"Banks are closing down personal accounts without any notice, according to a new report released by the New York Times. That comes as the credit crisis continues to worsen and hurt Americans financially. Banks are now trying to reduce the risk of losses and failures, even if that means leaving people without access to their funds. Conditions continue to deteriorate in the financial sector, which is putting many institutions in a tough situation right now.
The Times reported that the number of clients getting dumped by their banks is rising dramatically. Experts estimate that thousands of people are losing access to their bank accounts and credit cards every month. Oftentimes, they are restricted from withdrawing their funds for weeks and months That is leaving many people scrambling to pay their bills and buy everyday essentials right now. Even though banks do not reveal precise data on how often they are doing this, analysts observed a 50% increase in the number of "suspicious activity reports" (SARs), which typically lead to them ghosting customers without warning.
Analysts tracked a series of real-life examples of customers getting abruptly dropped by their banks and exposed plenty of instances where the decision was not just sudden but completely unjustified. Delinquent customers face the highest risk of having their accounts shut down. Americans took on a massive amount of debt in recent years, and as interest rates went up and made loans more expensive, it’s getting more difficult to get out of debt.
At the same time, it’s also getting harder to have access to loans as banks continue to tighten their lending standards. This is cutting an important credit line for millions of struggling consumers at a time when pandemic aid has waned and inflation is making more people need an additional form of financial support.
Officials revealed that not only consumers but all major sectors of the economy are being impacted by the credit crisis. Banks reported tighter standards for all commercial real estate categories, residential real estate, credit card, auto, and other business loans in October. Their reasons to limit borrowing to businesses at this point in the game include “a less favorable and more uncertain economic outlook; a reduced tolerance for risk; a deterioration in the credit quality of loans.”
So far this year, banks experienced $620 billion in mark-to-market losses on their Treasury bond portfolio. The latest fall in Treasury bond prices will only add more pressure on them. Moreover, U.S. bank stocks have fallen to an all-time low in 2023 compared with the S&P 500 index. With all that said, you can understand why banks are panicking right now. Just a few days ago, another bank failure occurred. The latest bank failure has raised many questions about the Fed’s current mantra of high-interest rates for longer. It seems to be doing more harm than good to the economy. It’s hard to grasp why policymakers are still withdrawing $95 billion a month in market liquidity at a time when the Treasury is having trouble financing itself at reasonable interest rates.
If the Fed continues to inflict significant losses on banks' balance sheets through higher interest rates, the credit crisis might become the next financial crisis, and it will likely hit us before the middle of next year."
“These bright rims and flowing shapes suggest to some melting ice cream on a cosmic scale. Looking toward the constellation Cassiopeia, the colorful (zoomable) skyscape features the swept back, comet-shaped clouds IC 59 (left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, the clouds aren't actually melting, but they are slowly dissipating under the influence of ionizing ultraviolet radiation from hot,luminous star gamma Cas.
Click image for larger size.
Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae, just off the upper right edge of the frame. In fact, slightly closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as the ionized hydrogen atoms recombine with electrons. Farther from the star, IC 59 shows proportionally less H-alpha emission but more of the characteristic blue tint of dust reflected star light. The field of view spans about 1 degree or 10 light-years at the estimated distance of gamma Cas and friends.”
“The world of existence is like unto an orchard and humanity is like unto the trees. All these trees are planted in the same orchard, reared through the heat of one sun, watered with one rain. We must be the cause of the adornment of this orchard. The world of humanity is like unto a rose garden and the various races, tongues and people are like unto contrasting flowers. The diversity of colors in a rose-garden adds to the charm and beauty of the scene as variety enhances unity. Why should we not look upon the human world with rose-colored vision?”
"A $250 Million War Game and Its Shocking Outcome"
by Nick Giambruno
"At a cost of $250 million, Millennium Challenge 2002 was the largest and most expensive war game in Pentagon history. With over 13,500 participants, the US government took over two years to design it. The exercise pitted Iran against the US military. Washington intended to show how the US military could defeat Iran with ease. Paul Van Riper, a three-star general and 41-year veteran of the Marine Corps, led Iranian forces in the war game. His mission was to take on the full force of the US military, led by an aircraft carrier battle group and a large amphibious landing force in the Persian Gulf. The results shocked everyone…
Van Riper waited for the US Navy to pass through the shallow and narrow Strait of Hormuz, which made them sitting ducks for Iran’s unconventional and asymmetric warfare techniques. The idea is to level the playing field against a superior enemy with swarms of explosive-laden suicide speedboats, low-flying planes carrying anti-ship missiles, naval mines, and land-based anti-ship ballistic missiles, among other low-cost but highly effective measures.
In minutes, Van Riper emerged victorious over his superior opponent and sank all 19 ships. Had it been real life, 20,000 US sailors and marines would have died. Millennium Challenge 2002 was a complete disaster for the Pentagon, which had spent a quarter of a billion dollars to set up the extensive war game. It produced the exact opposite outcome they wanted.
