Economic pressures

[Danny B]

Hegel's dream,,,less law, more profit,,, chinese lock up more markets

Armstrong said that interest rates are going to go up faster then people realize is possible. We get a 2fer.
"The energy output of the sun peaked in 2015 and has been crashing faster than anyone thought possible."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...43-year-cycle/
Social Security is on the ropes,
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/...ership-needed/

A bunch of pensions are on the ropes,
https://www.benefitnews.com/news/mul...ical-condition
"A few smart Democrats, including Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker, have figured this out. Their alternative to Trump’s policies is a government guaranteed job for every American who wants one. The jobs will be low or negative productivity government jobs requiring few or no skills and offering no advancement."
https://dailyreckoning.com/welfare-another-name/
Armstrong said that 33% of those employed worked for GOV of some sort. I thought it was much lower. Just imagine, everybody working for the government. Dunno if it includes private contractors who sub out GOV work.
Communitarianism - Final Synthesis In Hegelian Dialectic

Just as the banks killed Glass-Stegal, they are now killing off more of the Dodd-Frank bill.
https://splinternews.com/congress-ju...tre-1826245874
We don't need no stinkin regulations.
You Brits have a big divorce bill waiting for you.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8364841.html
Evidently, the military-industrial complex is getting stressed out after 20 years of constant war.
https://www.rt.com/usa/427593-pentag...nitions-bombs/
Not sure what to make of that.

"When China bought the LME the usual suspects in the contrarian investing community talked about the coming apocalypse for the bullion banks. It never happened. In fact, China was in a position to help them cap the price of gold and extend the gold bear market for the past six years while it and its strategic partners, namely Russia, accumulated vast quantities of the world’s most important metal."
Yep, it makes sense for the Chinese to hold down the price of gold at the same time that they wanted to load up.

"We’ve all been breathlessly focused on how strong the so-called ‘petroyuan’ oil futures contract has been for the Shanghai Exchange. It has captured more than 12% of the total oil futures market in just under two months. That’s incredible."
China is taking over all the metals markets which will put even more pressure on the dollar that the Petro-Yuan does.
https://tomluongo.me/2018/05/24/petr...metals-market/
If the U.S. military is already short of strategic materials, just imagine what it will be like when China starts locking down more metals than just rare-earths.
This is one more reason why China will blow Taiwan out of the water before they will let Pox Americana get the the North Korean bonanza of rare-earths.

China can cause a huge spike in the price of gold any time that they want. They know that the crash is coming. They helped it along. Gold will be re-priced and, they have the gold. This gold will buy confidence from the R.O.W. Uncle Sam has empty vaults.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/r...bt-bomb-2018-5
Here is a good article on understanding the difference between the Federal Funds rate and the LIBOR rate. It is worth understanding.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/417...-interest-rate

[Danny B]

EM, Deutsche bank,,,Italy,,, Armstrong

Armstrong has a short vid on understanding the difference between money and assets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz_SjyNAkBE
Central banks want to know who owns what,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFmof_wq1xw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrHfd0hsBhY&t=118s
Armstrong on BTC and money laundering,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDY7OuIwHGA
5/25 About $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen since 2017 – Reuters

The corporatocracy and the Eurocrats were not able to completely erase democracy.
5/25 Italy’s deplorables unite against Europe’s elites – Weekly Standard
5/25 Italy’s belligerent new coalition is bad news for the EU – Guardian
The real cost of living index,
Chapwood Index - The Real Cost of Living Increase Index Vs Consumer Price Index - Founded by Ed Butowsky

Here is a graph of emerging market currencies,
https://www.activistpost.com/wp-cont...Untitled-8.png
As the dollar goes up, THEY crash down. Soon, it is far too expensive to service their debt. Not enough dollars in circulation and, they cost too much.
"As everyone knows, Deutsche Bank has resumed the collapse that started in 2008 before the Fed, ECB and Bundesbank combined to keep DB from collapsing. Why was DB saved? Because DB’s balance sheet likely represents the largest systemic risk to the global financial system. It has been burning furniture for years and now the bank is unloading more than 10% of its workforce as well as dismantling its North American and Investment Banking operation. 25% of the equity sales and trading personnel are being eliminated."
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/05...lack-swan.html
So, is Deutsche bank going to collapse before Italy Collapses?

5/25 Germany accuses Italy of “debt blackmail” – Mish
Better get used to it.
The U.K. military needs LOTS more money to prevent a Russian invasion.https://www.rt.com/uk/427759-mod-fun...uclear-russia/

[Danny B]

Euro,,,stimulus to the moon,,,Jubilee

Keep in mind that everything is speeding up. When a person buys a bond, they are going "long" the currency. When a person buys stocks, they are going "short" a currency. Armstrong.
The CBs tried to print up so much currency that much of it would flow into bonds. Traders are blowing up RE prices and stock prices to avoid bonds.
5/26 Bay Area home prices blast through new records – Mercury News
5/26 San Jose home prices are rising 3 times faster than national rate – SVB
5/26 San Diego home prices spike in April – Fox 5
5/26 Home values are skyrocketing at the fastest pace since 2006 – MarketWatch

Sovereign bonds will collapse and go to?zero?. Real estate won't ever go to zero. So, RE is blown up beyond norms but, not beyond reason.
Various European States regularly devalued their bonds or, defaulted. The technocrats were going to force them to end that practice by locking them into the Euro currency. They never changed any of the fundamentals. They just took away the pressure-relief valve. Armstrong told them in 1997 that no currency union had ever been successful without a debt union.
Today is the tomorrow that they didn't worry about yesterday. Don't forget about speed.

" If you want to define the main fault of the Euro, it is that: it creates problems that would not have existed if the common currency itself didn’t. This was inevitable from the get-go. The fatal flaw was baked into the cake. "
"Europe is not ready to call for the end of the experiment. Because so much reputation and ego has been invested in it, and because the richer nations and their banks still benefit -hugely- from the problems the poorer face. The one country that got it right was Britain, when it decided to stay out of the eurozone. "
"The Euro was devised and introduced, ostensibly, to solve problems. Problems with cross border trade between European nations, with exchange rates. But instead it has created a whole new set of problems that turn out to be much worse than the ones it was supposed to solve. "

"The Euro has entirely outlived its purpose, and then some. But it exists, and it will be incredibly painful to unravel. The new game for the north will be to unload as much of that pain as possible on the south.

