Tag Archives: Chrystialand

Apr 7 2023

Who is Funding Ukraine? 


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Apr 7, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Every week, there is a new announcement of the US pledging additional aid to Ukraine. Biden has provided Zelensky with a blank check to fund this war while his own country’s infrastructure crumbles. The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative led by the Department of Defense is providing Ukraine with another $2.1 billion for funding. The announcement came the same day that Finland joined NATO, and Russia promised retaliation. This means Zelensky will have both hands out begging for more at your expense.

“Russia alone could end its war today,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement. “Until Russia does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes.” Longtime warmonger Blinken knows that Russia will never retreat. The war will go on until something catastrophic occurs. It is hard to determine how much the US has spent on Ukraine but the CBO estimated the amount was around $113 in 2022. If there are 131.2 million households in America, that means each household paid around $861 to fund a war that does not involve America or any of America’s allegiances. Obviously some pay more and some pay less based on the constantly changing tax brackets. Those who read this blog understand, but for those who think the money is coming out of the politicians’ pockets…

YOU ARE FUNDING UKRAINE! Your name is on the blank check! When you file your taxes this year, know that a portion of what the government withheld went directly to a foreign war. In fact, every day you work, you’re giving a piece to Zelensky. There is no account of exactly how they are using these funds. Meanwhile, American infrastructure is crumbling. Our schools are underfunded, homelessness is rampant, shelter costs have soared, poverty rates are rising, our medical system bankrupts families daily, millions of unaccounted aliens are crossing into our country, and your taxes are rising to pay for it all!

You will pay more money every year that this senseless war wages on. So if someone with no personal connections to Ukraine waves their yellow and blue flag and claims Biden is defeating big bad Russia, ask them if they’d like to pay your portion of the proxy war effort. The people never voted for these measures that have gone far beyond any aid we have sent to a foreign war effort.

Apr 7 2023

Epic Panda!


Posted originally on the CTH on April 6, 2023 | Sundance 

This is the funniest thing in months.  Take the time to enjoy and laugh folks… Really, take the time.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in Beijing for an official state visit and his geopolitical priority is to break, or at least weaken, the China-Russia alliance. Yes, the western alliance sent diminutive Macron for this task.  That is funny enough… but what comes next is buckets funnier.

In order to give power to their position, the brilliant NATO minds decided that President Macron should take European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as a way to express the united ‘western alliance’ message that Macron was intended to leverage in his efforts.  Obviously cunning Panda knew the intent, and the way China literally diminished the effort is not only funny in diplomatic action, but also in the optics they present.  LOOK:

Upon arrival in Beijing, and customary with keeping good panda face, Macron “was given the full red-carpet treatment this week in Beijing, fêted at a state banquet, and greeted by military parades and firing cannons on Tiananmen Square. When Macron’s plane touched down, China’s foreign minister personally welcomed him.”  However, “when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived, she got the ecology minister — at the regular passenger exit.” [link]

Big Panda is subtle like a brick through a window. lolol.

(Politico) – […] While Macron’s schedule was overflowing, von der Leyen’s was bare-bones. While Macron was attending a lavish state banquet Thursday night with Chinese President Xi Jinping, von der Leyen was giving a sober press conference at the EU delegation’s own headquarters. While state media trumpeted the Sino-French relationship, Chinese social media demonized von der Leyen as an American puppet.

The distinction illustrates the difficulties Europe is having in dealing with China. The EU’s 27 members have an array of opinions about how to approach China — and Beijing knows this. And in the case of Macron and von der Leyen, Beijing sees a greater chance to make headway with the French leader, rendering the EU executive to a somewhat subordinate position.

The strategy was on full display Thursday, as Xi descended the outsized steps of the Great Hall of the People to greet the French president with smiles and a handshake. Below a line of flapping red flags, the two leaders exchanged greetings with a gathering that included some of Macron’s advisers. 

Not present: von der Leyen. She would join later for the meetings, walking up the Great Hall stairs in solitude. (read more)

The only world leader who was/is able to diminute Chairman Xi Jinping, was U.S. President Donald Trump.

