PROOF, THE US$ DOLLAR IS STILL KING!

PROOF, THE US$ PONZI DOLLAR IS STILL KING. THE FALL OF DAMASCUS, FUNDED VIA UKRANIAN BUDGET,(REMEMBER IRAN CONTRAS) ENSEMBLES THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MERCENARY OPERATION IN HISTORY. UNLIKE THE LITERATE HEZBOLLA FIGHTERS, THE DEEP STATE-ORGANIZED CRIME SYNDICATE’S (US/ISRAEL/ NATO) ILLITERATE MERCENARIES GATHERED FROM ABOUT 20-PRIMITIVE TRIBES, AMOUNTED TO TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ILLITERATE TRIBESMEN MAKING OVER US$2,000-PER HEAD AND WITHIN DAYS, MOST OF SYRIA HAD FALLEN, FREE OF COST, INTO UNSTOPPABLE CHAOS DUE TO THE GEOGRAPHY OF SYRIA (THE OPPOSITE OF UKRAINE, VIETNAM AND AFGHANISTAN), WHICH IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO DEFEND WITH SUCH A SMALL POPULATION AND VERY EASY FOR A SMALL ATTACKING FORCE, UNTIL AND IF THEY BECOME DEFENDERS, EVENTUALLY.

TEN YEAR YIELD HITS 10.37, AS FEARS OF RECESSION LOOMS. HIGHEST SINCE 2007. OIL @92 LIGHTS UP INFLATION AND AND UAW STRIKES AGAINST INFLATION.

HOW ON EARTH CAN RECESSION AND INFLATION WORK TOGETHER??

The Coming Collapse Of The Global Ponzi Scheme Tyler Durden's Photo BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, SEP 18, 2023 - 12:55 PM Authored by George Ford Smith via The Mises Instititute, It won’t be long before governments around the world, including the one in Washington, self-destruct. Strong words, but anything less would be naïve. As economist Herbert Stein once said, “If something cannot go on forever, it has a tendency to stop.” Case in point: fiat money political regimes. Interventionist economies of the West are in a fatal downward spiral, comparable to that of the Roman Empire in the second century, burdened with unsustainable debt and the antiprosperity policies of governments, especially the Green New Deal. In the global Ponzi scheme, thin air and deceit substitute for sound money. As hedge-fund manager Mitch Feierstein wrote in Planet Ponzi, “You don’t solve a Ponzi scheme; you end it.” Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff ...made some of their investors a whole lot poorer, but the world didn’t come crashing down as a result. For that‌—‌for a Ponzi scheme that would threaten to bankrupt capitalism across the entire Western world‌—‌you need people much smarter than Ponzi or Madoff. You need time, you need energy, you need motivation. In a word, you need Wall Street. But Wall Street alone doesn’t have the strength to deliver a truly cataclysmic outcome. If your ambition is to create havoc on the largest possible scale, you need access to a balance sheet running into the tens of trillions. You need power. You need prestige. You need a remarkable willingness to deceive. In a word, you need Washington. As Gary North wrote in a brief review of Feierstein’s book, “The central banks have colluded with the national governments in order to fund huge increases of national debt, beyond what can ever be paid off. In other words, [Feierstein] has described government promises as part of a gigantic international Ponzi scheme.” In a recent interview, Peter Schiff, who was laughed at when he predicted the economic meltdown of 2007–9, said interest on the federal debt alone “will be about a trillion by the end of this year. By the end of next year [it will reach] two trillion dollars—and that’s if interest rates don’t go up. . . . This is a huge debt bomb that’s going to explode.” Ultra-high corporate and credit card debt, along with bank insolvency sustains his argument for a coming collapse, the polar opposite of Biden’s economic dream. Along with this, Reuters notes that the spread between two- and ten-year Treasuries is at the deepest inversion since 1981. Rarely