So what did the Pentagon do with these humbling results? Like a child playing a video game, they hit the reset button. They then rigged and scripted the game so that the US was guaranteed to win. After realizing the integrity of the war game had been compromised, a disgusted Van Riper walked out mid-game. He then said: "Nothing was learned from this. And a culture not willing to think hard and test itself does not augur well for the future."
The main lesson of Millennium Challenge 2002 is that aircraft carriers - the biggest and most expensive ships ever built - wouldn’t last a single day in combat against even a regional power like Iran. Russia and China would have an even easier time dispatching them. They are overpriced toys. That means the US has wasted untold trillions on military hardware that could prove to be worthless in a serious conflict.
Nonetheless, the US government still parades aircraft carriers around the world from time to time to try to intimidate its enemies. However, it’s a flawed strategy prone to catastrophic results if someone calls their bluff.
While Millennium Challenge 2002 occurred more than 20 years ago, it is of paramount importance today. Iran has substantially improved its asymmetric and unconventional warfare capabilities. It’s doubtful the US military would fare much better today than 20 years ago. In short, war with Iran today could be even more disastrous than the Millennium Challenge 2002 simulation. Unfortunately, war with Iran is an increasingly probable outcome as tensions in the Middle East are at their highest point in generations and are trending higher.
Previously, I lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for several years while working for an investment bank. The experience was effectively an advanced training course in Middle East geopolitics. Today, it helps me see the big picture in the region… and unfortunately, it isn’t pretty. I think the next big war in the Middle East is coming soon and could be the biggest one ever. It will focus on Iran.
The market doesn’t appreciate how close we are to a big war and the implications of it. But this distortion in the market is a blessing. It’s handing us a golden opportunity. First and foremost, I think there’s a huge opportunity to profit in the oil market right now. I’m certainly not cheering for war. I despise war, which is the health of the State.
Regardless, a big war is highly likely, with significant investment implications that would be foolish to ignore. Unfortunately, most people have no idea how close we are to a catastrophe of historical proportions, let alone how to prepare...The coming crisis could be much worse, much longer, and very different than what we’ve seen since World War 2. Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially - or worse - as big wars unfolded. Don’t be one of them."
Puxi, The Bund and Pudong Lujiazui, Shanghai, China
"New World Order"
As 'The West' continues slip-sliding away,
a new civilization reaches for the clouds...
by Bill Bonner
'Mankind'… has no aim, no idea, no plan, any more than the family of butterflies or orchids. 'Mankind' is a zoological expression, or an empty word. … I see, in place of that empty figment of one linear history which can only be kept up by shutting one’s eyes to the overwhelming multitude of the facts, the drama of a number of mighty Cultures, each springing with primitive strength from the soil of a mother region to which it remains firmly bound throughout its whole life-cycle; each stamping its material, its mankind, in its own image; each having its own idea, its own passions, its own life, will and feeling, its own death."
~ Oswald Spengler
Poitou, France - "It’s big. It’s grand. It’s pretentious. Does it have any real world meaning? We’re talking about today’s theme – about the slip-sliding of ‘The West.’ After more than 1,000 years, western civilization – or, what Spengler called “Faustian culture” – is facing a serious challenge. The BRICS…the developing countries of Muslims, Slavs, Chinese and Africans…are jockeying for leading roles. They’re growing faster. They’re buying more, spending more, and saving more. They’re still benefiting from fossil fuels. They’re dodging sanctions. They’re making new alliances…and finding new sources of financial aid and technical guidance. They’re resisting NATO in the Ukraine…and denying the West’s moral superiority in Israel. They are forging a new world order…one without the USA at the top of it. Does it matter?
Place Your Bets: Warren Buffett says you should never bet against America. But never is a long time…even for Buffett. What’s this? MarketWatch: "Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway cash pile hits record $157 bln with deals scarce."
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway ended the third quarter with a record cash pile and reported a deeper overall loss due to weakness in the stock market…You’re either long or you’re short. You own it, or you don’t own it. You bet on America’s businesses…or you hold cash. Buffett is now betting against America. He’s ‘short’ its stocks (not owning them) by a wider margin than ever before.
What to make of it? And what to make of the bond market? US bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. Banks, insurance and retirement funds hold big wads of US paper…debt, that is. Corporate treasuries, non-profits, university and hospital endowments – almost the entire capital structure of stocks, bonds and real estate is directly or indirectly supported by US bonds.
So what happens when investors lose faith in the issuer? What happens when the credit quality declines? What happens when a nation…an empire…or a whole ‘civilization’ hits the skids? CNN reports: "Moody’s sends a warning to America: Your last AAA credit rating is at risk." The United States is one step closer to losing its last perfect credit rating after Moody’s Investors Service changed the outlook of the nation’s debt to negative on Friday after markets closed. Even the prospect of a US downgrade could hurt Americans’ investment portfolios, make it even more expensive for them to borrow money, and make it more costly for the government to pay off its debts.
