Economic pressures

[Danny B]

Central Bank war

I built a woodgas truck because fracking is such a money loser. I also put together a propane engine for my '65 Chevy. Fracking is going down fast.

https://srsroccoreport.com/the-u-s-shale-oil-industry-bloodbath-spreads-as-oil-price-meltdown-continues/

Well, gold is up for the year. The Central Banks are at war with each other.
Billionaire
Remember that the credit bubble MUST grow. If people go to cash, this is liquidity drawn OUT of the credit bubble.

The BIS and IMF have it all worked out to use this crash to force the SDR into use.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-19/hidden-amongst-furore-synchronised-warnings-bis-imf

"We are witnessing indeed not a Currency War but a Central Bank War. "
"The ECB is trapped and I have warned that it is the ONLY central bank that can actually go bankrupt because all central banks do not have the same structure. I have made it clear that by their very own standards, the ECB itself is insolvent."
"Summers is the man behind the curtain wanting to eliminate cash and making money national cryptocurrencies to ENFORCE negative rates. If you eliminate paper money, you eliminate bank runs. You eliminate hoarding of money (cash) and that would allow Summers to enforce a -5% interest rate stealing your money which would enrich the banks on top of the taxes you pay to the government."

"This is why we are in a Central Bank War. There are a lot of problems taking place and the Fed knows the Pension Crisis is taking down state and municipal governments. True, they raise rates and government debts explode. But the failure to raise rates means pension funds collapse and bailouts become necessary while states raise taxes which lower economic growth as disposable income declines. So if you can move to one of the state that do not have an income tax, do so while you still can."

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/markets-by-sector/interest-rates/the-central-bank-war/

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-20/next-financial-crisis-here-pt-3-most-important-three

Just about everybody is predicting that Powell will raise rates now so that he can lower them later. Going by his latest rate rise and the resultant fallout, I think that he is serious about squeezing much of the excess out of the markets.

[Danny B]

X22, dismantling the FED,,,Syrian and Afghanistan withdrawal

I always notice the X22 reports but, never much follow them. I try to stick with things that have some documentation attached to them. Here are a couple of intriguing vids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xIF5gUZtnw

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

The Syrian withdrawal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3G4zjoQqeA

Afghanistan is next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYhSTQi-8-k

Mattis was against pulling out. Trump has a LOT of practice saying "you're fired" .
Everybody keeps forgetting that Trump isn't some pantywaist politician.

The Bubble in Defense Stocks: Why It May Burst Soon - Investopedia
https://www.investopedia.com

[Danny B]

Powell cutting off both Viagra and Cocaine in the stock market

Pox Americana invaded Afghanistan just months after the Taliban destroyed the poppy crops. Shortly after the invasion, Poppy and heroin production rose way up. Why do you think that they called him Poppy Bush?
Trump plans to pull have the troops out of Afghanistan. The entrenched powers are doing everything that they can to stop this.
Taliban's Ban On Poppy A Success, U.S. Aides Say - The New York ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/.../...-aides-say.htm...
May 20, 2001
During the 2008 crash, drug money was the only thing moving through the banks. They had no other liquidity. I wish Trump luck in prevailing against the dark powers of the swamp.


Floggings will continue until morale improves. Powell doesn't care about the stock market.

They want to dump $40 billion into a hole in the ground.

QE is socialism for the banks. There is no limit.

Substitute brainless for powerless.


Everybody is buying the dollar so, gold isn't up much in dollar terms. It is way up in foreign currencies.
The tax protest, https://economyandmarkets.com/econom...vest-movement/

Here is a short read with a great graph showing that confidence levels are WAY up.

https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/economics/joke-of-the-day-leading-economic-indicators-rise-yCUE3kPfd0-51UHFTuRnCA/

And, here is the reality check, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ll-assets-down

[Danny B]

Nothing will save the pensions

My job is getting easier. I don't have to do as many excerpts as we get closer to default.
sputniknews
Saudi Arabia Adopts Biggest Budget in History With Expenditure at Over $294Bln -
and
"Saudi Arabia Is Going Bankrupt" Taleb Exclaims After Seeing Kingdom's Latest Budget | Zero
The Central Banks had the money hydrants all the way open in 2017,
"The record bearish print is made all the more fascinating, considering that just one year ago, 2017, was the 'best' year ever for markets on this measure, when just 1% of assets finished with a negative total return in dollar terms "
"2018 continues to the be the worst year on record on this measure with 93% of assets currently down -worse than the years of the Great Depression"
Repost, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ll-assets-down

