The Coming Economic Collapse And The Next Great Depression

The Coming Economic Collapse And The Next Great Depression
The forgotten man painting by McNaughton (click image for video) I believe this image best exemplifies where we stand today, pun intended.

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Thursday, December 18, 2014

IMF Now Ready To Slam The Door On The U.S. And The Dollar





Wednesday, 17 December 2014 06:29 Brandon Smith

As I write this, the news is saturated with stories of a hostage situation possibly involving Islamic militants in Sydney, Australia. Like many, I am concerned about the shockwave such an event will create through our sociopolitical structures. However, while most of the world will be distracted by the outcome of this crisis (for good or bad) for at least the week, I find I must concern myself with a far more important and dangerous situation.

Up to 40 people may be held by a supposed extremist in Sydney, but the entire world is currently being held hostage economically by international banks. This is the crisis no one in the mainstream is talking about, so alternative analysts must.

As I predicted last month in “We Have Just Witnessed The Last Gasp Of The Global Economy,” severe volatility is now returning to global markets after the pre-game 10 percent drop in equities in October hinted at what was to come.

We expected such destabilization after the wrap-up of the Fed taper, and the markets have not disappointed so far. My position has always been that the taper of QE3 made very little sense in terms of maintaining the manipulated illusion of economic health — unless, of course, the Federal Reserve was implementing the taper in preparation for a renewed financial catastrophe. That is to say, the central bankers have established the lie of American fiscal recovery and then separated themselves from blame for the implosion they KNOW is coming. If the markets were to collapse while stimulus is officially active, the tragedy would be forever a millstone on the necks of the banksters. And we can’t have that now, can we?

This is not to say that individual central banks and even currencies are not expendable in the grand scheme of things. In fact, the long-term goal of globalists has been to consolidate all currency systems and central banks under the outward control of the International Monetary Fund and the Bank Of International Settlements, as I outlined in “The Economic Endgame Explained.”

That particular article was only a summary of a dangerous trend I have been concerned about for years; namely the strategy by international financiers to create a dollar-collapse scenario that will be blamed on prepositioned scapegoats. I have no idea what form these scapegoats will take - there are simply too many possible triggers for fiscal calamity. What I do know, though, is the goal of the endgame: to remove the dollar’s world reserve status and to pressure the American people into conforming or even begging for centralized administration of our economy by the IMF.

The delusion perpetuated in the mainstream is that the IMF is a U.S.-dominated institution. I have outlined on many occasions why this is false. The IMF like all central banks is dominated by the international corporate banking cartel. Central banks are merely front organizations for globalists, and I am often reminded of the following quote from elitist insider Carroll Quigley when I hear people suggest that central banks are somehow independent from one another or that the Federal Reserve is itself the singular “source” of the world’s economic ills:

It must not be felt that these heads of the world’s chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down.

The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called “international” or “merchant” bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks. These formed a system of international cooperation and national dominance which was more private, more powerful and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks.

No one can now argue against this reality after we have witnessed hard evidence of Goldman Sachs dictating Federal Reserve policy, as outlined here.

And, most recently, we now know that international bankers control political legislation as well, as Congress passed with little resistance a bill that negates the Frank-Dodd restrictions on derivatives and places the U.S. taxpayers and account holders on the hook for more than $303 trillion in toxic debt instruments. The bill is, for all intents and purposes, a “bail-in” measure in disguise. And it was pushed through with the direct influence of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

The Federal Reserve, the U.S. government and the dollar are as expendable to the elites as any other economic or political appendage. And it can be replaced at will with yet another illusory structure if this furthers their goal of total centralization. This has been done for centuries, and I fail to see why anyone would assume that globalists would change their tactics now to preserve the dollar system. They call it the “New World Order,” but it is really the same old-world monetary order out of chaos that has always been exploited. Enter the IMF’s old/new world vision.

While the investment universe has been mesmerized by the deterioration of the Russian Ruble and oil prices, the IMF has been a busy little bee hive...

