Economic pressures

[Danny B]

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-ban-sale-foreign-currency-exchange-bureaus/29168476.html

ZIRP is never done because it is so disruptive. They did it anyway. BUT, it only helps a few sectors for a period of about 2 years. Then the poison spreads through the whole system. By that time; the problem that called for ZIRP has only gotten worse. In the meantime every weak sector has become completely dependent on the drug/poison. State GOV is closing down everything and laying off everybody to meet pension payments.

https://dollarcollapse.com/pension-funds/more-absolutely-crazy-pension-news-2/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/state-pension-funding-hits-record-shortfall-report-finds/2018/04/12/67297fb8-3e5f-11e8-955b-7d2e19b79966_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.464f2d30ff3e

"Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history."

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/what-every-person-should-know-about-war.html

Russian sanctions will cut off rare earth exports to America. Buy your Neo magnets right away.
Russia Drafts Tit-for-Tat Sanctions on America - Stephen Lendman

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/247-977-stories-vacant-city-priced-reach-article-1.3892656

[Danny B]

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/sovereign-debt-crisis/the-sovereign-debt-crisis-has-spread-to-119-countries/

This may sound like a lot of hubris on the part of Armstrong but, I believe that he AND his program are the ONLY solution. "Nobody will scrap the system before it crashes. It is against human nature."
PLANT A GARDEN !

Years ago, new drivers were taught to use the transmission on a downhill,, to preserve the brakes. Gradually, over the years, brakes became better and, transmissions weaker. New drivers are taught to use the brakes and, not strain the transmission.
Years ago, banks were eager to loan money to the State. The State had endless money because of it's taxing authority. 48% of Americans pay no income tax. 51% of Americans receive a check from GOV. From beggars to defense contractors. <96 million> people of working age are not in the labor force. Corporate taxes have been rolled way back. The FEDs pumped tons of money into the upper loop of the economy.
Part of this is returned in the form of taxes.

Just the same, tax collection is way down. The compounding nature of GOV debt is starting to runaway from the shrinking nature of tax collection.
"I have been warning for years at the World Economic Conferences that interest expenditures will reach the point that they will crowd out everything else. Well at last, as we enter 2019 and the War Cycle heats up, interest expenditures will now EXCEED even military spending. Welcome to the SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS. "
"The risk is beginning to become obvious as interest expenditures will crowd out everything other areas of spending. Governments will try to keep the debt revolving by raising taxes and this will only further reduce both the economy and our living standards. We are being walled-in by our own debt with no place to go except default if we do not act NOW!!!!!!!"

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/sovereign-debt-crisis/interest-expenditures-will-now-exceed-military-spending-we-are-being-walled-in-by-our-own-debt/

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/sovereign-debt-crisis/interest-expenditures-will-now-exceed-military-spending-we-are-being-walled-in-by-our-own-debt/

Armstrong is going off to Europe to try to save the world. I do not say this in jest. The EU project has poisoned Europe and they will NOT work together. He has to try.

Armstrong claims that this is a worldwide crash of socialism. The French government spends 57% of the gdp into circulation. Can that be called anything BUT socialism? Remember that they spend all this money for CONSUMPTION. Money borrowed for consumption is LOST. Armstrong is going to try to get them to cut WAY back on State expenditures and extend repayment terms. The alternative is sovereign debt collapse. They won't agree to do this. That means national default.

[Danny B]

Weak dollar,,, more gold,,, less silver

Trump is way out of his area of expertise. He is listening to all the wrong people. Trump said that he wants a weak dollar. Well, he has a weak dollar.

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/2018-04-16%20%281%29.jpg

A weak dollar helps exports but, it doesn't attract foreign capital. Trump,put sanctions on Russia that crashed markets. Then, he complained that the Russian Rouble was falling.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-16/trump-accuses-russia-china-currency-devaluation-not-acceptable

Laundering Havens for War Budgets | Michael Hudson

https://bipworldview.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/the-coming-financial-cataclysm/

"Now this gets directly to the issue of gold. Watch very carefully when in a week or so the first petro yuan contract comes due on the Shanghai Exchange. You know that countries that sell their oil to China will have to get paid in yuan. If they are a bit shaky on accepting yuan, they can hedge against yuan by taking delivery of gold (not paper delivery but real gold) on the Shanghai Gold Exchange"
Sloppy reporting. If they want to exchange Yuan for gold, the gold must be sourced on the open market. China isn't going to cough up any domestic gold.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-15/how-much-longer-can-american-empire-run-fake-money?items_per_page=50&sort_by=thread&sort_order=ASC&page=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0

