Europe Unemployment at 8.1% – The Economic Death Spiral of the EU


 

The latest data from Euro Stat for September 2018 demonstrates the complete failure of the ECB and its Quantitative Easing. The Euro area (EA19) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate came in at 8.1% in September 2018, which was down slightly from the year/year perspective of about 8.9%. This above all proves that the entire theory of the Quantity of Money is bogus. It also demonstrates that the Austerity Policy of Europe has caused unbelievable social damage resulting in what is being called the Lost Generation with unemployment among the youth reach 60% in Southern Europe.

Without a COMPLETE rejection of Austerity and a COMPLETE overhaul of the European Union structure, there is absolutely NO HOPE what so ever of Europe coming out of the death spiral. This will only get worse as politicians, with ZERO experience in trading markets, will debate and refuse to accept responsibility for their actions. Then you opened the doors to refugees when unemployment is at a serious high? And you wonder why there will be civil unrest and backlash against migrants?

As Einstein pointed out, you cannot possibly solve our problems with the very same thinking process that was used to create them

The Fate of Germany v Euro – The Export Economic Model Risks


QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I watched the new documentary on your solution. I really want to thank you for everything you do and for free. It is so nice to see someone who actually gives back and has no personal agenda to enrich themselves. My question is this. You mentioned the reason why the United States economy was the envy of the world and differentiated it from Germany which has an export model economy that is why they supported the euro, to begin with. What do you see for Germany ahead?

Thank you

CB

ANSWER: Germany has an export-dependent economy which has directly benefited from the continent-wide trade liberalization and the creation of the Euro which eliminated foreign exchange fluctuations for German manufacturers in Europe at least. However, that simply means that Germany also has the most to lose from a worsening Euro crisis and a resulting wave of Euroscepticism. The political freedoms lost with the creation of the Euro will tear Europe apart. The refusal to consolidate the debt within Europe was profound. The Italy Crisis demonstrates what I have been warning about. BECAUSE there is no central debt, Brussels sticks its nose into every budget of every member state. The economic conditions within Europe are different between each member. Germany is an export economy and Greece is a tourist economy. There are great differences between each member so one policy does not fit all.

They are trying to PRETEND they are creating the United States of Europe but that is a joke. The refusal to have consolidated the debts created an unsustainable political union. The USA has a federal debt and budget. Washington does not stick its nose into the budgets of all 50 states. They issue their own debt which is NOT ACCEPTABLE for reserves of any bank. They are also all on their own paying different rates of interest according to their credit rating. In the EU, they are trying to manage the budgets of every member which will only lead to political differences. The structure is absurd and then the banks have to be politically correct and hold the debt of all member states. Thus, the risk becomes if one member is in a crisis, they bring down the entire system. In the USA, if Illinois goes bankrupt, it has no impact on the dollar, the national debt, or politics in Washington.

The greatest risk to Germany is the collapse of the Euro means that the single currency relieved their manufacturers of having to manage currency risk. Suddenly, the currency risk returns, the export model fails, and the lack of a domestic consumer market means that the economic conditions in Germany decline rapidly because of their dependence upon everyone else doing well.

Goldman Sachs – Criminal Charges at Last?


The U.S. Justice Department’s charges against individuals related to the pillaging of the Malaysia investment fund known as 1MDB offers several new insights into the global, multibillion-dollar scandal. But there is something the press is overlooking. The senior Goldman Sachs banker in Asia who pleaded guilty to U.S. bribery and money laundering charges and his deputy was arrested in Malaysia, was brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, not the Manhattan Southern District of New York which the bankers own right down to the foundation stones. The Brooklyn prosecutors have laid out conspiracy allegations related to Goldman Sachs’s lucrative fundraising for Malaysian wealth fund 1MDB. The fact that he has already pled guilty means he has a cooperation deal to give up more infor on the inside of Goldman Sachs.

This entire scandal came in right on target in May 2018. It resulted in the political overthrow of the president and the new finance minister discovered computers that even the highest-ranking bureaucrats could not access when they got into the government offices. Computers were set up to prevent access by anyone other than one or two people. Evidence of massive corruption was what turned the election on May 9th, 2018.

I have been writing that ALL my sources from Asia to the Middle East pointed to outright corruption in Malaysia and the deep involvement of Goldman Sachs. I knew dealers who bid on the project and found it went to Goldman when it made no economic sense. The “feeling” in the trading rooms was plain and simple – something was seriously WRONG!!!!

