Part I: Top Ten Stories

Part I includes our stories for our first two categories: Economy & Financial Markets and Geopolitics.

ECONOMY & FINANCIAL MARKETS

Story #1: Secret Books, FASAB 56, and Financial Coup Consolidation: U.S. Securities Markets Go Dark

FASAB 56 is reverberating throughout the train tracks of private and secret money flows—whether the U.S. federal credit, corporations, Harvard, Germany, or the offshore havens. In the U.S., the leadership is consolidating and restructuring. It appears that high-risk and high-cost money-moving networks are no longer needed. In fact, FASAB 56 likely spelled Jeffrey Epstein's death warrant. Players who thought they were untouchable—Weinstein, Epstein, Netanyahu, and more—are getting swept aside. Goldman Sachs is downsizing its partners, and the Justice Department (DOJ) is now charging Bank of America and JP Morgan traders who suppressed the gold price. What does it mean that the DOJ is prosecuting traders who, in all likelihood, just did what they were told? The "housecleaning" underway could have a chilling effect on anyone tempted to speak up. Goldman has brought an Amazon IT executive on board as partner—signaling a deeper consolidation of the money machinery to AI and algorithm management. It looks like the JEDI contract may launch a central command post for the AI-driven fixed income, commodities, and equities markets.

The Epstein Saga

We seem to be witnessing the prelude to a vastly expanded rollout of technocracy and transhumanism—or, as Thomas Meyer and Solari prefer to call it, "subhumanism." Consider Jeffrey Epstein's connection to the Maxwells and the latter's promotion of back door tracking software around the world. Are PROMIS and its successors helping technocrats perfect their ability to harvest and manage their "inventory"? Epstein supported subhumanist initiatives. Both Epstein and money moved through JP Morgan/Madoff funded brain research at MIT. (Remember, too, Obama's BRAIN Initiative.) Were Epstein's human trafficking networks supplying test subjects for man-machine experiments? It's important to connect the dots—it's unlikely these are isolated events.

Story #2: Central Banks Flail Around

After Fed Chairman Powell signaled his intent to clean up the Fed's balance sheet and bring interest rates up to a more reasonable cost of capital, the plan got nixed in record time. Instead, for the first time since 2009, the Fed has repeatedly intervened in the repo market (which lets large financial institutions borrow and lend from one another overnight) due to cash shortages that sent repo market interest rates spiking. For a dollar of monetary easing, the central banks are getting little to any increase in the GNP, productivity is going down, and more businesses are failing than succeeding. Financial technocrats are killing the goose that laid the golden egg as continued monetary and fiscal stimulus further centralizes economic activities at the expense of general trust.

In Europe, the European Central Bank's (ECB's) outgoing president Mario Draghi announced new stimulus measures and "indefinite" quantitative easing that are highly controversial among the ECB members. The IMF's Christine Lagarde is on her way in as the new ECB president on November 1st.

Worldwide, an unprecedented $15 trillion in government bonds are now trading at negative yields, and Denmark's third largest bank has issued mortgages at negative interest rates. (If you have a mortgage and it makes economic sense to do so, consider seizing the opportunity to bring down your cost of capital!)

U.S. Debt Spiral

The U.S. is in a debt spiral up, with the debt expected to go up 8% this year. The U.S. deficit topped $1 trillion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year.

Reserve Currency Pains

Other than the U.S. dollar, there are three main contenders for reserve currency status—the euro, the Chinese renminbi, and IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDR)—but for now, the dollar is still "dominant and dangerous." There are hints that the EU is trying to position the euro as a more trustworthy alternative, but many wild cards could affect the euro scenario—including Brexit, Britain's actions vis-à-vis the Commonwealth, and the emergence of a common European military.

Carney Declares the Multipolar World Official

Historically, the Bank of England has represented the most prestigious and stable component of the Western financial system. An August 2019 speech by the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, was bewilderingly incoherent. Buried in the technocratic language, Carney asserted that the dollar's days as reserve currency are over and that a global system of cryptocurrencies will replace it. It is hard to understand why the Bank of England would publish vaporware—inviting a period of currency invention in the global currency markets. One commentator insisted that Carney was simply trying to position himself for fat paychecks at a crypto firm. One component of the speech that is worth reading are Carney's comments about the economic damage caused by the wielding of the dollar and sanctions as political weapons. Carney recognizes that financial systems are a subsection of governance—if no one trusts the governance system, the currency system cannot grow and facilitate trade. However, the financial technocrats appear to believe that they can run an entire global currency system without trust. A full implementation of technocracy will indeed depend on force and mind control.