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-29/main-reason-congress-getting-so-little-done-they-will-have-218-days-2017?utm_source=engageim

Armstrong, " The Fed MUST raise rates to help the crisis in Pension funds. Raising rates is NECESSARY for the Fed also realizes that come the next economic recession, the only tool they have is to lower rates.
This is why we are in a Central Bank War. There are a lot of problems taking place and the Fed knows the Pension Crisis is taking down state and municipal governments. True, they raise rates and government debts explode. But the failure to raise rates means pension funds collapse"
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE.


Raising of interest rates isn't going to help stocks. Stocks go down as rising interest charges make everything more expensive.

Armstrong, "The market has still not breached important support levels."
So, how low does it have to go before it is at an important level?
The smart money at the ETFs,,

I think that Armstrong is grasping at straws.

Corporate bonds are blowing to the moon. How can corporate stocks survive that?


So, how much money is really needed?
850 miles of US-Mexico 'wall' not needed, ex-border officials sayReveal
Nearly 700 Miles of Fencing at the US-Mexico Border Already Exist ...
$5 billion should cover the major smuggling routes.


Offers have been pulled because nobody is buying. What about roll-over time?

[Danny B]

temporarily21,995,000 to 12,329,000: Government Employees Outnumber Manufacturing Employees 1.8 to 1

https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/time-is-money-money-is-time

Here is a very good article on the end of the European project.

https://gefira.org/en/2018/12/21/european-project-comes-to-an-end/

Another article that links the end of cheap oil to our unfolding monetary crisis.

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/brexit-stage-one-in-europes-slow-burn-energy-collapse-1f520d7e2d89

[Danny B]

No substitute for work and wages

30---40 % of Athenians were slaves. This was the accepted way of skimming off someone's surplus labor and time. But, you had to care for your slave's welfare from cradle to grave. Wage slavery was more profitable because, you only had to worry about a slave's welfare during it's productive years. Along with this came tax slavery. You paid the king for his protection.
With the advent of the industrial revolution and, the rise of mechanization, there was a dwindling need for human slaves. We continuously invented labor-saving devices. Every technological advance made more workers redundant. The only way that the credit bubble could continue to grow was for consumption to continue to grow. The finance sector extended more and more credit so that we could reach further and further into future wages. The advent of the computer created a huge rise in the destruction of job niches.

The State stepped in to provide support to those who lost their job niche. Here is a graph of government dependence.

https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/~/media/images/reports/2013/11/sr%20142/srindexofdependenceongovernment2013chart41000.jpg

The credit bubble & consumption have been maintained with money from the bond market supposedly pulling future consumption to today. There is an admission that this money won't be repaid. Just the debt service on this money is at $ 450 billion.
There is a falling need for slaves but, the financial sector has an always growing need for consumption.

The University of California system reports that they have $90.1 billion in cash and investments. This is reported yearly in their comprehensive annual financial report.
All State entities are required to file an annual report. On the site, CAFR1 Walter Burien shows that 37,000 State agencies report that they are sitting on a cumulative $230 trillion. One could make the argument that the State charges us for everything just to keep us working and productive. There are over 92 million Americans of working age who are not employed. The State takes about 40% in taxes and, burns it up on wars. This keeps us working. The number of employed people is expected to fall dramatically in the future.
The States plan to just raise taxes to keep the State going. The French demonstrations are characterized as being a tax revolt. The State is trying to counter-balance automation with increased taxes. The generally accepted figure is; for every 1$ increase in taxes, the producing economy is reduced by 3$.

Leaving the free $hit army aside, MANY of the people who are redundant do want to work. The State can raise taxes on those who still have gainful employment in the private sector but, that is the worst facet of socialism. Socialism kills motivation. Just the same, it appears that the PTB are heavily promoting socialism. Socialism brings a complete lethargy to the population as amply demonstrated in East Germany.

