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- Post #6,861
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- Jul 13, 2019 1:41pm Jul 13, 2019 1:41pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
- Post #6,862
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- Jul 14, 2019 7:35am Jul 14, 2019 7:35am
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
- Post #6,863
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- Jul 14, 2019 1:12pm Jul 14, 2019 1:12pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
Those who have been skeptical about the economic recovery and the “robust” economy have had good reasons to do so. But now there’s just one more reason recession alarms are sounding. “In the past, every time since 1960 that this index has breached 30%, a recession followed,” Morgan Stanley Wealth Management CIO Lisa Shalett wrote in a July 1 note to clients. It rose to 32.9% in June.
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Shalett also pointed to the gold/silver ratio, weakness in auto sales, housing, manufacturing, earnings, and capital spending. “Recession probability models have entered warning territory and it may be unavoidable,” she added according to Axios.
The most worrying part of a recession is that not only have most Americans not recovered from the last one, but many are blissfully unaware that an economic downturn is right around the corner. As the mainstream media lambasts the American public with tales of an epic and monumental economy, the data points and actual facts continue to rise to the surface.
Bankrate recently reported that a growing number of Americans have no savings whatsoever. Meaning if an emergency occurs, they will have no option to go into debt, or if they have bad credit, worse…have no way to pay for the emergency. Around 28% of adults in the U.S. have no emergency savings, according to Bankrate’s latest Financial Security Index. One in four have a rainy day fund, but it’s not enough money to cover three months’ worth of living expenses. That would mean that a job loss or one missed paycheck would put almost a third of Americans in financial hardship.
Economic factors and the central bank’s manipulation of the economy have decimated the middle class and made it difficult for people to save and prepare for future recessions. “Household expenses have gone up and in many cases incomes haven’t kept pace,” says Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst. “So if you haven’t been adding to that savings, that and the regularity of unplanned expenses can easily chip away at what once was an adequate savings cushion.”
With recession warning bells going off, now is the time to get your financial house in order. There’s not a lot any of us can do about the Federal Reserve or government debt, but we can prepare ourselves.
In Daniel Ameduri’s book Don’t Save For Retirement, he helps readers redefine wealth as a philosophy, not a dollar amount. When he was twenty-seven years old, Ameduri was on the brink of bankruptcy. A decade later, he’s a multi-millionaire, having taught himself about economics, investing, and other money matters that he never learned at school or at home. The expert guidance he provides in Don’t Save for Retirement will help you prepare yourself by creating passive income in a centrally planned and controlled environment.
- Post #6,864
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- Edited 4:59pm Jul 14, 2019 4:45pm | Edited 4:59pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
There’s a multitrillion-dollar black hole growing at the heart of the world’s financial markets. Negative-yielding debt -- bonds worth less, not more, if held to maturity -- is spreading to more corners of the bond universe, destroying potential returns for investors and turning the system as we know it on its head. Now that it looks like sub-zero bonds are here to stay, there’s even more hand-wringing about the effects for mom-and-pop savers, pensioners, investors, buyout firms and governments.
1. Why invest in a bond that will lose you money?Typically, bonds are the safest assets on the market, so many investors seek them out at times of heightened market stress, say a U.S.-China trade waror tensions in the Persian Gulf. A bond can have a modestly positive coupon when issued by a government, institution or company, but once it starts trading, high demand by investors can push its price up -- and therefore its yield down -- to such an extent that buyers no longer receive any payment. Some funds track government bond indexes, meaning they must buy the bonds regardless of the yield. And some investors can still make positive returns on these bonds when adjusted for currency swings.
2. How much is being bought?Negative-yielding debt topped $13 trillion in June, having doubled since December, and now makes up around 25% of global debt. In Germany, 85% of the government bond market is under water. That means investors effectively pay the German government 0.2% for the privilege of buying its benchmark bonds; the government keeps 2 euros for every 1,000 euros borrowed over a period of 10 years. The U.S. is one of the few outliers, with none of its $16 trillion debt pile yielding less than zero, but across the world, strategists are warning that the problem may get worse.
3. Why is this reason for worry?Negative rates are at odds with basic principles of the global finance system. “One important law of financial logic –- if you lend money for longer, you should see a higher return –- has been broken,” wroteMarcus Ashworth, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European markets. “The time value of money has essentially disappeared.” (Has it ever: The so-called century bonds issued by Austria two years ago, which mature in 2117 and initially offered a 2.1% return, now yield about 1.2%.) All this can push investors into riskier bets in the hunt for returns, raising the chances of bubbles in financial markets and real estate.
4. Who benefits from negative rates?Governments, for one. The incentive to borrow money is never greater than when you are being paid to do so. Germany, for example, is being subsidized to issue debt over the next 20 years, though that does not necessarily mean it will boost spending. Companies that issue bonds also reap the benefits of record-low borrowing costs. So do private-equity firms, which typically use leverage to acquire companies and see greater opportunities when (and where) capital is cheap. Homeowners with variable-rate mortgages also have reason to celebrate.
5. Who gets hurt?Pension funds and insurers, traditionally big investors in government bonds, are in a particular predicament: Their liabilities grow steadily as clients age, but often they are required not to take on big risks. Banks see their margins squeezed. They’re earning next to nothing from lending but still need to offer depositors a rate above zero to keep their business. In Germany, the ECB has come under political pressure for hurting the returns of savers. Central banks could run into the problem of hitting the so-called “reversal rate” -- the point at which low borrowing costs start to harm rather than help the economy, should banks start to restrict loans. That could deepen any slowdown.
6. How did we get here?Several of Europe’s central banks, otherwise unable to spur growth in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, cut interest rates below zero in 2014. Japan soon followed. The idea was to spur lending by charging financial institutions, rather than rewarding them, for parking money that otherwise could be put to use in the real economy. Since 2016, the ECB’s benchmark rate has been -0.4%, meaning banks lose 4 euros to store 1,000 euros there. The sub-zero rates were supposed to be temporary but have endured. Traders are betting that the ECB will push its deposit rate ever more negative this year, driving record levelsof bond yields below zero.
7. Why have negative rates lasted so long?More than a decade on from the credit crisis, inflation is still scarce, with wages increasing only modestly despite large drops in unemployment. The ECB, for example, isn’t expected to get to its close-to-2% inflation target over the next decade, according to a market-derived measure. And the yield difference between U.S. three-month bills and 10-year Treasuries is inverted, an indication that an economic contraction may be coming. Aside from the U.S. Federal Reserve, few central banks that slashed interest rates during the credit crunch have managed to raise rates, meaning that during the next downturn they are likely to head further into negative territory.
8. Where’s all this heading?In Europe, there are fears that the continent is following the path of Japan’s so-called lost decade, where policy makers struggled to revive anemic growth and inflation. Central banks have been keen to iterate that they still have tools in their locker to combat any slowdown, including rate cuts and more quantitative easing. For markets, waning volatility is bad for trading. Geopolitical tensions over trade, and Britain’s exit of the European Union will keep driving investors into the safest assets, meaning demand will remain high for negative-yielding debt. But the push to find juicier returns with riskier bets raises the prospect of further fund failures or a new crisis.
