Thursday, March 17, 2022

Bill Bonner, "Diaguita Lives Matter"

(The reservoir… Source: Bill)
"Diaguita Lives Matter"
by Bill Bonner

San Martin, Argentina - "Today, we leave the world of comedy and fantasy to take a look at real life. On Sunday, we went to visit the widow of a farmhand. Carlos drowned in a reservoir. We came to pay our respects… and find out more.

But first, let’s check the headlines. Here’s the latest from Bloomberg: "US Rent Inflation Hits New High, Led by Miami, with 39% Rate."

Another ‘Putin Price Hike!’ But don’t worry about it. The Fed is on the case. Bloomberg again: "Powell kicks off most aggressive rate tightening in decades. As expected, the Fed raised its inflation-adjusted key rate from around MINUS 7.7% to around MINUS 7.5%. And the plan is to keep raising it until it reaches MINUS 5% by the end of next year."

That ought to stop the Putin Price Hikes, right? The Fed chief also assured the world that the US is not going into recession: “The American economy is very strong and well positioned to handle tighter monetary policy,” said he." Tighter? At the present rate, even by the end of 2023, the Fed will still be operating an extremely inflationary money policy.

Meanwhile, in the real world… Alicia’s lip quivered when we greeted her. Then, tears appeared in her eyes, running down her cheeks. The widow had two children at her side. One, a boy of about 12, kept his head down. The girl, maybe 6 or 7, didn’t seem to understand what had happened. She looked at us expectantly, as if we could explain it to her.

“Your father was a good man,” we told them. “He was a good worker. And very strong. He helped me build that little casita.” We pointed to a house in the distance which we built ten years ago and now graces the labels for our Tacana wine. Carlos was on that job, part of the crew. It was hard work under the intense sun and, for us, with little air. We weren’t used to the altitude. But Carlos lived here all his life; if it was hard work, he didn’t notice. He had a ready smile, and often, a puzzled look. We assumed it was because he couldn’t understand what we were talking about. Our Spanish was even poorer then than it is today. And in this part of Argentina, they speak a local idiom; even people from Buenos Aires have a hard time keeping up.

“He was very strong. He was able to lift big stones that I couldn’t lift myself. I will miss him.” That was about all we knew about Carlos. Since we worked on the little house together, we hadn’t seen much of him. He was probably about 37 years old. Well-built and good looking. But the salient fact about him is that he was found under the water in our new reservoir two weeks ago.

It is very rare for someone to drown in this area; there is very little water to drown in. “I waited for him on Saturday night,” Alicia explained. “He never came home. The next day, I took the kids up the river. We found him in the reservoir. It was horrible. What am I going to do?” We tried to comfort her with small gestures and sympathetic tears. But Alicia had practical things on her mind. “I hope you will give me a widow’s pension,” she said, briefly restraining the tears and raising her head. “We will make sure you and the children are taken care of,” we replied. “It is the least we can do for one of our good men.”

We were standing in front of the house where Carlos and Alicia lived. Built of mud bricks, Carlos had been adding to it. He had worked as a mason and was making a substantial addition. This was slightly odd, because the house didn’t belong to him, but to us. As far as we know, he had never asked permission to add onto it.

Of course, we would have said ‘yes,’ but Alicia had turned him in a different direction. She calls herself an “originaria,” a person who doesn’t have to ask permission, because of her indigenous status. She told the police that Carlos was an originario, too, though he had never made that clear to anyone else. The ‘originario’ idea has brought conflict to the valley. It causes family break-ups, distrust, and disrespect. Gates have been broken; houses have been occupied. Two of our remote cabins – used by us and the originarios themselves – were set on fire.

Faux Tribalism: Except for maybe 10% of the population who are of pure European descent, everyone else is a mestizo… a mixture. In terms of culture, place of origin, tradition and genetic make-up, they are all about the same people. Alicia is one of them. But when the legislature in far-off Buenos Aires gave special status to “indigenous people” who lived in a “traditional way” on long-held “tribal” land, there were some people who recognized a good hustle when they saw one.

Where we live there are no real “indigenous” people. The valley was cleared out 3 centuries ago. Since then, the area has evolved, but the basic economy has remained much the same. Europeans bring in money and technology to try to make the big farms pay (usually, they fail). The ‘local people,’ who trickled in from other areas, work for them, or own their own small farms.

But along came an opportunist from another province. He re-invented a tribe – the Diaguita – and made himself its chief. He then told the locals that if they said they were members of the tribe, they wouldn’t have to obey the laws of Argentina... they could reclaim their ancestral land… and they’d get money from the government. Since then, there has been little money forthcoming, but enough to keep the activists in business. Alicia’s brother is one of them. He and she look to us to pay the salaries, fix the roads, put in irrigation canals, bring in tractors and other equipment…and to give the widows a pension. But she nevertheless believes that she is the rightful owner of the land. Diaguita lives matter. Others, not so much.

It is a familiar conflict. There are those who expect to get what is coming to them by their own efforts – generally, providing goods and services to others. And there are those who look to their tribal connections, their race, their color, their family, party affiliation, politics, ideology or religion for their identity… their sense of worth… and their income. There are those who are proud of what they do, in other words; there are others who are proud of who they are. The former hope to get what they are after by giving to others; the latter believe their status confers special rights and benefits.