Decline and Fall: Let’s return to Oswald Spengler. We’ve heard of his ‘Decline of the West,” published in 1918, all our lives. But we have never read it. Dan reports that it is unreadable…written in heavy, academic German, which translation scarcely improved.
We mentioned American politics yesterday. It is the “same stupid clown car with a different driver,” says Representative Dusty Johnson. Democracy works tolerably well when it is done at a local level. But it is not scalable.
In the famous painting by Norman Rockwell above, a working man stands up at a town meeting and says his piece. It could be about the new school…about moving the town dump…and an ordinance that bans spitting on the sidewalk – whatever it is, the man can have an informed opinion on the matter. But suppose he is one of 150 million voters? And suppose he has to choose his candidates from TV ‘debates’ and mainstream media coverage? Suppose he is asked his opinion on AI…or the need for a new fighter plane…or a quarter-point increase in the Fed Funds rate? What are the odds that he will have a coherent, well-informed view?
The larger the scale, the dumber the policies…and the more real policy making is hijacked by elites for their own purposes. Who benefits from America’s non-stop wars? Who benefits from DEI/LBGQT+ spending? Who benefits from anti-racism indoctrination…from tariffs…from laws, rules, and regulations – often thousands of pages long…costing trillions of dollars – that no one (save the insiders) has even read?
The result is an unaffordable, corrupt and incompetent leadership. Every ‘Europeanized’ government – including Japan – is now deeply in debt. Each spends more than it can afford. Each has made promises that cannot be fulfilled. And each muddles along making things worse with every move. How much faith can you have in such a government? How much credit can you give it? More to come…"
"The Horseman Of The Economic Apocalypse Draws Near"
By Mike Adams
"US treasury debt has just been downgraded to negative. It costs a trillion dollars a year just to pay interest on the debt. The fed's money printing machine is running all out, while fewer and fewer investors trust the ability of the US to ever pay back its debt obligations. The dollar collapse draws near. Full coverage in today's Brighteon broadcast here:
"We're diving into the looming Real Estate Armageddon amidst the Mezzanine Loan Crisis! With an industry on the brink, it's time to explore how office buildings are being wiped out in what could be a new real estate crash. The financial chaos and how these high-stake loans are playing a pivotal role."
“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
"Whether it is a distinguished general who came to his senses in 1935, after doing the bidding of the monied interests by initiating conflict throughout the world to fill their coffers with blood money, or a rock & roll star fifty years later writing a hit song about the exact same theme, the song remains the same. The wealthy always benefit from war, the poor always die in their wars, and politicians are bribed to continually foment conflict, hate, and railing against whoever their puppet masters choose as the enemy of the moment. This is not a recent development, it has spanned centuries, just the sums of money feeding the military industrial complex are now astronomical.
The 20th Century began with Butler doing the bidding of the monied classes in South America, Mexico, and Europe, disguised as keeping America safe for democracy – the usual propaganda fed to the masses when they are running their racket. Just as Edward Bernays clearly laid out in his 1928 book – "Propaganda" – that the world is run by an invisible government who manipulate the minds of the masses to do as they are told, Butler unequivocally described why we are perpetually at war and who benefits from perpetual warfare. The invisible government/insiders run this world and have always run this world. Once you reconcile yourself to this fact, you will be well on your way to understanding all of the major events happening in the world today.
“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.”
It seems many more millionaires and billionaires have been created since World War I, the war Wilson promised not to enter. What a coincidence the Federal Reserve was created in shadowy back rooms on a secretive island in 1913 by men constituting the invisible government (bankers, corporate executives, corrupt politicians), just before the outbreak of the Great War. Of course, it was only great for the bankers, arms dealers, and corporations getting rich off the blood of the 20 million innocent soldiers and civilians who died to fill up their war chests with gold. Once the politicians, bankers, and connected corporations had the ability to use a central bank to print fiat and fund their wars for eternity, we’ve had over a century of total war.
“It is no coincidence that the century of total war
The moneyed classes profit from warfare no matter who wins. But even better, they profit the most when no one wins and the war is perpetual. Perpetual war equals perpetual profits. The United States has not been invaded by a foreign enemy since the War of 1812. The $1.8 trillion allocated to the Department of Defense in 2023 exceeds the GDP of most countries in the world and is a self sustaining mechanism where politicians: approve the trillions in blood money while promoting chaos and war around the globe; become multi-millionaires from bribes accepted from the corporations enriched by the military industrial complex; accelerate the downfall of America by enslaving future generations in chains of unpayable debt; and then convince the poor to become cannon fodder in their bloody game of thrones.
