While Angela Merkel is busy sowing the seeds of the next cold war between Germany and the Trump administration (and therefore the US, if only for the next three and a half years), a troubling flashpoint for Germany continues to grow in Turkey where on Tursday, Turkey's foreign minister said it is not possible to allow German lawmakers to visit troops stationed at Turkey's Incirlik air base now, although he said Ankara may reconsider if it sees "positive steps" from Berlin. It was not immediately clear just what Turkey's expectations, monetary or otherwise, were from Merkel for it to change its view.
"We see that Germany supports everything that is against Turkey," Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara. "Under these circumstances it is not possible for us to open Incirlik to German lawmakers right now ... If they take positive steps in the future we can reconsider."
Turkey has prevented German lawmakers from visiting the roughly 250 troops stationed at Incirlik as part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, saying that Berlin needs to improve its attitude first.
According to Reuters, Cavusoglu also said the issue would be discussed with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who is due to visit Turkey on Monday. Ties between the NATO allies deteriorated sharply in the run-up to Turkey's April 16 referendum that handed President Tayyip Erdogan stronger presidential powers.
The recent deterioration in relations between Germany and Turkey developed when Germany, citing security concerns, banned some Turkish politicians from addressing rallies of expatriate Turks ahead of the referendum, infuriating Erdogan. Ankara responded by accusing Berlin of "Nazi-like" tactics. Germany has also expressed concern about the widespread security crackdown that followed last year's failed coup in Turkey. More than 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs and more than 40,000 people jailed.
German officials said this month that 414 Turkish citizens with diplomatic passports and other government work permits had requested asylum since the attempted putsch. Berlin's interior ministry has confirmed that asylum requests had been approved for a number of the applicants, a move that angered Ankara.
In this article, I am going to show you that the average rate of growth for the U.S. economy over the past 10 years is exactly equal to the average rate that the U.S. economy grew during the 1930s. Perhaps this fact shouldn’t be that surprising, because we already knew that Barack Obama was the only president in the entire history of the United States not to have a single year when the economy grew by at least 3 percent. Of course the mainstream media continues to push the perception that the U.S. economy is in “recovery mode”, but the truth is that this current era has far more in common with the Great Depression than it does with times of great economic prosperity.
Earlier today I came across an article about President Trump’s new budget from Fox News, and in this article the author makes a startling claim…
The hard fact is that the past decade’s $10 trillion in deficit spending has produced the worst economic growth as measured by Gross Domestic Product in our nation’s history. You read that right, in the past decade our nation’s economy grew slower than even during the Great Depression. This stagnant, new normal, low-growth economy is leaving millions of working age people behind who have given up even trying to participate, and has led to a malaise where many doubt that the American dream is attainable.
When I first read that, I thought that this claim could not possibly be true. But I was curious, and so I looked up the numbers for myself.
What I found was absolutely astounding.
The following are U.S. GDP growth rates for every year during the 1930s…
When you average these years together, you get an average rate of economic growth of 1.33 percent.
I thought that was a really strange coincidence, and so I pulled up my calculator and ran all of the numbers again and I got the exact same results.
The 1930s certainly had more big ups and downs, but the average rate of economic growth during that decade was exactly the same as we have seen over the past 10 years.
And of course the early 1940s turned out to be a boom time for the U.S. economy, while it appears that our rate of economic growth is actually slowing down. As I noted yesterday, U.S. GDP growth during the first quarter of 2017 was just 0.7 percent.
But you don’t hear any talk like this on the mainstream news, do you?
Instead, they tell us that everything is just peachy.
I often wonder what things would be like right now if Barack Obama and his minions in Congress had not added more than 9 trillion dollars to the national debt. By stealing all of that money from future generations of Americans and spending it now, Obama was able to artificially prop up the U.S. economy. If we were able to go back and remove 9 trillion dollars of government spending from the economy over the past 8 years, we would be in a rip-roaring economic depression right now. For an extended analysis of this, please see my previous article entitled “The Shocking Truth About How Barack Obama Was Able To Prop Up The U.S. Economy”…
But even though we have been adding more than a trillion dollars to the national debt each year, and even though the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates all the way to the floor during the Obama era, the U.S. economy has not grown by three percent or more on an annual basis since 2005.
