Tag Archives: Agenda 21

Sep 7 2017

It’s the Gov’t I’m Afraid of – Not Nature or God


Armstrong Economics Blog/Nature

Re-Posted Sep 6, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Martin,

 With Irma on the way, if it swings North by North/West you’ll be right in it’s path.

Are you leaving heading to high ground, with your Elderly Mom???

If you’re staying, Do you have enough water, fuel, food, generator/fuel???

all the necessities???

Just thinking.

from La

sh

 

ANSWER: Socrates is not located in Florida. Neither is the Blog site. Of course it is possible that communications will be disrupted. We will have to see. My mother is not here in Florida. We just celebrated her birthday on September 3rd. She just began her 100th year. I can only assume the government is jumping for joy and see me producing taxable income for more than the next 30 years.

 

As for me, I have plenty of supplies. I do not anticipate fleeing. I have survived whatever government has thrown at me. Someone gave me the strength to stand my ground. I do not think I have a confrontation with nature. But we will see. A reader sent me a T-Shirt. I would add It’s the government I’m afraid of, not Nature or God. If I can volunteer, I will if it gets bad.

Sep 6 2017

“Uncle” – Russia’s Vladimir Putin Calls For “Talks” With North Korea…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on September 6, 2017 by

More Bigly winning.  This announcement must be contextualized with timing and prior knowledge of discussions between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.   Remember, the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) just held their economic meeting.

(link) 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for talks with North Korea, saying sanctions are not a solution.

Putin made the remarks Wednesday after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Vladivostok, Russia.  North Korea says it detonated a hydrogen bomb in its sixth nuclear test on Sunday.

Putin, speaking in China on Tuesday, had condemned the nuclear test as provocative, but said that Russia views sanctions on North Korea as “useless and ineffective.” (link)

During last week’s BRICS forum, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin agreed with the larger principle that “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsular was now an acceptable goal for China and Russia.  However, the U.S. didn’t flinch on announcing the possibility of UN Security Council sanctions beyond the DPRK, specifically targeted toward North Korea’s economic enablers (Russia and China).

That Trump administration approach puts Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in a precarious position on the world stage.  They don’t want to be seen voting against sanctions placed upon North Korea – it would remove their enabler masks.  They cried “unfair”.

Adding to the economic pressure, after the BRICS meeting India’s Prime Minister Modi essentially stated he was exiting the assembly due to significant geopolitical conflicts with China.  President Trump and PM Modi have been forming an economic alliance as the U.S. looks to leverage India as a possible economic replacement trade partner for China.

Again, the request by Xi Jinping for “six party talks” (China, Russia, N-Korea, Japan, S-Korea and the U.S.) is the signal everyone should be looking for to determine when China finally acquiesces to the geopolitical economic pressure President Trump has artfully assigned.

This announcement today by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, after meeting with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, is a strong indication Putin and Xi Jinping have discussed and are likely to make that announcement.  Beijing knows such a call by their President would indicate weakness, and it makes sense China would utilize Russia to break the ice and allow the appearance of their failed economic strategy to fall under the guise of diplomacy.

Accept this call by Russia for what it is, Russia and China crying “uncle”.

President Trump winning.

Remember, China is seeking conquest through economic power. China must be confronted economically. China must be defeated economically. The moment China sees economic defeat, it will act differently. China will eventually call for six party talks.

Communist Beijing has boxed themselves into this inescapable trap.  The reason they keep authorizing Kim Jong-un to take action is simply because China has no alternative leverage to use against President Trump.  China has nothing in their economic arsenal they can use to hit back against President Trump, so Beijing keeps using North Korea in an attempt to create leverage.

However, President Trump doesn’t play along with the bluff, he knows every card China is holding. Trump knows China has no substantive economic leverage against the U.S., and Trump also knows China has boxed themselves into this cycle.  It’s a ridiculous three step process.

¹China tells DPRK to do stupid thing.  ²DPRK does stupid thing.  ³Trump hits China with economic punishment for stupid thing.

This cycle has been ongoing for months now, yet the media apparently doesn’t notice it. Each time Kim Jong-un does a stupid, Donald Trump slaps Xi Jinping.  The only way out of this cycle is for Beijing to concede and lay the DPRK defeat at the feet of Kim Jong-un.  The conceding will evidence itself when Beijing inevitably calls for ‘Six Party Talks‘.

