Money Flow Trading Method along with Risk Management

https://www.realvision.com/exodus-from-us-assets/

Michael Howell, managing director of liquidity specialists CrossBorder Capital, has mapped the massive capital flows escaping Europe and China that have driven US assets to extreme over valuation in recent years. A reversal of this vast tide of liquidity was behind last year’s weakness in the U.S. dollar and U.S. bonds. This reversal is still in its infancy. Michael expects that the $USD has further to fall and 10 year bond yields could hit 4%, with severe implications for markets around the globe.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ops+to+zero%29

http://www.internationalman.com//art...he-petrodollar


Not long ago, there was a popular joke in China that went something like, “Who is Xi Jinping?

The answer was, “The husband of Peng Liyuan,” the famous singer Xi is married to.

Today, Xi is China’s president. He leads 1.4 billion people. And he’ll likely be the most powerful person in the world soon.

As I mentioned last Wednesday, Trump’s new steel and aluminum tariffs are part of a larger, escalating battle between the US and China.

China is rapidly displacing the US as the dominant global power. This shift is inevitable. China’s economy will be twice as large as the US economy by 2030.
This leaves the US with limited options…

1. It could kick back and let China displace it as the most powerful country in the world.
2. It could start a military war with China.
3. And it could push the current trade battle into an all-out economic war against China.

I think a full-blown economic war is the most likely. Under President Trump, it’s all but certain.
That said, the Trump administration seems to underestimate China’s position—in both the short and long term.



For decades, the US has been able to exclude virtually any country it wants from international trade. Right now, if one country wants to trade with another, it basically needs US permission first.

That’s because (for a short while longer) the US dollar is the world’s most important currency. The US Navy also dominates the world’s oceans, controlling most major shipping lanes.

But China is building a new international system. Eventually, it will let China and its trading partners totally bypass the US.

And, as I’ll explain shortly, a key piece is set to fall into place on March 26…


History’s Biggest Infrastructure Project
The New Silk Road is the centerpiece of China’s new plan.

In the coming months and years, it will include high-speed rail lines, modern highways, fiber optic cables, energy pipelines, seaports, and airports. It will link the Atlantic shores of Europe to the Pacific shores of Asia.

China expects to have its New Silk Road fully up and running by 2025.

This is history’s biggest infrastructure project. The whole point is to completely re-draw the world economic map. If it’s successful—and it most likely will be—China will dominate Eurasia.

President Xi announced the $1.4 trillion plan in late 2013. When it’s done, a train leaving Beijing will be able to reach London in only two days.

Keep in mind, the Chinese are careful long-term planners. When they make a strategic decision of this magnitude, they totally commit.

Take their road system, for example. Between 1996 and 2016 China built 2.6 million miles of road, including 70,000 miles of highway. In just 20 years, it built far more highway than the US has in its entire existence.

In other words, the Chinese get things done. They have the political might—along with the financial, technological, and physical resources—to make the New Silk Road happen. With iron-willed President Xi at the helm, I have no doubt they’ll pull it off.

Not long from now, the New Silk Road will help China unseat the US as the world’s dominant global power and totally upend the geopolitical paradigm.

But before that happens—within the next couple of weeks, actually—China is introducing a way for anyone who buys or sells oil to opt out of the US-dominated global monetary system.














Why the Dollar Is Different Than the Peso
Most investors know that oil is the largest and most strategic commodity market in the world. As you can see in the chart below, it dwarfs all other major commodity markets combined.
https://d24g2nq85gnwal.cloudfront.ne...g05-giq450.jpg
Every country needs oil. And, for a short while longer, they need US dollars to buy it. That’s a very compelling reason to hold large dollar reserves.

This is the essence of the petrodollar system, which has underpinned the US dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency since the early 1970s.

Right now, if Italy wants to buy oil from Kuwait, it has to purchase US dollars on the foreign exchange market to pay for the oil first.

This creates a huge artificial market for US dollars.

In part, this is what separates the US dollar from a purely local currency, like the Mexican peso.

The dollar is just a middleman. But it’s used in countless transactions amounting to trillions of dollars that have nothing to do with US products or services.

Since the oil market is so enormous, it acts as a benchmark for international trade. If foreign countries are already using dollars for oil, it’s just easier to use dollars for other international trade, too.

In addition to nearly all oil sales, the US dollar is used for about 80% of all international transactions.


This gives the US unmatched geopolitical leverage. The US can sanction or exclude virtually any country from the US dollar-based financial system at the flip of a switch. By extension, it can also cut off any country from the vast majority of international trade.


The petrodollar system is why people and businesses everywhere in the world take US dollars. Other countries have had little choice about it, until now…

China’s “Golden Alternative”
China does not want to depend on its main adversary like this. It’s the world’s largest oil importer. And it doesn’t want to buy all that oil with US dollars.

That’s why China is introducing a new way to buy oil. For the first time, it will allow for the large-scale exchange of oil for gold.

I’m calling this new mechanism China’s “Golden Alternative” to the petrodollar. It goes live on March 26.

Ultimately, I think people will look back and see the Golden Alternative as the catalyst that killed the petrodollar.

Here’s how it will work…
The Shanghai International Energy Exchange is introducing a crude oil futures contract denominated in Chinese yuan. It will allow oil producers to sell their oil for yuan.

China knows most oil producers don’t want a large reserve of yuan. So producers will be able to efficiently convert it into physical gold through gold exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

As of March 26, countries around the world will have a genuine, viable way to opt out of the petrodollar system. Now is the time to position yourself to profit.

Gold Will Soar
With China’s Golden Alternative, a lot of oil money will flow into yuan and gold instead of dollars and Treasuries.

I think the price of gold is going to soar.

China imports an average of around 8.5 million barrels of oil per day. This figure is expected to grow at least 10% per year.

Right now, oil is hovering around $60 per barrel. That means China is spending around $510 million per day to import oil.

Gold is currently priced around $1,300 an ounce. That means every day China is importing oil worth over 390,000 ounces of gold.

If we assume that just half of Chinese oil imports will be purchased in gold soon, it translates into increased demand of well over 60 million ounces per year—or more than 55% of gold’s annual production.


Of course, China won’t be the only country using the Golden Alternative. Anyone will be able to.

The increased demand for gold is going to shock the market. That’s why I think the price of gold will soar.

As the petrodollar dies, gold will be remonetized… and China will be another step closer to displacing the US.

Editor’s Note: Owning physical gold’s not the only way to turn the coming chaos into huge profits. There are other practical steps you can take before the US-China conflict reaches its boiling point. Get the details in our guide to Surviving and Thriving During an Economic Collapse.

https://yragharris.com/2018/03/22/rolling/

Notes From Underground: The Ball of Confusion Keeps On Rolling
Tonight I am posting a PODCAST I recorded Wednesday with Richard Bonugli just after new Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference. Richard and I covered a great deal of ground in discussing the most pertinent issues confronting the world of global macro. Pour yourself a libation and enjoy the interview. I look forward to hearing thoughts from the readers of Notes From Underground.