“Every war, when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.” – George Orwell
The propagandists for the military regime always need a “bad guy” to justify their wealth generating wars. First it was Hitler, even though corporate leaders like Ford admired and profited from his rebuilding of Germany. Then it was the generic “communist” which was used by the war profiteers to justify Korea and Vietnam. Keeping the world safe for democracy and corporate profits, at the cost of only 100,000 American lives and several million natives. Evidently a beneficial trade-off for the American Empire and the military industrial complex, warned about by Eisenhower.
The modern day “homicidal maniacs”, who threatened the peace that the American Empire has spread at the point of a gun and demanding use of their fiat currency, have included: the Ayatollah Khomeini when fighting our ally Sadaam Hussein, until Sadaam Hussein became the “homicidal maniac”; Soviet leadership in Afghanistan fought by our ally Osama bin Laden until bin Laden became the “homicidal maniac” blamed for 9/11; Muammar Gaddafi when he dared not fall in line regarding the USD; Bashar al-Assad when gas pipelines were needed to keep profits flowing; Vladimir Putin for revealing U.S. and Biden family corruption in Ukraine; and now Hamas because they tired of living in the open air Israeli prison of Gaza.
None of these “homicidal maniacs” has ever threatened the American homeland with invasion or meaningful attack. But they did provide justification for the Patriot Act, a never ending War on Terror, doubling of military spending, sacrifice of American lives for nothing more than oil and mammon, and creation of new eternal enemies across the globe (aka blow back). You see the regime propaganda media declare we are running low on bombs, missiles and military hardware because we’ve sent over $100 billion worth to their anti-Putin puppet Zelensky (with 10% for the big guy), and now we need tens of billions more to give to Netanyahu to aid in his genocide of Palestinians. What if the trillions spent on destroying things and killing people over the last seventy five years had been used for productive purposes?
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
The arms dealers who keep the war machine killing are more than happy to ramp up production to support the ongoing Ukraine debacle and now the powder keg in the Middle East which threatens to explode into World War III. Imagine the corporate bonuses if we get ourselves a new world war. Politician’s coffers will be filled with blood money. And if the neo-cons can just get China to attack Taiwan, champagne corks will be popping all over Washington DC. Since the Biden/CIA provoked Ukraine war began in early 2022, defense contractor stocks have soared (BAE Systems: +100%; Lockheed Martin: +36%; Northrup Grumman: +32%; General Dynamics: +26%), while the overall stock market was down 8%. It’s good to be the kings of war.
Our dementia ridden puppet president let the truth slip last week by saying these wars are good for the economy. And by good for the economy, he means good for the bankers, mega-corporations, military industrial complex, and the bank accounts of politicians bought off by war loving donors. What it is not good for are the bank accounts of average Americans, as relentless inflation created to wage these wars destroys their purchasing power as they spiral towards impoverishment. It’s not good for the poor who enlist and get to shed their blood for no good reason at all. It’s not good for the innocent civilians across the globe killed by the promoters of endless war and declared collateral damage by the likes of Dick Cheney, Lindsay Graham, Victoria Nuland, Hillary Clinton and Nikke Haley. It’s not murder if you are waving the flag of neo-con justice.
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished
unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
The absurdity of allowing rich men to decide millions should die for a fake cause in order to sustain their wealth, power and control, infuriates me and is why I hold out little hope for a positive outcome to this Fourth Turning. How could so many be so obtuse as to not see what is happening right in front of their eyes? I have no animosity towards average Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, Iranians, Syrians, Turks, Palestinians, Israelis, or anyone on this earth trying to live normal lives. It’s the rich and powerful rulers of countries, kingdoms, and empires who I despise. Despite having no personal quarrel against anyone, the shadowy psychopaths in suits behind the curtain use religion and psychological manipulation to convince the masses they should hate and kill an enemy they are instructed to loathe and fear.
“What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.” – Aldous Huxley
Whether it was World War II or what is playing out before our very eyes today, the song remains the same. Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.
Most have not come to the realization we are already in the midst of World War III. It began in the spring of 2022 when Boris Johnson was instructed by the globalist cabal to stop Zelensky from signing an agreed upon treaty between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict. There was billions in war profits to be made and the opportunity to bleed Russia of financial resources. When this disastrous venture, which has killed 600,000 innocent victims, began to run out of steam and the enthusiasm of clueless dolts with their “Support Ukraine” lawn signs began to wane, miraculously Hamas attacked Israel. How convenient for the war machine.
World War II started in September 1939, but Americans set the date at December 7, 1941. In reality, the U.S. was already at war in 1939, as we supplied the UK with arms and financial support, while provoking Japan into attacking through economic sanctions. It is exactly the same situation today. We have been at war with Russia for over a year through our puppet proxy, the actor Zelensky. We are now at war in the Middle East through our Israeli proxy point of the spear. None of this is declared, but anyone with critical thinking skills knows we are calling the shots. What the military industrial complex is now actively seeking is a new Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin, or 9/11. They need a horrific event to usher in World War III. They are gathered in black masses, plotting death and destruction, while feeding their insatiable desire for mammon.