This is the fundamental difference between civilization and barbarism… between a command economy and capitalism… and between the Old Testament and the New one. In the Old Testament, for example, being a Jew is the name of the game. In the New Testament, we are told that just being a Jew or a Gentile is not enough. It is our acts (love thy neighbor!) that count.

Likewise, in the modern world achievements – providing oil, inventing the laptop computer, teaching children, flipping burgers, investing shrewdly – that lead to self-esteem and wealth. But some people insist that they are entitled to special treatment…

The Final Scene: We expressed our sympathy to Alicia. We promised to help. And then, after hugs and kisses, we took our leave and headed up the valley. We wanted to see how Carlos died. “Very strange,” a neighbor had commented. “He lived here all his life. He knew that reservoir. It is not possible that he fell in and drowned. There is one end where the water is deep. But most of it is only about 4 or 5 feet deep. The whole thing just doesn’t add up.”

We drove up the rough road to where we could go no further. The river was too high to cross. Taking off our shoes and rolling up our pants, we waded across. The water rushed by fast and cold, we had to hold onto each other to avoid falling in.

The reservoir was just in front of us, up a hill. It is surrounded by a wire fence to keep the cattle out. You have to open a gate to get in. “As soon as we found out, we called the police,” said the farmhand who accompanied us. “Of course, it took a few hours for them to get here. They pulled him out of the water. They examined the body. No sign of injury. But look… you can see his footprints.”

The reservoir is new. It is lined with black plastic. Still relatively clean, the footprints were unmistakable. “See… they are Carlos’ footprints. And there are only one set of footprints. He started here, where we are. He walked around the edge to the deep side and that is where the footprints end. The police said they thought he slid on the plastic into the water. And since he didn’t know how to swim, he drowned. And they found his phone over by the fence, on the ground.”

“You mean, he put his phone down, and then by accident, slid into the reservoir?” “Yes… that’s what they said happened.” “What happened to the phone?” “They gave it to Alicia. She said there was nothing unusual on it.”

Carlos’ family is suspicious. They don’t like or trust Alicia. They are not ‘originarios.’ “They think they can do whatever they want,” an informant remarked, speaking of the originarios, on condition of anonymity, and looking around the corner to make sure no one was listening. “Alicia was never honest with them. (Her husband’s family.) She treated them like trash. She thought she was better than everyone else, because she was an ‘originaria.’”

Thus began a long list of grudges and further elucidation of the struggle between the self-proclaimed ‘Diaguita’ tribe members and everyone else. “That ‘Diaguita’ thing is a lie. There never was a ‘Diaguita’ tribe. It was just a term the Inca used to describe the local people in this region. They thought the tribes here were backward. It was an insult.

“Alicia and her brother thought that could take the grandmother’s place… just because they said they were ‘Diaguita.’” Carlos’ grandmother lived in a high farm way up in the hills beyond the reservoir. The mountains are dry and hostile. But in them there are oases, where a trickle of reliable water allows a family to eke out a living. A few cattle. A few goats. A few fruit trees. Not much more.

When she turned 80, the family decided that their grandmother could no longer stay by herself at her mountain farm. She was taken down to the town to live with a granddaughter. These little farms are owned by us. But by custom, and today’s political reality, the local people decide for themselves who lives in them. Typically, they pass down through a family.

The originarios, however, are eager to get control of the whole valley. If a farm is abandoned, they move in… and then they cannot be removed. You call the police. The police hear “originario” and the potato is soon too hot to handle. “She’s had her eye on that farm for years. And now, with Carlos out of the way, I think she’s going to get more originarios in there.”

“How did Carlos seem to you when you last saw him,” we asked. “We talked to him on Friday; he died on Saturday. He seemed fine.” The police say the case is closed. But there’s always more to the story. Stay tuned..."

"Time..."

“Space I can recover. Time, never.” 
-  Napoleon Bonaparte
Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”
- Ryan Holiday
Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"

"Get Ready for a Recession, Real Estate Crash and Stocks to Drop"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly AM 3/17/22:
"Get Ready for a Recession, Real Estate Crash and Stocks to Drop"
"The experts agree that we have huge problems in the economy. There will be a recession by summer, a bear market in real estate and the stock market headed down."

"How It Really Is"

 

"Bonfire of the Governments, Part One"

"Bonfire of the Governments, Part One"
by Robert Gore

"When Machiavelli wrote "The Prince" he had Vladimir Putin in mind. The president of Russia has adroitly sought, maintained, and used power, the theme of Machiavelli’s masterpiece (see “The Black Belt Strategist,” Robert Gore. SLL, July 19, 2018). That he is an amoral snake is both true and laughable as a criticism coming from the amoral snakes who populate Western power structures. Nobody who slithers to the top of those pits is anything other than an amoral snake. Western snakes hate Putin because he’s repeatedly outsnaked them.

Call Putin a rattlesnake for he clearly rattled before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That he was ignored is a worrisome indication of the epistemological breakdown that grips the West. Its leaders are unable to grasp that Putin meant what he said because they rarely mean what they say. Facts are not facts and the truth is whatever narrative they’re promoting at the moment. It’s become axiomatic that power flows from control of the narrative.

Until it doesn’t. Power flows from understanding reality and making use of what it can offer. If narratives were power, Ukraine’s army would be in Moscow by now. We haven’t seen this kind of excessive excrement from governments and their media minions since Covid. Narratives are for simple-minded sheep and the wolves who devour them.

