Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
It's Obvious Who Will Replace Trump After The Controlled Demolition Of The Economy
This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Alt-Market.com
In the months leading up to the 2016 election I had been predicting a Trump win
based on a particular theory which I believe still holds true today –
namely the theory that the global banking elites in power were allowing
so-called “populist” movements in the US and Europe to gain political
traction near the very end of the decade long “Everything Bubble”. Once
populist groups were entrenched and feeling overconfident, the cabal
would then tighten liquidity into existing economic weakness and crash
the system on their heads. Populists would get the blame for an
economic disaster that the central banks had engineered many years in
advance.
This theory allowed me to predict the success of the Brexit vote in the UK, Trump's entry into the White House, the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes and balance sheet cuts into economic weakness, and now it is looking more and more like my March prediction of a “No Deal” Brexit will turn out to be correct with Boris Johnson rising to the position of Prime Minister. So, I continue to stand by it.
By extension, for a couple of years I have been examining the strange correlations between the background and policies of Donald Trump and the background and policies of Herbert Hoover; the Republican president that oversaw the great crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression.
One of Hoover’s first actions as president in response to the fiscal tensions of 1929 was to support increased tax cuts, primarily for corporations (this was then followed in 1932 by extensive tax increases in the midst of the depression). Then, he instituted tariffs through the Smoot-Hawley Act. His hyperfocus on massive infrastructure spending resulted in U.S. debt expansion and did nothing to dig the U.S. out of its unemployment abyss. In fact, infrastructure projects like the Hoover Dam, which were launched in 1931, were not paid of for over 50 years. Hoover ended up as a single-term Republican president who paved the way socially for Franklin D. Roosevelt, an thinly disguised communist and perhaps the most destructive president in American history.
It was Hoover and his “protectionist” policies that were blamed for the Great Depression (along with the gold standard), yet it was the Federal Reserve which created the entire calamity. The Fed's policy easing in the 1920s led to the extensive bubble in banking and stock markets, and the Fed's rate hikes and liquidity tightening in the early 1930's exacerbated the crash and extended the depression for many years. Former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke even openly admitted that the Fed was responsible for the Great Depression in a speech made in honor of Milton Friedman in 2002. He stated:
"In short, according to Friedman and Schwartz, because of institutional changes and misguided doctrines, the banking panics of the Great Contraction were much more severe and widespread than would have normally occurred during a downturn.
Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."
Of course, the Fed IS doing it again. For over a year and a half the Fed has been instituting liquidity tightening into economic weakness at the onset of the crash of one of the biggest financial bubbles in the history of the economic world. It is a bubble they created with the intention of deliberately imploding it, and the process has already begun. As I have noted numerous times, the crash in fundamentals is well underway, with almost every sector of the economy in retreat except the three indicators that the Fed and the government statistically manipulate: GDP, employment, and stock markets.
Trump is not innocent in this scheme, either. After months of rightly criticizing the Fed during his campaign for inflating a fake economy and stock market, Trump pulled a 180 on his supporters after becoming president and has now attached his administration so completely to the Everything Bubble (and stock markets in particular) that it is assured he and his conservative followers will take the blame as it collapses.
I am also not the only person noting the comparison between Trump and Herbert Hoover. Trump's similarities to Hoover are being mentioned endlessly the past year in the mainstream and leftist media with a particular focus on the trade war. Trump's trade conflicts are providing the perfect cover for the banking elites to pull the plug on the economy, while escaping any blame. The narrative is being set up for a crash and the plan is to make populists, nationalists and sovereignty activists the scapegoats.
So, the question is, if Trump is playing the role of a modern day Hoover, and the current crash in fundamentals is set to become another long term depression, then who is the next Franklin D. Roosevelt; the communistic president or political group to push America even further into the socialist fold?