So here we are, on the edge of Armageddon, waiting for the next shoe to drop. I don’t believe a word my government tells me. I consider those who are running this country, whether they be “elected” politicians, shadowy billionaires constituting the invisible government, or the globalist cabal seeking a new world order, to be my sworn enemies. When they initiate the false flag, designed to falsely generate the patriotic spirit of the masses and mobilize them for war against the enemy of their choosing (likely Russia, China or Iran), I will not be obeying, complying or sacrificing my three sons as cannon fodder for their evil agendas and wars for profit. The only ammo fired by my family in this coming conflict will be at any government thug attempting to invest my sons in their wars. That is my red line and I will die defending it. Time to prepare for the real war against the real enemy."
"First they received a fillip because of the Russia-Ukraine war, and now they've gotten a boost from the raging Israel-Hamas war. Western weapons manufacturers are cashing in on the rise in conflicts around the world, issuing a forecast which is rosy for them, but grim for the rest of the world."
"In today's vlog, we are at Meijer and urging everyone to stock up on these items. They are having a massive holiday sale on groceries. We take you with us showing every great deal they have to offer. Stock up now as we may never see these kinds of sales again!"
'Israel is Killing Itself And We Can't Stop Them'"
"Is The United States preparing for war in the Middle East? A broader regional war. It sure as hell seems that way. Over the past 24 hours the U.S. struck Iraninian bases in the region and Iran vows to fight back. Meanwhile U.S. soldiers were killed during middle east training exercises in Cyprus. Was it an accident? Col. Douglas MacGregor joins us to analyze the very latest moves."
"Spiral galaxy NGC 4651 is a mere 35 million light-years distant, toward the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. About 50 thousand light-years across, this galaxy is seen to have a faint umbrella-shaped structure (right) that seems to extend some 50 thousand light-years farther, beyond the bright galactic disk. The giant cosmic umbrella is now known to be composed of tidal star streams. The streams themselves are extensive trails of stars gravitationally stripped from a smaller satellite galaxy that was eventually torn apart.
Recent work by a remarkable collaboration of amateur and professional astronomers to image faint structures around bright galaxies suggests that even in nearby galaxies, such tidal star streams are common. The result is predicted by models of galaxy formation, including the formation of our Milky Way."
“ Are we truly alone With our physics and myths, The stars no more Than glittering dust, With no one there To hear our choral odes?”
“This is the ultimate question, the only question, asked here by the Northern Irish poet Derek Mahon. It is a poem of exile, from the ancient familiar, from the sustaining myth of rootedness, of centrality. A poem that the naturalist can relate to, we pilgrims of infinite spaces, of the overarching blank pages on which we write our own stories, our own scriptures, having none of divine pedigree.
Yes, we feel the ache of exile, we who grew up with the sustaining myths of immortality only to see them stripped away by the needy hands of fact. We scribble our choral odes. Who listens? We speak to each other. Is that enough? Having left the home we grew up in, we make do with where we find ourselves, gathering to ourselves the glittering dust of the here and now.
Are we truly alone? Mahon again:
“If so, we can start To ignore the silence Of infinite space And concentrate instead on the infinity Under our very noses - The cry at the heart Of the artichoke, The gaiety of atoms.”
Better to leave the blank page blank than fill it with sentimental hankerings for home, with those prayers of our childhood we repeated over and over until they became a hard, fast crust on the page. Incline our ear instead to the faint cry that issues from the world under our very noses, from there, the tomato plant on the window sill, the ink-dark crow that paces the grass beyond the panes, the clouds that heap on the horizon - the dizzy, ditzy dance of atoms and the glitterings of stars.”
"When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair."
"We’ve grown accustomed to regarding the US as the most powerful country on earth. Since the end of World War II, it’s been the economic powerhouse that’s dictated terms to the rest of the world. War production created the world’s most modern factories, allowing for a postwar boom in manufacturing goods of every description. The fact that the US held two-thirds of the world’s gold by the end of the war enabled it to dictate that the US dollar would be the default currency for trade. And later on, the creation of OPEC ensured that all gas and oil would be settled in the petrodollar.
The resultant overwhelming economic power enabled the US to assume the role of the world’s policeman, with a defense budget that equaled that of the next ten most powerful countries combined. But all that power led the leaders of the US empire to assume that it was omnipotent. In 1971, they went off the gold standard, and over the ensuing decades, the US went from being the world’s largest creditor nation to its largest debtor nation.
The US can no longer produce goods, as its ever-increasing union labor costs have priced it out of the market, even for local consumption. It’s now dependent upon China, Mexico, and other countries for virtually all goods. And yet, the US is threatening those countries with controls. With help from the FATF and OECD, the US has become an economic ball and chain to the economies of the First World and, to a lesser extent, beyond.
