Economics, Finance and Our Life, as It Starts to Unfold in 2024


Posted originally on the CTH on January 1, 2024 | Sundance

In this outline I am going to expand on the details previously discussed {HERE}.  You won’t find this in any financial media discussion, and there’s only a handful of people I know in the west who really understand the ramifications.  Fortunately, one of them is running for President.

First some non-pretending context.  If you are a Friedman-ite, finance major from any traditional academic institute – including Wharton, and/or a person who uses data models to frame analysis about economics and finance, without the capacity to put all of your traditional reference points in the trash heap of irrelevance, then just move along.  We ain’t got time for that.

Consider Austan Goolsbee and Bill Ayers having dinner talking about what would happen if they successfully de-dollarized the globe.  Austan comes at it from one perspective, Bill from another. Bernardine Dohrn smiles, because neither of the Chicago dinner guests has any idea what would really happen in this ideological landscape; no one really does.

I first sounded the alarm on this on March 2, 2022, almost two years ago {SEE HERE}.

In the ideological DoS/CIA/WEF/Western banking frenzy to punish the horrible Russia, I took a different approach. I overlaid the human factor with the geopolitical reality of financial control mechanisms.  I predicted a cleaving outcome, because I carry no assumptions.  That’s the context.

Additionally, I’m not coming at this situational analysis having relied on charts, graphs, trade analysis, Western finance systems or actuarial constructs of monetary manipulation by central bankers.  Nope.  I sat quietly inside small to medium-sized regional banks in Western Europe and listened to the reality of what businesspeople are doing, actually doing, in their operation of their enterprise as it relates to finance and Russia. {Go Deep}

This is where the razor’s edge outcome of the cleaving, the “yellow zone” -vs- “grey zone” construct, meets reality.

What we will witness this year will be one of the biggest stories of 2024 that will impact every American.  However, few people will understand the information that will slowly trickle toward us, because too few people analyze information without historic assumptions.

When the “West” (yellow zone) triggered the sanction regime against Russia, almost no one took a big picture overlay and asked, “What about those nations who do not align with the Western intent; what will they do?”

Russia is not an enemy of the world; in fact, they have good relationships with China, Iran, India, multiple Middle East nations including Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and several Eastern European as well as African countries.

When the USA was walking away from the Arab Spring crisis Obama created, it was Russia who stepped in to help stop radicalization; just ask President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Even NATO ally Turkey has an ongoing diplomatic and strategic friendship with Russia; that’s why Turkish Airlines operates as the best transportation company for travel into and out of Russia.

In fact, when the proverbial West triggered the sanctions against Russia, approximately one-third of the global GDP was not in alignment.  A trade system that represents roughly 40% of all global production and trade (grey) can sustain a targeted enemy, while the 60% (yellow) allows complacency, hubris and delusions of grandeur to create an echo-chamber.

In essence, the “West” targeted Russia, but Russia had friends.

Those friendships expanded when the international fence-sitters saw how extreme and hateful the USA was going to be.  How long before they, country xxxx  might upset a USA administration? Who wants to be blackmailed by a similar targeted financial control system that the USA/EU and West triggered.

You might not think this Western sanction ‘shock value’ was a factor of importance, but two years later evidence suggests it was a much bigger deal than anyone was willing to admit.

De-dollarization is underway; failing to admit or accept this reality is akin to retaining a great pretense.  The outcomes are only just now beginning to surface, and when we are trapped inside the Western zone, we cannot see, quantify or fully appreciate it.

India is trading with Russia in national currencies, not dollars.  Iran and Russia are trading in national currencies, not dollars.  China is trading with Russia in national currencies, not dollars.  This process is expanding not shrinking, and it has huge outcomes.

If trades between nations are not contingent upon dollars, then less dollars need to be purchased.  Less U.S. treasuries are purchased to back up the trade.  Less dollar demand means lower dollar value.   This process is only just beginning, and we cannot see it.   The only way to see it is to step out of the yellow zone and look at the costs of goods and services in the grey zone.

Dollars are still in demand for anyone who wants access to the USA or EU market, so this de-dollarization process is limited in scale right now.  But again, it’s expanding – meaning the demand for dollars is less.

Inside the Yellow Zone we cannot see the shift, but we can see the signs of a less demanded dollar in the prices of goods and services in the yellow zone.  Inflation runs high in the Western zone as this devalued dollar begins to become more of an issue.

When we talk about “inflation” it is critical to keep in mind we are not ONLY talking about the price of goods.  Yes, goods are one component to increased costs of living; however, financial service products like insurance costs (health, life, auto, homeowners etc.) are part of the equation where we see the inflationary impact of de-dollarization running amok.  The financial services are closely related to the overall finance sector (think banking), so those skyrocketing costs hit first and become the precursor.

Next in the inflationary scale of impact comes the energy costs, which – as a direct and consequential outcome – transfer into the increased costs of goods, via packaging, processing, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, etc.  The overall business costs for insurance and financial services then aggregate with the energy cost impact and amplify the issue.

You can argue whether the current cost drivers or inflationary reality was a feature (intent) or a flaw (short-sighted outcome) of the western sanction regime, in combination with the intentional Build Back Better energy shift.

Austan Goolsbee might say it’s an accidental outcome, while a more radical communist like Bill Ayers says it was intended.

Personally, I think it was absolutely an intended feature, created to pave the way for a digital Western currency; that’s what it looked like in March 2022, and that’s what it still looks like today.

