Money Flow Trading Method along with Risk Management

loveandpeace

I started this thread on December 3, 2016. It has been worthwhile as I was able to prove 100% some Forex traders can be taught how to become winning Forex traders.

However there also has been some discoveries of human nature. I do my best work when there is interaction between the teacher and the trader. I cannot even on two hands count how often I asked readers to register and post. I also learned something given away for FREE is worthless to the person getting the FREE information.

So from here on in until Istop poting on this thread regularly I have no time to answer questions or prove anything to anyone. I am the real deal.

So anyone wanting to determine if they can be taught how to consistenly make money trading Forex needs to register for my 90 day Forex course.

The cost of registration is $500 US dollars with $250.00 payable via E Transfer and the balance after the 90 days is up only if the pupil got his or her monies worth of which they can decide. So the only cost to start is $250 US Dollars. That gives registered students 24/7 access and all their questions will be answered. If people do that then they can ask me questions in live time or post anytime. My corporate website has been contracted for development and beta testing. Until then I will post and teach from here.

I hope that answers all your questions.


Benjamin
BWM

Good Morning

NFP number in 20 minutes. Since it is a number manipulated we can NEVER know for sure so I closed another position and now have three open positions.

My GUESS number is 100,000 or less. It could be higher however my gut feeling is it will be that number or less. Last month I GUESSED exactly right at 75,000 new jobs created.

I have now done 28 Forex trades in a row that are winning profitable trades. So stay tuned and if you have questions or comments please post them on my thread.

Thank you.


Benjamin

World News

https://finviz.com/news.ashx?v=2

World Futures

https://finviz.com/futures.ashx

Forex Prices

https://finviz.com/forex.ashx

Cryptocurrency Prices

https://finviz.com/crypto.ashx

Bond & Notes Charts

https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=BONDS&p=d1

Charts 10 Year Notes

https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=ZN&p=d1

Charts 5 Year Notes

https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=ZF&p=d1

Charts GOLD

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

Charts DJIA DOW 30

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

Charts 2 Year Notes

https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=ZT&p=d1

Charts USD

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

Charts Euro EUR/USD

https://finviz.com/forex_charts.ashx?t=EURUSD&tf=m5

Charts British Pound GBP/USD

https://finviz.com/forex_charts.ashx?t=GBPUSD&tf=m5

Charts YEN USD/JPY

https://finviz.com/forex_charts.ashx?t=USDJPY&tf=m5

Final Report for Today.

As everyone can see , I have closed ALL my open positions and now sit all in cash. The number (FAKE) was so good that now the FED is in an amazing box. They CANNOT or should not CUT rates in 12 days. So what will they do ? Now the so called trading experts are starting to think that now they might not CUT so that is BAD for the markets and you now see the markets are down.

If the number was closer to my GUESS number of 100,000 then the markets would have all been up and hit new all time highs. So that is why 95% of all Forex traders both retail and commercial lose trading Forex.

If you are like 75% of Forex traders and mainly use technical indicators all you are doing ensuring losses. Technical Indicators on their own are just XRAY's at that moment. They no longer can predict anything.

It was not always this way however now it is. Risk On and Risk Off and as you can see a complete knowledge of many factors is what you need in your toolcase. Of course you still need to have the DISCIPLINE to control your Fear, Greed and most important of all, Your EGO !!!

Have a great weekend. I welcome all comments and will reply to any comments or questions. You have an excellent opportunity to become wealthy if you learn this unique proven Forex trading method and have the interest and the desire to follow through.

Benjamin
Bruce

This is the screenshot for loveandpeace. I have been teaching him my method of Forex trading and now he has started to really get the grasp of it. You can see by his results that if you have the skills and knowledge then you can achieve incredible results. I will ask loveandpeace to add this comments on my thread of how he has reached this excellent level of accomplishment.

Have a positive weekend.


Benjamin
Bruce

I am at work, so cannot go in details,

Regarding my performance!!!!, still struggling, every day I learn something from BenjaminIs’s posts.