has an inverted yield curve not signaled a recession. Can Jerome Powell and his advisors steer the economy into a soft landing? Not this time. “The only landing possible is a crash, where everyone on board dies,” Schiff recently tweeted. Ponzi and Madoff went to jail for their schemes, but how do you prosecute governments for theirs? Prosecution implies being a part of government. And with rare exceptions such as Ron Paul, those who go into government believe gold is a barbarous relic and the Fed is a good thing that just needs a little government tinkering. So, the guilty will go unpunished, unless public outrage misguidedly turns to nonjudicial violence. The rest will be too busy trying to survive and protect those they care about. The War on Being Human A study of history, including US monetary history, makes clear that the state is not in the business of securing our liberty. As the previous nine hundred plus days have made clear, any defense of “liberty” would likely be regarded as hate speech. Instead, we are inundated with the feel-good words of diversity, equity, and inclusion along with the fear-driven campaigns of climate change and killer covid. Challenge any of it and you’re demonized—or worse. But the state can’t do anything significant without monopolizing money, and the Orwellian central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will be the latest installment to control the monetary system. The new FedNow payment system with its emphasis on user convenience is providing the framework and psychological grooming for CBDCs. The Shadow Superpower We can stop this from happening. Two states, Florida and Indiana, have effectively banned CBDCs as money in those states. Other states will likely follow. The government will outlaw cash at some point, but those who use it now are casting a vote against CBDCs. Many people will turn to barter, some using barter metals, and to the shadow economy. If this sounds desperate, consider how the global black market in 2011 was the world’s fastest-growing economy. Sometimes referred to as System D, it features both the usual, small transactions of flea market trades or workers looking for employment in the parking lots of home improvement stores and also larger, international trades. David Obi, a Nigerian, relying on his cell phone and his own initiative, contacted a Chinese firm to have small diesel-powered generators shipped to his home country, where electric power is often scarce: “Like almost all the transactions between Nigerian traders and Chinese manufacturers, it was also sub rosa: under the radar, outside of the view or control of government, part of the unheralded alternative economic universe of System D.” Friedrich Schneider, research fellow at Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, whose expertise is in off-government economies and who coauthored The Shadow Economy, found that System D is growing faster in many countries than the officially recognized gross domestic product. If System D were an independent nation, it would be the second-largest economy in the world. Conclusion The future is undecided, but we can help determine the outcome if we take responsibility for it. Wikipedia defines System D as “a manner of responding to challenges that require one to have the ability to think quickly, to adapt, and to improvise when getting a job done.” In this sense success has always depended on System D, with or without government. The American term for it is life hack, “any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life.” Whatever you call it, it describes a spirit all of humanity needs to adopt if we are to survive the coming collapse of government Ponzi schemes.