The price of gold has being driven down constantly for years. The Chinese have been using U.S. treasury bonds to pay for purchase of gold mines and all other natural resources. If gold were to go up, the Chinese wouldn't be able to buy it and the mines so cheaply. It is in China's best interests to hold down the price of paper-gold because paper gold is used for price discovery of physical gold.
America sends over no-cost dollars to exporters and, gets back lots of good stuff in return. China and Russia print no-cost currency and, get gold in return. They were previously very cautious about not driving up the price. They have bought a LOT more in the last couple of months.

It's in somebody's pocket


That's just the schools.

[Danny B]

The collapse of CoCos

OK gang, It' reading time again. The banks LOVED loaning money to the State back when it had a huge tax base. The tax base has slipped away at the same time that compound interest is really stacking up. Loaning money to the State is now seen as very risky.
If you pick up a history book and give it a good read, you read about a long chain of events. You RARELY get the idea that all of history is cyclical.
Strauss & Howe wrote Generational Turnings about these cycles. Burning Platform has 2 recent articles about The fourth Turning. It is worth reading both article to get a feel for where we are in these cycles.
Part one, https://www.theburningplatform.com/2...r-is-coming-2/
Part two, https://www.theburningplatform.com/2...ming-part-two/

https://dailyreckoning.com/heres-next-great-crisis-originates/

[Danny B]

America's Sinking Public Pension Plans Are Now $1.4 Trillion Underwater - Hit & Run : Reason.com
The public pensions are $1.4 trillion in the hole. So, how are they going to pay for pensions? Remember that the court system is part of the public administration.
This is a good article. The courts have insisted that pensions can't be diminished,,, Natch! The courts have now ordered / allowed the State controller to GARNISH the tax revenues of the municipality.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-16/first-domino-falls-illinois-400-more-funds-follow

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-ul...flag-of-Israel


The bail-in is like a hyena hiding in the bushes. Nobody knows who it will eat. The banks don't want to lend to each other.
He finally noticed.

[Danny B]

Banks fading away

Bankers don't actually produce anything. But, it is a lucrative business and everybody wanted to get into the business of renting money. The banks had their depositors money but, everybody else had to use personal money. When money no longer had any intrinsic value, investors could create it willy-nilly. But, when money had no value, all it became was information. This made it very easy to create far more "information" than there were tangible goods represented by this information. In the information age, there is little need for banks.

Banking sector will be ground zero for job losses from AI and robotics

https://theconversation.com/banking-sector-will-be-ground-zero-for-job-losses-from-ai-and-robotics-83731

Future of Fintech: Will the Banks Disappear?

https://www.smeportal.sg/content/smeportal/en/industries/infocomm/2017/Future-of-Fintech-Will-the-Banks-Disappear.html

https://promarket.org/expect-within-next-10-years-probably-half-banks-will-gone/

Without the recent tax reduction, bank earnings would have been down.

https://dollarcollapse.com/banks/no-wall-street-bank-left-behind/

Super Mario Draghi is from Goldman Sachs. He was installed to make sure that the ECB rescued all the private banks. Having mush in his head, instead of brains, he never considered that NOBODY could rescue the ECB.
As a typical banker, he is only concerned with creating money. He has no particular concern about creating wealth.

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/central-banks/the-central-bank-crisis-on-the-immediate-horizon/

[Danny B]

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-18/blankfein-central-banks-all-around-world-are-buying-all-risky-assets

Here is an interesting comment;
"The risky assets are the low hanging fruit. If I create a fiat money with no intrinsic value then what do I care if the paper goes bad? All I care about is how much labor-value can be harvested from the faux asset that I paid nothing for in the first place.

If I had to pay in gold, then and only then will I have a problem with risk. My gold required labor to produce.