The US is now a hollowed-out empire. By any measure, it’s a goliath that’s likely to fall in the near future. But recently, the above conditions have been exacerbated to a degree that’s unprecedented in the post-war world.
In March of 2021, the US made the fatal mistake of confiscating privately-held assets of the Russian people. Although this was seen by Americans as just punishment for Russia’s invasion of the Donbas, the rest of the world saw it differently. The leaders of even small countries took note, realizing that the rulebook had just been tossed out the window. If the US could seize foreign privately-owned assets in Russia… they could do it anywhere.
Although almost no one in the US noticed it at the time, more than two-thirds of the world’s countries quietly began to create treaties with China and Russia – seeking to build a new alternative to the robber empire. Although this still appears to be insignificant to Americans, the change has taken place quickly and substantially. Scores of new treaties are now in place, and more are on the way. The world is now "rent in twain."
Saudi Arabia moved decisively to shift its loyalty to China, along with other OPEC nations, assuring that the petrodollar will soon be no more. New treaties have been inked to allow the world’s countries to trade in their own countries, bypassing the dollar, assuring that the US dollar as the reserve currency is also on its way out.
An entirely new global paradigm is underway – one that’s not even on the news in the US. Americans are blissfully unaware that their country is now a house of cards, looking for a strong wind. That strong wind has come up in the Middle East in the form of a war that promises to break the bank of the US. The US pours $830 billion into the Military Industrial Complex annually for weaponry that has been outmoded, in some cases, for decades, while other powers have continued to advance and, today, far outweigh the US militarily.
Add to this the astonishing stupidity of American leaders to choose this time to emasculate their own military. No matter how supportive a country may be of gay rights, a de-emphasis on masculinity in the armed forces creates a military that no red-blooded man wants to be a part of. The US armed forces are gutted.
Be assured: this is not simply a country experiencing a downturn. It’s an empire in its death throes. To wit:
• The most prosperous cities in America are in dramatic decline. Downtown areas are filled with the homeless and the drug-addicted.
• Those who loot stores are not prosecuted, leading to a crime epidemic that’s closing entire blocks of previously-successful shops.
• Entire downtown areas are unable to support commerce, leading to an emptying out of cities.
• Banks are laying off tens of thousands of staff.
• Competent workers cannot be found. They may have credentials but can’t finish tasks. They maximize sick days and otherwise fail to show up for work.
• Simple business tasks fail to be performed. Deadlines can’t be met. Retiring older workers cannot be replaced with motivated replacements.
• Businesses are chronically understaffed – restaurants cannot serve customers; mechanics leave cars unrepaired; trash isn’t removed; flights are cancelled due to airline staff failing to turn up.
• Most countries recovered from lockdown mode, but in the US, literally millions of people have chosen not to return to the workplace.
Elsewhere in the world, the opposite is occurring. In Asia, in particular, there’s tremendous enthusiasm for new growth. New businesses are being created. Even in "communist" countries like Vietnam, it’s possible to stand on a street corner and see countless peasants setting up shop on the pavement each day: capitalism in the making.
None of this is a random occurrence. Countries have a life cycle. Empires have a life cycle. The level of prosperity a country achieves at its height is directly proportional to the severity of its eventual collapse. The First World, particularly the US, is indeed running on empty and can be expected to go down, literally, in flames. From inside the US, it’s difficult to understand that the remainder of the world began its consolidation and rise eighteen months ago and that the new dominant power is rising rapidly. The non-First world recognizes that this is not the end of the world but a global shift in predominance.
We’re presently witnessing the early stages of the collapse of the world’s greatest empire. That’s difficult to even conceive of, let alone picture. Yet, the early events are unfolding and are in evidence before us. If we bother to read the tea leaves, we’ll see that the larger events are about to play out. It’s entirely possible that, by 2030, we’ll be watching the dust settle on the past empire.
But history advises us that dying empires do not go quietly. In every case, they attempt to hold onto their dying power through warfare. If no war is needed, one is invented. The excuse for the war is unimportant. What matters is that there is conflict sufficient enough to subjugate the people of the empire into sacrificing their rights in favour of their country in its hour of need. And it’s also true that even a dying power can do massive damage on its way out.
Whether the reader lives in the US, another First World nation, or an outlying nation that’s likely to be less affected by the unfolding conflict, it would be wise to distance oneself from the fray. A dying lion is a dangerous beast."
"The situation in the Middle East continues to escalate by the day, putting us all on a path toward nuclear war. Just this weekend, Israel stuck 40km deep inside Lebanon's territory, and Hezbollah is showing off anti-ship missiles that could be used to target US Navy vessels. Meanwhile, huge natural gas and oil reserves have been found underneath Gaza, providing yet another reason for Israel to want to control the land.
