks to their one-child policy. They can't let their currency peg slip. They can't afford to let wages rise. Like Japan, they are trying to grow their economy at the same time that their workforce is shrinking. They need external markets to consume the junk they build. Their Silk Road plan might work in the long run but, they have some serious shocks coming in the very near future.

Houston is a bigger mess than most people realize. There were a million cars ruined. So, a million people are going to run right out and buy new cars. The economy there will be fine.
A Hot Mess - Kunstler
That smooth little twat, Macron has his eyes on the $1 trillion budget surplus that Germany holds.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...-the-eurozone/

The Graham-Leachy-Bliley act took all your savings and dumped them in the lap of the big banks. The banks fought it out and merged into just a few survivors.
"In February 1995 President Bill Clinton announced plans to wipe out both Glass Steagal and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956"
"In 1991 US taxpayers, already billed over $500 billion dollars for the S&L looting, were charged another $70 billion to bail out the FDIC, then footed the bill for a secret 2 1/2-year rescue of Citibank"
"With their bill’s paid by US taxpayers and bank deregulation a done deal, the stage was set for a slew of bank mergers like none the world had ever seen. "
"After the 1995 feeding frenzy, the money center banks moved aggressively into the Middle East, establishing operations in Tel Aviv, Beirut and Bahrain- where the US 5th Fleet was setting up shop. Bank privatizations in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Israel opened the door to the mega-banks in those nations."
"Four giant banks emerged to rule the US financial roost. JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup were kings of capital on the East Coast. Together they control 52.86% of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. [808] Bank of America and Wells Fargo reigned supreme on the West Coast."
https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress....e-money-power/
Keep in mind that your savings were used to finance this power play. Your money is gone. It was used to inflate everything in sight,,,, except your wages. Consumer debt in America is now $ 60 trillion.

[Danny B]

Basking in the sun for a very short time

China just initiated their oil-for-gold platform. They don't want any outside competition.
9/04 Ethereum, bitcoin crash after China declares ICOs illegal – Zero Hedge
9/04 IRS to go after bitcoin and bitcoin cash profits – Coin Telegraph
9/04 Bitcoin breaks $5,000 in latest price frenzy – Fortune Maybe THAT was their undoing.
9/04 US dollar losing its luster as safe haven investment – Hurriyet Daily News So, make cryptocurrencies illegal and, there will be less competition.
So, the store of value competition boils down to gold and cryptocurrencies.

What Gives Cryptocurrencies Value
Cryptocurrencies: Intrinsic Value Boil Down

[Danny B]

Link vs Peg,,,GOV extortion

FOFOA claims that the world will get rid of both a reserve currency and all currency reserves. ALL currencies will float in an exchange.
FOFOA: Nine!
Human nature ensures that Gresham's Law is inviolable. NO currency can have a fixed exchange rate to gold. Martin Armstrong knows this as well as the best.
"The objective is to establish the yuan as a reserve currency until we reach the Monetary Crisis Cycle conclusion. The logical step is to try to boost the yuan as a redeemable reserve currency with stability. You either PEG it to the dollar (unwise for political reasons) or you “LINK” it to gold – but do not PEG it to gold. If you attempt to PEG the yuan to gold, that would fail for you are making the same mistake as Bretton Woods."
"The only possible way is to “LINK” it to gold but on a floating exchange rate. That way you are encouraging confidence in the yuan allowing it to be redeemed on a floating basis with gold. Hence, the political risk of the currency is reduced for it could become possible that the currency system breaks apart and politically currencies could be politically frozen and nonredeemable."

"Naturally the hype will claim this is the end of the “petro dollar” for they will use any excuse to call the dollar down. They do not understand that ONLY a rising dollar will break the world monetary system."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...ld-oil-dollar/

"The difference between the ECB and the Fed is stark. The ECB owns 40% of Eurozone government debt. The Fed does not even come close."
"European financial markets have become addicted to the unprecedented inflow of cheap money even though there has been no appreciable rise in economic growth or inflation as was expected. "
Draghi talks about reducing bond purchases at the same time that Italy, et al need ever-increasing support. The French GOV spends 57% of the GDP to keep socialism (and rapefugees) alive. They are wildly out of compliance with debt laws for the EU. There is no way out.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...aghi-tapering/

The bankers see a possible way out of Franc's dilemma. Commerce is crashing because of a lack of purchasing power. That silly twat Macron thinks that he can save France by further reduce purchasing power.
Macron’s War on Labor
The PPI scandal in Britain, https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...rtgages-loans/

"Back in 2003, Judge Milton Pollack dismissed two class action suits against Merrill Lynch for putting out bogus research during the DOT.COM Bubble "
"Pollack then dismissed another 25 lawsuits against the bankers. Similarly, another judge dismissed suits against Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley."

