Demonize and Distract: Sanitizing Syria for the Masses  


From Counter Punch JASON HIRTHLER Summoning the Humanitarian Pretext The arch pragmatist Machiavelli once wrote that, “If you watch the ways of men, you will see that those who obtain great wealth …

Source: Demonize and Distract: Sanitizing Syria for the Masses  

Failed EU Design – The Great Divide West v East


EU Parliament

QUESTION: I saw you at your presentation in Dresden last year. Things in the East are rather different from the West in Europe. Do you have any comments on this great divide?

Thank you for coming to Dresden.

KMV

ANSWER: There is a great divide in Europe between East and West that is rarely, if ever, talked about. A tremendous disparity has emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Euroland is not one happy place. Indeed, some countries are members of all European integration levels (EU, Eurozone, Schengen), such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. This stands in contrast as other countries are members of the EU and of the Schengen area, but not the Eurozone such as Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Some others are just EU members, forming a second-class member status, including Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania as well as Britain even before BREXIT. There remains a reluctance to provide these countries with the privilege of the freedom of movement within Europe (Schengen area). To this chaos, we add the candidate states who were promised to be taken into consideration for immediate membership, but remain in political limbo such as Georgia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Consequently, we have a hodgepodge of combinations with varying degrees of integration that embed different rights from one member to another. This creates real inequalities of treatment within the Euroland experiment. Eurozone member countries (those who use the euro) try to appear lofty and superior. Romania was actually the first country to apply for EU membership back in 1995. Nonetheless, Bulgaria and Romania are at risk of being left on the other side of the new Euro Wall being constructed by Brussels. Such a development would politically exclude these two countries and leave the risk that the Balkan region could end back within the Russia sphere when the economy turns down harder.

This great divide between East and West is a critical issue that threatens the stability of the entire EU plan. The refugee crisis has agitated the situation as the Schengen agreement begins to crumble. Furthermore, within Western Europe Eurozone, the cultural differences remain and all the attempts to force the federalization upon them has failed as evidenced by BREXIT impacting separatist movements.

Then we have Central and Eastern Europe who are not one homogeneous culture and they are at a great disparity economically. Average wages in Central and Eastern Europe range between €350 in Bulgaria and about €1100 Slovenia, which is only on par with the poorest countries in Western Europe such as Greece and Portugal. Wages in Bulgaria are about €330, which is even less than the Chinese earn.

Therefore, the entire idea of federalizing Europe has utterly failed. Adopting a single currency becomes highly deflationary because of these great disparities.

Dow Down this Week with Hillary & Rate Hikes


djind-d-9-10-2016

We should see a new low this week in the share markets as concern over a rate hike hits the markets globally coming from the Fed and Hillary they have finally said on Sunday has pneumonia.

We will provide the timing arrays for this week on the Private Blog for client eyes only.

When Increasing Money Supply Produces Deflation


draghi-crisis

The Telegraph has come out stating bluntly “ECB’s Mario Draghi has run out of magic as deflation closes in.” The confidence level in central banks I have been warning will decline. This is the prerequisite for the Phase Transition that lies ahead. At  the very core of this entire collapse in confidence in all levels of government lies in the socialist philosophy of Marxist-Keynesianism blended with monetary theory.

supply-demandAll the gold promoters who hate my guts and have been insisting I am wrong, actually share the very same theory with Mario Draghi which has proven to be utterly disastrous. They have both assumed that increasing the money supply will produce inflation. On the surface, it sounds logical under the theory of supply and demand. It completely fails because supply may be definable, but demand is dependent upon human emotion. What happened to the hyperinflation that was supposed to engulf the world with quantitative easing? What both camps of gold promoters and central bankers have assumed using this theory, has only exposed their lack of understanding of both history and how the economy functions.

Roman-Hoard-BritainThe only thing that matters is CONFIDENCE for that is what controls demand. You can increase the money supply, but it depends upon public confidence whether or not that will produce any inflation whatsoever. The 3rd century is the chaotic period of Rome when the money supply is dramatically debased. Yet strangely, this is also the same period that we find tremendous hoards of these debased coins being buried as as the British hoard discovered in 2007 with some 52,000 coins. So why hoard debased money if it is worthless? It seems to be a paradox indeed.

roman-emperors-3rd-centuryBetween 235 and 268AD, there were 26 emperors. The political instability was pervasive. The collapse in confidence that sets off hoarding was the emperor Maximinus I who declares all wealth belongs to the state becoming one of the earliest Marxists if you will. He pays rewards to reveal anyone hiding wealth just as the IRS pays rewards today for reporting rich who also have money they are not revealing. This set in motion hoarding on a grand scale. This is stage one that destroys an economy. The hunt for money today is falling this precise course of action.