The propaganda is devoid of any mention of: the 2014 U.S.-sponsored coup against a democratically elected government; rampant corruption within the Ukrainian oligarchy; Ukranian payola to American political figures (e.g., the Bidens and Clintons); widespread neo-Nazi infestation of Ukraine’s military and government; their eight-year war on its Russian-heritage citizens in eastern Ukraine; the government’s willful failure to adhere to the Minsk accords that were meant to resolve that conflict, or the latest—U.S. supported bioresearch labs in Ukraine.

Simply trying to find accurate information about the military situation in Ukraine is virtually impossible amidst the propaganda onslaught and the censoring or shutting down of Russian information sources. Previous wars have featured regular press updates and maps that detailed the situation on the ground, that is, reality. Not this one. No matter how loathsome the opponents, it’s always a good idea to know what they’re doing and saying, even when its demonstrably untrue. During the first Cold War the West had armies of analysts studying every scrap of information that came from the Soviet Union.

Now Western leaders and most of the populace are flying blind. They’re children sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming over anyone saying anything they don’t want to hear. It’s yet another sign of epistemological breakdown and reflects a terrifying feedback loop. Mental chaos leads to chaos in reality, which leads to more mental chaos and so on.

Trying to explain the Russian position on Ukraine, even when the explanation is festooned with disclaimers that it’s not a justification of the invasion or Putin, is as useless as trying to explain the dangers of Covid vaccines, even by doctors and scientists who have promoted vaccines their entire careers and who have had the Covid vaccines themselves. The children have their masks jabs, and boosters, they’re waving the blue and gold. You’re antivax, pro-Putin, and must be canceled immediately - that’s it, end of story.

This childishness can only lead to disaster, which has arrived on multiple fronts. Russia is a net exporter of grain, minerals, metals, oil, and natural gas. The U.S. and non-Russia Europe are net exporters of debt. The former are exchanged for the latter via the SWIFT inter-bank messaging network, fiat currency and debt’s global circulatory system. Some Russian banks’ access has been cut off, stopping the flow of debt and the counter flow of Russian exports. Although payments for gas and oil exports have been exempted, Russian oil and gas still trades at a steep discount on fears the exemption will be lifted if the war gets worse.

The exemption reflects Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas. However, Germany canceled approval for the completed Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia. The energy situation in Europe was already strained, with natural gas trading at a large premium to the rest of the world. Renewable energy is meant to replace fossil fuels and nuclear, but solar and wind are intermittent. The stopgap is coal, ironically the dirtiest fuel. European energy’s shortages and high price hurt the competitiveness of its industries, particularly Germany’s. Stopping Nord Stream 2 exacerbates the problem.

Biden administration energy policies have shifted towards the same delusory green agenda, making the U.S. an importer again after it had achieved energy self-sufficiency during the Trump years. Although it’s not a huge percentage of total energy used, the U.S. has been importing Russian oil, gas, and coal, giving Russia additional wherewithal to make war on Ukraine.

Recognizing that awkward fact, the administration banned those imports by executive decree (now the favored form of rule), which will put more pressure on prices from non-Russian energy sources. Ascending gas prices are not helping the administration politically, notwithstanding its blatant lies that they are due solely to Russia’s invasion. (Prices had almost doubled prior to the invasion.)

The U.S. and Europe’s energy miscues are matched by their financial folly, which amount to children holding their breath until they suffocate and die. Stopping Russia’s exports via the SWIFT cutoff is severe. The price of nickel, a big Russian export, recently jumped 250 percent in one day.

Tsingshan Holding Group, a Chinese stainless steel giant whose largest creditor is J.P. Morgan Chase, has a huge short position in nickel. The London Metals Exchange, caught between its own Chinese owners, Tsingshan, and one of the world’s systemically important banks, shut itself down and is trying to undo some trades. A tentative settlement has been reached, but this kind of mess can reverberate quickly throughout the world’s financial daisy chain, sparking globalized financial meltdown. It certainly doesn’t increase faith in financial clearinghouses.

That’s not the worst of it. Curtailed access to SWIFT hinders Russian companies’ ability to service their debts. As with most of the sanctions regime, this hurts Europe the most. Several of its banks have large exposures to Russia debt, and its banking system was dangerously over-leveraged pre-Ukraine war, much more so than the U.S.’s. Bank insolvencies in Europe could also reverberate across the planet, as mortgage and mortgage-security insolvencies did in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

Even that’s not the worst of it. The U.S. and Europe crossed a monumentally important red line when they froze the Russian central bank’s foreign exchange reserves. The U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status has given the U.S. what’s been called an exorbitant privilege - the world sends it goods in exchange for its fiat currency, of which it can produce unlimited amounts.

Freezing the Russian central bank’s dollar reserves tells the world the reserve currency is no longer a safe haven. The move is not entirely unprecedented - the U.S. has frozen the Afghanistan and Venezuelan central banks’ reserves - but freezing the reserves of a nuclear power is an order of magnitude greater breach of global financial arrangements and contracts.

Joining Canadian dollar deposits, some of which Justin Trudeau recently froze, U.S. dollar deposits can now be frozen and potentially expropriated on a political whim. Of course dollars have been stealth-expropriated on political whim via monetary inflation since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913, but this crystalizes the threat that nations who don’t toe the U.S. line will have their dollar reserves stolen.

Russia and China have been reducing their dollar holdings - which they often invested in U.S. Treasury debt - for years, switching to euros, yuan, yen, and gold. They’ve also created alternatives to SWIFT. Now that the U.S. government has demonstrated that holding dollar deposits is like caching stores of food in a wolves’ den, this move is sure to accelerate until their dollar holdings are the bare minimum required for international trade.