The Kalergi Chodoroff plan calls for migration replacement of existing populations in Europe with dumb brown people, who would be more controllable. This isn't any kind of solution to the problem of inadequate job niches.
The key problem is; an inadequate and falling number of wage-earners in the productive enterprises.
Japan addressed this by printing more money. Japan has the highest number of robots per capita.
The economy is soon to go into a cascade of default. Japan has tried all the conventional tools. There is very LITTLE talk about what we will do after the inception of the collapse. The conventional tools just won't work with a falling population. If U.S. sovereign debt collapses as predicted by Armstrong, The fallout will go on for a long time.

[Danny B]

Kicking off the death spiral.


Everybody and their dog knows that the stock market has bubbled up to about 2.5 times historical valuation. They have all been edging to the exits just waiting to make a break. If the HUGE ETFs have stopped buying the dips, it is definitely time to get out.

Big Funds Begin Liquidating As Panic Grips The Loan Market
Look at the collateralized loans origination.

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/styles/inline_image_desktop/public/inline-images/CLO%20dec_0.jpg?itok=ya5PyK56

The credit market is rapidly deflating.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-19/big-funds-start-liquidating-panic-grips-loan-market

https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/114635/2018-year-review#sovereign-debt

Credit "Death Spiral" Accelerates As Loan ETF Sees Record Outflow, Primary Market Freezes
"but over 800 million has been pulled in last current month, the biggest monthly outflow ever as investors are packing it in."
"Incidentally the behavior described by Citi's strategists, in which ETF administrators first sell high quality paper then shift to deep discount holdings, was one of the catalysts that hedge fund manager Adam Schwartz listed three weeks ago as a necessary condition for credit ETFs to enter a "death spiral." And with virtually everyone - including the Fed, BIS and IMF - all warning that the next crisis will begin in the leverage loan sector, the question to ask is "has it begun"?"
"In Europe, the market appears to have already locked up, "
"According to JPM, the percentage of loans trading above face value has dropped to just 3.9%, a 29-month low, down from 65.4% in early October. This suggests that virtually all leverage loan investors are now underwater on a total return basis."
"that are so deep underwriters may have to book a loss, if they can be sold at all. This is precisely what happened in late 2007 and early 2008 when underwriters found themselves with pipelines of debt sales that sudden got blocked, "
Viewing Conspirology feeds ~ World Professional News

[Danny B]

No safe place for money

The last post showed the hedge funds abandoning the exchange traded funds.

Stock market selloff erases 2018 gains for Dow and S&P 500.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/11/20/dow...2018.../2064956002

The pension funds have moved into credit funds and private equity.

https://www.valuewalk.com/2018/12/public-pensions-credit-funds/

All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 are now negative for December, the fourth quarter and the full year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/24/us-stock-futures-fall-slightly-as-the-dow-attempts-to-rebound-from-its-worst-week-in-a-decade.html

Treasury secretary Mnuchin says that investors will now move from stocks to bonds. He has NO idea of how markets work. He wants to get the Plunge Protection Team to go to work. They would buy up stocks to support markets.

https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/economics/trump-plans-to-convene-plunge-protection-team-ppt-s8iflROUbEiLHx0E2ss45g/

BOJ Is Now A Top-10 Shareholder In 40% Of All Japanese Companies; Owns 42% Of All Government Bonds
"The last time we looked at how much of the stock market the Bank of Japan controls, we found that as of September, Kuroda's central bank owned a stunning 75% of all Japanese ETFs"

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-27/boj-now-top-10-shareholder-40-companies-owns-42-all-government-bonds

So, America is preparing to go down a road previously trodden by the Japanese. It didn't work for them. Look at Italian bonds. When the ECB started buying up Italian bonds, this gave private investors a GREAT opportunity to sell garbage the the Central Bank at a good price. The State wants to do a fresh transfusion into zombie companies to keep them floating,,, like dead fish.
Japan plans to try a plan B ,,, because plan A didn't work.

https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/economics/japan-gives-up-on-inflation-now-wants-deflation-sort-of-to-offset-tax-hikes-aFqIpexY_kyPlAbrw6y5_Q/

What do you expect? he's from the government.
That about covers it.
Kunstler is just a ray of sunshine, "And this solemn night a great stillness falls upon the land as the Leviathan of Washington is sent to its room to get its mind straight, and the USA gets on with collapse in earnest. There will be no visions of sugarplums for the Deep Staters as the government enters its induced coma, only premonitions of anarchy and insolvency,"

http://kunstler.com/cluster****-nation/merry-christmas-to-all/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/opinion/cuba-venezuela-socialism.html

