-- Published: Monday, 4 August 2014 | Print | Disqus
By Bill Holter
I think that it is becoming very clear that we are headed over a cliff in every way imaginable. All you need to do is look around, we are at the edge economically, financially, socially, geopolitically and morally. Let me help you "look around" at where I think we are.
Just this past week alone we were told that we had "solid" unemployment numbers with a job gain of 209,000. Really? When you break the numbers down it turns out that "older" workers are working harder than ever as evidenced by more elderly workers in the workforce than ever before. The age group of 25-54 LOST 142,000 during July, is this "growth"? Argentina defaulted and JP Morgan is buying their bonds because it seems that they may have sold a few CDS (credit default swaps) and may be on the hook for a few billion dollars. Manufacturing and construction spending numbers in the U.S. were dismal at the same time we were told that the economy grew by 4%.
Please understand that this "4%" number was calculated with less than a 2% inflation assumption, is there anybody out there that is experiencing less than 5% inflation much less more like 8-10%? It seems to me that our economic numbers are being made up as we go, a perfect example is this http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-01/how-worst-new-orders-number-6-months-became-highest-2014 . New orders which in reality were the lowest of the year were "seasonally adjusted" and then reported as the highest of the year. Isn't this the type of stuff that Russia and China did in years gone by?
The U.S. is engineering itself into a quarantined corner with sanctions on Russia and fines to large foreign institutions. What really struck a chord with me was a story that Germany is in secret talks with Russia to ratify the Crimean annexation in exchange for a long term natural gas guarantee. This is not confirmed news but it does make sense, perfect sense. The U.S. has spied on Germany including their president Angela Merkel. We are in the process of fining both Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank. The Fed even wants their own regulators inside of DB. And don't forget, we "owe" some pretty big tonnage of gold to Germany that we are "dragging our feet" on for some reason ...but it couldn't be because the gold is gone, could it? Ask yourself, what happens to all of Europe were Germany to turn their back on the U.S.? Europe will be an overnight domino chain that shuns the dollar. By the way, Russia and India are now in talks to settle their direct trade in rubles and rupees with the dollar nowhere to be seen.
The "old world order" is crumbling. Just look at what is going on between the U.S. and Israel. We are now publicly scolding what was not long ago our most staunch ally on the planet. Israel's largest TV station is sticking by a story they broke that president Obama and Mr. Netanyahu had a conversation where Israel basically defied the U.S.. Both Israel and The White House have denied this but it certainly "smells" very true to me. Even if not true, Bibi Netanyahu one day later publicly told the U.S. and I quote "do not ever second guess me again", can you ever imagine an Israeli Prime Minister saying this? Another past ally, Turkey has turned their back on the U.S. and just loaded their 5th supertanker with Kurdish oil which will almost certainly be sold and settled without dollars. The icing on the geopolitical cake this past week was India not agreeing to the WTO trade deal and letting the deadline pass without signing. We are fast becoming a political pariah and one that from a business standpoint, no one trusts anymore.
Over the past two to three weeks, more and more stories are surfacing that the U.S. plans some sort of "first strike" in a nuclear fashion. If true, I can only say that the psychopaths who are running the show are more insane than I have given them credit for. I do understand it however. The economy is crumbling and the "mindset" of the public is a growing disbelief. I think that the average Joe out there is looking at what is happening with our border situation and sees that it's not a "mistake" or an honest error which has him questioning other topics. The problem is that "average Joe" is beginning to connect some of the dots and in my opinion will need some "distraction" to disrupt the process.
History has shown us that wars are fought over the same disagreements time after time. Wars are almost always fought over religion, land, energy, money (gold) or deceit (broken promises), or some combination. Do we not have each and every single one of these topics mixed together in the current pressure cooker? We have the Muslim/Christian/Jewish tension. We have ISIS occupying large parts of Syria and Iraq, the Gaza situation and of course the Ukraine. These conflicts all include religion, land and energy. We have China and Russia pulling the BRICS away from the U.S. with trade, energy and currency deals.
As for the "money" and "deceit" parts, these exist and both have been "exported" by the ton from the U.S.. Our allies don't know from day to day where we stand. They no longer know what to believe, will we honor deals? Will deals change? Will we do what say we will or do what we say we will not. I know that the previous sentence was confusing, it was meant to be because that is what foreign diplomats are dealing with.
I have read an unconfirmed report that 139 of the world's nations are already in agreement to abandon the dollar. If this is the case, it is not necessary to enlist any more nations as the "bloc" is spread big and far enough to move any time that they choose. A story like this would not be announced ahead of time with the expectation of the world just humming along like nothing happened. I personally believe that this is very probable and close to what is actually happening, a complete "break" away from the U.S. and western financial systems is perfectly logical leading into some sort of reset. I believe that the reset will occur without any input or guidelines from the U.S.. In my opinion, the "re set" will be imposed on the U.S. in a take or leave it fashion and this is the danger.
The danger is that the U.S. ends up "kicking the table over". This I think is the fear of foreigners and the greatest fear (cause) of those who are warning of WWIII. Make no mistake, World War III has already started in many forms, especially trade and finance. The hope is that it does not spread and become hot with live fire. I am sad to say that I think the most likely scenario is a global war and one that is started by the U.S.. The U.S. is not going to go down quietly, lose power and become a 3rd world nation without kicking and screaming.
Thursday and Friday were very bad days at the end of a very bad week for the stock market in the U.S.. I believe it portends wild volatility not even seen in 1987, 2000 or 2008. In my opinion "money as we know it will cease to exist" in an overnight or weekend event. Those who have prepared for this will be nowhere near prepared and those not prepared will be helpless. This will be my next topic.
Regards, Bill Holter
http://blog.milesfranklin.com/
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-- Published: Monday, 4 August 2014 | E-Mail | Print | Source: GoldSeek.com