To cut the long story short, he( BenjaminIs ) is the man, my Mentor, I’ve never seen/found any other
Like him. I wish I could find me earlier. Anyway it’s never too late. I opened my Account on Monday,
July 01st, and I have made $2000+ so far. Thanks Mr. Bruce.

Excellent Work, peaceandlove

You have made your 5% for the month in a few days. Please share with me and everyone else your thoughts on what I taught you and anything else that you care to add.

Thank you

loveandpeace


Bruce

plz see my Post 6810. Thanks

I have. Thank you.


Bruce

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...ops+to+zero%29

Decide for yourself.


1. Unresolved political conflicts. Ask yourself: which conflicts have been finally resolved since the 2007 crisis? In the Middle East? In the Balkans? In the former Soviet Union? (in Ukraine, the proxy war of the EU against Russia?) In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya? In Sudan? There is no end to this list. The UNO, NATO, the international coalitions for the “defence of human rights” or interventions of the major powers for the defence of their own interests in a region (e.g. Russia and the USA in Syria) only bring more unrest and destabilization in the individual regions and cost the Western world pots of money. Aggressive foreign policy by the great powers and threats to geopolitics will continue to put a massive strain on the world’s economy and pose a risk to investors.


2. The most powerful countries in the world have been arming themselves for years. World military spending increased by 2.6 percent last year to around $1.82 trillion – a new high since 1988. The mainstream media, unlike in the sixties of the last century, are reluctant to talk about the new Cold War because they are fully engaged in creating the delusion of a united, peaceful humanity.


3. Since its inception, Marxism has been an ideology that has not inscribed itself as anything positive in the history of any country. Because of Marxist ideas, more than 100 million people died in Europe in the 20th century (according to the calculations of the French historian Stéphane Courtois). The Western elites remain untouched by this and continue to pay homage to the fathers of destruction, using their language, their ideas, speaking of internationalism, equality of all peoples and races, unification of all nations, support for the poor, who are supposed to reach the same level as the rich, support for the people who disregard the genuine values of Western civilization (LGBT and the new letters constantly being added). Citizens of EU countries and others who do not believe in the harmfulness of such ideology should rather take to heart the latest communist miracle – Venezuela. Otherwise they will soon be painfully confronted with the consequences of the immigration policy, the green lie, the wrong social policy, which does not care about just redistribution of wealth and the whole wrong foreign and energy policy of the left-green scene. Even now, the middle and lower classes in France, Italy and other countries are suffering because of the left-green ideology that for years has been causing their purchasing power and standard of living to fall (see Yellow Vests).


4. The people who have been a major force for the development of the modern world for 200 years, the white people in Europe, America, Russia and South Africa, and the indigenous peoples of the most creative nations in Asia – Japan and South Korea – are shrinking. The new patents, scientific discoveries and industrial innovations will not come from Africa or Southeast Asia; the immigrants will, without, however, exerting a positive influence on the development of Western thought.


5. Many countries are replenishing their gold reserves. Especially China, Russia and Turkey. All three countries will become independent of the dollar in the near future. They must be able to defend the value of their currencies in the event of the next conflict, which is why they are increasing their reserves of the yellow metal. As the next crisis approaches, the price of gold also rises.


6. Cryptocurrencies are gaining in importance as safe havens; large corporations (Facebook and Amazon) and states (Venezuela) are also creating new cryptocurrencies, which can be interpreted as distrust of the existing financial system, which may soon collapse.4)


7. The mountain of debt is growing all over the world, the indebtedness of individual countries and their citizens has long since exceeded the criteria set by the IMF and other institutions. Example: “Japan’s national debt is 236.4% of GDP. This means that the entire Japanese economy would have to work for 2364 years in order to completely transfer the proceeds to the creditors of the Japanese state in order to pay off the national debt.”5)While according to the euro convergence criteria the debt should not exceed 60% of GDP, in 2017 the national debt of Greece was 181.8% and that of Italy – 131.8%. The economic crisis in Southern Europe did not end; it was only swept under the carpet for a short time. The global banking system is so closely networked and filled with opaque financial products – even more so than during the 2007 crisis – in which over-indebtedness is hidden that now a small collapse, for example in the Italian banking sector, will drag everyone into the abyss.