Parallels with the 1930s;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjr4xEl5uw8

[Danny B]

A lack of legal authority would never stop them. The FED sends a boatload of pixels to the SNB and, the SNB buys a ton of the FAANGS. Don't forget that the CAFR1 site shows local GOV has bought $trillions of stocks by squeezing us for every dime.Do Not Worry,,, the banks are adequately capitalized. They are required to hold capital of 8% of their loans. It means NOTHING that their stock is down 20%Another denial.
"December has been the worst month for the stock market since the Great Depression - the average one-day drop in the S&P this month has been 1.6% - and was appropriately capped with a Christmas Eve crash which not only saw it plunge almost 3% "

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-24/horrified-wall-street-reacts-mnuchin-massacre

A derivative is a financial contract with a value that is derived from an underlying asset. Derivatives have no direct value in and of themselves, Investopedia.
Just Four Banks Account For 90% of $200 Trillion in Derivatives Says OCC Report

https://blogs.imf.org/2015/12/17/the-specter-of-risk-in-the-derivatives-of-bond-mutual-funds/

The banks are required to hold adequate capital for a loss in their loan book. Since derivatives technically don't have any value, they don't require loan-loss provisions.
There are a few more trading days left in the year. This official denial of problems with bank liquidity may bring a thunderous climax to 2018.
The markets have lost over 20% this year. While the financial sector is the most prominent loser, the corporate sector is in big danger also.
"Where investors share heightened concerns over market illiquidity is in the smaller universe of corporate bonds.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/if-mnuchins-worried-about-liquidity-heres-where-its-actually-a-problem-2018-12-24

$9 trillion corporate debt bomb is 'bubbling' in the US economy
Will Record Corporate Debt Cause the Next U.S. Recession ... https://www.bloomberg

We've seen this story before, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/co...ndi-2018-08-27
Good graphs, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/th...and-2018-11-29

Because of the outsized leverage of derivatives, the FEDs interest rate rise has an outsized effect on losses in derivatives.
Paul Volker raised rates to about 21% to control price inflation. Powell is hoping just to get to 3%.
Real wages haven't gone up in 40 years. The finance sector is horrendously bloated. The FED has tried to support a finance sector that the consumer just can not support. The finance sector went from 15% of the economy to about 40%. The CBs goosed the economy with $trillions of support. Powell has shoved the transmission into reverse. Trump is trying to wind down military expenses to free up some money for domestic problems.
The deep state would willingly throw us into a SEVERE depression to save their perks and control. Trump and Powell are trying to ease us into a much less depression.

[Danny B]

Oil,,, the dept poison is back and, spreading

In a general sense, the economy goes down when the cost of energy goes up. In a general sense, the financial sector goes down when the cost of oil goes down. Oil is going down.
The Kuwaitis say that they can extend the production cuts until it finally causes a rise in price. The price of oil now is 1$ a gallon,,, $42 a barrel.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/OPEC-Prepared-To-Call-Extraordinary-Meeting-As-Oil-Falls.html

The IMF says that Saudi Arabia could be bankrupt by 2020. That would definitely cause financial markets to puke up.

https://www.rt.com/business/319465-saudi-bankrupt-projection-imf/

https://www.nestmann.com/the-poison-at-the-heart-of-the-global-financial-system

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/federal-reserve-right-to-raise-interest-rates-by-stephen-s--roach-2018-12

The economy SHOULD have been commensurate with our wages. It took serial bubbles to save the finance sector from a crash with reality. At the same time, the welfare-warfare State had to be constantly financed and the State was not about to reel in the FED.

Just what we need.

Yep, put the dems in charge and , everything will be great.
California is starting to enter it's own special hell.

https://www.sgvtribune.com/2018/12/24/can-we-prevent-the-lausd-budget-crisis-from-taking-down-the-california-state-budget/amp/

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/24/why-ugly-stock-market-is-very-bad-news-for-californias-finances.html

[Danny B]

The piggy banks (bond market) is breaking

1908, the bankers started a panic to justify the creation of a Central Bank.
1913, we got a Central Bank
1914, WW I started
1917 America entered WW I
1917, the FED was coerced to buy war bonds.
Apr 24, 1917 Emergency Loan Act authorizes issue of $1.9 billion in bonds at 3.5 percent.
Oct 1, 1917 Second Liberty Loan offers $3.8 billion in bonds at 4 percent
Apr 5, 1918 Third Liberty Loan offers $4.1 billion in bonds at 4.15 percent.
Sep 28, 1918 Fourth Liberty Loan offers $6.9 billion in bonds at 4.25 percent.