In articles over the past year, I have warned that the plan to dethrone the dollar and replace it with the special drawing rights basket currency system would be accelerated after it became clear that the U.S. Congress would refuse to pass the IMF reforms of 2010 proclaiming “inclusiveness” for developing economies, including the BRICS nations. The latest spending bill removed any mention of IMF reforms. The IMF, under Christine Lagarde, has insisted that if the U.S. did not approve its part of the reforms, the IMF would be forced to pursue a “Plan B” scenario. The details on this “plan B” have not been forthcoming, until now.

The Financial Times reported on the IMF shift away from the U.S. by asserting the authority to remove the veto power America has always enjoyed over the institution. This action is a stark reminder to mainstream talking heads and to those who believe the U.S. is the core economic danger to the world that the IMF is NOT an extension of American policy. If anything, the IMF and the U.S. are extensions of international banking power, just as the BRICS are nothing more than puppets for the same self-serving financial oligarchy clamoring for the same IMF-controlled paradigm, as Vladimir Putin openly admitted:

"In the BRICS case we see a whole set of coinciding strategic interests. First of all, this is the common intention to reform the international monetary and financial system. In the present form it is unjust to the BRICS countries and to new economies in general. We should take a more active part in the IMF and the World Bank’s decision-making system. The international monetary system itself depends a lot on the US dollar, or, to be precise, on the monetary and financial policy of the US authorities. The BRICS countries want to change this…"

And of course the Chinese have pronounced their fealty to the IMF global currency concept:

The world economic crisis shows the "inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system," Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said in an essay released Monday by the bank. He recommended creating a currency made up of a basket of global currencies and controlled by the International Monetary Fund and said it would help "to achieve the objective of safeguarding global economic and financial stability."

The BRICS are not the only nations demanding the U.S. lose its supposed "influence" over the IMF. Germany, the core economic pillar of the EU, called for America to relinquish its veto power back in 2010 just as the reforms measure was announced.

The IMF decision to possibly eliminate U.S. veto power and, thus, influence over IMF decisions may come as early as the first quarter of next year. This is the great “economic reset” that Largarde has been promoting ad nauseam in multiple interviews and speeches over the past six months. All of these measures are culminating in what I believe will be a more official announcement of a dump of the U.S. dollar as world reserve currency.

Along with the imminent loss of veto power, I have also written on the concerns of the coming SDR conference in 2015. This conference is held only once every five years. My suspicion has been that the IMF plans to announce the inclusion of the Chinese yuan in the SDR basket and that this will coincide with a steady dollar dump around the globe. Multiple major economies have already dropped the dollar in bilateral trade with China, and engineered tensions between the U.S. and the East have exacerbated the issue.

The timing of the SDR conference has now been announced, and the meeting looks to be set for October of 2015. Interestingly, this linked article from Bloomberg notes that China has a “real shot” at SDR inclusion and official “reserve status” next year, but warns that the U.S. “may use its veto power” to stop China’s membership. I have to laugh at the absurdity of it all, because there are many people in the world of economic study who still believe the developments of globalization and fiscal distress are all “random.” I suppose that if it is all random, then it is a rather convenient coincidence that the U.S. just happens to be on the verge of losing veto power in the IMF just before they are about to bring the BRICS into the SDR fold and supplant the dollar.

This is it, folks; this is the endgame right in front of our faces. The year of 2014 is the new 2007, with all the negative potential but 100 times more explosive going into 2015. Our nation has wallowed in slowly degrading financial conditions for years, hidden by fake economic statistics and manipulated stock prices. All of it has been a prelude to a much more frenetic and shocking event. I believe that we will see continued market chaos from now on, with a steep declining trend intermixed with brief but inadequate “dead cat” stock bounces. I expect a hailstorm of geopolitical crises over the next year to provide cover for the shift away from the dollar.

