Category Archives: the US dollar

Negative Energy Flow 2

In my previous post I stated that energy is the essence of the universe. Without the energy of the Sun, there would be no life on Earth. A sick person is losing energy, a recovering person is gaining it. The economy is the living force of a country, and it is gaining, losing energy or staying steady.

The US claims that its economy has been in recovery since 2009, but the reality is different. The US economic system has been losing energy since 1980, when annual account balances with the rest of the world turned negative. There has been no recovery of the economy, only propping up of certain sectors of the financial sector such as the bond and stock markets, in the hope, that these two would stimulate the economy on Main Street: it never happened.

Economically speaking, negative energy flow is when expenditures are greater than income, and the end result is tragedy. When the bread winner of a family loses his job, it can be catastrophic for the family. They can be dispossessed of everything and end up homeless and penniless. If negative energy develops for a county or a city, expenses are cut and employees are terminated.  Additional side effects of the negative energy flow is the piling up of debt until it becomes unbearable. States and countries default on their debts. Most countries in the world are suffering from unbearable debts denominated in US dollars, especially the Third World Countries of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Eastern Europe is in severe depression but nobody talks about it, because it is politically incorrect…

Very few countries have positive energy flow. In Europe, only a few countries have positive energy flow. In Asia, only a few countries have positive energy flow, China being amongst them. One country that has positive energy flow is Russia, a vast country that straddles Europe and Asia. It can totally be self sustaining. Most countries of Latin America and Africa have negative energy flow. The main reason why most countries have negative energy flow is because of massive debts denominated in US Dollars. This debt in foreign currency is draining the life blood of the indebted nations. They are forced to sell their natural resources for pennies, not to pay the debt, but to service the debt into infinity. They are condemned into permanent state debt slavery with no hope of true freedom and independence.

The United States is in a very unique situation, because it is the largest debtor in the history of the world, but has no problems of being the largest debtor in the world. The simple reason is that its debt is denominated in its own currency, the Dollar. The dollar is also the official currency of the world, and therein lies the immense power of the dollar and the US. All financial, trade, and any other activities, such as drug trade, white slavery, and mercenary wars are done in US Dollars. All these activities are controlled by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. All dollar surplus countries park their money in US Treasuries. The number one export of the US is the dollar with which the US can do anything it wants. No wonder the US is an ” Exceptional Nation.” Other countries must earn dollars, but the US simply prints them. The negative energy flow that the US has is, paradoxically, positive for the US as long as the dollar is the Reserve Currency of the World.

The US will have to pay a huge price, the day the Dollar is no longer the official currency of the world.

 

 

 

Will Dollars Become Autumn Leaves ?

There once was a Greek Orthodox monk of Odessa, present day Ukraine, who had a power of prophesy. He belonged to the Holy Uspensky Monastery, near Odessa. He predicted a war in the Ukraine and the end result would be the Ukraine returning to Holy Russia. Many historians and experts of Slavic Studies would agree. (In some of my previous posts, I stated that the Ukraine would return home to Russia.)

Another interesting prediction of this Greek Orthodox monk, whose name was Jonas, was the fate of the dollar. He was surprised how the world chased after it, giving immense power to the US. He said that the dollar would end up like autumn leaves, dispersed by the winds, and, nobody would bend to pick it up. It would be worth less than paper. He made this prediction in 2012, just before he died. The Ukrainian War started in early 2014. Whether his prediction for the dollar comes true remains to be seen. Only time will tell.

Negative Energy Flow

The essence of the Universe is energy. This essence is constant, contracting, or expanding, but nobody knows for sure. The essence of our solar system is the sun, and without  the sun there would be no life on the Earth. They say that the energy of the sun is slowly dissipating, but is still good for about several billion years before it dies. But this is just a hypothesis. In fact nobody knows for sure.

We know that economic systems develop, grow, and then go into a collapsing phase and die, but the remnants of the previous systems become key components of the new system. For instance, the chief components of capitalism are usury and a modern version of slavery which are the chief remnants of two previous systems, slavery and feudalism.

Without the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, capitalism would most likely have not developed. In my earliest posts, I stated that Christopher Columbus is the Father of Capitalism. The center of capitalism became Western Europe and North America, especially, the United States.

The United States had positive energy flow when the first Dutch and English colonists stepped into North America. The land was abundantly rich and it needed  workers to exploit it. Slavery was introduced and for 250 years, slavery was the main source of wealth extraction and accumulation  for the ruling elite of the new country. The tobacco and cotton plantations needed slaves. The trade in slaves  was very prosperous as well. Many Americans were also involved in opium trade with China, which was the monopoly of the British East India Company. It was the first giant global company, a forerunner of modern American and European corporations. Adam Smith who wrote the capitalist bible,’ The Wealth of Nations’ was an officer of the Company. His view of the ‘Invisible Hand’ that runs the market is more to the fact that the British East India Company methods of conquest and control stayed invisible as to how they got control of all of  India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Burma. They also wanted to keep opium trade with China and the Afghani Wars for control of opium invisible.