The Russians have a financial nuclear option. As exporters of oil, gas, crucial raw materials and industrial goods, they can demand payment in gold rather than in the fiat currencies the U.S. and Europe have now rendered worthless to them. With this one masterstroke Russia would collapse what Alasdair Macleod calls “the global fiat Ponzi scheme.” The reserve currency will no longer be a fake money whose value is only maintained by political promises not to produce too much of it.

Gold - real money (see “Real Money,” Robert Gore, SLL, September 9, 2015)—will be restored to the place it has held for centuries as countless government-issued fiat currencies went to their ultimate value: zero. The current crop of fiat currencies is headed to the same destination, but the Russian nuclear option would bring down the curtain on them once and for all.

Russia and China are both large producers of gold and their governments have been stockpiling it for years. The U.S. government reportedly owns 8,000 tons of gold (Russia has a known 2,000 tons and Macleod estimates the Chinese government has 20,000 tons), but those holdings have never been audited and calls to do so have been fiercely resisted. Unknown as well is how much of the U.S. government’s physical gold has been collateralized, leased, or is otherwise tied into derivatives in the paper gold market. Tellingly, the U.S. has discouraged other countries for whom it acts as custodian of their gold reserves from withdrawing them.

War is the ultimate chaos and the Ukraine-Russia war has sparked another upside breakout. To say that the military situation favors Russia, or that the sanctions against it will end up hurting the U.S. and Europe more than Russia, or that Russia can bring down the global financial system is only to say that one way or another the situation adds to the chaos. Assuming Russia eventually achieves its military objectives in Ukraine, the U.S. will undoubtedly foment an insurgency by feeding weapons and the usual unacknowledged mix of intelligence spooks, covert military advisors, and private mercenaries into an Ukrainian resistance.

The goal is a long-running and enervating guerrilla war that drains Putin’s support and leads to his ouster. Cheap Stinger missiles will take out expensive Russian aircraft and cheap Javelin missiles will take out expensive Russian tanks. The template is the successful mujahideen-led and U.S.-aided war against the Soviet Union from 1979 to 1989 in Afghanistan, often credited with helping bring down the Soviet government two years after its military withdrawal.

Syria may end up as the actual template, an effort by U.S.-aided jihadist groups to regime change that nation’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, which failed after Russia came to Syria’s defense. Even were that the case, if Putin thinks he can invade Ukraine, impose his objectives, and then withdraw with the country pacified and compliant, he’s as deluded as American schemers have been with all their surgical strikes, covert operations, limited wars, and regime changes since World War II. Insurgencies are always messy regardless of who “wins.” Ukraine has become another theater for the uncontrollable chaos engulfing the world.

It’s not hard to imagine what forms further amplification of that chaos might take. Modern agriculture is dependent on energy and fertilizers are made from minerals of which Ukraine and Russia are significant suppliers. Both countries also export grains. Skyrocketing food prices and famine in some areas loom, and food riots and other forms of civil unrest are sure to follow.

There is no limit to the pandemonium either centralized actors - governments and globalist institutions - or decentralized actors can wreak. Infrastructure is never completely protected. Electrical grids can be short-circuited, water supplies poisoned, transport and logistics disrupted or destroyed, and the internet sabotaged. The World Economic Forum’s Cyber Polygon “simulation” may well be an eerie harbinger of that last possibility, just as its Event 201 in October of 2019 presaged the Covid-19 pandemic. We’re still early days in chaos’s lengthy run.

Controlling chaos requires energy, resources, and production. While there is no way to determine the mathematical relationship between chaos and control (remember Get Smart?), that it is direct and exponential seems a reasonable hypothesis. Herein lies the contradiction at the heart of the globalist design. They are fomenting ever-increasing chaos while destroying the energy, resources, and production necessary to control it."

This is Part One. Part Two will be posted next week.

Gregory Mannarino, "Important Updates: Economy, Stocks, Markets"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/17/22:
"Important Updates: Economy, Stocks, Markets"

Gerald Celente, "The Bombs Away Club. What’s Next In the Ukraine War?"

Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, Douglas Macgregor,
"The Bombs Away Club. What’s Next In the Ukraine War?"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

"What's He To Do Then?"

"You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks... Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy. Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down agin. I've been uneasy all my life... I've wanted life to be easy for you. Easier'n 'twas for me. A man's heart aches, seein' his young uns face the world. Knowin' they got to get their guts tore out, the way his was tore. I wanted to spare you, long as I could. I wanted you to frolic with your yearlin'. I knowed the lonesomeness he eased for you. But ever' man's lonesome. What's he to do then? What's he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on.”
- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

"What Keeps You Going..."

"What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, 'What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?'"
- Barbara Kingsolver

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

"The Pale Blue Dot"

Full screen recommended.
"The Pale Blue Dot"
by Carl Sagan

"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity - in all this vastness - there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. 

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known."

"Get Your Stuff Together..."