President Trump can play out this action/response dynamic as long as it takes to reach economic victory. There is no substantive downside in the economic battle for the U.S.

Everything is proceeding according to the intensely predictable plan:

AUGUST 13th […]  So we can safely predict that sometime in late fall, most likely before the ASEAN visit timeline in November, President Trump and Rex Tillerson will be engaged in a new round of Six Party Talks, initiated by request of the increasingly desperate China.

China will structure the DPRK talking points to set up the meetings.  This is a part of how China is allowed to save face and sets up the magnanimous Panda narrative.

The six party talks will be essentially a Marshal Plan of sorts for North Korea.  Japan, South Korea, The United States, China, Russia and North Korea will enter into a set of negotiations publicly sold as engaging in diplomacy and reducing tension.

President Trump is going to win this geopolitical battle against China/N-Korea through the effective use of economics as geopolitical leverage to ensure national security objectives.  Trump will also position Xi Jinping as magnanimous panda as part of the plan.

However, the funny thing is, the media, having paid no attention to how President Trump has utilized economic leverage for months, will be oblivious to how this victory was actually achieved.

Sep 6 2017

The Insanity in Korea – But Is it Logical?


Armstrong Economics Blog/North Korea

Re-Posted Sep 6, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

The South China Post reported that Chinese scientists fear that a mountain in North Korea under which the last five bombs detonated as tests, may collapse crumbling into a crater. They fear that the radiation underground would then leak across region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the escalating crisis concerning North Korea’s weapons program is placing the world at risk of developing into a “global catastrophe” with massive casualties. Putin has UNREALISTICALLY said that the only way to resolve the crisis was through diplomacy. For that to be even a possibility, it requires talking. Kim Jong Un has not even met with the leader of China – its once closet Allies.

Let’s put this is perspective. Why is Kim pushing the world to the brink? Kim Jong Un looks at this differently He believes that the survival of his regime depends on possessing nuclear weapons. He is most likely NOT interested in starting a nuclear war for he cannot be so stupid to believe he would win. Yet, Kim also realizes that the prospect of the USA sending a nuke to North Korea is also not likely for that would antagonize China and risk pollution drifting to South Korea and Japan, not to mention China. So with all the saber rattling, Kim is not stupid and realizes that the USA cannot launch a first strike.

Now, why is the goal of Kim? To be honest, Kim Jong Un does not trust the USA for from the outsider perspective, he has watched how American intervention in Iraq ended in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, his execution as well as family members, and left the country ravaged by war and a puppet of Washington. Obviously, Kim has made the determination that had Saddam truly possessed nuclear power then the USA would never have intervened. This logic is understandable for it creates the stalemate between USA, China, and Russia. The USA invading Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria with the objective of regime change creates the image that one must protect themselves and this is Kim’s perspective.

Sanctions will never work because Kim would starve his people before giving up his power. Also, as long as he appears to be strong, then there is little risk of an internal coup. If he backs down and appears weak, the prospect of being overthrown becomes probable from within.

Sep 5 2017

Bigly


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on September 4, 2017 by

Bigly

Sep 5 2017

Looming Economic Sanctions Split China and Russia From U.N. Approach – Geopolitical Economic Warfare Increasingly Likely…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on September 4, 2017 by

As you might remember, in response to a thermonuclear atomic weapons test by North Korea Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is now in the process of writing additional sanctions he will guide into the hands of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Ambassador Haley will then create a U.N. Security Council resolution containing further economic sanctions toward North Korea using treasury department guidance.

However, as a direct result of the escalation from the DPRK, we can easily predict the final draft will not just target North Korea, but will more substantively target North Korea’s economic enablers.

This is where things get super interesting because all prior U.N. action has built upon itself to these specific ‘enabler’ state sanctions.

Through two rounds of Security Council resolutions both China and Russia have supported the economic sanctions, knowing they would use various workarounds to continue their duplicity.  However, now those sanctions become a risk to the economies of China and Russia because Secretary Mnuchin is likely to use the weight of the dollar in trade contracts as the trigger for sanctions against China and Russia.