Americans wanted to take part in the opium trade with China, and that is one of the main reasons why the Americans wanted independence from Britain. Forget about: ‘ No taxation without representation’; it was just a façade like ‘ the weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq. British rule of its North American colonies was rather gentle. British taxes were barely one percent on tea. One third of American colonists moved to the Canadian Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Ontario. They were known as United Empire Loyalists. Benjamin Franklin’s son left for England.

After the Declaration of American Independence of 1776, the Slave Trade of the North Atlantic and Opium Trade with China boomed, even though Europeans were losing interest in slave trade on moral and ethical grounds. Remember, ‘Amazing Grace’ was composed by a former slave trader in 1805, but the abuse of Africa still continues.

After the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves, the US economy exploded. By 1900,  the US was the number one manufacturing nation in the world, by quantity and not by quality.  Germany was number one in quality and second in quantity. Attempts were made to create a private Central Bank of the United States, but failed until December 23, 1913. Alexander Hamilton, the first US Treasury Secretary wanted a private central bank. In a duel with Aaron Burr, the Vice-president, Hamilton lost his life. President Andrew Jackson, the 7th President, aborted the second attempt at creating a private central bank. Abraham Lincoln, probably the greatest President of the US, stopped the third attempt. He used ‘ Green Backs’ to finance the war rather than borrow from private banks. He paid with his life in 1865. James Garfield, the 20th President paid with his life for stopping the private central bank. Finally, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the US acquiesced on Dec. 23, 1913.

The Central Bank of the US would be called the Federal Reserve Bank of the US. It would be composed of 12 regional or district banks. The first amongst equals would be the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and it would act as a financial life line to Wall Street. The Federal Reserve was key in pushing the US into the First World War. Germany was winning the War. They sank the Lusitania on May 7th, claiming it was carrying weapons to Britain. True! Britain denied it. Lie! The US kept quiet until 1917. Britain panicked that Germany would win the war and Russia, an ally of Britain and France would conquer Constantinople. Britain then promised  Constantinople to Russia but had no intention of keeping it, hence Churchill’s disastrous Gallipoli Campaign to capture Constantinople.

The World Zionist Movement wanted to create a homeland for the Jews in what would be British occupied Palestine. And if the British agreed, it was agreed that the US would enter the war on the side of Britain and France. They would also eliminate Russia from the war and Constantinople would not fall to Russia. Also, Italy, an ally of Germany, would enter war on the side of Britain and France. The Balfour Declaration of Britain in 1916 allowed unrestricted Jewish settlements  of Palestine. As if by magic, the US enters the war under the cry, ‘Remember the Lusitania’, Trotsky leaves New York with 20 million in gold, Lenin leaves Switzerland in a sealed train for St. Petersburg to start a Bolshevik Revolution. Italy enters the war on the side of the Allies, and bank credits to Germany stop.

In 1917, the US enters the war, and the US tobacco industry wants to help ‘our boys’ fighting in the trenches by supplying them with free cigarettes, and tobacco addiction began. When women won the right to vote in 1920, they were supplied with free cigarettes to celebrate their independence. The boom of 1920 began, and the inventions of Nikola Tesla changed the US;  alternating current, fluorescent lighting, the invention of radio, wireless energy, etc. Marconi did not invent the radio, but sent the first radio signal from Liverpool, England to Gander, Newfoundland based on Tesla’s principles. The boom collapsed in 1929, but the US had positive energy flow. It had the most gold in the world, the strongest currency, positive balance of trade, and could interfere in Latin America with impunity. Hence, it had positive energy flow.

The Second World War enhanced this positive energy, and by 1944, it was able with the help of Great Britain to create the Bretton Woods Convention which crowned the dollar as the official currency of the world. The only opponent was the USSR which had won the war against Nazi Germany.

The US had positive energy flow until a gold run in 1968. The European countries wanted to exchange their trade surpluses for gold. By 1971, the US defaulted on its gold promise. By 1973, President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger created the petro dollar. The dollar debt finance of the US and the Third World became the Modus Operandi of the day. IMF and World Bank were loan sharking all over the world, including some Communist countries of Eastern Europe such as Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

Consumerism or lack thereof in the Soviet Union led to the dissolution of the Soviet State, even though the basic living standard of the Soviet citizen was higher than that of US citizens. The Soviet citizen enjoyed free education, free health care, public transportation, generous maternity leave and generous holidays. US citizens have none of this in 2016. And the irony is that the Soviet State dissolved and the US still stands. Barely. The people of the US are very angry, and they want change, either by evolution or revolution. The 95 percent of Americans which I call the Precariat Class have barely enough money to survive. The energy flow of the Precariat Class is extremely negative, and never in its entire history has the US faced such a situation.