Carney is not the only one issuing warnings about a global paradigm shift. JP Morgan made a similar prediction, and an astonishing speech by French president Macron likewise declared the end of Western hegemony and the eventual failure of the dollar as reserve currency. Will this paradigm shift also spell the end of a world where subsidy—rather than productivity or economics—rules the day?

Story #3: Slowbalization

Recession Looms

All over the world, savers—including insurance companies and pension funds—are struggling with falling income on their fixed-income portfolios and bank deposits. The current combination of monetary and fiscal policies is creating massive double-binds for ordinary citizens, who are dealing with significant price inflation on household goods and deflation or lower growth in asset valuations and income. In addition, one contingent is telling people, "We want you to shop," while another (the climate change op) is trying to kill demand, telling people, "If you shop, you will destroy the planet." Encouragingly, people's loss of trust in the financial technocrats is pushing some to reorient their time and human capital in more local and meaningful ways.

In the U.S., the amount of money passively managed in index funds has surpassed the amount invested in actively managed funds, which is driving the managed investment research infrastructure (that index funds benefited from) out of business. This development contributes to making a secret system go. The system is squeezing out the experienced people who do due diligence—whether from the media or the investment research community. On the financial side, these index fund trends as well as algorithms, AI, and the Amazon cloud continue to diminish market transparency to police capital—and with FASAB 56 on the government side, we could be headed into total deep state lockdown of capital flows.

U.S. Bear Trap

Since 2008, U.S. financial institutions have entrapped the world, including China, in large amounts of dollar debt. Now that a slowing global economy and trade wars are making it harder for those countries to earn dollars, many players find themselves squeezed by dollar debt. The dollar may not be up strongly this year (2%-3%), but it is up, and the world still needs and wants dollars. With their financial crisis bailout advantage, the U.S. banks are relatively strong—growing globally and building market share at the expense of the European banks. Other corporations are not faring as well; Ford’s bond rating was just dropped to a junk rating.

Story #4: High Strangeness in the Bond Market

Official U.S. government debt is over $22 trillion, representing significant assets that the U.S. has financed (not to mention additional trillions not on the balance sheets). Before FASAB 56, the proportion of those assets that secretly migrated out the back door onto corporate or private balance sheets was likely substantial, but FASAB 56 takes secrecy up another notch and allows the possible full-on privatization of covert and military operations. Netanyahu's recent electoral debacle and loss of face suggest that the entities that have consolidated control since World War II may not need the Mossad anymore. FASAB 56 makes it easier for money to flow to private operators rather than to sovereign governments. None of this figures into official reality, of course.

Story #5: Trade and Control Wars

The cryptocurrency "pump and dump" is becoming more evident, as is the fallacy that cryptocurrencies are private. We warned subscribers about this in a piece on taxation and regulatory compliance for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies prepared last year. When the bitcoin price ran up to $19,000, enthusiasts were happy to trade and swap but did not necessarily consider the tax implications of their crypto capital gains. Now, with the bitcoin price falling as low as $5,000, anyone who did not set money aside for taxes is feeling the pain as the IRS sends out warning letters to more than 10,000 cryptocurrency holders. This translates into a lot of control files on a lot of people.

GEOPOLITICS

Story #6: Technocracy Databeast Encroaches Across the Planet

The leadership is doubling down on technocracy and digital systems, but around the world, ordinary people are pushing back—although they do not necessarily understand that technocracy goes by many names and that everyone is fighting the same fight against an inhuman future. In the U.S., the top-down strategy seems to be to promote a "war on everyone." The people who stole trillions, including workers' retirement savings, don't want anyone saying, "Where is the $21 trillion?" It's far easier to weaponize the population and brand questioners as "white Nazis," particularly since most Americans have a hard time recognizing their smartphone as a driver of divide-and-conquer.

