We are staring in the face of a serious food crisis in Europe as food prices rise continuously, and with further draconian COVID measures within the EU, they are bringing the food supply chains to a standstill. Our models have been warned that this 8.6-year cyclical wave into 2024 will be one of commodity inflation due to SHORTAGES rather than speculative demand. All the indications that the world is heading for a serious food price crisis are in play. The Food Price Index (FFPI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) averaged 107.5 points in December 2020, an increase of 2.3 points (2.2%) compared to November 2020, which represents an increase for the seventh consecutive month.
With the exception of sugar, all sub-indices of the FFPI recorded slight gains in December, with the sub-index for vegetable oil again rising the most, followed by that for dairy products, meat, and cereals. For 2020 as a whole, the FFPI averaged 97.9 points, a three-year high, 2.9 points (3.1%) higher than in 2019, but still well below its 2011 high of 131.9 points. It is also interesting that the FFPI in 2002 was still 53.1 points. It only increased significantly from the financial crisis of 2007/08, only to then level off in the 90-point range. Since May 2020 it has increased by 18%.
Our models project that the upward trend in the FFPI will intensify going into 2024. With the coronavirus mutating, as we warned ALL viruses do, as such, we have these various strains from Africa, Brazil, UK, and even California, are inspiring politicians to use this as an opportunity to restrict the population even further. These corona measures have extended to the food supply chains, disrupting them just as we see in electronics. For example, the German Fruit Trade Association sees the supply of fruit and vegetables from abroad is at a substantial risk whereby imports are suspended. The reason is the tightening of the corona entry regulation by the federal government. The tightening of the lockdown in Europe is beginning to restrict the supply chains reducing the food supply
This June, Sotheby’s will be auctioning off three of the greatest rarities in the stamp and coin field. The 1933 Double Eagle $20 gold coin, the unique British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta, and the unique Inverted Jenny 1918 Plate Block. This is truly an incredible offering from a single collector to have captured three of the rarest and most unique collectibles in history.
It is a bit unusual that a unique stamp from a less than the mainstream region has emerged as the rarest and sole-surviving example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta from 1856. It was last sold in 2014 at Sotheby’s for $9.48 million. While it was rediscovered by a 12-year-old schoolboy living in South America in 1873, perhaps due to fantastic marketing, it has emerged as one of the most important stamps in famous collections that have ever assembled. In 1873 L. Vernon Vaughan, a 12-year-old schoolboy living with his family in British Guiana found the stamp among a group of family papers bearing many British Guiana issues. The young philatelist would later sell the stamp for several shillings to another local collector. The British Guiana then entered the UK in 1878, and shortly after, it was purchased in Paris by Count Philippe la Renotière von Ferrary who many considered to be perhaps the greatest stamp collector in history. Then following the war, France seized Ferrary’s collection, which had been donated to the Postmuseum in Berlin, as part of war reparations due from Germany following World War I. The stamp was then sold in 1922 at auction when it was purchased by Arthur Hind, a textile magnate from New York, for its first auction-record price of $35,000. The stamp changed hands moving from the collections of the Australian engineer Frederick T. Small; then a consortium headed by Irwin Weinberg; then by John du Pont of the famous chemical company. Du Pont paid $935,000 for the stamp in a 1980 auction, before it was last sold at auction to Weitzman for the record-setting price of $9.48 million.
Interestingly, a tradition emerged where previous owners of the British Guiana signed the back of the stamp. Weitzman added his own personal mark to the reverse of the stamp inscribing his initials “SW” along with a line drawing of a stiletto shoe as a nod to his legacy in fashion.
This 1933 Double Eagle ($20 gold coin) is the only example that may be legally owned by an individual. It was the coin acquired by King Farouk of Egypt. Stuart Weitzman purchased the coin at a Sotheby’s/Stack’s auction in 2002 for a world record price of US$7.59 million, nearly doubling the previous record. The Director of the United States Mint signed a Certificate of Monetization that, in return for twenty dollars, authorized the issuance of this single example.
In August 2005, the US Mint announced the recovery of ten additional stolen 1933 double eagle gold coins from the family of Philadelphia jeweler/coin dealer Israel Switt, who was the illicit coin dealer identified by the Secret Service as a party to the theft who admitted selling the first nine double eagles that were recovered. Israel Switt had many contacts and friends within the Philadelphia Mint. As the story goes, the Secret Service found that only one man, George McCann, had access to the coins at the time and served prison time for similar embezzlement in 1940. Israel Switt somehow obtained the stolen 1933 double eagles. One theory is that McCann swapped the previous year’s Double Eagles for the 1933 specimens prior to melting, thereby making sure the count was correct. The US mint began striking Double Eagles on March 15, 1933. Roosevelt’s executive order to ban gold was not finalized until April 5. Therefore, on March 6, 1933, the Secretary of the Treasury ordered the Director of the Mint to pay gold only under a license issued by the Secretary, and the United States Mint cashier’s daily statements do not reflect that any 1933 Double Eagles were paid out.