No wonder Mr. Donald Trump is popular and the Ruling Elite and its overseer class is fearful. The US must restructure its economic system and enable the Precariat Class to have a chance. Change in the US is inevitable either by evolution or by revolution. If it is by revolution, fragmentation of the US is inevitable. Only time will tell.

 

The Dollar Armageddon

The essential plan of the West is total domination of the Earth, which would result in the flow of all natural resources and all natural wealth to the International Community of the West from the rest, as was done under Colonialism. This new phase of exploitation is being carried out under the banner of Globalization. The Anglo-Americans, the British Empire and the US, were the organizers of the new financial system in 1944 at Bretton Woods, New  Hampshire, US., today known as the Bretton Woods Agreement. The chief players were John Maynard Keynes of the UK, Harry Dexter White, and Henry Morgenthau Jr. of the US Treasury.

The Anglo-Americans realized that the Colonized World wanted to be decolonized and independent, and since they could not prevent decolonization, they decided they could slow it down and install their own puppets. Any new leader who rebelled against Western control would be overthrown or even killed. Winston Churchill proclaimed the Cold War against the USSR in 1947 in Fulton Head, Missouri, USA. Patrice Lumumba of the Belgian Congo comes to mind. He was impaled and killed in 1961.

Globalization began. Beautiful phrases, such as “Food for Peace” programs were used to entrap  newly independent states. Foreign Aid was used not to help but to enslave. The International Monetary Fund{IMF}, and the World Bank were the chief agents of debt enslavement.The Cold War was in full swing.

Despite the massive destruction of the USSR caused by the German invasion in the Second World War, the basic living standard of the Soviet Union was higher than that of the US.  Housing was tight, and families lived together in cramped quarters because of the war destruction, but the Soviet People had jobs, free education, free health care, one month vacation, and one year maternity leave with pay. Public transportation was available. Just compare the metro systems of the two countries in the nineteen fifties. Basic consumer goods were available, but an abundance of consumer goods was not. The Soviet People had job security and a sense of serenity which was not available to the West.

Western policy makers decided to push three things on the world: abundant consumerism vs socialist austerity, wide spread debt at home and abroad, and world-wide militarization as exemplified by NATO, SEATO, and CENTO*; in other words globalization. US banks and corporations were everywhere. American Culture, food, and military bases were everywhere; the US was omnipotent. Credit cards were introduced in the 1960’s. (Remember the commercial for American Express? “Don’t leave home without it.”) Western corporations yearned for profit and huge profits were associated with cheap labour. Western factories were moving East to China, when China opened up in 1979, and to other countries of the East and South as well.

Wages in the US were deteriorating for the working class since the early sixties of the last century, but the US corporation has been doing great. In the 18th and 19th centuries Western corporations were moving slaves from Africa to the plantations of North America, the West Indies, and South America. In the latter half of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century, corporations have been moving their plantations, factories, to the slaves. 95% of Americans today belong to what I call the Precariat Class, a totally dispossessed economic class.

In 2016, Americans still don’t have tax based universal health care, no free education of superior quality, no affordable housing, no public transportation, and outright home ownership is only around 11%. No wonder Americans are angry, and this is why Donald Trump is winning. The ownership class cannot stop him in an “honest way”, so they will try to stop him either by hook or by crook. Massive demonstrations may occur in defense of Trump. Martial law may be imposed, and the presidential election may be postponed or even cancelled.

Economic conditions are no better. Real unemployment is high, anywhere from 20% to 42%. Wages are stagnating. Ninety million Americans are not working. Obesity, a side effect of the American economic system, is in epidemic mode. Sixty six percent are obese and thirty seven percent are morbidly obese. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer are rampant. Life expectancy is going down. Basic infrastructure is collapsing. People are over medicated. Grocery stores are full of embalmed, genetically modified food ( but beautifully packaged!). All for profit, and without giving a damn about people or the environment. Just look at Flint, Michigan and their drinking water. The US, the hope of mankind, is becoming a third world country.

The world economy is no better. Much of the world is either in severe recession or depression. The Baltic Dry Index has imploded, with slight improvement lately. World consumption has collapsed, hence massive slowdown from South Korea to Germany. Japan is in perpetual depression. China is slowing down. Latin America, Africa, and South Asia are either in near or full depressions. Canada, Australia, the European Union are either in severe recession or are entering one. The Ukraine is on the verge of exploding. The Middle East is a cauldron that will enlarge. The only area of stability is Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Sanctions against Russia are great blessings in disguise. Import substitution and self reliance are engines of growth and power. Presently, Brazil and Venezuela are being destabilized from outside and inside.