- Post #6,865
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- Jul 15, 2019 1:29pm Jul 15, 2019 1:29pm
- | Joined Mar 2014 | Status: Member | 802 Posts
Disliked{quote} Good Evening Everyone. I have changed one part of my trading method because over the next six months the markets will collapse. What does that mean ? The US30 (Dow 30) and SP500 will lose at least 25% of it's value so I will be shorting those CFD's at the right moment. Since it is going to be shorter periods of time that they go up in price, as long as I do not put more then 10 open positions on at any one time then I do not need to concern myself with the $1000 US Dollars Stop Loss. Of course if you do not know when to go short and when...Ignored
- Post #6,866
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- Jul 22, 2019 10:56am Jul 22, 2019 10:56am
- | Joined Mar 2014 | Status: Member | 802 Posts
Disliked{quote} Hi Bruce,When we say, “ trend is our friend “., then why we trade in one direction??Why cannot we make money in other direction, if we know in advance that market Would go North first and finally South, then why we suffer Huge LOSS and waitFor market to reverse. This is just my humble opinion, I CANNOT challenge yourExperience, your expertise. I am still in learning phase., as per your teaching, I Cannot go for BUY, but the market is against me in a huge manner., I could haveMade money if I went north. I need your expert advice again and...Ignored
- Post #6,867
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- Edited 9:47pm Jul 25, 2019 5:48pm | Edited 9:47pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
Disliked{quote} Mr. Bruce, you encourage people to ask questions, that's why I did. But I think you do not like my question or do not have time to answer it here. plz advise so I would bother you in future. waiting for your reply. thanks,Ignored
I have asked you on many occasions to call me. You have not. This is my business and it is what I do to earn my living. I have expenses and many things to do.
I am going to post again my last post on this topic. If you want my services it needs to be paid for. I have helped you however now I have no more obligation to you nor do I need to help you without benefits for my business.
When you go into a restaurant and order meal is it for free ?
Hello everyone
I have recently made a change to my method of Forex trading.
In answer to the questions from loveandpeace, here is the answer and why if you follow my strategy and subscribe for my 90 day course if qualified, then you will become very wealthy.
Here is why.
The only change that I have made is to NEVER have on more than 10 open positions at any one time thus there is little or no chance of any margin call.
Of course having a winning percentage of 75% minimum guarantees winning results.
There is much more to explain however you need to sign up to get access to this knowledge and information.
We only trade with the trend as you know and we only go against the trend when there is a new fundamental fact in front of us today and tomorrow being the questions for FED Chair Powell.
BWM
- May 2, 2019 12:25pm
- https://cdn-assets.faireconomy.media...ar392875_2.gif BenjaminIs
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 5,777 Posts | Online Now
Quoting loveandpeace
{quote} Hi Adios, thanks for your comments, I am not waiting for anyone, for anything, but I was/am curious about his health. After all he is My Mentor, I learnt a lot from him. Age does not matter, health is more important, that’s why we call it, health is wealth. Lol. Unsubscribe would be last option. Take care.
Hello
Please call me at 514 247 0775 Thanks
Benjamin
- Post #6,868
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- Jul 25, 2019 9:41pm Jul 25, 2019 9:41pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
- Apr 9, 2019 11:49am | Edited at 12:06pm
- https://cdn-assets.faireconomy.media...ar392875_2.gif BenjaminIs
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 5,775 Posts | Online Now
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...ops+to+zero%29
Authored by Christopher Whalen via The American Conservative,
The Federal Reserve is out of control, acting in ways and with powers that were never explicitly granted by Congress...
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Last week, President Donald Trump set the economics community aflame by suggesting that he will appoint businessman and presidential aspirant Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve Board. Even more than political economist Stephen Moore, the critics maintain, Cain represents a threat to the cabal that has controlled the central bank for decades.
Why? Because Cain is a successful executive who founded a real business, took risks, and created jobs, things most academic economists will never ever do.
Media outlets and other allied constituencies have howled with rage at the prospect of President Trump “packing the Fed,” a distant reference to attempts by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to pack the Supreme Court in the 1930s. Those worried about the independence of the Federal Reserve Board should reconsider. Independence from what exactly?
While the Fed is meant to be independent from the executive branch on a day-to-day basis, it is certainly not independent of Congress or the law. Yet the Fed in recent years has shown a troubling tendency to deviate from its legal mandate and make up new authorities to fit the changing economic situation. Case in point: the dubious notion that we should seek a 2 percent rate of inflation.
Anybody who cares to read the 1978 Humphrey Hawkins law will know that the Fed is directed by Congress to seek full employment and then zero inflation. Not 2 percent, but zero. Yet going back a decade and more, the Fed, led by luminaries such as Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, has advanced a policy of actively embracing inflation. And neither Bernanke nor Yellen bothered to consult Congress when they decided to discard their legal responsibilities.
Quantitative easing, to take another example, represents a vast inflation of the financial markets and housing, yet Fed officials actually appear in public and talk about the conundrum presented by “low inflation.” The inflation in home prices that occurred during and after the Fed’s purchase of trillions in securities has permanently raised the price of housing in many parts of the country, preventing millions from purchasing homes. Yellen confesses to be “perplexed” by the dearth of home purchases by young families, but she is the cause of the malady.
Not only are these pro-inflation policies in violation of the letter of the Humphrey Hawkins law, but they have contributed to increased volatility in the financial markets.The third and frequently forgotten mandate in the Humphrey Hawkins law commands the Fed to employ policies that will produce “stable interest rates.” But the economists have long since stopped talking about this.
The basic problem with the Fed today is that it has gradually fashioned a new set of rules for itself, particularly since 2008, on which Congress has never been consulted. In the same way that economists use their imaginations to concoct new theories about economic behavior, the Fed board has apparently decided to take up legislative powers as well. Is the Fed meant to be free of any real-world restraint on its actions.
As Alex Pollock of the R Street Institute writes in American Banker:
One may wonder whether Fed independence is a technical or a political question. It is political. The nature and behavior of money is always political, no matter how much technical effort at measuring and modeling economic factors there may be. For example, the Fed over the last decade systematically took money away from savers and gave it to leveraged speculators by enforcing negative real interest rates. Taking money from some people to give it to others is a political act. That is why the Fed, like every other part of the government, should exist in a network of checks and balances and accountability.
The biggest problem facing the financial markets today is that the folks at the Fed have no appreciation for how their policies are affecting the real economy. Ten years of inflation, open market manipulation, and other experiments have left the U.S. burdened with trillions of dollars in new public and private debt.
The December market break was a direct result of the fact that Fed officials do not really understand the real-world consequences of their actions.
Take another example: U.S. financial institutions are facing years of lower profits as funding costs for banks normalize thanks to Fed manipulation. Yet asset returns for banks and investors will remain suppressed by “extraordinary” monetary policy. Are these massive distortions in the financial markets authorized by Congress? No they are not.
When investors in bank stocks have to watch the net interest income for the industry contract, one wonders what our friends on the Federal Reserve Board will say.
