Tag Archives: Civitas

Mar 15 2024

Would You Feed Bugs to Your Pet?


Posted Mar 15, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

beagle puppies GettyImages 936521948

Tyson Foods announced on October of last year that they would begin using insects as a key protein source in their foods. The World Economic Forum under Klaus Schwab has touted the idea of replacing domestic livestock with insects in an effort to reduce emissions and force the masses to live with the lease while they acquire the most.

Protix is a Netherlands-based company partnering with Tyson Foods to provide “sustainable” solutions to a non-existent problem. They will begin by poisoning our animals. Protix published a study on the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed that involved a mere eight female beagle dogs who were fed ProteinX, – a protein meal that is produced from the larvae of the black soldier fly. The study claims that these dogs experienced a reduction in bad breath and concluded that placing cheap insect protein in wet and dry dog food and dog treats could benefit their oral health.

Protix is developing LipidX, an insect oil that they hope will replace traditional methods. They’re developing Flytilizer as an alternative to fertilizer. They are also aiming to replace soy meal for chickens with live larvae. This is one of many companies that are aiming to replace not only our food supply, but the food supply of the animals we eat.

Insects.Bugs_.WorldEconomicForum.WEF_

So what ingredient should you look for to avoid ground insect remains on your plate? Well, in the US, the FDA does not have any clear guidelines nor do they have a plan to label insect-laced foods. The FDA currently permits an “average of 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams, or equivalent – 21 CFR 110.110(c)(4)” of insect remains in our foods, but this is due to unsanitary manufacturing policies. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the FDA also permits human hair to fall into our food during the manufacturing process, so long as it is less than one strand per 50 grams. I do apologize to those who have not had breakfast – rodent filth is also permitted in our foods at an average of 1 excreta pellet less than 1 millimeter long per 100 grams.

The same organization pushing insect protein is toying with the idea of outright banning personal gardens. The WEF believes people should “start small and work [their] way up,” to begin to stomach insect consumption. They want us to normalize eating insects as they fly on their private jets from their private yachts to Davos, ravishingly consuming the best of the best. Some governments, like Italy’s, are placing restrictions on insect proteins and cloned meats. Still, the majority of the West is looking to punish the masses for existing by poisoning our food supply.

Mar 13 2024

PAX


Posted originally on Mar 13, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Augustus AR Cistoporus PAX of Ephesus

COMMENT: I have investigated what you have said about our Western leaders. From the US to Britain, the Balkans, France, Poland, and Germany, they all want war. I am 77 now. My whole life was about creating peace. I remember Richard Nixon opening China and dividing it from Russia. I believe you are correct.  There is no explanation for everyone seeking war other than to hide their appalling government mismanagement.

Thank you for your analysis. It is always unmatched.

GKB

Athens Owl 449 413BC Egyptian Imitation

REPLY: History repeats, and human nature never changes. We have the model from Rome, the greatest empire ever created. The Pax Romana was achieved by everyone benefiting in their economic relations. Once these people removed Russia from the SWIFT system, they condemned the United States to its demise. The rise of the BRICS has nothing to do with fiat money. All money has always been fiat. From ancient times, we find imitation coinage of the dominant economy being created by other regions, showing that there was always a premium over the metal content if it was a coin of the dominant economy like the US dollar today. Here is an imitation of an Athenian Owl stuck by the Egyptians, who never had coins until they were conquered nearly 100 years later by Alexander the Great. They issued imitation Athenian Owls because they were the currency of international trade.

Julius Caesar AR Denarius Imitation Genuine

Even the Celts, when Julius Caesar conquered Europe, still imitated his coinage. The metal was virtually the same, so it was a counterfeit but an imitation. The Celts still used Roman coinage for their monetary system.

Celtic Imitation of Greek Stater Philip II

Even 300 years before Caesar, when the Macedonians were the dominant economic power of Phillip II and his son Alexander the Great, we find Celtic imitations of Macedonian gold where they at least tried to imitate the design.

Julio Claudian Imitations

Even after Caesar conquered Europe, we find Germanic imitations of Roman bronze coinage. Once more, they could have created their own coinage but imitated the coinage of Rome.

Faustina Sr Imitations

As trade expanded with India, we find a series of Indian imitations of Roman gold coinage running the course of 300 years. We see Celtic imitations of Roman coinage as well as Germanic coinage, which also ran for about 300 years.