In summary, unnecessary consumption is collapsing world wide. Debt in dollar terms is still growing  but at a snail’s pace. World wide trade is collapsing. Countries with an independent foreign policy such as India, Iran, China, Russia, and others are accumulating gold and shunning the dollar. This is a nightmare for the US. It is quite possible that some obscure company somewhere in the South Asian region will reject trade in dollars, but will accept gold or Chinese yuan. Panic will set in. The dollar could drop by twenty percent in overnight trade. Gold and silver would sky rocket. Trade between the US and the world would collapse. Interest rates in dollars would rise to an unbelievable level, but would not help the dollar. The US could not import anything with its currency, but only with gold or some foreign currency which was convertible to gold. The Armageddon of the dollar is coming. The ownership elite of the US will know for the first time in its history what it’s like to actually work for a living rather than living off the suffering and labor of others. My analysis is very, very correct and true but only time will reveal that.

 

*= NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization SEATO: Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

     CENTO: Central Treaty Organization

 

 

 

Will the dollar be defended to the end?

In many  of my previous posts, I have stated that the US Economic System is based on three pillars of paper, and all three of these are based on debt. The three pillars of paper are the dollar, the bond market, and the stock market. Of the three, the dollar is the most important because it is the essence and instrument of US power. In the 1951 film version of Charles Dickens’ short story “A Christmas Carol”, there is a character, Mr. Jorkin, who says: “Control the cash box and you control the world”. The US has been controlling  the world since 1944, when the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed. The dollar became the reserve currency connected to gold at 35 dollars an ounce, and other convertible currencies were connected to the dollar. Nearly all trade and debt was denominated in dollars. Economically and financially speaking the world became dollar centric.

However, the dollar is still connected to gold, because the dollar without gold is like a fish without water. It cannot exist as the Reserve and Official currency of the world. It can only exist as the local currency in the US, because in the US, the dollar is the Legal Tender. The Petro Dollar depends on the whims of OPEC. It is not reliable. Gold, on the other hand, has the full backing of Mother Earth. Gold was created  when the Universe was created, and has the Energy of the Sun. Petroleum can be consumed, but gold cannot be consumed nor destroyed.

For the dollar to be convertible into gold, gold must be available in dollar terms at any price anywhere in the world. If that relationship ceases, the dollar can no longer be the reserve currency of the world. Powerful non Western countries are accumulating gold on the cheap, at around eleven hundred dollars an ounce. In one of my previous posts I stated that gold is leaving the West and going to the rest, especially to the East.

There is a “purpose” to this lunacy. By keeping the, dollar “artificially” strong, the US is destroying the countries of the world which are indebted in dollars. They are further pushed into economic slavery by the International Monetary Fund, {IMF}, and the World Bank. Both banks are agents of the US, despite international sounding names. Indebted nations are in severe depression. They are selling their natural resources for pennies on the dollar. They cannot buy any manufactured goods from China, South Korea, Japan, and Europe, so these regions are slowing down which further puts pressure on commodities. First world countries like Canada, Australia are entering severe recession, if not depression, while counties such as Brasil, Venezuela, Argentina, and others are entering depression. The currencies of these and other countries are collapsing. Russia and China are special targets. These two countries must be destroyed or neutralized for the US to have  total world domination. High Noon is fast approaching.

Russia is the “special” target. Russia has the capacity to be totally self-sufficient as it was during Second World War when it was the Soviet Union.  Germany in 1942 controlled all of  Russia just west of Leningrad, west of Stalingrad. The Soviet Union could not be defeated despite the fact that Germany controlled all of Europe. A similar situation exists today. For the US to control the world it must subjugate Russia. How to do that? Simple: economically. The first stage was to tear the Ukraine from Russia. So far it has not succeeded. The Ukraine is a political, economic, and moral mess. It is on the verge of collapse. When the Ukraine collapses, people will rise up, take over, and join Russia. Nuclear war against Russia is unthinkable for it would mean catastrophe for Humanity and all life on Earth, although the possibility of nuclear war is at its highest ever. The only alternative is economic strangulation.

To strangle Russia you simply have to tear it apart economically. Because of the Ukraine and Crimea, sanctions were imposed by the West and the countries closely associated with the West such as Japan. The Russian currency was attacked and devalued but not destroyed. The oil price was made to collapse  with the help of Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab States. Military pressure was applied on the president of Syria. Propaganda against Putin was increased. Russia calmly responded; counter sanctions against the West. They are hurting badly. Devaluation of the Ruble is essentially positive, but the low oil price is not. Russia is the number one oil producer in the world and exports two thirds of its oil. There is a cushion of profitability. Russia suffers but will not buckle.