Moreover, the Fed’s decision to use excess reserves and repurchase agreements to manage short-term interest rates amounts to the nationalization of heretofore private markets. Is this authorized by Congress? No it is not. Instead the Fed is extending its government-sponsored monopoly over the short-term money markets with little regard for the rights of private investors and financial institutions.
We should be worried about Fed independence, but not because the central bank is somehow suffering under the tyranny of the executive branch. Rather the Federal Reserve is out of control, acting in ways and with powers that were never granted to it. Quantitative easing, “Operation Twist,” and the explicit 2 percent inflation target are just three example of how the Federal Reserve Board is operating outside of its legal authority.
It’s high time that President Trump put some new faces at the Fed and started asking questions about what policies it follows and why.
COMMENTS FROM BENJAMIN: Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls
How is it possible that an intelligent well educated group of American citizens and Politicians from The House of Representatives and the Senate and many Presidents since December 23, 1913 when The FEDERAL RESERVE was created in the death of night 2 days before Christmas , 1913.
How stupid are humans and why are there so many ignorant sheeps around. Trust in yourself and G-D not in authority that should have no authority over you. They have NO AUTHORITY OVER ME...
- Post #6,869
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- Jul 25, 2019 9:43pm Jul 25, 2019 9:43pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
- Post 6,491
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- Apr 9, 2019 2:52pm | Edited at 3:12pm
- https://cdn-assets.faireconomy.media...ar392875_2.gif BenjaminIs
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https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...ops+to+zero%29
Having for years lingered in the fringes of economics as its carnival attraction (which, considering the recent track record of the dismal science isn't saying much), MMT, aka Modern Monetary Theory, aka the "Magic Money Tree", aka "The Free Lunch theory of economics" has exploded on the scene as politicians on the left saw it as a perfect platform upon which to build virtually unlimited promises in hopes of getting elected (see the Green New Deal).
https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...ends%20MMT.jpg
In fact, interest in MMT has swept not only across the broader population but increasingly the world's top legacy institutions, such as the IMF, with none other than the IMF's chief economist addressing the disciples of the theory on Tuesday, warning not to expect a free lunch.
"Fiscal policy is a very important part of the tool kit for policy makers,” Gita Gopinath told reporters at a press conference Tuesday in Washington, following the IMF's release of its latest, and weakest since the financial crisis, global economic outlook. "That said, there is no free lunch. There are limits to how much countries can spend."
Incidentally she is not the first to use "free lunch" to describe the fundamental fallacies in the theory who core doctrines are summarized in the chart below.
https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...%20summary.jpg
Over the past week, some of the best known Wall Street strategists have also opined on MMT, starting with Goldman's chief economist, Jan Hatzius, who in a Monday paper said that, without endorsing MMT in its entirety, said that "we think its proponents make a couple of points that are both correct and important." One of them, he said, is that countries like the U.S. and Japan can’t go broke because they print their own money. No, they can't: they can just end up as hyperinflationary basket cases such as Weimar, Zimbabwe and Venezuela, all of which imploded under the weight of their own currency... literally, as at one point it took several wheelbarrows to purchase a roll of toilet paper in Caracas.
Confirming that even conventional economists are completely cluless, Hatzius then said that in recent decades, it’s been buildups of corporate or household debt rather than public borrowing that triggered financial crises, echoing an MMT argument that when governments run deficits, they’re typically allowing private actors to accumulate assets. "We are therefore more reassured by the U.S. private sector surplus than we are concerned by the public sector deficit," Hatzius said, while completely ignoring that when governments are the ones doing the spending, the fall outs are even worse, and include a collapse in productivity, widespread corruption and, of course, socialism.
Goldman aside - whose bizarre quasi-infatuation with MMT may be a harbinger that helicopter money is on its way with the benefit of Goldman's seal of approval, a far more accurate, and comprehensive criticism of MMT came Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s head of global economic research, Ethan Harris, who also acknowledged the case for MMT-type policies "during a period of severely depressed demand", i.e. QE, but far more on point, he also said that applied more broadly, the theory amounts to a recipe for hyperinflation.
In previewing his takedown of MMT, Harris writes that one of the striking things about the recent economic policy debate is the proliferation of "free lunch" views of monetary and fiscal policy, and - as a conventional economist - Harris pushes back "against left-leaning" free lunch arguments, noting that "the rising popularity of free lunch narratives makes it very hard to address the budget deficit and suggests rising political pressure on the Fed. In other words, despite all the angst about recession risks the bigger risk in the next few years could be an overheating economy and rising bond yields."
Said otherwise, to those who believe the world will end in fire, i.e. hyperinflation, not in ice - to loosely paraphrase Robert Frost - and are buying up gold hand over fist just for that eventuality, then MMT, and Fed Chair Alexandra-Ocasio Jones, is just what the doctor ordered.
Below we present the key points from Harris' criticism of MMT, which he dubs "money for nothin', checks for free."
Until recently Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) had a relatively narrow audience, but more recently it has attracted political attention because it can be used as a justification for money-financed deficit spending. As with many economic theories, it has some important truths that are stretched when they enter the political realm.
The literature is quite diverse, but we would boil it down as follows. The starting point is a simple fact: if a country controls its own currency it can always pay its bills by issuing new money. Does that mean no limits on spending or money growth? No, if the money-financed government deficit starts to create inflation, then the money can be sopped up by either cutting spending or raising taxes.
In the MMT world money growth does not directly cause inflation. Rather inflation is caused by a combination of monopoly power in the economy and the economy hitting "full employment."(*) Moreover, drawing on Keynes, MMTers believe that the economy typically suffers from insufficient demand, thus the inflation threshold will only be reached once the government is running significant deficits. The Fed's job in all of this is to keep interest rates low and stable and leave it to fiscal authorities to prevent inflation. Indeed, by some accounts, the "natural rate of interest" on money should be zero.
Perhaps the most important take away from this is that, in theory at least, MMT can be used to justify both big tax cuts and big spending increases. In practice, however, Harris counters that given the strong Keynesian component of the theory "it has been mainly used to justify the latter."
With that said, Harris then slams the "Mainly Muddled Thoughts" of MMT, saying that he has "serious reservations about MMT" for the following select reasons:
First the good news. During a period of severely depressed demand and zero policy rates, money-financed deficits make a lot of sense. Indeed, this is essentially what the US did in response to the Great Recession, combining large budget deficits with large Quantitative Easing (QE) programs. Critics argued that this "debasing the currency" could trigger runaway inflation.(*) We strongly disagreed: QE was a way to add a small extra kick to monetary policy, helping stimulate sectors that are sensitive to long-term interest rates. In our view, currency debasement was a red herring as long as the Fed and other central banks had a credible commitment to their inflation targets.