It is hard to say at this time if Trump, like Hoover, will be a one term president. If the economic crash continues on its current pace then it is unlikely that Trump could secure a second term in 2020. That said, the advent of a shooting war with a country like Iran could conceivably change the dynamic even in the midst of a financial crisis. Whether in 2020, or 2024, I believe Trump and the populist revolt will be replaced with a socialist fervor beyond anything we saw during the Obama Administration. Just as conservatives surprised the world in 2016, I believe the hard left will surprise the world in the next 5 years.
I find it rather suspicious the amount of media attention hard leftist politicians with little experience are receiving in the mainstream media these days. I am also suspicious of the amount of attention Donald Trump is paying to these same politicians in what appears to be another scripted wrestling match for the benefit of the public. Yes, I'm talking about the “four horsewomen of the Apocalypse” and the ongoing soap opera dramatics between them and Trump that continually keep these junior upstarts in the spotlight despite all reason.
It is perhaps very hard to notice right now in the middle of Trump fever, but I see the beginnings, the root or the seed, of a massive narrative change in the elevation of political extremists like Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, also known as “the squad”. Yes, they seem to be universally hated in Washington right now, and the abject failure of AOC's “Green New Deal” makes it appear as if there is little support for their ideas, but again, look at how much attention these nobodies are accumulating...
I am reminded of the early hints of Barack Obama's run for president even though he had little political experience compared to his opponents, most of it as a state senator. People running against him during his early career on the Democratic and Republican sides seemed to keep dropping out of the races due to sexual scandals. Then, Obama received overt attention from the mainstream media and even The Daily Show before he ever announced his run for the Oval Office. The build up was obvious for analysts that recognized the signals. Obama had been anointed by the elites.
AOC and "the squad" are being marketed in a very similar manner to Obama; as hopeful, young, vibrant, full of energy and ready to take on the world. The kind of cheesy, heart-clutching Disney movie sales pitch that Democrats and leftists go crazy for.
Today, comparatively "moderate" Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are falling all over themselves to promote “the squad” and get their political approval and support. It is clear that hard line leftists are dictating the conversation on America's future governmental path, and that path is one of extreme centralization, globalization, and bureaucratic tyranny in the name of fraudulent environmental panic.
Interestingly, Elizabeth Warren is garnering attention lately with her warnings of coming economic calamity under the Trump Administration. Her observations are very obvious to most of us and not worth noting here; it's nice that Warren is mentioning the prospect of economic danger in the mainstream, but she's years late to the party. I would point out, though, that this marks a turning point in the 2020 election conversation. Suddenly, the Democrats are seriously talking about the potential for a financial crash - which says to me that the crash that is already happening today is about to accelerate even more in the next year. The globalists are setting the stage for the Democrats to say "See, we told you so", as an election year approaches.
At this point, given her recent statements, I will have to predict that Elizabeth Warren is the intended Democratic candidate for the 2020 election.
It is important to remember that public sentiment is fickle, and can change so swiftly it boggles the mind. With the advent of a major economic disaster and maybe even a kinetic war that the US cannot sustain or win in the long run, the predictions of globalists and leftists that populist movements are a “crisis waiting to happen” would be fulfilled. Trump has no real control over the economy, of course, and the Fed determines when and how a financial bubble will pop; but that will not stop the majority from laying the blame on the feet of Trump and his political base. The introduction of hardcore socialism as the preeminent American ideal would be a much easier sell at that point.
In the middle of societal catastrophe, that which we once thought impossible becomes probable. I predict that the “four horsewomen of the Apocalypse” and their ilk are chosen by the globalists to take control of the US in the next decade after Trump and the populists are fully discredited in the eyes of more than half the country and the world. To be certain, there are many of us who will not accept open socialist/communist governance and all the tidings that come with it (including carbon controls and disarmament of the population), and I have no doubt civil war would erupt.
The point is, we should expect this outcome as one the globalists will force. The signs are visible now. The policies of these women, which are utterly insane and bankrupt of logic, are going to become the prevailing ideals of the next political revolution. Count on it.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Monday, July 22, 2019
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Friday, July 19, 2019
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Trump's Fight With The Fed Over Interest Rates Is A Scripted Farce
This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Alt-Market.com
There is a very bizarre narrative being circulated in the mainstream economic media and it goes a little something like this:
“The Federal Reserve has capitulated on liquidity tightening yet the US economy is “stronger than ever”, isn't that weird?”