Europe would have been much better off of it had never had the euro. But it does. The politicians and bankers will make sure they’re fine. But the people won’t be."
"Technology has eradicated the reason why the euro was introduced in the first place, and made it completely unnecessary. But the euro is here, and it is going to cause a lot more pain and mayhem"
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/20...d-of-the-euro/

As if Europe isn't screwed up enough all ready, "They" are working to flood it with 100 million mostly useless immigrants. https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/inte...onference-2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z4woNYMyz8
Soros and like-minded a-holes are going to flood Europe with millions of non-producers,,,, and, Europe has very generous welfare programs that will quickly break the bank. So, what do all the immigrants do when the welfare stops?

"Very early one morning in February of 2016 everything U-turned and rocketed higher. Suddenly and magically, the panic was over. This wasn’t the invisible hand of the market at work; it was the very-visible hand of central bank intervention. "
"After many years of force-feeding stimulus into the global economy to create a "recovery", the central banks have become increasingly concerned that asset prices have become too dependent on said stimulus. So in late 2015, the banks took their feet off of their monetary gas pedals for a bit to see what might happen.

They were hoping that the markets could be gradually weaned off of their stimulus dependence with few ill effects. They wanted to engineer a "soft landing", where if priced declined, they'd come down gradually and not too much.
That didn't happen.
Instead, the cheap-money-addicted markets instantly started expressing massive withdrawal complications."
"We are still paying the price from 2008, when the central banks committed a massive error by not allowing the markets and their bad debts to actually clear. Yes, it would have been acutely painful; but we would have been through the worst within a year or two and in the process restored the system to a much healthier and sustainable state."
Minus most of the banks. NOT on Obummers watch.

"If we've been in "recovery" for years now, as the central banks have been touting, then why has 2016-2108 seen the most stimulus ever injected into the system?"
What do you think paid for the recovery?
"The pain of the 2008 crash will seem like a mere flesh wound compared to the devastation the next deflationary wave will wreak. "

"The currencies and bonds of five countries are now in the danger zone, and many more teeter on the edge. My analysis is that the central banks will resort to their usual money printing to resolve the issue, but for reasons I explain in Part 2, these efforts will fail at some point in the next year -- and spectacularly so."

"When today's Everything Bubble bursts, the effect will be nothing short of catastrophic as 50 years of excessive debt accumulation suddenly deflates.

Given the dangers involved, you should expect the central banks to 'go nuclear' in their deflation-fighting efforts by sending “money to main street” -- likely in the form of a universal basic income, or a check from the Treasury refunding your last 3 years of tax payments, or maybe even an electronic deposit directly from the Federal Reserve into your bank account."
Hooray, I can quit my job and spend the money on hookers and blow.
https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/...nd-start-crash

Good technical article.
"The better the market the greater the demand for credit. Thus an increase in the supply of credit itself stimulates the demand for credit…" (Hawtrey, "Currency and Credit").
" The equilibrium line is like a razor's edge. The slightest deviation involves the risk of further movement away from equilibrium…the expansion could go on indefinitely, if there were no limits to the increase in the quantity of money" (Gottfried Haberler, "Prosperity and Depression")."
" Eventually, the monetary expansion comes to an end and a painful downside to the cycle becomes unavoidable. At least that's the way it used to work.

Hawtrey would find today's financial architecture unrecognizable: unfettered finance on a global basis; near zero and even negative interest rates; open-ended QE and ballooning central bank balance sheets; central bank manipulation of bond yields and asset prices; highly leveraged securities holdings and a derivatives marketplace to the tune of hundreds of Trillions."
https://creditbubblebulletin.blogspo...stability.html

"The crisis will create a domino effect and trigger global financial contagion, which I usually refer to as "The Great Reset."
The collapse of high-yield bonds will hit stocks and bonds."
Side note 5/26 Moody’s warns of ‘particularly large’ wave of junk (high yield) bond defaults ahead – CNBC

"As always, a U.S. recession will spark higher federal spending and reduce tax revenue. So I expect the on-budget deficit to quickly reach $2 trillion or more. "
Who is going to buy all this dirty paper?
"Meanwhile, job automation will intensify, with businesses desperate to cut costs. The effect we already see on labor markets will double or triple."
Side note. https://www.axios.com/cities-act-to-...9ccceabe3.html
"The world simply has too much debt, much of it (perhaps most) unpayable. At some point, the major central banks of the world and their governments will do the unthinkable and agree to “reset” the debt.

How?

It doesn’t matter how, they just will. They’ll make the debt disappear via something like an Old Testament Jubilee."
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ade-us-history

[Danny B]

General Strike,,, 12 indicators,,,Italy,,, eternal money printing

The lower loop of the economy is where all the actual work gets done.
Have you ever heard of investment bankers calling a general strike?
Nope, the general strike originated between the Patricians and Plebeians in Rome. It has been used many times since then.
Wiki, "1947, General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, banned a planned general strike of 2,400,000 government workers, stating that "so deadly a social weapon" as the general strike should not be used in the impoverished and emaciated condition of Japan "
"the general strike as a mechanism to prevent war, which anarchists supported, but socialists refused to endorse.[32]"

Here is a good article on worker compensation levels between workers and management.
https://www.dollarcollapse.com/next-...issue-ceo-pay/
Brazilians have discovered that they don't need a general strike to bring everything to a stop.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-b...-idUSKCN1IQ1N7
Even Uber drivers have joined in and, are blocking fuel trucks from leaving refineries.
Truckers' strike brings Brazil's economy to a halt - News - The Ledger - Lakeland, FL


12 Indicators,
#12 German banking giant Deutsche Bank just announced that it will be cutting another 7,000 jobs as it “seeks to turn the page on years of losses”. Those of you that have followed my work for a long time know that I have written extensively about Deutsche Bank, and it really is amazing that it has survived for this long. If Deutsche Bank fails in 2018, it will essentially be a “Lehman Brothers moment” for the entire planet."

#5 Mortgage interest rates just hit a 7 year high, and they have been rising at the fastest pace in nearly 50 years. This is going to be absolutely crippling for the real estate and housing industries.