Ultimately, the death of the dollar will be hailed in the mainstream as a “good and necessary thing.” They will call it “karma.” They will call it “progress.” They will even call it “decentralization” and a success for the free market. But it will not feel like a positive development for the American public, who will suffer greatly as the dollar crumbles. Only those educated in the underpinnings of shadow banking will understand the whole thing is a charade designed to hide the complete centralization of sovereign economic governance into the hands of the globalists, using the IMF and BIS as “fiscal heroes,” saving the world from a state of economic destruction the elites themselves secretly created.

ARE YOU MAD YET?




By Chuck Baldwin
December 18, 2014

In the poem, “The Masque of Pandora,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has Prometheus saying, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Accordingly, the would-be gods in the GOP leadership in Washington, D.C., must have rank-and-file Republicans slated for destruction, because they are MAD--and for good reason.

In an open letter, long-time Republican activist, Mike Scruggs, wrote, “I have been a Republican County Chairman in both North Carolina and Alabama. I have served countless hard-working hours as a volunteer for Republican candidates. I am therefore deeply grieved that the Republican Party leadership in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate has seen fit to betray the principles and values of a substantial majority of Republican voters, and the majority of the American people. This last week witnessed both the House and Senate passing budget bills that essentially gave Obama’s unlawful amnesty for five million illegal immigrant workers an effective pass.

“The majorities that passed this essentially special interest budget may not be bothered by conscience, but American workers and taxpayers will suffer, lawlessness will abound, and public safety and national security undermined. Our liberty and freedoms are being traded for gold in the form of huge special interest political campaign donations.

“What kind of party leadership do we have, when they refuse to defend the Constitution, and thus allow President Obama to get away with an unlawful amnesty for at least five million illegal immigrant workers? What kind of party leadership do we have, when they ignore the pain of over 18 million Americans who want a full time job and cannot find one? Yet GOP leaders continue to favor big business special interests that profit by flooding the labor market with foreign cheap labor, both legal and illegal. The wages of American workers have been stagnant for nearly 15 years, held down by an excess supply of foreign labor. The GOP leadership message to American workers is that the Republican Party is not concerned with them. Their message to grassroots conservatives is the same. The users of cheap foreign labor profit $437 billion a year, mostly at the expense of American workers--$402 billion annually, nearly $2,800 per year each for 147 million workers.

“According to the Heritage Foundation, the average unlawful immigrant household receives $14,387 more in government services and benefits paid than taxes paid. This will almost double with amnesty, because of more benefits. This is essentially a taxpayer subsidy to businesses using illegal immigrant labor. How long will we put up with this outrage for the benefit of big political donors. What kind of GOP leadership wants more of these injustices to American workers and taxpayers?

“Speaker of the House John Boehner did not give a pass to Obama’s amnesty and plans to double legal immigrant workers because he feared being blamed for a government shutdown. He wants amnesty so that establishment Republicans can continue to receive huge donations from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other cheap labor lobbying associations.”

Hear! Hear, Mike!

In addition, the Tea Party Patriots released a summary of the “Cromnibus” Bill just passed. It states:

{{*The bill fully funds President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty;

*The bill contains $1.1 trillion dollars in spending;

*The bill gives every federal employee a raise. That means that even the IRS employees who colluded to target tea party conservatives will receive a raise;

*The bill contains numerous crony deals, built-in bailouts, and payoffs to Wall Street, and large corporations;

*The bill continues to fund Obamacare.

Tea Party Patriots Press Release }}

Just as I predicted in this column, the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., has not only done NOTHING to stop Obamacare and Amnesty, it has SOLIDIFIED both into law via legislative action.

In the House of Representatives, only seventeen Republican congressmen were needed to keep the bill from going to the floor for a vote. Guess how many voted “Nay”? SIXTEEN! Had only one more Republican voted “Nay”, the bill would have been dead.

Here is the list of your sixteen Republican heroes who voted “Nay,” in the U.S. House:

Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Dave Brat (Va.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Steve King (Iowa), Raúl Labrador (Idaho), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Bill Posey (Fla.), Matt Salmon (Ariz.) and Steve Stockman (Texas).