Regardless of intent, the reality is here…. barely visible right now, but here, and the de-dollarization is growing.

That opaque visibility is what I am talking about becoming much clearer in 2024.  Eventually, people will start to ask questions about why the cost of products inside the yellow zone is so far out of sync with identical products and services inside the grey zone. {GO DEEP}  The only way to see it, is to travel to both.

Now bring back the traditional Goolsbee economist thinking.  If domestic prices continue rising (de-dollarization outcome), then domestic wage rates will need to rise in order for people inside the yellow zone to cope.   Unfortunately, as Austan would lament, this dynamic becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for even higher prices….

True… But why is Bernardine smiling?

Maybe,” she says from the kitchen, as Austan squints and tilts his head with curiosity.

Bill smiles and replies, “I think she says ‘maybe’, because the surest way to avoid that dynamic is to import mass volumes of cheap low-skilled migrants as an offset.”

Austan looks even more curious as Bernardine says, “Yup, if ‘Western govt’ wants to align favorably with WEF corporate needs, then let the government give the corporations the means to avoid higher wages by allowing mass migration.”

Austan sits with jaw agape as Bill finishes the discussion and drops the mic. “If, for the sake of argument, that was indeed the plan, then specifically due to the nature of the USA dollar being the most severely impacted, it would be the borders of the USA that would need the highest rise in migrant crossings.”

Huh.

Go figure!

A.R ROBERTS …”I come here to the treehouse to get my morning dose of doom and gloom, lol. Everything I hear from SD and other alt-media people paints a very bleak picture. It’s like watching an 18-wheeler going down a steep grade with no brakes and no way to stop it. What you’re talking about SD is our imminent death at the hands of these insane inbred billionaire genocidal whackos. There seems to be no political solution to our situation. They will either terrorize us if we resist their death by a thousand cuts or drag us off to a Gulag or an extermination camp.

Tell me, please, what options do we have left? They have us boxed in and control an absolute police state. How about giving us some hope, some solutions?

I feel alone. Almost every “conservative” around me has their heads in the sand with bread and circuses. They think the stock market is doing great. They think everything is going back to normal. The libs in my family think anything is better than Trump in office. They are oblivious. They think I’m being a Chicken Little. It’s pretty damn depressing. Why should I stick my neck out to fight for any of these morons? It would almost be satisfying to watch them suffer from their ignorance if it wasn’t so tragic for the rest of us.”… 

Instead of writing another article, I will show you the solution.  At least what the solution should look like, albeit in a USA version.  Let’s call it America First.

Economic nationalism.  Make America Great Again, economically.

Stop the de-dollarization by Making Dollars Great Again!

Make dollars valuable.

Make the USA more valuable.

Tell me if you see value in this video.

Tell me if you understand.

READ: Transcript, March 10, 2007 ~ Vladimir Putin

Sunday Talks – Sancturary City Mayors from Denver and Chicago Very Upset that Texas Governor Greg Abbott Keeps Sending Them Illegal Aliens


Posted originally on the CTH on December 31, 2023 | Sundance 

Appearing on Face the Nation, Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson (Chicago, Illinois) and Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston (Denver, Colorado) discuss the ongoing challenges related to Texas Governor Greg Abbott not retaining all of the arriving illegal aliens in the state of Texas.

Johnson and Johnston both accuse Greg Abbott of sowing chaos in their city, as both mayors are forced to provide essential services and support to arriving illegal aliens in order to maintain the open border policies of the Biden administration.  Video and Transcript Below: 

It’s beyond progressively typical to see Brennan, Johnson and Johnston blame everyone except Joe Biden.

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: For more on how immigration is affecting communities across the U.S., we turn now to two Democratic mayors, Chicago’s Brandon Johnson and Denver’s Mike Johnston.

Gentlemen, welcome to Face the Nation.

BRANDON JOHNSON (D-Mayor of Chicago, Illinois): Good morning.

MIKE JOHNSTON (D-Mayor of Denver, Colorado): Thank you for having us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thanks for joining us.

And, Mr. Mayor of Chicago, I want to put to you a question about what seems to have developed overnight. There are reports of a plane from Texas landing in Chicago carrying more migrants that arrived around 1:00 a.m. I’m wondering if Texas officials gave you any heads-up. Who’s on the plane? What happens next?

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON: Well, what we have is clearly, clearly an international and federal crisis that local governments are being asked to subsidize.

And this is unsustainable. None of our local economies are positioned to be able to carry on such a mission. And what we have attempted to do is to create structure and some coordination around this humanitarian crisis. And, unfortunately, the governor of Abbott – the governor of Texas, Governor Abbott, is determined to continue to sow seeds of chaos.

And last night and several nights before, a number of buses continue to arrive in the city of Chicago and throughout the country without any coordination. And now he’s taken on this very dangerous task of placing individuals on airplanes and flying them into our various cities. This is certainly a matter of – not just of our national security, but it’s the type of chaos that this governor is committed to administering.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor of Denver, to be clear here, I know that you have looked at New York and Chicago making decisions to restrict bus arrivals.

Are you trying to take measures in your city to restrict them from even arriving in the first place?

MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON: No, all we want is a system that is – that is humanitarian for both the new folks that are arriving and for our cities and our city employees.

And so we understand there will be an inflow. We have already had 35,000 migrants arrive to Denver. We have successfully helped them integrate into the country here. What we don’t want is people arriving at 2:00 in the morning at a city and county building with women and children outside in 10-degree weather and no support.