#4 U.S. Treasury bonds are having the worst start to a year since the Great Depression.
Thank Armstrong
12 Indications That The Next Major Global Economic Crisis Could Be Just Around The Corner

So, just how much default can the system take before it melts down?
https://www.dollarcollapse.com/debt-...student-loans/

5/27 Moody’s puts Italy on downgrade review, junk possible – Zero Hedge
Doesn't matter much. Nobody is buying Italian debt besides Draghi.
5/27 Italy’s new government is bad news for the euro – Spiegel,,, say the Germans.
5/27 ECB preventing Italian rerun of the euro crisis — for now – MW Yeah, Draghi has his finger in the Italian dike.
5/27 “I accidentally threw away $60 million worth of bitcoin” – NY Post
5/27 Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington – Seattle Times Bonneville is going to melt down

5/27 Spain’s Ciudadanos party open to alternative candidate to oust PM Rajoy – Reuters
Rajoy attacked the Catalonians. This did NOT go down well with the rest of Spain.
5/27 How the media helped legitimize extremism – Wired
The word is CREATE, not legitimize.

"They conceal public borrowing, while providing long-term state guarantees for profits to private companies.” They also divert public money away from the neediest infrastructure projects, which may not deliver sizable returns, in favor of those big-ticket items that will deliver hefty profits to investors." WARS
https://ellenbrown.com/2018/05/26/bl...funds-to-work/

"Central Banks are giving up any pretense of being able to end their monetary stimulus.

The ECB can’t even hit a TWICE extended deadline without having to panic and extend it a third time. "
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...nsibility-pt-2
Putin is warning about the dire effects of protectionist measures. The Smoot-Hawley act in the 30s reduced world trade by 50%.
https://www.rt.com/business/427767-p...ld-trade-peace
/

[Danny B]

Italy,,,safe-haven,,,blob state,,, suicide

The Eurozone was constructed so that unelected technocrats ran everything. They were not able to completely eradicate the voting process. The Italians voted for leaders to throw out the entrenched technocrats.
5/27 Italy president under pressure to accept euro-skeptic PM – Reuters
5/28 Constitutional crisis in Italy as president rejects eurosceptic minister – Mish
5/29 Former IMF official becomes Italy’s interim prime minister – GATA
Technocrat.
5/29 Italy bond yields soar, protests called, euro referendum possible – Mish
5/28 Italian stocks, bonds plunge on constitutional crisis – The Street
5/29 Italy’s populists mobilize in protest as cabinet list drawn up – Bloomberg

The Italians have been well reamed by the flood of immigrants. The Italians asked Brussels for financial help to deal with the flood created by EU policies,,, and American bombs. Brussels refused. The economy of Italy has shrunk substantially since the blob State of EU administrators descended on it.
"Italy bond yields soar" Not for very long, they won't.
5/28 Sudden chaos in Spanish politics – Spain Report
5/28 Spain struggling with escalating migration crisis – Guardian
5/28 First Greece, now Italy; is Portugal next? – ZH
Yeah, Portugal is probably next.

5/28 Corporate debt soars while credit ratings fall – Harry Dent Do tell.
King Dollar’s safe-haven surge has only just begun – Khaleej Times
The original model for the Eurozone was a disaster at inception. Possibly, this was done on purpose to bring on a crash. The crash would be allowed to fester until everybody was ready to accept the SDR. That is what the Western PTB planned all along,,, at least according to the cover on F.T. The SDR would be a 100% continuation of the Bretton Woods credit card. The R.O.W. isn't going to have anything to do with that idea. They will lock down exports until Pox Americana is kaput.

So, the dollar is going up. The EMs can't afford debt service. PREVIOUSLY, Pox Americana would just send in the CIA and military to trash the government and pillage everything in sight. SCALE. The world has just gotten too big and powerful for Pox Americana to give it a good thrashing. We (the neocons) have managed to unite the whole world against us. There is really nothing to keep the emerging markets from defaulting.

When Italy really goes off a cliff, that will push the dollar that much higher.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...t-dollar-surge
"Consider that the financial recoveries in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Japan (the economies that the 2008 subprime crisis damaged the most directly) would not have been possible without quantitative easing (QE) policies."
RIGHT, recovery.
https://www.lombardiletter.com/the-signs-of-the-next-financial-crisis-are-getting-louder/28418/?utm_source=categorypage&utm_medium=articlelist&ut m_content={6}

Here is a rundown of our debt,
Why America Is Heading Straight Toward The Worst Debt Crisis In History

Many years ago, the California legislature moved the highway and gas tax funds to the general fund. Every few years, the State creates a new tax to repair the roads. They collect more tax but, don't actually spend it on the highways. So, now they are claiming once again that a new tax is needed.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...repeal-gas-tax

Gas tax hike has Californians paying more for less - The San Diego Union-Tribune
This will buy more votes for the Champagne socialists. It is actually a scheme to send a lot more money to CALPers. The blob State wants to ensure their own retirement. Remember, the blob State is the writhing mass of bureaucrats who keep demanding ever-more money.

The French State spends 57% of the GDP. VERY generous of them. They are way out of compliance with EU law on debt levels. Macaroon wants to do something about that.
https://www.rt.com/news/427866-franc...cron-protests/

"Soon, these will be the lucky ones. A recent request from a functionary at Southern Illinois University highlights how this school will deal with the “no money for teachers because admin is taking it all” problem:
…seeking qualified alumni to join the SIU Graduate Faculty in a zero-time (adjunct) status.
“Zero-time” is admin-speak for volunteer. So, instead of adjuncts getting sub-minimum wage and no benefits, this school wants to get adjuncts to work for, quite literally, nothing."
"It used to be, the entire purpose of a university was teaching and research. Today’s universities exist only to support the administrative class,"
http://professorconfess.blogspot.com...ty-pay-to.html
Keep in mind that a great number of administrative jobs have been replaced by computers. The schools (and State) are packed with well-paid zombies. Their pay level is WAY above the teachers who do the actual work. They sit in their offices writing memos to other administrators.