There is something much more sinister going on behind the curtain. I have warned that you really are taking your life in your hands doing business in New York City with a bank because NOBODY ever wins against the bankers no matter what they do. This begs the question about why are banks paying huge fines, yet nobody goes to jail, and there is never a trial while class action suits are summarily dismissed? Something is seriously wrong here. To discover the answer, as always, just follow the money!

So why are the banks paying huge fines but then nobody can sue them? An inside source coming from a lawyer who worked internally at a bank, explained that the New York Attorney General simply walks into his office and informs them they will hand over $1.2 billion in fines and he does not care about defenses or the rule of law. It is plain criminal extortion. The bankers pay these fines because they cannot afford to go to trial and lose for then class action lawsuits from depositors and shareholders will bury the institution."
"So the judges are in on the scam and class action lawsuits are dismissed with absurd reasoning and the government makes billions in the process. "
The plaintiffs lose but, the GOV wins.

"Who pays for all these fines? I was told they simply set aside an amount for what is called “protection” money just like dealing with the Mafia. "
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...o-big-to-jail/

[Danny B]

No bid with everything mis-priced

Germany has about a $1 trillion current account surplus. The rest of the EU has about a $1 trillion deficit. Macron says that the EU needs a debt union.
Now Poland says that Germany owes it $ 1trillion for reparations.
Germany must pay Poland up to $1 trillion in reparations, minister says | The Independent
"After the First World War Germany lost about 10% of its territory to its neighbours and the Weimar Republic was formed. ... The former eastern territories of Germany were ceded to Poland"
I guess that Poland has forgotten this.

The EU demanded that everybody take in rapefugees but now,,,, refuses to pay anything. Meanwhile Victor Orban is demanding that Brussels pay for the wall that he built to keep out the rapefugees.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...s-of-refugees/

The CBs want the markets to grow and GROW. Any time that a market grows faster than fundamental supply & demand, it is doomed to fall back to reality. People who see this fall "short" the market to make a buck on the way down.
The CBs don't want any little pricks popping their bubble so, they MUST punish the shorts at every turn. 1/3 of companies in the Russell 2000 index are losing money but, nobody can short them. The shorts have given up and gone away. When the default cascade happens, there will be NO BIDS as things go down.

"Markets crash when the majority are long and anything can spook them because there is a lack of new buyers coming in to carry the market higher. Some longs try to sell and they find a lack of bids. The crash comes when you hit the no bid and market-makers withdraw. That is the sharp increase in price volatility that is different from volume volatility. With price volatility, there need not be major volume – just a gap and a lack of bids. The event need not even be real – just a rumor."
"The panic unfolds because of price movements rather than volume. When large gaps appear WITHOUT supporting news, even professionals sell because they cannot make a decision in a vacuum."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/u...-crash-no-bid/

" 1. The process of inflating a bubble (for example, the current bubbles in stocks and real estate) requires pushing investors and speculators alike into risky asset classes. This puts the market at increasing risk as everyone is pushed to one side of the boat.

2. Those on the other side of the boat (i.e. shorts) are slowly but surely eradicated as the pumping keeps inflating the bubble. When the bubble finally bursts, there are no shorts left to cover, i.e. buy stocks at lower prices to reap their profits. "
"at some point the system loses all sensitivity to money pumping: no matter how much money central authorities inject, the markets refuse to go higher. At this point, the stick-slip nature of bubbles manifests and modest selling triggers a collapse as participants all rush for the exits. Buyers have vanished and there is no longer a bid at any price. "