In September 2004, the claimed owner, Joan Switt Langbord, heir to Israel Swift, tried to sell the 10 coins and they had to be surrendered to the Secret Service. In July 2005, the coins were authenticated by the United States Mint after working with the Smithsonian Institution, as being genuine 1933 double eagles. Joan Switt Langbord claimed to have found them in a box and she went to court to have them returned. On October 28, 2010, US court ruled and the issue went to trial in July 2011. On July 20, 2011, after a ten-day trial, a jury ruled unanimously in favor of the United States government and Lanford appealed. At first, the Court of Appeals overruled the jury, but then it went En Banc and the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the government. The Langbords appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on April 17th, 2017 denied certiorari.
Hetty Green’s son, Edward Howland Robinson Green (1868-1936), was not so frugal and spent $3 million on coins and stamps. He was an avid collector and bought the famous sheet of 100 inverted airmail stamps in 1918, paying $20,000. The last time this Plate Block appeared on the market was 16 years ago when it sold at auction for $2.97 million.
Meanwhile, the classic Ferraris from the 1980s have nearly doubled in price over the past year.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 31, 2021 | Sundance | 213 Comments
Interestingly, the alphabet narrative engineers are focused on this trial as they were with George Zimmerman. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd.
Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who died in custody.
Forensic evidence showed that George Floyd died from a “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” Other significant conditions were listed as “arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use.” (link)
A memorandum filed by the Hennepin County Attorney’s office on June 1 indicated that chief medical examiner Dr. Andrew Baker, who listed Floyd’s death as a homicide, thought the amount of fentanyl in Floyd’s blood was “pretty high” and could be “a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances.” “[Dr. Baker] said that if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death,” the memo said.
Livestream Links Below for open discussion of this ongoing case.
Yesterday, Donald Williams II, a combative bystander who repeatedly yelled for Chauvin to remove his knee from Floyd’s neck, took the stand and said he “called the police on the police” after witnessing the fatal arrest. Darnella Frazier, the teen who filmed the viral footage of Floyd’s death, also took the stand and described seeing Floyd “suffering” in his final moments. The propaganda machine is working diligently to frame a racist narrative.
Armstrong Blog/Gov’t Incompetence Re-Post ed Mar 31, 2021 by Martin Armstrong
One person wrote, “Have you ever realized that you are the first true psychohistorian ever, as in Asimov’s Foundation?” Many others are writing in and asking if I could elaborate on my recent statement, “So just start planning now for the next real Great Reset which will be the overthrow of the republic.”
I must confess, I never read Asimov’s Foundation. From reading the cliff notes, I gather it was based upon the fall of Rome. Psychohistory seems to describe an amalgam of psychology, history, and related social sciences and the humanities all combined. Quite honestly, history repeats as I have said many times because the passions of man never change. A mother still cries for her son who dies in battle today as she did in ancient times. To me, in order to understand history you must connect the dots, and to do so that requires an understanding of the thinking process of the time WITHOUT imposing your interpretation based upon what is now.
I have given the example of the city of Philadelphia they named because in Greek it meant “brotherly love,” so the Quakers interpreted that in a Christian sense that yes, I love my brother. The true interpretation at that time in ancient Greece meant incest. They called Ptolemy II Pheladelphos because he married his sister. Context is everything, just as it was wrong to interpret the ancient Egyptians as Pagans or the Greeks saying they worshiped many gods, which was not true. The Egyptians believed in one god they called Rha being the sun, because it gave life. The others represented an individual sin or trait but were never seen as gods of creators.
The Sistine Chapel has as its centerpiece Michelangelo’s “God Creating Adam.” All of our representations of God are symbolic. Nobody actually knows the face of God. The Greeks also never saw their many gods as creators. They were really seen as Titans who were mischievous to put it politely. When you died, you were judged, but not by Zeus, but by the three fates. So many ancient statues are beheaded because the ignorant early Christians thought every statue was a God.
Psychohistory examines the “why” of history, which in my mind involved the intention and actual behavior of why people and governments act the way they do. Effectively, what I have discovered is that when confronted with a similar set of events, those in power will always respond in the same manner.
Republics are the worst form of government because they always collapse into oligarchies. Even a dictatorship is better, for they are not prone to such corruption. Republics allow people to be elected, but there is no way to prevent them from doing things that are against the very people who elected them. When the bribes are too tempting, they simply can be bought, and that is always their fate. Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers believed Cicero which was the fake news of the day because he was an Optimate and part of the oligarchy. Hence, he distorted the account of Caesar for when he crossed the Rubicon. In reality, the Senate fled, and the people cheered Caesar as their savior from a debt crisis. (see: Anatomy of a Debt Crisis).