It blows me away that people can't wrap their minds around the lack of authenticity of paper. It's obsolete and was so decades ago. You aren't worth a bag of puss on paper !!! "
If you read the annual reports from 38,000 State bodies, they already own very large chunks of all the markets.
CAFR1 Home PageWhy does that date ring a bell?

https://www.finitespaces.com/2018/04/07/why-gold-is-a-terrible-investment-and-will-save-the-lives-of-your-children/

Gold is a store of value for the laborer, especially, the farmer, because his produce deteriorate rapidly. Centuries ago, the banker stored deposits and, matched up people with excess wealth and, people who needed capital for investment.
When man operated draft animals or machinery, he received the excess labor value that resulted. As more and more of the machines are owned by capital, rather than by labor, the excess value created only benefits capital. This creates an ever-increasing mismatch between the consumptive power of the laborer and, the tangible wealth created by capital.
Capital attempts to make up for falling business by reducing it's costs,,, like labor. The State tries to step in and fix things by pumping in more debt money. The State is underwriting capital by buying up shares. At the same time, the State is trying to underwrite labor with a safety net. This is a temporary fix to try to save labor.

[Danny B]

Fiscal gap,,, yield curve,,,smoke and BS

There is definitely a lot going on but, it is difficult to see past the fog of BS. When Trump tries to make America first, he is forcing globalism out of the top spot. The globalists don't like this. They will break and ignore ANY law if it helps to bring down Trump. https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/u...cracy-v-trump/

The British House of Lords is making a big move to rescind Brexit. European socialism is crashing so, the answer is to raise taxes.

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/spd-to-impose-marxism-on-germany/

The person who produces a good or service wants to protect and store the value of his labor. The person who produces nothing of value must steal from the producer. Paper money is the vehicle for this theft. Socialism is an organizational tool to do this most effectively.
The socialists in Venezuela put their cronies in charge of the oil industry,,, ejecting the experts. Unfortunately for the Venezuelans, the price of oil fell badly. The socialists failed to pay the oil workers and, they hyper-inflated the money supply. The results were predictable.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-19/venezuelan-oil-enters-disaster-zone

"the IMF again recommended that countries raise taxes and lower public spending to decrease annual borrowing and get the burden of debt on a firmly downward path now that there is no need for fiscal stimulus."
"In fact, reading the IMF report between the lines, it is nothing more than advance scapegoating for the inevitable global debt crisis that is coming, and which not even the IMF is hiding any more. What is most comical - if completely expected - is that the IMF is now blaming it all on Trump: not on generations of economists who steered the world to the point where there is more than $3 of debt for every $1 of GDP, and not on central bankers who flooded the world with debt so that the richest 0.01% can be richer than their wildest dream. Nope: it's all Trump's fault."
"The IMF said that the interest burden has doubled in the past ten years to close to 20% of taxes,"

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-18/imf-sounds-alarm-global-debt-warns-united-states-stands-out

The IMF makes no mention of the fact that; the giga-tons of liquidity pumped out by the private banks is what got us to this point. The State did it's share of borrowing megatons of debt to buy votes and make wars.
The private sector was offered credit that it did not merit. They act surprised when the defaults hit.
The Global Economy Is Slowing, Credit Card Defaults Hit 6 Year High…. Saxo: The Word Economies Are Synchronically… Falling! – Investment Watch Blog

The worker wants to store the value of his labor. The parasite uses debt-money to steal it. This only works if the producer pays back the loan. The money-renting business got too crowded and, many debt creators loaned to people who could not repay. The mother of all defaults will be when the State can't repay.

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/unleash-the-dogs-of-war/

Armstrong, "Trump is misguided on Trade, as every other politician has been since World War II. That has awakened the sleeping giant of China, whose debt to GDP exceeded 250% going into the end of 2017 compared to 103.7% for the USA going into the end of 2017."



"Take for example the estimate of the fiscal gap, which increased by one-third from 2015 to 2016.

The fiscal gap is a key snapshot of the government's financial health that estimates the tax increases and spending cuts required to maintain the current ratio of national debt to GDP. That's a more meaningful number than the national debt alone because it also takes into account money coming into the government's coffers, and the implications on future public policy."
"If entitlement obligations were counted, the true national debt figure would actually be around $100 trillion, as opposed to the government's current $20 trillion figure. The more holistic $100 trillion number breaks down to a $308,000 burden for every American taxpayer. These bills are real, and they'll come due one day."

https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/the-fiscal-gap-jumped-30-and-nobody-noticed/

So, cut out all entitlements and, we'll be good.

Here is a graph of the yield curve. Every time that it collapses, we get a recession.