See The Hill report here: High Drama As $1.1T Spending Package Advances By One Vote

No, my fellow Montanans, our illustrious “conservative” House member (and now U.S. Senator-elect), Steve Daines, is not on the list. He voted “Yea” to bring the bill to the floor for a vote and then voted “Nay” on final passage. Typical political flip-flopping to pass big-government spending bills while claiming to oppose them. GAG!

Had Steve Daines voted “Nay” on the first vote, the bill would have never made it to final passage. The excuse he (and the rest of the Republican congressmen who voted for the bill) will use is that they didn’t want to risk a government “shutdown.” Horse Manure! Everyone on the planet knew this bill would fund Obamacare and Amnesty. House leaders could have taken the funding for Obamacare, and especially Amnesty, out of the bill before bringing it to members for a vote had they wanted to. But the truth is, John Boehner and the rest of the GOP leadership want Amnesty as much as Barack Obama and Harry Reid do. And congressmen like Steve Daines want to stay in the good graces of establishment leaders AND their conservative constituents back home. Hence, he played the Potomac Shuffle and voted FOR the bill when his vote could have killed it, then voted AGAINST the bill when he knew his “Nay” vote meant nothing.

No matter what you hear, folks, the ONLY Republican House members who truly voted AGAINST the Obamacare/Amnesty funding bill are the sixteen champions listed above.

ARE YOU MAD YET?

When will the U.S. electorate awaken to the fact that we do not have two parties in Washington, D.C.? And when will conservative Republicans awaken to the fact that their party in D.C. does NOT represent them--and has no intentions of representing them?

At the leadership level, both Democrats and Republicans represent big-money, globalist agendas. Neither party cares a hoot in hades about their constituents--much less liberty and constitutional government.

The toll that amnesty is going to take upon this republic will be horrific. No, more than that, it will forever change the future of our country. And it won’t take long.

Yes, I’m talking about the financial burden that will be placed on the backs of taxpayers at every level of government. I’m talking about escalating crime rates. I’m talking about federally-mandated expulsion of America’s historic Christian culture. I’m talking about rising unemployment for American citizens--especially African Americans. I’m talking about an exponential growth in the numbers of people who are increasingly dependent upon the government for subsistence. In fact, all of the above is ALREADY taking place at a rapid rate.

That African Americans will be among the hardest hit by the invasion of illegals is the dirty little secret that Democrat Party leaders are NOT telling their constituents. As the percentage of Hispanics mushrooms--due to Washington, D.C.’s amnesty provisions--the percentage of African Americans will shrink just as fast. Most experts agree that by 2040, Hispanics will be the majority race in this country. Thanks to the legalization of illegal immigration facilitated by both Democrats and Republicans in D.C., this is now inevitable. It may happen sooner.

But there is one more toll that the acceptance of illegal immigration will exact on this country: the breakup of the Continental United States. This is the toll hardly anyone wants to think about, much less talk about. But, it, too, is inevitable.

Virtually everyone south of the border (and in most American university classrooms) believes that the southwestern United States rightfully belongs to Mexico. Accordingly, the animosity and hatred against America runs very, very deep. If anyone truly believes that the influx of untold millions of Hispanics will NOT eventually lead to attempted secession, they are living in a dream world.

Can one imagine what will happen in the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, when the Hispanic population outnumbers all others by significant percentages? For that matter, all of the southern states, including states as far north as Tennessee, are going to be in the crosshairs of La Raza-type “Reconquista.” For example, the State of Tennessee already is one of the southern states that is a favorite landing place for illegals. Just imagine how amnesty will affect states such as Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida?

Count on it: “The-Southern-United-States-Belongs-To-Us” crowd will demand and implement some sort of secession as quickly as possible. I have been saying for years that some sort of secession within the United States is inevitable. The far-left hate group, the SPLC, and other big-government control freaks, love to claim that it is “right-wing Christian extremists” who are the ones pushing for secession. But, in the end, it will doubtless be the third-world recipients of U.S. amnesty that will be the catalyst.