The only form of government that deserves a try in the face of the Democrats insisting on mail-in ballots is a direct democracy. The people must vote on every bill proposed, and there can be no adding of nonsense that has nothing to do with the bill. The Social Security Act was 16 pages. Obamacare was at least 33,000 pages. Nobody reads that type of legislation, and they make it that long to hide bombshells.
Do we have to wonder just how long will the press allow this complete farse to continue? Journalists have no sense of honor, for what they are allowing to take is devastating their own families’ future. Truthfully, if my children were a journalist selling this BS, I would disown them. The CDC has even reduced the social distancing from 6 ft to 3 ft. Then Fauci has come out and said that you can hug other family members if you are vaccinated. So here we have politicians, who Yellen has become, wearing masks when their own savior of the world, Dr. Antony Fauci, has said it is not necessary when people are vaccinated and they no longer need 6ft of social distancing.
This is all a propaganda agenda because what is coming is nothing but job losses and higher taxes, which will not be just the “rich.” Reliable sources are talking about putting a tax per mile driven as part of the Infrastructure Bill. They will say they need that to pay the $1 trillion cost, but in truth, this is what the real intent of lockdowns was — end commuting. There is no reason for Biden and Yellen to be sitting there with masks. This is all theater counting on the stupidity of the majority of Americans to believe whatever the government tells them.
Stanley Milgram, an American social psychologist, did research that peeled back the surface of humanity, which he called “Obedience to Authority.” In one of his famous studies, an assistant stepped out onto a busy street in New York City and stared upward into the sky. At first, people just walked around him and did not bother to look up. However, when four more researchers were added, forming a small collective group now staring into the sky at nothing, people suddenly stopped and joined in to see what was happening up there (Milgram, Bickman, and Berkowitz 1969). If there is an accident, cars will slow down to take a look. The whole line of traffic slows to a crawl, and yet, when you arrive at that spot, instinctively you will look to see what is going on. We call it rubbernecking.
The government knows what it is doing to impose the Great Reset without people noticing the agenda.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 30, 2021 | Sundance | 243 Comments
Think about the logical insanity of this position for a moment…. According to the Biden administration the economy is in trouble, people are struggling, and congress needs to spend trillions to bail out state, local and federal governments along with sending income subsidies to all Americans as the economic crisis around COVID continues.
Due to policies on energy, regulation and the COVID virus, simultaneously food prices are going higher, fuel prices are up 30 percent, overall energy prices are rising, transportation costs increasing and the inflationary impact on the middle-class is eating up their limited paychecks.
AT THIS EXACT MOMENT the same administration is now proposing a tax increase.
THINK ABOUT THE LACK OF LOGIC HERE.
(VIA AXIOS) […] The biggest-ticket item would raise the corporate rate from 21% to 28%. That’s worth $730 billion over 10 years, according to the Tax Policy Center. The other three would:
Impose a global minimum tax on profits from foreign subsidiaries: $550 billion.
Tax capital gains as regular income for the wealthy and tax unrealized capital gains at death: $370 billion.
Return the top individual rate for those making more than $400,000 to the pre-Trump rate of 39.6%: $110 billion.
[..] Democrats close to the White House don’t expect Biden to fight as hard for other expected proposals, including one that could raise some $740 billion by imposing new Social Security taxes on the wealthy.
His campaign plan to impose a 28% minimum rate on the wealthy, which would raise $220 billion, is unlikely to cross the finish line.
And making it harder for small businesses to claim deductions, which would bring in $140 billion, will likely encounter serious roadblocks.
Changing the ways estates are taxed, which would raise $220 billion, may not make it into the final legislation. (read more)
Posted Originally on the conservative tree house March 29, 2021 | Sundance | 95 Comments
Jackson County District Judge Michael Klaeren (Michigan 12th District) has removed charges of terrorism against three men accused in a plot to kidnap governor Gretchen Whitmer. According to the Detroit News, judge Klaeren said: ” “There has to be some form of intent here to incite mayhem”, and no evidence in that regard has been presented. The terrorism charges fail for lack of evidence.
MICHIGAN – […] The charges were dismissed against Paul Bellar of Milford and Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico of Munith. They are among seven men accused of having ties to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen who are charged in the alleged plot. The others include Shawn Fix of Belleville, Eric Molitor of Cadillac, Michael Null of Plainwell and William Null of Shelbyville. The men had faced a total of 19 felony charges for firearms and terror-related acts.
After onboarding new members through mediums such as Facebook, the group’s conversations took place in encrypted chats. The limited nature of those chats is why the threat charge was dismissed, Klaeren said.