Now the bad news. As you would imagine: a theory that argues for both zero interest rates and large budget deficits seems a bit too good to be true. Consider the current Fed exit from zero rates and a big balance sheet. As the economy recovers and inflation forces start to build, zero interest rates and an ever expanding balance sheet no longer were appropriate. Had the Fed been under political control and refused tighten monetary policy, today we would be experiencing a massive overheating of the economy. MMTers would argue: "don't worry politicians will do the dirty work of containing inflation." Really? If the Fed wants to contain inflation, it must either stop flooding the economy with reserves or pay interest on reserves so that banks will be willing to hold them. One way or another, the government has to pay interest on its debt. In other words, the free lunch thinking on MMT only applies when the economy is deeply depressed.
There are, to Harris, several other problems with MMT, the first of which is history showing that "full employment" is not a zero unemployment rate: "
As the Great Inflation of the 1970s illustrates, pushing the unemployment rate below its non-zero "natural" rate can cause a massive inflation acceleration. Second, it is wishful thinking to believe that fiscal authorities have either the will or the ability to control inflation. Looking ahead, with the US economy at full employment now is not the time to add even more fuel to the fire."
Harris then identifies a "final problem" with MMT in that it creates an excuse for more or less permanently shifting resources from the private sector to the public sector. That, to anyone who is not a hard-core socialist or statist, is the 9th circle of hell:
Imagine how ossified the labor market would become if the government created enough good-paying jobs to lower the U-6 to zero? There would be a dramatic drop in incentives to retrain or move to more vibrant parts of the country. There is a trade-off between economic efficiency and cushioning the blow of unemployment.
For anyone who wants to see this in practice, just take a flight to Caracas.
In summary, the Bank of America economist notes that while MMT helps make the case for money-financed deficits during unusually dire periods such as the Great Depression and the Great Recession, its inherent, if few truths, "tend to be severely stretched when these theories enter the political realm." Just see the Green New Deal which AOC wants to introduce at a time when the unemployment rate is 3.8%
But more importantly, and perhaps the reason why David Rosenberg sees the Fed launching helicopter money (which is also another name for MMT), in a few years, Harris warns that the growing free lunch crowd has important implications for the medium term policy and economic outlook:
"With both sides of the political spectrum touting free lunch theories, it is hard to see a serious attempt to reduce the budget deficit any time soon. Over the long term this points to higher borrowing costs. Meanwhile, political pressure on the Fed to stop fighting "phantom inflation" will grow and could become more bi-partisan like in the 1980s when Chair Volcker declared war on double-digit inflation."
The upshot to all this idiocy, which was started with QE, which many see, correctly, as socialism for the 1%, and now demand socialism for the 99%, is that despite all the talk about recession risk, serious overheating and higher bond yields could be the bigger risk in the next couple years.
What this means practically? Should MMT gain even more traction - and it will as most democrats plans to use it as their platform in order to promise virtually everything voters could ever want - then buy gold... lots of gold.
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- Post #6,870
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- Jul 25, 2019 9:48pm Jul 25, 2019 9:48pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
- May 3, 2019 12:34pm | Edited May 4, 2019 5:12am
- https://cdn-assets.faireconomy.media...ar392875_2.gif BenjaminIs
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https://goldswitzerland.com/the-gold...Tkt88KpI8ZMiUs
THE GOLD MAGINOT LINE WILL SOON BREAK
May 2, 2019
by Egon von Greyerz
Why do 99.9% of investors not own gold? Due to my interest and activity, I clearly meet a higher percentage than the 0.1% who both understand and own gold. But I also meet a lot of people who have been indoctrinated by their investment advisors and the media about gold’s uselessness. Most of these people don’t understand gold and don’t know the history of gold, nor its role as money.
GOLD IS MONEY
So let’s list some of the facts without being too long-winded:
- Gold has been money for 5,000 years
- Gold is the only money that has survived in history.
- In every major crisis, gold has been used as money.
- In all periods of history, fiat money has always lost 100% of its value. Fiat means money issued by government not backed by anything as opposed to gold or silver.
- For example, during the Roman Empire the silver coin the Denarius went from almost 100% silver content to zero during a 100 year period.
- The same has happened to all major currencies today like the Dollar, the Pound, the Yen and the Mark/Euro. Since the creation of the Fed in 1913, all currencies have lost 97-99% against gold. Thus there is only 1%-3% left until they have lost all their value. This is guaranteed to happen in the next 5-7 years as the debt and asset bubbles implode and governments print unlimited amounts of money in a futile attempt to save the financial system.
- In the 2000s gold has outperformed all major asset markets including stocks.
IF CHILDREN ARE NEVER TAUGHT TO UNDERSTAND MONEY, HOW CAN ADULTS?
All the above are indisputable facts. But no government or central bank will ever admit to it since the total debasement of a country’s currency shows the failure of their economic policies.
Economic history is not taught in schools. No child is given a proper lesson about money, savings or compound interest. They learn empirically about debt, credit cards and spending money that you haven’t earned. How will they ever learn, how will they ever learn about sound money and how to manage their own affairs? Well they sadly won’t.
Since school children are not taught about sound money and economic history, how can we ever expect adults to grasp this subject.
In the West, the majority of people don’t understand that the Dollar, Euro, or Pound in their pocket is falling in value daily, due to incessant credit creation and money printing. People think that house prices or stock prices are going up. And they believe that food and services are regularly becoming more expensive. Very few people understand that it is not the price of goods and services that are going up but that it is the value of the money in their pocket that is constantly declining.
The principal reason why gold is the only money that has survived throughout history is that it cannot be printed. It also has many other important attributes, such as scarcity, indestructibility, divisibility etc.
MONEY CHANGERS & BANKERS
http://goldswitzerland.com/wp-conten...19/05/book.jpgIn the past, if someone performed a service or produced a product, he would be paid in gold and that gold would always maintain its value. Over time, the money changers and the bankers issued tradable notes that replaced the gold which was kept in their vault. They soon realised that they could earn a lot more money if they printed many more notes than they had gold. This is how the debasement of paper money started.
Imagine that someone had worked a whole day and received a gold coin as payment for his services. He then takes it to the bank to deposit it and receives a tradable paper note instead of his gold. But his banker is shrewd and issues another note as a loan to someone else. If this was the only transaction in the economy, by issuing the second note, the banker has now halved the value of the note. The banker is greedy and issues even more notes, so the value continues to go down. But the gold maintains its value whilst the paper money has been devalued. When the gold later was replaced by fiat money, that would be continually be debased as the banker as well as the government issued more and more paper money without any corresponding production of a goods or service.
FAKE MONEY LEADS & FAKE VALUES WILL IMPLODE
In the last 100 years, since the creation of the Fed, more money has been printed than ever in history and we are now in the exponential phase with global debt having trebled since 1999 from $80 trillion to $250 trillion.
The current global financial bubble cannot and will not end well. All the fake money and asset values must implode together with the debt. It is for this reason that we must hold physical gold as protection against the coming calamities. And whether gold goes up tomorrow or in six months’ time is totally irrelevant, in relation to the risk we are trying to protect with it.
GOLD TRADING IS 850X GOLD PRODUCTION
The reason why gold often fluctuates wildly has nothing to do with physical gold in a free market. The gold market is totally manipulated by central banks through the BIS in Basel (Bank for International Settlement) and its lackeys, the bullion banks.