Here is the state / level of our current bubble. http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2017...prices-GDP.png
Of Two Minds - The Trouble with Asset Bubbles: If You Stop Pumping, They Pop
"depth of the last crash, the wheeze of the collateralised debt obligation, which left no one able to distinguish between a good debt and a bad one. "
"Alex Brazier, executive director of financial stability at the Bank of England, warned last month that consumer loans had gone up by 10% in the past year, with average household debt having already eclipsed 2008 levels." GO ! Brits !
"There is something obscurely insulting about being warned about household debt by the Bank of England. It never warns employers about stagnant wages, or the government about the benefit freeze. It only ever mentions these in terms of the impact of inflation, as if any consideration of the human decisions behind them are too political for comment. But personal debt, miraculously, isn’t political at all."
" “If you look at total outstanding consumer loans, in July, they’re at £200bn, an £18.5bn net increase every year.” Households spent more than their income by £17.5bn in the first quarter of this year." Go Brits !
" problem gambling affects about 430,0000 people – a figure that has risen by a third in three years – " Go Brits!
"Nobody could have predicted how much the last crash would cost the taxpayer. But we know now, and that’s not all we know: we know that cutting public spending causes untold hardship to very little discernible benefit; we know that quantitative easing delivers its windfalls more or less entirely to the top 5%,"
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ersonal-credit
This one is a surprise, "The British courts have ruled against the bankers and insurance companies and they have to repay billions of pounds."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...rtgages-loans/

[Danny B]

Order in the cosmos?

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I have followed you for many years. I have to say, I am truly amazed at what your computer projects. You have never missed a move yet. Here we have the rally in gold into September, yet the August high stands in the market, and even Korea went nuts on your target date and your next target for the 11th concerning Korea I do not want to think what is going on.

I understand you say you never pursued this research based upon a preconclusion but bumped into this in the middle of the night. My question is this. Do you think what you have discovered is somehow a mysterious force that just compels things to happen on target? It’s hard for me to put into words. Do you have any idea why all these things happen when you forecast they will happen?

Definitely see you in Orlando.

PH

ANSWER: I get this question a lot. I really do not know what is the answer. We clearly respond to events the same today as humans did in Roman times. Politicians never change and are always greedy and will exploit the people. If this was not true, then we should all be speaking Babylonian.

I can see that if you do X then Y will always follow. But this is some strange complexity that is far beyond what people are willing to expect. The government simply said I manipulated the world economy. Now that’s really nuts. All I have done is comprehend the inter-connectivity and mapped it out with TIME.

There is a very interesting regularity to everything and it is truly predictable. Yet the majority still prefer to blame me (messenger) rather than stop and explore that there is a mysterious order of complexity far beyond comprehension. The consequence of that (Invisible Hand) runs contrary to politicians who try to manipulate society in the spirit of Karl Marx. So if I am right, that means a politicians can not keep their promises for they cannot control the world economy.

So I understand why you cannot put this into words. There is just a hidden order that the computer sees because it is monitoring everything. That is not AI, it is beyond AI for it can do things humans cannot possibly do because it requires a global view and endless time.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...-to-september/

The answer is very simple. The elder races are bored stiff so, they created our civilization just like Shakespeare created his world on paper.

[Danny B]

Crypto,,, private,,, public,,, public-private

The private banks have always used the Central Banks to get what they want from the taxpayer. Private enterprise is hard at work to get around this arrangement. Nobody truly understands the potential of the blockchain. Here are some notes on the subject.

"Speaking to the The Australian Financial Review on Monday, ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft predicted traditional bank accounts may be unnecessary within a decade as central banks begin issuing their own Bitcoin-style digital fiat currency.
While central banks already have digital settlement accounts with the financial institutions, Mr Medcraft predicted that those would soon be extended to everyday transaction accounts for the general population.

“With central-bank issued digital currencies, you might not need a bank account anymore,”
A digital fiat currency, while convenient, would also be convenient for the government — able to be taxed, tracked and confiscated at will.

“The disturbing thing, understanding that they would want to join the digital currency milieu, is knowing what a bunch of control freaks they are, I can almost guarantee they will say, ‘Now we’ve got a digital currency, all other digital currencies are illegal,’
"“This idea that you’ve got to be more regulated otherwise the black economy will grow and therefore the government will miss out on its taxes, that worries me, because they seem to take the view that taxes are sacred and anything that protects [tax revenue] is legitimate.”
Senator Leyonhjelm said while “most people accept paying tax as a civic duty”, there was a limit. “We are past that limit, so avoiding taxes is much more likely,” he said.