The youth have had their future stolen by the bankers. They have little hope of a good job and / or family. Depression sets in.
http://thesoundingline.com/overdose/
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...across-america

[Danny B]

Eurozone melting faster and faster

"The ECB has been intervening BECAUSE as we have warned, there is NO BID. Interest rates for Italian debt have almost doubled in a matter of days."
"The absolute ONLY way to SURVIVE is to maintain a GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...g-on-schedule/
"They could not find a SINGLE analyst in Europe willing to join me. Not that they disagreed, but for political reasons, they did not want to stand up and say the Eurozone dream was coming undone. No analysts at the top banks would dare come out and say what I have said and still hold a job. The ECM would have been on the phone and that analyst would be fired. "
"My sources there have expressed it best that they see Italy has been invaded and it is now an occupied country under the Eurozone. "
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...upied-country/
Private Blog – Capital Fleeing to US Treasuries & UK Gilts from Europe

Well, you can see why Armstrong's model is focused on confidence. You can also see why Central Bankers want a universal crypto-coin. They could easily control all capital flows.
5/29 Dow is set for a triple-digit drop at the open as Italian politics rattle investors – CNBC
Brain-dead analysts who pay no attention to global capital flows,,,, NO attention to sovereign bankruptcy. No private capital is flowing into southern European sovereign debt. German Bunds,,, yes but, nowhere else. No capital is flowing into U.S. sovereign debt either. That is why we have seen the charade of the BLICS buying it or "other" buying it. So, while stock values have hit the stratosphere, big money knows that the eventual losses would be worse in public debt.

The Eurocrats believed that they could negate all democracy and that; the people of Europe would have no recourse, no escape. What they seem to have ignored in their simple-minded rush for control of the People and State is; they couldn't control the flow of capital. So strange as it may seem, it will be the bankers and investors who bring down that god-awful bureaucratic nightmare known as the Eurozone.

[Danny B]

Henry Makow

On Oct 12, 1915, Edith Cavell, 50, a British nurse and head of a teaching hospital in Belgium, was shot by a German firing squad. Her death inflamed anti-German feeling in the US and caused enlistment in England to double.

She had helped some British POW's escape. Normally her crime was punished by three months imprisonment. Why was she killed?

According to Eustace Mullins, Edith Cavell had stumbled upon some damaging information. On April 15, 1915, The Nursing Mirror in London published her letter revealing that the Allied "Belgian Relief Commission" (charged with feeding Belgium) was in fact channelling thousands of tons of supplies to Germany.

Sir William Wiseman, head of British Intelligence and a partner in the bankers Kuhn Loeb, demanded the Germans execute Cavell as a spy. Wiseman believed that "the continuance of the war was at stake." The Germans reluctantly agreed, thus creating "one of the principal martyrs of the First World War." (The Secrets of the Federal Reserve, pp. 72-73)

Pretty cynical you say? No more cynical than demolishing the World Trade Center, murdering over 3000 Americans to start a "War on Terror."

This example of cooperation between belligerents was accomplished because Wiseman worked closely with the head of the US Federal Reserve, Paul Warburg . Warburg's brother Max was Chief of German Intelligence and a close friend of Kaiser Wilhelm.

The London-based central bankers use wars to weaken nations and colonize the world (incl. UK, US Israel etc.). The difficulty executing WWI was that they had already bankrupted the European states by selling them battleships and other armaments. Europe couldn't afford a war!

The introduction of the US Federal Reserve and the Income Tax Act in 1913 solved this problem. US government loans financed World War One. The American people were on the hook for both sides of the conflict.

This is how it works: The banksters created money from thin air based on the credit of the US government. Every dollar they "loaned" the US government was a new dollar in their pocket.

No nation is free if it cannot control its own credit, i.e. print its own currency at will. We are not free. The central banking cartel controls us by threatening to withdraw our credit i.e. currency causing economic turmoil.



HOW THEY PROPPED UP GERMANY

Another obstacle to war was Germany and her allies did not have the resources to fight for more than a year.

As Edith Cavell's discovery suggests, the banksters solved this problem by trading with "neutral" states: Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Thus, the banksters allowed essential resources from England, the US and the British Empire to reach Germany indirectly.

The whole thing is documented in a book entitled, "The Triumph of Unarmed Forces 1914-1918" (1923) by Rear Admiral M.W.W.P. Consett, who was British Naval Attache in Scandinavia. His job was to keep track of the movement of supplies ("unarmed forces") necessary for the continuation of the conflict.

For example, Scandinavia was completely dependent on British coal. So the Swedish iron ore that became German submarines that sank Allied shipping reached Germany on vessels powered by British coal.

Germany needed glycerin (animal fat) for the manufacture of explosives. England had no trouble securing this substance because it controlled the seas. After the war began, the demand for these products from neutral countries "exploded." The British continued to fill these orders. They could have restricted them.

The same applies to copper, zinc, nickel, tin, and many other essential products. Consett believes that had they been embargoed, the war would have been over by 1915.

The trade of tea, coffee and cocoa to neutral countries also increased dramatically but these products often weren't available there. They all went to Germany for huge profit.

Consett's protests fell on deaf ears. The Minister of Blockade was Robert Cecil, a member of the Round Table (i.e. central banker) cabal.

Similarly, the central bankers financed the German side through their Scandinavian banks to the tune of 45 million pound sterling. (p. 146.)

The Allied nations became the banksters' debt slaves: "Despite the huge revenues raised from taxation, the British national debt rose tenfold. The government failed to use its bargaining power as the only really massive borrower in wartime to get money at low rates of interest. The French national debt rose from 28 billion to 151 billion francs ..." (Davies, The History of Money ) The US debt soared from one billion to $25 billion.

According to "The Merchants of Death" World War I was waged by 27 nations; it mobilized 66,103,164 men of whom 37,494,186 became casualties (about 7 million dead.) Its direct costs are estimated at $208,000,000,000, its indirect costs at $151,000,000,000. And these figures do not include the additional billions in interest payments, veterans' care and pensions, and similar expenses..."

Can there be any doubt that mankind is in the pernicious thrall of Satan-worshippers??

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

As mysteriously as it began, the war ended. In Dec. 1918, the German Empire suddenly "collapsed." You can guess what happened. The banksters had achieved their aims and shut off the spigot. (Hence, the natural sense of betrayal felt in Germany, exacerbated by the onerous reparations dictated by the banksters at Versailles.)

What were the banksters' aims? The Old Order was destroyed. Four empires (Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman) lay in ruins.

The banksters had set up their Bolshevik go-fers in Russia. (They sponsor many "revolutionary" movements as a way to eventually control all property themselves.) They ensured that Palestine would become a "Jewish" state under their control. Israel would be a perennial source of new conflict.

But more important, thanks to bloodbaths such as Verdun (800,000 dead), the optimistic spirit of Christian Western Civilization, Faith in Man and God, were dealt a mortal blow. The flower of the new generation was slaughtered. (See "The Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain for a moving first-hand account.)