8. A prelude to recession is also the so-called yield curve, which shows the ratio between interest rates on bonds with short and long maturities. At present, the yield curve of US government bonds is inverted, i.e. short-term interest rates rise above long-term, which is considered by economic experts to be one of the safest indicators of future economic weakness.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...images/8-9.jpg


9. While the stock markets are in euphoria, there are being published the worst indicators of economic activity for years (PMI). They are doing particularly badly recently in Asia and Australia. South Korean exports have been recognised for years as another early indicator of economic trends and, as they are also falling, this points at least to a recession in world trade.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...mages/9-10.jpg


10. The environment has long since reached the limits of its capacity. For 20 or 30 years, the dirtiest, most polluting, resource- and people-destroying industry has been consistently relocated to emerging countries and the Third World. Now these countries are standing up and no longer want to be trash cans and cheap producers on the planet. In 2016, the EU shipped 1.6 million tons of garbage to the largest People’s Republic of Asia, and now the government in Beijing no longer wants to take over the garbage dumps from the West.7)The environmental problems in China will affect entire value chains all over the world.


11. The world’s water reserves are shrinking. Global freshwater consumption will increase by 300% in the next 30 years. In the year 2025, 3.1 billion people will be affected by water shortages.8)The battle for water is the background to many political and ethnic conflicts (see Israel and Palestine, Sudan and other African countries). Global warming has been affecting agricultural production in Europe, Russia, Brazil and the USA for years. As a result, the prices of food and tap water are rising, which in the long run will lead to protests and conflicts. In Detroit alone, the cost of unpaid water bills was 89 million dollars by 2014.9)


12. The ECB and the Central Bank of Japan have reached the limits of their stimuli. They are left with only tricks, such as the introduction of the minus interest rate,10)which will ruin pensioners’ savings. Why is Mario Draghi talking about lower interest rates and other ECB stimuli now that the European economy is supposedly flourishing? Is he feeling the coming crisis?


13. It’s not about being clairvoyants. It’s about learning from history. What does the record of economic cycles show us? An amazing fact.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...ages/13-14.jpg


We are in the middle of the longest economic boom in history. Is it not wishful thinking that it will continue for a long time to come?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...bioVnV1rawQ5mA

Via The Organic Prepper blog,
How independent are any of us, really?

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...6_12-12-46.jpg

We like to think we live in the “free-est” nation in the world, but do we really? Think about it.

1. You never own your home outright, even when the mortgage is paid off. Every year, you must make your extortion payment to the city or trust me, you won’t be living in that house for long.
2. The same thing with your car. If you don’t pay your annual extortion payment on your vehicle and pay a hundred bucks for a tiny sticker that gives you permission to drive it, it will be promptly towed away by the city with the government’s blessing. Then, like a hostage negotiation gone wrong, you’ll have to pay even more money to cover their theft and storage of YOUR vehicle.
3. On a regular basis, you must pay a fee and ask the government for permission to do any number of things, such as driving a car, traveling outside the country, running a business, adding another bathroom to your home, or even catching a fish for dinner.
4. Permits and licenses are big revenue generators from start to finish – and if you proceed without asking permission, they will extort more money from you in the form of fines. If you refuse to pay the fines (or if you can’t) they’ll kidnap you and lock you in a cage, where you’ll be forced to perform manual labor for 10 cents an hour for whatever length of time the legal authorities feel is sufficient to teach you a lesson.
5. There are places in our nation where you can’t use your property the way you want. There are areas where you cannot collect the water that falls on your land. There are places where you aren’t allowed to detach your home from the grid. There are places that dictate where your vegetable garden can grow (or even if you’re allowed to have one), places that won’t allow you to hang your clothes out to dry, and places that make it illegal to sleep in your car.

The bottom line is, some places in the United States are freer than others, but we’re all still serfs paying fealty to lords.

I’m sick of it.