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/2018-04-18_6-53-15.jpg

You can get a feel for where we are now, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...inues-collapse

The crash is blamed on the failure of capitalism or the failure of democracy.

https://promarket.org/democracy-fails-reduce-inequality-blame-brahmin-left/

The pundits wouldn't dream of blaming it on low wages and automation.

3 guesses what they have in mind.

No kidding. maybe that is because we are getting ripped off.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/283334/global-average-selling-price-smartphones/

More on global growth. Use ... control +... to make the tiny text larger.

http://gnseconomics.com/en_US/2018/04/18/zombies-and-the-end-of-the-global-synchronized-recovery/

https://realinvestmentadvice.com/the-risk-to-markets-global-growth/

https://realinvestmentadvice.com/triffin-warned-us/

VERY good article explaining the relationship between the reserve currency, Bretton Woods, gold, and the dollar.

[Danny B]

Late credit cycle,,, liar loans,,, inflation

Where to start,,, What to cover?
For starters, look at this graph, http://realinvestmentadvice.com/wp-c...dFundsRate.png

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-20/bank-america-last-time-we-saw-market-was-2007

It wasn't the FED that made $trillions in liar loans. The Graham-Leachy bill allowed the banks to take all your money and loan it out. No qualified borrowers?? No problem, give them the money anyway.

"This was a reference to a time-honored banker adage, now mostly forgotten after nearly nine years of easy money: Bad deals are made in good times." "Chapter 11 bankruptcies spiked 63% in March from a year ago "

https://wolfstreet.com/2018/04/19/now-even-a-fed-dove-homes-in-on-the-everything-bubble/

Armstrong on inflation.
"The assumption that an increase in the money supply is the root of all inflation is simply a theory that does not stack up to history. "
"Therefore, all the research that I have conducted demonstrates that inflation is by no means tied to the increase in the money supply, which is the entire reason nations borrow today. They think borrowing rather than printing is less inflationary. That is not true if the debt can be used as money."
He is on shaky ground here because he compares debt-money to gold -silver money.
"At times, the national debt of just about every major nation today has reached 70% of which is attributed to accumulative interest expenditures. As interest rates rise, the national debts will explode and because of this bogus theory of inflation tied to an increase in money supply, they will then raise taxes to try to reduce deficits. This will further create a Great Depression as deflation surges."
"The ECB has engaged in quantitative easing for nearly 10 years without producing corresponding inflation"

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/economics/the-theory-of-inflation-is-completely-wrong/

The monetary inflation is stuck in the upper loop. Specifically, in the bond market.

"Typically, inflation unfolds when there is CONFIDENCE in the future. Hyperinflation takes place when CONFIDENCE in government collapses. We are dead center. There is no real CONFIDENCE in the future so people are spending less and saving more"
This is sloppy thinking. There are 2 types of (price) inflation.
There are two main types of inflation: demand pull and cost push. Fueled by income and strong consumer demand, demand-pull inflation occurs when the economy demands more goods and services than are available. Cost-push inflation happens when the demand for goods increases because production costs rise to the point where fewer goods can be produced.
People are NOT saving more. They have maxed out their credit cards.

"What government refuses to look at is the bottom line. The more they raise taxes, the less disposable income the individual has in every class. "

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/economics/low-inflation-with-low-unemployment/

[Danny B]

There are no "goods" in the bond market.Side note https://s3.amazonaws.com/agorafinanc...2_04192018.pngYep, pay nothing on deposits regardless how high the FED interest rate goes.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/fox-in-the-hen-house-why-interest-rates-are-rising/

https://dailyreckoning.com/americas-actual-gdp-shocking-truth/

So, what happens if the whole country runs out of money?

http://www.energeticforum.com/309678-post6572.html

Central Bank bubbles, https://www.kiplinger.com/article/in...-it-burst.html
Good article on declining liquidity, https://dailyreckoning.com/dont-wait-long-leave-party/

During the good times, the State promised good public pensions. People figured that they no longer needed to save for retirement. After all, the GOV was taking their money and investing it for their future retirement. Well, the good times ended when America lost it's post-war lock on manufacturing. The pensions are still there but, the funds are gone. The income from new workers is too small. The blob State has some real gold-plated pensions and there just isn't enough money to pay for them.