The FED was created as a private liquidity backstop for it's members. It loaned from the overnight window to create emergency liquidity. The short-term loan was repaid and, the liquidity was destroyed. Buying State bonds was never a part of it's original design. The FED was to provide emergency liquidity to private companies for a very short term.
In 2003, the banks were required to create sub-prime housing loans to increase the rate of home ownership. In 2004, both the FBI and SEC warned that a serious bubble in RE was forming. Both units were disbanded.
It all blew up in 2007--2008. The FED was required to buy many $trillions of mortgage backed securities. Their balance sheet eventually reached $ 4.4 trillion. They have been trying to sell all this dodgy paper but, have only sold 10%.

The FED is much maligned but, they never asked to buy and broker GOV bonds.

In 1925, Social Security was created to support widows and orphans. It paid out old age benefits after 65 years of age,,, back when the average life span was 57. It was financed by contributions from workers and their employers. Eventually, ALL the funds in SS were replaced by non-negotiable GOV bonds. If SS had invested in stocks, it would have much more money.

"The roots of IRS go back to the Civil War when President Lincoln and Congress, in 1862, created the position of commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses. The income tax was repealed 10 years later."
"The United States imposed income taxes briefly during the Civil War and the 1890s. In 1913, the 16th Amendment was ratified, permanently legalizing an income tax."
We got an income tax in 1913 and a war in 1917.

America's history is a long litany of war and taxes. Since LBJ instituted the war on poverty America has spent $ 25 trillion.
51% of Americans receive a check from GOV. 44 million receive direct support.
"There were 21,995,000 employed by federal, state and local government in the United States "
GOV debt is growing faster than exponentially. 44% of Americans pay no income taxes.
The bond market is the big piggy bank that was subverted 100 years ago to ensure the continuation of wars and welfare. The FED has been an unwilling enabler.
There is much talk of ending the FED but, the FED buys up all the dodgy assets when the credit markets freeze up. The FED and IRS support the GOV. GOV does redistribution. GOV does much of it's distribution by creating make-work jobs and wars.
The ultimate problem is; GOV tries to create make-work jobs in an amount equal to the jobs lost to automation and outsourcing.

Here is an article about our coming system that will no longer include money. we will just receive everything that we want.

https://medium.com/s/story/the-economy-of-the-future-wont-rely-on-money-5a703e0ad30b

Avoiding GOV debt.

Insider stock buying used to be illegal.

What did you think would eventually happen?

"U.S. credit market debt is about $70 trillion. The 10 year rate doubled in the past two years. Suppose that 1.7% increase applied to $70 trillion of debt. The cost to corporations, state and local governments, credit card holders, students etc. would be $1.2 trillion of reduced spending on other necessities."
This is a good article in credit markets.

https://deviantinvestor.com/10548/transition-into-economic-night/

[Danny B]

suckers rally,,, Armstrong,,,All-consuming public pensions,,, advanced weapons

Charles Hugh Smith writes about the general rise in taxes.
oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith
$125,000: The pension debt each Chicago household is really on the hook forIllinois House had voted 72-45 to pass a 32% income tax hike as government refuses to address the real issue of a never-ending need for more and more tax revenue to keep state employees rolling in their pensions. The governor vetoed the tax increase and he was overriden.

The problem has been that government pretends that socialism is to take care of the poor when in fact they have their hand in the cookie jar before anyone else. The crisis stems from the fact that they have been giving themselves pensions with outrageous benefits
More-often-Than-Not, the revolutions throughout history come about when the taxes of government simply break the back of the economy. We are reaching one of those moments as we cross the threshold into 2018.
The low-interest rate policy for nearly 10 years has not merely destroyed the bond market in Europe, it has undermined the pension system both privately and publicly. Indeed, adding to this crisis is the mandate that all pension funds hold some or the majority of their investments into government debt"

Mass Exodus from NYC Due to Taxes
Another favorite of Armstrong., https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...endless-taxes/
Raytheon and General Dynamics are NOT going to like that. The hard truth is, Russia has a mach 27 missile. They have a nuclear powered cruise missile that can stay aloft for days. It can avoid all ABM systems. China has a hypersonic glider that they are willing to sell to anybody who comes along. Russia has a super torpedo that is pretty much undetectable. It can be launched over great distances. So What !
It can cause a giant tsunami on any coastal city. The F-35 is such a P.O.S. that the israelis have to build it over with new wings. It's about time that pox Americana got out of the war business.
The Pentagon admits that it doesn't have anything that could counter the new Russian weapons. Russia says,,, "you haven't seen everything.

https://www.rt.com/russia/447533-avangard-glider-speed-russia/

So, what is the plan to grow the economy?