And so we want buses here to do whatever the bus does, which is land at a bus station and a bus stop and hours when we can have staff there to receive them and to direct them toward services. And so we understand the flow is coming. We just want it to be coordinated, and in a humanitarian way, which we think makes it effective for the city and for those newcomers.

So that means things like arriving 8:00 to 5:00 Monday to Friday with notice.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

And I understand that you haven’t been able to get the state of Texas to stop sending people. But when it comes to your party’s leadership, as Senator Graham said, you have asked the White House for more help. Did they respond to your public call?

MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON: Yes, we’ve talked to the White House. We’ve talked to leadership there. we think they agree on the core needs that we see.

I mean, we think this is a solvable problem. There are key priorities we need. We need federal dollars to help support our work here in the cities. We also need federal dollars for more support at the border, the ability to adjudicate asylum claims more quickly, so they can be done in 90 days, and not in four to six years.

That makes a massive difference. If we have the resources for cities to support us, if we have – when people arrive, we actually have work authorization when they get to a place like Denver, so we can put them to work, which is what they want, and we have a coordinated entry plan, where it’s not just the governor of Texas deciding what cities to send people to, but it’s actually the way we’ve welcomed asylees in this country for years.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON: When we had asylees from Afghanistan or Ukraine, we had federal support, we had coordinated entry, we had work authorization.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON: And those efforts worked quite smoothly. America knows how to do this. We think we can do it here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. Those are different programs for those refugees. But I hear your point on the work authorization.

Mayor Johnson of Chicago, did the White House give you what you need in your public call this week?

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON: Well, look, I think there’s no secret here that we need comprehensive – comprehensive immigration – immigration reform.

This comprehensive immigration reform would certainly transform this situation. In fact, it solves this – this crisis. What we have said repeatedly is that we need Congress to act to provide the resources that are needed in order to – to carry out this mission.

But what we can’t have is a governor in the state of Texas acting the way he is acting. And, quite frankly, the rogue buses that are being dropped off across this country in the middle of the night, leaving people with – with no real support at all, no coordination with the local municipalities, that type of chaos is – it’s certainly dividing our country.

And we need better coordination between all levels of government to be able to respond to this mission.

MARGARET BRENNAN: When you reach out to the governor – I’m – I’m assuming you have – do you get any response?

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON: Well, we sent an entire delegation to the border to see firsthand what’s happening at the border. I have actually spoken with leaders of the Mexican government.

They’re having the same challenges that we’re having here in America. And so there has to be a real coordinated effort to be able to respond to this crisis. Again, putting people on airplanes, and dropping them off in the city of Chicago and Denver, New York, without any coordination, without a manifest, I don’t know how many federal laws or aviation laws he can be violating.

But this type of chaos is not what’s needed in this moment. We need a coordinated effort between all levels of government to ensure that this humanitarian mission that’s an international crisis is met with the type of civility and sanctity that’s required.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood.

I mean, I checked the weather and both of your cities. It’s 32 degrees in Chicago. It’s 25 degrees in Denver. I’m guessing someone walking across from Mexico isn’t outfitted for that kind of frigid arrival.

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON: Yes. That’s absolutely right.

(CROSSTALK)

MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON: We say that every day. We have folks arrive in T- shirts and sandals.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

It’s – I want to talk about this more, but I have to take a commercial break. So, if you would both stay with us. As we do that, I will be right back with you and be back with you all in a moment.

So, stay with us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION.

We pick up where we left off with Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Gentlemen, I do want to pick back up on one of the points you raised.

Mr. Johnston of Denver, the White House says it takes 30 days to process work permits and temporary protected status for – for some of these migrants. You’re saying you need people to arrive ready to work. What happens in that 30-day period? Why is that not fast enough?

MIKE JOHNSTON (Mayor of Denver): Yes, we were grateful for the government’s action, including the secretary’s action, to provide temporary protective status for Venezuelans who arrived before July 31st. We advocated for that. They made that change. That was a huge help.

The challenge now is Venezuelans who have arrived in the last several months are not eligible for that temporary protective status. They often don’t have a path to work authorization and they may have an asylum claim that is three or four or five years in the waiting until the claim is heard. And so the challenge on our city streets, we have folks that are here who whenever I talk to migrants, I was with them yesterday, they’ll just say, I only want one thing, which is the ability to work. And we have employers calling me every day saying, hey, mayor, I have open jobs, can I please hire these folks. But we have folks that right now are currently without a path to work authorization. We’d love to see that path to work authorization expand for more recent arrivals the same way the secretary of health did be possible for those who arrived before July 31st.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And that was done through – through federal authority through the administration. But changing the law would require Congress to – to alter some of these programs. I thought it was interesting, Mayor Johnson of Chicago, you also made the point that when it came to Afghanistan and Ukrainians, they arrived without a problem in your city and that you would like to replicate that program for everyone.

BRANDON JOHNSON (Mayor of Chicago): That’s exactly right. There are 30,000 Ukrainian refugees that are in the city of Chicago right now. The difference is, of course they were fully supported by the federal government and they were able to acclimate themselves and integrate into our economy. We have a number of asylum seekers from Central and South America and the continent of Africa, and the question is, why are we not providing that same support and treatment here?