After a grueling economic deflation and another World War, mankind was sufficiently demoralized to accept the banker-run "world government" dictatorship. Can anyone question that the bankster philosophy is satanic?

The broad sweep of history reveals the pattern. The murder of the Austrian heir Arch Duke Ferdinand by the Masonic "Black Hand" group (which began WWI) was a staged event, an "excuse" i.e. the equivalent of Sept. 11, 2001.

The banksters also supported the Nazis in World War Two as Charles Higham documents in his remarkable book, "Trading with the Enemy" (1983). For example, Rockefeller's Standard Oil supplied petroleum to the Nazis.

CONCLUSION

Modern history is the account of how the central banking cartel converts its monopoly of credit into a monopoly of power. This entails destroying our connection with nation, religion (God), race and family. It means substituting objective truth (God, nature) with their Dictat (political correctness, etc.)

It takes courage and clarity to understand we are mice in their lab experiment. We have been sold out by our "leaders", dumbed down by our media and education and spoiled stupid by the welfare state. (Everyone can be bought.) We can't even recognize what is happening, let alone act.

For now, we have prosperity and think we are free. As Aldous Huxley said:

"A really effi*cient totalitarian state would be one in which the all powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves WHO DO NOT HAVE TO BE COERCED, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers." [Brave New World, Bantam Books, 1967, p. xii. Caps added.]
https://www.henrymakow.com/001583.html

[Danny B]

Italy goes off a cliff

Everyone remembers when various European States voted on various eurozone treaties. Some States had to vote over and over until they finally got it right. What started out as an iron and coal pact became a prison created by oligarchs to tie every person to a post to be whipped. As the whole construct crumbles, the technocrats are getting ever-more harsh and ever-more honest.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-them-not-vote

"The EU was set up as some kind of eternal prison, a concept most familiar to us in the way Christian churches depict Hell, or the ancient Greek mythological story of Prometheus, who, as punishment for providing man with fire, was condemned by Zeus to being tied to a rock, with an eagle feeding on his liver every day, for eternity.

Rule number 1 for any organization: there must always be an escape, a way out. If there isn’t, that’s what will break the whole thing in the end. "

"Italy will soon have all the characteristics of an emerging market. Which is a market from which no one can emerge in an emergency, according to one Don Cowe. I read that the six largest Italian banks together have €143 billion in Italian debt securities on their balance sheet. Systemic banks in the rest of Europe, mainly France, Spain and Germany, have €137 billion of Italian debt on their balance sheet. God only knows how much Mario Draghi holds:"
Here is the graph of Italian bond yields, https://3r8md7174doo44lgpk3kou79-wpe...ieldsMay29.jpg
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/05/hotel-europa/

Italian Debt Crisis: Italian Central Bank Is the Only Net Buyer of Italian Debt - The Sounding Line
You may not care about Italian debt but, the markets do care. other European banks have €137 billion of Italian debt on their balance sheet.
Deutsche bank is close to imploding as it is. An implosion of Italian debt would trigger a few $ trillion in interest rate swaps. The contagion WILL eventually come here.

"But dramatic developments in Italy over the past 48 hours entitle one to say that the trouble brewing in that country is likely to dwarf anything that has happened in Greece.

This is a full-blown crisis in the Eurozone's third largest economy, nearly ten times the size of Greece's."

Read more: STEPHEN GLOVER: The arrogant EU elite is playing with fire | Daily Mail Online

[Danny B]

Armstrong,,, C.H. Smith

You will notice that I cite Martin Armstrong very heavily. His program, Socrates creates 500 reports on markets every day. It monitors RSS feeds and, just about everything else. While I understand that the person writing the software can have a great deal of effect on the final conclusions, his accuracy record indicates that the program is a realistic interpretation of the real-world.
There is also a feedback loop. The more that he proves his accuracy, the more that institutional money is going to follow his suggestions.

"The monetary system will change. That is beyond question. It is also beyond question that the dollar will rise and the rest of the world begins to crumble from its economic mismanagement of government. That dollar rise will break the back of the monetary system and the NUMBER one thing to survive will be tangible assets"
" So will you have something left at the end of the day to leave your grandchildren? Yes, if you listen and understand the shifts underway and realize that there is a difference between assets and cash."

"By exposing the problems and showing what the solutions are, just maybe when the money tree comes crashing down, we can all speak up and be heard to make sure what comes thereafter will be a reset in the proper direction compared to totalitarianism. EVERY Republic and Democracy has collapsed because of corruption"
"This is WHY I have continued to do the WEC events. We have to stay on top of what is happening globally to survive the future. If there is an urgent change in anything discussed at these events I will send an email notifying attendees of what has taken place."

"This may sound horrible, but it is also an OPPORTUNITY to shift investment money at the right time into commodities to survive. That is aside from the fact that you should be wise and stock up on some supplies and canned food in case that event unfolds. "
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...grandchildren/

"Just stay away from bonds right now. Interest rates can soar faster than anyone can imagine. We see Italian rates rise from 0.3% to 2.5% in a single day."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...l-the-trigger/
Armstrong recommends that you get into tangibles.
"Just one major volcanic eruption can send food prices sky-high. According to our computer, we show food prices rising from 2020 into 2024. The computer is calculating everything and correlating eveny type of data we have assembled. Its forecasts are based upon that intense correlation."
So, everybody piles into food commodities and, nobody can afford food.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...ittle-ice-age/

"Here is the S&P500 expressed in various currencies (click on image). This simple illustration shows how the world really functions. You will note that the S&P 500 is consolidating in US$ terms, but it is starting to breakout and make all time new highs in various currencies like the Euro. This is what I mean that each and every person will act according to their own self-interest. "
"The crypto advocates are actually cheering a one-world currency. They cannot understand that the Euro is failing because centralized planning fails. Their distributed ledger requires taking political power away from governments and installing a one-world economy where we all use the same cryptocurrency. They are blind to the simple reality that we do not have that much time left. We will still crash and burn BEFORE any reform can take place"

"I promised I would not leave anyone behind. That does not mean I must convert these type of people who will never listen. Nevertheless, we do not do ANY advertising and prefer to keep the individual readership small. Our bread & butter is institutions. If it was up to me, I would retire"
Armstrong did more than 7 years of hard time for contempt of court. Apparently, this has given him a sensitivity for the little guy.
"We move to a totalitarian state where the government will take even more power, or we move toward the light of reform and freedom. I do what I do for my posterity. That is my self-interest."