[…] The three will stand trial on the three remaining charges, Klaeren said. Each are charged with gang membership and providing material support for terrorism, both punishable by up to 20 years in prison, as well as felony firearm, punishable by up to two years in prison.
The gang membership charge and the felony firearms charge were dependent on the material support for terrorism charge, Klaeren said. (read more)
Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 29, 2021 | Sundance | 208 Comments
The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, began today with opening arguments. Officer Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Forensic evidence showed that George Floyd died from a “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” Other significant conditions were listed as “arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use.” (link)
A memorandum filed by the Hennepin County Attorney’s office on June 1 indicated that chief medical examiner Dr. Andrew Baker, who listed Floyd’s death as a homicide, thought the amount of fentanyl in Floyd’s blood was “pretty high” and could be “a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances.” “[Dr. Baker] said that if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death,” the memo said.
Opening statements began this morning. The trial in in recess until 12:15pm ET / 11:15am CT [Livestream Links Below]
The Greens in Australia want to tax Billionaires 6% Wealth Tax annually (in addition to INCOME) as a property tax on everything this own from art right down to the watch they wear. They claim it will raise $11.2 billion over its first two years, it will cost the Australian Tax Office an extra $110 million to implement the policy and enforce compliance. But it does not stop there. It would apply to Australians who hold more than $1 billion in assets, no matter where they live, and non-residents who hold Australian assets worth more than $1 billion. Therefore, you can see how stupid these people are for they assume those they target would just remain in Australia and that foreign investment would certainly abandon Australia. This is on top of income taxes, and property taxes that already are in place.
I quit managing money domestically in the United States back in 1985. They came in for an audit and government employees MUST find something wrong because their view is nobody is perfect. They said they were going to write me up for improper record keeping. I asked what was wrong. They said my tabs on files were PINK and they were supposed to be RED. I am not one to cower from the government. I demanded their names and told them I would be filing a lawsuit against them personally. They dropped the nonsense and left. I then informed all my American clients that I would no longer manage money inside the United States. I returned all the funds and moved offshore. That incident transformed me into one of the first Hedge Fund Managers. Stupid regulation has an impact and the idiots behind it are too stupid to understand the consequences.
The political left never gets it. If they raised income taxes back to 90% again, I would just quit. Out of principle, I would simply refuse to work as an economic slave. They never read Atlas Shrugged. They think robbing others because they have more than they have is perfectly fine. So if they are walking down the street and someone sticks a gun in their face and says give me everything or your life, they too are justified because whatever they have is still more than the person with the gun.
I find it very interesting that these left-wing policies are actually forbidden by the Ten Commandments for they are built upon avarice and envy. The Seven Deadly Sins are Pride, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, and Sloth. What is interesting is the fact that what is in the Ten Commandments can be found in just about every religion since the dawn of time. This appears to be a human problem and they always justify it by saying it is not fair that someone else has something they do not. But then again, then do not want to work for it – Sloth.
COMMENT: Dear Mr Armstrong, I wanted to write in to affirm your observation of regular people buying now rather than waiting (The Bull v Bear in the US Markets). I had to buy a new dryer earlier in the year. It took 6 weeks to get the one I had ordered. I wanted to buy a new computer recently. Lenovo showed delivery in 12 weeks for the one I wanted! Another company I looked at was taking pre-orders for delivery beginning the end of May. I paid a little extra and went with a small manufacturer that could deliver within 10 business days. I bought an extra freezer so we can stock up. I actually tried to buy a freezer last year and couldn’t get one at all, so I snapped one up as soon as they were available back in January. My wife just asked me if I wanted to get a new grill for Father’s Day. I said, ‘Let’s buy that right now and put it aside. Who knows what will happen by Father’s Day.’
J
REPLY: I remember the 70s well. Because of OPEC, not just gasoline was rising, but suddenly everything made of plastic was rising. For those who do not know, plastics are made starting with raw materials, such as natural gas, oil, or plants, which are refined into ethane and propane. Ethane and propane are treated with high heat, in a process known as cracking. This is how they’re converted into monomers such as ethylene and propylene. The monomers ethylene and propylene are combined with a catalyst to create a polymer “fluff,” which looks like powdered laundry detergent. Then the polymer is fed into an extruder, where it is melted and fed into a pipe, and the plastic forms a long tube as it cools. So when oil rose in price, so did everything made of plastic. That was much of the inflationary boom between 1976 and 1980.
Everything was rising in price which led to the realization that it was cheap to buy today because it would only cost more tomorrow. I ordered a new refrigerator in December. It finally arrived in March. We are entering a period of shortages so prices will be moving higher as supply is constrained and demand will rise. The other side-effect of lockdowns and the destruction of offices with people working more remotely, everyone is out remodeling or expanding their homes. The construction industry is booming. Just look at the price of lumber.
Welcome to the inflation cycle our computer has been projecting would be built upon shortages
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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