Look, the bottom line is this, we need Congress to act. And we need them to do it expeditiously. But we cannot have the type of chaos that continues to come from the state of Texas. And, clearly, the governor of Texas, Governor Abbott, is certainly afraid and mad, but he can’t cut his own nose off, right? And so what we’re simply saying, and what I’ve done over a month ago, we provided an ordinance that would ultimately provide some structure and some coordination around when busses should arrive. Should not be dropping people off in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere without the type of support that’s needed.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

Very quickly, before I let you go, I read, Mayor Johnson of Chicago, less than two weeks ago a five-year-old boy died after falling ill at a migrant shelter in your city. What state are people showing up in, and what is the health risk here, if any?

BRANDON JOHNSON: Well, our condolences are still with the family, and we continue to pray for the – the – the family who lost their – their child. I’m a father of three. This is just an unimaginable pain.

But what is very clear is that not only are we providing mental health related services, as well as vaccinations and health screenings, and providing medical health care for these families when they arrive the moment, they get off those busses, we’re not seeing that same treatment at the border. In other words, there’s no health screenings, no vaccinations. That process at the border is absolutely raggedy and reckless, but we cannot have a governor who decides that he’s going to cling to the vestiges of Jefferson Davis when we should be pulling to the hopes and aspirations that were left by Frederick Douglas. We have to have a coordinated response to this humanitarian crisis. We cannot allow chaos to dictate and to divide this country.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we will wait to hear from Governor Abbott’s office in response to that.

Mr. Mayors, thank you both for joining us.

We’ll be right back.

{End Transcript}

Insurrection v Sedition – Bellow Has Violated the 14trh Amendment Herself


Posted originally on Dec 31, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Maine Secretary

We have reached a Constitutional Crisis of unimaginable consequences. These people who are clinging to the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump are themselves violating their oath of office and should be removed from any public position, even as a dog catcher, for they are engaging in sedition. The Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is an example of political corruption that is off the charts. She had violated the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the Sixth Amendment, not to mention the lack of any jurisdiction to remove Trump from the ballot.

This has all been contrived by their interpretation of what is an insurrection. Legally, sedition is conduct or speech that incites individuals to rebel violently against the government’s authority. Insurrection includes the actual acts of violence and rebellion. In a Republic, sedition and insurrection refer to inciting or participating respectfully in rebellion against the constitutionally established government, including its processes, institutions, or the rule of law. In other words, it MUST violently seek to overthrow the government or its institutions by overthrowing the Constitution itself. One cannot commit sedition or insurrection to “overthrow a government” while still claiming to uphold and defend the Constitution. Consequently, the rule of law and the Constitution are inextricably linked. There MUST be violent attacks that would thus not be protected actions.

Insurrection 18_U.S._Code_2383_Rebellion_or_insurrection

Consequently, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has waged war on the Constitution itself. She has denied Trump Due Process of Law, a Trial by Jury, and he MUST be convicted under 18 USC §2382. Without a criminal conviction showing that he engaged in a violent attempt to overthrow the Constitution, the 14th Amendment cannot apply. Even assuming that Trump told the people to violently overthrow Congress, that would still be sedition and NOT participating in an insurrection.

14th Amendment R

Section 5 of the 14th Amendment states that only CONGRESS “shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article,” not Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows or any other state official. CONGRESS has legislated this article 18 USC §2382 and ONLY a conviction under that statute would bar Trump under the 14th Amendment.

Voting _18_U.S._Code_594_Intimidation_of_voters

The attempt to remove Trump from the ballot is clearly a violation of everyone’s civil rights and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows should be now subject to a class action lawsuit under 42 U.S. Code § 1983 for depriving the people the right to decide who they want to be president. Bellows has sought to overthrow the Constitution to remove Trump from the ballot when she has ZERO authority to do so.

Civil Rights 42 USC 1983

Deep Dive Radio Interview Pt IV Trailer


Posted originally on Dec 30, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

The full interview will be available around January 7.

Crazy Stuff – Details of Results from Western Oil Sanctions Against Russia


Posted originally on the CTH on December 29, 2023 | Sundance

I’m very serious when I share with people that almost everything we understand about the geopolitical purposes and impacts of sanctions against Russian economic interests is entirely fabricated.  However, because the scale of the propaganda against us is so effective, breaking the mental/cognitive barrier is almost impossible.

It’s not that situations are ‘shaped’ or information is ‘manipulated,’ like would be the definition of the term “disinformation.”  But rather that the entire construct of reality regarding the economic issues -as presented- is fabricated, created by massive financial interests, and flat-out lies; I mean, total unadulterated nonsense. Complete fiction.

This latest article from Reuters, and the accompanying graphic from ZeroHedge, only scratches the surface.

[SOURCE]

We are through the looking glass folks.  Literally captive to the narrative as sold by our Western government officials, and there’s a huge one-way mirror; beyond which, massive segments of the grey zone are looking at us as if we are pathetic victims of professional propaganda.

The worst part of this dynamic is how the USA looks insufferably weak, because we are playing this massive game of pretending that only the Yellow Zone is participating in.

MOSCOW, Dec 27 (Reuters) – Almost all of Russia’s oil exports this year have been shipped to China and India, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday, after Moscow responded to Western economic sanctions by quickly rerouting supplies away from Europe.

Russia has successfully circumvented sanctions on its oil and diverted flows from Europe to China and India, which together accounted for around 90% of its crude exports, Novak, who is in charge of the country’s energy sector, told Rossiya-24 state TV.

He said that Russia had already started to forge ties with Asia-Pacific countries before the West introduced sanctions against Moscow following the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.