The daily mine production of gold is $329 million. But the gross daily trading volume in the gold market is $280 billion according to the World Gold Council. So the daily gold trading is 850x the daily production. Most of that trading is done by the bullion banks and not the Comex or other futures exchanges. You don’t need to be an expert in trading to figure out that a market that every day turns over 850x the daily production of the underlying commodity is massively manipulated. Also, trading of that magnitude has nothing to do with physical gold but clearly has a much darker purpose. Surprisingly as the chart below shows, daily gold trading is 2x the trading in S&P stocks.
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Most Western central banks are unlikely to have anywhere near their officially declared gold reserves. These have either been sold covertly or leased via the bullion banks. Most of the sold or leased gold has gone to the East. Thus, most central banks just hold an IOU from a bullion bank that they are owed a certain amount of physical gold. What is absolutely clear is that this gold will never come back. Consequently the bullion banks are short 1,000s or more likely 10-15,000 tonnes of physical gold that they will never see again. It is likely that the frantic trading of the LBMA banks is to cover up the massive shortage of physical gold both in the bullion banks as well as in the central banks.
GOLD MAGINOT LINE IS AS PENETRABLE AS THE ORIGINAL ONE IN WWII
There are a number of critical factors that will soon lead to the crossing of the Gold Maginot Line at $1,350
Among them are:
- The LBMA physical gold shortage as discussed above
- The global credit explosion since 2006 from $125 trillion to $250 trillion today.
- Gold vs US money supply being at the same level as 1970 (Gold $35) and 2000 (Gold $300)
- The fragility of the financial system.
- US budget deficits for 60 years and trade deficits for 50 years.
- The continuous debasement of currencies.
- Trade wars
- Geopolitical tension.
The above list is certainly not exhaustive. It could of course be argued that many of the factors above have been present for a long time and gold has been going sideways for 6 years.
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Due to factors such as manipulation, gold doesn’t move in a straight line. Between 1972 and 1980 gold moved up 24x from $35 to $850. Gold then corrected 29 years to a low of $250 in 1999 when central banks like the UK and Switzerland sold a major part of their gold.
We then saw a major move to $1,920 in 2011. Another correction followed and for six years gold has oscillated below the $1,350 Maginot Line. But gold should not just be measured in one currency. It has performed very differently against other currencies. In dozens of currencies gold is above the 2011 high. Due to the dollar’s temporary strength, gold seems weaker than it is if measured against a basket of currencies.
GOLD SPECULATORS ARE IMPATIENT BUT WEALTH PRESERVATIONISTS CONFIDENT
So when will the uptrend in gold start again? Many investors who bought gold near the 2011-12 highs are clearly impatient.
The fundamental factors above are not going to help us with the short term timing of the gold price. Many of us did not expect gold to pause for 8 years. But having been seriously invested in gold for over 17 years since early 2002, we have patience.
So the only short term method to predict gold’s next move is looking at gold’s technical picture. This tells us that gold is now in the finishing stages of a corrective move. Once the correction is over and gold breaks the Maginot Line at $1,350, we will see a quick move to $1,600. I would not be surprised to see gold making new highs in 2019 against the dollar, above $1,920. The next move up could start as soon as in the next 2-3 weeks. Possibly, but less likely is that the move starts August – September.
But gold should not be bought for speculative investment purposes. Gold should be held as wealth preservation or insurance against a rotten financial system that is unlikely to survive in its present form.
Like any insurance, holders of gold should not hope for gold to surge. Because when it does, the world will be a much more unpleasant place to live. It is much better to enjoy the present times knowing that if and when the problems in the world start in earnest, you are protected.
SILVER SUPPLIES ARE GETTING TIGHT
The supply situation in gold is still acceptable. But in silver it is becoming more difficult to get hold of and Swiss refiners are confirming that silver supply is tight. What we must remember is that real physical trading volumes are low today. With the sideways move in prices, physical demand is not buoyant. But once gold clears $1,350 and silver $15.50, shortages are likely to arise.
Egon von Greyerz
Founder and Managing Partner
Matterhorn Asset Management
Zurich, Switzerland
Phone: +41 44 213 62 45
Matterhorn Asset Management’s global client base strategically stores an important part of their wealth in Switzerland in physical gold and silver outside the banking system. Matterhorn Asset Management is pleased to deliver a unique and exceptional service to our highly esteemed wealth preservation clientele in over 60 countries.
GoldSwitzerland.com
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- Jul 25, 2019 9:50pm Jul 25, 2019 9:50pm
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
Dire Forecast
July 21 (King World News) – Egon von Greyerz: “It is not difficult to understand Cassandra’s enormous frustration. She was given the gift of accurately predicting important events and her curse was that no one would believe her. Some of us are certain that we can now see the biggest bubbles in economic history coming to an end with totally devastating effects for the world. But like Cassandra, we are also cursed since more than 99.9% of the world’s population would not believe our predictions.
The problem is that this time it will not only involve the biggest wealth destruction in history, but also lead to major problems in society with mass unemployment, no social security, no pensions, breakdown in law and order, social unrest, civil war and geopolitical conflict.
Reading these very dark predictions, I can understand that most people want to stick their head in the sand and ignore these dire forecasts. Obviously I would also hope that all these predictions are false and won’t come to pass. But as Winston Churchill said:
“THE TRUTH IS INCONTROVERTIBLE,
MALICE MAY ATTACK IT,
IGNORANCE MAY DERIDE IT,
BUT IN THE END THERE IT IS”
The problem is that the truth will often only be known after the event…
Listen to the greatest Egon von Greyerz audio interview ever
by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
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I wrote about Cassandra on KWN back in June of 2017, and have over a very long period tried to warn anyone who is willing to listen about the risks and the events that will affect us all. We are obviously not alone in worrying about the magnitude of the problems in the world. Virtually everyone following KWN has similar views so here we are talking to a converted audience. But even when we speak to family, friends, business friends, etc, we are met with the same degree of skepticism. This is, of course, understandable since we are facing an event that occurs once a generation or once every hundred years. And the magnitude this time might even be a multi-century cycle.When the secular bull market turns down, the world will experience unprecedented market behavior as asset bubbles burst. Investors will find that there are no buyers at any price. And for gold, there will be no sellers at any price:
Stocks – No bid
Bonds – No bid
Derivatives – No bid
Gold – No offer
What this means is that at some point during the downturn stocks will fall precipitously with no buyers to be seen. Computer trading programs accounting for 70-80% of volumes will issue massive sell orders and the price will just drop into a black hole since there will be no bid. The general investment public will naturally panic and sell at any price. But the problem is that there will be no market because there will be no buyers. This is how stocks quickly can drop 50% or more in a couple of days due to a total lack of liquidity and buyers.
QE To Infinity And Beyond
It will be the same with the bond market. Investors will want to get out of government or corporate bonds, which are unlikely to pay the interest, and many will simply default. With no buyers, the bond market will collapse and bond rates will go to infinity. Rates above 50% might sound attractive, but it will be meaningless if neither interest nor capital will be paid.
