Message: I am a great fan of your blog and read all with interest. I was surprised to read £10 notes have been canceled, as I still regularly get £10 and £20 notes and send them even though electronic money transfer is increasingly the norm
MR
REPLY: Britain introduced the new “tenners” last September. There was a period when both could circulate. That term expired here in the Spring of 2018. You can exchange them at a bank, but you must have an account. If you do not have an account like myself, the currency exchange operations charge 20%. The eliminated the paper one pound notes back in 1984. They will be doing the same with £20 notes. They have not yet announced any release date for that one. The speculation is that the £50 notes will be discontinued.
The Bank of England actually prints itself internally £1 million and £100 million pound notes. They are used only internally to back the paper currency issued by other banks such as the Bank of Scotland. They are used to back those notes which are exchangeable to Bank of England notes.
The head of the EU, Jean-Claude Juncker celebrates the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx in Germany. What is really stunning, is that Karl Marx is not merely the champion of Communism which he adopted from the French Commune experiment during the French Revolution, but he has ignored the little fact that no other person in history is responsible for killing tens of millions of people, more than all the wars combined, who gave their lives for his ideology.
To celebrate Karl Marx which advocates suppressing the people and taking all wealth from them and handing it to the state politicians is in itself a demonstration of exactly how the EU looks at its role today. We live in a very dangerous era for this is the collapse of Marxism and they will fight back with every ruthless means possible to save their theory of living off of other people’s money.
China is on its way to reaching the title of the Financial Capital of the World post-2032. However, that is also NOT going to be accomplished all on its own. In part, this is the moving trend and the shift our computer has been forecasting also because the West is in a Sovereign Debt Crisis and by raising taxes and imposing stiff regulations to try to keep the game going, GDP in the West will decline.
Nevertheless, China has some adjustment it must go through before it reaches that goal. It will surpass the EU, but the EU is hard at work of just trying to protect the jobs of bureaucrats rather than to actually make Europe a better place to live. Right now, China’s Debt to GDP stands at 250% mainly because to stimulate their economy, they actually lent money to people. The Western government bought their own bonds back to the “indirectly stimulate” the economy which never made it to the people. This is why Europe is still in deep trouble. The US took the bad loans from the banks and stuffed them in Freddie & Fannie. The EU left the bad loans on the books of the banks because it was seen as a bailout for Southern Europe. Now we have a banking crisis in Europe that never ends.
China’s debt problem is quite different. On the back of a boom in property prices, household borrowing has been climbing for the past 10 years straight. We are now approaching the correction point in this trend. The borrowing had expanded at a pace that exceeded the biggest speculative booms in the West. Now, some $6.7 trillion in personal debt also exists and this is now 50% of GDP. Private debt is now approaching crimping consumer spending power and therefore lies the recession ahead.
We will be focusing on China at the Singapore World Economic Conference in June 2018.
The Chinese government had finished its rail freight service between China and London. This is expanding the New Silk Road creating a direct rail link straight from China to Great Britain. This route moves from Beijing, across Asia and Europe, and then reaches London. Of course, this will move both ways. This will certainly enable a greater array of products to move compared to shipping
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), who track GDP -and- U.S. Labor Department (DoL) Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), who track wage growth, have released the initial sets of analysis for Quarter 1 of this year (Jan-March). The first quarter growth in GDP comes in at 2.3%. [Most estimates initially expected 2.0% or slightly less.]
CBS – […] It’s common for economic growth to slow in the first quarter and then accelerate later in the year. Still, the January-March increase was better than expected: Economists had foreseen a 2 percent annualized rate. In the current quarter, economists expect growth to surpass 3 percent.
The 2.3% first quarter result puts 2018 on track to achieve President Trump’s targeted growth rate: over three percent combined growth for the full year. Due to seasonal fluctuations the first quarter is historically the weakest for GDP growth. The second quarter will likely rebound well above 3.5% as the historic Q1 -vs- Q2 trend shows above.
One of the positive factors driving the strong Q1 outcome was growth in exports that helps to offset climbing imported purchases, and the continued trade deficits which POTUS Trump is confronting.