“As for those restrictions and embargoes on supplies to Europe and the U.S. that were introduced… this only accelerated the process of reorienting our energy flows,” Novak said.

He said that Europe’s share of Russia’s crude exports has fallen to only about 4-5% from about 40-45%. (read more)

What Alexander Novak shares is stunningly accurate, only the ramifications are far more serious.  This is why I am spending so much time trying to break the issue down into digestible portions.

Russia and Iran are now trading oil (and other things) in their own national currencies, not the petrodollar.  This is the epicenter of a process initially triggered by the BRICS economic alliance and is now taking place in real time while the proverbial WEST pretends it is not happening.   Now, it might sound esoteric, as if it is a disconnected or academic issue that doesn’t have real substantive ramifications, but that’s not true.

I can literally see how global trade is now cost-shifting as the dollar starts to weaken (become less used) as a trade currency.  Again, like our domestic social issues, this de-dollarization process is “slowly at first,” but eventually this is going to come all at once.

As USA consumers we cannot see it yet, because we are inside an economic system that is entirely dependent on dollars.  However, as the devaluation of the dollar continues slowly to happen, outside our dollar-based economy, the cost of goods, products and stuff in the ordinary life of people within the GREY ZONE is now stunningly less.  It’s not showing up in currency markets (dollar -vs- fill_in_blank), because the currency trades are not part of the trade/cost dynamic outside the YELLOW ZONE.

Go into the grey zone and compare the price of “product X” to what you would pay in the United States for “product X”, and you will see the difference in the end consumer price is starting to widen faster.   Identical goods in the USA cost much more than goods outside the “west.”

As the de-dollarization continues (mostly driven by the lessening of oil sold using the petrodollar), the disparity in price will get even more stark.   As a result of this dynamic, wages in the USA (or the “west”) must necessarily rise faster; however, that’s only part of the issue.

If I took $200 into a Russian supermarket, buying only consumable food products, I would end up with about 3 shopping carts full of food.  Take that same $200 into the average USA supermarket and you get one shopping cart or less.  This is the scale of what is likely to happen in durable goods.  The “cleaving” is underway.

Let me say that again, the “cleaving” of dollar-based price/value is underway.

Starbucks pulled out of Russia.  The building still exists, the furniture still there, the equipment still there, just a different name, “Star Coffee” lolol.   Starbucks is roughly $6 for whatever, the StarCoffee is $1.  Same stuff.   A cab/uber ride in USA might be $25, or in EU might be €30, but outside the yellow zone around $6 to $10/max.  It’s getting crazy how big the difference is.

Now, the price disparity is not in everything, only in the products that do not originate from inside the yellow zone.  The increased price of the yellow zone goods transfers into the grey zone when the product is moved.  However, if the yellow zone and grey zone both produce an identical product (or service), that’s when you see the massive difference in price.  [And no, this is not a lower cost labor issue]

Conversely, prices of goods originating from the grey zone shipped to the yellow zone will be far less than the comparable product created from within the yellow zone.

What is going to happen?

I suspect we are going to import even more products from the grey zone at a greater rate, because there’s a lower origination price and greater opportunity for profit.  Wait and see.

China needs energy, Russia needs computer chips and tech.  They are trading thusly.  Now watch… if the sanctions are ever lifted, we will start importing Russian made electronic goods, because less expensive.  It’s nuts.

Remember, our ‘western’ government is doing this to us on purpose.

Biden Dept of Energy Continues War on Consumers – New Fridge/Freezer and Fans Regulations Enacted


Posted originally on the CTH on December 29, 2023 | Sundance

We all know the routine. Water-saving toilets that don’t flush (flush twice), water/energy-saving dishwashers and clothes washers that don’t clean (run two cycles), lightbulbs that don’t light, dryers that don’t dry (run twice), and all the ancillary nonsense that comes from the intervention of the regulatory state.

What Biden and the progressive movement call the “green new deal” effort toward “sustainability,” including the ban on gas stoves and internal combustion engines, simply results in a diminished quality of life, a loss in lifestyle productivity, and the exact opposite outcome from their expressed/intended purpose.  It’s an abject mess of stupidity, pushed under the guise of environmentalism.

Today the Biden Dept of Energy (DOE) takes it one step further with rules and regulations on fridges, freezers and fans. {DOE LINK}

Residential Refrigerators and Freezers – The efficiency standards being adopted today for residential refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers, which have not been updated in over a decade, align with recommendations from a diverse set of stakeholders, including manufacturers, the manufacturing trade association, energy, environmental, and consumer advocacy groups, states, and utilities. Compliance will be required either January 31, 2029, or January 31, 2030, depending on the configuration of the refrigerator or freezer. The energy savings over 30 years of shipments is 5.6 quadrillion British thermal units, which represents a savings of 11% relative to the energy use of products currently on the market. DOE estimates that the standards would save consumers $36.4 billion over 30 years of shipments and result in cumulative emission reductions of nearly 101 million metric tons of carbon dioxide—an amount roughly equivalent to the combined annual emissions of 12.7 million homes. 

Commercial Fans and Blowers – DOE also released a proposed rulemaking for commercial fans and blowers that would reduce energy costs for American businesses by $3.3 billion annually. This proposal—the first federal standard for this product—follows the lead of efficiency standards already established by the state of California for general fans, extending savings to consumers nationwide and providing clarity for manufacturers. If adopted within DOE’s proposed timeframe, the new rule will come into effect in 2029. DOE estimates the new rule will reduce utility costs for American businesses by nearly $56 billion over 30 years of shipments, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 318 million metric tons—an amount roughly equivalent to the combined annual emissions of 40 million homes.  (MORE)

Now we will see air conditioning units that don’t cool, fridges that don’t chill, freezers that don’t keep things frozen and fans that do not move air.