Leo I Siliqua Imitation

The fact that we have hundreds of years of imitations of the dominant economy PROVES beyond a shadow of a doubt that the coinage was NOT based on the metal content; there was always a premium applied to the dominant currency in the world at that time.

Fiat Money

This entire nonsense that the dollar is just a fiat currency is absurd. The value of ANY currency is the strength of its economy. The dollar has been the RESERVE currency BECAUSE everyone wanted to sell their products to American consumers.

Pax Romana 2

The PAX Romana took place BECAUSE all the conquered lands found it was beneficial to be part of the empire, for they could sell their products. World Peace was created by allowing free trade as the Romans did. Then, the people would oppose any local politician preaching war, for it would cut off their income. We were on the verge of world peace before COVID-19, when everyone participated in the world economy. Today, that has all been destroyed. Peace is no longer fashionable – it is hatred and war that now define world leaders.

This is a lesson our Politicians Must Learn, and the Neocons in

America – Europe – Russia – China

at really the enemies of the people. 

War is never created by the people – only by the elites in power.

As King Louis XIV of France said on his deathbed:

Louis XIV War
Mar 11 2024

Right on Inflation, Wrong on Tariffs – Gary Cohn Outlines Biden Inflation and State of Economy for 2024 Election


Posted originally on the CTH on March 10, 2024 | Sundance

Gary Cohn appears on Face The Nation to discuss the finance, the economy and the pain felt by consumers.  He won’t say it directly, for obvious reasons, but what Cohn describes in terms of political support boils down to Main Street business supporting Donald Trump and Wall Street Multinational Corporations supporting Joe Biden.  That is ultimately what is obvious at a macro level.

I’m starting the video at 03:08 for the purposes of emphasizing inflation.  What Cohn says about U.S. inflation is essentially accurate and I have a Cliff Notes, tldr, HERE.  However, what Cohn says about tariffs creating inflation is not accurate, as outlined by the 2017 through 2020 results of Trump tariff policy.  Cohn says, “No one absorbs tariffs, except the consumer,” this is false.  As we saw in 2017, 2018, and 2019 China, Asia and the EU essentially dropped their export prices to retain access to the USA market and offset tariff costs.  That’s just a statistical reality.

The transcript is HERE; however, I want to draw attention to a geopolitical aspect that is not getting enough attention.  Specifically, the cost of FOOD PRODUCTS and the attached inflation.

Why is food inflation continuing to be a problem?  Why is food inflation not just a USA problem?  Why are the EU farmers protesting?  These questions are easily answered, and yet no one in the Western financial press will explain.

The Build Back Better agenda, known in the USA colloquially as the Green New Deal, carries with it massive increases in cost for energy products.  Fertilizer, which needs natural gas, and farming, which needs large amounts of fuel, diesel and fuel oil, uses costly energy products.  Packaging, plastics (petroleum derivatives) and cardboard also require large amounts of energy.

The manufacturing (heating, cooling, freezing) as well as storage and transportation of food products also use massive amounts of energy.  Additionally, and specifically because of the nature of their consumption, the increased energy costs associated with generating food travels quickly through the supply chain.

Food inflation is always the first thing you notice when the prices of energy products skyrocket.  This is well known and not subject to debate; everyone accepts this.

In the past 30 +/- years, large multinational corporations known as Big Ag have created a system where the USA generates a massive amount of the global food supply.

The advent of modern farming fertilizer, pesticides, seed genetics and other farming products/equipment that increase crop yield, has also been a big factor in the capacity of the USA and Western farming world to increase production.  As the globe became more reliant on the production efficiencies of the Big Ag “Western world,” they simultaneously became dependent on the outcome.  That dependency put them at risk of feeling the impact of inflation when you think about the farm products.

The result was that when Western Ag farming costs skyrocketed, the high cost of harvest outcomes were not just felt in the USA and/or Western nations.  As food production costs increased, the higher costs of production transferred into all the exported products.  Food inflation was exported globally.

The Western Build Back Better and Green New Deal energy policies subsequently meant the world was going to pay a higher price for food globally.  That’s what happened.

The Yellow Zone was responsible for a higher percentage of global food production.  The Yellow Zone is also the place where energy policy was changed in such a radical format that massive increases in energy costs were created.