There are a couple things wrong with this statement. First, the Fed has not yet capitulated on its tightening policy. In fact, we have been hearing since last November from the mainstream media and some alternative media that the Fed was going to lower its Fed Funds Rate and end monthly balance sheet cuts at “any moment”, yet several months later it still has not happened. Just last month the Fed cut another $38 billion in assets from its balance sheet; a move that was barely discussed in the mainstream because it does not fit with the prevailing delusion that the Fed has “already capitulated”. When the Fed cuts rates back significantly and the asset dumps stop, then and only then can anyone say with any authority that the Fed has ended its tightening cycle.
Secondly, the US economy is not “stronger than ever”, it is at its weakest since just before the credit crash of 2008.
And here is where the disconnect begins in Fed policy versus public expectations and the behavior of the Trump Administration. Almost EVERYONE, including the Federal Reserve, Donald Trump and the media are talking about how the US economy is “booming”. So why all the fuss over the Fed's interest rates? The truth is it's just more theater for the masses.
The battle between Trump and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell over Fed policy is a farce and always has been. Consider the facts – Trump ran his election campaign partly by taking a stance against central bank stimulus measures and ultra low rates. He explicitly attacked the notion that the US economy and stock markets were strong under Barack Obama, warning that the markets were in a bubble created by the Fed's easing measures. Then, as soon as he entered the White House Trump flipped narratives and claimed the economy and the markets were strong, and that they were strong because of him.
Trump also said a little over a year ago that he wanted a strong US dollar, now he has reversed completely and says he wants a weaker dollar. In an indirect manner Trump has recently called for a monetary race to the bottom in competition with other nations. This display of bewildering policy gymnastics could be taken one of two ways – one, Trump is bipolar, or two, Trump is following the script that is given to him by the money elite day-to-day just like every president before him for at least the past hundred years. But what is the point of this absurd show?
As I have examined in depth in past articles, I believe the evidence shows that Trump is a pied piper for conservatives, and his attacks on the Fed are nothing more than world wrestling federation-style dramatics for the benefit of his base supporters. Does anyone else think it's rather strange that a supposedly fiscally conservative president is fighting for monetary easing while the Federal Reserve (the KING of easy money for the past decade) is fighting for liquidity tightening? This only makes sense when you look at Trump's background...
Trump's companies have faced at least four separate bankruptcy threats since the 1990's, yet he has been bailed out on more than one occasion by surprise investors. The most prominent of these investors was the Rothschild family through their agent Wilber Ross. Trump was saved from his vast debts tied to his Taj Mahal casino complex and three other major properties by the Rothschilds in the 1990's, and some of these properties would go on to face bankruptcy again in 2009. The Taj Mahal would later sell for 4 cents on the dollar, yet Trump would always come out financially unscathed from these events.
Trump's reputation and perhaps his entire current fortune is owed to the Rothschilds. This is probably the reason why, after becoming president, Trump loaded his cabinet with multiple globalists and banking elites, including Wilber Ross as his Commerce Secretary.
Trump is a perfect foil or catalyst to create the kind of chaos the banking elites need as cover for an event they sometimes refer to as “the global economic reset”. The economic reset is meant to cut a path to complete global centralization; meaning a one world monetary system controlled by the IMF, a one world currency, and ultimately a one world government. The Rothschilds (among many other elites) have publicly admitted to this plan numerous times, displaying their schemes in plain view in publications they own or control, like The Economist magazine.
Trump's sudden shift from harsh critic of the US economic situation to taking ownership of every facet of the economy as if he is the sole cause of its supposed ascension is entirely deliberate. Trump is MEANT to take ownership of the US economy because he is MEANT to take the blame for its inevitable crash. If we look at almost every fundamental indicator a crash is already taking place now.