***The world is running wild tonight with news of a major shake-up in the Trump National Security Team as McMaster is out and John Bolton is expected to replace the highly decorated General. I don’t know enough to comment at this time.

After the FED raised rates yesterday, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept interest rates at 1.75% (same as the United States). The most interesting part of the release is that for the first time in quite a while there was no mention of the value of the KIWI currency. This means that the RBNZ is content to let the market establish a fair value for the currency versus direction from the central bank. The statement did confirm that “monetary policy remains easy in the advanced economies but is gradually becoming less stimulatory.”

Early Thursday morning the Bank of England surprised the markets by leaving the rate unchanged at 0.50%, citing the uncertainty of the impact from Brexit. Even though the consensus was for a rate increase the POUND STERLING held well against most currencies. The vast amount of uncertainty in the Trump administration is keeping the DOLLAR soft even as the interest rate differential continues to favor the U.S. currency. The metals tried to rally as yield fell in response to a 3% drop in the U.S. equity markets. Friday is setting up to be a very volatile day as uncertainty keeps people from buying U.S. stocks even as the narrative is that the global economy is so buoyant and profits set to rise. It is tough to overcome rising interest rates and intense political uncertainty.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/415...sm?ifp=0&app=1

In just a little more than six months, the U.S. national debt has grown by a $1 trillion. Today, Congress will debate on a $1.3 trillion "Omnibus spending bill" to fund the government through the end of September of this year.
As noted by Robert Schroeder:
"Last week, the debt hit $21 trillion for the first time, rising from the $20 trillion mark it notched on Sept. 8. The debt is guaranteed to go higher, with President Donald Trump having signed a debt-limit suspension in February, allowing unlimited borrowing through March 1, 2019. Economists expect wider deficits to result from the tax cut Trump signed in December.https://static.seekingalpha.com/uplo...0102507_MG.jpgWhile a trillion-dollar increase over roughly six months isn't unprecedented - there was one in 2009, during the Great Recession, and another in 2010 - it's certainly fast."
Excessive borrowing by companies, households or governments lies at the root of almost every economic crisis of the past four decades, from Mexico to Japan, and from East Asia to Russia, Venezuela, and Argentina. But it's not just countries, but companies as well. You don't have to look too far back to see companies like Enron, GM, Bear Stearns, Lehman and a litany of others brought down by surging debt levels and simple "greed." Households too have seen their fair share of debt burden related disaster from mortgages to credit cards to massive losses of personal wealth.
It would seem that after nearly 40 years, some lessons would have been learned.
Apparently not, as Congressional lawmakers once again are squabbling on not how to "save money" and "reduce the federal debt," but rather "damn the debt, full speed ahead with spending."
Such reckless abandonment by politicians is simply due to a lack of "experience" with the consequences of debt.
In 2008, Margaret Atwood discussed this point in a Wall Street Journal article:

"Without memory, there is no debt. Put another way: Without story, there is no debt.
A story is a string of actions occurring over time - one damn thing after another, as we glibly say in creative writing classes - and debt happens as a result of actions occurring over time. Therefore, any debt involves a plot line: how you got into debt, what you did, said and thought while you were in there, and then - depending on whether the ending is to be happy or sad - how you got out of debt, or else how you got further and further into it until you became overwhelmed by it, and sank from view."
The problem today is there is no "story" about the consequences of debt in the U.S. While there is a litany of other countries which have had their own "debt disaster" story, those issues have been dismissed under the excuse of "yes, but they aren't the U.S."
As I discussed recently in relation to the tax cut/reform package passed by Congress last year:

"Of course, the real question is how are you going to 'pay for it?'
Even as Kevin Brady noted in our interview, when I discussed the 'fiscal' side of the tax reform bill, without achieving accelerated rates of economic growth - 'the debt will balloon.'"
https://static.seekingalpha.com/uplo...517_thumb1.png
It is pretty simplistic math:
Cut revenue by $2 Trillion + add $2 Trillion is spending = $4 Trillion shortfall.
While it is true the debt doesn't have to be repaid today, it does have to be serviced.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas recently published a commentary describing how interest is on a path to quadruple over the next decade, reaching over $1 trillion per year.

"Interest on the debt is the fastest growing part of the budget. While interest had already been projected to rise rapidly the recent tax and budget deals will significantly accelerate that growth. As a result, our latest estimate finds interest costs will almost quadruple between 2017 and 2028 in dollar terms and reach their highest share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in history.
As recently as last June, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected interest spending would grow to above $800 billion and nearly 3 percent of GDP by 2027 as a result of rising interest rates and growing debt levels. Since then, lawmakers have added an additional $2.4 trillionto deficits over the next decade, and it will most certainly result in higher interest payments.
[i]By https://static.seekingalpha.com/uplo...ing_thumb1.jpg
The Wrong Kind Of Debt
By the end of 2018, the United States, based on its current trajectory, will achieve a new TOP 10 ranking.

"Tell us what we've won Bob:
Coming in at #10 - the United States, at 111%, gets nothing but the privilege of being on the list of countries with the highest debt/GDP ratios."
According to Keynesian theory, some microeconomic-level actions, if taken collectively by a large proportion of individuals and firms, can lead to inefficient aggregate macroeconomic outcomes, where the economy operates below its potential output and growth rate (i.e. a recession).
Keynes contended:
"A general glut would occur when aggregate demand for goods was insufficient, leading to an economic downturn resulting in losses of potential output due to unnecessarily high unemployment, which results from the defensive (or reactive) decisions of the producers."
In other words, when there is a lack of demand from consumers due to high unemployment, the contraction in demand would force producers to take defensive actions to reduce output.

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2...s/#more-173098

The Collapse of the Western Fiat Monetary System may have Begun. China, Russia and the Reemergence of Gold-Backed Currencies
Hat tip Billy (yes he is still alive and kicking)

by Peter Koenig, Global Research:
https://i0.wp.com/www.globalresearch.../05/118944.jpg

In a recent Russia Insider article, Sergey Glaziev, one of Russia’s top economists and advisor to President Putin said about Russia’s currency, “The ruble Is the most gold-backed currency in the world”. He went on explaining that the amount of rubles circulating is covered by about twice the amount of gold in Russia’s Treasury.
https://i0.wp.com/www.globalresearch...uan-dollar.jpg

In addition to a financial alliance, Russia and China also have developed in the past couple of years their own money transfer system, the China International Payment System, or the CIPS network which replaces the western transfer system, SWIFT, for Russian-Chinese internal trading. SWIFT, stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a network operating in 215 countries and territories and used by over 10,000 financial institutions.

Up until recently almost every international monetary transaction had to use SWIFT, a private institution, based in Belgium. ‘Private’ like in the US Federal Reserve Bank (FED), Wall Street banks and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS); all are involved in international monetary transfers and heavily influenced by the Rothschild family. No wonder that the ‘independent’ SWIFT plays along with Washington’s sanctions, for example, cutting off Iran from the international transfer system. Similarly, Washington used its arm-twisting with SWIFT to help Paul Singer’s New York Vulture Fund to extort more than 4 billion dollars from Argentina, by withholding Argentina’s regular debt payments as was agreed with 93% of all creditors. Eventually Argentina found other ways of making its payments, not to fall into disrepute and insolvency.