Eventually, the compliant generations still to come will be sitting around a campfire eating sustainable algae cakes and bugs, while picking parasites off each other, because progress, environmental justice – or ESG something.

Has Europe Just Committed Suicide?


Posted originally on Dec 29, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Merkel_Minsk_Buy_Time_to Prepare for wart

Europe has laid the groundwork for World War III and the destruction of Europe as a whole, all to save its failed fiscal management of the economy. Using the Ukrainian war that the West instigated by promising democratic elections to the Donbas in BAD FAITH just for being Russian, the European Union Council adopted a 12th sanctions package against Russia. This time, they sealed the fate of the world and Europe by also announcing that the end of this contrived Ukrainian war would not be lifted after the conflict ended. From the very beginning, Europe negotiated in BAD FAITH with the intent of creating war. They promised to allow the Donbas the dignity and respect every human society deserves – the right to determine their own fate by a free election.

The Donbas was to be allowed to vote on their independence all because Nikita S. Khrushchev had merely redrawn borders for administrative purposes, designating that they would be governed from Kiev. The New York Times has put out real propaganda just as they once hailed Stalin as the economic model for the United States back during the Great Depression. When Gareth Jones (1905-1935) in March of 1933 exposed the New York Times reporting as propaganda, the truth finally began to appear. However, it still took the New York Times until 1990 to admit they engaged in fake news pushing communism on America. The NYT wrote that their reporting on the Russian Revolution constituted “some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper.” Their journalist Duranty even supported Roosevelt’s New Deal. He helped install drastic progressiveness in taxation. This time, the New York Times outright lied:

“Mr. Putin is repeating his longstanding argument that Ukraine’s borders are an artificial creation of Soviet planners who unjustly cordoned rightful Russian land within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.”

Is the New York Times just cheering on World War III in hopes of resurrecting a totalitarian state in the aftermath?

Mariupol_Maps Ukraine

Anyone with any sense of history knows that there was NEVER a Ukraine, and the border of Russia under the Tsars was the Dnieper River. The very name “Ukraine” means borderland. They joined with Hitler, who promised them their own country upon his victory. Kiev was the birthplace of the Rus (Russians), whose city was destroyed by the Mongol invasion of 1240AD. They were dispersed, and eventually, Moscow began to rise as a city.

Ukraine Map

This is why, to this very day, much of Eastern Ukraine is still the homeland of Russians who were promised to be able to hold their own election to separate from Ukraine to rejoin their own ethnic people. It was Khrushchev who redrew the borders, as Putin stated during the Soviet Union period.

Khruschev Brezinski

Not only did Khrushchev rise through the ranks to head Russia after being in charge of rebuilding Kiew after World War II, but his successor, Brezhnev, was born in the Donbas, which the West wanted to now claim was Ukraine to provoke war.

Volodymyr nthe Great

There are NO Ukrainian coins. The earliest coins of Kiev are that of the Rus or Russians. After the fall of Kiev to the Mongols in 1240, there were no coins. Money became foreign Byzantine coins or silver ingots known as hryvnias. During World War I, there was a brief attempt West of the D River, creating the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 to 1921. This involved some paper money that was briefly issued. The first coinage of Ukraine as a nation was in 1992. Because the Rus displayed a trident on their coinage, today, the Ukrainians try to claim they were their coins, but this was just not true.

The war for the territory that was NEVER the borderland and thus NEVER occupied by Ukrainians amounts to a territorial grab. It would be as if Mexico seized Texas and then outlawed English as a language. Over 500,000 Ukrainians have died in these proxy war games waged by the West. Merkel has so much blood on her hands that it will NEVER be washed off. She will go to her grave with the stain of so many people who have died for her treachery. Is it truly worth the destruction of Europe all for this nonsense of personal hatred of Russians because they were once communists? Or is this really just a cover-up for the economic collapse of a failed Western economy that borrows every year with no intention of ever paying off any such debt?

The Ukrainians hate Russians so profoundly that they have outlawed their religion, and now Ukraine has even abandoned Eastern Orthodox Christianity. They have now announced that Christmas will be that of Western Christianity – December 25th. Whatever they can do to offend every Russian living in what they claim is Ukraine, they are doing, and the West supports this abuse, even denying the freedom of religion. All of this is because the West needs war as the excuse for the collapse of the monetary system.

The people of Russia never wanted to return to the days of the Soviet Union. Once they tasted freedom, all the propaganda that Putin wanted to resurrect the old Soviet Union was just nonsense. Rome was the greatest empire ever to exist, with decades of peace because everyone benefited from the common market. Europe has chosen hatred rather than prosperity driven by the Neocons, who now also control NATO. The future is being determined right now. Europe has just condemned its own people to war. For what? To deny the people of the Donbas what the West had promised under the Minsk Agreement? Or are they, too, just pawns in this game to retain power?