We now see the housing market suffering from a 7.8% overall drop in sales and an 8.1% drop in prices. We see auto market sales at the slowest pace in four years as interest rates rise on auto loans. We see historic levels of consumer debt and corporate debt. We see massive retail closures (more than 7500 closures announced so far this year), a grinding halt to shipping and freight, seven year lows in Global manufacturing PMI, the weakest U.S. manufacturing PMI since 2009, and a three month running inversion in the treasury yield curve, etc.
You will not see the Federal Reserve, the mainstream media or Donald Trump mention much about these signals of decline. The media will pay lip service at times while also promoting the notion that employment, GDP and the stock market are sure signs that the economy is “strong”.
Trump no longer argues that these indicators are rigged, even though unemployment stats do not include over 96 million working age Americans that are unemployed and are not counted on the benefits rolls. Even though GDP is calculated to include most government spending as if it is the same a wealth creation rather than wealth confiscation. Even though the stock market is entirely manipulated by unprecedented corporate stock buybacks, as well as levitated by Chinese stimulus measures flooding the global liquidity pool and investor hope that the Fed is about to reintroduce QE “at any moment”.
The Fed continues to claim that the US economy is experiencing a "strong" recovery. The central bank's public statements and "Beige Book" reports consistently paint a picture of financial health. If the Fed was backing off of its tightening cycle, then why do they keep promoting the lie that the economy is stable and growing?
This is where we see the collusion between Trump and the media and the Fed. None of them will admit that the US economy is a fraudulent illusion. All of them are actively hiding the facts from the public. All of them are setting the American people up for an epic fall.
In terms of the fight over interest rates, Trump is playing his role as a bumbling villain; the guy who tried to meddle in economic affairs he did not fully comprehend and then bankrupted the country just like he bankrupted his own properties.
Many conservatives are eating up the propaganda that Trump is anti-fed, with endless stories on how Powell “had better watch out” or Trump will “have his head”. This sets up another false narrative that Trump is somehow in control of the Fed's behavior. He is not. Trump's own acting Chief of Staff staff has said “Trump knows he does not have the authority to fire Powell.” And, just last week Jerome Powell stated bluntly that if Trump tried to fire him he simply would not leave.Trump controls nothing when it comes to central bank policy. The Fed does whatever it wants to do.
I would point out that the Fed's ONLY warnings surrounding the US economy have been rooted in "concerns" over Donald Trump's policies, and more specifically the trade war. They are already injecting the idea into the public consciousness that "everything was fine in the US economy until Trump came along". The stage has been set for the controlled demolition of the US financial system and of conservative ideals of sovereignty.
The elites intend to use Trump as a parable, a warning to future generations. They will say - “You see, this is what happens when you allow populists and nationalists to take power. This is what happens when conservatives are allowed to propagate their crazy ideals. This is what happens when you try to interfere in the autonomy of central bankers who know better than you how to run the economy - You get a catastrophe.”
If the Fed actually does “capitulate” (one of these days), then history can blame Trump for putting political pressure on central bankers who are “supposed to be independent”. If the Fed does not capitulate and Trump continues his attacks on the institution history can still blame Trump for sowing the seeds of doubt and damaging faith in the US financial structure.
In the meantime, the Fed and other central banking institutions have created all the elements necessary to cause a devastating blow to the global economy and most of all the US economy. If Trump were a legitimate patriot and defender of US interests he would detach his administration from the stock markets and openly admit to all the factors that show our financial system is failing. But he will not do this. That is not his job. His job is to act chaotic, to confuse the public, to play shepherd to conservatives while leading them to the slaughterhouse, and to become a scapegoat for a crash the central bankers set in motion over 8 years before Trump became president.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Friday, July 12, 2019
The Corrupt System Will Never Police Itself
This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Alt-Market.com
False hope breeds crippling apathy – This
is what I have to think to myself when I see the news media fervor over
the second arrest of billionaire Jefferey Epstein, or similar events
which in most cases end up fading into the background and forgotten.