All of this changed for Argentina, when Mauricio Macri, the new neoliberal President put in place by Washington, appeared on the scene last December. He reopened the negotiations and is ready to pay a sizable junk of this illegal debt, despite a UN decision that a country that reaches a settlement agreement with the majority of the creditors is not to be pressured by non-conforming creditors. In the case of Argentina, the vulture lord bought the country’s default debt for a pittance and now that the nation’s economy had recovered he wants to make a fortune on the back of the population.

This is how our western fraudulent monetary system functions.

China’s economy has surpassed that of the United States and this new eastern alliance is considered an existential threat to the fake western economy. CIPS, already used for trading and monetary exchange within China and Russia, is also applied by the remaining BRICS, Brazil, India and South Africa; and by the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), plus India, Pakistan and Iran, as well as the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan).

It is said that CIPS is ready to be launched worldwide as early as September 2018. It would be a formidable alternative to the western dollar based monetary Ponzi scheme.

The new eastern monetary sovereignty is one of the major reasons why Washington tries so hard to destroy the BRICS, mainly China and Russia – and lately with a special effort of false accusations also Brazil through a Latin America type Color Revolution.

In addition, the Yuan late last year was accepted by the IMF in its SDR basket as the fifth reserve currency, the other four being the US dollar, the British pound, the euro and the Japanese yen. The SDR, or Special Drawing Right, functions like a virtual currency. It is made up of the weighted average of the five currencies and can be lent to countries at their request, as a way of reducing exchange risks. Being part of the SDR, the yuan has become an official reserve currency. In fact, in Asia the yuan is already heavily used in many countries’ treasuries, as an alternative to the ever more volatile US dollar.

It is no secret, the western dollar-led fiat monetary system is on its last leg – as eventually any Ponzi scheme will be. What does ‘fiat’ mean? It is money created out of thin air. It has no backing whatsoever; not gold, not even the economic output generated by the country or countries issuing the money, i.e. the United States of America and Europe. It is simply declared “legal tender’’ by Government decree.


No pyramid scheme is sustainable in the long run and eventually will collapse. It was invented and is used by a small invisible upper crest of elite making insane amounts of profit on the back of the 99% of us.

Since these elitists are in control of the media with their lie propaganda, as well as the warmongering killing machine, US armed forces, NATO, combined with the international security and spy apparatus, CIA, MI6, Mossad, DGSE, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and more, we are powerless – but powerless only as long as we ignore what’s really going on behind the curtain.


Our western monetary system is based on debt has all the hallmarks of a failing global monster octopus. The US banking system was deregulated in the 1990’s by President Clinton.

The European vassals followed suit in the early 2000’s. About 97% of all the money in circulation in the western world is ‘made’ by private banks by a mouse click in the form of ‘loans’ or debt. Every loan a private bank hands out is a liability on that bank’s books; a liability that bears interest, the key generator of the banks’ profits. Profit from thin air! No work, no production, no real added value to the economy.


If and when the banks within this web of debt begin recalling their outstanding liabilities, they may set a non-stoppable avalanche in motion – leading to a chaotic end of the system. This end-run may have just begun. We have seen a gradual build-up since the end of WWII with the armament of the Cold War farce, and a high point with the manufactured sub-prime crisis of 2007 / 2008 / 2009, prompting an artificial and endless global economic crisis which may come crashing down in 2016 / 2017.

The damage may be humongous, leaving behind chaos, poverty, famine, misery – death. With the invisible ruling elite having cashed in, remaining on top and being liable to start again from scratch. – If we let them. It always boils down to the same: An uninformed people can be manipulated at will and is left in awe when hit by unexpected events, like acts of terror by bombs or banks.


Let us be crystal clear – we are all uninformed as long as we listen to and believe in the mainstream media – which are controlled by six Anglo-Zionist media giants, feeding the western public with 90% of the information, the so-called ‘news’ that we consume so eagerly every day; the barrage of lies that repeat themselves in every western country every hour on the hour – and, thus, become the truth. Period.


We must get out of our comfortable armchairs, listen to that innermost spark in the back of our minds, telling us against all avalanches of lies that there is something wrong, that we are being fed deception. We have to dig for the truth. And it is there – on internet, on alternative media, like Global Research, Information Clearing House, VNN, The Saker, NEO, Russia Today, Sputnik News, PressTV, TeleSUR – and many more credible sources of truth-seekers.


Back to the impending collapse. – The ground rules for our pyramid monetary scheme have been laid in 1913 by the creation of the FED. Again, the FED is an entirely private, Rothschild dominated banking institution that serves as the US Central Bank. It is the omnipotent dollar making machine. It was fraudulently and secretly conceived in 1910 on Jekyll Island, Georgia, and described by Jekyll Island history (http://www.jekyllislandhistory.com/federalreserve.shtml ) as the “duck hunt” which “included Senator Nelson Aldrich, his personal secretary Arthur Shelton, former Harvard University professor of economics Dr. A. Piatt Andrew, J.P. Morgan & Co. partner Henry P. Davison, National City Bank president Frank A. Vanderlip and Kuhn, Loeb, and Co. partner Paul M. Warburg. From the start the group proceeded covertly. They began by shunning the use of their last names and met quietly at Aldrich’s private railway car in New Jersey.”


The concoction of these secretive “duck hunters” became in 1913 the privately owned Rothschild dominated Federal Reserve System, the US central bank by deceit.

After signing the FED act into existence, President Woodrow Wilson declared,
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated.

The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

The Anglo-Saxon system had a central bank in England since way back in 1694. It was then already controlled by the Rothschilds, as was the entire banking system. Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild once declared:
“I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man that controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply.”
https://i0.wp.com/www.globalresearch...my-300x200.jpg

The Rothschild family’s fortune cannot be properly estimated, but it must be in the trillions. What Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild may have said some 300 years ago, still holds true to this day.

No wonder, breaking loose of this sham monetary scheme is number one priority of most countries that treasure sovereignty, autonomy and freedom, though they do not dare say so openly, lest the empire lashes out at them punishing them with the very financial terror they want to escape from. And lashing out at the unaligned world the empire does, like a dying beast, attempting to pull with it much of the living world into its own shoveled grave.

Is it therefore coincidence or a rather a purposefully planned convergence of several events as a last ditch effort first to ravage then to salvage as much as possible before the collapse?

On 10 April, Zero Hedge reports “Austria Just Announced A 54% Haircut of Senior Creditors in First “Bail In” Under New European Rules”. The Austrian “bad bank”, the failed Hypo Alpe Adria, that became Heta Asset Resolution AG after the government’s nationalization, found a US$ 8.5 billion hole in its balance sheet, enough to trigger the new European ‘bail-in’ rule. Is it coincidence that also in Austria a major bank failure triggered the Great Depression also on a 10th of April – in 1931? – This is a first in Europe.

