Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jun 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Governments are pulling off a major profound theft. They have been violating international law robbing individual Russians with no connection to Ukraine on the pretense that this will somehow put pressure on Putin to leave Ukraine. But the US has been funding the civil war against Russian-Ukrainians in the Donbas. Western Ukrainian simply hate Russians and this goes back to Bandera in World War II. The West was not upset when the Ukrainians were beating Russians on the street in Odessa, chased them into a building, and then burned them to death alive. That was perfectly fine because they were Russian

The real question here is have our politicians simply used Ukraine as the excuse to just confiscate money regardless of who owns it?  There seems to be an apparent almost ownerless view of money emerging especially in Europe where governments are just grabbing money at will abandoning any rule of law. Like Trudeau in Canada confiscating people’s accounts because they supported the truckers. We seem to be entering a complete collapse in the very foundation of law upon which civilization has been sustained.

This confiscation of private Russian accounts and assets on the theory that their country is doing something that offends another is the complete collapse of civilization and it appears to be just getting started as we head into this ominous target of 2032. If we just look at Europe, savers and investors have been abused with negative interest rates since 2014, the assets have been devalued for years, and now with inflation of over 7% in Europe, there is complete drastic destruction of European capital.

The wise have been pouring money out into anything tangible. Everything from collectible cars to art, antiques, coins, and stamps have been rising. A gold Aureus of Brutus with a hole that had previously sold for under $100,000, was just sold for 2,200,000 CHF! A Mercedes Gullwing brought $1,3 million. 

There are serious concerns that this is a prelude to the seizure of people’s savings on a wholesale basis for implementing You will Own Nothing & Be Happy. The Russian confiscation in total violation of international law appears to be just a test run for even more serious events in the future. In this wholesale confiscation of private assets, these politicians are using the excuse of Ukraine to implement a completely new normal procedure – the confiscation of billions without asking who the funds belong to and whether there is a connection to the Ukraine war. While some may look the other way because they are Russians and who cares if there is no connection to Ukraine or a rule of law. But turning a blind eye to what is going on is very dangerous for to accomplish this confiscation means they MUST abandon every foundation of the rule of law and without that there can be no civilization left standing.

Those who approve of such actions directed against Russia should be aware that what they can justify today with Russians can and will be done tomorrow with the savings of any citizen. They already confiscate private assets if you travel with more than $10,000 and they PRESUME it is illegal money. They do not even have to prove that there was a crime. They seize it and that is it.

Confiscating someone else’s money demonstrates how desperate politics has become. They MUST retain power and they will justify their actions just as Thraymacus argued in his debate with Socrates. Justice is always the same no matter what form of government because justice simply becomes the self-interest of those in power.

 The past speaks to us if we dare to listen. History repeats because the passions of humanity never change throughout the centuries. For thousands of years, governments have been expropriating someone else’s property. No matter what century we look at, the same practice emerges when governments are financially stressed as they are today. It was Edward I who expelled the Jews from England, but the motive was not religion. He borrowed from the Jews to fund his war against France and when he could not pay, he suddenly discovered that his bankers were Jewish – OMG! How could that have been the case? So he expelled them from England but seized all their property denying them the right to flee with their property. It was Edward I who was the king in Brave Heart (being Scottish, it was the most influential film in my life).

Governments are UNWILLING to find solutions to pressing economic problems because they may result in their loss of power and our freedom. Even the plundering of private assets with the help of the low-interest rate policy has deprived people of their rightful income after telling people to save for their retirement and you will be able to live off the interest. Those promises have been destroyed.

Against the background, politicians are incapable of properly managing the state budgets entrusted to them. They no longer know even how to run for office without promising free gifts and taking money from one class to hand to another. Central banks, especially the ECB, have kept interest rates low to provide the over-indebted countries with cheap money, causing savers and investors to sacrifice their future with no end in sight.

Politicians have exploited Russia and begged them to invade Ukraine, refusing to enforce either the Belgrad Agreement or the Minsk Agreement which was to allow the people of the Donbas to vote on their own future while pretending this is a war for democracy v autocracy. They need the Ukrainian war as a diversion as a shell game to distract the people from the economic crisis hiding in the wings.

They have deliberately pushed Russia to suspend servicing their debts to Western lenders, in preparation for their own excuse to suspend their own servicing of debts. As usual with sanctions, not only the person against whom the sanctions are directed in this case Russia is harmed but also this has undermined the entire world economy ensuring its collapse in the years ahead. In this context, it cannot be stressed enough that sanctions historically have never worked and they know that they are generally pointless. They began imposing sanctions against Russia back in 2014 and more sanctions for the Ukrainian false flag of shooting down the Malaysia passenger jet trying to get the West to come in and defend Ukraine.

Even now blaming Putin for blockading Ukrainian ships carrying grain, they omit the fact that the Ukrainians have mined the harbors and are deliberately trying to create starvation to once again compel the West to enter this vindictive war against Russia. The Neocons, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham have been promoting civil war in Ukraine to create a Proxy War they are willing to fight until the last Ukrainian is dead. But nobody will dare look at the fact that this Ukrainian War has been provoked.

The day before Russia invaded, Zelensky announced he would rearm Ukraine with nuclear weapons. We invaded Iraq on the pretense he had such weapons which were never true. Here you have Zelensky standing up publicly announcing he is breaking the Belgrade Agreement and refusing to allow Donbas to hold elections as per the Minsk AGreement, but Putin is the evil person here?