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This will create total panic in credit markets as global debt of $250 trillion implodes. In the meantime, central banks around the world will print additional $100s of trillions in a futile attempt to save the world.
But it will be the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives market that will totally kill financial markets. This is a totally false market that only works in bull markets when there is liquidity and counterparties pay up. In the coming implosion of asset values, there will no liquidity and no buyers of worthless derivatives as counterparties default. In retrospect, this incredibly profitable activity for all the major investment banks will be judged as fraudulent with severe consequences for management and regulators as well as for the world.
Obviously, central banks will panic, print unlimited amounts of money, lower rates to zero or negative, halt trading in markets for extended periods, and manipulate markets in every possible fashion. But they will fail since they will be totally bankrupt, having issued unlimited amount of worthless bonds that they can never repay.
As The Panic in Global Markets Begins
As panic in markets begins and investors quickly turn from the stock market euphoria of the past to total fear, some investors will rush to buy wealth preservation assets. Some part of whatever liquidity they have left will go into precious metals — gold, silver and platinum. The only precious metal of size is gold and initially there will be gold available, albeit at much, much higher prices than what is being quoted today.
Initially there will be some willing sellers and gold will rise to multiples of the current price. But as the paper gold market collapses, there will be panic and at that point gold will go “no offer.” No offer means that there will be no gold offered at any price since there will be no physical gold available to be bought. Eventually there will probably be a price where some sellers are prepared to part with a small portion of their gold but that price is likely to be at such a high level that it will be difficult to fathom today. Due to high inflation or hyperinflation, no gold seller is likely to accept paper money as payment, but more likely other assets, whether it will be property or commercial assets such as businesses.
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There are a number of people who believe that governments will confiscate gold or ban gold trading. This is clearly possible and one should avoid holding gold in certain countries like the US or even the EU. This means that it is not advisable to store gold in those regions, nor to deal through precious metal companies that are based in the EU or the US even if the vaults are in other countries.
Also, it is important to only deal with countries with a long tradition of democracy and rule of law. Many off-shore locations, whether the vault or the arranging company is based there, should be avoided. Very recently we had a client who wanted to ship a small part of his gold holding from Switzerland to Panama where he lives. When the gold arrived there, the customs agent said there was a new rule and that our client had to pay a fee of $30,000 on the total amount transferred of $150,000. That was a penalty or duty of 20% of the value the gold. Whether this was a bribe or a proper duty was never made clear. Nevertheless, we managed to ship the gold back to Switzerland and avoid the fee.
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The Safety Of Switzerland
In my view, a country like Switzerland which has a long tradition in the gold industry and who refines 70% of all the gold bars in the world is very unlikely to ban or confiscate gold. Also, gold is 29% of Swiss exports which means that Switzerland is very unlikely to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
Another argument I hear is that governments are not going to allow individuals to earn major profits as gold goes to multiples of the current price. But we must remember that in the next couple of years, institutions, pension funds, and investment funds, are going to buy all the gold they can get hold of, at whatever price, as an inflation hedge. Governments are very unlikely to confiscate gold assets of pensioners and other private investors. There is a much easier way for penalizing private investors who benefit from the coming increase in the gold price and that is of course taxation. The assets of the rich are likely to be heavily taxed in coming years and that is why tax planning is as important as investment planning.
If Cassandra is right and investment markets will implode in coming years, investors still have a very, very brief period to protect their wealth. Global stocks are all in a position from which a major fall or crash can start at any time. Whereas precious metals and precious metals stocks are on the cusp of a massive bull market. It is likely that these major market moves will start in the early autumn of 2019, at the latest, and possibly earlier.
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We must remember that gold is primarily not an investment, although it will appreciate substantially in real terms. Gold is insurance, gold is money, gold is wealth preservation and gold is the only asset which is no one else’s liability. Unfortunately, very few are aware of these important facts and will not be prepared for what is coming very soon…For those who would like to read more of Egon von Greyerz’s fantastic articles CLICK HERE.
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- Jul 25, 2019 9:52pm Jul 25, 2019 9:52pm
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Good morming everyone
After reading and more importantly understanding what has been written and clearly explained better than I ever did in the attached article and because the same problem that he has had, I also have had with family and friends and associates and in some cases people that do not like me because I always try to speak TRUTH to power.
So perhaps for the last time from me, I ask you to carefully read this article and understand that you must seek immediately qualified professional counsel.
Anything in paper form such as stocks and bonds and certain currencies are at great risk to SOON have no more value. Soon is at the latest the end of 2020 however probably sooner.
That means do not count on getting your federal or provincial pensions or your company pensions anymore.
Your portfolio of investments with large financial organizations such as Manulife or Investors Group or Raymond James or any of them will eventually have little value.
The Canadian government and the CDIC fund cannot in the future pay the guarantee of $250,000 for Canadian bank accounts. We will have in Canada the bank run of all bank runs so leaving cash in the bank will be very dangerous and not very wise or prudent.
I will briefly explain how that can and probably will happen. Because of the insane never ever attempted actions of the world's Central Banks led by a private group of 12 banking companies unelected and unqualified based on it's results from December 23, 1913 to present day.
I refer to The Federal Reserve or as is more commonly called the FED.
These men and women will on July 31, 2019 lower interest rates by at least .25 basis points or perhaps by .50 basis points. We are now at 2.25 %.
Can you imagine that any group of intelligent men and women could actually think that you can have negative interest rates such as we have in Japan and Europe at the moment.
What that means for the uneducated is that money is created by the click of a mouse and printed out of thin air. Then that electronic money is used to buy stocks and bonds.
In Japan the government is the largest holder of stocks. So they created money YEN electronically then went into the markets and made purchases. Who do they plan to sell it to when the markets soon collapse ?
Today Mario Draghi head of the ECB until he retires on October 31, 2019 left interest rates the same instead of cutting rates again to make them even more negative.
October 31, 2019 is the same day that the new Prime Minister of Great Britain or England, Boris Cooper leaves the European Union with or without some agreement.
Thus getting back their independence as a Country again instead of being controlled by unelected politicians having their own agenda.
Before ending my thoughts may I explain why a bank run in Canada is inevitable. If any of your qualified and professional financial advisors including lawyers and Chartered accountants tell you otherwise let them explain why they do not agree with my educated observations.
Here is why there is tremendous risk that this will happen. I only am talking about Canada for the moment however it applies more so to the USA and the rest of the world.
The amount of Canadian dollars in circulation is much more than exists in Canadian bank accounts. We use a fractional banking system where our banks can lend out ten times the money that is deposited.
So if you have deposited $100,000 Canadian dollars in your checking account your bank has the legal right to lend $1,000,000 to others.
Once you deposit your hard earned money at your bank you are an unsecured creditor or lender. Your money is guaranteed by CDIC as explained before to a total of $250,000.
When your bank gets into financial difficulty such as Deutche Bank in Germany presently is, their stock price having come down from over $140 to presently under $7.00.