Be prepared for others to follow, as over-extension of European banks is estimated in excess of a trillion dollars.

On 15 April, the New York Times reported that – Five of Wall Street’s eight largest banks are in defiance of the US banking regulator. The FED and FDIC said that “JP Morgan, Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, State Street and Bank of New York, all lacked ‘credible‘ plans to enter bankruptcy in the event of a financial crisis.”

These banks have until October 2016 to comply. Under the new rules a tax-payer bail-out would be unlikely. Hence ‘bail-ins’ could affect millions of depositors and shareholders, their funds being stolen in order to self-rescue the too-big-to-fail banks. After all, non-compliance with the regulator’s requests, or insolvency, can easily be manufactured as a legal base for stealing common people’s savings. No worries, the TBTF banks will not go away, but your savings may.

The CIA released Panama Papers (for who still doubts about the CIA involvement in the release of the Panama Papers,
read here http://journal-neo.org/2016/04/09/th...ople-deceived/),
aimed in a most rudimentary way at defaming the ‘usual suspects’, Presidents Putin and Assad, as well as Iran, Venezuela, Brazil, of course – and others. Strangely no notable EU or US citizens or corporations were on the list.

Would anybody seriously believe that Mr. Putin, a former KGB agent, would be so ignorant as to putting his fortune (even if he had any to hide) into Panama, the epitome of a US puppet state, where you can’t flush a toilet without Washington knowing it?

Some token neocons appear in the published papers, like Argentina’s new ‘Washington appointed’ President Mauricio Macri, who is running amok ruining his country.

Within less than four months he has rolled Argentina’s economy back by ten years, raising poverty from below 10% in November 2015 to 34% by the end March 2016. The Empire needs him to keep gradually turning Argentina into chaos, however not too quickly, lest he may be ‘deposed’ and replaced by a US adversary – that would not at all be appreciated in Washington. For the types of Macri that made it on the list, the Panama Papers are a warning signal to keep them in-check.
https://i1.wp.com/www.globalresearch...x1-300x168.jpg

The publication of the Panama Papers may also be an incentive for US citizens and corporations to bring home trillions of undeclared dollar holdings stacked away in overseas tax havens into homeland financial shelters like those in Delaware, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nevada, thereby helping strengthen the gradually decaying dollar.

Simultaneously, some European countries and Japan introduced negative interest rates, so as to increase monetary liquidity, thereby hoping stimulating an ever stagnant economy. That’s the pretext. In reality however, negative interests are but a precursor to a wholly bank controlled financial system. Normally ‘bail-ins’ and negative interest would cause a run on the banks. This has not happened yet.

In Switzerland, one of the first countries to introduce negative interests, the Swiss National Bank reported that the demand of the 1,000 franc notes – one of the world’s highest value denominations (apparently to be maintained despite ECB Draghi’s call for elimination of high denomination bank notes) – increased by 17% (by CHF 4.7 billion – US$ 4.85 billion) in December 2014, the month following the introduction of negative interests. May it be an indication that the Swiss have quietly started hoarding big-denomination cash?

Future hoarding and runs on the banks will be countered by the introduction of a cashless society, i.e. all monetary transactions will gradually become electronic. The process has already begun. In Sweden and other parts of Europe, as well as Japan, cashless supermarkets and department stores claim big success, especially with the young consumers, who happily play along paying electronic cashiers by swiping their cell phones in front of an electronic eye.

The Young and Innocent – if they only knew that the banking oligarchs want to control their money and enslave them with a ‘fun gadget’, they may decide to resist.

But well know those who control the system that the young are the drivers of the future. We, the old resistance will eventually die out. Problem solved. – But we are not dead yet. The Times are A-Changing… (Bob Dylan, 1964).

The nefarious trio – ‘bail-ins’, negative interests, and a cash free society – will make living in the industrialized ‘first world’ a sheer nuisance, a stressful dance on toes, as the emperor’s proverbial Damocles Sword hangs intimidatingly above us.
https://i1.wp.com/www.globalresearch...-7-300x199.jpg

Washington may have one last joker up its sleeve – reintroducing the ‘gold standard’, the very gold standard that Nixon abandoned in 1971. The US have also been accumulating huge amounts of gold over the past 25 years. A new US dollar gold standard would most likely be set at a ratio that would wipe out all US debt, including future ‘unmet obligations’ (GAO – General Accounting Office) of about US$ 125 trillion.

It would attempt to keep the western industrialized world in Washington’s orbit, but might lose most of the developing world owning natural resources coveted by the west. These countries oppressed and colonized for centuries are likely to gravitate to the new China-Russia alliance – leaving the outsourced and outwitted west alone without workforce – and with a massive but outdated military power.

To counter the build-up of this criminal last ditch sham by the western Zionist banking czars, China and Russia have been preparing over the last few years an independent financial system, delinked from the US dollar and which now incorporates the BRICS, the SCO nations, as well as the Eurasian Economic Union.

This association of countries and economies account for about half the world’s population and at least one third of the globe’s economic output; a fact totally ignored by the mainstream media, for obvious reasons. The Machiavellian sinking ship does not want its passengers to jump to safety.

The 19 April 2016, announcement by China of its gold-backed yuan, no longer convertible into dollars, may just trigger an economic shift into the ‘eastern camp’.

Many countries are wary and tired of western exploitation, enslavement, threats of sanctions, oppression and an ever present danger of invasion by the killing machine. The decoupling of the dollar by a third of the world economy may indeed open new horizons, creating new alliances, new hope for a more equal and just world.

COMMENTS FROM BENJAMINIS: You have just SEEN into the FUTURE - PREPARE

https://wolfstreet.com/2018/03/23/ch...us-treasuries/

https://www.patreon.com/posts/stock-...aOiZDJaVVLfpA0

https://www.birchgold.com/news/risk-...27d51-74825921


From Birch Gold Group
This past week, the Fed raised interest rates by 0.25%. The effective Fed fund rate is now 1.63% – the highest since the big market crash of 2008.


However, it could get as high as 3.375% by 2020. The decade 2020 – 2029 could see a high-tech version of the early-1980’s when home loans fetched interest rates up to 18%.

It was only a couple years ago when raising rates seemed like a “boy who cried wolf” idea. Now we’re seeing one rate hike after the other, with two more expected for 2018.

Does the Fed have something up their sleeve, or are they hanging on to false hope?

The Fed is Either in Denial or Misleading Us About the Economy

While the Fed’s decision to raise rates was predictable, the rest of their announcement wasn’t.

In the recent FOMC report the Fed paints a rosy picture about the state of our economic situation. They stated the outlook has “strengthened in recent months.”

Then they claimed a better unemployment rate at 4.1%. And it is, if you’re only reporting the statistics that make things look good.

We know that rate is misleading for one simple fact…

Anyone who is not looking for work is not considered part of the calculation.

As more and more people leave the workforce altogether, and give up looking for work, they get culled from the calculation reported in the media which skews the statistic.