“Getting rid of $100 notes, putting restrictions on cash payments, these are all directed at increasing taxation ... [when taxes] already exceed what people regard as a reasonable taxation level.”
Socialism is very expensive.
Estimates for the size of Australia’s so-called black economy vary from $23 billion to $50 billion. The government claims tax avoidance through cash payments costs the budget up to $10 billion in revenue, money that could go towards funding welfare and other services. Yeah free stuff !
Senator Leyonhjelm said the current government had lost its way. “I hear people in this place [parliament] say that letting people keep some of their money is a ‘concession’,” he said.
“Would there be merit in taking some kind of action targeting the $100 note? While an outright ban is unlikely to be effective, an organised changeover (requiring all holders of $100 notes to exchange them for new ones) might be considered.
It didn't work in India so, sure go ahead.
Digital currencies could mean the end of your bank account, ASIC warns

"As cryptocurrencies, which trade outside the banking system, attract more capital, governments and central banks are devising ways to try and stop and or control their rise. "
"In “Bill Would Require a Declaration of Digital Currency Holdings at the Border” we noted that the US Congress has tasked the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to devise a plan to stop the flows of cryptocurrencies into the country." Cryptocurrencies don't "flow" across a border.

"After explaining that central banks are creatures born of crisis in that they are designed to come to the rescue of banks ONLYwhen there are financial crisis, Dr. Weidman, noted that market interventions by central banks often provide financial stability" By screwing the taxpayer.
"Digitalization has the potential to provide financial benefits to the economy, with the risk, however, of disintermediating central banks. As such, the ability of central banks to conduct monetary policy diminishes proportionally to the increase in digitalization. " OH NO !, the CB must retain the power to save the private banks.
"Dr. Weidman dismisses the notion that privately issued digital currencies may eliminate central bank currencies, reasoning that “central banks are better able to deliver price stability " AKA inflation

"Dr. Weidman notes that in times of crisis, money holders would withdraw their bank deposits and transfer them into the official digital currency, thereby rapidly withdrawing liquidity from the private banking sector in a digital bank run.

Without deposits, Dr. Weidman observes, banks could not make loans." They would all go belly-up in a day.
"3. Will central banks instead create their own digital currencies and in effect kill off the private banking sector and become the banking system in their respective countries with the abilities to create loans, make credit decisions, issue credit and track all transactions?"

The private banks own the FED. Digital currencies hold the possibility of pitting the private banks AGAINST the Central banks. BOTH the private banks and the Central banks can create unlimited cryptocurrencies.

Dr. Weidman claims that CBs are better because they can never go insolvent. The biggest banks are currently creating their own crypto-currencies. If they issue and create their own cryptocurrency, can they ever go insolvent? Will the HUGE TBTF banks just move their operations inside the Central Bank? All they truly want is money and control. If the TBTF banks issue a State crypto-currency, they can squeeze out all the competition.

[Danny B]

Trump & Dems,,,runaway banking sector,,, GLD + BS

The Republicans have blocked EVERYTHING that Trump has tried to do. The simple answer was to just ask the Democrats to work with him.
Republicans Furious As Trump Sides With Democrats On Debt Limit Extension | Zero Hedge
They kicked the can down the road for 3 months. There is a small problem. They plan to approve money for destruction from storm Harvey. BUT, storm Irma is going to be frightfully destructive and expensive also. Behind Irma is another hurricane Kim. Behind that is a tropical storm forming. To make matters worse, the sun has just kicked out the 14 th largest flare ever recorded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQXu4JmbvzU
The appropriation for Harvey is just the beginning.

Armstrong said that the world economy will blow if the dollar goes up. Why the US Dollar is About to Go Up, and the Euro Isn?t. | Zero Hedge

"The key takeaway: negative and near-zero interest rates show central banks’ desperation to avoid deflation. More important, they highlight the bleak state of the global economy.

In theory, low- and negative interest rates were supposed to reduce savings and stimulate spending. In practice, the opposite has happened: "
"Some countries resort to negative interest rates because they want to devalue their currencies. This strategy suffers from what economists call the fallacy of composition: the mistaken assumption that what is true of one member of a group is true for the group as a whole. As a country adopts negative interest rates, its currency will decline against others — arguably stimulating its export sector (at the expense of other countries)."
The world is becoming desperate about deflation - MarketWatch

Here is a graph showing the banking sector compared to the GDP. America looks to be about 105%. China,, 310%. What really stands out is the debt in Britain and France. Britain is pushing about 575%.
http://static5.businessinsider.com/i...20debt%203.png
http://www.businessinsider.com/chine...ability-2017-9