The bad debts and the lack of profitabilty will cause Canadians to lose confidence that their cash is safe and if even 5% of deposited funds are withdrawn then a bank run will occur and first come first serve as history will just be repeating itself.
I have done my best at my time and expense to warn all of you what awaits all of us.
Those that survive will be the ones that use their common sense.
Of course common sense is not so common these days as so called experts who have kept their heads in the sandbox because of their wealth and prestige and have not had the interest or ability to think outside of the box will soon suffer along with many others great financial losses and a drastic change in lifestyles.
I have taken over 90 minutes of my time willingly and along with my knowledge and experience of the last 50 years as a financial professional investor equity and Forex trader and teacher since February 14, 2012 , I can assure you what you have read in the attached article will happen and anyone that does not agree is surely a fool and whatever happens to them will be their responsibility since they ignored the reality of our present financial and geopolitical situations around this messed up world that we all live in and share as a global community all connected together.
Of course there is hope and viable solutions and safe guards and actions to take to protect your futures and those of your loved ones.
To do nothing will not be a good idea. Please do not attack the messenger as I have no hidden agenda other than the truth and goodwill towards all humans.
Benjamin
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- Jul 26, 2019 6:20am Jul 26, 2019 6:20am
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- Edited 7:24am Jul 26, 2019 7:03am | Edited 7:24am
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Perceptive historians recognize that great powers go through a cycle of growth, stability, maturity and decline. Where is America in this cycle? Will we learn from the lessons of history?
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The Life Cycles of Empires: Lessons for America Today?
The German philosopher Hegel (1770-1831) knew that just because men and women learned about the past, that didn’t mean they’d make better decisions about the future. He once cynically commented, “What experience and history teach us is this—that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
For years after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, America seemingly towered over the world as a great giant—economically, culturally and militarily. But now for nearly a decade since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, its armed services have clashed with the forces of Islamic extremism and terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the world.
If that weren’t bad enough, the worldwide economic crisis has laid the country low with high unemployment, an immense federal government deficit, rising inflation and depressed home values. Other challenges loom ahead, flowing from the European Union’s growing political and economic integration, Russia’s increased strength and assertiveness, and China’s rapid economic, industrial and military growth.
Will America follow the path of past empires?
Clearly America’s present lone-superpower status is being increasingly challenged. Could it be lost completely? While it clings to a general preeminence right now, could America still decline and fall?
Didn’t that happen to other great empires in the past, such as those of Britain, Spain, Rome, Persia, Babylon and Egypt? Is America’ s future more secure than theirs was?
Sir John Bagot Glubb (1897-1987), a highly honored British general and historian better known as Glubb Pasha, wrote about the collapsed empires of the past. In his 1978 book The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival, he described a common pattern fitting the history of some fallen empires. They went through a cycle of stages as they started, expanded, matured, declined and collapsed.
Does the pattern apply to America today? Has the United States entered this cycle’s ending stages? If so, shouldn’t Americans critically examine the current state of their culture to see what could be done to prevent the same grim fate?
By knowing history better, we can better project our likely national futures. As the great British Prime Minister and noted historian Winston Churchill observed, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
Seven steps in the life cycles of great powers
Glubb Pasha learned that different empires had similar cultural changes while experiencing a life cycle in a series of stages that could overlap. He generalized about empires having seven stages of development, identifying these successive ages as follows:
1. The age of outburst (or pioneers).
2. The age of conquests.
3. The age of commerce.
4. The age of affluence.
5. The age of intellect.
6. The age of decadence.
7. The age of decline and collapse.
Each stage helps progression to the next as the values of the people change over time. Military, political, economic and religious developments all influence an empire’s people to act and believe differently over time.
Let’s look at these stages in more detail.
The rise of empires
In the first two stages or ages, the warrior’s adventuresome and manly values drive an empire to gain power as it conquers land from others.
Later on, during the following ages of commerce and affluence, businessmen and merchants—who normally value material success and dislike taking unnecessary risks—take over at the highest levels of society. Their societies downplay the values of the soldier.
According to Glubb, they normally do this not “from motives of conscience, but rather because of the weakening of a sense of duty in citizens, and the increase in selfishness, manifested in the desire for wealth and ease.”
During these middle stages, empires stop taking more land and start building walls instead. They switch from the offensive to the defensive. Historical examples include the wall built near the Scottish border by the Roman emperor Hadrian, the Great Wall of China constructed to keep out intrusion by certain nomadic groups, and even 20th-century France’s Maginot Line, placed along the German border.
Conquest and (later) business investment promoted by the empire’s unity builds the wealth that leads to the age of intellect. Even the brutal Mongol Empire, by bringing most of Asia under its rule, encouraged the caravan trade along Eurasia’s famed Silk Road.
During this fifth stage, the empire’s leaders spent lots of money to establish educational institutions resembling modern universities and high schools.
Sowing the seeds of decline
During the age of intellect, schools may produce skeptical intellectuals who oppose the values and religious beliefs of their empires’ early leaders. For example, the medieval Muslim philosophers Avicenna and Averroes, by accepting much of ancient Greek philosophy, weren’t orthodox in belief.
Scholars also might manage schools that teach the ruling class and/or some of the average people subjects that are either mainly oriented towards financial success or are simply impractical. For example, in the early Roman Republic, students received a basic education that stressed character development and virtue. But in the later Roman Empire, teachers taught rhetoric (the art of speaking) when emotionally persuading assemblies was no longer of political or practical value.
The corrosive effects of material success encourage the upper class and the common people to discard the self-confident, self-disciplined values that helped to create the empire. Then the empire eventually collapses. Perhaps an outside power, such as the so-called barbarians in Rome’s case, wipes it out. Or maybe an energetic internal force, such as the pro-capitalist reformers in the Soviet Union, finishes the job instead.
The growth of wealth and comfort clearly can undermine the values of character, such as self-sacrifice and discipline, that led to a given empire’s creation. Then the empire so affected by moral decline grows weaker and more vulnerable to destruction by forces arising inside or outside of it.
Not surprisingly, God in the Bible specifically warned the ancient Israelites against departing from worshipping Him once they became materially satisfied after entering the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 8:11-20; 31:20). He understood this human tendency.
A society is known by its heroes
Has the United States entered the latter phases of the empire life cycle? True, it’s only been independent from Britain for somewhat over two centuries. It’s a young country compared to those of Europe or Asia. But does America today have the same values or cultural developments that past empires such as Rome had before they fell?
For example, who are the nation’s heroes? What does a people’s choice of heroes tell us about the people themselves? Today in America the people generally admired above all (and perpetually gossiped about) are celebrities such as sports stars, singers, actors and musicians.
As Glubb explains, the heroes of an empire’s people change over time as their values do. Soldiers, builders, pioneers and explorers are admired in the initial stages of the empire life cycle. Then successful businessmen and entrepreneurs are esteemed during the ages of commerce and affluence.
For example, late 19th-century middle-class Americans wanted their children to learn the values of prudence, saving and foresight as found in the stories of author Horatio Alger, whose heroes lead exemplary lives striving to succeed in the face of adversity and poverty. Intellectuals are also increasingly respected during the age of intellect.