One does not have to think real far off to imagine what would happen to the rest of the Continental United States should an Hispanic secession movement take shape in earnest. According to recent surveys, nearly one-fourth of the U.S. citizenry already think favorably of secession.

See this report: Poll: Nearly 1 In 4 Americans Would Favor Secession

And this report summarizes secession sentiments by regions: These Are The Regions Where Americans Are Most Likely To Favor Secession

In any kind of breakup, big-government toadies in Washington, D.C., (from BOTH major parties) would doubtless attempt to suspend the Constitution and Bill of Rights (especially the Second Amendment) in much the same way Abraham Lincoln did during the War Between the States. And, for the life of me, I cannot imagine the Rocky Mountain States (for one region) submitting to such tyranny. Let your own imagination run wild from there.

Do Big-Government toadies such as John Boehner and Harry Reid envision a Hispanic secession movement as the result of amnesty? Probably not. I doubt seriously they have that much foresight. Reid and his fellow Democrats are thinking about votes, while Boehner and his fellow Chamber of Commerce Republicans are thinking about cheap labor. And, of course, all of them are thinking about pleasing their big-money masters. However, that blanket amnesty will eventually lead to a Hispanic secession movement is inevitable. Mark my words: it is inevitable. Whether those of us over fifty live to see it is irrelevant; it is inevitable.

Remember the words of Prometheus, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” ARE YOU MAD YET?

Instead of waiting for an ugly Hispanic-driven secession movement, liberty-lovers within the GOP should get mad enough NOW and secede from the Republican Party, and join the millions of independents who got mad and left years ago. Even GOP-apologist Mark Levin said recently he is “inches” away from leaving the GOP.

The two-party duopoly is strangling the life and liberty out of America. If this latest betrayal by Republicans is not enough to make freedom-loving Americans realize that the “gods” in D.C., are targeting them for destruction, I doubt anything will.



Ron Paul Warns, Reckless Congress Just 'Declared War' On Russia




Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute of Peace & Prosperity,



Yesterday the US House passed what I consider to be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever. H. Res. 758 was billed as a resolution “strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries aimed at political and economic domination.”

In fact, the bill was 16 pages of war propaganda that should have made even neocons blush, if they were capable of such a thing.

These are the kinds of resolutions I have always watched closely in Congress, as what are billed as “harmless” statements of opinion often lead to sanctions and war. I remember in 1998 arguing strongly against the Iraq Liberation Act because, as I said at the time, I knew it would lead to war. I did not oppose the Act because I was an admirer of Saddam Hussein – just as now I am not an admirer of Putin or any foreign political leader – but rather because I knew then that another war against Iraq would not solve the problems and would probably make things worse. We all know what happened next.

That is why I can hardly believe they are getting away with it again, and this time with even higher stakes: provoking a war with Russia that could result in total destruction!

If anyone thinks I am exaggerating about how bad this resolution really is, let me just offer a few examples from the legislation itself:

The resolution (paragraph 3) accuses Russia of an invasion of Ukraine and condemns Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty. The statement is offered without any proof of such a thing. Surely with our sophisticated satellites that can read a license plate from space we should have video and pictures of this Russian invasion. None have been offered. As to Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, why isn’t it a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty for the US to participate in the overthrow of that country’s elected government as it did in February? We have all heard the tapes of State Department officials plotting with the US Ambassador in Ukraine to overthrow the government. We heard US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland bragging that the US spent $5 billion on regime change in Ukraine. Why is that OK?

The resolution (paragraph 11) accuses the people in east Ukraine of holding “fraudulent and illegal elections” in November. Why is it that every time elections do not produce the results desired by the US government they are called “illegal” and “fraudulent”? Aren’t the people of eastern Ukraine allowed self-determination? Isn’t that a basic human right?