Russia is fighting back. It is avoiding the dollar like the plague. It is signing trade deals with other countries in their respective currencies. It is developing its own SWIFT,or Society for Worldwide International Financial Transfers. It is also developing worldwide tele-communication systems which exclude the West. With the help of Iran and Hesbollah it is successfully fighting ISIS in Syria. Yemeni Houthis have check mated the Saudis in Yemen. The oil price collapse which the Saudis helped to engineer is hurting them economically. Rebellion is brewing in the country. The Shia, in the Eastern Provinces where the oil is, are very restless. Foreign workers and native Sunnis are also very restless. In one of my previous posts I stated that Saudi Arabia will first implode then explode. This will be very negative for the dollar.

China is being courted to let the renminbi join the IMF currency system which would enable the dollar to continue to be reserve currency of the world. China will play the game even though it does not trust the game because it has no choice; it is trapped in the US financial  web. China is trying to extricate itself slowly from this trap. China is buying gold and selling US Treasuries. It is expanding non US trade and aid using the renminbi; the dollar is under attack.

But the US is fighting back. The TPP, Trans Pacific Partnership, was negotiated with some South East Asian and Latin American countries. Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico are included. The idea behind the agreement is to consolidate the use of the dollar in trade. A similar agreement is being negotiated with the European Union, the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Policy. Will the US succeed in keeping the dollar official currency of the world?Nobody knows.

If the dollar is dethroned, it will be catastrophic for the US. The US will lose the instrument of enslavement. It will no longer be able to exploit the rest of the world through usury. It will no longer be able to finance itself without inflation, followed by hyperinflation. It will no longer be able to maintain military bases in other countries and project its power. The US stock and bond markets may collapse, and the dollar may follow. The people who control America are strong believers in the saying: “It is our way or the highway”. “High Noon” is around the corner. If the US fails, it will become the third world country of North America. In many ways, it already is. Only time will tell.

 

 

 

 

 

The velocity of money and the Baltic Dry Index.

The world economy is dying. Powerful people of the world are in denial. They think they will be able to correct the situation, but the world economy cannot be saved. The two indicators of a dying economy are the velocity of money and the Baltic Dry Index.

Let us examine the velocity of money. The simple definition is the speed with which money circulates through the economy. The more dynamic the economy, the more optimistic people feel about jobs and economic security, the more they feel relaxed and the more likely they will spend, travel, feel good about the country, the government, the people, and themselves. Presently, the velocity of money is collapsing. Whatever money ordinary people earn and have they do not want to spend. Also, many, many people have no money to spend. The situation is very dire, but one would not know by watching the “evil vision”. On evil vision, attractive women in eternal spring dresses, and men in impeccable suits with or without neckties constantly proclaim prosperity. The only people enjoying prosperity are the less than one percent of the ownership class and about five to ten percent of the overseer class to which the stars of the evil vision belong. (Evil vision is TV.) There is so much discontent in the country that it threatens the stability of the country. The economy is getting worse. Just look the stock market and the high yield bond market!

Another measure of how bad the US and world economy are is the Baltic Dry Index. Just last week it dropped below four hundred. Before the “Great Recession” of 2007-09, it was registering in the several thousands. After the so called Great Recession ended, it recovered to almost 2000. Now, after seven years of recovery it dropped to below 400, in the year of 2016. Any intelligent person, non-brain washed, knows that there was no recovery. In one of my previous posts, I stated that economic recovery in the US is impossible, because the energy entering the US economic system is decreasing, while the energy needed to maintain its internal and external operations is increasing. The Reserve Status of the dollar in the world is enabling the US to maintain its operation internally and world wide as long the rest of the world is accepting the dollar. That ability to maintain its operations is based on debt. As long as the rest of the world accepts American debt there is no problem. But that is ending and that is the problem. When the dollar is rejected it will be kaput.

The Baltic Dry Index {BDI} is indicating that world trade is collapsing. Empty ships are being anchored in ports. Oil tankers, full of crude, are anchored. There are few buyers of crude. Some experts are telling it is going to get worse. Collapsing BDI is possibly signaling world wide depression. Decreasing velocity of money is indicating that the majority of people have no money to buy even basic necessities.  Why are 94,000,000 people not in the labour force? Why are 47,000,000 people on food stamps? Why are wages for the non overseer class stagnant and decreasing? Why is the infrastructure of this nation dilapidated? Up until 2016, there was plenty of money for Wall Street. Now the stock markets and the bond markets of the world are collapsing. It could be that the world is entering the Economic Black Plague State. Only time will tell.

 

Quo Vadis, 2016?

2016 may turn out to be a very significant year. Many thought that 2015 would be the year of the stock market crash, but this didn’t happen. Many more negatives than positives occurred in 2015 though. Stock indecis reached new highs in the first half of the year, and now at the end of the year are in correction mode. It is not likely that they will crash in the last few days of trading remaining, although they could, since nobody expects it.