The truth is, the unemployment rate is much higher than the media reports. It’s actually closer to 8.2% as of February 2018.

So is the Fed in denial about the state of our economy? Is it telling white lies? Or a combination of both?

Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but in 2016 Richard Fisher might have given a clue to what seems like a knowing manipulation of the stock market to the upside…

What the Fed did — and I was part of that group — is we front-loaded a tremendous market rally, starting in 2009.

It’s sort of what I call the “reverse Wimpy factor” — give me two hamburgers today for one tomorrow.

Mr. Fisher continued…

“I was warning my colleagues, don’t go wobbly if we have a 10-20% correction at some point…. Everybody you talk to … has been warning that these markets are heavily priced.”

This initial rate hike is just the beginning of how sloppy economic policies like bailouts, quantitative easing, and out-of-control debt “management” could play out.

More Rate Hikes On the Way

This recent report showed two more rate hikes on the way. But quite a few experts are predicting as many as 4 increases this year.

Jeffrey Cleveland, chief economist at Payden & Rygel, said “I think this does cement the four rate hikes, given the inflation backdrop”. He claims the hot inflation “helps the Fed tell their story that the Fed has to move up the funds rate in anticipation of higher inflation because inflation moves with a lag”.

According to Michael Pearce, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, the rate could be as high as 2.5% by the end of 2018, and could continue to grow after that.

So we’re in for a bumpy economic ride, and the ride starts now.


The Economic “Band-Aid” Might Finally Get Ripped Off

Markets go through cycles. But after 2008, if it seemed like the Fed wasn’t handling that severe correction properly … well, you’re right. They weren’t.

Bailing out big banks? Dropping interest rates to zero? Injecting billions of dollars of liquidity into the financial system?

It’s time to pay the piper. What goes up artificially, could come crashing down harder than the U.S. has ever seen.

It seems like the U.S. tried to put on an economic band-aid, and now that band-aid is getting ripped off.

All of the Fed’s less-than-ethical ways of handling the economic crisis are about to be adjusted for.

The Effects of the Fed’s Troubling Decisions

The U.S. economy is on the verge of being pushed off a cliff:

The entire pension system could detonate.

The dollar is weakening, and likely will be replaced as the world petrocurrency.

Bond yields could soon break their “safety seal” of the last 5 years.

The U.S. debt keeps rising, and paying the interest alone might crash the economy.

All of this is happening at the same time as the U.S. economic “band-aid” gets ripped off in 2018. The results could be catastrophic, putting the wealth of American individuals at risk.

But there is a golden lining…
The U.S. might have ditched the gold standard in the 1970’s, but with gold making a return to world headlines we could see a resurgence. With this comeback, the value of physical precious metals like gold could rise dramatically.

Get in front of this trend, and you might be able to stop the bleeding before it starts.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/global...pnSb6NLxk8mOPU

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2...m/#more-173199

Now it begins. They bought the February 8th dip just like the previous 40 odd plungelets in the stock averages since the March 2009 bottom, expecting another ka-ching in the easy money lane of the casino.

But this time it didn’t work. The market had been retreating for days and then tumbled 724 Dow points yesterday allegedly on the Donald’s $50 billiontariff assault on the China trade.
https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defa...?itok=S6HfRzGq
Not surprisingly, the overnight follow-through in Asia was downright bloody with Shanghai down 3.4%, the Nikkei lower by 4.5% and China’s NASDAQ equivalent off by more than 5%.

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defa...?itok=jrHJ3n0i
But this isn’t just a case of nerves in the trading pits about a potential trade war, nor is it one of those pauses that refresh from the Wall Street bromide cabinet. And it’s most definitely not the shaking out of “weak hands” that the talking heads of bubblevision trot out when all else fails to explain a swoon in the averages.

Instead, we’d say it marks the rise of the Trembling Hands. And notwithstanding another dead cat bounce or two, they will soon populate the remnant still in the casino.

That’s because there is a lot more bad stuff going on than the Donald’s reality show version of a trade war. In fact, the better word for the latter would be a “Trade Bazar” based on yesterday’s announcements of extensive interim exemptions from the steel tariffs.

After you set aside all of the Western hemisphere producers, the entire EU, South Korea, Australia and sundry others, you have exempted upwards of 28 million tons of the 36 million tons of US steel imports. Except that each and every one of these steel suppliers have been invited to hire the beltway’s best lobbyists, lawyers and influence peddlers to bargain with the Donald’s henchman for the next 60 days on trade concessions in lieu of the 25% tariff.









After you set aside all of the Western hemisphere producers, the entire EU, South Korea, Australia and sundry others, you have exempted upwards of 28 million tons of the 36 million tons of US steel imports. Except that each and every one of these steel suppliers have been invited to hire the beltway’s best lobbyists, lawyers and influence peddlers to bargain with the Donald’s henchman for the next 60 days on trade concessions in lieu of the 25% tariff.


Oh, and then there will be extensions and extensions of the extensions whenever the bargainers appear to be making “progress”.

Needless to say, this emerging “art of the deal” version of protectionism will make the existing Swamp look tame by comparison.
That’s because steel is just for starters. There are apparently more than 1,000 products on the list to be hit by the $50 billion China tariff, and the importers of each item will be hiring-up their own beltway bargaining squads. And we are talking about big hitters like Wal-Mart and Apple with virtual armies of beltway bandits at their beck and call.

And the same goes for the US exporters who are about to get slammed by targeted foreign retaliation such as the wine, fruits, nuts and seamless steel pipe exporters already named by China—to say nothing of the aircraft parts/module suppliers and the soybean farmers, among numerous beefier others, next in the line of fire.

It would seem that at a minimum, Barnum & Bailey retired their 3-ring circus a tad too soon. But there is surely no doubt that the 15,000 or so Washington hands working the foreign representation circuit, whether registered as lobbyists or not, will soon be thinking they died and went to racketeers heaven. It will be a war fought in the trenches of K-street based on bullets bulging with green stuff.

We mention the emergence of the Donald’s Trade Bazaar because the usual suspects are already sounding the “all clear” down on Wall Street. It will be a “pleasant little war” of no special moment—so its time to buy the dips yet again.

Or as veteran Wall Street hand, Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman, noted:
“People are presenting this as it’s a trade war. I don’t think this is a trade war…..We have been to this dance before.”

“Countries will respond with some symbolic retaliation on a small number of goods that make a little more than a rounding error in bilateral trade, take some measures to ensure that the defection of the U.S. does not lead to an import surge, and appeal to the conflict resolution mechanism at the WTO.”

Next?
Well, yes, next is exactly our point. The Imperial City is becoming swamped in conflict, dysfunction, distraction, distemper and massive decision circuit overload.

We call it State-Wreck and its been heading this way for a long-time. But the Donald is the coup d’ grace in flesh and blood. He will soon have the Imperial City tied in knots, and that’s even if he doesn’t fire Robert Mueller, which most surely he should and might.