They pumped zillions into financial markets. There will be no controlled demolition for them.

[wayne.ct]

Converting deflation into inflation

The way the stock market has performed recently is indeed very interesting and it is the cause of much consternation and ink which is interesting of itself. However, the "solution" proposed by Armstrong prompts this comment.

Also, btw, I don't claim to understand or know exactly what his solution is. I just want to throw something out here in black and white regarding inflation and deflation!

It appears that governments and banks (one entity?!) would like to have inflation but at the same time conceal the cost to the economy. I believe that to be true. How to do that when so many are waking up and beginning to act?

Those people who are able to do so and those people who have no choice are able to discontinue going further into debt and even reduce their debt. This causes a major problem for govs and banks. It takes "debt money" out of circulation and to some degree "real money" as well. I would argue that this is the core of deflation, i.e. less "money" in circulation.

What if, by some means legal or deceptive, the accountants obtain the legal option of transferring part of their bad debt to the government in such a way that it "disappears". The bank's balance sheet improves and the government's credibility declines.

If you agree with that premise you probably think that is exactly what they are doing now. Anyway, if the process continues along those lines, is this not what you have?

Those who don't trust the government now will continue to not trust the government.

Likewise, those who do trust the government will continue in the misguided beliefs.

Same for banks.

Same for the legal profession and local governments.

Nothing changes!

Unless people switch sides in this battle, there can be no change in direction. This sea change is more like steering the Titanic than paddling a kayak. The public is being fed the same line they have heard every year, year after year, for a long long time now. We each have to do our part but the prospects are not bright. The public is being conditioned to believe we are just going through a "normal" economic cycle and no fundamental change is required or needed.

Therefore, don't expect a change of course. The world is going to ride this train right over a cliff while thinking "no big deal" everything is fine!

[Danny B]

Falling population crashes into rising debt

In the 2008 crash, millions defaulted on RE loans. This locked up the banks and credit markets. The FED, most likely unwillingly, bought up all those impaired assets at 100%. The banks themselves bought out their competitors for pennies on the dollar. The Sec of the Treasury was a Goldman guy and he made sure that GS had plenty of cash and opportunities to buy or destroy rivals. Lehman Bros was executed by withholding monies owed to them.
Congress was told that the FED must buy all these impaired assets so that the banks could start loaning to the public once more. The banks couldn't find very many credit-worthy people who wanted a loan. The banks speculated rather than loaning. The banks held their excess reserves at the FED and received interest payments. The bloated banking sector conjured up derivatives to create new fees. They pushed student loans to conjure up credit growth.
So, yes, The bank's balance sheet improves and the government's credibility declines.
I hear conflicting numbers but, it appears that the State spends 30% of the GDP. I read conflicting numbers but, it appears that; for every one dollar increase in taxes, the productive economy shrinks by three dollars.
As automation bites harder, social spending goes up. If GOV maintains social support with rising taxes, this reduces the economy. If GOV maintains social support with debt money, debt service becomes exorbitant.
When children were a financial asset because they could be put to work, we had big families. Since children are a financial drain, it makes sense to not have children. The State is running out of people to tax. The economy is shrinking but, the pension funds project 7% returns. The State pension funds require enormous new tax "contributions".
Birth control and the demographic crash can NOT be factored in to a system with debt money.

Our current debt money system AND the financial system will continue to flounder faced with population reduction and wage reduction. Our productivity has gone up but, our consumptive power has gone down. The State tries to make up the difference by war spending and social spending. If sovereign debt collapses as predicted by Armstrong, total spending will fall until it reaches a point commensurate with our wages.
The only thing that could offset this to some degree is a big fall in the master resource.
If the FUSOR or the MEG were to bring down the price of energy by 80%, this would go a long way towards allowing general prices to fall so that we could better survive.