On the world scene, the West and Turkey were exposed as chief supporters of ISIS, in addition to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. The Paris and San Bernardino tragedies should not have been a surprise. The Russian plane disaster in Egypt was a surprise but the Western press did not moan about it. The Beirut bombing by ISIS did not get much coverage. The Turkish destruction of a Russian bomber over Syria was not really condemned by the West. The hypocrisy of the West was in full bloom in the Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and other places in the world.

Also in 2015, precious metals, oil, and other commodities collapsed. The dollar was strong and Third World economies were in a severe depression. Canada, Australia, and some European states were entering a depression, but Russia just got stronger. China was trying to stabilize its economy. The Yuan became an International Reserve Currency member, and even though only as a junior partner, this is just the beginning.

What will 2016 bring? It will be much more exciting than 2015. It could be the Year of Super Black Swans. The most important event that will most likely take place is the American presidential election in November. There is a lot of anger and discontent in this country that the mainstream media does not show but which will fully manifest itself this Election Year. There is only one candidate that stands out, and that is Donald Trump. He is politically “incorrect” and people love it. All other candidates, Republican and Democratic, are nothing more than cookie cutter “apparachicks”. Powerful people in the country want to resuscitate Senator Ted Cruz, but they will not succeed; Donald Trump, on the Republican side is unstoppable and Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.

The economy will play a key role in these elections. In an earlier post I stated that the present US economy is based on three pillars of paper: the dollar, the bond market, and the stock market, and all three are supported by debt. This situation cannot be sustained. The presidential election and the economy may turn out to be very ugly and a super bad Black Swan may manifest itself.

There is a war going on between Russia and the US, whether people realize this or not. The US wants to destroy Russia, leave it fragmented, and plundered. The war in the Ukraine may start any moment. The Kiev regime days are numbered. It will lash out and lose. History is on Novorossia’s side. When war starts, the Ukrainian Army will desert. Only Western mercenaries and jihadis will fight on the Kiev Junta side. The Ukrainian People will rebel and chase the Junta out of Kiev. A super Black Swan may develop in the Ukraine.

A super, super bad Black Swan may develop in the Middle East. It is sad that the West, Israel, and Turkey are supporting ISIS. There is a danger of an Israeli- Hesballah war. Hesballah is heavily engaged in operations against ISIS in Syria, so Israel may take the opportunity to attack Hesballah and get the waters of the Litani River. Israel desperately needs water. Hesballah may not be a pushover. Also, Palestanians will join in the fight against Israel. ISIS might lose the war in Iraq and Syria. Turkey has invaded Northern Iraq around Mosul. The Kurds in Turkey are rising up. Saudi Arabia is not doing well in Yemen. The US, Israel, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia may lose because they are on wrong side of History. Nuclear weapons  may be used. A super bad Black swan may develop.

The European Union is in deep crisis; it has no independent foreign policy  Economically, many of its’ countries are in a deep depression.The Baltic States, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria are in a depression. France, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal are no better. Germany and Scandinavia are also suffering. The Russian sanctions have boomeranged. A super Black Swan here is not likely in 2016. A shifting of Europe from the North Atlantic to Russia is likely though, and migration will be a big problem.

Africa is waking up and wants to control its natural resources. It is shifting East. A super bad Black Swan here is not likely. Latin America is somewhat less stable. The governments of Venezuela, Brasil, and other Latin American republics will be under attack but will survive. The collapse of commodity prices and dollar debt will be a big problem for Africa and Latin America. The shift to the East will continue in this coming year.

The Indian Subcontinent will be fairly stable. The Taliban will gain strength and possibly gain power. The TAPI pipeline is being built from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to India. The Taliban will not oppose it. Iran is developing a very strong strategic partnership with Russia. This Iran-Russia partnership is one of the most natural partnerships to develop in the world. India is developing a strong relationship with Russia and Iran as well. This will continue in 2016. Putin  made a visit to Iran this year, and Prime Minister Modi of India visited Russia this week confirming the desire for this relationship.

China is developing a strong relationship with Russia. China and Russia realize they have to stick together or they will hang separately. South East Asia, despite the TPP, will move closer to China. It will develop Modus Vivendi with China. Its prosperity depends on close co-operation with China. China is the magnet that is pulling the world away from the US. A confrontation in the South China Sea is just one example. But the chances of a Black Swan in South East Asia is not very likely in 2016.

In Summary, 2016 will see increased confrontation between Russia and the US. The dollar will be under attack and gold will rise. Events occurring this year in the US will confirm that the US is in pre-revolutionary state. If powerful individuals try to eliminate Donald Trump, people will rebel. If one of the three paper pillars of the economy cracks, the whole system will collapse. The chances of nuclear war will increase. 2016 will be the beginning of the end of tall buildings, the most wasteful symbols of the system based on waste, arrogance, and greed. People will be returning to simpler things, a respect for natural things, like respect for Mother Earth. It is the only home we’ve got. Happy New Year!