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-war-between-public-pensioners-and.html

Cut pensions and, you get a riot, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-n...-idUSKBN1HR02A
"employees will now have to contribute 7 percent of their salary to social security, up from a current 6.25 percent.
Employers will have to contribute 22.5 percent of salaries from a current 19 percent.
Pensioners will also have 5 percent of their pension taken out to be used for medical expenses. "
Every extra dollar taken in taxes reduces the productive economy.

[Danny B]

Survival and the debt of nations

Man has a "million" years of experience trying to survive. We almost didn't make it.

https://www.livescience.com/38613-genetic-adam-and-eve-uncovered.html

https://www.caseyresearch.com/doug-casey-on-the-demise-of-nation-states/

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/sovereign-debt-crisis/where-do-we-go-is-any-place-safe/

Not having the reserve currency credit card, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed financially. The USSA motored on a bit longer. FED GOV writes 80 million checks a month. The debt is rising as much as $1.7 billion a day. The banks want to drive up interest rates to get more spread on deposits. Rising interest rates will bankrupt more than 50% of businesses,,, depending on how high they go. The banks have to be painfully shorted-sighted to push up rates.

[Danny B]

Locking down the banking system

Turkey is just one of many States that wants it's gold back on home ground.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-20/turkey-will-repatriate-all-gold-us-attempt-ditch-dollar

Very short-sighted. Creating pixilated debt money (credit) is NOT the same as printing bills.

"Instead of money printing, central banks and governments plan to lock down the system and not let investors get their money out.
This will begin with money market funds and then spread quickly to bank accounts, ATMs and stock exchanges until the entire system is frozen.
Then an international monetary conference will be convened to create a new global monetary standard, probably based on special drawing rights (SDRs), which will be printed by the trillions and handed out to governments to gradually reliquify the system."
He just can't get the stupid SDR out of his head. NOBODY wants anything to do with the STUPID SDR from the IMF.

"A few years ago, the SEC changed the rules so that U.S. money market funds can suspend redemptions. Recently, China announced that it would follow suit and allow its money market funds to also suspend redemptions.

Those laws say the bank owns your deposited money, not you. Wait...what ... Your deposit is actually an unsecured loan to the bank with all the problems of counterparty risk! Instead"
You get the idea. when the black swan goes SPLAT, the banks won't even open. The money-markets will go dark. YOU will hit the road.
If you have cash at home, you will have 2-3 days to get to a rural area.

Here are a few vids, https://dollarcollapse.com/videos/top-ten-videos/
Just so you don't worry, "More than 47,000 millionaires collected Social Security benefits in 2010, a year when 7.2% of those collecting Social Security reported income above $100,000."

https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/do-billionaires-like-donald-trump-and-warren-buffett-collect-social-security.html/?ref=YF&yptr=yahoo

Armstrong, " He suggested that to prevent a collapse, the government would mandate that retirement accounts hold a certain percentage in government bonds. It will be a way to tax or force a purchase of debt"
"The huge crisis is in Europe. Many nations already mandate the majority of pensions must invest in government bonds. Even the US Social Security system is 100% in government bonds. The problem is that interest rates are at historic lows. Pensions need 7% to 8% on to remain solvent. Forcing 100% of all pensions into government bonds will not prevent the crisis coming. The pensions will still collapse."
" Despite the fact that the currencies of China and Russia during the communist period were not free markets, communism still collapsed. You cannot prevent the economy from ignoring the economics of reality. Regulation will always fail."

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/pension-crisis/can-governments-dictate-to-the-free-markets/

[Danny B]

The price of war,,,, and everything else

Historically, all prices were set in the marketplace. You had to actually have something of value to trade for what you wanted. This includes the price of credit. Here is a graph of historic interest rates for the last 5,000 years. No can do. The url is about 500 lines.
Rates have come way down over the centuries. When money had intrinsic value, people loaned it very carefully. Bankers who loan thin-air money don't have any skin in the game and, don't fear losses. Distorting the price of money distorts all other prices. There is a constant need for currency inflation because there is a constant need for free money to support the non-producing class. The creation of a Central Bank was a way to institutionalize sure and steady currency inflation. They were originally created to provide the State with war financing.