"We all got problems. But there's a great book out called "Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart." Did you see that? That book says the statute of limitations has expired on all childhood traumas. Get your stuff together and get on with your life, man. Stop whinin' about what's wrong, because everybody's had a rough time, in one way or another."
- Quincy Jones

"Petrodollar Collapse: Saudi Arabia Considers Accepting Yuan For Chinese Oil Sales"

Full screen recommended.
"Petrodollar Collapse: Saudi Arabia Considers
Accepting Yuan For Chinese Oil Sales"
by Epic Economist

"One silent crisis is threatening to change everything in the United States. The U.S. dollar may be about to lose its status as the global reserve currency at a time our monetary system is already cracking and inflation is debasing the value of our money. A lot is at stake right now, and if the dollar loses its hegemony on global trade, the U.S. economy is going to be in deep trouble.

Recent negotiations between China and Saudi Arabia are a major indication that the U.S. dollar is on its way out as the global reserve currency. Saudi Arabia is now is actively engaging in negotiations with the Chinese government to price oil sales to China in yuan instead of using the petrodollar. The fact that two commodity-rich countries are conducting business and about to close a billionaire deal without using the petrodollar means trouble for America’s dominance as the global economic hegemon.

For the past 40 years, the currency was one of the core staples and an anchor that helped support the U.S. dollar’s reserve status. The entire global financial system used to be based on the petrodollar, with oil producers selling their product to America and the rest of the world only in dollars, which consequently propped up the USD as the world reserve currency and reinforced the standing of the U.S. as the world's undisputed financial superpower. But things are changing fast and those days are coming to an end.

Today, China purchases over 25% of the oil exported by Saudi Arabia, and if those exports are priced in yuan, the sales would boost the standing of China’s currency, and help the Chinese currency to become the new global reserve currency. “The dynamics have dramatically changed. The U.S. relationship with the Saudis has changed, China is the world’s biggest crude importer and they are offering many lucrative incentives to the kingdom,” explained one Saudi official familiar with the negotiations. “China has been offering everything you could possibly imagine to the kingdom,” the official stressed.

Needless to say, the U.S. is getting very alarmed about the potential of this historic transformation. One U.S. official said in the interview with the WSJ that “the idea of the Saudis selling oil to China in yuan seems highly volatile and aggressive”. The official also revealed that the Saudis had floated the idea several times in the past when there was tension between Washington and Riyadh.

That’s how the pieces of the endgame start falling into place. While Russia is starving the western world of the resources it needs, which has been driving commodity prices to all-time highs, its silent partner, China, is quietly picking up the monetary pieces and taking advantage of the Western scramble to secure resources at all costs by approaching all those other "non-western" former petrodollar clients - who are also rich in other resources - to offer them a new product, the yuan, which Beijing is now actively and aggressively pushing to dethrone the dollar as a global reserve currency.

Our currency is the number one thing that we export, and if the rest of the world decides it doesn’t want dollars anymore we will be in really big trouble. This means we are going to lose the main driver that allowed us to enjoy a comfortable standard of living for so many years. And with U.S. relations with China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia rapidly falling apart, we will see the escalation of the economic tensions with other superpowers, and that is going to be a very dangerous game to play."
"We're so freakin' doomed!"
- The Mogambo Guru

"Fed Unleashing 'Triple Whammy'”

"Fed Unleashing 'Triple Whammy'”
by Jim Rickards

"As widely expected, the Fed raised its target rate today, its first rate hike since December 2018. As you may recall, that hike crashed the stock market in what became known as the Christmas Eve Massacre. Today’s hike was only 25 basis points, not the 50-point hike some were predicting prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a sense, Putin took the pressure off Jay Powell to make a bolder move.

The market rallied today, closing up big, but that’s not really a surprise. Markets were expecting a 25-basis-point hike, and they got one. What the stock market doesn’t like is surprises. Although today’s hike was minor, up is up. Importantly, this rate hike is the first of many more to come. We don’t have to guess at that. The Fed has already told us that’s their intention. The Fed also confirmed today that the taper is over. A so-called taper is the process of slowing the rate at which the money supply is expanding.

How Is Money Printing Tightening? When the Fed buys Treasury securities from banks, they pay for the securities with money printed from thin air. That’s called quantitative easing, or QE. The Fed has been doing that since early 2020 when the pandemic began. The Fed gets out of QE in stages by reducing the amount of securities they buy each month; that’s the so-called taper. They’re still printing money, but the amount printed is reduced until it hits zero.

It may seem odd to call money printing tightening, but everything in markets happens at the margins. If the Fed is printing less, they are tightening even though they’re still printing. The amount of QE hit zero last week, so QE is now officially over, the taper is done and the Fed is contemplating their next move.

The Fed also signaled they intend to actually reduce the money supply in the near future. This is the opposite of QE and is called quantitative tightening, or QT. This has not yet begun, but the Fed has made it clear they will start QT soon.

A Triple Whammy: So we have three forms of tightening at once: the end of QE, a rate hike and the beginning of QT. This is a triple whammy that will slam the U.S. economy and send stock markets down sharply in the days ahead. That’s not what the Fed wants, but that’s what they’re going to get.

When the Fed started QT in late 2017, they urged market participants to ignore it. They said the QT plan was on autopilot, the Fed was not going to use it as an instrument of policy and that it would “run on background” just like a computer program that’s open but not in use at the moment. It’s fine for the Fed to say that, but markets had another view. Analysts estimate that QT is the equivalent of two–four rate hikes per year over and above the explicit rate hikes. Not surprisingly, we had the Christmas Eve Massacre in December 2018, and Powell was forced to begin easing policy again.