This entire effort by Macron and Von der Leyen is an exhibition in painful and slow-moving Panda humiliation.  Even Politico had to note the cringe factor that surrounds the diplomatic undressing.

Even if you don’t like Big Panda, and obviously we do not, you still have to give them credit.  It really is funny.

Well played, big panda… Well played. 

Apr 7 2023

Protests Continue in France Against Macron’s Unilateral Decision to Raise Worker Retirement Age


April 6, 2023 | Sundance

The labor unions are trying to maintain the momentum against French President Emmanuel Macron’s unilateral decision to raise the retirement age.  However, despite nationwide majority support, on the 11th day of a national strike there are fewer protests disrupting commerce.

On the positive side, the offices of Blackrock were targeted and torched.  So, we know the focus is generally on the right multinational target.  Meanwhile, President Macron is in Beijing, China, getting slapped around by the panda paw.

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PARIS (Reuters) -Clashes erupted in Paris next to a Left Bank brasserie favoured by French President Emmanuel Macron during a day of nationwide protests against a pension bill that he has pushed through despite widespread opposition.

La Rotonde, whose awning was briefly on fire as protesters threw bottles and paint at police, is well known in France for hosting a much-criticised celebratory dinner for Macron when he led the first round of the 2017 presidential election.

Protests since January have gathered huge crowds against the flagship reform of Macron’s second term, which lifts the retirement age by two years to 64.

But the rallies and strikes have also coalesced widespread anger against the president, who is often the target of banners and chants.

“Strike, blockade, Macron walk away!” protesters chanted in the western city of Rennes, where police fired tear gas at protesters who threw projectiles at them and set bins on fire.

The protests have otherwise been largely peaceful, though violence has broken out on the fringes in cities across France. On Thursday, a Credit Agricole bank branch was ransacked in Paris.

Polls show a wide majority of voters oppose the pension legislation and the government’s decision to push it through parliament without a vote. But a source close to Macron said that was not what mattered.  (read more)

Apr 6 2023

Criticizing Government Leaders is now a Crime #MacronOrdure


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Apr 6, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Free speech no longer exists. People are now scared to speak out against their government as if they were in the old USSR. Emmanuel Macron is an absolute tyrant and the French people have had enough. The protests in France over pension reforms receive little news coverage by design. The elite do not want the people to see how tyrannical governments across the world have become.

A French woman is facing criminal charges for simply speaking out against Macron on her personal Facebook page. “L’ordure va parler demain à 13 heures, pour les gens qui ne sont rien, c’est tjrs (sic) à la télé que l’on trouve les ordures,” the post read (translation: “This piece of filth is going to address you at 1:00 pm… it’s always on television that we see this filth”). French police went directly to the woman’s home to arrest her. “I asked them if it was a joke, I had never been arrested,” she said. “I am not public enemy number one.”

She has been charged with “insulting the president of the republic” and will face trial in June. She could be forced to pay up to 12,000 euros for saying the president was “filth” (other English translations say “garbage”) She did not incite violence or do anything other than post her views on social media. Clearly, the government wants to make an example out of this woman. Will the people of France be forced to frame pictures of Macron in their homes as they do with Kim Jung-Un in North Korea?

This innocent woman is claiming now that autocorrect changed “l’or dur” (“hard gold”) into an insult and is pleading for forgiveness. “I did make this post but I wanted to make a pun and write “hard gold,” the proof-check changed it and I didn’t proofread it before sending. Besides, I don’t even mention him.” French Politician François Ruffin denounced the trial by stating, “Soon the return of the crime against the crown?” In fact, insulting the crown was a criminal offense in France until 2013.

The French people are doubling down on their protests, and #MacronOrdure has gone viral on Twitter. We have seen countless world leaders across “free” nations do everything in their power to silence opposition. We are not free when our politicians can control our speech.

Apr 6 2023

Tucker Carlson Outlines the Ramification of Trillions in U.S. Treasury Bonds No Longer Needed as Global Securities


Posted originally on the CTH on April 5, 2023 Sundance

For his opening monologue and first interview tonight, Fox News host Tucker Carlson outlined the ramification of non-western nations now trading in alternative currencies to the U.S. dollar.   {Direct Rumble Link Here]  As the dollar diminishes in value, and as an outcome of Biden using U.S. treasury bonds as part of the sanction regime against Russia, various non-western nations now perceive holding dollars as exposing themselves to risk.