THE US, NATO COUNTRIES AND CHINA ARE IN THE SAME BOAT AS JAPAN. Budget deficits, treasury bonds, Fed C.Banks buy backs, QE, leads to inflation. Rate hikes to counter inflation in a bubbled economy is having no effect.

Japanese Panic Buy Gold As Yen Implodes And Inflation Soars Tyler Durden's Photo BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, SEP 14, 2023 - 06:20 PM A gold-buying frenzy in hyperinflating banana-republic basket cases such as Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Argentina or Turkey makes sense; one can also imagine Indians and Chinese liquidating rushing to buy the precious metal, as they periodically do (for other, not less relevant, reasons). But Japan? That's right: the otherwise quiet (and rapidly aging) population of Japan has found a new infatuation with gold, and it has the relentless money-printing juggernaut that is the BOJ to thank for it. Japanese savers have not had a strong incentive to move assets out of cash... until now As the FT reports, the price of gold in Japan (denominated in that joke of a currency, the Japanese lira yen) has jumped to an all-time high as the yen extends its historic slide against the US dollar, vaporizing the purchasing power of residents and forcing cash-rich households to find a hedge against ubiquitous inflation. Buying of yen-denominated gold at the nation’s largest dealer has driven the price of the yellow metal above the ¥10,000 per gramme level for the first time in recent days. It was trading at ¥10,100 last week, according to retail prices published by Tanaka Kikinzoku, one of Japan’s largest gold retailers. The retail gold price in Japan — the main reference price for the metal in the country — tracks global spot prices, which have been pushed up by the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the debt ceiling crisis in the US and global tensions between the east and west. But most of all, it reflects the dramatic collapse in the value of the yen, which recently passed ¥147 against the dollar, a level that last year triggered verbal market intervention by the Japanese authorities but this year has been widely ignored by a central bank which realizes that intervention at this point is futile and would only precipitate Japanese hyperinflation and systemic collapse. And since Japan's inflation, which recently surpassed that of the US, will keep rising... ... as the weak yen will only get weaker - occasional desperation intervention aside - as long as there was no signal from the Bank of Japan that it is ready to tighten its ultra-loose policy which won't happen for a long time (and when it does, it will spark a collapse in the JGB bond market forcing the trapped BOJ to immediately reverse once again) demand for gold in Japan will only keep rising. Economists cited by the FT, said the move in retail gold prices, which extends an 18-month rally at gold stores around Japan, was part of a rapid shift in household attitudes to risk as years of deflation have given way to rising consumer prices. Imagine a world where the biggest source of demand for gold in Asia is not India but Japan, and where demand will only rise as the yen (inevitably) falls as it gets closer to its inevitable and catastrophic end. Well, we are pretty much there now. Jesper Koll, an economist and adviser to the Japan Catalyst Fund, an investment fund, said the primary driver for the buying by Japanese households was an urgent search for inflation protection after years without strong incentive to move assets out of cash. “The fact that gold is a non-yen asset helps, but the trigger is inflation,” said Koll, and since inflation in Japan is only going to rise, so will demand for gold. Japanese households emerged from the pandemic with a record of more than ¥2 quadrillion in accumulated assets or around four times the country’s annual gross domestic product. About half of that was held in cash and deposits — a balance closely eyed by Japan’s securities houses, which are trying to convince customers that inflation is here to stay and they now need to switch their savings into other financial products. The problem is that core CPI in Japan reached 3.1% last month. “Inflation in Japan is at a crossroads,” said Tomohiro Ota, senior Japan economist at Goldman Sachs, noting that although consumer prices keep going up, some of the increase is down to temporary government subsidies while consumption growth has stalled since March. Goldman Sachs predicts that Japan’s currency will hit ¥155 against the dollar in the next six months. Eiichiro Kato, a general manager for Tanaka Kikinzoku’s Precious Metals Retail Department, said that gold had become particularly attractive to customers concerned about the yen’s fall to multi-decade lows and their assets being denominated in yen. Of course, it's not just Japanese savers who are rushing to the safety of gold: a year of record gold purchases by central banks in a world where the dollar is now weaponized against enemies of Ukraine the Biden administration, has made it clear that demand for gold will only rise. "We do not see many factors that would cause the dollar-denominated price to fall significantly, and we think that the yen-denominated price could rise further if the yen continues to weaken,” said Kato. However, Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Research Institute, warned against reading too much into the rise in Japan’s gold price due to the small size of the market. “It could prove to be an outlier and the country’s elderly population might not change their behaviour and start to consume, even if inflation does remain high,” he said. On the other hand, with deflation now dead and buried (at least until the next global depression) the odds that Japan's notoriously thrifty population will continue to save at a time when its currency is collapsing are nil, especially since the BOJ itself has given up trying to contain the surge in yen-denominated gold... ... something it did for much of the previous decade.

HOPE FOR HUMANITY!!The Gold Standard Is Back: BRICS To Intro Gold-Backed Reserve Currency Tyler Durden's Photo BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, JUL 10, 2023 - 08:20 AM Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance Remember back when the Russia/Ukraine war had just started, and I predicted that Russia and China would launch their own gold backed currency? At the time, this idea sounded completely foreign, and I was ridiculed for bringing it up. Today, it just become reality. 41+ countries look like they could be returning to a gold standard.