The public's favorite distraction has always been to watch high profile
people kicked out of their castles in the clouds, but I would point out
that even when the globalists sacrifice one of their own in the public
eye it is usually only to satiate the masses and their hunger for
justice for a very short time. The system is not designed to root out
evil; it is designed to obscure and perpetuate evil.
Epstein is a perfect example of this. He was already prosecuted on
pedophilia charges over 12 years ago and received a “sweetheart” plea
deal which allowed him to serve a mere 13 month sentence. How many
child rapists get that kind of treatment in our court system? And what
about the vast array of people (including political leaders) that were
close friends and associates with Epstein during his “Lolita Express”
days? Are we really to believe they knew nothing about what was going
on? That they visited his island and never saw any wrongdoing?Why didn't they come forward immediately? Why did they wait until Epstein was already being prosecuted before they publicly admonished him? Is it because they were involved in the same activities? And if so, why have they not been prosecuted as well?
My point is, people should lower their expectations that justice will be served or that the "dominoes will fall" in the Epstein case. Also, keep in mind that James Comey's daughter, Maureen Comey, will be on the prosecution team in the case, AND , Donald Trump's Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, is the same man who brokered Epstein's immunity deal. Like strands of malignant cancer, these people are wrapped around every facet of government.
But this is not just about Epstein, and as much as I would also like to see the guy hang for his crimes, I have to admit that this latest event is probably nothing more than another piece of theater meant to give the public false hope that the system is changing and that elitist criminals will be treated the same as any other criminal. How often does this ever happen?
How about the Bernie Madoff scandal? Madoff runs a Ponzi scheme that devoured $65 billion in client funds and he is sentenced to 150 years in prison, but JP Morgan, the bank that HELPED Madoff move his stolen money, got nothing more than a fine.
In the wake of the 2008 credit crash and the exposure of the fraudulent derivatives market, many people thought banker heads were going to roll, yet in the US only one banker, a little known executive at Credit Suisse named Kareem Sarageldin, actually served jail time. After admitting to fraud and inflating bond prices associated with mortgage backed securities, Sarageldin was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
The Financial Times went on to publish an article in 2018 on this matter, claiming they would “dispel the myth that no one was held accountable for the derivatives crash”. They came up with a list of 47 names. The article went on to admit that the vast majority of bankers arrested were in Iceland (where the prisons are like country clubs). The rest came primarily from low level banks or were mid-level employees. The number of CEO's on the list is decidedly slim, and banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, the biggest perpetrators of derivatives fraud, are decidedly absent.
The base argument for these types of articles is in itself a kind of fraud. I don't think that most people assume that “no one” was prosecuted over the fraud that helped create the crash of 2008, a crash the economy is still suffering from. I think that most people assume none of the elites at the top of the pyramid were prosecuted, and perhaps with the exception of former IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato in Spain who was only charged with credit card fraud, this assumption is a correct one.
The most egregious criminals are rarely ever touched by scandal or jail time because they stand in key positions within our system. You will never see central bankers in the Federal Reserve suffer punishment for consistently and deliberately fueling economic bubbles through artificially low interest rates and stimulus measures. You will never see them prosecuted for deliberately imploding these bubbles with perfectly timed liquidity tightening and interest rate hikes into economic weakness.
In fact, just this week Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told the Financial Services Committee that if Trump tried to fire him, he would simply ignore him and remain in his position for the full term. It is rather odd to me that almost no one in the alternative media covered his statement, perhaps because it runs contrary to the latest narrative that Powell is "afraid of Trump" and that Trump now has control of the Fed. This is nonsense. Even Trump's own acting Chief of Staff noted that Trump "knows he does not have the authority to fire Powell".
People who think the President chooses the Fed Chairman do not understand how the system actually works. The Fed board controls who the Chair is, and can simply vote to put whoever they wish in the position regardless of what the President does, according to Bill English, a former FOMC secretary and advisor to the Board. This means that Trump's "choice" of Fed Chair is merely ceremonial. Trump has no power whatsoever over the central bank.
So why does this delusion persist? Again, because people become addicted to false hope. The banking elites will never be punished by the system they control. They would have to be punished by other means.