Roman-Army

Once money begins to hoard hiding from government, the process is never easily reversed. The trust and confidence in being able to freely conduct business collapses. As government cannot pay the pensions it promises, the government employees become aggressive.  Today we have unions in New York and Chicago demanding the government tax the exchanges to pay their pensions as teachers and nurses having nothing to do with the exchange. During the 3rd century, trrops began hailing generals to be emperor so they would get paid. Then cities who supported a rival are sacked to pay the troops.

empires-3rdcentury

POSTUMUS-AR-RestorationWe see at this time Rome splits into three. So we have separatist movements as well. Here is a coin issued by Postumus, the first Gallic Emperor. Britain, France, and Spain separated from Rome as taxes rose. The reverse shows Postumus extending a hand promising restoration of order and prosperity. So we then have separatist movements as we are also witnessing today.

During this part of the economic decline, people hoard. They lose confidence in government so they hoard whatever money they have even debased currency. This gives way to inflation ONLY when they lose all confidence in government. Then they spend the money for the tangible assets. Before that point, DEFLATION prevails because they do not know what form of government will survive.

All the increase in money supply will not stimulate demand. We are in the throes of deflation as people just worry about tomorrow. When they reach the point and question the existence of government, then they will spend the debased money to convert it into tangible assets.

Hunt for Cash – Vancouver Airport Seized $18.7 million from Travelers


vancouver-airport

Over the past 3 years, Vancouver has seized at its airport $18.7 million in undeclared cash of which 70% has been from Chinese. The hunt for money is really outrageous that it is all about taxes and our property rights have been lost. All governments are acting like common criminals robbing people of their property claiming they have no right to travel with their own money. There is no crime just failing to tell them you have money on you.

The hunt for money knows no bounds. All countries are now engaging in the practice of just confiscating your money saying you have no right to move with your money whatsoever. This trend is very disturbing for where is the crime? If you made money in one country and didn’t pay taxes to them but left, why is it a crime to take your money to another country to spend it? Any excuse will now serve as the reason to justify being a common criminal. It is a shame, but this is how governments are degenerating into the dominant totalitarian states eliminating the most basic element of freedom, property rights. That is the major component that distinguish communist states from capitalism – the right to property ownership in the latter which is denied in the former. So we are supposed to be a free society, yet we are nothing remotely free. Government are trying to be just a little pregnant with communism enough to justify robbing people in the name of justice (just us).

Fed Dove Frets about Asset Bubbles, Wall Street Freaks out


From Wolf Street, by Wolf Richter The Fed hawks don’t matter. The doves do! Doubtlessly, the Fed will flip-flop in its elegant manner about rate increases as it has been for over two years, but thi…

Source: Fed Dove Frets about Asset Bubbles, Wall Street Freaks out

9/11 Suspects: Philip Zelikow – YouTube


corbettreport

Source: 9/11 Suspects: Philip Zelikow – YouTube

Germany Prepares For Domestic Troop Deployments As “Catastrophic” Terrorist Attack Deemed “Conceivable, Even Probable”


Source: Zero Hedge Merkel continues to publicly defend her “open border” immigration policies despite continued erosion of her popularity amid rising nationalist sentiments in Germany a…

Source: Germany Prepares For Domestic Troop Deployments As “Catastrophic” Terrorist Attack Deemed “Conceivable, Even Probable”

100,000 Bankers Laid off, so far!


ECM-2015-20

The numbers are in. Banking as indeed seen its peak. Banks in Europe and the US have dismissed 100,000 people last year, the bulk after 2015.75 . The decline is just starting. We are even witnessing the decline in bank employment now in China as well. The high flying jobs in banking have seen their best days. Young bankers use to brag which bank they worked for in New York trying to impress girls. Nowadays, they tend to be silent since bankers are up there in the unfavorable perception with politicians. The bankers have become the most hated profession the world – topping even politicians and physics, so that is saying a lot.

European Companies Scrambling to Issue Debt


ECB European Central Bank

With the ECB expanding its quantitative easing program to include corporate debt, European companies are now scrambling to issue as much debt as they can as cheap rates. These issue are selling BECAUSE it is assumed they have a guaranteed bidder being the ECB. At least this part of the QE is far better than buying government paper. Ferrovial Emisiones SA of Spain sold bonds maturing in September 2022. Schaeffler AG of Germany is now looking to sell €2.8 billion euros of securities. The German household product manufacturer Henkel AG actually issued notes with negative yields, which is again the flood of cash trying to buy German paper as the hedge against the collapse of the euro. Things are heating up in Europe on the debt scene.