The key takeaway is that tightening policy in a weak economy is almost certainly a recipe for a recession. When the recession does arrive, the Fed won’t have enough “dry powder” to fight it. The Fed needs rates to be at least 3%, and preferably higher, when recession begins. That gives it plenty of room to cut rates. But recession will hit long before the Fed can get rates that high, so cutting rates won’t be much help.

The Fed Is Far Behind the Curve on Inflation: Today’s actions are all in response to raging inflation. But it’s too late. The Fed is far behind the curve. The inflation is here and it’s about to get worse. Even worse, the Fed doesn’t understand why. They’re used to models that focus on “demand pull” inflation where consumers are buying in anticipation of even higher inflation to come. But the data shows that consumers actually don’t expect much inflation after this initial wave. Medium-term expectations are still anchored. The best research shows that expectations are overrated anyway. What affects behavior is what’s happening right now, not the expected future.

The inflation we’re seeing is called “cost push” inflation. This comes from the supply side, not the demand side. It consists of higher oil prices due to Biden policies of shutting down domestic oil production. It also comes from global supply chain disruption, and now the war in Ukraine. Since the Fed has misdiagnosed the disease, they are applying the wrong medicine. Tight money won’t solve a supply shock. Higher prices will continue. But tight money will hurt consumers, increase savings and raise mortgage interest rates, which hurts housing. The Fed is tightening into weakness.

The Fed’s Nothing if Not Consistent: The Fed’s track record of using the wrong models, using flawed models and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time remains intact. Today’s Fed announcement is the beginning of a chain of tightening that will sink stock markets and slow the economy.

Those rate hikes are a huge mistake, but the Fed will do it anyway. It really has no clue about the real world. I’m a big critic of the Fed models because they’re obsolete and they don’t accord with reality. When the Fed realizes its mistake of tightening into economic weakness, it will have to turn on a dime and shift to an easing policy.

What would cause the Fed to back off? A market meltdown. If the stock market sells off 5%, which would be over 1,700 points on the Dow, that would not be enough to throw them off. But if it goes down 15%, or over 5,000 points from current levels, that’s a different story. Ben Bernanke actually told me that once.

Easing will come first through forward guidance and pauses in the rate hike tempo, then possibly actual rate cuts back to zero and finally reversing their balance sheet reductions by expanding the balance sheet through more QE if needed. But by then, the damage will have been done. We can see the damage coming and plan accordingly."

"FED Protects Stock Market, Ignores Inflation, Wrecks Economy And The Consumer"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 3/16/22:
"FED Protects Stock Market, Ignores Inflation,
 Wrecks Economy And The Consumer"

Musical Interlude: Afshin, "Prayer of Change"

Full screen recommended.
Afshin, "Prayer of Change"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast and complex Orion Nebula (M42). A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view personally with a small telescope, the above gorgeously detailed image was recently taken in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in honor of the 23rd anniversary of Hubble's launch.
The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen above primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the high energy starlight.”

"Be Like The Bird..."

"What matter if this base, unjust life
Cast you naked and disarmed?
If the ground breaks beneath your step,
Have you not your soul?
Your soul! You fly away,
Escape to realms refined,
Beyond all sadness and whimpering.
Be like the bird which on frail branches balanced
A moment sits and sings;
He feels them tremble, but he sings unshaken,
Knowing he has wings."

– Victor Hugo

Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”

“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
by Chet Raymo

“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land. 

Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.

We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance. Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”
“The Tyger”

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

- William Blake

The Daily "Near You?"

St James, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Cruelest Joke Of All..."

“The smallest decisions made had such profound repercussions. One ten-minute wait could save a life… or end it. One wrong turn down the right street or one seemingly unimportant conversation, and everything was changed. It wasn’t right that each lifetime was defined, ruined, ended, and made by such seemingly innocuous details. A major life-threatening event should come with a flashing warning sign that either said ABANDON ALL HOPE or SAFETY AHEAD. It was the cruelest joke of all that no one could see the most vicious curves until they were over the edge, falling into the abyss below.”
- Sherrilyn Kenyon

Gregory Mannarino, "Be Ready... The FED Is About To Inflate On An Unimaginable Scale!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/16/22:
"Be Ready...
 The FED Is About To Inflate On An Unimaginable Scale!"

Celente And The Judge, "Putin No Different Than the Murderous Thugs We Have Here in the US"

Celente And The Judge, 3/16/22:
"Putin No Different Than the Murderous
 Thugs We Have Here in the US"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

"The Fed Can Do Nothing To Fix This Economy"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 3/16/22:
"The Fed Can Do Nothing To Fix This Economy"
"With everything happening in the world we are going to see that the Fed will do nothing to fix this economy. The world's leading economy is in a complete tailspin right now."

"How It Really Is"

 

"The Reality Of What Is Really Happening On The Ground In Ukraine"

"The Reality Of What Is Really Happening On The Ground In Ukraine"
by Michael Snyder

"Why can’t the mainstream media just tell us the truth? When it comes to the war in Ukraine, getting accurate information has proven to be rather daunting. From the Russian media and pro-Russian sources, we are getting an endless stream of Russian propaganda, and I suppose that is to be expected. On the other side, the mainstream media in the western world is often just regurgitating Ukrainian propaganda and repackaging it as “truth”. For example, an article that was bring widely circulated earlier today says that the Russians “could buckle in 10 days” and it claims that the Ukrainians are inflicting catastrophic losses on the Russian military. Day after day, we are being told that the Ukrainians are on the verge of victory, and of course that is complete and utter hogwash. The Russians continue to win more territory, and the Ukrainian military has been suffering defeat after defeat. But the Ukrainians want to project a positive narrative, because that gives them the best chance of enlisting outside help.