You will never see IMF heads punished for loan sharking nations into oblivion. Hell, the Bank for International Settlements laundered money for the Nazis and yet they were never punished and still exist to this day! The president of the BIS at the time, Thomas McKittrick, never faced prosecution after the war, went on to work for Chase Manhattan bank, and received a pleasant eulogy from The New York Times after his death in 1970, even though the New York Times also reported on admissions from the BIS that they had helped the Nazis.
Some might argue that this trend of one law for the people and no law for the money elite will finally change under Donald Trump's presidency, but I find that sentiment to be highly naive. First and foremost, Trump is far too close the money elite to punish them, even if he wanted to. His extensive associations with Rothschild banking agent Wilber Ross, the man who bailed Trump out of his considerable debts in his Atlantic City casino project in the 1990s and who is now Commerce Secretary in Trump's cabinet, sets a tone for Trump's presidency that is NOT anti-banker or anti-globalist.
It should be clear to most people now that there will be no “draining of the swamp”, not even from the White House. Trump's promises to seek prosecution of the Clintons for their criminal activities, which include mishandling of classified data, fraud, and a host of other repulsive behaviors, have fallen flat. Trump's campaign position to hold the Federal Reserve accountable for the historic bubble they have inflated in stock markets through low interest rates and stimulus is gone. Now Trump takes credit for the bubble as if it is a good thing, and is demanding even more stimulus from the Fed.
And yet, there are still people out there that imagine this is all part of some elaborate ruse on Trump's part; that he is playing a game of “4D Chess” with the globalists. I believe this insane delusion stems from a singular psychological malfunction that is suffered by many people – the idea that the system, no matter how corrupt, can be fixed from the inside.
Leftists believe this. Many conservatives believe this. Despite all evidence to the contrary, people WANT to imagine a world in which evil can be defeated if only the right people are put in place within the system. If they vote the right way, if they support the right party, if they rally around the right investigation, if they protest peacefully on the steps of Congress or on Wall Street, then the system will be forced to expel the evil and serve the populace once again.
I usually equate our current governmental framework to the “One Ring” from Lord Of The Rings, and I still think there is no better analogy. The core problem is that the system is not only run by corrupt people, it has also been built by them. The system as it stands today is a corruption machine that manufactures evil. Adding good people to an evil machine is not going to stop it. And, as with the One Ring, the people who think they can use an evil machine for good purposes often end up corrupted themselves. You cannot change it, you cannot exploit it for good, you can only destroy it.
In other words, conservatives in the liberty movement in particular need to throw out their illusions that the globalists will be defeated using the very systems the globalists created to serve their interests. And if you cannot change a corrupt system from the inside, then it must be dismantled from the outside and rebuilt from scratch. A constitutional framework and the Bill Of Rights can help in this effort, but these are laws on paper that cannot defend themselves. Without fierce vigilance on the part of the citizenry, laws and rights can be erased.
You will not hear the mainstream media or even much of the alternative media talk about the real solutions to elitist criminality or government corruption. You won't hear about these solutions because they are hard; they require struggle and sacrifice. Voting is easy, which is why it does not work. Legislation is easy, which is why it does not work. And, protesting with signs on a street corner is easy, and it might spread the word on an issue, but ultimately it does not work. The corruption remains.
There are two options left; first, walk away peacefully from the system and build one that works on your own or with others of like-mind. If you are successful, then expect the corrupt system and the elites behind it to try and stop you. Second, when this happens, the only option left is to fight back and remove the threat. This is where we are inevitably headed, not because we want it, but because they will force the issue.
We can no longer deceive ourselves with notions of absorbing Washington D.C. or Wall Street and making them work for us. The hope that this is possible is poison, and the elites use that poison to weaken public resolve. While we sit around waiting for the system to police itself the Earth turns and they become more powerful. Without a dramatic change in our own strategy, without direct action on our part instead of action through political middlemen, I predict our situation will only become worse.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Friday, July 5, 2019
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Monday, July 1, 2019
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