Either way, there is a massive partisan blood-letting coming and the ordinarily trans-partisan Deep State will be right in the middle of the brawl. That’s because partisan Democratic hacks—-led by the detestable former CIA director John Brennan—- got way beyond their skis, and baldly high-jacked the tools of the Deep State in a desperate effort to prevent the election and inauguration of Donald Trump.

But the unveiling of what lies in its vasty deep is now beyond recall. The very real attempt by the Obama/Clinton leadership of the CIA/FBI/NSC/NSA/DNI/State/Homeland Security complex to meddle in the 2016 election against the Donald will all come out—-even as the Dems and their legal trolls on Mueller’s witch-hunting squad become ever more shrill in their McCarthyite hysteria about the Russians.

Moreover, the coming quasi-civil war will potentially bring both indictments of Obama’s election meddlers and a counter-reaction from a Mueller based campaign to oust the Donald. Indeed, what portends in the months ahead is more incendiary than anything to rock the Imperial City during the last century, at least.
But here’s the thing. This is not happening in a splendid vacuum with no import for the other end of the Acela Corridor. In fact, the entire state-driven economic and financial fantasy that has been building for more than 30 years is now squarely in harm’s way.

The former always depended upon Washington based stimulus, subventions, bailouts and booty. But now having attained an asymptotic high, the Great Bubble is stranded with no Washington fixers to keep it going; instead, it is fixing to slide into a long night of deflation, disorder and decay.
That is to say, we printed 2870 on the S&P 500, $19.7 trillion of GDP and $97 trillion of household net worth, but those stats weren’t the embodiment of sustainable capitalist prosperity; they were the fruit of a $68 trillion national LBO, a central bank-driven financial asset bubble that has no historical antecedent and the rise of an Imperial Deep State in Washington that is a mortal threat to both democracy and national solvency.

We ruminate on these large matters because in the last day or two signs of a new phase of crisis have proliferated.

Not the least of these is last night’s unseemly passage of a $1.3 trillionomnibus appropriations bill which encompassed 2,232 pages of fiscal largesse. While it funded every single agency of government at startlingly higher levels, not a single member of Congress had actually read it during the 24 hours between when it was printed and when it was enacted.

More on the measure’s mountains of domestic pork in next weeks postings—except to note that the Tea Party fiscal opposition has now been crushed once and for all. In fact, the action last night elevated the entire appropriated side of the Federal budget to a level that will add $4.2 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
Still, the heart of the bill—a $695 billion defense appropriation for the current fiscal year—is the real tell. That represents a staggering $80 billionannual increase over the previous DOD spending caps—meaning that the Warfare State has busted loose from any vestige of restraint and rationality.

And it comes at the very moment that Imperial Washington has descended into outright bellicosity on all points of the political spectrum. Trump has taken himself hostage to the neocon interventionist establishment he campaigned against, while the Dems and progressive left have descended so deep into anti-Russian hysteria that they have become nothing less than handmaidens of the Warfare State.

Indeed, whatever impulse the Donald may have had toward curtailment of the America’s imperial interventions was obliterated on Thursday when he announced that his war-hawk general at the national security advisor post, H.R. McMaster, would be replaced by a downright horror show.

We refer to former UN Ambassador John Bolton. You really can’t say anything bad enough about him except that he is one war-loving sicko, who has rarely meet an unfriendly country he didn’t want to bomb or a un-compliant regime he didn’t want to change. That includes North Korea, Iran, Syria and Russia for starters.
But it’s worse. Now that he has installed Mike Pompeo at the State Department, Bloody Gina Haspel at the CIA and Bolton next door to the Oval Office, the Donald has surrounded himself with the neocon war department. It would literally be impossible to find a worse trio of militaristic interventionists, nor is it possible to ignore the immediate implications of their appointments.

As we shall lay out in Part 2, the trio and the Donald will soon be ending the one constructive thing Obama did during his eight years—-the nuke agreement with Iran. And that foolish action, in turn, will bust the middle east and the wider world wide open. It may even lead to military confrontation with Russia.

Good Evening Forex Traders

You can see my balance now at $57,544.00 US Dollars.

I might start treading again after 2:00 AM on Monday , March 26, 2018 New York time.

If I trade I will SHORT US 30 , 100 units and SP500 , 50 units.


Benjaminis

http://www.marketanthropology.com/20...nthropology%29

Sunday, March 25, 2018
For What It's Worth...

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QzwN0XJnI...59.48%2BPM.png

I could probably count on one hand the number of songs – that for whatever reason, I might stomach on repeat indefinitely. For What It’s Worth – by Buffalo Springfield, is one of them. I say this, because the opening refrain from the more than 50-year young classic, “There’s something happening here/ What it is ain’t exactly clear,” has been rattling behind my thoughts over the past month or so as I consider a few key markets and the mounting opaqueness of the current macro environment. Somehow I’m sure Steven Stills would be immensely disillusioned with the connection, perhaps something along the lines of – “It’s a protest song, pal – not a meditation on markets.”

That being said, and for what it’s worth… this uncertainly is more typically the case when strategists contemplate late-cycle market dynamics – and likely even more so today in the wake of less conventional monetary and fiscal policy approaches that have clearly muddled future growth and inflation expectations over the past decade.

What I’m struggling with presently, is in light of the most recent and once again tepid inflation data through February, the reality remains that for all of their extraordinary efforts, central banks worldwide have had relatively marginal influence on raising inflation and real growth. This truth is becoming harder to disregard with each passing monthly report, because despite a US economy operating at or beyond full employment – and within a mature and now synchronized global expansion, inflationary pressures have yet to materially surprise to the upside.

Although markets became turbulent in February as attention turned to rates and the long-end of the curve, real yields also rose swiftly as growth and inflation expectations underwhelmed and were outstripped by nominal yields. Historically, real yields typically tend to rise with equities as growth expectations improve in the economy. While admittedly the window for interpretation is quite narrow and opaque, one could make the case that the opposite might be playing out today.

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In fact, when we look back at the past two years where the Fed has moved off of ZIRP and away from the extraordinary policy accommodations extended after the global financial crisis, real yields and benchmarks of underlying financial conditions have broadly declined even as the Fed has raised rates – arguably, because inflation and growth expectations rose more.

Whether this was more or less a transient psychological boost away from the crisis policy stance maintained in the markets, rather than a material structural improvement in the economy – will be left to the historians and future noble laureates to debate and wrestle over in the decades to come. What’s concerning today as investors, however, is what this market dynamic might imply about the underlying health of the economy and the Fed’s resolute focus on maintaining future rate hike expectations this year and over the long run, despite the reality of underwhelming inflation and growth conditions.

Moreover, considering the President’s recent tack towards more partisan economic advisors – like Larry Kudlow and David Malpass, the fantasy of higher growth expectations in an already mature and likely waning expansion becomes a dangerous strategy to double-down on. While anyone that works within and around finance will be mistaken regularly by the relative uncertainly of markets and forecasts, both of these economists have found themselves pushing policy initiatives and perspectives on the wrong side of history on more than a few pivotal occasions. We expect Kudlow’s latest outlook of 4 to 5 percent growth, and that – “We’re on the front end of the biggest investment boom in probably 30 to 40 years”, to have the same accuracy as his late-cycle predictions in 2007 and 2008.