During the last stages of decadence and decline, an empire’s people often think most highly of and imitate athletes, musicians and actors—despite how corrupt these celebrities’ private lives are.
Remarkably, according to Glubb Pasha, in 10th-century Baghdad during the Muslim Abbasid Empire’s decline, its writers complained about the singers of love songs having a bad influence on the young people! It seems the old adage is true: The more things change, the more they stay the same (or, perhaps, become the same again).
Because people grow emotionally attached to the music they love, they have a high regard for its singers and want to emulate them. Inevitably, popular music’s often spiritually rotten lyrical content—such as foul language, blunt sexual references, glorifying immorality, and even Satanic allusions at times—influences fans.
Furthermore, the immoral lifestyles of many musicians, often including drug abuse and promiscuous sex, also have an impact on society.
What are some key signs of decline?
What are some common features of an empire’s culture in its declining period? Glubb describes developments like these:
1. Rampant sexual immorality, an aversion to marriage in favor of “living together” and an increased divorce rate all combine to undermine family stability. This happened among the upper class in the late Roman Republic and early Empire. The first-century writer Seneca once complained about Roman upper-class women: “They divorce in order to re-marry. They marry in order to divorce.”
The birthrate declines, and abortion and infanticide both increase as family size is deliberately limited. The historian W.H. McNeill has referred to the “biological suicide of the Roman upper classes” as one reason for Rome’s decline. Homosexuality becomes publicly acceptable and spreads, as was the case among the ancient Greeks before Rome conquered them.
2. Many foreign immigrants settle in the empire’s capital and major cities.The mixture of ethnic groups in close proximity in these cosmopolitan places inevitably produces conflicts.
Because of their prominent locations within the empire, their influence greatly exceeds their percentage of the population. Here diversity plainly leads to divisiveness.
We see this today in the growing conflict in European countries such as France and the Netherlands, where large numbers of immigrants are stoking violent cultural clashes. German chancellor Angela Merkel recently made headlines when she stated that attempts to create a multicultural society had “utterly failed” and immigrants must do more to integrate into society.
3. Both irresponsible pleasure-seeking and pessimism increase among the people and their leaders. The spirit described in 1 Corinthians 15:32 spreads throughout society: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
As people cynically give up looking for solutions to the problems of life and society, they drop out of the system. They then turn to mindless entertainment, to luxuries and sexual activity, and to drugs or alcohol.
The astonishingly corrupt and lavish parties of the Roman Empire’s elite are a case in point. The Emperor Nero, for instance, would spend the modern equivalent of $500,000 for just the flowers at some banquets.
4. The government provides extensive welfare for the poor. In the case of the city of Rome, which had perhaps 1.2 million people around A.D. 170, government-provided “bread and circuses” (food and entertainment) helped to keep the masses content. About one half of its non-slave population was on the dole at least part of the year.
True, helping the poor shows Christian compassion (Mark 14:7). But such help also can lead to laziness and dependency (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). Such problems are especially likely when the poor believe state-provided charity is a permanent right or entitlement.
Is America on a downward cultural and spiritual spiral?
Considering this list of indicators of an empire’s cultural and moral decline, is it reasonable to deny that the United States has entered the stages of decadence and decline?
True, the tidal wave of social and cultural decay unleashed by the 1960s in America has ebbed some in recent years. The rates of abortion, divorce, illegitimate births, drug abuse, welfare dependency and violent crime have either declined or gone up much more slowly.
Furthermore, some indicators of decline have good, not just bad, results. For instance, some immigration is helpful. As skilled, educated immigrants arrive, they normally benefit America economically while being a “brain drain” from Third World countries. And, indeed, the United States has historically embraced vast numbers of immigrants.
Nevertheless, the present flood of immigrants, legal or illegal, equals in impact the wave that arrived at America’s shores around 1900. Today, they are far more apt to be a divisive force. Why? Unlike a hundred years ago, America’s intellectual elite overall has adopted multiculturalism (the promotion of immigrants maintaining their prior distinct cultures) and has rejected assimilation (adopting the existing national culture) as its ideal.
Today multiculturalism is the ideology underlying a potentially ultimate political Balkanization, wherein society is fragmented along ethnic and cultural lines. (For evidence, see the liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger’s 1991 book The Disuniting of America ). A lack of cultural unity inevitably leads to conflict in a free society such as in the United States.
Are we paying attention?
How should we react to the historical insights of Sir John Glubb Pasha’s The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival as they relate to America, Britain and other related English-speaking nations?
As he notes in his examination of a number of previous empires, the processes of history often repeat themselves. We shouldn’t believe that America will automatically avoid the fate of other great empires that declined and fell in the past.
God is ever so merciful, but His patience in the face of our national sins is wearing thin. He has given His true servants a mission to warn the nations of what is coming (Ezekiel 33:1-9), and that is one of the purposes of this magazine. We want to help you see how prophecies given long ago are now shaping up before our eyes!
If modern nations repent, as the people of the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh did after the prophet Jonah delivered God’s warning to them (as described in the book of Jonah), they can avoid the dreadful punishments prophesied to come. But even if only the few of us reading this article repent before the time of tribulation arrives, God will keep us in His care.
Many of God’s faithful followers will be protected from the tribulation (Revelation 3:10). And, most importantly, Jesus promises eternal life to all who truly believe, turn from sin and persevere in their faithful obedience: “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).
Since we know that the handwriting is on the wall, what will we now choose to do?
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- Jul 26, 2019 7:43am Jul 26, 2019 7:43am
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- Jul 26, 2019 8:01am Jul 26, 2019 8:01am
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
- Post #6,879
- Quote
- Jul 26, 2019 8:24am Jul 26, 2019 8:24am
- | Commercial Member | Joined Dec 2014 | 11,632 Posts
- Post #6,880
- Quote
- Jul 26, 2019 1:00pm Jul 26, 2019 1:00pm
- | Joined Mar 2014 | Status: Member | 802 Posts
Disliked{quote} Dear loveandpeace I have asked you on many occasions to call me. You have not. This is my business and it is what I do to earn my living. I have expenses and many things to do. I am going to post again my last post on this topic. If you want my services it needs to be paid for. I have helped you however now I have no more obligation to you nor do I need to help you without benefits for my business. When you go into a restaurant and order meal is it for free ? Hello everyone I have recently made a change to my method of Forex trading. In...Ignored
Hi Mr. Bruce, first you have to decide whether I am your student or not? If you are my Mentor, then definitely
I am your student. And if I have questions in my mind, who do I ask???? You said you have helped me??
Did you help me or teach me?? I know this is your business for living, but Sir, if you recall your memory,
You offered people to learn for FREE, I can give you your post numbers if you want. NOW you are asking me
To pay you for your services,
If I am your student, why do I need to SIGN up again to get access your website( still not operational )??
You NEVER answered my questions I asked you here, or whatever I emailed you, every time you replied
To call you which I did number of times. But my questions are still not answered. You have the right not
To answer and I am NOT going to ask you again in the future. So no worries, I am not bothering you again.