Then we have Zelensky promoting World War III claiming has already begun yet all these world leaders visiting him in Ukraine including Biden’s wife while pretending Kyiv is a war zone. This is all a joke. It is such theatre for the world needs a war to hide the economic collapse they know is coming. I have warned that Zelensky will be the man that brings World War III. That is his mission in this play.

PREPARING TO CONFISCATE PRIVATE ASSETS:

There was a practice run that people have forgotten. Remember the first confiscation of Russian assets when they robbed Russians by confiscating their deposits over Cyprus. Do you recall that back in 2013, the IMF head Christine Lagarde at the time advocated a wholesale seizure of 10% of all accounts throughout the Eurozone because there may be riots and discord if there are bail-ins on a case-by-case basis. This was laid out in the IMF report. The idea is that a wholesale seizure will prevent a bank run for if bail-ins take place on a case-by-case basis then this might start a contagion. Consequently, the latest reports from the IMF discuss this super-seizure of 10% on all savings in the Eurozone they are calling a tax. This is argued to be necessary to solve the debt problem in most sovereign countries. It would be an alternative to higher taxes or spending cuts. The economists who actually wrote the paper claim it appears to be an efficient solution for the debt problem yet it lacks long-term analysis.

Today, the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgiva, who is also on the Board of Directors of the World Economic Forum and got the job thanks to Schwab, made a very naive statement claiming that the Russian sanctions are not all that bad. Russia accounts for only 0.4% of the world financial market. She admitted in her 60-minute interview that imposing sanctions on China for helping Russia will lead to more supply chain disruptions which will further inflation. So she justifies illegally confiscating private assets using her bogus statistics yet energy prices are soaring and the EU says the entire food crisis is caused by “Russian alone!” The disinformation is not coming from Putin, but right before our eyes here with Western pretend leaders.

This is all the surface banter that avoids the entire point of our real pending economic crisis – authoritarianism in the West. What has emerged is the justification for grabbing money that belongs to others. Even if we turn the clock back to the 2010 Greek Financial Crisis when politicians suddenly declared bonds worth millions worthless. Private investors in Greek government bonds wanted to claim 12 million euros in damages from the ECB after the debt restructuring. The European Court of Justice ruled against the plaintiffs. Th claim that the expropriation of private assets would facilitate the rehabilitation of the country. That restructuring completely failed. Governments act ONLY in their own self-interest, never in the interest of the nation or the people.

Because we are pushing this end-game of governments being able to keep funding going under this system of perpetual borrowing year after year, adding the fact that the central banks cannot keep buying the debt creating money indefinitely while being blamed for not stopping inflation, the only remaining solution open to the government is to seize the assets of citizens and businesses. This is what Schwab is selling with you will own nothing and be happy. From now on, you can only withdraw small amounts of cash that are absolutely necessary to cover immediate needs. This is always the scheme that repeats in all historical financial crises.

Just Look at Russia

There was absolutely no valid legal basis for seizing the private assets of Russian citizens. It is purely arbitrary but violates every principle of international law. There is also no DUE PROCESS OF LAW afforded any Russian individual. In principle, such a policy against Russian state funds would be legal, but only if the USA and the EU were at war with Russia. There must be a declaration of war to justify even that action. A direct military confrontation is scrupulously avoided because only the US Congress can issue a declaration of war. Therefore, as long as the Biden Administration does NOT send troops to Ukraine, then he does not need Congress’ approval for this Proxy War which has the same intentions of destroying Russia. As far as the confiscation of corporate and private assets is concerned, there is no precedent in history to justify these sanctions. This means they have TOTALLY abandoned all rule of law whatsoever.

Consequently, after already abandoning the rule of law, the intensification of this behavior will only continue when it becomes evident that the political system is collapsing. This is point 8 in Schwabs Great Reset. They know that they are pushing the envelope here and as inflation rises, so will civil unrest. They will then turn on the people just as Venezuela has done which is also why they desperately need to eliminate gun ownership. That is essential to disarm the people who the complete implementation of this Great Reset.

We have embarked upon a new Wild West Economic Policy of just confiscating assets. Blocking funds that could be used to settle claims against Russian debtors is part of this strategy that they KNOW will have zero impact upon forcing Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. They have deliberately put Russia in a position where they know it cannot back down. The real question is do they really think overthrowing Putin will lead to Russia falling to its knees begging for forgiveness?

The sanctions against Russia are presented by the US and the EU as legitimate measures necessary to bring warring Russia and its President Putin to surrender. But they know that will not happen. Clearly, the sanctions do not have the desired effect under any scenario are all they have done is shake the very foundation of the world economy revealing that it is arbitrary and untrustworthy. SWIFT had committed suicide and China’s alternative is pushing the world into a Great Reset, but not the decided objective of a one-world government headed by the United Nations. Africa also just refused to sign the WHO’s dictatorship over world heath.

What is clearly in play is their idea of confiscating private assets. What started the hyperinflation of Germany was NOT the printing of money – that was the result, not the cause. In December 1922, the government did a forced loan. They too confiscated 10% of everyone’s accounts and issued a bond, We are returning to such measures. The US and the EU along with Japan and Switzerland have thrown out all rules of law. We should expect nothing less in this final stage into 2032 where it will become a war between the government against we the people – the great unwashed.