[Danny B]

Jim Willie, Kunstler,,,FED as a suicide bomber

Jim Willie; "We have finally arrived at the ten-year anniversary of the Lehman event, a killjob whereby JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs bought a few $billion in mortgage bonds and never paid Lehman Brothers. The firm died, called a financial failure, but was actually a strangulation. Goldman went on to capture AIG, in order to claim 100 cents per dollar on insured mortgage bonds, a second crime. The Wall Street banks, under the leader Henry Paulsen as the managing USTreasury Secretary, completed the third crime, by pitching the $700 billion TARP Fund. They stole it,
, instead of making the funds available for lending purposes. Here ten years later, nothing has been fixed. In fact, all the abuses heaped upon the mortgage finance sector have been repeated in sovereign bonds. The USTreasury Bond has become a subprime bond, financed by pure monetization, almost no actual bonds buyers"

"The outcome of the unfolding crisis will be three to five times more magnificent that what was witnessed in 2008 and 2009.
Then the Deutsche Bank saga, better known as the Bush Narco Bank. Then the entire US big bank takedowns, evident in the BKX bank stock decline. In fact, the Western banks have kept the EM nations afloat by lending them funds in the last two years, just to maintain and to float the loans owed to the same Western banks.
The USGovt tax revenue in total does not cover the USGovt borrowing costs any longer. The entire USGovt function is currently in deficit, the entire shebang.
The lit fuse will be Western bank declines and Emerging Market debt default."

So, while the banks are declining, they are loaning money to emerging markets to keep the from defaulting.
" GOLD HAS BEEN THE BEST PERFORMING ASSET IN THE ENTIRE 2018 YEAR !! Gold feeds off crisis."
"calls for powerful recession, corporate debt defaults, official debt rating downgrades, rising unemployment, rising price inflation, and growing scattered talk of a USGovt debt restructure (default)."
Armstrong made the somewhat cryptic remark that GOV debt must be converted to cash.

"The Wall Street banks desperately propped up the crude oil price, with the collusion of the USFed itself. Next it all unwinds, and massive losses to Wall Street banks threaten to expose tremendous losses in the $billions for these hollow pillars posing as banks,"
"Consider Deutsche Bank, whose stock was once well over $100 per share. It serves as the Western bank toilet lever. The DB share price is heading to 50 cents in one of the greatest tragedies in the modern financial era. Hundreds of $billions in market capitalization are being vaporized. Little known to the sheeple and even to many financial mavens is that DBank is the Bush Narco Bank, which has moved $billions in narco money for three decades"

" Dozens of big US corporations will suffer additional debt downgrades. Expect at least 1$trillion in bond losses. Expect the Wall Street managers to have very significant option puts in place for the S&P500 and the NASDAQ tech stocks. They will sabotage the main US stock market, in order to drive money into the USTreasury Bonds. But their initiative of sabotage will not succeed this time. The reason why is very solid and very understood. The funds will not find safe haven in the USTBonds since they are the new subprime bond. The tax revenue does not even cover the debt borrowing costs,
Gold and Global Financial Crisis ReduxWhich Side Are You On? - Kunstler

Merkel and Macron equate patriotism with treason.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-27/angela-merkel-nation-states-must-give-sovereignty-new-world-order

Brandon Smith says that the FED is a suicide bomber trying to destroy the economy to usher in one world GOV. Some of his stuff is hard to believe BUT, he has a very good track record of getting stuff right. Don't forget, The Economist Magazine (mouthpiece of the "elites") predicted20 years ago that the new world currency would come in 2018.

https://bitcoin.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/new-world-currency.jpg

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-27/brandon-smith-fed-suicide-bomber-deeper-agenda

An interesting graph of gasoline prices, https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/V...soline_prices/


The 1,000 point rise was manufactured by a $64 billion stock purchase. How long can you expect that to last?
Just one?
Just wait a couple of months.
Because they are in one.

Eaten alive by corporate vultures

I wonder why?

Death toll from the cold doubles, https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...-not-over-yet/

Somebody lied !

Move to some place warm and, buy more popcorn. I suggest Darwin N.T.


I'm beginning to suspect that the shutdown is not about the wall. I think that the shutdown is meant to set off something else but, have no idea what.