Did you know that, as a business owner, when I write a paycheck of $1200 to an employee, it costs me $1399.91 and that she only ends up with $1042.12? Think about what we could all do with an extra $357.79 per pay period. I bet we wouldn’t go out fighting wars on other people’s soil with it. I bet we wouldn’t enrich politicians and weapons manufacturers with it and special interest groups with it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of it.

I’m sick of being taxed locally on the business I created using absolutely no municipal resources, of being taxed on the wages I pay to my employees, of being taxed on the car that the bank and I own, of being asked for a list of personal property so the local government can tax me on that too.

Sick.
Of.
It.

And it goes far beyond taxation.

Our government isn’t really made up of the elected officials that it purports. It’s made up, mostly, by people who sell their souls to huge corporations that have an interest in beneficial (to them) laws being passed and laws that would harm their businesses shut down before they ever reach the desk of the presidents.

As well, the supposed watchdog entities, like the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Department of Agriculture are populated and led by those who have been hand-picked to support corporations, no matter what the detriment to the American people whom they pretend to protect. If Congress was like Nascar, the members would have to wear uniforms emblazoned with their sponsors. However, Washington DC does not have the transparency of professional car racing, so we must guess at the sponsors of our “representatives.”

We are buried under silly laws with the sole purpose of generating revenue or adding to the slave labor force in the for-profit prison system. We must work most of our waking hours to be able to pay for our basic necessities. We are convinced repeatedly through entertainment and social media that we must have things that our ancestors would never have considered owning, much less requiring.

They have most people convinced that they must follow the food pyramid, the vaccine schedule, and the rules that force us to have licenses for every darned thing we do. We must pay for and be granted permission to feed ourselves, transport ourselves, build shelters for ourselves, unite in matrimony, and even to own pets.
We’re ruled by fear and manipulation.

Like some kind of frighteningly authoritarian parent, they assure us that it’s for our own safety, these breaches in our independence and that we must comply or face the consequences. They ground us by taking away our licenses. They send us to our rooms that just happen to be located in for-profit prisons. They don’t “allow” us to pursue life, liberty, and happiness because once we taste that sweet freedom, we won’t want to be under their oppressive thumbs anymore.

But some of us have seen the corporate government for what it is: a bully that reigns through fear of reprisal and grievous harm. They hold over us these fears:

1. We will die if we don’t eat things that were inspected and approved by them.
2. We will be jailed, fined, or have our children taken from us if we don’t toe the line, vaccinate them as ordered, medicate them as recommended.
3. We are unable to figure things out for ourselves because we are not “experts” and therefore we must suppress our own judgments and bow to their far greater knowledge.
4. We will die if we don’t follow their expert health and nutrition advice.
5. We’ll be murdered by scary foreign terrorists if we don’t allow the TSA to fondle our private parts and perform x-rays that show us naked before we fly.

Some people fear these things and believe these tales so thoroughly, they allow the government to enforce ridiculous, unconstitutional laws “for our own safety.” They say, “Better that I give up my rights as a human being and save the world from a terrorist.”

Whether you call it freedom, liberty, sovereignty, or self-governance, the point remains the same: if you’re reading this, you probably want to determine your own life, whether the result is success or failure. You want to have control over your ability to live, truly live, and not merely exist as a slave to the powers that be.

You can withdraw your consent.


When’s the last time you read – actually read – the Declaration of Independence?

Please allow me to share an excerpt.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Now, I’m not planning to arm up and head to Washington DC to take over Congress, but I am continuing to withdraw my consent in every way possible.

You have a natural human right to be free.
Human beings are born with natural rights, every single one of us. We have the rights to life, liberty, and property. We have the right to benefit from our own work.
And if that’s not enough, there’s a back-up. You also have constitutionally-protected right to be free.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery. This means that if you are a slave today, it’s either illegal, or you have voluntarily accepted your servitude.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

You have a Constitutionally protected right to be free. If you aren’t free, then revolution is your mother lovin’ duty.