The resolution (paragraph 13) demands a withdrawal of Russia forces from Ukraine even though the US government has provided no evidence the Russian army was ever in Ukraine. This paragraph also urges the government in Kiev to resume military operations against the eastern regions seeking independence.

The resolution (paragraph 14) states with certainty that the Malaysia Airlines flight 17 that crashed in Ukraine was brought down by a missile “fired by Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.” This is simply incorrect, as the final report on the investigation of this tragedy will not even be released until next year and the preliminary report did not state that a missile brought down the plane. Neither did the preliminary report – conducted with the participation of all countries involved – assign blame to any side.

Paragraph 16 of the resolution condemns Russia for selling arms to the Assad government in Syria. It does not mention, of course, that those weapons are going to fight ISIS – which we claim is the enemy -- while the US weapons supplied to the rebels in Syria have actually found their way into the hands of ISIS!

Paragraph 17 of the resolution condemns Russia for what the US claims are economic sanctions (“coercive economic measures”) against Ukraine. This even though the US has repeatedly hit Russia with economic sanctions and is considering even more!

The resolution (paragraph 22) states that Russia invaded the Republic of Georgia in 2008. This is simply untrue. Even the European Union – no friend of Russia – concluded in its investigation of the events in 2008 that it was Georgia that “started an unjustified war” against Russia not the other way around! How does Congress get away with such blatant falsehoods? Do Members not even bother to read these resolutions before voting?

In paragraph 34 the resolution begins to even become comical, condemning the Russians for what it claims are attacks on computer networks of the United States and “illicitly acquiring information” about the US government. In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations about the level of US spying on the rest of the world, how can the US claim the moral authority to condemn such actions in others?

Chillingly, the resolution singles out Russian state-funded media outlets for attack, claiming that they “distort public opinion.” The US government, of course, spends billions of dollars worldwide to finance and sponsor media outlets including Voice of America and RFE/RL, as well as to subsidize “independent” media in countless counties overseas. How long before alternative information sources like RT are banned in the United States? This legislation brings us closer to that unhappy day when the government decides the kind of programming we can and cannot consume – and calls such a violation “freedom.”

The resolution gives the green light (paragraph 45) to Ukrainian President Poroshenko to re-start his military assault on the independence-seeking eastern provinces, urging the “disarming of separatist and paramilitary forces in eastern Ukraine.” Such a move will mean many more thousands of dead civilians.
To that end, the resolution directly involves the US government in the conflict by calling on the US president to “provide the government of Ukraine with lethal and non-lethal defense articles, services, and training required to effectively defend its territory and sovereignty.” This means US weapons in the hands of US-trained military forces engaged in a hot war on the border with Russia. Does that sound at all like a good idea?

There are too many more ridiculous and horrific statements in this legislation to completely discuss. Probably the single most troubling part of this resolution, however, is the statement that “military intervention” by the Russian Federation in Ukraine “poses a threat to international peace and security.” Such terminology is not an accident: this phrase is the poison pill planted in this legislation from which future, more aggressive resolutions will follow. After all, if we accept that Russia is posing a “threat” to international peace how can such a thing be ignored? These are the slippery slopes that lead to war.

This dangerous legislation passed today, December 4, with only ten (!) votes against! Only ten legislators are concerned over the use of blatant propaganda and falsehoods to push such reckless saber-rattling toward Russia.

Here are the Members who voted “NO” on this legislation. If you do not see your own Representative on this list call and ask why they are voting to bring us closer to war with Russia! If you do see your Representative on the below list, call and thank him or her for standing up to the warmongers.

Voting “NO” on H. Res. 758:

1) Justin Amash (R-MI)
2) John Duncan (R-TN)
3) Alan Grayson, (D-FL)
4) Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
5) Walter Jones (R-NC)
6) Thomas Massie (R-KY)
7) Jim McDermott (D-WA)
8 George Miller (D-CA)
9) Beto O’Rourke (D-TX)
10 Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)