Goldman Sachs’ role, I wrote back in 2015, had been highly criticized in the Malaysian media and political circles after it emerged that 1MDB sovereign wealth fund paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the bank for helping it raise $6.5 billion in three bond deals in 2012 and 2013. Goldman Sachs earned around $590 million in fees plus commissions and expenses from underwriting the bonds, according to Reuters. The reported fees are highly excessive, nearing 10% when such fees are typically only 1% in bond underwriting.

Since May 2018, there was talk about filing suit against Goldman Sachs for its role in this scandal. I warned that filing a lawsuit against them in New York City where they own the courts had little chance of success and Goldman knew that. I had a discussion with a New York lawyer and asked bluntly why the bankers never get changed in Manhattan. The reply with a chuckle was also – “You don’t shit where you eat!”

These criminal charges were not brought by Southern District of New York, but by the prosecutors across the river in Brooklyn.  Donald Trump should launch an investigation against the courts in Manhattan just as Franklin D. Roosevelt did back in 1931 with the Seabury Investigations. The political corruption in New York City is pervasive. The press will not write about it and everything remains hidden. Just perhaps the competition of Brooklyn against Manhattan may open a crack through which some light may appear.

I wrote back in 2015 about this scandal we all knew about behind the curtain. I even wrote that the financial mess even touched the UAE in the mix through IPIC which was established back in the 1980s to focus on energy investments. In 2016 I wrote that the Federal Reserve was preparing an enforcement action against Goldman Sachs related to confidential government information that was leaked from the Fed to one of its bankers. I also wrote that Swiss prosecutors said they were helping the U.S. on the investigation. The Swiss also opened their own criminal proceedings in August 2015, against two former officials of the fund on a string of corruption charges. Their investigation has since been extended to other officials as well.

The question is WHY did the Manhattan prosecutors sit on their hands? Why did it take Brooklyn to bring charges?

 

Spanish Prosecutor Demand 25 Years in Prison for Catalonia Politicians for Advocating Independence


The Spanish prosecutor wants to send the politicians of the Catalan independence movement to prison for 25 years. The prosecutor has demanded that the former Deputy Regional President Oriol Junqueras should effectively die in prison. The absurdity of what is going on in Spain reflects that there is no democracy still standing. Dictatorships always call treason anything which seeks to overturn their power. The Catalonia movement was NON-VIOLENT, it was Madrid that has been the violent aggressor.  The prosecutor charged them with rebellion. The Attorney General realizes this will reflect badly on Spain, so he is in favor of replacing the charge of rebellion with the less serious charges of sedition. The mere fact that they would seek criminal charges against political leaders in a non-violent movement that sought a democratic solution is a warning sign that to Spanish independence advocates for this removes any democratic resolution and signals that the only resolution will be another civil war in the future.

The last Spanish Civil War was Jul 17, 1936 – Apr 1, 1939. The beginning of the current movement really started to rise in 1999. We will see this rise as a direct reaction to these criminal charges. The next civil war is Spain may become much more obvious by 2022.

UN’s Global Compact for Safety, Orderly and Regular Migration


Austria and Hungary have now joined Trump in backing out the United Nations migration deal. The UN’s Global Compact for Safety, Orderly and Regular Migration, which is not actually legally binding on any country lacking jurisdiction or power in the UN over the entire world. This deal was finalized and it is widely seen as pro-migration and unrealistic. The greatest problem with this proposal is that the industrialized nations of Europe and America are in fact SOCIALIST states so migrants get benefits for coming that they would not get at home. The problem is that when mass-migration took place from Europe to America in the 19th century and the first near 50% of the 20th century, that migration was to freedom economically and the opportunity to work. The migration into Europe is by no means of the same quality. They go there with no prospect of employment, understanding or speaking the language, and live far better on state welfare that would possibly have at home. The incentives are completely reversed.

Trump pulled out of that deal and no both Austria and Hungary have joined as they are inundated with migrants who just have their hand out and drain the economy rather than adding to it. The UN’s Global Compact for Safety, Orderly and Regular Migration, is simply unrealistic and fails completely to understand that there is a huge difference between subsidized migration and migration for an opportunity. In the USA, Trump carried Florida with the legal Mexicans voting for Trump because they had to prove they could speak the language and had skills. The same took place in Britain where the Indians voted for BREXIT for most who migrated to Britain also had to have a skill set which was most commonly in the field of medicine. Those in power do not understand that those who learned skills to migrate are now upset at this idea of just opening up the doors under the welfare model. It undermines what they had to go through to make it to a new homeland.