Additionally, beyond the strong GDP result, we see a very positive sign in wage growth. Year-over-year wage growth well exceeded expectations at 2.9%
Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 2.8 percent over the year. Wages and salaries increased 2.9 percent for the current 12-month period. (link)
Continual wage growth is a part of President Trump’s MAGAnomic policy; and remember the lowered tax rates went into effect in December. Meaning Q1 wages were higher and simultaneously income tax withholding on those wages are lower… that means more take home pay. Emphasis:More Take-Home Pay!!
CTH has been predicting that MAGAnomics as applied would mean in “Quarter Two” of this year we would begin the period of strongest wage rate growth in three decades. [ FYI, that’s right now ] We have repeatedly predicted that April through June 2018 is the beginning of “the big lift” in blue-collar wages.
A key part of the America-First MAGAnomic ‘Main Street’ policy is to protect the middle-class by driving wages up at a faster rate than the rate of inflation.
This is how the middle-class is able to afford a higher standard of living, and simultaneously ‘savers’ will gain higher rates of return on their savings.
For 30 years economic policy was doing exactly the opposite; now, with MAGAnomics in full swing, we are reversing that trend. CNBC begins to note the activity:
CNBC – […] According to surveys, the tax cuts did not reflect on many workers’ paychecks until late in the first quarter. Income at the disposal of households increased at a 3.4 percent rate in the first quarter, accelerating from the fourth quarter’s 1.1 percent pace. Households also boosted savings during the quarter. (link)
Absolutely stunning remarks today from North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un. Not only do both Kim Jong-un (North) and Moon Jae-in (South) discuss peace, but the DPRK actually goes the full-way-forward toward a unified Korean peninsular. Jumping ju-ju bones, these remarks are absolutely gobsmacking.
Kim Jong-un remarks begin at 09:00 of video below. MUST WATCH:
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This is incredible. Not only does Kim Jong-un commit to a fully denuclearized Korean peninsular, but also the ending of all hostilities; the end of the Korean war; and stunningly the process to begin entering a phase for a completely unified North and South Korea.
We had a generally optimistic sense about swords turned to plowshares because we could see the outline of the approach last year, but this sequence of events goes way beyond what was even contemplated… I’m speechless.
“Rebranding Kim Jong-un Will Likely Be a Key Part of The Strategy“
Almost everyone understands the term “re branding”. Don’t laugh when you consider the possibility of re-branding Kim Jong-un; and more importantly, as an outcome, the entire geopolitical architecture of North Korea. Rebranding takes time. This type of re branding takes silent and subtle persuasion.
It’s not a short term process, but look for indicators like this to ever-so-slowly morph. China’s Xi Jinping seeding ploughshares over missiles needs careful and controlled fertilization.
Business suits replacing General’s uniforms would be very good for the people of North Korea. Ultimately that’s an honorable goal.
We’re talking about massive amounts of distrust and psychological misinformation to overcome – because China previously benefited from using/supporting North Korea as a hostile proxy province toward the collective enemy. That historic approach and use of N-Korea was the winning hand for China.
The winning economic hand for China, specifically Chairman/President Xi Jinping now rests on being able to change the direction of the DPRK and Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-un’s sense of self and disposition has been defined by rockets, military and such. His personal currency is ‘loyalty’ and how ‘loved’ he perceives himself to be in the eyes of his audience.
In order for China to generate enough influence (toward the larger objective of shifting away from militaristic endeavors) Chairman Xi Jinping will now need to shift emphasis on what generates Kim Jong-un’s currency. Loyalty and love must be achieved by alternate methods. Seeds must be planted, fertilized and nurtured.
Turning rockets into ploughshares is a good strategy.
[…] “Here in Seoul, architectural wonders like the Sixty-Three Building and the Lotte World Tower — very beautiful — grace the sky and house the workers of many growing industries.
Your citizens now help to feed the hungry, fight terrorism, and solve problems all over the world. And in a few months, you will host the world and you will do a magnificent job at the 23rd Olympic Winter Games. Good luck. (Applause.)
The Korean miracle extends exactly as far as the armies of free nations advanced in 1953 — 24 miles to the north. There, it stops; it all comes to an end. Dead stop. The flourishing ends, and the prison state of North Korea sadly begins.
Workers in North Korea labor grueling hours in unbearable conditions for almost no pay. Recently, the entire working population was ordered to work for 70 days straight, or else pay for a day of rest.