For its part, the US wants a justification to bomb Iran, but so far Iran is refusing to go along with the escalation. Nevertheless, the situation remains tense. Full details in today's Brighteon Broadcast News, plus an alarming interview with John Moore, The Liberty Man, who discusses the global consequences of escalation in the Middle East."
Tracing the "Faustian Civilization's" long fall from grace...
by Bill Bonner
Poitou, France - "Between today and next week, anything can happen. Stock prices can turn on a dime. But big trends have momentum. …the Primary Trend must run ‘all the way’ to the end. If the Primary Trend is now down – for stocks and bonds – there’s more bad news coming. And what about the bigger picture…the future of America…and of Western Civilization? Is it like a huge ship, headed to the dock and going much too fast?
On our drive down to below the Loire River, we pass a sign: ‘Battle of Poitiers, 732.” It is on a rural road, between Tours and Chauvigny…the middle of nowhere. No one visits. Because there is nothing to visit. It is along the banks of the Vienne River, rolling slowly down….past where David Ogilvy had his famous chateau (now for sale). No one knows for sure if the battle took place there…or elsewhere. It might not have taken place at all, but instead might have been nothing more than skirmish with a scouting party…reaching the limit of its incursion into what is now France.
The native Poitevins were the Palestinians then! The Saracens – mostly Berbers from North Africa – had conquered all of the Iberian Peninsula. By 730, they were seeing how deeply they could go before getting turned back. Poitiers was it. There, a force led by Charles Martel (the Hammer) stopped them. And thus did the tide turn, almost 1,300 years ago…against the Islamic world of Arabs, Turks, Persians, Berbers and dozens of other nationalities that had converted to Islam…in favor of Christian Europe.
False Prophets: The drive to push the Muslims out of Iberia took another 700 years. It was then, when Granada fell to the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, that the Reconquista was completed. Then, it was the Muslims and Jews who were Palestinians…they had to flee, convert or become slaves. (Later, after they had converted, they were often accused of being ‘false Christians’…and burnt at the stake. In Mexico, even Lutherans were killed, as heretics.)
Even before Muslims were swept out of Spain, Europeans were on the move. Crusaders established their own fiefs on the coast of what is today Israel. They conquered Jerusalem…and took Sicily from the Saracens. Little later, they were sending out explorers…and then colonizers…all over the world. North America, South America, Australia, Asia, Africa – Judeo-Christian European civilization was triumphant…almost everywhere.
“The West” won. Its capitalism…its democracy…its fossil fuels and internal combustion engines…nation states…the rule of law…rational inquiry…bombs…science – those are the things that put western civilization on top of the heap. For more than a millennium, European civilization ruled the world.
But what’s this? Forbes: "The West Has Lost Its Dominant Global Position." Veteran diplomat and philosophical provocateur Kishore Mahbubani in his new book asks a question that has crossed many minds of late: “Has the West lost it?”
If “it” is the dominant position of Europeans and North Americans in the world, then yes. The rest of the world has caught up and are overtaking the West because they received and applied the gift of Western wisdom – i.e., scientific reason and an approach to governance where the rulers are accountable to their people, not the other way around. In this sense, the West is the victim of the success of its own ideas.
A Party of Losers: Talk about a Primary Trend! What Oswald Spengler called the “Faustian Civilization” – now called “the West” – is on the skids. A thousand years of history… always on the up-swing…always up-staging the competition…always with the upper hand against its enemies…and now ‘the West’ is slip-sliding into second-fiddle status.
Just look at the virtuoso of ‘The West’ – the US. Its elections reveal the rot at its core of the whole system. In the Republican candidates’ debate, Vivek Ramaswamy says his own party is a ‘party of losers.’ He accuses the president’s family of taking a bribe from the Ukrainians. He says the media is “corrupt.” And that the firepower industry has “spent trillions, killed millions, and made billions” for themselves. He – an upstart, an outsider with his own money – is the only one who makes any sense at all. Naturally, the commentators named him the ‘biggest loser’ in the debate.
Most likely, the election will be headlined by the same two worn-out husks the nation has suffered for the last 7 years – Biden and Trump. The former should simply retire and save his family further embarrassment. The latter should never have been allowed into public life in the first place.
Meanwhile, Congress – distracted by ‘culture wars’ – shirks its duty to avoid real ones…and can’t even put together a budget, much less balance it. As near as we can tell, the latest flop on the imperial frontier is in the Ukraine. The US promised to stand by Zelensky until he had driven the Russians out of the Eastern (Russian speaking) provinces. Now, after spending more than $100 billion, US policymakers are looking for other alternatives.
Ask No Questions: Another big flop is shaping up in Israel, where the whole world watches as the Israelis, backed by the US, conduct a ferocious killing campaign that won’t soon be forgotten. Whatever else may come of it, the US will never again be able to claim the moral high ground without triggering laughter and derision.