Personally, the people that I feel really bad for are all of the innocent Ukrainians that are stuck in the middle of this conflict. Millions are needlessly suffering, and so let us hope that the shooting will end soon.

Most Americans don’t realize this, but the Russians are actually offering to end the conflict if six major conditions are met…

1. No NATO membership and a neutral position.
2. Russian should be the second official language of Ukraine, with laws prohibiting it abolished.
3. Recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
4. Recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk.
5. Demilitarization of Ukraine and abandonment of weapons that could be a threat to the Kremlin.
6. Banning of ultra-nationalist parties and organizations in Ukraine.

But you won’t hear much about this on the major cable news channels, will you? And that is because it doesn’t fit with the narrative that they are currently pushing.

I definitely understand the desire of many people to root for the underdog, but the reality of the matter is that the Ukrainian armed forces are greatly outmatched. On the eastern front, the Russians just flattened the town of Avdeevka and essentially wiped out the Ukrainian 95th Airmobile Brigade… "The big news of the day is that the Russian forces finally decided to, shall we say, change pace, and by all account the intensity of the artillery, aerial bombing and missile barrage which hit the Ukie forces in the town of Avdeevka was absolutely unprecedented and following this barrage the LDNR forces broke through 8 kilometers of just about the most heavily defended sectors in the entire theater or operations. The Ukrainian 95th Airmobile Brigade (one of the most combat capable unit of the Ukrainian Army!) was defending this sector. According to reports, this entire brigade was basically wiped out."

The truth is that what the Russians just did to Avdeevka could be done to every single major city in all of Ukraine. The Russians possess immense conventional firepower, and in this case it appears that they were trying to send a message to the other Ukrainian units that are now essentially encircled in the “cauldron” in the east…

"So, not only did Russian encircle the entire Ukrainian forces in an operational cauldron, she then proceeded to cut that single force into two smaller cauldrons (but both still contained in the bigger, operational, cauldron) and now as a show of force, she destroyed the most combat capable Ukrainian unit in the most heavily defended town." The “message” here is clear: we strongly encourage you to lay down arms or else…

Meanwhile, we may be about to see a new major operation in the south. According to multiple sources, a Russian naval task force appears to be heading toward the Odessa area for a potential amphibious landing… "Russian Navy ships can be seen in satellite imagery approaching the Ukrainian Coast. The Sentinel 2 satellite image, taken at 11:47 local time, shows at least 14 vessels.

The vessels were found by Naval News with the help of Damien Symon, an independent defense analyst. Preliminary analysis of the vessels suggests 3 groups. Two are made up of combatants, and one has several landing ships. The landing ships appear to have sailed directly from their staging position off the Crimean coast. Analysts are searching the imagery for more vessels."

Over in Mariupol, the Russians are using devastating tactics that they employed during the two Chechen wars… "Rockets rained down on Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov of about half a million people, over the weekend targeting residential blocks and systematically flattening suburban areas of the city. During the two Chechen wars, rather than sending troops to try and take the city, the Russian army simply flattened it with sustained shelling and then just marched in across a sea of rubble."

This is why the Russians have only encircled most of the major Ukrainian cities that they have approached so far. It is essentially siege warfare. The Russians are cutting off supply routes, and they will relentlessly pound opposing forces until they either surrender or are wiped out. It isn’t a fair fight, and the death toll is rising with each passing day.

Fox News reporter Steve Harrigan just returned from Ukraine, and this is his assessment of the conflict… "I think for me, Ukraine is a done deal. It’s flattened and they lost."

Sadly, that is a very accurate assessment. But the western media is still encouraging Americans, Canadians and Europeans to volunteer to fight with the Ukrainian military. Of course this isn’t anything like the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. When you go to war against Russia, you can be suddenly killed by a cruise missile while you are sleeping… "Three British ex-special forces troops are feared to have been killed following a deadly Russian airstrike on a base close to the Polish border.

It is believed they died instantly in the cruise missile blast which reportedly killed several more than previously through – possibly well over 100 – according to the Daily Mirror. Insiders have said the three men were not part of the foreign fighters unit that was being trained at the Yavoriv base on the edge of the border with Poland. It remains unclear which branch of special forces they had served in."

And once you get over to Ukraine, there is a very good chance that they may not ever let you leave. If you doubt this, just listen to this testimony from someone that was miraculously able to make it out of the country. He tells those coming to Ukraine to fight, not to come it's a trap. pic.twitter.com/bcKFId51E9
— TJ (@TJ0059) March 15, 2022

Those that are pro-Russia get upset with me because I am not cheering for the Russians to win. And those that are pro-Ukraine get upset with me because I am not cheering for the Ukrainians to win. But this is not a game. I was strongly advocating for peace before the war erupted, and I am strongly advocating for peace now.