Carlson is joined by Luke Gromen who accurately notes the dollar as a global trade currency may continue, but foreign nations holding U.S. treasury bonds as an asset will likely start contracting.  The result of U.S. treasury bonds returning after maturity with no repurchase, would be an inability of the U.S. to borrow against their sale. This could, perhaps likely will, severely diminish the amount of money the U.S. congress can spend.  WATCH:

None of this should come as a surprise to those who have paid attention. Factually, in March of last year, one month after the Russian sanctions were announced, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Deputy Managing Director said the sanctions against Russia are likely to undermine the US dollar’s global dominance as a trade currency.  Everyone could see this coming.

(Inside Paper) – March 2022 – […] “The dollar would remain the major global currency even in that landscape, but fragmentation at a smaller level is certainly quite possible,” Gopinath said in an interview with the Financial Times.  She went on to say that some countries have already begun to renegotiate the currency in which they are paid for trade.

According to Gopinath, the drastic restrictions imposed by Western countries in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine may result in the formation of small currency blocs based on trade between individual groups of countries.  Furthermore, the use of currencies other than the dollar or the euro in global trade would result in a further diversification of central banks’ reserve assets. (read more)

The efforts of NATO and the western alliance to crush the Russian currency have failed.  The Russian ruble currency has jumped back from the sanctions and is now even stronger than before the sanctions were put into place.

With China and India supporting ongoing trade with Russia, and with Saudi Arabia responding coldly to the U.S. working on a deal with Iran for nuclear weapons, the geopolitical strategy of NATO, G7 and the proverbial western alliance increasingly looks like it will backfire.

Yellow Team -vs- Gray Team: Remember, China just brokered a deal to lessen hostilities between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The fulcrum of that agreement was economics.

Meanwhile in North America, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador has said he was not willing to join the energy suicide pact pushed by Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau…. A policy break in the trilateral relationship which suddenly, and not coincidentally, aligns with the timing to make Mexico a pariah to the U.S. vis-a-vis a renewed media push on the drug cartel narrative.

BIG PICTURE NOT BEING DISCUSSED – The western politicians followed the climate change instructions of the WEF multinational corporations and banks (Build Back Better) and post-pandemic immediately started reducing energy development. The central bankers then began raising interest rates to shrink the economies of the same western nations to the scale of the now diminished energy production.

The raising of interest rates is now hitting the national and multinational banks impacted by government policy that was following WEF orders. Now the western politicians are stepping in with the government controlled central banks to backstop the national banks and multinationals. Can you see the dynamic?

Team yellow is suffering the consequences of their own ideological policy as enacted. Team grey is not going to help team yellow get out of a crisis team yellow created, which was intended to hurt team grey.

…. And we continue watching.

Apr 5 2023

Japan Secures Oil Deal with Russia


Armstrong Economics Blog/World Trade Re-Posted Apr 5, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Japan is an energy-dependent nation that relies on imports to function. Despite being a G7 member, Japan has remained largely silent on the Russia-Ukraine war and is the only member to deny Zelensky’s pleas for weapons. The prime minister was the last in the alliance to visit Ukraine amid the war. The G7 nations set a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian crude but granted Japan a pass.

Japan has purchased nearly 748,000 barrels of Russian oil for $70 a piece in the first two months of the year alone. All of the MSM headlines read: “JAPAN BREAKS ALLIANCE WITH WESTERN ALLIES,” as if there were an alternative. Even conservative outlets are saying that Japan has broken ties with the West. Japan is unwilling to deliberately allow its nation to crumble from an energy shortage, unlike the “Build Back Better” nations.

Oil prices surged on Monday after OPEC+ announced plans to limit production, which will lead to a rise in global prices. Energy costs affect the cost of everything from the supply chain to food. Yet, the countries that have the ability to drill, such as the US and Canada, are refusing to do so despite energy prices significantly contributing to overall inflation and economic instability.