 

Dollar vs. Gold II

In my previous posts I stated that gold does not need any paper currency, but that the dollar needs gold. The dollar has to be convertible into gold, because the gold price world wide is quoted primarily in dollars, and that’s due to the dollar being the official currency of the world. Everything in the world is traded in dollars. Just imagine the power that the US possesses by owning the official currency of the world, so it goes without saying that the US will do anything in its power to retain that authority over the financial system of the world; it will even resort to war.

The key to financial world domination is not the petro-currency status of the dollar but its relationship to gold, Nature’s Money. The Bretton Woods agreement of 1944 made the dollar official currency of the world. The dollar was pegged at 35 dollars an ounce of gold, and the rest of the world’s currencies were pegged to the dollar. The US would keep the gold and print the dollars, while the rest of the world would keep the dollars in US Treasury Notes. The US had free use of their hard earned money, the perfect scam. General Charles de Gaulle immediately saw this for the scam that it was and took action. He exchanged the French dollar surplus for gold, as was allowed by the Breton-Woods Agreement. Run on gold began, in 1971, President Nixon closed the gold window. This is how the dollar became the “Petro” currency. Nixon told OPEC to increase the price of oil as much as they could but make sure it is traded in dollars. Surplus dollars flowed into US Treasuries, more than ever before, and the US got free breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This policy continues to this day…

The Crisis of 2007-8 was very severe. It nearly collapsed our entire economic system. Massive infusion of artificial money {printed dollars} only managed to prop up the system, and did not ultimately save it. The System barely meanders. A series of quantitative easing was introduced, QE I, QE 2, and QE 3. No real improvement. QE 4 is coming down the road. During the crisis, gold rose from around 250 dollars in 2001 to 1920 in 2011. Interest rates went down to almost zero. There was the danger that if the price of gold went any higher,  that dollar would not be convertible to gold. If that had happened, the Capitalist System would have collapsed. Something had to be done.  “Paper shorting” of precious metals was begun. The dollar can only have validity if it is convertible into gold.  Presently, the convertibility of dollars into gold has a severe price. Dollar surplus countries and individuals are buying gold on the cheap.

Gold, presently, is in backwardation. Individuals and countries are paying higher prices for gold delivery now than in the future. Shortages of gold availability are coming. The price of gold may sky rocket over night. By shorting paper gold the monetary policy of the US is extremely tight. It is in essence destroying the economy of the world. Increasing interest rates is sheer lunacy. Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium will demand their rightful value which is precious. They will be not be available in any currency at any moment. The rush for Nature’s Money, gold, will be the beginning of the end of the Capitalist System, as was the rush for gold the beginning of the Capitalist System, and when Christopher Columbus first “discovered” the “New World”. If the World survives, a totally new age will begin. Only time will tell.

How much is the dollar really worth?

The dollar is a fiat currency. It is created out of thin air through debt. A person goes to the bank and wants to borrow 10,000 dollars and if the borrower meets the criteria of paying back the sum plus interest agreed on, the bank issues a cheque of 10,000 dollars or direct deposits the amount to his account. Money has been created out of nothing to enslave that person for 10,000 dollars which he must now pay back at a certain interest rate for a specific period of time. In other words, he sells his labour, his life force, to pay the debt. He is exploited, he is a slave. This is the essence of capitalism, and the fiat currency is an instrument of enslavement.

Initially, the dollar was a gold backed currency as were other world currencies. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, early in his presidency devalued gold from 20.67 dollars an ounce to 35 dollars an ounce. Also, he made it illegal for Americans to own gold, unless it was in a jewelry form of 18 karats or less. The Bretton-Woods Convention made the dollar the Reserve Currency of the World. The US would keep the gold and the rest of the world would keep the dollars. Other central banks could exchange dollars for gold at 35 dollars an ounce. Gold, however, would be stored in the US and some would be stored in London. This arrangement was propped up by fear that “the Communists” would take over if the gold was not stored in the US. Publicity  made Fort Knox, Kentucky, infamous as the storage place  for the world’s non-communist gold. General Charles de Gaulle, President of France, was not fooled. He realized it was the perfect scam. He had never trusted the Anglo-Americans. He knew how perfidious they were during the Second World War II. The Anglo-Americans hated him, and of course, he reciprocated. He withdrew France from N.A.T.O. and sent French warships to retrieve French gold from the US. Other European countries followed. A run on gold followed…

The gold drain from the US followed. President Nixon closed the Gold window. This closure was permanent, contrary to the President’s statement that  it was temporary. The US was running trade deficits and the Vietnam War was draining the country of its real wealth, gold. The dollar paper drainage was no big deal, because it was only paper. The Arab oil embargo saved the dollar and the US. The US told the oil producers to increase the price of oil but just have it denominated in dollars. The excess dollars of the world poured into US treasuries and helped finance government operation. The decade of 1970’s showcased growth throughout the world but with inflation. Gold was allowed to reach its equilibrium value of 850 dollars an ounce. Silver, taken out of circulation in 1965, went to 50 dollars an ounce in 1979-80. Interest rates were high because demand for money was high. Demand for real money, gold and silver, was high. But the dollar was losing value. In 1969, one could get four Swiss Francs for one dollar, but in 1979-80 period, the Swiss Franc was on parity with the dollar.