Real gold is in short supply. Paper gold can be produced on demand.
"And then yesterday, we got the coup de grace...an incredible 23.65 metric tonnes were allegedly added yesterday alone." GLD
"it's difficult to imagine this gold just laying around, waiting for HSBC to pick it up"
"Simple coincidence? Maybe there's no connection at all as the APs (Bullion Banks) can simply stuff the GLD "inventory" with as many delivery receipts and promissory notes as they deem necessary to give the appearance of propriety"
Every time that gold goes up, "they" deposit TONS of it into the vaults at GLD.
For those of you who missed it, "Recall the whole charade from back in 2011 when Bob Pissonme of CNBS was allegedly driven in circles for hours before being allowed into the super-secret vaults that house the GLD's gold: "
"amazing video interview with Bob Pisani that CNBC ran where they went into GLD’s vaults in London-" "You know they took his mobile off him and he ended up in the vaults and he held up this bar and he said ‘this is the kind of thing that GLD holds custody for you!’"
"I got an email back which stated ‘That was interesting, and what’s even more interesting is IT’S OUR BAR!’

So let’s clarify. He (Bob Pisani) was actually holding up a bar belonging to a separate ETF, WITH NO PERMISSION FROM THEM!! To me, that tells you everything you need to know!

We’ll let our readers take a moment to put 2 and 2 together:
Consider the fact that the gold bar held up by Bob Pisani who was supposedly standing in the GLD’s vault is ACTUALLY OWNED BY ANOTHER ETF, "
http://www.silverdoctors.com/gold/go...-gld-gold-bar/

[Danny B]

Big Brother is coming to the blockchain

It's getting more and more difficult to read the tea leaves. You can bet that those in power want to retain power. That is a good starting point. The dollar / IMF people want the SDR to be the standard of value going forward. The rest of the world wants to see gold as a reserve and trading done in local currencies. FOFOA presented the idea of a world without reserve currencies. What will a net-exporting State use for a store of value? China really doesn't seem to want crypto-currencies to gain a niche. Russia thinks,,, maybe.

Listen to this vid from 18:50 to 23:45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0U1WAXSn3o
Lynette Zang explains that the West will allow crypto-currencies until everybody gets comfortable with them. Then, they will lock everything down.

"Keeping in mind that both the Russian ruble and Chinese yuan are covered by gold, this step is a part of the “de-dollarization” of their economies"
“Both the ruble and yuan are 100 percent covered by gold,"
The power and use of gold is; it limits Central banks from doing unlimited credit expansion. Evidently, China has felt NO restraint in that department.
"The economist added that China and Russia are the world’s largest gold producers and the only problem with gold today is that it is completely beholden to the West’s monetary system.

“For the last five years China, Russia and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation are trading hydrocarbons no longer with US dollars, but in their local currencies or in gold,” Koenig said."
"He further said, “The entire western monetary system is basically a fraud. It is privately made and privately owned. All international transfers have to transit through Wall Street banks "
https://sputniknews.com/business/201...ussia-economy/

" There is every indication that governments, regulators, tax authorities, and the global elite are moving in for the crypto-kill.
The future of Bitcoin may be a dystopia in which Big Brother controls what’s called “the blockchain” and decides when and how you can buy or sell anything and everything.
Furthermore, cryptocurrency technology could be the very mechanism used by global elites to replace the dollar based financial system."
Lynette Zang forecasts that all the crypto-currencies will coalesce into the body of the SDR.
"Something similar is going on with Bitcoin and the Distributed ledger technology (DLT) today. Governments have been patiently watching blockchain technology develop and grow outside their control for the past eight years."
"Governments don’t like competition especially when it comes to money. Governments know they cannot stop blockchain, in fact they don’t want to. What they want is to control it using powers of regulation, taxation, and investigation and ultimately more coercive powers including arrest and imprisonment of individuals who refuse to obey government mandates with regard to blockchain."
"A group of major companies, all regulated by government, have announced a joint effort to develop an open-source blockchain as a uniform standard for all blockchain applications. The group includes JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, State Street, SWIFT, Cisco, Accenture, the London Stock Exchange and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial. "

With the inclusion of SWIFT, you can see the roadmap for sanctions against ANY entity that is included in the Western blockchain currency.