This isn’t about guns blazing, militias mobilizing, and guerrilla warfare. It’s about small personal acts of independence. The way you lead your life every single day can be a personal Declaration of Independence. By refusing to concede your natural rights, quietly and resolutely, you are performing a much-needed act of revolution.

Anyone can be part of this revolution.

Many people believe that revolution requires that they lead a march, stand in front of a crowd with a bullhorn, or form a militia. They feel like it’s a job for the Julian Assanges and James Wesley Rawleses of the world.

They’re wrong. You don’t have to be a person with thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook. You don’t have to be a person with a military leadership position on your resume. You need not get yourself arrested on the steps of the White House, go to prison forever for telling an unpopular truth, or stare down a bunch of scary-looking thugs in jackboots.

But you do have to do something.

You can’t just sit there and complain unless you really are just another armchair Rambo.

The way you lead your life every single day can be an act of revolution. By refusing to concede your natural rights, quietly and resolutely, you are performing an act of revolution. Walking the walk doesn’t always require civil disobedience or militia membership. It requires your consistent determination not to let others infringe on your own freedom.

It doesn’t matter if you are a soccer mom from the suburbs, a college student in a dormitory, a church-going dad and husband, or a person who has found themselves homeless through the ongoing economic crisis – by living resolutely, you are performing an act of revolution.

Don’t get me wrong – we need the Julians, the militias, and the JWRs. We need the people who stand in protest. We need those who expose wrongdoing. We need the organizers, the shouters, the big personalities, and the leaders. But these are not the only ways to revolt. If every single person was off organizing their own rally, there’d be no one left to march in it.

What it is imperative upon us to do is to find our compass and follow it.

We must make ourselves immune to control by not needing what “they” hand out. We have to be armored against the way everyone else lives and choose our own paths. We must stubbornly refuse to participate in the hoop-jumping that is everyday life in America. By all of us who believe in liberty doing this, we form an army of stubborn non-participants in the status quo.

Random Acts of Revolution
The most revolutionary act is to be self-sufficient and in need of nothing that the government can provide for you in exchange for some small liberty. This list of insurrections is by no means comprehensive.

1. Question absolutely everything you hear on the news. Always be a skeptic. All major media goes back to just a few conglomerates. Call them out. When you see coverage that is clearly biased, take a moment to call out the media about it. Take the time to comment on mainstream media websites and point out the unbalanced coverage. If you use social media, share this information and post on the media outlet’s social media pages as well.
2. Get out of the banking system. By opting to “unbank” or “underbank” there is a limit to what can be easily stolen from you. When you have physical control of your financial assets, you are not at as high a risk of losing those assets, and therefore, less likely to be dependent on “the system.”
3. Educate others. At the (very high) risk of people thinking you’re crazy, it’s important to let people know WHY you do what you do. If you object to a municipal policy, speak at a town meeting or send a letter to the editor of your local paper. If you’re an activist, make a point of explaining the reasons behind your activism. But be calm and rational. By ranting incoherently or by keeping your mouth shut, you influence no one. By providing provable facts, you can open minds and awaken others.
4. Grow your own food or buy local. Every single seed that you plant is a revolutionary act. Every bit of food that you don’t have to purchase from the grocery store is a battle cry for your personal independence. When you educate yourself (and others) about Big Food, Big Agri, and the food safety sell-outs at the FDA, you will clearly see that we are alone in our fight for healthy, nutritious foods. Refuse to tolerate these attacks on our health and our lifestyles. If you can’t grow your own food, the support local farms. You have the right to food that won’t kill you. Forget CAFOs and industrial crops sprayed with glyphosate. Go local and you’ll be feeding your family foods that are wholesome, nutritious, and unlikely to be subject to recalls like Big Food keeps launching.
5. Refuse to comply. If you know your natural rights, which are guaranteed under the Constitution and its Amendments, then it makes it much harder for “authorities” to bully you. You don’t have to let them search your home without a warrant, you don’t have to answer questions, and you don’t have to comply with laws that are in conflict with the Constitution. You don’t have to be aggressive or get in a fight with them. You just have to be staunch in your refusal.
6. Embrace your right to bear arms. Be responsible for your own safety and security. 911 should not be your personal security plan. Save yourself.
7. Don’t be in debt. No one can be free if they are in debt. If you are in debt, you are forced to work in whatever conditions are present, for whatever amount is offered, complying with whatever criteria is necessary to keep your job. As well, the high interest rates that you pay only serve to make the bankers more wealthy. Instead of borrowing, save until you can afford something or realize that if you could actually afford it, you wouldn’t need to borrow money to have it. If you’re already in debt, this articlecan help you get it paid down fast.
8. Be prepared for disaster. Have enough food, water, and supplies to take care of your family in the event of a natural disaster. Don’t expect FEMA to take care of you. (Learn more here.)
9. Be involved in your children’s education. For some, this means homeschooling or unschooling, and for others, this means being on top of what they are learning in a formal school setting. Join the PTA and actively volunteer if your child goes to school. Be an advocate for your child and insist that the teachers teach. If your child goes to school, supplement this at home with discourse about current events and outings that help them learn about the world around them.
10. Know that any freedom you give up, you will never get back. Remember what we lost in the “Patriot” Act and the Indefinite Detention Act (NDAA)? Those freedoms aren’t ever coming back unless something more drastic than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime occurs.
11. Maintain your privacy. For the love of crickets, don’t be that ignorant fool who says “If I haven’t done anything wrong, I don’t have anything to worry about. You have plenty to worry about. All information can be manipulated to track you, profile you, make you look guilty, and control you. Trust me, when the social credit program rolls out here, you’ll have more to worry about than you ever imagined.
12. Stop making excuses for collaborators. The tax collectors who enforce the extortion of your money? The TSA agents who pat you down and dehumanize you? Stop trying to justify their jobs. Stop trying to make it okay. “These agents are only doing their jobs.” They should be ashamed of themselves for having these jobs. Heck, I’ve even heard people in line at the airport thank the TSA for patting them down. F*ck that. I will not be complicit in my own slavery.