Families live in homes without plumbing, and fewer than half have electricity. Parents bribe teachers in hopes of saving their sons and daughters from forced labor. More than a million North Koreans died of famine in the 1990s, and more continue to die of hunger today.
Among children under the age of five, nearly 30 percent of afflicted — and are afflicted by stunted growth due to malnutrition. And yet, in 2012 and 2013, the regime spent an estimated $200 million — or almost half the money that it allocated to improve living standards for its people — to instead build even more monuments, towers, and statues to glorify its dictators.
What remains of the meager harvest of the North Korean economy is distributed according to perceived loyalty to a twisted regime. Far from valuing its people as equal citizens, this cruel dictatorship measures them, scores them, and ranks them based on the most arbitrary indications of their allegiance to the state.
Those who score the highest in loyalty may live in the capital city. Those who score the lowest starve. A small infraction by one citizen, such as accidently staining a picture of the tyrant printed in a discarded newspaper, can wreck the social credit rank of his entire family for many decades.
An estimated 100,000 North Koreans suffer in gulags, toiling in forced labor, and enduring torture, starvation, rape, and murder on a constant basis.
In one known instance, a 9-year-old boy was imprisoned for 10 years because his grandfather was accused of treason. In another, a student was beaten in school for forgetting a single detail about the life of Kim Jong-un.
Soldiers have kidnapped foreigners and forced them to work as language tutors for North Korean spies.
In the part of Korea that was a stronghold for Christianity before the war, Christians and other people of faith who are found praying or holding a religious book of any kind are now detained, tortured, and in many cases, even executed.
North Korean women are forced to abort babies that are considered ethnically inferior. And if these babies are born, the newborns are murdered.
One womans baby born to a Chinese father was taken away in a bucket. The guards said it did not deserve to live because it was impure.
So why would China feel an obligation to help North Korea?
The horror of life in North Korea is so complete that citizens pay bribes to government officials to have themselves exported aboard as slaves. They would rather be slaves than live in North Korea.
To attempt to flee is a crime punishable by death. One person who escaped remarked, “When I think about it now, I was not a human being. I was more like an animal. Only after leaving North Korea did I realize what life was supposed to be.”
And so, on this peninsula, we have watched the results of a tragic experiment in a laboratory of history. It is a tale of one people, but two Koreas. One Korea in which the people took control of their lives and their country, and chose a future of freedom and justice, of civilization, and incredible achievement. And another Korea in which leaders imprison their people under the banner of tyranny, fascism, and oppression. The result of this experiment are in, and they are totally conclusive.
When the Korean War began in 1950, the two Koreas were approximately equal in GDP per capita. But by the 1990s, South Koreas wealth had surpassed North Korea’s by more than 10 times. And today, the Souths economy is over 40 times larger. You started the same a short while ago, and now you’re 40 times larger. You’re doing something right.
Considering the misery wrought by the North Korean dictatorship, it is no surprise that it has been forced to take increasingly desperate measures to prevent its people from understanding this brutal contrast.
Because the regime fears the truth above all else, it forbids virtually all contact with the outside world. Not just my speech today, but even the most commonplace facts of South Korean life are forbidden knowledge to the North Korean people. Western and South Korean music is banned. Possession of foreign media is a crime punishable by death. Citizens spy on fellow citizens, their homes are subject to search at any time, and their every action is subject to surveillance. In place of a vibrant society, the people of North Korea are bombarded by state propaganda practically every waking hour of the day.
North Korea is a country ruled as a cult. At the center of this military cult is a deranged belief in the leaders destiny to rule as parent protector over a conquered Korean Peninsula and an enslaved Korean people.
The more successful South Korea becomes, the more decisively you discredit the dark fantasy at the heart of the Kim regime.
In this way, the very existence of a thriving South Korean republic threatens the very survival of the North Korean dictatorship.
This city and this assembly are living proof that a free and independent Korea not only can, but does stand strong, sovereign, and proud among the nations of the world. (Applause.)
Here, the strength of the nation does not come from the false glory of a tyrant. It comes from the true and powerful glory of a strong and great people — the people of the Republic of Korea — a Korean people who are free to live, to flourish, to worship, to love, to build, and to grow their own destiny.
In this Republic, the people have done what no dictator ever could — you took, with the help of the United States, responsibility for yourselves and ownership of your future. You had a dream — a Korean dream — and you built that dream into a great reality.