Here’s where the real fun begins.

There’s no way China is going to stop supporting their proxy province, North Korea.  The entire Beijing approach (to fighting Trump’s economic battle against them) has been through the use of Kim Jong-un to try and gain some economic leverage.

As a consequence there’s no way China will support sanctions against DPRK enablers; that would essentially be against Beijing itself.

So now, with sanctions anticipated to target the enablers, China must break away from supporting the Security Council; but they can’t break away freely without running the risk of dropping the panda mask.  So they need Russia to keep up pretenses on their behalf.

New York – The United States on Monday flatly rejected a proposal from China and Russia on how to lower tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which is likely to make it difficult for the United Nations Security Council to agree on a response to North Korea’s hydrogen bomb test over the weekend.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the U.S. would be circulating a proposed resolution on North Korea this week, and would push for a vote next week.

While it’s not clear what that language will say, both China and Russia made it clear they were unlikely to support more sanctions, and instead played up their joint call for North Korea to stop its military aggression in return for both South Korea and the U.S. to stop their military exercises.

Haley called that idea “insulting.”

“The idea that some have suggested, a so-called freeze for freeze, is insulting,” she said. “When a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon, and an ICBM pointed at you, you do not take steps to lower your guard. No one would do that. We certainly won’t.”

Instead, she hinted at the idea of tough sanctions that would be imposed on any country that does any business with North Korea.

But after she spoke, both Russia and China made it clear they don’t like that idea. (read more)

“Halp”

Communist Beijing has boxed themselves into this inescapable cycle.  The reason they keep authorizing Kim Jong-un to take action is simply because China has no alternative leverage to use against President Trump.  China has nothing in their economic arsenal they can use to hit back against President Trump, so Beijing keeps using North Korea in an attempt to create leverage.

However, President Trump doesn’t play along with the bluff, he knows every card China is holding. Trump knows China has no substantive economic leverage against the U.S., and Trump also knows China has boxed themselves into this cycle.  It’s a ridiculous three step process.

¹China tells DPRK to do stupid thing.  ²DPRK does stupid thing.  ³Trump hits China with economic punishment for stupid thing.

This cycle has been ongoing for months now, yet the media apparently doesn’t notice it. Each time Kim Jong-un does a stupid, Donald Trump slaps Xi Jinping.

The reason this Trump economic approach is so effective is because there’s an endless supply of economic things President Trump can do to punish China (closer economic ties and better trade deals w/ India; removal of China’s MFN trade status; recognition of Taiwan; increased economic relations with ASEAN, etc.), and yet virtually nothing China can do economically in return.

Communist China’s geopolitical economic relationship with the U.S. can be replaced with Democratic India and/or a host of ASEAN allies (S-Korea, Japan, etc.)

Remember, China is seeking conquest through economic power. China must be confronted economically. China must be defeated economically. The moment China sees economic defeat, it will act differently. China will call for six party talks.

President Trump can play out this action/response dynamic as long as it takes to reach economic victory. There is no substantive downside in the economic battle for the U.S.

Beijing is referencing what has worked for them in the past without realizing they are not up against the same adversary. The resulting economic damage in this cycle hurts China more each time by weakening Beijing’s economy.

Sep 4 2017

The Flip Side of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Climate Change!


Ever since the 80’s we have heard how bad the use of fossil, carbon based, fuels is and how we must absolutely stop using them.  The reason that we are told is that burning fossil fuels creates Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which is causing the planet to over heat.  Although there is a small element of truth to that thought it has been greatly exaggerated and if one looks at the subject with an open mind one sees that the amount of climate change possible by increasing levels of Carbon Dioxide is only about 1/3 of the total observed historical changes in climate.   In other words nature is the primary reason for climate change. Further, its unlikely that more than another .5 degrees Celsius will be observed from increases in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. Previous posts here show why this is true if one cares to read them.

This post is to show the other side of the Carbon Dioxide issue which is that Carbon Dioxide is not the only thing created by burning fossil fuels. Actually three things are produced, energy in the form of high temperatures which can do work, Carbon Dioxide and water. There are other residues depending on the fuel used but they can be ignored as although important to consider, they are not items that can’t be controlled with proper engineering. Forgetting the heat energy (warming) produced, for now, the other two items Carbon Dioxide and Water are where this discussion leads us.