"Institutions, on the other hand, prefer I do no interviews with mainstream media and to shun advertising. Naturally, they do not want to see millions of followers. "
"Less than 5% of the money is really physical. The bulk is already electronic entries. Things are changing and ONLY AFTER the crash and burn is there an opportunity for reform. But make no mistake about it, if we crash, but do not burn, then the government will gladly take them up on electronic currency so they can monitor and tax everyone on everything."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...gn-currencies/

" Yes, when I say we can see a monetary reset as soon as 2021, this is no joke. There are critical points in a number of markets that I will reveal in Singapore. These are the lines in the sand. Once we cross them, there is no going back. This is a global systemic collapse. I cannot emphasize how serious this is going to be."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...ortunity-risk/

Smith writes about "buffers" for the economy. It is a very good article.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com...-collapse.html

[Danny B]

borrow like there's no tomorrow,,, housing,, gold & silver

5/30 Italian banks under scrutiny, face downgrades – Bloomberg
5/30 Italy’s eurozone crisis: no easy fixes for the European Central Bank – Guardian
NO fixes at all.
5/30 Stock market borrowing at all-time highs, increasing risks – Naked Capitalism
The US Alone Borrows $3 Billion Per Day - That's 80 % of world's savings- SGT Report
US Treasury says Q1 borrowing set record of $488 billion - USA Today
The US needs to borrow almost $300 billion this week - CNN Money
Rand Paul: U.S. borrows $1 million a minute | PolitiFact

OK, what did we do with all this "money"?
5/30 First-quarter US GDP revised to 2.2%, vs 2.3% growth expected – CNBC
OK, so, all the money was pumped into the upper loop but, don't forget the offence contractors. What about the lower loop?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...e-20-has-begun
5/30 Run-up in home prices is ‘not sustainable’: Realtors’ chief economist – CNBC
5/30 Housing bubble pathologies start to bite – the cycle has peaked – DC

5/28 Charles Schwab CEO recommends gold – Scott Carter
"The month of May is a "delivery month" for COMEX silver, and the total amount of "deliveries" has reached a level not seen since 2007. As you can see below, the total amount of "deliveries" for May has reached 7,157 contracts. This is the highest one-month total since December of 2007, and it represents a total "delivery" of nearly 36,000,000 ounces of "silver""
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ver-deliveries

The developed markets are not buying gold. The R.O.W. is buying LOTS of gold.
https://news.goldcore.com/ie/wp-cont...ore.gif?x78236
There is almost no available gold at the COMEX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_9vIkeIr8w
Here are the details on the long-running crash of the EU.
https://thistimeitisdifferent.com/eu...-decade-charts

"Those outside of Europe may be surprised to learn that Germany's exports are roughly equal to those of China ($1.2 trillion), even though Germany's population of 82 million is a mere 6% of China's 1.3 billion. Germany and China are the world's top exporters,"
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...re-both-doomed
Turkey is suddenly in deep do-do.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...tary-collapse/

[Danny B]

Italy in the fast lane

The EU will blow and, it appears that Italy is the detonator. I've already mentioned that; centralized control brings centralized contagion. Here is a short article on contagion.
https://capitalistexploits.at/2018/0...ord-contagion/
The technocrats figured that they had the European tribes roped and bound, with no escape. Humans have a way of creating work-arounds. Here is one that is particularly terrifying,,, to the CBs
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...ndation-widget

Here is a good, short article about how, the technocrats have framed this as a battle. A battle against the Italians?? Is that the framework of the eurozone? NO WONDER the EU wanted to build an EU army. NOT for Russia. Nope, they wanted an army to thrash their own people into line.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...ndation-widget

C.H. Smith wrote that all plans must have an escape valve. JFK wrote that "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
The Technocrats designed the EU with no plan "B",,, NO way out.

5/31 Italy could be the next Greece — only much worse – CNBC
Yeah right,, 20-20 hindsight. The bankers loaned to Greece knowing that it was a deadbeat-borrower. They also knew that the EU did not have a common debt market. They had to have known that their loans would go bad. Did they loan to Greece hoping to take Greek land and assets in return for failed loans? Of course.

5/31 Brazil economy slammed as nationwide strike intensifies – ZH More capital flight.
5/31 For-sale signs vanish and March home prices jump 6.8 percent – MSN
5/31 Portland metro home prices up 6.7% in March – Oregon Live
5/31 Why are 1 in 4 Millennials still living with mom? Lack of affordable housing – CBS
Just wait until the hot money flows into food commodities too and, we can't afford food along with housing.
Great Britain imports many thousands of criminals, and, they commit crimes. The solution; get rid of pointy knives.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...me-judge-says/

[Danny B]

$7 trillion algos,,,Today, Spain,,,sovereign debt building up pressure

Cross post; Trump has been outmaneuvred by the swamp.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-ru...rica-2/5608802
Armstrong is very convincing in his claim that U.S. sovereign debt will collapse. We already know that private investors shun it. So, when the train wreck hits the U.S. Treasury, will the israel-firsters work to save America?

" In total, index funds represent $7 trillion of U.S. stock funds that have no active manager. All buying and selling are done automatically. Active management has gone out of fashion, Puplava noted, and as this sea change occurs, the market’s ability to price companies diminishes.

Ownership of stocks in the S&P 500 is concentrated with three companies; Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street. They represent about 88 percent of the S&P 500, and if we include Schwab and Fidelity, over 90 percent of the S&P 500 is basically now in the hands of five companies. "
Liquidity Crisis Coming: Here, There, Everywhere « Financial Survival Network
So, what will the algos do when there is a big hiccup?