For even more ways to cease your support of a government run amok, check out 50 Ways to Starve the Beast.

As Albert Camus, a French philosopher and author said, “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

Get out there and be the squeaky wheel.

If you see something wrong, don’t just ignore it. Say something about it, and keep saying something until it changes. Whether this is some process that infringes on your privacy, a job requirement that impedes your health, or another injustice, pursue it relentlessly. Ask questions publically, write letters, and use social media to bring pressure to encourage a change.

If you’re currently taking the easy way through life, if you recognize yourself as a slave, STOP. You don’t have to continue like that.

According to the Declaration of Independence, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
That means that you don’t have to accept the unjust laws. That means you don’t have to quietly take it, muttering under your breath that it isn’t right, but not daring to raise your voice. That means that “they” are only in control of you if you allow it.

Independence isn’t something you celebrate one day a year. Independence is the way you live your life, every single day, refusing to submit to that which makes you beholden to or less than someone else.

There are nearly 330 million people in the United States. (source)

Only 3% of the population fought in the Revolutionary War, and 10% actively supported them.

If 9,900,000 people quietly and peacefully revolted by withdrawing their consent to be governed by tyrants we could not be silenced.

If 33,000,000 people supported those revolting, we could not be stopped.

The government might be watching us, but we can watch them right back.

Make the way you live your life a revolutionary act. Show people what freedom really means, and maybe it will catch on.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...ops+to+zero%29

Authored by Saladdin Ahmed via OpenDemocracy.net,
On the anniversary of the Great War’s end, we should reflect on its causes, consequences and lessons for the future...

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...ax-760x504.jpg


Today we live in a world that is not dissimilar to the pre-WWI world, when a few emperors and their families controlled the fate of the vast majority of the world’s population. In 1914, all it took to trigger the Great War was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a nationalist Serb. The assassination took place on June 28. Five years later to the day, on June 28, 1919 - almost exactly 100 years ago - the Great War formally came to an end, but at the cost of approximately 40 million lives.