Carbon Dioxide the evil pollutant which must be stopped at all costs is the primary food for plant life and without it we could not exist. In fact increased levels of Carbon Dioxide well beyond where we are now would be very beneficial to all life on the planet as plants grow much better and faster at levels of Carbon Dioxide 3 to 4 times where we are now. So the fact is that increased levels of Carbon Dioxide are good not bad.

But no one is even discussing the third element of burning fossil fuels which is the production of large amounts of water.  From the beginnings of the industrial revolution to today Carbon Dioxide has gone from 280 ppm to about 410 ppm today or from .028% to .041% of the earths atmosphere.  That means that we have produced in the last 400 years …

736 Billion Tons of Carbon Dioxide (plant food) and

263 Billion Tons of Water

263 Billion tons of water is 63.1 Trillion gallons of water, or 57.3 cubic miles of water which is about half of the water now in Lake Erie the world 18th largest lake. Since no one would disagree that water isn’t bad, creating this much water is a good thing ….

One last thought is that 57.3 cubic miles of water has raised the earths oceans by about .026 inches or .7 mm in height representing about 1% of the observed increased level of sea levels. That may not be much but that increase is not from global warming its from the production of large amounts of water.

The point to this discussion is that we must understand all the processes that are happening since nature is very complex and no one thing controls anything on the planet.

 

Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. He is considered one of the most influential philosophers for science of the 20th century, and he also wrote extensively on social and political philosophy. The following quotes of his apply to this subject.

If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories.

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

… (S)cience is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected.

 

 

 

Sep 4 2017

Report: Trump Will End DACA Tuesday With 6 Month Delayed Deportation Enforcement Window For Congressional Action…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on September 3, 2017 by

Generally speaking, anticipatory media reports can often be subject to incorrect assumptions and false conclusions.  However, a Politico report on the outline of President Trump eliminating the DACA program passes the general sniff test of a process likely to be consistent with the actual outcome.

Encapsulated, the report states President Trump will announce the end to the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals on Tuesday, but will delay implementation of the enforcement therein for a period of six months allowing congress to debate legislative action prior to DACA designee’s receiving deportation notices.

This tracks with what most people have anticipated because President Obama’s DACA executive action is similar in unlawful executive overreach as the courts, including the Supreme court, upheld in the prior DAPA ruling.  Any state that challenges Obama’s DACA program will likely win, and it’s impossible for President Trump’s DOJ to legally defend it.

The delayed enforcement aspect will allow voters the ability to begin primary challenges against congressional Republicans who are guaranteed to drop their masks and work earnestly to deliver UniParty legislative amnesty to illegal aliens.

WASHINGTON DC – […]  Conversations with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who argued that Congress — rather than the executive branch — is responsible for writing immigration law, helped persuade the president to terminate the program, the two sources said, though White House aides caution that — as with everything in the Trump White House — nothing is set in stone until an official announcement has been made.

In a nod to reservations held by many lawmakers, the White House plans to delay the enforcement of the president’s decision for six months, giving Congress a window to act, according to one White House official. But a senior White House aide said that chief of staff John Kelly, who has been running the West Wing policy process on the issue, “thinks Congress should’ve gotten its act together a lot longer ago.”  (read more)

This Politico Report tracks with our previous discussions and outlines on the need for President Trump to show the American electorate the issues with the UniParty.

There is one political enterprise within Washington DC and national politics. There is only one enterprise. That enterprise is the UniParty. There is only one political party in Washington DC, with two internal caucuses – Republicans and Democrats.

The “Big Ugly” is the moment when President Trump decides to rip the masks off the remnants of the Republican wing of the UniParty within Washington DC.

In many ways the “Big Ugly” is the elimination of the Republican party, and the beginning of an era when a second party, a MAGA party, actually enters the blood stream of U.S. politics and stands against the UniParty.

The confrontation is inevitable. It has been inevitable since the entire GOPe apparatus, including every single GOPe candidate within the 2016 Republican primary, stood up against Donald J Trump. Candidate Donald Trump held an entirely different series of campaign platform issues the Republican apparatus abhors. That’s why he won, and they didn’t.