The Yellow Zone (geopolitically the “West”) drove up the cost of farming, the Gray Zone pays a higher price.  This was all by design and not accidental.  The corporations who supported the BBB/GRD agenda all benefit.  The citizens who need to eat, do not benefit.

So, when you see EU farmers protesting against the ridiculous ENERGY POLICY changes of the West, you must accept the USA bears a greater responsibility for creating and demanding the increased prices that farmers globally are having to deal with.

In Gray Zone areas, where domestic food production costs are not subject to the changed energy policy, there is little to no food inflation.  However, the more dependent the country is to food imports (ingredients or final product) the more they are impacted by rising farming costs.

Grey Zone countries that can self-sustain on the production of food and have no energy agenda have little food inflation.

The more the country is strangling energy production and driving up energy prices, the higher the cost of farming and subsequently the higher index on food inflation.  The two metrics are directly related.

Food inflation globally is a big problem.  Western energy policy is exactly why!

Mar 10 2024

Irish Voters Reject Leftist Effort to Change Definitions of Women and Family


Posted originally on the CTH on March 9, 2024 | Sundance 

The leftists in Ireland had previously been having a lot of success pushing “progressive” wokeism and curtailing the ability of citizens to criticize cultural marxism.

Whether the issue was forced multiculturalism through immigration or making it unlawful to speak against the globalist agenda, the government of Ireland had been in strong control of the social narratives. However, as the globalists became increasingly confident, the country became increasingly alarmed.

That’s the context for a referendum that would have redefined what it meant in Ireland to be a woman or family.  The voters rejected the attempted constitutional change.

Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (pictured left) said it was clear the two referendums were “defeated comprehensively.”

DUBLIN — Ireland’s effort to remove old-fashioned family values from its constitution suffered a double defeat Saturday as voters rejected the amendments on offer as maddeningly vague and threatening to property rights.

The leaders of Ireland’s three-party government conceded defeat as early returns from Friday’s referendums confirmed that an overwhelming majority of voters had said “no” to its proposed replacements for constitutional clauses on marriage and family care.

In final results announced Saturday night, the amendment to change the constitutional definition of family was rejected by 67.7 percent of voters. The proposed changes on family care took an even harsher drubbing, with 73.9 percent against — the greatest defeat of an amendment in Irish constitutional history. (read more)

Mar 9 2024

Ep 3300a – It’s All About To Fall Apart For The [CB]/[WEF], Time To Restructure The Economic System


Posted originally on Rumble By X 22 Report on: Mar 7, 2024 at 5:00 pm EST

Mar 8 2024

Can World War III be Avoided?


Posted originally on Mar 7, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Socrates Monitory Globe

Many people have written in asking if you can avoid World War III. In my experience with this model, the turning points are fixed in time. We cannot alter the cycle any more than someone can manipulate any market, altering it from boom to bust.

Amplitude 1

You cannot alter the cycle, but I believe that, from my observations, it may be possible to manipulate the amplitude. This would have been my concern if it had fallen into the wrong hands. I have grandkids. I would not want to leave behind another economic weapon Neocons can use to screw up the world even more. Perhaps you can make an event much worse. However, improving the situation and reducing the amplitude might also be possible.

Amplitud 2
Mar 8 2024

Sweden War-Mongers Ready to Start WWIII


Posted originally on Mar 7, 2024 By Martin Armstrong

2024_03_07_18_26_06_Sweden joins Nato

COMMENT: Hello; I just wanted to comment that the arrays on Sweden have predicted the two-year wait for NATO, and it got it down to the month. I just wanted to say that all we have had here is doom and gloom, and Russia will attack any day now. The press claimed Sweden is neutral. I do not think they know our war history with Russia for several hundred years.

Thank you for Socrates. It always gets the time right.

PHM

Swedish_Krona_Spot_Array Y 5 15 22

ANSWER:  I think you are correct. For those who do not know the history of Sweden, they used to be a major power. There have been 15 wars with Russia since 1475 – about one on average every 30 years or so. The Yearly Array was a major turning point and a Double Directional Change. That indeed marked this war-mongering for the past two years. Sweden has NOT been neutral. They have been supplying weapons to Ukraine to further advance the war against Russia. Neutrality means you stay out, and they have both feet in.

2024_Sweden_war with Russia

Yes, the war-mongering has been on schedule. You have your version of Neocons as well who also just want war at all costs.