Geopolitics

The new sanctions package they recently announced includes a ban on the import, purchase, or transfer of diamonds from Russia beginning on January 1, 2024, and tightens enforcing a Western price cap on Russian oil at $60 a barrel. Worse still, they have violated international law and set a highly dangerous precedent whereby some 61 people and 86 Russian companies were also sanctioned, according to a list published by the European Commission. They have even sanctioned Putin’s cousin, Anna Tsivileva, and the son of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Ilya Medvedev. If there is a dispute between countries, this precedent destroys the rule of law and the world economy. So if a war between the US and China unfolds, then each side can confiscate the assets of private citizen based entirely on their race and ethnic background.

ECM Wave 2020 2028 Pi

The world economy has been torn to shreds. It will NEVER return before 2032. We are looking at the economic decline our Model warns will unfold between May 7th, 2024, and 2028 as we head into 2032. The leaders of the West are NOT interested in peace. They are brainwashed by the Neocons and NATO, which has been scared to death that peace with Russia makes them irrelevant. So, to retain all the jobs in NATO, their self-interest is always to talk up war. Peace means they are no longer relevant or necessary.

Intl War Index 12 30 22
Pax Romana 2

This is NOT my personal opinion. If I could stop it, I certainly would. Our leaders are playing with more than fire; they are playing with the destruction of Western Society as we have known it since the end of World War II. These stupid sanctions have ensured that globalization has come to an end. It was that economic interconnection that created the countless years of peace under the Roman Empire – Pax Romana. The cornerstone of civilization is free trade. When everyone benefits by joining together, the economy expands, and peace flourishes.

What our illustrious leaders are doing is following the Neocon recipe for war. Impose sanctions, wage economic war, and the people will overthrow their governments. The Russians and Chinese are NOT stupid. They know who is waging this economic war, and it is the West. The West has undergone a coup like Rome many times. The Neocons are in complete control of the White House and the EU, not to mention the NATO – The North American Terrorist Organization. These people are trying to conquer the world, not much different than the ambitions that drove Alexander the Great (336–323BC), Hannibal (221–202 BC), Julius Caesar (58-44BC), Attila the Hun (434-453), and Genghis Khan (1206-1227), Napoleon (1799-1815), Adolf Hitler (1934-1945), Josef Stalin (1924-1953).

72 USA Revolution Extended Raised
1833 Russia 12 Roubles Platinum

Cyclically,  2024 is right on schedule with Russia’s 72-year revolutionary cycle. Many have dreamed of the conquest of Russia, for it is one of the wealthiest nations in natural resources, which include gold, platinum, and diamonds. Russia produced platinum coins between 1828 and 1845. No Western Nation was ever able to produce Platinum coinage.

Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich

Indeed, just before the Communist Revolution of 1917, Russia had the largest gold reserves of any nation on earth. For nearly 100 years, people have been searching for those gold reserves, which weigh nearly 500 tons (a ton equals 32,150.7 troy ounces of gold). That is 16,075,350 ounces or $32.150 billion at $2,000 an ounce. The Russian Empire’s gold reserve fell into the hands of Alexander V. Kolchak in November of 1918 when he overthrew the government in Siberia supported by the Triple Entente allies. Kolchak was the leader of the White Anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia during the years of the Russian Civil War. The gold was transported from the capital, Petrograd, during WWI because of the German threat of invasion of the city.

Kolchak’s gold, as it has been called, has been looked for on the Yamal Peninsula. Others suggest carts with Kolchak’s gold might have been found in the Altai Region. Still, others have said that Kolchak’s gold was dropped into Lake Baikal. These headlines have been following the search for the Russian Empire’s gold.

Lithuania Map

For the first time since World War II, German troops have crossed Poland, moving to Lithuania to defend the border with Belarus/Russia being stationed there until 2027. NATO cannot admit Ukraine as long as it is at war. Therefore, NATO is seeking to create the same situation in the Baltics, and the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are now to be sacrificed on the altar of the Neocons along with the more than 500,000 dead troops of Ukraine and the 8 to 10 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled to Europe with no intention of returning home.

Estonia has passed the same law as Ukraine, outlawing the Russian language to discriminate against the Russian population that lives there. Can you imagine if the US outlawed Spanish or Canada outlawed speaking French? This is a deliberate act to invoke a response from Russia as they did to the people in the Donbas.  NATO wants war, and they are determined to create World War III. Nobody is interested in peace whatsoever.

Lithuania is now considering imposing a “WAR TAX” on its people, as reported by the local press- BNS. Yet, BNS interviewed 16 economists, who agreed that increasing defense funding is necessary. However, they disagree on whether it needs a separate tax, with only five supporting that. This tax they seemed to foolishly tell the people they are seeking to boost their deterrence capabilities, insisting that it will not be possible to rely on borrowed funds alone.

News agency BNS asked sixteen economists and experts to evaluate the defense tax idea this year. Five would tend to support it; eight believe that a separate tax is not necessary. BNS also noted that the tax can be debated, but would the taxes collected be used transparently and according to the intended purpose? Another emphasized the priority is to have not only resources but also robust and efficient government institutions.

1 Kohl Dictator
Death of Euro

The design of the Euro was unsustainable in the long term. The ONLY way the Euro could have competed with the dollar was to consolidate the debts. However, Chancellor Kohl knew he would have lost 7:1 had he allowed the German people to vote on joining the Euro. So, he admitted he denied any democratic principle, took Germany into the Euro, denying the people a right to vote, so the compromise was that there would be no debt consolidation. I know since the commission came to our 1998 London Conference, and I warned then there would NEVER be a single interest rate in Europe for the member would be no different from the states in the USA – each pays a rate based upon their credit score.