When you take an honest look at the numbers, there is no way that anyone can possibly claim that the U.S. economy is doing well. The best that you can say is that we have been staving off a complete economic meltdown and another Great Depression, but of course the measures that our leaders have been taking to do this have just been making our long-term problems even worse.
I feel bad for President Trump, because he has inherited the biggest economic mess in U.S. history. When we finally reach the point when it is impossible to artificially prop up the U.S. economy any longer, he is going to get most of the blame, but he won’t deserve it.
It is not going to be possible for Trump or anyone else to fix our system, because it was fundamentally flawed from the very beginning. The Federal Reserve was designed to create an endless spiral of government debt, and since the day it was created the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger and the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by about 98 percent.
If we truly want to fix the economy, the Federal Reserve must be abolished. If I was President Trump, I would look to start issuing debt-free U.S. currency just like President Kennedy did in 1963 as soon as possible.
In addition, we need to push tax rates as low as possible. Personally, I would like to see the day when the personal income tax is completely eliminated and the IRS is shut down. The greatest period of economic growth in all of U.S. history was when there was no income tax and no Federal Reserve. America once thrived in such an environment, and I believe that we can do it again.
Of course we need to also dramatically reduce the size and scope of the federal government. Our founders intended to create a very limited federal government, but instead the left has just kept pushing to make it larger and larger.
Businesses all over America are being strangled to death by mountains of federal regulations, and if we could just get the government off of their backs the business community could start thriving again. There are quite a few government agencies that could be shut down entirely, and I think that the EPA would be a good place to start.
Once upon a time the United States showed the world the power of free markets and capitalism, and if we want to make America great again, we should go back and do the things that made America great in the first place.
But would the American people be willing to go down that path?
If you’re looking for the tightest supply picture on the commodities scene, look no further than one base metal that is set for the biggest bull run of the decade. It’s essential to everything we build on this planet, yet we don’t have enough and the demand surge will be massive.
It’s not one of the metals that have just exited their super-cycle—like lithium or cobalt—behind the single-minded electric vehicle (EV) boom; this is the rock of ages. This is zinc.
It’s used in everything from oil and gas and power-generation, to military equipment, automotive and shipbuilding—and a million other things that we take for granted every day.
It started in 2016, but this year will be the ‘pinch point’ of zinc supply, with mine closures and production cuts outweighing new output, says Wood Mackenzie Analyst Jonathan Leng.
The downside is that stockpiles are at multi-year lows. Two major mines shut down last year, but demand remains relentless. The supply squeeze is on, and it’s painfully tight. China is going through record amounts of zinc, and America plans to spend billions on infrastructure and military defense build-ups mean that zinc—more than at any time in history—is the number one go-to metal.
Zinc will decide the fate of progress. It will define the economic future, and it will even shape the military capabilities of the world’s superpowers.
Already in 2016, zinc smelting demand outpaced mine production, and end use demand outpaced smelting production and mine production combined.
As you’ll see below, this is the beginning of the raging bull market.
During Zinc’s last cycle in 2005, the price surged when inventories dropped below critical levels–and that’s exactly where they’re headed now.
And right at the edge of this fantastic supply gap, is where new exploration enters the picture in a dramatic way—especially for investors eyeing a cheap and easy way into one of the most strategic metals on the planet.
Zinc One (TSX-V:Z; OTC:ZZZOF) just completed an acquisition in Peru that gives it one of the highest-grade zinc deposits in the world, with immediate exploration and future production potential.
Peru is one of the best mining countries in the world because its authorities understand the significance of the fact that half of its GDP comes from mining. It also has deposits with some of the highest zinc grades in the world.
Zinc One’s flagship Bongará project in Peru is remarkable. Not only does it boast exceptionally high-grade zinc, but it’s right on the surface and recently in production.
Essentially, we’re looking at an ambitious junior miner who has slipped quietly into one of the most promising zinc projects on the planet right when the supply squeeze has everyone wondering how we’re going to feed the military, industry and Asian urbanization.