There are no empires in the old sense now, but there are self-centered leaders who are just as powerful as any emperor in history.Some of these leaders are the kind of bullies who would not think twice before making potentially catastrophic decisions, merely to keep up the appearance of ‘strong men.’

Consider this list: Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Ali Khamenei, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Narendra Modi, Rodrigo Duterte and Jair Bolsonaro. What do they all have in common? They have too much power and display autocratic tendencies when exercising it.

Whether you are a genius scientist in the United States, a peace-loving poet in Brazil, or a great philosopher in Iran, the truth is that your fate is, to some degree, in the hands of a man who, in a more rational world, would not even be allowed to care for a pet. Whatever we tell ourselves about the elite who control politics nationally, regionally, and globally, there is one embarrassing fact we need to face: we have surrendered our destiny, and the well-being of the planet, to a bunch of bullies. This should be disturbing for everyone.


What happened on June 20, 2019, when the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps of Iran shot down an expensive American surveillance drone, could have triggered the start of a war. In a tweet on June 21, Donald Trump declared to the world that there was an imminent retaliation attack against Iran underway, but “ten minutes before the strike I stopped it.” Later the same day, he explained that “I thought about it for a second,” and called off the strike to avoid 150 human casualties. It is indeed fortunate that the president “thought about it for a second,” or else we could have been in the midst of another open-ended war.


Currently, we are not living in a state of war, but we are not living in a state of peace either. This situation is far from sustainable. Any miscalculation, mishap, or miscommunication could lead to the kind of attack from one side that would draw an act of retaliation from the other in order to save face, which would, in turn, result in a counter act—again, to save face—and before we know it, there will be a war.


In the 1960s and 1970s there was a serious threat of a nuclear war breaking out at any moment, so anti-war protests were extremely popular. Films like Dr. Strangelove or Fail Safe tried to depict both the absurdity and fragility of this situation. The Cold War concluded at the end of the 1980s, but perhaps because a nuclear war did not take place between the two superpowers, we obtained a false sense of perpetual peace. It's as if the nuclear threat is something historically left behind us.


What we tend to forget is the fact that nuclear bombs still exist, and there are enough of them to obliterate the entire human population several times over. Today’s political leaders who have the authority to start a nuclear war are not necessarily more rational than the leaders of the Cold War era. That is to say, the probability of a nuclear war, with catastrophic global consequences, is by no means negligible, especially as the nuclear club seems to be growing. We have every reason to believe the new members of this club will be among the most irrational; not to mention that there is always the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of extremists, whose words and deeds make their intentions unambiguous.

Under the hegemony of culturalism - the dominant ideology that attributes essentialist and homogeneous identities to the Other - it is easy to brush aside all forms of extremism and totalitarianism, as opposed to seeing them as products of the existing global order. Nonetheless, those of us who are lucky enough to live in liberal democracies seem to be heading the same way despite the choices we still have available. Something is fundamentally wrong with a system that empowers populists like Bolsonaro and Trump. They are not abnormal outcomes of the existing political environment.


Thanks to their political incorrectness, however, such populist leaders are easy targets, and as such, they may give us the illusion that things will be fine once they are replaced in the next election.

But unless we comprehend the scope of the social, political, and ecological crises we face - and bring about the drastic changes required to address them - things will not be fine. Leaving politics to the elite who control governmental institutions will continue to make us responsible for the creation of a history that is barbarian, despite our rapid technological advancements. What we need is a more enlightened and internationalist consciousness - a stronger collective will to bring about real change towards a safer, fairer, and more inclusive world. The gradual realization of such a world takes place in the course of negating bureaucracies that misrepresent people’s interests for the sake of protecting the institutional apparatuses of ruling elites. Such an emancipation would entail multilayered processes of unlearning submission to discriminatory regimes, de-normalizing all forms of violence, and delegitimizing exploitation.


In 2014, 100 years after the Armenian genocide, the Yezidi genocide took place. Yet, the international community was arguably more indifferent this time around. Perhaps the relative indifference in the West is due to the fact that the Yezidi genocide took place in the Middle East. However, the dualist view of the world as the West vs. the rest is just as problematic as it was in the 20th century, when the Holocaust mirrored the barbarism of the Armenian genocide on a larger scale.