The West chastised India and China for purchasing Russian oil. They don’t want to lose their Japanese ally and are attempting to give them a “free pass,” but only until September. What happens then? Will Japan be forced to break its alliance with the G7? The West was hoping that longstanding tensions between China and Japan would push them into this proxy war, but the Japanese government is not willing to implode its economy. Let us also remember that Japan was forced to close numerous nuclear power plants after the earthquake hit in 2011. They are completely reliant on imports. It seems that only nations willing to surrender their economies in the name of abandoning fossil fuels, with no alternative, are ousted from the West’s good graces.

Apr 5 2023

NATO Promotes WW3 with Finland’s Membership


Blog/War

Posted Apr 5, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

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Finland has officially become the 31st member of NATO. “Finland has today become a member of the defense alliance NATO. The era of military non-alignment in our history has come to an end. A new era begins,” Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö mistakenly celebrated. It is clear that Finland does not understand Russia’s motives for the war in Ukraine.

Finland shares an 832-mile border with Russia, doubling the size of NATO’s borders with Russia. Russia is now surrounded, backed into a corner. Russia’s national security is in jeopardy, and will not choose flight over fight. This is precisely what Russia had been arguing against for years. Finland was not under threat of attack from Russia and did not need global military protection, nor did it need to spend a portion of its GDP to push forward the war effort.

“Finland’s membership is not targeted against anyone. Nor does it change the foundations or objectives of Finland’s foreign and security policy. Finland is a stable and predictable Nordic country that seeks peaceful resolution of disputes,” the new president also stated. Russia certainly did not see this as a neutral act. “We will strengthen our military capabilities in the west and northwest if NATO members deploy forces and equipment on Finnish territory,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow will prepare “counter-measures to ensure our own security, both tactically and strategically.”

Finland has not aligned with other military powers in nearly 80 years. US Neocon Anthony Blinken was foaming at the mouth for this partnership to take place. Finland’s people were safe and uninvolved in this proxy war before Tuesday. Everyone cheering that Finland has joined “the good guys” fails to realize this directly escalates the conflict to new proportions. What started as a land dispute between two neighboring countries has overtaken the world, and all leaders are willing to risk the lives of their people to “win” this war. Ukraine is now loudly voicing its desire to join NATO, which would guarantee a full-scale world war. The chess players are aligning their players, and it is only a matter of time before mass destruction takes place that changes the world as we know it.

Apr 5 2023

Finland Officially Joins NATO Creating the Largest NATO Land Border Directly Attached to Russia


Posted originally on the CTH on April 4, 2023 | Sundance 

CONTEXT:  There is no currently visible outcome where the Build Back Better collective western global alliance energy policy can succeed without escalating to a direct NATO war against Russia.

The economic outcomes of the BBB agenda are currently being felt via western, energy driven, supply side inflation.  The monetary countermeasures to that inflationary damage, raising central bank interest rates, creates instability in finance and subsequent banking collapse.

Simultaneous to the ‘western’ central bank intervention, the BRICS alliance members are withdrawing from dollar dependency as a trade mechanism.  When all those unneeded dollars return home, the dollar value collapses – and all western economies attached to the dollar as a trade currency collapse along with it.

The Western bankers need a war to generate the industrial economic activity that uses the returning dollars.  Unless and until the dollar is digitized, there is no currently visible outcome where the Build Back Better agenda is not dependent on an expanded war with Russia.

(Via Axios) – Finland became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday — a once-unthinkable step that significantly changes the security landscape in Europe.

Why it matters: Finland’s membership more than doubles NATO’s borders with Russia and formally ends Helsinki’s decades of official nonalignment. It’s also a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin who, in launching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, vowed to block the alliance’s eastward expansion. It’s the alliance’s ninth enlargement since its founding in 1949.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg sent a message to Moscow while officially welcoming Finland into the alliance: “President Putin wanted to slam NATO’s door shut. Today we showed the world that he failed, that aggression and intimidation do not work. Instead of less NATO, he has achieved the opposite: more NATO. And our door remains firmly open.”

Finland President Sauli Niinistö said it was a “great day for Finland” but also an important day for the security and the stability of the alliance.