However, Since the 2016 victory, the UniParty has thrown everything they can in front of him to block any advancement of those policies and platform issues. Every political tool in the Republican armory has been deployed to eliminate the threat Trump represents. Reminder:

President Trump gave them a budget that reduces a trillion in spending; the republicans in congress balked. They openly said reducing spending is not their goal. Those same republicans are now suing President Trump and trying to force the State Department to spend on USAID and NGO’s. Those same republicans supported Omnibus spending bills. Those same republicans will not support removing ObamaCare. Those same republicans are fighting renegotiated trade deals. Those same republicans don’t support a border wall. Those same republicans supported launching ridiculous Russian conspiracy investigations; and the list goes on, including senate republicans using a strategic maneuver to block their own President from recess appointments during their summer recess…

This is the behavior of opposition, UniParty opposition. During the recent Arizona speech and MAGA rally, President Trump came closer than ever before to igniting the fuse on the Big Ugly.

Now, with President Obama’s unconstitutional DACA being eliminated, we see yet another example of masks falling. Many republicans will oppose the unlawful Obama DACA program being removed.  This reality only amplifies the signs the Big Ugly confrontation is needed more than ever.  It’s President Trump against a unified DC system.

Corporations (special interest groups) write laws. Lobbyists take the law and go find politician(s) to support it. Politicians get support from their peers using tenure and status etc. Eventually, if things go according to norm, the legislation gets a vote.

Within every step of the process there are expense account lunches, dinners, trips, venue tickets and a host of other customary way-points to generate/leverage a successful outcome.

But the important part to remember is that the origination of the entire system is EXTERNAL to congress.

Congress does not write laws or legislation, special interest groups do. Lobbyists are paid, some very well paid, to get politicians to go along with the need of the legislative group.

When you are voting for a Congressional Rep or a U.S. Senator you are not voting for a person who will write laws. Your rep only votes on legislation to approve or disapprove of constructs that are written by outside groups and sold to them through lobbyists who work for those outside groups.

While all of this is happening the same outside groups who write the laws are providing money for the campaigns of the politicians they need to pass them. This construct sets up the quid-pro-quo of influence, although much of it is fraught with plausible deniability.

This is the way legislation is created.

This is the reason why congress had ZERO legislation for President Trump’s platform. There is no entity within Washington DC, republicans or democrats, who support the Trump agenda. That’s why no legislation has advanced. President Trump’s entire patriotic perspective on MAGAnomics, national security, and focus on “America-First” as a priority is adverse to Washington DC’s decades-long political and financial interests.

There are dozens of “Amnesty Bills” and “Open Border” legislative constructs, created by special interest groups and supported by lobbyists, waiting for the UniParty to pick them up.  We will now enter a phase where those bills will be advanced.

The bank accounts of the lobbyists are bulging with cash to pay off congressional representatives, and they have the Citizens United decision to spend unlimited amounts of money in the 2018 election to protect the purchased congressional representatives from primary challenges.    The lobbyists have billions at their disposal to influence this process.

A confrontation to draw out this truth is needed. That confrontation is “The Big Ugly”. DACA is merely symptomatic as a potential trigger for the confrontation. The federal budget, trade-deals, non-military global intervention, corporate regulations, immigration enforcement, the border wall, financial bailouts etc. are all similar triggers.

Ever since Donald Trump entered into politics there is a key element he knows he needs to keep at the forefront to succeed against the UniParty. To continue succeeding Trump needs all of his adversaries, our adversaries, to drop their masks.

Donald Trump has done a remarkable job at drawing-out the enemy behind the wire. No-one would argue they hold the same perspectives on the Republican apparatus, and the GOPe punditry, they previously held prior to Businessman Trump becoming Politician Trump.

As both a candidate and a president Donald Trump has exposed a jaw-dropping number of political deceivers. He’s also single-handily exposed their hidden agenda(s), and proved beyond a shadow’s doubt that Republican’s were lying about policy and principle for years.

When President Trump speaks, he’s always highlighting these issues. He is also speaking on these issues, repeatedly, to draw out the hidden truth and create a larger awakening. It is really, really, important to see that Trump is always trying to engage that larger awakening.