“There’s no recession coming. The pessimistas were wrong. It’s not going to happen. . . . The Bush boom is alive and well. It’s finishing up its sixth consecutive year with more to come.” – December 7, 2007

“Banks are taking significant steps to repair their balance sheets. Even though some people might not be happy with the speed, the reality is things are improving.” – January 16, 2008
“I’m going to bet that the economy will be rebounding sometime this summer, if not sooner. We are in a slow patch. That’s all. It’s nothing to get up in arms about.” – February 5, 2008
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? – John Maynard Keynes

While I’m certain Kudlow and Malpass could benefit from more than a little reflection and consideration on why their perspectives on the economy and markets have been so consistently misplaced, we ourselves are now considering the idea that inflation might continue to underwhelm and how that might affect our market outlook and investment posture going forward.

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To be honest, our long-standing belief that nominal yields would continue to remain historically low over the long-term and across the transitional divide of the yield and growth supercycle – is more consistent with the current conundrum of relatively lackluster inflation and growth conditions, despite a mature economic expansion with historically low unemployment.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n0Fm66NpP...37.41%2BAM.png

The idea that a late cycle pulse of inflation could surprise to the upside was in part derived from our expectations with the US dollar and real yields, which did in fact roll over from their respective cyclical highs.


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In short, we’ve speculated that the dollar breakdown could precipitate a downstream condition where the reach of inflation outstrips growth, creating a tailwind for hard assets like gold that typically gain in a declining real yield market environment. With strong consideration to the most recent inflation data and trends – both domestically and abroad, we’re open to the idea that inflationary pressures may have run their course – for now.

From a historic comparative perspective, we’ve viewed the current market environment against the template of the mid-1940’s, where a teflon equity market cycle greatly supported by the Fed and Treasury was eventually destabilized by less accommodative policy and surging inflation. Although it’s too early to determine which way – or under which economic and market conditions real yields trend over the next year, it’s worth reevaluating the 1937 analog that has been batted around by many over the past several years as a possible period to consider for prospective insights.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3BKysT4uf...38.22%2BPM.png

Besides the more typical parallels drawn between the two major post boom and bust periods (e.g. ZIRP and QE – see Ray Dalio's comprehensive read from 2015), what’s interesting to note is when you look back at the mid 1930’s you find that real yields also moved lower – perhaps under the persuasion of a similar psychological boost – as the Fed began to tighten in the summer of 1936.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YhcOYEm73...49.16%2BAM.png

Bridgewater Associates, 3/11/15
Following the second increase in reserves in March 1937, both short and long-term yields spiked. It wasn’t until the Fed tightened a third and final time in May 1937 that real yields began to trend higher, finally upsetting the ebullient swell in risky assets that had driven equities up 300 percent from the crisis lows of 1932.

Admittedly, I panned the comparison over the past several years, predominantly because I viewed the markets further out on the long-term yield trough, and where equity market valuations (as defined by CAPE) were also downstream and beneath the secondary highs in 2007. In hindsight – and if history continues to resonate a certain cyclical pattern and rhythm, this perspective didn’t take into account the expanded proportions of the current long-term yield/growth cycle, that as I’ve described in past notes appears to influence a relatively proportional expansion of cyclical moves in CAPE.
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https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gHFuCaURj...58.50%2BPM.png

For example, the previous long-term cycle (as measured trough to trough – annually) stretched 40 years, with estimates of a symmetrical retracement decline of the current cycle stretching over two times that span. Considering the fact that every long-term cycle has trended below the previous over the past several hundred years, it’s not a stretch to believe the current span could extend even greater than twofold as long. Furthermore, the move in CAPE from its secular trough in 1982 – which also corresponded with the secular high in yields – to its secular peak in 2000, is 2.25 times the span of the previous cycle between 1921 and 1929. Applying this ratio to the span of the previous cycle between the secular valuation high in 1929 and the secondary high in 1937 (8x2.25), brings us to a secondary high in 2018 – as measured January 1st of each year.

Granted, there is always a real risk of attempting to solve a puzzle that may not exist or be deciphered; we predominantly apply this kind of long-term comparative reasoning as a orienting backdrop for contrast and color against current market conditions. At the end of the day we still strongly believe in the inherent behavioral nature that markets cyclically express themselves as, and typically find greater utility than folly in filtering our thoughts through the wide-angle prism of history.
____________________________

So, for what it’s worth… Despite our concerns with a shift higher in real yields, over the short-term we still expect gold to be under the dollar’s persuasion, which technically appears set for new lows. As we described in our note last month, we would be looking for a positive divergence in momentum from the US dollar index’s February low as suggestion that a more durable interim low is possibly in play.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C14Y8a31v...52.24%2BPM.png

Consequently, we are looking for gold to once again test its cycle highs – as it has rallied to varying degrees several weeks out after each of the previous five rate hikes. Should our concern that inflationary pressures are easing and that real yields have more room to move higher over an intermediate-term timeframe, we suspect gold to trade only marginally around the July 2016 highs, with likely greater volatility developing before a more lasting retracement decline would begin. In this respect, it wouldn’t surprise us to see gold trade in a widening range between 1400-1300 over the next several weeks.

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That said, should these concerns be misplaced, we will be looking for gold to rally staunchly above the previous highs and not look back. Additionally, we would also like to again see silver begin to outperform gold, as it typically has under greater inflationary pressures. What’s interesting to note is that since the dollar’s breakdown over the past year, the silver:gold ratio has trended lower with the dollar, very much displaying the opposite dynamic of what was found between 2010 and 2011, where the dollar was plumbing the trough of its long-term range and silver cresting at a cyclical high. All things considered, we will be closing watching how precious metals behave over the next several weeks for greater intermarket insights.

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Generally speaking, our newfound concerns with the direction of real yields and the markets perhaps more juvenile disposition within the long-term yield trough, does not greatly influence our relative performance expectations across most markets. It predominantly impacts our absolute performance outlooks within an intermediate-term timeframe, specifically with respect towards gold and the US dollar.

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We see no reason to become more bullish on equities here and still believe the parabolic breakdown will be respected, with lower lows and lower highs throughout this year. If anything, we’re leaning more bearish on an absolute performance basis towards equities – more bullish on long-term Treasuries, and still believe gold will strongly outperform equities across both intermediate and long-term timeframes.

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2...r/#more-173171

I agree with Stephen Lendman (below) that the Russian government’s efforts to deal with the West on the basis of evidence and law are futile. There is only one Western foreign policy and it is Washington’s.

Washington’s “diplomacy” consists only of lies and force. It was a reasonable decision for Russia to attempt diplomatic engagement with the West on the basis of facts, evidence, and law, but it has been to no avail. For Russia to continue on this failed course is risky, not only to Russia but to the entire world.