In so doing, you performed the miracle on the Hahn that we see all around us, from the stunning skyline of Seoul to the plains and peaks of this beautiful landscape. You have done it freely, you have done it happily, and you have done it in your own very beautiful way.
This reality — this wonderful place — your success is the greatest cause of anxiety, alarm, and even panic to the North Korean regime. That is why the Kim regime seeks conflict abroad — to distract from total failure that they suffer at home.
Since the so-called armistice, there have been hundreds of North Korean attacks on Americans and South Koreans. These attacks have included the capture and torture of the brave American soldiers of the USS Pueblo, repeated assaults on American helicopters, and the 1969 drowning [downing] of a U.S. surveillance plane that killed 31 American servicemen. The regime has made numerous lethal incursions in South Korea, attempted to assassinate senior leaders, attacked South Korean ships, and tortured Otto Warmbier, ultimately leading to that fine young man’s death.
All the while, the regime has pursued nuclear weapons with the deluded hope that it could blackmail its way to the ultimate objective. And that objective we are not going to let it have. We are not going to let it have. All of Korea is under that spell, divided in half. South Korea will never allow what’s going on in North Korea to continue to happen.
The North Korean regime has pursued its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in defiance of every assurance, agreement, and commitment it has made to the United States and its allies. It’s broken all of those commitments. After promising to freeze its plutonium program in 1994, it repeated [reaped] the benefits of the deal and then — and then immediately continued its illicit nuclear activities.
In 2005, after years of diplomacy, the dictatorship agreed to ultimately abandon its nuclear programs and return to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation. But it never did. And worse, it tested the very weapons it said it was going to give up. In 2009, the United States gave negotiations yet another chance, and offered North Korea the open hand of engagement. The regime responded by sinking a South Korean Navy ship, killing 46 Korean sailors. To this day, it continues to launch missiles over the sovereign territory of Japan and all other neighbors, test nuclear devices, and develop ICBMs to threaten the United States itself. The regime has interpreted Americas past restraint as weakness. This would be a fatal miscalculation. This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past.
Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations, when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us, and do not try us. We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity, and our sacred liberty.
We did not choose to draw here, on this peninsula — (applause) — this magnificent peninsula — the thin line of civilization that runs around the world and down through time. But here it was drawn, and here it remains to this day. It is the line between peace and war, between decency and depravity, between law and tyranny, between hope and total despair. It is a line that has been drawn many times, in many places, throughout history. To hold that line is a choice free nations have always had to make. We have learned together the high cost of weakness and the high stakes of its defense.
America’s men and women in uniform have given their lives in the fight against Nazism, imperialism, Communism and terrorism.
America does not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will never run from it. History is filled with discarded regimes that have foolishly tested Americas resolve.
Anyone who doubts the strength or determination of the United States should look to our past, and you will doubt it no longer. We will not permit America or our allies to be blackmailed or attacked. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated. And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground, we fought and died so hard to secure. (Applause.)
That is why I have come here, to the heart of a free and flourishing Korea, with a message for the peace-loving nations of the world: The time for excuses is over. Now is the time for strength. If you want peace, you must stand strong at all times. (Applause.) The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens with nuclear devastation.
All responsible nations must join forces to isolate the brutal regime of North Korea — to deny it and any form — any form of it. You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept. We call on every nation, including China and Russia, to fully implement U.N. Security Council resolutions, downgrade diplomatic relations with the regime, and sever all ties of trade and technology.
[…] It is our responsibility and our duty to confront this danger together — because the longer we wait, the greater the danger grows, and the fewer the options become. (Applause.) And to those nations that choose to ignore this threat, or, worse still, to enable it, the weight of this crisis is on your conscience.
I also have come here to this peninsula to deliver a message directly to the leader of the North Korean dictatorship: The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer. They are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face.
North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. It is a hell that no person deserves. Yet, despite every crime you have committed against God and man, you are ready to offer, and we will do that — we will offer a path to a much better future. It begins with an end to the aggression of your regime, a stop to your development of ballistic missiles, and complete, verifiable, and total denuclearization. (Applause.)
A sky-top view of this peninsula shows a nation of dazzling light in the South and a mass of impenetrable darkness in the North. We seek a future of light, prosperity, and peace. But we are only prepared to discuss this brighter path for North Korea if its leaders cease their threats and dismantle their nuclear program.