America’s financial situation is in trouble too. It is presided over by a privately-owned bank cartel – the Fed – whose mis-guidance added $27 trillion to the national debt so far this century (with more coming!). And it still pretends to be able to manage the US economy.
And the voters themselves are much too busy trying to make ends meet to look beneath the headlines. They are victims of a self-serving media establishment. The mainstream press no longer speaks ‘truth to power.’ It merely recites the latest propaganda talking points...and asks no questions.
In short, the whole foundation of ‘the West’s’ supremacy is falling apart – democracy, Congress, the dollar, firepower. Our most basic institutions are failing. And where does it lead? Can you still protect your wealth by buying leading US stocks and taking ‘the long view?’ Stay tuned..."
"Does It Seem Like Everything Is Falling Apart? It Is"
by John Wilder
"The story of the 20th century was one of things coming together. Part of it was based on technology – the world shrank as successive technologies made communications, typically mass communications, easier and quicker. The world went from letters carried over land to telegrams to telephones and then radio and television. Information that previously took weeks to get out, could now go out to millions nearly immediately so we could all know how tough Meghan Markle had it last weekend.
With this communication, the model was simple: one to many. One person could have their ideas spread out to literally everyone. In the Soviet Union, radio versions of Stalin’s speeches could be broadcast instantaneously to every person with a radio in the Soviet Union, though those radios were powered by large industrial tractors produced in Tractor Collective Number 323 that weighed 17 metric tons.
Europe itself clumped together into the EU, which, oddly, was exactly the plan of an Austrian art-school reject. Up until the 1990s, clumping together was all the rage. There was strength in being together, and it was also strength in the titanic war without weapons between two competing ideologies: Western Capitalism versus Eastern European and Asian Collectivist Communism.
Some have said (and I would have argued, incorrectly, in the past) that technology is neutral. It is not. Technology absolutely changes the equation between the types of governments that can exist. Take, for example, weapons:
To be really good with a sword takes a lot of practice. I assume this because I watched a lot of movies where people learn to be good swordsmen and people always seem to get older in the montage. Beyond that, the suit of armor that a knight had to have was really, really expensive? How expensive? More than “hot dog at an NFL® game” expensive, it was completely unaffordable unless you had a manor and a bunch of dudes growing stuff for you. And, if you had it, those dudes couldn’t really do anything to you when you were out and about.
Freedom, in this case, belonged to those who had armor. That equation changed over time, and it’s a real reason I like firearms. I can go in a store and buy a close copy (or in some cases much better stuff) than the United States Army gives to the rank-and-file soldier. Remember, “military grade” is the code word for the cheapest stuff that they could buy that might do the job.
Anyway, as long as millions of Americans are as well armed as the average infantry soldier in our army, we are free. Round us up and try to put us in concentration camps like they did in Australia during the recent pandemic? Not going to happen because, well, all the guns. It doesn’t even take a montage to learn how to use a firearm.
Mao may have been ugly and smelled bad, but he knew something very true: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Why does the Left want to take away guns? Because they want power, and as long as you have weapons that equal theirs, they cannot make you do whatever it is that they want.
But that’s a digression. Technology allowed the flourishing of really large empires, mainly due to information management and that “one to many” communication model. Being together in these combinations allowed two sides to fight each other. Until they didn’t.
The biggest failure of Soviet-style communism wasn’t the socialist part, but the collectivist part. Capitalism in the West simply out produced them, but the collectivist mindset wasn’t really “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” That sounds spiffy, but in reality it became, “From each according to how little work they could get away with, to each according to how much they could milk the system for.”
This collapsed. I think it was a coincidence that it was just as the Internet began to flourish, but the Internet has changed the entire way that communication can flow. The old model was “from one to many” while the new model is “from many to many”. Not everyone has an equal voice, but ideas now flow freely. This is what puts the panties of Those Who Are In Power into a wad – they have lost control of the Narrative. It’s also going to be the story of the 21st century: the time when things dissolve.
We’ve seen it start with Brexit. Brexit would never have happened under the previous mode where the only options were the options from TPTB. In this case, the people rose up, and said no. Of course, in the case of Great Britain, TPTB decided to keep the unending flow of illegals headed there, because the last thing they want to reward were people from Great Britain deciding their own destiny.
It’s too late to put the genie back into the bottle, however. We see strains on NATO where vastly divergent incentives have weakened that alliance, and I see similar strains on the EU right now, where countries like Poland and Hungary are being ostracized for not wanting to become minorities in their own lands.
Likewise, we see the pressures of division putting strains on the United States. Every reader here is a part of that, since you regularly partake in ideas that are not approved by those who would have you live in pods and eat bugs and give up your arms. For the greater good, you know.
The story of the 20th century was of coming together. Our story, right now, is of things coming apart."