President Carter appointed Paul Volcker Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. The Prime Rate went to almost twenty percent. The price of precious metals collapsed and value of the dollar rose. Money from all over the world poured into the US. By 1992, the USSR and communism had disappeared in Europe. The end of history was proclaimed. The plunder of the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe, along with the rest of the world began with increasing tempo. A unipolar world of ten years duration was achieved. In Nature, when one extreme is reached, opposite forces start building momentum, and new forces started brewing on the horizon…

Vladimir Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia in 2000, and the economic decay started in the first decade of the New Millennium in the West. It is now worsening and encompassing the entire world. The central player in all this has been the dollar. It has no intrinsic value like gold, land or water, but is the instrument of US power. The US wants to maintain that power come hell or high water, and in order to maintain it, debt in dollar terms has to grow. The IMF and World Bank, along with other private organizations, are working overtime to trap more and more countries into unsustainable debt and milk them for all they are worth. This is the MODUS OPERANDI of capitalism…

But opposing forces are rising, and the de-dollarization of the world has began. The World is trying to dis-infect itself from the dollar. Very interesting and dangerous times are approaching. But the US will not willingly give up its instrument of power. It is negotiating trade deals with Europe, South America, and South East Asia to insure the dollar to be the supreme currency. It is confronting China in the South China Sea, but at the same time, it is enticing  it to join the IMF arrangement of Special Drawing Right Currency. The US wants the China to row the dollar-SDR boat, and the US would steer it. Whether China falls for it or not remains to be seen. China, Russia, Brazil, Iran, and other countries that have backbone are trading amongst themselves in their own currencies. The river of history is flowing and it cannot be reversed.

How much is the dollar really worth? Nothing. It is merely an instrument of power, intimidation, and war, like aircraft carriers. And history will be unkind to both. Only time will tell.

The Rise of Iran

It can be safely said, because it is true, that the past is the father of the present, and the present is the father of the future. It can also be said, that the past is the grandfather of the future. This is very true for a country called Persia, today known as the modern state of Iran. It is a big country in south West Asia with a population of around 82 million people and occupying an area of around 1.6 million square kilometers. I will address the nation of Iran from the time of Dr. Mossadegh to present.

Dr. Mossadegh was overthrown in 1953 by the C.I.A. because he nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. He was an economic nationalist, hence, he had to be overthrown. In 1945, the US inherited the non communist portion of the Earth. US foreign policy was very strongly anti-communist. The US wanted to make sure that the Middle East did not go communist. The three countries that mattered the most in Middle East were Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The foreign policy of the US in the Middle East was as follows: Israel gets whatever Israel wants, and Iran, Saudi Arabia do whatever the US wants. The majority of Iranians did not want such a policy. During the Yum Kippur War of 1973 in which Israel would have been defeated had it not been for American help, President Nixon rushed supplies to Israel or Golda Meir threatened nuclear or “Sampson option”. Yes, Israel has nuclear weapons and a delivery system that can reach any point on the Earth…

President Nixon defaulted on gold and told Iran and Saudi Arabia to increase the price of oil and that it had to be sold for dollars. The dollar then became the official currency of the world and the US achieved immense power. As one character in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” says: “You control the cash box and you control the World.” Not quite, for there are always exceptions to man made rules. There can never be violations of Nature’s Laws. He, who violates Nature’s Laws, sooner or later gets punished for it. Nemesis is always waiting. The Shah was overthrown in 1979, and the Islamic Republic was proclaimed by Imam Khomeini; Independent Iran was born. President Carter froze or nationalized one hundred billion dollars of Iranian assets in the US. Whether the US will return those assets remains to be seen.

Threats, sanctions, and embargoes against Iran followed. The excuses: Iran will develop nuclear weapons, Iran will destroy Israel, etc., etc.  But Iran continued to develop on its own.  And another truth will be stated here: self sustaining development is the true development. Do not depend on the promises of others. People, countries, individuals who believe in the promises of others become enslaved in the most devious and insidious ways possible. Just look at the countries of Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, and some parts of Asia.

The world is coalescing. Iran and Russia are becoming strategic partners. Their foreign, economic, and military policy is becoming co-ordinated. Most likely, their common policy will triumph in the Middle East. They will restore stability to Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon to the chagrin of Israel and the US. The sanctions and embargoes have failed. The Islamic Republic of Iran is restoring its former glory as Persia under the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great. The past is the grand father of the future. Only time will tell.