Kyle Bass, Hayman Capital Management's chief investment officer and managing partner, discusses China's economy and the global risks to financial markets with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker at the Milken Institute Global Conference. (Source: Bloomberg)
In this episode of the Keiser Report Max and Stacy discuss the all talk, no action of the ‘we’re going to rise up one day generation’. In the meantime, central banks have become all talk, all action with their monetary revolution. In the second half Max interviews Mark O’Byrne of Goldcore.com about the case for peak precious metals.
This video is an in-depth review of the supply and demand factors in the silver market. I also go over how I see the supply and demand changing in the future, and why I think that could send silver soaring upwards, largely due to a physical shortage, along with a breakdown of the (manipulated) paper markets.
For several months during 2016 I was researching the SDR, Federal Reserve Note/U.S. dollar, global currencies and the people behind the scenes pulling the strings. The pulling of the strings was being conducted by oligarchs, like the Group of 30, the IMF, BIS and other unelected globalist operating in broad daylight or the shadows. During this time it became clear the task the citizens face is one of epic proportions. These unelected bureaucrats, that write policy to determine our fate answer to no one except the people at the very top of the economic/financial food chain. The people we rarely hear about and know very little of their lives. These are the most dangerous of all and the people benefiting the most from our labor and resources.
How did we reach this point? Why do these criminals get away with such heinous crimes?
The people, like Dr. Coats and Mr. Robert Pringle, both were members/chiefs at the IMF, while they have been on the teams creating policy, the policies they put forth were met with resistance – who is this resistance and why are they resisting? Knowing these people and understanding aspects of their motivations is what I am referencing. Why would someone put up a wall to block logic? Why would anyone want to institute a form of slavery, on a global scale, that is impossible to get away from and actually make it illegal to get away from it? If I print currency to be used instead of Federal Reserve Notes I would be jailed for counterfeiting. Federal Reserve Notes, according to the Constitution, have been and will continue to be, counterfeiting as long as they exist, period. Anyone that says otherwise is protecting an agenda or has no knowledge of the Constitution. Federal Reserve Notes are an instrument of debt, they were born of debt and if the debt is ever repaid the Federal Reserve Note would go “poof” in the night. It is physically impossible to repay the debt that is the Federal Reserve Note. What is the difference between a Federal Reserve Note, a Euro, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Real, Yen or any other central bank OWNED fiat currency? Nothing. The only difference is location and color of dye used to stain the paper.
Do you have “full faith and credit” in the government – any government? Think about it. This is the back-stop for all the fiat currencies being used around the world. Promises (lies) made by politicians who’s only concern is staying in a position of power in order to extract more of our wealth for themselves and their corporate friends. Full faith and credit!
If we review the words of Alan Greenspan’s testimony before Congress in 1998 we find the smoking gun in the hands of the head of the Federal Reserve. Mr. Greenspan’s testimony overrides anything and everything people have to say about gold, gold manipulation and the corrupt system that enslaves us all. Federal Reserve policies and mandates are for the sole purpose of protecting the Federal Reserve and it’s member banks. Potential Application of the CEA to OTC Derivatives
The vast majority of privately negotiated OTC contracts are settled in cash rather than through delivery. Cash settlement typically is based on a rate or price in a highly liquid market with a very large or virtually unlimited deliverable supply, for example, LIBOR or the spot dollar-yen exchange rate. To be sure, there are a limited number of OTC derivative contracts that apply to nonfinancial underlying assets. There is a significant business in oil-based derivatives, for example. But unlike farm crops, especially near the end of a crop season, private counterparties in oil contracts have virtually no ability to restrict the worldwide supply of this commodity. (Even OPEC has been less than successful over the years.) Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.
To be sure, a few, albeit growing, types of OTC contracts such as equity swaps and some credit derivatives have a limited deliverable supply. However, unlike crop futures, where failure to deliver has additional significant penalties, costs of failure to deliver in OTC derivatives are almost always limited to actual damages. There is no reason to believe either equity swaps or credit derivatives can influence the price of the underlying assets any more than conventional securities trading does. Thus, manipulators attempting to corner a market, even if successful, would have great difficulty in inducing sellers in privately negotiated transactions to pay significantly higher prices to offset their contracts or to purchase the underlying assets.