So many are needlessly dying, and the longer this war stretches on the more likely it is that it will lead to a global nuclear conflict. And if a global nuclear conflict happens, billions of people could die. So I am not ashamed to be rooting for peace. Unfortunately, leaders on both sides are making very foolish decisions, and so I don’t expect the shooting to end very soon."
Related:

"The Media Is Lying To You About The Progress Of The War In Ukraine, Russia Has Already Won Says Col. Douglas Macgregor"

Full screen recommended.
"The Media Is Lying To You About The Progress Of The 
War In Ukraine, Russia Has Already Won Says Col. Douglas Macgregor"
by IWB

"Former senior advisor the Secretary of Defense Col. Doug Macgregor joins Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate for a candid, live discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war and his time in the Trump administration when an Afghan withdrawal was sabotaged and conflict with Iran and Syria continued. “The war in Ukraine, for all intensive purposes, has been decided” says the Colonel at the 5-6min mark. The Colonel’s interview goes for almost an hour and is fascinating from start to finish."                                  
A must watch! Real truth!

"Offense Spending"

"Offense Spending"
Trillions of your hard-earned tax dollars at work...
 building machines of war.
by Bill Bonner

San Martin, Argentina - "The mainstream press cheerfully reported that inflation seems to be “leveling off.” That was after January numbers were adjusted upwards, leaving February – still in double digits – looking less awful. Breitbart: "Producer Prices Rise 10% for Second Straight Month".  "The Department of Labor said its Producer Price Index rose 0.8 percent in February compared with a month earlier. That’s a slowdown from the 1.2 percent month-over-month rise in January, revised up from one percent."

The stock market roared its approval – with the Dow up almost 600 points yesterday. America will wage its sanctions war against Russia… not against inflation. Our subject this week has been the elite’s curious obsession with the Russo-Ukrainian war… and how it connects to America’s inflationary decline. Here at BPR we have no interest in criticizing US foreign policy. It is obviously asinine; we won’t waste our time. And please don’t waste your time imagining that we are Russian assets ourselves. We are not now, nor have we ever been, an agent for the Russian Federation. We’ve never met Mr. Putin and we won’t be giving out any Russian propaganda… at least until the check from him clears.

In the meantime, we connect the dots, without prejudice. And they lead us to a fuller picture, not only of what is ahead for US inflation… but what is wrong with the ‘liberal world order’ that the US is so eager to promote. But we’ll get to that on Friday (tomorrow, we are going to visit the widow of our farmhand who drowned in the reservoir). Today, we look at the many things that the US sanctions against Russia and military aid to Ukraine will not achieve.

A Not-To-Do List:

They will not protect America; the US is no way in danger. (Though it puts itself in danger by confronting Moscow.)

They will not protect our families; they are far, far out of harm’s way.

They will not make us richer; Americans will almost certainly end up poorer.

They will not establish the principle of sovereign independence or the sanctity of borders. Americans don’t care about other countries’ independence; US forces have invaded 70 different countries since its own independence.

They will not save lives; the more aid to Ukrainians, the longer it will take for them to work out a compromise with the Russians… and the more people will die.

Then what? What are we fighting for? We will answer that question more fully on Friday. For today, we turn to the rock-em, sock-em world of internet chatter for sarcasm and cynicism: The Democrats asked for $10 billion in aid to send to Ukraine. The Republicans upped it to $12 billion. We need all patriots to get on board and up the aid. Why did the Democrats ask for less? Did Putin buy them off? We need to get behind our favorite neo-con war hawks like Lindsay Graham, Mark Rubio and Tom Cotton. Those who don’t are isolationists and Putin apologists. Now is the time for the only thing Republicans and Democrats agree on, foreign policy adventures and WAR!

You are either with us, or with the Russians. Anyone trying to understand this conflict, seek out different perspectives, understand the history of the region, seek information counter to the Western media narrative (just listen to the "fact checkers" and shut up) is obviously a Putin stooge who supports the invasion. Anyone sending links to this email chain that questions the logic of trying to start World War 3 (That crazy right wing fanatic Tucker Carlson, being against conflict with a nuclear power, would almost mistake him for an anti-war hippie) and advocates for a diplomatic solution should be automatically put on a list of potential Russian infiltrators.

Russia, Russia, Russia! Putin, Putin, Putin! And here comes the money! From the same thread: "Did anyone note the House passage of the one point five trillion funding bill noticed at 12:30am today for a 1:30am committee vote approved at 2:30am? Almost 3,000 pages of spending to be passed today without prior notice to the balance of Congress. Let’s pass it so we can find out what’s in it! That seems to work out for us pretty well doesn’t it?"

Another ‘Putin stooge’ has his say: "Any time there is a crisis such as this, it is a good time for Congress to pass giant spending packages. That is where there is money to be made, where friends can be rewarded, where cash flows can circle back, and political favors can be curried. This is what Congress lives for."

Pentagon Pay Day: The Washington elite spent years trying to tag Russia – which has an economy about the size of the Greater New York City area – as a mortal enemy. US meddling in Ukraine politics (including Lindsay Graham’s star performance in Kyiv, when he promised US backing in a fight with Putin) goaded the Kremlin to action.

And now comes the pay day. Here’s the Jerusalem Post: "Arms Sales to Europe Skyrocket as Tensions with Russia Reach an All-time High." And here’s National Defense Strategy stating the obvious: "Next US defense budget will get a boost due to Ukraine invasion: Pentagon comptroller."

A wild card for the months ahead is the trajectory of the war in Ukraine, as the Defense Department may need additional money for FY22 and FY23 if Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin orders further troop deployments to Eastern Europe. Under cover of this new threat, whatever it is, the price of defense stocks has gone way up. Last November, a share of Lockheed Martin would have set you back $326. Yesterday, it was $444. Hooray! Victory!

Meanwhile, prices rise…and time runs out. More to come…"