[…] Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier Tuesday called Finland’s NATO accession an “encroachment on Russia’s security” that would require Russia to take unspecified countermeasures.

Putin had previously said that Russia had no “territorial differences” with Finland or Sweden, so it was “up to them” whether they joined — but Russia would respond to any deployments of NATO military units or infrastructure to their territories.

The Russian embassy in Sweden issued an even more pointed warning last week, saying on Facebook that any “new members of the enemy block will become a legitimate target” of “Russia’s retaliatory measures,” including those of military nature. (read more)

Apr 4 2023

The End of the Petrodollar?


Armstrong Economics Blog/World Trade Re-Posted Apr 4, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Another oil deal has been initiated without the use of the dollar. The India Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that their latest trade deal with Malaysia would be settled in Indian rupees. “This initiative by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is aimed at facilitating the growth of global trade and to support the interests of the global trading community in Indian Rupees (INR),” the formal statement noted.

Indian has benefitted from the West’s distraction from the Ukraine war. The RBI is allowing 18 counties to open Vostro accounts and has been attracting new deals in trade and manufacturing. New Delhi and Moscow have strengthened their relationship as India is not imposing sanctions.  The Indian Commerce Ministry said its five-year plan is to “encourage” the use of the rupee on an international scale, while also planning to expand exports $2 trillion by 2030. Trading in rupees will also allow India to save on conversion spreads and limit the country’s dependence on the volatile dollar.

The BRICs treaty (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) remains strong and oil giants Saudi Arabia and Iran would like to join the partnership. The Saudis stated at the beginning of the year that they were open to settling trade in currencies other than the USD. “There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal,” Al-Jadaan said during Davos. As we have seen in recent months, Saudi Arabia is aligning itself with China over the US.

The Vietnam war and other government missteps made it impossible for the US to maintain the fixed price of gold established under Bretton Woods. The USD relative to gold fell as the supply of dollars grew, pushing Nixon to abandon the Bretton Woods system entirely. US government debt was rapidly rising as confidence in the dollar plummeted. America needed an enticing way to sell its debt, and that was when Nixon convinced Saudi Arabia, the largest crude exporter, to purchase Treasurys in dollars in exchange for military aid. Hence the “petrodollar” was born. The creation of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) only further enhanced the dollar’s dominance in energy purchases.

Here we are yet again amid another war and a high budget deficit. The Saudis no longer need protection from America, and siding with Western interests would be a deterrent to its international deals with countries in the BRICs alliance and some in the OPEC+. Despite the green agenda, the world cannot operate without oil. The major oil exporters are now aligning and cutting out the US as their middleman.

Apr 4 2023

Would You Welcome a Refugee into Your Home? 


Armstrong Economics Blog/Immigration Re-Posted Apr 4, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The refugee crisis has become a problem across the European Union. According to the UN Refugee Agency, over 72,000 people applied for asylum in the UK alone, which is double the number of applicants from 2019. However, these are simply the documented cases. Germany received the highest number of applicants among the EU at 127,730, followed by France at 96,510. In fact, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain took in 70% of all first-time applicants in the European Union. Using the UK as an example, refugees are not permitted to work and fully rely on state support. So how does a nation financially support a mass influx of refugees?

The UK provides asylum seekers with free housing and £40.85 per person, per week. That is barely enough to survive, especially with the current rate of inflation, but these people cannot legally work. They often do not speak the language and have trouble assimilating into a vastly different culture. The government is relying on taxpaying citizens to foot the bill, and some recognize that the UK simply does not have the resources to provide welfare to hundreds of thousands of incoming refugees each year.

Social justice warriors are up in arms about this situation. They believe that nations should simply open their borders and everyone can live in a land of rainbows and sunshine with unlimited resources. The video above is a great example of how these social justice warriors are promoting an agenda that they simply do not understand.

Not one protestor questioned in this video agreed to house a refugee. “Are you willing to adopt a refugee and take them into your home?” the reporter asked. Excuses range from not having the space to living in a rental. At one point, he tells a protester, “Oh, right, that’s someone else’s problem.” These people are clueless and do not understand the economic repercussions of open borders.