Swedish Krona M Array 3 7 24

March was the target, and we had a Directional Change in April. May is the next turning point, but we have a Panic Cycle in September, which is showing up internationally in many markets and virtually most countries. This was a dark day for Sweden. Your war-mongers cannot wait to start a war, and it looks like they may get it before the US elections.

Prague Memorial to Communism

We have such fools in all governments. They are being told to start a war and are too stupid to comprehend that there are those who want to eliminate 50% of the population to save the planet.

Mar 8 2024

Powell: March Rate Cut Unlikely


Posted originally on Mar 7, 2024 By Martin Armstrong

Powell Jerome

Those who follow this blog already knew that the Federal Reserve would not drop rates in the future due to unsustainable fiscal policies paired with America’s increasing involvement in foreign wars. All of the talking heads were preaching that rates would significantly decline to pandemic levels, as if that were the historical norm. Every fiscal policy in recent years has exacerbated inflation and the Fed cannot keep up with government spending. QE FAILED. The artificially low interest rates of the recent past were completely unsustainable and relied on outdated theories.

The outdated understanding based on Keynesian Economics remains to increase the supply of money and it MUST be inflationary. The Fed raises rates to reduce consumption and lower rates to stimulate consumption. It’s a very nice theory, but when actually tested, it utterly fails. Lower rates will NEVER cause people to invest UNTIL they believe that there is an opportunity to invest. We are watching the big players withdraw from equities, let alone government debt. We are in a private wave where money is running off the grid at a rapid pace.

DowIntRates 1929

The peak in interest rates took place in 1899 at virtually 200%. Yet, 1929 was the real bubble top and it peaked with 20% interest rates in call money on the NYSE. In theory, the biggest boom should have been met with the highest interest rate. In truth, the “real interest rate” as I have defined it is when the interest rates exceed expectations. If you think the stock market will double, you will pay 25% interest.

As you can see, while interest rates hit nearly 200% in 1899, the share market did NOT crash percentage-wise anything as it did following 1929. Look, there is a lot more to this than meets the eye. Everything must be addressed on a global scale for it all depends also on the direction of capital flows. There is just a lot more to this than simply the money supply and interest rates.

CALLMONY MA

Now, Powell continues to explain to the public that VOLATILITY and economic conditions are beyond the control of the Fed. “We believe that our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle,” Powell said. “If the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year. But the economic outlook is uncertain, and ongoing progress toward our 2% inflation objective is not assured.”

Powell Fed Got Inflation Wrong Nov 2021

All the news of inflation waning, including recent data, is inaccurate propaganda intended to calm recessionary fears. Even by the government’s data, inflation is up 3.1% compared to last year. It was an unprecedented moment when Powell broke with Washington and criticized the government for their unsustainable spending. The Fed NEVER criticizes the government, despite the two being separate.

Hence, I say to stop blaming the Fed. They are not the ones creating all the money but are working to match monetary policy with unsustainable fiscal policies. We are looking at trillions in deficits per year. There is no restraint when creating new massive spending packages. Then people blame the central bank with no concept that it’s only a fraction of “money;” the real issue is CONGRESS.

Listen, interest rates cannot decline in the face of war. The 2020 yearly array showed a turning point for a high in 2022 and a possible correction into 2024. I explain this in more detail on the Socrates private blog but buckle up for the year ahead.

Mar 8 2024

Poland Farm Protests Encounter Prepared Government Response, Confrontation Turned Violent


Posted originally on the CTH on March 7, 2024 | Sundance

I visited Warsaw twice last month and can provide some ‘boots on the ground’ background context for what is taking place as the Polish farmers begin protesting against the regime of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The first thing to understand is that Warsaw is to Poland almost exactly as Washington DC is to the United States – which is to say, a capitol subculture of leftists and WEF minded globalists totally disconnected from the social mindset of the rest of the country.  The Warsaw of the 80’s and 90’s Solidarity Movement no longer exists, which explains the installation of Tusk in opposition to the generally lulled to complacency Polish people.  Sound familiar?

“European agriculture policies and Ukrainian cheap grain, burning tires outside of Prime Minister Tusk’s office, as up to 100 THOUSAND more protestors expected to flood streets of Warsaw.”