Unfortunately, now, with debt crumbling beneath the surface, they need to escape responsibility for the coming sovereign debt crisis. The way to do that is W A R! They are pushing hard to get Sweden into NATIO.

This is the unspoken agenda. Sadly, these people in power do not care about the people. There are too many of us anyway, according to Bill Gates. They are deliberately seeking to use the Baltics to try to get Russia to take the bait to justify World War III. NATO is also expanding its authority to Asia, knowing that this will be a war between the West, Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, just for starters.

Kaja Kallas

The small nation of Estonia is also desperately trying to sacrifice its people for NATO and the Neocons. Prime Minister Kallas is using Estonia’s strategic position to further this proxy war with Russia. She has outright stated that negotiating a peace deal with Putin is off the table. She is willing to sacrifice her own people for personal safety before she gets a free flight to the USA.

For us, it is important to not make that mistake again like we did in Crimea, Donbas, Georgia,” she said. “We have done the same mistake already three times, saying that, you know, negotiations, negotiated peace is the goal. … The only thing that Putin hears from this is that ‘I can do this because no punishment will follow.’”

She deliberately fails to mention the Minsk Agreement and how the West negotiated peace in bad faith because this has been the intention from the very start – to create World War III to end democracy and move to a totalitarian state proposed by Klaus Schwab and the end of the United States as all power is then usurped into the United Nations.

A Feature, Not Flaw – REPORT: Western Banks Drop 60,000 Employees in 2023


Posted originally on the CTH on December 27, 2023 | Sundance

If you followed my research on banking and the reality of the Russian sanction regime, this report takes on an entirely new dimension.  The article is from ZeroHedge, and the topline is not the real story.

ZEROHEDGE – The collapse of three US regional banks – First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank – marked some of the largest failures in the banking system since 2008. Central banks contained the “mini-crisis” earlier this year with forced interventions and the mega-merger of Credit Suisse and UBS. Despite the interventions, global banks still axed the most jobs since the global financial crisis. 

A new report from the Financial Times shows twenty of the world’s largest banks slashed 61,905 jobs in 2023, a move to protect profit margins in a period of high interest rates amid a slump in dealmaking and equity and debt sales. This compared with the 140,000 lost during the GFC of 2007-08. (more

Look carefully at the graphic labeled “global banks.”  What do they all have in common?

These are not global banks, they are all “western banks.”  Do you remember a key component of my trip to eastern EU {Password Protected}.   That part of my research trip was specifically to understand the contradiction between what the west says about the Russian financial sanctions, and the reality of the irrelevance of those sanctions in Russia.

I didn’t talk, I watched; I listened.

Here’s how it really looks from the outside looking at the USA.  The same way the Patriot Act was not designed to stop terrorism but rather to create a domestic surveillance system. So too were the “Russian Sanctions” not designed to sanction Russia, but rather to create the financial control system that will lead to a dollar-based western digital currency.

BRICS+ was creating a non-dollar-based currency alternative for trade. Then comes the western financial sanctions, under the auspices of punishment for the Ukraine conflict. However, think “stopgap.” The sanctions didn’t block Russia, they walled-in the WEST.

The sanctions were not designed to keep Russia out of western banking, they were designed to keep us in.  Start thinking from that perspective, and all of the downstream activity, including the aggressive USA govt/banking response to crypto markets, makes total sense.

♦GROUND REPORT – You might ask how I know the Russian sanctions are ineffective – here’s an example.  After doing advanced research, I went to three separate banks as a random and innocuous customer.  I put my reason in the kiosk at each bank, got my ticket number and sat down to listen to the conversations. When my ticket number came up on the digital board, I just ignored it and sat for hours listening to conversations.  No one ever noticed or questioned me – not once.

At every one of the banks, the majority of the customers, at the “new account” desk, were foreign nationals asking about setting up business accounts to trade with Russia. In every bank the conversations were friendly and helpful, with the bank staff telling the customers exactly how to set up their account to accomplish the transactions.  No one was saying no; instead, they were explaining how to do it in very helpful detail.

Within Russia, there are now 3rd party brokers with international accounts, an entirely new industry, which creates a layer of transactional capability for the outside company to sell goods into Russia.  A Samsung TV travels from South Korea to the destination in the RU with the financial transaction between manufacturer and retailer now passing through the new ‘broker’ intermediary. Essentially, that process is what was happening in the banks for small to medium sized companies.

The USA led “western” sanctions against Russian interests were not designed to keep Russia isolated financially, they were designed to keep USA and Western banking customers walled in.  The end goal?  To create a dollar based CBDC for western finance.

In order to accomplish that goal, WESTERN govt/banking needs full control.  Any alternative (BRICS+ currency/trade) is a threat.

The Western sanctions created a financial wall around the USA, not to keep Russia out, but to keep us in.  The Western sanction regime, the financial mechanisms they created and authorized, creates the control gate that leads to a “dollar based” digital currency.

In essence, the Ukraine war response justified a system that creates a digital dollar.

The loss in “western banking” jobs, the downsizing within the banking system, is a feature – not a flaw.

AMERICAFEST is LIVE! Ted Cruz, Dennis Prager, Jack Posobiec and others. Join us! #AmFest2023


Posted originally on Rumble By Turning Point USA on:Dec 19, 10:49 am EST

The Chronicles of the Revolution – Part 1 The French Terror


Posted originally on Rumble By Steve Bannons War Room On: Dec 26, 8:00 pm EST