This weekend he probed again. Judged the UniParty and media response to his visit to Houston. Sensing their attack position. Measuring the severity of the opposition. Always probing, always working on instinct. Always aware of the need for the larger awakening.

If, following his probes this weekend, President Trump does decide to eliminate the President Obama DACA program, yes it will clearly indicate the Big Ugly has begun. The reason is simply because of the predictable consequences.

With the elimination of DACA, the Republicans will threaten funding for border enforcement and the border wall.  The Republicans will demand immigration amnesty. The Republicans will openly threaten every principle of ‘America First’ trade renegotiation as leverage to fight back against President Trump.  The Republicans will also hold the debt ceiling as hostage and fight Trump’s budget cuts.  The Republicans will be willing to join with Democrats and force a presidential shut-down of government, etc. the list of unity enterprises within the UniParty is longer than you can imagine.

Within all of that action the Republicans will be fully unmasked; and with that unmasking the U.S. electorate will see that President Trump’s opposition is a UniParty of Paul Ryan joining with Nancy Pelosi, and Mitch McConnell joining with Chuck Schumer, and both Democrats and Republicans united against President Trump.

Just like it was during the 2016 GOP primary and general election, for the UniParty it becomes a zero-sum game.  Destroy Trump and the existential threat he represents; or their very livelihood is at risk.

President Trump will, yet again, be one man against an entire well-financed and corrupt political apparatus with only deplorable voters on his side.

Sep 3 2017

Two Seismic Events In North Korea are a Suspected Nuclear Test – Possibly: One Explosion, One Collapse…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on September 3, 2017 by

Two seismic events happening in North Korea are suspected to be a nuclear test.  The first event was reportedly measured at a 5.6 Richter Scale magnitude. The second event is being reported at 6.3.  Both seismic events are potentially related to a nuclear detonation:

SEOUL (Reuters) – An earthquake 5.6 was recorded on Sunday in North Korea near the country’s known nuclear test site Punggye-ri, Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea’s meteorological agency.

The quake appeared to have been man-made, Yonhap quoted the agency as saying, suggesting the isolated country had conducted a sixth nuclear test. (read more)

(Via CNBC) KCNA via KNS | Associated Press –  North Korea was struck by strong tremors on Sunday, with the South’s officials saying it could be due to a nuclear test.

The USGS initially reported the first tremor as a 5.6 magnitude, but later raised it to 6.3, while China’s earthquake administration said it detected a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Northeastern North Korea, calling it a “suspected explosion,” Reuters reported.

The depth of the first quake was recorded as zero kilometers, the China earthquake administration said, according to Reuters.

The report cited the USGS as saying the first tremor occurred at around 12 noon North Korea time.

China’s earthquake administration later said it detected a second quake of magnitude 4.6 at a depth of zero kilometers, which it called a “collapse,” Reuters reported, noting the second tremor came eight minutes after the first at nearly identical coordinates.

A South Korean military official told NBC News that the first quake was artificial, while Yonhap reported the military said the first tremor was located near the North’s nuclear test site.

South Korea’s Blue House, the country’s equivalent of the White House, said that the North may conducted another nuclear test, its sixth, the South’s official news agency Yonhap reported.

The South’s President Moon Jae-in has called a National Security Council meeting, while the country’s military raised its alert level, Yonhap reported.

Previous tremors in the reclusive country have been caused by nuclear tests. The wave form signal for an explosion and an earthquake are different, allowing geologists to distinguish a man-made tremor.  (read more)

Sep 3 2017

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – Equity v Law


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law

Re-Posted Sep 3, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Many people have written in on both sides of the issue concerning the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Some totally disagree with me and cite that the law is the law. But there is a historical problem with the rule of law – there are times when the rule of law is unjust. For example, if someone tried to kill you and you defended yourself and killed them, are you a murderer because you killed someone by the strict interpretation of the law?

King’s Bench

Historically, there were two courts in England – the King’s Bench and Chancery. In modern practice, the biggest mistake the Founding Fathers made in the United States was to merge the two into the same court. That is what has given judges unbridled discretion to tear up the constitution any time they desire relying on the ancient powers of Chancery rather than the rule of law.