The average person just wants to survive and, enjoy life. The average State has the mentality of a parasite and, wants to control everything in sight. It wants to steal from everyone in sight. The priorities of the State are far removed from the priorities of the average person. Look at the Amish community to get an idea of what the basic requirements are for the average human. Look at Monaco to get an idea of what the basic requirements are for the very rich.
These 2 groups buy the necessities & luxuries of life. They have no interest in bombs, rockets and missiles.
The demands of the state are completely at odds with the necessities of society. Yet, the State promotes the idea that the State and society are completely inter-dependent.

The State uses the CB to distort the price of money and therefore, EVERYTHING else. ALL of this is done in an effort to control it's serfs and wage war. Prices are set in the marketplace. There is little to NO demand for war. It is only a small segment of the controllers who are buyers for war. We are held in thrall to pay for something for which we have no need, nor desire.
A good article on prices, https://www.goldmoney.com/research/g...efcode=dollarc

[Danny B]

ZIRP accelerates the pension crisis

"The net interest payments will exceed the spending on defense in 2023 and it will exceed all non-defense spending by 2025. "

https://upfina.com/u-s-debt-problem-gets-worse/

"Economically, you need free markets to further society. It is human ingenuity that creates progress allowing individuals to have ideas and act on them "
"Socialism is collapsing because the system was never designed properly and politicians will always pursue their own self-interest. As pensions collapse so will socialism."

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/has-trump-poisoned-the-well/

Demographics is destiny. Too many people are retiring for the system to survive.

Cyber crime seems to pay well, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-a8313801.html
The "impossible trinity" precludes have an international currency AND capital controls. The Petro-Yuan is therefore deeply flawed, https://www.themaven.net/mishtalk/ec...06VLnT90iTfYA/

North Korea has quieted down and now, Tehran is ready to rock.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804201063768829-tehran-warns-israel-hands-trigger/

Looting the Pension Funds: How Wall Street Robs Public Workers ...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926

Millions face PENSION CRISIS: Britons are warned YOU are NOT saving enough to live
Huge pension fund deficits are a global crisis in waiting

https://theconversation.com/huge-pension-fund-deficits-are-a-global-crisis-in-waiting-88420

[Danny B]

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/04/this-is-not-a-market/

"The resulting malinvestment is piling up like underbrush in a forest where fires have been suppressed for too long. And when a fire does break out it will be one for the history books. "
Give it a few more tenths of a point,,, maybe 3.4

Here is an article talking about how Germany has brought ALL of it's gold back to home soil. Look at the picture and tell me if the bars all look clearly to be copper.

https://www.thelocal.de/20180422/finally-home-bundesbanks-gold-goes-on-show

YES, but, they have 297 billion barrels of oil.
https://www.ancient-symbols.com/imag...y/infinity.jpg

https://theconversation.com/huge-pension-fund-deficits-are-a-global-crisis-in-waiting-88420

You Canadians get honorable mention for increasingly using your house for an ATM, https://betterdwelling.com/congrats-...their-homes/#_ Canadian household debt hits $1.8 trillion as global watchdog warns ..


"The bad real estate loans were stuffed into Fannie and Freddie so the bad debt was not in the banks. In Europe, the bad loans are still on the books of the banks. Hence, the European banking crisis was not been addressed and this is the primary difference between American v Europe."

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/banking-crisis/europe-v-america/

"This is the CIVIL UNREST that will rise up around the West as socialism continues to collapse. The taxes must rise and the benefits must decline and even that will not keep the social systems in place for more than two years. We will have to face a complete revision of the monetary system. How that is approached will determine if we have violent confrontations with government and the rich are dragged from their homes and hanged as has so often taken place in the past."

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/civil-unrest/nicaragua-protests-over-the-collapse-of-social-security/

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up ... them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered"
For The First Time Ever, Millennials With Student Debt Have Negative Net Wealth
For the first time, young adults age 25 to 34 with college degrees and student loans have a median net wealth of negative $1,900, said the advocacy group.

The report states that this lost generation had a positive net wealth of $9,000 in 2013,

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-20/first-time-ever-millennials-student-debt-have-negative-net-wealth

The debt MUST grow for the financial sector to survive. As households cut back, the State jumped in, http://thesoundingline.com/wp-conten...e-1024x678.jpg
The World Bank wants more bucks to pass around. U.S. and Russia said NO.

http://tass.com/economy/1001156

Finland is going to give up on basic Income. https://www.sciencealert.com/finland...ing-april-2018
An interesting article by PCR, on race and, erasing history.

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/04/18/conversation-race-paul-craig-roberts/