I have to emphasize SPEED. Yesterday, Italy was ready to blow. Today;
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8377331.html
Rajoy was going to be Mr. tough guy,,, suck up to Brussels and, slap down Catalunia. Buena Suerte

"Seattle is in the list even before they impose this new outrageous tax of $275 per employee for companies that do more than $20 million in business annually. They claim it is for the homeless people"
"Once a government gets its hand on a tax, it is used wherever they need money and they never let it go. Like tolls on bridges and tunnels that were said to be there just to pay for the construction. The tunnels into NYC made so much money, the Port Authority then used it to build the World Trade Center. "
And MOSSAD knocked it down.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...-homeless-tax/

"I really understand that debt is money that pays interest. That is the real money supply which is leveraged. It is the interest that keeps expanding the debt and forcing taxes higher and higher until it can’t expand anymore. Is this the end game?"
Take a look at this graph and, find 1913
https://d33wjekvz3zs1a.cloudfront.ne...IntAsTotal.jpg
"Can you imagine that the debt of all nations is about to explode with the slightest uptick in interest rates?"
"The Quantitative Easing in Europe and Japan have destroyed their bond markets. The central banks buy everything. The Bank of Japan bragged how they bought 97% of the new debt. Hello! That means there is no market!"
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...pays-interest/

Armstrong, " really do not know who makes up this nonsense. They clearly do not look at history nor do they understand human nature. We WILL crash and I hope the BURN then becomes possible where we get reasonable reform without the totalitarianism that is so common."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...ing-the-world/
Keep in mind that Armstrong himself is completely convinced of the crash. He mentions that the big funds don't want him well publicised. He mentions that you might want to pick up some canned goods,,, just in case that it does crash.

Interest rates go UP;
6/01 Loan repricings lead to market fatigue as deals pulled – Reuters
6/01 The bond market just figured out that central banks CANNOT exit – Market Oracle
6/01 “Shocked” Deutsche Bank sees its stock hit all-time low – Zero Hedge
Hey, this is the information age,,, word get around.
6/01 Italy shows why the euro has to be abandoned if Europe is to be saved – Lars P Syll
EFF Europe,,, viva, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Espana, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Sweden, Danmark, Norway, Netherlands,,, and all the rest.
Germany and Belgium can get stuffed.

5/31 Global growth too dependent on cheap borrowing — OECD – Guardian
They should have figured that out $200 trillion in the past.

5/31 Italy’s Cottarelli opens door to possible eurosceptic government – Reuters
6/01 Socialist chief Pedro Sanchez set to become Spain’s Prime Minister – Reuters
Don't forget the new tariffs.
5/31 Trump slaps steel, aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico, EU – CNBC
5/31 Canada announces retaliatory tariffs – CNBC
6/01 Abe slams U.S. vehicle tariff hikes as ‘unacceptable’ – Japan Times
Trump wants to ban German cars from America - Roadshow - CNET
SPEED!

[Danny B]

Deutsche bank,,, unemployment

Armstrong has all the info and details but, goes along with the party line that unemployment is 3.8%. Even the BLS admits that MANY millions are not in the labor force. I think that he is just playing it safe in public announcements.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...-up-the-world/
Here are the numbers from John Wiliams, Alternate Unemployment Charts

"Deutsche Bank has now been classified as a problem bank by FDIC "
"A merger of BNP with Deutsche Bank would mean Germany is subservient to France. That is not “politically” acceptable. "
"rom the very beginning when the committee in charge of creating the Euro came to our WEC in London, I warned that (1) there would be no single interest rate, and (2) without a debt-consolidation, the Euro would NEVER compete with the dollar and ultimately fail. "
"In the EU, because the debts were never consolidated, then the failure of one brings down the whole because each member state is RESERVE status."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/m...-problem-bank/
The Eurocrats engaged in wishful thinking and dismissed the warnings from Armstrong.
Here is an interesting article about; how much currency is in circulation AND, how much gold is needed to back currency in circulation.
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/g...efcode=dollarc

[Danny B]

Oil, Italy & Turkey

The big institutional investors can not afford to engage in wishful thinking and wilful blindness. There is plenty of that to go around.
6/01 US payrolls rise 223,000, jobless rate matches historic low – Bloomberg
6/01 Record 95.9 million Americans no longer in labor force – ZH
6/01 US 10-year yield jumps back above 2.9% after better-than-expected jobs data – CNBC
6/02 The US economy suddenly looks like it’s unstoppable – CNBC
6/02 Japan’s fiscal discipline wavers as ageing pressure mounts – Bloomberg Japan never had one iota of fiscal discipline.
6/02 Fed rate hikes always create ‘a meaningful crisis somewhere’ – MW
Yes, and contagion follows.

6/02 Deutsche Bank downgraded by S&P over restructuring plans – MarketWatch They can't possibly restructure without fresh money. Word gets around.
6/02 “Bank of Mum and Dad,” huge prop under UK housing bubble, is out of liquidity – WS
6/02 ‘Something has to give’: Italians back euro but rail against EU’s rules – Guardian
6/02 Juncker: Italians need to work harder and be less corrupt – Guardian
Last week, a technocrat threatened to teach Italy not to ever elect a populist GOV in the future. Junker is trying to up the ante.

OIL;
“the depletion that has to be replaced is about 8% of total supply, which comes out to approximately 8 million barrels a day per year. Most of this has been made up by pre-2014 drilling but in the next four years will fall short very considerably as drilling has collapsed 50%.”
"To add to this, Societe Generale has forecast that US sanctions might remove as much as 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude from the global market."
"The US is in a relatively comfortable position. US oil production has reached 10.7 million barrels per day – enough for domestic needs. And shale oil production is expected to rise to a record 7.18 million barrels a day next month, according to the US Energy Information Administration."
YES, all pumped at a loss financed by hot money from the junk-bond market,,,, that investors are abandoning.

"The EU – at least rhetorically – now wants to pay for Iranian oil in euros. Add to it the Trump administration’s ultimatum to Chancellor Merkel: give up the Nord Stream II gas pipeline from Russia or we will slap you with extra tariffs on steel and aluminum "
Yep, strangle Russia or, we will slap you down.
"Meanwhile, in the Persian Gulf, it’s no secret among traders that sooner or later it must be factored in that Iran, in the eventuality of a US attack, “has the power to bring down Western economies by destroying 20% of the oil production in the Middle East. And Russia has that power too. Russia is largely self-sufficient for its needs. It can win this as an economic battle rather than a military one”."

"The US seems to be extending the proverbial “offer you can’t refuse” to the EU; an elusive, assured delivery of LNG in the (unlikely) event of a cutoff of Russian natural gas to the European Union.

First of all, Gazprom has no intention to ditch its extremely lucrative European market. Moreover, this supposed American LNG capacity “does not exist as yet in the United States"
"In Brussels, there’s increased recognition that US pressure on Iran, Russia and China is out of geopolitical fear the entire Eurasian land mass, organized as a super-trading bloc via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), is slipping away from Washington’s influence."