The images plastered all over RT this weekend had headlines like “New Money, New World” and “Gold Standard Will Be Of Great Benefit To Strengthening New Singly Currency”. “The official announcement is expected to be made during the BRICS summit in August in South Africa,” Kitco reported over the weekend. "At first glance, a new transaction unit, backed by gold, sounds like good money – and it could be, first and foremost, a major challenge to the US dollar's hegemony," Thorsten Polleit, chief economist at Degussa, said. He continued: "For making the new currency as good as gold, a truly sound currency, it must be convertible into gold on demand. I am not sure whether this is what Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have in mind. Using gold as money, the unit of account would be a true game changer, no doubt about it. It could lead to a sharp devaluation of many fiat currencies vis-à-vis the yellow metal (including the BRICS fiat currencies), and it could catapult up goods prices in terms of fiat currencies. It could be a shock to the global fiat money system. I am not sure that this is what the BRICS wish to achieve." The official announcement of the new currency is expected in August during the BRICS summit in South Africa. Even more shocking than the announcement is the cavalier attitude that United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appears to be taking to the news. In statements I can only describe as completely delusional, Yellen said this weekend: “I just want to reiterate what I’ve said in the past, which is I think the United States can rest assured that the dollar is going to play the dominant role in facilitating international transactions and serving as a reserve currency in the years ahead. I don’t see that role being threatened by any development including the one that you’ve mentioned [BRICS common currency].” That’s one she’s going to want to take back at some point, I’m certain. Meanwhile this announcement from BRICS is a key waypoint in a larger map of dethroning the U.S. dollar as the world’s global reserve currency. Not only does it solidify what we already know — that gold is real money — but it is also the most pronounced public challenge to the U.S. dollar on the global stage in recent memory. It’s also a serious waypoint in a much larger map of U.S. de-dollarization that I laid out in full just 2 months ago in a length, multiple hour longform interview. In that must-listen interview, my friend Andy Schectman told me: “When you look at countries that have expressed interest in joining BRICS, they all have substantial gold holdings. The numbers are increasing among those who want to join, there’s over 60 countries they have lined up in a queue [to join BRICS].” The next thing I’ll be looking for will be cooperation from the Saudi’s who, because of their dominance in oil markets, can help affect the change necessary to grow this new currency. Andy continued, telling me back in May: “I do believe it’ll be a Sunday night. OPEC, the BRICS nations, Saudi Arabia - they come out and say on a Sunday night, we’re taking other currency for oil - and everything blows up Monday morning. It’s a tsunami of dollars,” Andy concluded. “The pieces are being put into place right now. Nobody is going to have time to react.” “Why the hell would Central Banks be buying more gold now than ever? They’re frontrunning. They don’t care about the technicals, they’re using the Western suppression of gold prices to de-dollarize. What does that look like when the world completely sheds dollars because they no longer need them to buy oil?” Lest we forget, simple, common sense. I’ve argued for de-dollarization not because I’m unpatriotic or I want bad things to happen to the U.S. — just the opposite. Simply because the case becomes common sense when examining how we have abused the dollar’s reserve currency status, most recently weaponizing our currency as result of the Russia/Ukraine war. When a gold backed currency makes its way onto the global trade stage, it’ll be taken seriously because the rest of the world will have the same common sense realization that we already have. And this is why I believe, no matter what skepticism you may hear from dollar bulls, the wheels are already in motion. For a list of what I own and how I’m personally positioning myself, check out my portfolio review, released just a couple of days ago. This post is public so feel free to share it: Share QTR’s Disclaimer: I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

What The Top Of Mount Stupid Looks Like - FTX's Caroline Ellison

THE NINJA PONZI CRYPTOS!

• ALMOST US$32-BILLION ZEROED WITHIN DAYS
• NO DIFFERENCE TO THE PAPER PONZI CURRENCIES OF ALMOST 200-COUNTRIES WORLD-WIDE BUBBLE. EXCEPT FOR THE FACT, BOTH COMMUNIST AND CAPITALISTC GOVERNMENTS ARE FACES OF THE SAME COIN, OF ZERO VALUE PAPER CURRENCIES FROM THE FED PRINTING PRESS. GOVERNMENTS HAVE THE POWER TO IMPOSE ACCEPTANCE OVER THEIR SHEEPLE, WHEREAS, FTX AND ALL CRYPTOS DO NOT BELONG TO THE GOVERNMENT MACHINE.

Walmart’s Worst Stock Crash In 35 Years Is Another Sign That The Economy...