The protests are not about Ukraine farm products (Western narrative); they are protesting the Build Back Better (Green New Deal) climate change nonsense regulations that will put them out of business and hurt the Polish people.

The German farmers and middle class workers organized their logistics brilliantly.  The farmers approached Berlin from every angle, using all the arterial roads as points of entrance to surround the city.  The German farmers came into each artery in two columns: column A at the front and column B in the back.

Column A drove into the city; column B remained outside the city blocking the streets.  It was a smart way logistically to protest, and German officials could not respond because they were blocked.  German truckers and transportation workers assisted the protest with non-compliance highlighting their support.  The German government acquiesced to the farmers.

The French farmer protests learned from the Germans, and they too were successful in their logistical protest against the French government.  The French government acquiesced to the French farmer’s demands.

However, the Polish government saw the effective strategy as it began spreading around the EU. Tusk brought into Warsaw an advanced police group.  As the Polish farmers moved into the center of Warsaw, they encountered a heavily fortified Polish security force.  Tempers flared and physical confrontation was the outcome.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland saw its most violent protest by farmers and supporters yet Wednesday as some participants threw stones at police and tried to push through barriers around parliament, injuring several officers, police said.

Police used tear gas and said they detained over a dozen people and prevented the protesters from getting through to the Sejm, the Polish parliament.

Farmers are angry over European Union climate policies and food imports from Ukraine that they say threaten their livelihoods. Such protests have occurred across the 27-member EU in recent weeks, but this one was decidedly angrier than earlier demonstrations in the central European nation.

Police noted on the social media platform X that its officers “are not a party to the ongoing dispute” and warned that behavior threatening their safety “cannot be taken lightly and requires a firm and decisive response.”

The deputy agriculture minister, Michał Kołodziejczak, said he didn’t believe that “real, normal farmers caused a riot in front of the Sejm today,” and that it was necessary to isolate “provocateurs and troublemakers.”

He did not say who he thought was behind the violence.

Farmers on tractors blocked highways leading into Warsaw while thousands of their supporters gathered in front of the prime minister’s office before marching to the parliament. Some trampled a European Union flag and burned a mock coffin bearing the word “farmer.”

Farmers were joined by miners, foresters, hunters and other supporters. They blew horns and set off firecrackers and smoke bombs, despite police warnings that the use of pyrotechnics was banned. Some protesters burned tires.

The protesters are demanding a withdrawal from the EU’s Green Deal, a plan meant to fight climate change and protect biodiversity, including with plans requiring farmers to reduce the excessive use of polluting chemicals to boost their crops. The protests have led politicians to water down some provisions. (read more)

The area around the U.S Embassy in Warsaw is no longer a place of well-kept landscape honoring Ronald Reagan and the Polish Solidarity Movement.  All of those pesky vestiges of freedom are in disrepair or being removed.

That said, let us hope (😉) the American resistance movement is watching the logistical success of the truckers and farmers in Germany and France.

Let the people enter the capitol for protest marches, while the support system infrastructure disrupts the arteries that encircle the core.

Berlin in January:

Warsaw last month:

Mar 7 2024

Schwab Did Not Invent Stakeholder Economics


Posted originally on Mar 6, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Stakeholder Economics
Milton Friedman

Everyone knows I became friends with Milton Friedman. Back in 1970, Milton exposed how Stakeholder Economics was inefficient and stupid long before Schwab claimed he invented it. Milton stated that such a role was that of government, not corporations, whose #1 fiduciary obligation was to its shareholders. Under Schwab, I could say, “OK, I will go public; everyone sends in money. I will give you shares in return and then say — OMG, there are people starving in Africa!” So, I decided to give 50% of all the profits to them and not my investors. This is Stakeholder Economics.

NYT 9 13 70 Freedman v Stakeholder

The New York Times wrote on September 13th, 1970:

“WHEN I hear businessmen speak eloquently about the “social responsibilities of business in a free‐enterprise system,” I am reminded of the wonderful line about the Frenchman who discovered at, the age of 70 that he had been speaking prose all his life. The businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they declaim that business is not concerned “merely” with profit but also with promoting desirable “social” ends; that business has a “social conscience” and takes seriously its responsibilities for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution and whatever else may be the catchwords of the contemporary crop of reformers. In fact they are—or would be if they or any one else took them seriously— preaching pure and unadulterated socialism. Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades.”