Finally, the prices established in privately negotiated transactions are not widely disseminated or used directly or indiscriminately as the basis for pricing other transactions. Counterparties in the OTC markets can easily recognize the risks to which they would be exposed by failing to make their own independent valuations of their transactions, whose economic and credit terms may differ in significant respects. Moreover, they usually have access to other, often more reliable or more relevant sources of information. Hence, any price distortions in particular transactions could not affect other buyers or sellers of the underlying asset. Source
No one, not even the money masters, can predict the future and no one can predict the market. The money printers can create currency to whitewash a situation like Deutsche Bank (DB), however, they can not whitewash the derivatives market that is the underpinning of these too big to jail banks. $46 trillion in notional derivatives at DB alone, another $70+ trillion at JPMorgan and that’s just two of the crime syndicates operating in the very opaque OTC market. The derivatives market is the problem. Once something gets moving through this market it will be almost impossible to stop. The daisy-chain of interconnectedness is on such a scale that a handful of derivatives could set the banking system ablaze. When you are talking about $1.2 QUADRILLION of “financial instruments” getting out of balance or going belly up the whole world has a problem. This is what DB represents and the financial world knows it.
Why would Ray Dalio say, in October 2016, the ECB and BoJ have anywhere from 8 months to 5.5 years remaining before they go belly up? The only way to get the outside number is by monetizing everythingincluding 20% of the entire stock market. Is that realistic – is this what’s happening to the S&P500 and why it continually post new record highs? Is Mr. Dalio just another boob to be ignored? 5.5 years is not that long. Mr. Dalio is not predicting the future he is merely reviewing the trajectory the money printers are traveling.
As the 2008 economic – debt – implosion continues to unfold we need to keep in mind the people that engineered this nightmare and then foisted it upon each of us. The Federal Reserve being at the heart of the situation working in concert with their henchmen the “too big to jail” banking cabal and the people operating these crime machines. It is not enough there was approximately $16 – $23 trillion stolen from the American people, the crime spree has continued to this day with no sign of letting up.
As China, Russia and the other BRICS, SCO and EEU member nations continue moving their economic engine forward the western world – primarily the U.S. and Europe – continues drowning in the cesspool of debt created by these monsters. As the eastern world becomes stronger will these nations simply walk away from the western nations and the unsustainable debt load? The eastern nations, especially along the One Belt One Road (New Silk Road) will no longer be dependent upon the western nations to ship goods and services as these nations will need the manufacturing and services for their own internal needs. Where will the western world acquire the latest and greatest developments? Who will manufacture the crayons, toilet paper and all the other everyday items that have been off-shored and in the very near future will be produced in fully automated factories? If these manufacturing jobs return to the western world odds are the factories will be designed with robots, AI and other technologies to produce the goods and humans will need not apply.
Stephen Roach, Project Syndicate, describes this way: Second, has the developing world finally broken free of its long-standing dependence on the developed world?
I have long argued that claims of such a “decoupling” were spurious, given the persistence of export-led growth in poorer countries, which tethers their economies to external demand in richer countries. But the facts now speak otherwise. Growth in global trade slowed to a 3% average pace over the 2008-2016 post-crisis period – half the 6% norm from 1980 to 2016. Yet, over the same period, GDP growth in the developing economies barely skipped a beat. This attests to a developing world that is now far less dependent on the global trade cycle and more reliant on internal demand.
So, where do we go from here and how will we get there? Debt, busted infrastructure and lazy arrogant people doesn’t make for a great place to build a new factory nor does it make a nation state, like China, wish to invest. China may be pumping investment dollars into the western world, but make no mistake about it, the goal is too extract all the wealth possible from the host and return it to a more stable economic environment at home. The “developed”/Western world will soon become the “emerging market” while the current “emerging market” continues to conduct business as the West conducts war.