The sinister regime of North Korea is right about only one thing: The Korean people do have a glorious destiny, but they could not be more wrong about what that destiny looks like. The destiny of the Korean people is not to suffer in the bondage of oppression, but to thrive in the glory of freedom. (Applause.)
What South Koreans have achieved on this peninsula is more than a victory for your nation. It is a victory for every nation that believes in the human spirit. And it is our hope that, someday soon, all of your brothers and sisters of the North will be able to enjoy the fullest of life intended by God.
Wow. You have to watch this video to see how history was just encapsulated.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet at the village of Panmunjom, the historic site where the Korean War armistice was signed in 1953 for the start of talks between the two countries.
Their unified meeting is the third inter-Korean summit, but this meeting is the first time a leader from the communist North has entered the democratic South. South Korea then holds a welcoming ceremony for the North Korean leader that includes full military honors and a military guard review.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un writes: “new history starts now; age of peace, from the starting point of history” on guest visitor book at Peace House.
WHITE HOUSE – On the occasion of Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-ins historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, we wish the Korean people well. We are hopeful that talks will achieve progress toward a future of peace and prosperity for the entire Korean Peninsula.
The United States appreciates the close coordination with our ally, the Republic of Korea, and looks forward to continuing robust discussions in preparation for the planned meeting between President Donald J. Trump and Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks.
The protests in Armenia are continuing. Now Al-Jazeera reports that the soldiers are joining the people. Back on April 23rd, Armenia celebrated the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan, the man who had ruled Armenia for ten years as president/dictator and then for a week changing his title to the Prime Minister. Everyone celebrated and shops ran out of champagne. However, the protesters are back on the streets now realizing that you can get rid of the head of state, but the bureaucracy remains. That is our problem in t6he USA where the bureaucracy is trying to overthrow Trump.
As most put it in Armenia, they overthrew the “tsar”, now they are protesting to overthrow Tsarism. The new acting Prime Minister, Karen Karapetyan, represents the status quo ruling Republican Party without standing for election as in the European Commission. Now we can add Armenia to the long list of countries where people are rising up against the establishment.
The Greek tax authorities are really destroying any semblance of a free society all to satisfy the EU. Tax agents have been pretending to rent houses for a vacation and then monitoring if the people pay taxes. The government is pro-actively sending out people to do business and they are looking to see what you do. God help you if you do not report finding €10 in the parking lot. The Greek people have gotten NOTHING out of the Euro. Had they stayed out of the Euro, tourism would be up for it would be the cheap place to go, although it has finally risen 8% in 2017 as the cold weather in the north has sent Europeans fleeing to the sun. As tourism hit a record high, the tax man wants their action.
You keep saying “the world monetary system will have to be reformed.”
Spill! What do you hear behind the curtain?
Cheers,
EM
ANSWER: I just returned from Europe where I had meetings with some high levels of interest. The great concern in Europe is the end of QE for there is a serious lack of liquidity. This is part of what is behind the drive to take Euro trading from London and hand it to Paris. The problem is obvious. There are those in Brussels who think that if the free markets go against them, they will be able to freeze the Euro to prevent a crash. I explained that they would not be able to take it from New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney without ending it as a free currency. When I asked if they intended to convert the Euro to the old Russian Ruble of Soviet days, I did not get a reply.
In the USA, there is the realization that it is NOT a good thing for the dollar to be the Reserve Currency. This has made the Federal Reserve the effective world central bank. That has resulted in the Fed losing the power to control the domestic economy because of lobbying not to raise rates from Emerging Markets, Europe, and the IMF because it will hurt their economies which are in worse shape.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to pass a law and declare that the dollar is not the Reserve Currency any longer. That is not a factor of anything that Washington can control unless they convert the dollar to a restricted currency much akin to the Japanese yen. Anyone can issue a contract or borrow dollars in any country. You cannot issue a note or bond in Japanese yen without going back to the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo for their permission.
The British have again canceled their currency up to the ten-pound notes. Try and spend a 10’er and you cannot. Go to a currency exchange and they will take it at a 20% discount. As for the coins, you can donate them to a charity who can exchange them but you can’t. This is why the US dollar is also the Reserve Currency – it has NEVER been canceled. Europe has always done this to prevent people from hoarding cash.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