"It’s also no secret among Persian Gulf traders that in the – hopefully unlikely – event of a US-Saudi-Israeli war in Southwest Asia against Iran, a real scenario war-gamed by the Pentagon would be “the destruction of oil wells in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council]. The Strait of Hormuz does not have to be blocked as destroying the oil wells would be far more effective.”

And what the potential loss of over 20% of the world’s oil supply would mean is terrifying; the implosion, with unforeseen consequences, of the quadrillion derivatives pyramid, and consequentially of the entire Western financial casino superstructure."
Bibi isn't worried.
Oil and gas geopolitics: no shelter from the storm | Asia Times
Pox Americana is great at stealing and destroying. It isn't good at building and trading.
"The US Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger once said: “We may well be on our way to a society overrun by hordes of lawyers, hungry as locusts, and brigades of judges in numbers never before contemplated.” These words seem to be very much on point in Europe."
Good article.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...rman-internet/

(Erdogan) He has reportedly already claimed that the US and Israel are waging an economic war on Turkey. And for once he may be right. A few weeks ago Erdogan called on all member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to boycott all Israeli products.
"On May 1, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the Turkish economy to double-B-minus. Economic war? Feels a bit more like a political war."

"Italy, like an increasing number of Eurozone nations, is looking for a way to get its head out of the Brussels/Berlin noose that’s threatening to suffocate it. If the EU doesn’t react to this, and soon, and in a positive manner it will blow itself up. Yes, if Italy started to let its debt balloon, the European Commission could reprimand it and issue fines. But the Commission wouldn’t dare do that. This is Italy. This is not Sparta."
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/20...is-not-sparta/
6/02 Turkish stocks, lira tumble on capital control rumors – Zero Hedge
Yep, how to destroy an economy without spending a dime.

" Argentina spent the last 3 years borrowing an enormous amount of money; it has defaulted on its international debt 7 times since its independence in 1816; and spent most of the last decade in investment purgatory"
"Like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, Argentina lies at the outer edge of this known universe, far from other EM countries like China, Peru, Indonesia and Mexico and Vietnam, and lightyears away from the developed world. Only in a world of financial repression by central banks could a country like this issue an oversubscribed 100-year bond."
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...jpmorgan-chart

[Danny B]

Conundrums,,,tariffs,,,Deutsche bank flameout,,,, EMs

Conundrums;
The upper loop people must keep the lower loop people working and, in debt. This is easily accomplished by manipulation of the currency and credit. If we stopped working, everything would come to a stop. At the same time, millions of workers are being squeezed out by automation and outsourcing. It is easy for the PTB to keep us poor but, it is very difficult to keep us working. It is even more difficult to keep us consuming. The banks have extended $trillions in credit that they know we can't pay back.

There is no possibility of getting off the credit merry-go-round. Since the public cut back on the use of credit, the State has to take up the slack.
We have a falling population and a falling energy consumption. There is no possibility that the public sector is going to revive the economy by increased spending. Here is a good comment.

The way I see it, the US has a "double edged sword" kind of problem.

1.) We need higher prices (inflation) to pay the debt monster and continue growing the debt monster (expansion).

2.) The consumer cannot survive higher prices on anything important like food and energy....where they have no choice.

They are trying to thread the needle between inflation and debt expansion. They need debt to ever grow but that will require higher prices. Until the greedy basterds start paying people some decent money, they can't afford higher prices. If you aren't making $20 an hour, then you are in survival mode. Even then you need someone paying a large portion of your healthcare insurance cost.

I live in oil country and $85-$100 a barrel would be great for us, but it would kill the rest of the country. Look at what is going on in Brazil right now. A clear example of reaching a breaking point. It is going to kill them.

Making up job numbers or creative earnings reports aren't going to cut it forever. It has lasted way longer than I thought it would and may go on a while longer, but it is growing clearer and clearer to more and more people that this can't go on forever......yet no one is changing anything.

Oil may be the tip of the spear. The problem is not supply but COST. Every year we not only use 34.7 billion barrels of oil but we need to keep the cost down to a level that the "consumer" can afford it. Getting that much oil and keeping the price low is getting harder and harder. The rest of the world wants some of that "cheap" oil too.

The dollar's lead pipe cinch on the oil market is being challenged. That will lead to higher prices for Americans. That is going to lead to economic "adjustments" for the US. The problem is the religion of MOAR. Everyone has to have MOAR. Moar money, moar interest, moar benefits, moar stuff.......moar, moar, moar,.....every quarter, every year. That is simply not sustainable.

Africa, "Bear in mind that we began to warn of China's growing 'colonization' of Africa back in 2010, noted China's increasing militarization of Africa in 2015, and recent warnings from US Generals that China and US are "on a collision course in Africa,"
Africa wants to drop the dollar in favor of the Yuan.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...e-chinese-yuan

China says that tariffs will make them abandon all trade treaties.
China warns all trade deals are 'void' if US imposes tariffs, other trade measures - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
India abolished 500 and 1,000 Rupee notes in an effort to get more control and more taxes. It is apparently not working.
Cashless society in India: Demonetisation gives way to chaos

Deutsches Bank is following the same financial path as Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns. Worth a read.
Weekend Reading: Just A Pause That Refreshes? | RIA
The specter of a bail-in will send investors running pretty soon.

Here is a long comprehensive pdf that lays out a LOT of information.
https://ftalphaville-cdn.ft.com/wp-c...t-Storm-LR.pdf
It is in 5 parts.
"The economy is a surplus energy equation, not a monetary one, and growth in output(and in the global population) since the Industrial Revolution has resulted from the harnessing of ever-greater quantities of energy. But the critical relationship between energy production and the energy cost of extraction is now deteriorating so rapidly that
the economy as we have known it for more than two centuries is beginning to unravel"

Emerging Markets Index
https://i0.wp.com/www.dollarcollapse...00%2C490&ssl=1

EM bond index,
https://i2.wp.com/www.dollarcollapse...00%2C504&ssl=1
The EM currencies are falling and, this makes it much more difficult to service dollar-denominated debt.
https://i2.wp.com/www.dollarcollapse...00%2C579&ssl=1
https://www.dollarcollapse.com/emerg...et-chaos-four/