There is a clear distinction between someone who was brought here as a small child, grew up here, married, and had children with an American and a child sent across the border on their own. The deportation of the former would be a injustice not merely to the child who grew up here and is unfamiliar with the customs of his parent’s origins no less their own children here who are Americans depriving them of a parent. The deportation of the latter would not be an injustice.

Court of Chancery

The most important distinction between law (King’s Bench) and equity, which was administered by the Court of Chancery,  is the set of remedies each offers. The most common civil remedy a court of law can award is monetary damages. Equity, however, enters injunctions or decrees directing someone either to act or to forbear from acting. By the 14th century, the English Court of  Chancery was affording remedies where the strict procedures of the common law worked injustice or could not provide a remedy to a deserving petitioner. The writ of Habeas Corpus was equity – not law. The judges or Chancellors presiding in Chancery were often theological in background yet were also knowledgeable of Roman law and canon law. Over time, a body of rules emerged but they varied from Chancellor to Chancellor and they tended to become more fixed only during the 17th century. The became the system of precedent much like its common-law cousin.

The Court of Chancery assumed a vital role in many areas from false or unjust imprisonment to establishing a framework that the common law could not accommodate. This role gave rise to the basic distinction between legal and equitable interests. However, when one hands discretion to any judge, the net result is always, and without exception, the progression of corruption. By the 19th century, the Court of Chancery was hopelessly corrupt and as such, so was the United States Federal courts because the Founding Fathers merely this discretion with the rule of law and as such there can be no rule of law that is consistent in the United States.

The distinction of a child who grew up here and married an American and one that was recently pushed across the border is of tremendous importance. To deport the former will deprive children of their parent. This is what Chancery was for at the beginning. Unfortunately, we no longer have a court of real chancery nor do we have a court of law. The federal Judiciary is a corrupt system incapable of honoring either the law or equity.

In 1853, Bleak House was written by Charles Dickens, in which he describes how corrupt Chancery became during the 19th century. He concluded, “Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!” That was a sad statement of what had become of honor, dignity, and justice. We have reached that same point in American history where there is nothing left.

” On such an afternoon some score of members of the High Court of Chancery bar ought to be–as here they are–mistily engaged in one of the ten thousand stages of an endless cause, tripping one another up on slippery precedents, groping knee-deep in technicalities, running their goat-hair and horsehair warded heads against walls of words and making a pretence of equity with serious faces, as players might. …  This is the Court of Chancery, which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire, which has its worn-out lunatic in every madhouse and its dead in every churchyard, which has its ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of every man’s acquaintance, which gives to monied might the means abundantly of wearying out the right, which so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope, so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart, that there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give–who does not often give–the warning, “Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!”

Sep 3 2017

Macron wants a Federal Budget for All of the Eurozone


Armstrong Economics Blog/European Union

Re-Posted Sep 3, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron is coming out arguing for the total federalization of Europe proposing that there should be a budget for the Eurozone of hundreds of billions of euros. Macron’s position is that this budget should represent several points of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Eurozone. It should be possible, Macron said, to collect money together in the markets and “allocate it with sufficient force” for all.

He also has made it clear that the GDP of all euro area countries was €10.7 trillion in 2016 according to Eurostat. He makes it clear that the Eurozone is far too restrictive in its budget policy when compared with the policies of China, Russia or the United States. He has made it clear that this is the cause of the high unemployment in Europe among the youth.

France has very high unemployment as is the case in most Eurozone countries. The debt of the Eurozone countries has escalated and as in France there is a growing gap between expenditure and tax collection. Some fear that the creation of such a common euro budget will lead to even more government debt as countries pump out debt to try to stimulate their economies.

Macron is correct that there is a huge problem that is eating away at the Eurozone. The restrictive policies are because of Germany’s fear of inflation that they went through during the 1920s. They wrongly attribute inflation to the increase in money supply and ignore the fact that it was a collapse in confidence given the 1918 revolution led by Communists in Germany.

Macron wants to push forward with his proposals for a further development of the monetary union after the German Bundestag election. Merkel will certainly not entertain any such proposal before the election. Still, Macron is way off the mark. Increasing the spending and debt with rising taxes will still fail to reverse the economic decline. The Eurozone must be restructured or it cannot survive.