What is already happening in the world’s most robust democracy is a manifestation, not only of the global system’s brutality at home but also of the public indifference required for the normalization of such brutality.

In 1914, the world was entering a stage of barbarism, and nobody had any idea how bloody it would turn out to be. While the breakout of the war was sudden, the conditions that led to the war were gradual. However, imagining, and struggling for an alternative world was not merely the vocation of a few isolated groups. For the 80 years after 1914, international solidarity and cosmopolitan ideas of emancipation had enough presence that speaking of, and organizing for, a different world was not uncommon.

But this promise was left unfulfilled. During the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, for example, the anarcho-syndicalist and International Brigades represented a desperate attempt by revolutionary leftists to stop the rise of fascism in Europe. Despite its relative popularity, the internationalist anti-fascist front did not receive enough outside support to be victorious, and we all know the catastrophic consequences that followed.


Today, internationalism as a popular movement is even weaker. Political apathy and despair dominate the public mood, leaving the world at the mercy of a bunch of populist bullies. Surrendering to the idea of the ‘end of history’ per Francis Fukuyama’s doctrine - the belief that we simply cannot do any better - has never been so widely internalized as now. Precisely because of this fact, however, the emergence of an international public consciousness that can resolutely take on the responsibility of saving the world is more urgent than ever.


One does not need to abide by any universalist utopia to realize that every individual and community are organic parts of the same world, politically, historically, and ecologically. Unless a new internationalist consciousness and will emerge, we will continue to head toward the abyss of barbarism, and nobody can predict the scope of its violence. If nothing else, the ongoing ecological crises will be sufficient to escalate unrest, wars, and mass immigration to levels unseen in history.

One hundred years ago, the Treaty of Versailles brought the Great War to an end, but everything that gives birth to modern wars continued on to 1939, 1989, and 2019. Unless the conditions of unfreedom are uprooted, only the abyss will return our gaze into the future

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...send-gold-moon

Now running his own shop, he recently made what seems like a completely reasonable suggestion about gold - one that if adopted by the broader investment community would send the metal’s price to the moon:
Gold Bull Mobius Says Every Portfolio Needs at Least 10%
(Bloomberg) — Veteran investor Mark Mobius says that gold’s set to push higher, potentially topping $1,500 an ounce, as interest rates head lower, central banks extend purchases, and uncertainty surrounding geopolitics and cryptocurrencies fans demand.“I love gold,” Mobius, who set up Mobius Capital Partners LLP last year after three decades at Franklin Templeton Investments, said in an interview in Singapore, adding bullion should always form part of a portfolio, with a holding of at least 10%. “As these interest rates come down, where do you go?”
Gold has rallied in 2019, rising to the highest level in six years, as investors contemplate slowing economic growth, prospects for easier monetary policy in the U.S. and Europe and festering trade frictions.
The upswing has been given added momentum as central banks, including authorities in Russia and China, step up purchases. A revival in cryptocurrencies may lead to spillover demand from investors for the older haven, according to Mobius.
“Interest rates are going so low, particularly now in Europe,” he said. “What’s the sense of holding euro when you get a negative rate? You might as well put it into gold, because gold is a much better currency.”

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...ges/bfmD78.jpg
Two points about Mobius’ suggestion that most portfolios should be 10% allocated to gold:
First, the idea of replacing dollar cash with a historically better-performing store of wealth seems like a no-brainer in a world of soaring fiat currency debt and plunging interest rates.
Second and vastly more interesting, the current allocation to gold in the financial world is about 1% of total investable capital, so moving from here to 10% would produce spectacular price gains for gold. If it’s even possible, which it might not be: Most current demand for physical metal is from the Chinese and Russian central banks, which presumably won’t be selling their reserves to investors anytime soon.
As for gold mining stocks, here’s a chart from Marin Katusa showing their weighting within the S&P 500. Note that it’s both minuscule and historically low.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...es/Gold-SP.jpg
A reversion to just the average would send the miners up dramatically.