The Western GOVs piss and moan because people hold currency that is OUTSIDE their control. NOTHING will be outside their control when everything is in the blockchain.
"An elite U.S. legal institution called the Uniform Law Commission, that proposes model laws intended for adoption in all fifty states, has released its latest proposal called the “Uniform Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Act.”

"Perhaps most portentously, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has weighed in. In a special report dated June 2017, the IMF had this to say about blockchain:

“Distributed ledger technology (DLT), in particular, could spur change in the financial sector. …. DLT can be categorized as “permissionless” or “permissioned” depending on who can participate in the consensus-driven validation process. Permissionless DLTs allow anyone to read, transact on, and participate in the validation process. These open schemes (that underlie Bitcoin, for instance) could be very disruptive if successfully implemented. By contrast, in permissioned DLTs, the validation process is controlled by a pre-selected group of participants (“consortium”) or managed by one organization (“fully-private”), and thus serve more as a common communications platform.” (emphasis added)."

"The IMF also favors control by a “pre-selected group of participants” or “one organization,” rather than allowing “anyone” to participate.

"This paper should be viewed as the first step in the IMF’s plan to migrate its existing form of world money, the special drawing right or SDR, onto a DLT platform controlled by the IMF. In time, all other forms of money would be banned."
"These and other developments all point toward an elite group including the IMF, JPMorgan, the Davos crowd, the IRS, SEC, and other agencies converging to shut down the existing free-wheeling blockchain ecosphere, and replace it with a “permissioned” system under “consortium” control.

Big Brother is coming to the blockchain."

You have got to get familiar with quantum computing, and there is loads of stuff on the net about it. But the reason it matters is because of the speed at which you can process information. We now have quantum computers. The Chinese apparently have the fastest. There is D-wave out of British Columbia, but basically you can break a block chain password or a Bitcoin password in like less than a minute if you have a quantum computer. The question is who is going to have them, and the answer is mainly governments.
"The question is can you trust the private hands who are issuing Ethers as much or more as you trust governments. So governments are being to say let’s create our own version, and that’s where you get the PBOC saying we’ve got to control this. Because otherwise, you are going to end up with private sector currencies that possibly are trusted more than government currencies, and that will lead to transactions offline that governments can’t see. There was a report going around the Internet recently about some guy who made $200 million bucks trading on Ethereum in a month, and the question was who will tax that. The answer is nobody. That freaks governments out to say the least, particularly given their debt situation."
Former 'Plunge Protection Team' Member Warns "Blockchain Is Freaking Governments Out" | Zero Hedge

Imagine that you have 100 lbs. of gold. Imagine that you want to buy a house. The State will take your gold if you declare it because the East only wants gold for international transactions. If you don't declare it, you can't pay for the house because it is on the blockchain like everything else on the "internet of things". The current official price of gold held by U.S. GOV is,,,,,,, $ 42,22 and oz.

[Danny B]

no more debt ceiling?

Trump has called himself The Debt King. What would a real debt king do about the debt ceiling?
" In a meeting with GOP and Democratic leaders, in which Trump sided with the Democrats on a fiscal deal to raise the debt ceiling, the president said he believes the votes are unproductive, those people said.
With Congress set to lift the debt ceiling into December as part of the deal, Trump floated the idea that the next time Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling, it could be the last. He said conversations should happen over the next three months, according to people in the room."
"However, Orrin Hatch - Republican Senator for Utah and Chair of Senate Finance Committee - says he wants to abolish debt ceiling votes.

Translated: Trump suggests that there should be no constraint at all, not even the fiscally conservative pretence of the debt ceiling law, over how much debt the government can pile on the backs of future generations of Americans."
Trump Wants To End The Debt Ceiling, Schumer Agrees | Zero Hedge
The debt is completely unpayable so, future generations are not going to pay it back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0
Watch from 12:00 to 15:25
The debt can never be paid back because there just isn't enough money in existence. There is ever-more debt created BY the upper loop to pay back the upper loop. It is ALL debt.
Trump may very well propose getting rid of the debt ceiling. The FED could create endless FRNs and bonds. It would essentially be debt-free money because nobody could pay it back. The debt ceiling is just an arbitrary number that we have imposed on ourselves. We've raised it over 100 times so, it's pointless to preserve it. One note: The debt has doubled under every president. Trump could hit $ 40 trillion. BUT, with other States trying to de-dolarize, nobody but the FED would buy the debt.