Indeed, nothing is more dangerous to the world than Russia’s self-delusion about “Western partners.” Russia only has Western enemies. These enemies intend to remove the constraint that Russia (and China) place on Washington’s unilateralism. The various incidents staged by the West, such as the Skirpal poisoning, Syrian use of chemical weapons, Malaysian airliner, and false charges, such as Russian invasion of Ukraine, are part of the West’s determined intent to isolate Russia, deny her any influence, and prepare the insouciant Western populations for conflict with Russia.



To avoid war Russia should turn her back, but not her eyes, on the West, stop responding to false charges, evict all Western embassies and every other kind of presence including Western investment, and focus on relations with China and the East.

Russia’s attempt to pursue mutual interests with the West only results in more orchestrated incidents. The Russian government’s failure to complete the liberation of Syria has given Washington Syrian territory from which to renew the conflict. The failure to accept Luhansk and Donetsk into Russia has provided Washington with the opportunity to arm and train the Ukrainian army and renew the assault on the Russian populations of Ukraine.

Washington has gained many proxies for its wars against Russia and intends to use them to wear down Russia. Israel has demanded that Washington renew the attacks on Iran, and Trump is complying. Russia faces simultaneous attacks on Syria, Iran, and the Donatsk and Luhansk Republics, along with troubles in former Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union and intensified accusations from Washington and NATO.


The crazed neoconservatives, such as Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton, think that Russia will buckle under the strains, sue for peace, and accept US hegemony. If this assumption is incorrect, the outcome of Washington’s hostile actions against Russia is likely to be nuclear war. The side that Stephen Lendman and I are talking is neither the side of Washington nor Russia, but the side of humanity and all life against nuclear war.


How the Russian government could ignore the clearly stated US hegemony in the 1992 Wolfowitz Doctrine is a mystery. The Wolfowitz doctrine states that the US’s primary goal is “to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union.”

The doctrine stresses that “this is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to general global power.” In the Middle East and Southwest Asia, Washington’s “overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve US and Western access to the region’s oil.” The doctrine also states that the US will act to restrain India’s alleged “hegemonic aspirations” in South Asia, and warns of potential conflicts requiring military intervention with Cuba and China.

By “threat” Wolfowitz does not mean a military threat. By “threat” he means a multi-polar world that constrains Washington’s unilateralism. The doctrine states that the US will permit no alternative to US unilateralism. The doctrine is a statement that Washington intends hegemony over the entire world. There has been no repudiation of this doctrine. Indeed, we see its implementation in the long list of false accusations and demonizations of Russia and her leader and in the false charges against Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Venezuela, China, Iran, and North Korea.

If Russia wants to be part of the West, Russia should realize that the price is the same loss of sovereignty that characterizes Washington’s European vassal states.
Neocon Takeover of Washington Completed
by Stephen Lendman


http://stephenlendman.org/2018/03/ne...ton-completed/
Pompeo at State and Bolton as Trump’s national security advisor completed the neocon takeover of Trump’s geopolitical agenda. Wall Street is running domestic affairs.


The combination represents a major setback for world peace and stability. Greater aggression is likely, along with the triumph of neoliberal harshness over social justice, presenting a dismal and frightening state of affairs.

What to expect ahead? War in Syria is more likely to escalate than wind down, an unthinkable US/Russia confrontation ominously possible.
The Iran nuclear deal is either doomed, or likely to be gutted by Washington, accomplishing the same thing — with only tepid, ineffective opposition from P5+1 countries Britain, France and Germany.

The EU most often bends to Washington’s will when enough pressure is applied.

A relatively quiet Ukraine period could explode in greater Kiev war on Donbass, US-supplied heavy weapons and training aiding the aggression.

A Kim Jong-un/Trump summit is likely to fail to step back from the brink on the Korean peninsula, falsely blaming the DPRK for hostile US actions.

It’ll prove again Washington can never be trusted, its commitments are consistently breached when conflicting with its imperial objectives.

A possible trade war with China would be hugely destabilizing, along with being economically harmful to both countries and the global economy.

Further EU/US sanctions and other harsh measures are likely to be imposed on Russia over the Skripal affair, an escalated attempt to isolate the country and inflict economic harm – despite Western nations knowing Moscow had nothing to do with what happened.

Theresa May-led Tories are considering tough actions against Russia over the incident. So are other EU countries and Washington.

On Friday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the Trump administration is considering a range of options against Moscow over the Skripal affair – “both to demonstrate our solidarity with our ally and to hold Russia accountable for its clear breach of international norms and agreements.”

No breach occurred. Neocons running US foreign policy don’t let facts and rule of law principles compromise their imperial objectives.

Theresa May provided Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron with cooked results of Britain’s investigation so far into the Skripal affair — “convincing” them the false accusations are “well-grounded,” despite knowing UK claims are pure rubbish.

Macron issued a deplorable statement, saying “there is no…plausible explanation” for what happened to the Skripals other than Kremlin responsibility – abdicating to US/UK-led Russophobic hostility.

On the world stage, Trump is hostage to neocon dark forces controlling him. Relations with Russia, China, and other sovereign independent nations are likely to worsen, not improve.

Unthinkable nuclear war remains an ominous possibility. Russia’s only option is building on its alliance with China and other allies, staying committed to respond firmly to US-led Western harshness against its sovereignty.

Virtually no possibility for improved Russian relations with Washington and Britain exists. It’s fruitless pursuing it.

German and other European dependence on Russian energy, mainly gas, offers only slim hope for improving things with these countries.

Looking ahead, prospects for world peace and stability are dismal. US-led Western hostility toward Russia could erupt in open conflict by accident or design.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...sury-purchases

Good Morning

Very Important Video on Game Changer from The Money GPS

https://www.patreon.com/themoneygps/posts


Benjaminis

https://www.finviz.com/futures.ashx

Good Morning

The first thing that needs to be done before the Forex trading day starts is to determine if we have RISK ON or RISK OFF.

We look at the US 30 (DOW JONES 30) Futures since the North America Equity Markets only open at 9:30 AM New York Time.

Have a look.

https://www.finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=YM&p=m5

On a 5 minute chart we can see that since 4 PM yesterday that Futures have moved up and at the time of this post they are UP 279 basis points so right now we have RISK ON and we have NO TRADES to put on.

Now we look at the main Forex Pairs.

https://www.finviz.com/forex.ashx

Look at USD/JPY now ...

https://www.finviz.com/forex.ashx

Notice how it moves UP (Gets Weaker) as we have RISK ON as the CORRELATION and the safe short term parking is not needed with RISK ON.

Any questions ?

I will return later this morning as we reach the 8:30 AM period when the first data news is released for public consumption.


Benjaminis

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ops+to+zero%29

https://www.themaven.net/mishtalk/ec...G0eVl0oK0ZuMfA

So when I saw Dow had gone UP TOO TOO MUCH ... At 10:22 AM New York Time , I shorted 100 units of US 30 and covered or closed my short as you can see from my SCREENSHOT , 2 minutes later for a Net Profit of $270.00 US Dollars.

https://www.finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=YM&p=m5

5 minute chart from FINVIZ on US 30


Benjaminis HAPPY !!!