The JEDI contract has turned into a political football. JEDI is not only about consolidation of intelligence agency and DOD data for integration and piratization, but also about who will have data access. [Note: The Department of Defense awarded the JEDI Cloud contract to Microsoft on October 25.] From the time of the Forrestal smear and assassination, through the McCarthy and Kennedy assassinations and 9/11, the organized crime networks have been ascendant. It is hard to say whether the fall of Epstein, Weinstein, and Netanyahu signals a reassertion of jurisdiction by the old-line WASPs and Masons, or simply represents a cleanout of expendables. FASAB 56 is suggestive of the former possibility, and so is the fact that 50 attorneys general—led by Texas—are now conducting a joint investigation of Google. If the Masonic networks bring Google under their jurisdiction, they will control place-based data in 3,100 counties.

PRC Stand-Down in Hong Kong

Although Hong Kong's leader stood down on the extradition bill, China's full response remains an open question. There are rumors that China plans on invading Taiwan. As the era of the unipolar global cop winds down and the multipolar world evolves, numerous countries will be more inclined to aggression—particularly with more competition for "peak everything."

Assange Slow Kill

Assange may be a symptom of factional fissures—NSA versus Langley—within the military-intelligence complex. There were clear signs of factionalism as far back as 9/11, and Assange's imprisonment suggests that the infighting continues.

Story #7: New Leadership in the EU Faces the Brexit Blues

The fight over Brexit is getting ever more intense. David Cameron brazenly suggested that the Crown has been active behind the scenes in steering policy related to both Brexit and Scotland. (The Palace clearly was not happy with Cameron's remarks, even though the Queen had stated to dinner guests a few years ago to give her "three good reasons why Britain should be part of Europe.") Nonetheless, the Queen sits on top of a power structure—the City of London, the Peerage, and the British oligarchy—that is clearly questioning the EU mess. The Queen and many Brits also know that they are at a fork in the road. If the unipolar model fails, the euro and the dollar are going to compete, and Britain will have to choose sides—either the Europeans or the Americans and the Commonwealth—but not both. Now that Trump and the Queen appear to have sorted things out, it looks like the choice has been made.

The push for a common European military may be another factor driving the Brits' choice toward a renewed Anglo-American alliance. With Ursula von der Leyen (former German Minister of Defense) now heading the EU Commission, it looks like the Germans will be in control of the EU common military—they have already taken steps in this regard, and industry will welcome the economic boost that military spending will provide. Britain is not eager to turn its nuclear arsenal over to joint EU control. At the Paris Air Show, Britain signaled its intent to launch itself into space using the resources of the Commonwealth rather than participating with the European Space Agency.

Story #8: "Out of Control"

Many aspects of American life are spiraling out of control, not the least of which is the culture clash. In addition to a vocal radical element that is not afraid to be violent or to promote violence, the political left is pulling out all the stops. This faction has deep historical roots going back to FDR's presidency. A second out-of-control domain that goes back decades is weather warfare, which has been an objective of the U.S. military since the 1950s—LBJ openly discussed dominating the world through the weather. It appears to be weather modification—not just climate change—that is driving numerous small farmers out of business, doing to them now what Volcker and the Reagan Administration accomplished with financial and legal manipulation in the early 1980s. Dr. Skidmore's bibliography in the Solari subscriber links is an excellent resource on published materials on weather management.

Israel and Cybersecurity

Targeted ransomware attacks are occurring at the municipal level, affecting city governments, hospitals, and schools. It looks like foreign and criminal actors are free to shake down and blackmail a municipality, destroy its operations, and steal millions of dollars—while the Federal government abdicates responsibility to enforce the law and ensure basic safety. Are the feds making municipal systems more vulnerable by forcing them onto insecure electronic software and then saying, "Tough luck?" Cybersecurity problems have multiple spillover effects—data breaches, dysfunctional telecommunications, spam, and so forth—and all of these increase the cost of doing business. It may be up to the states (or regional alliances of states) to set up cybersecurity units—and the states that deal most efficiently with the problem will be the ones to thrive and flourish economically.

Under Netanyahu, there was a big push for global systems to run through Israel and for Israel to be the world leader in IT and cybersecurity—with the result that there has been a net increase in global cyber-insecurity. Will this change if he is indicted by the Israeli attorney general by the end of the year? Stay tuned.

Modi Targets Kashmir and Muslims

Modi's targeting of Muslims in Kashmir is shocking, particularly because most of the world does not seem to be paying attention. In addition to disenfranchising nearly two million Muslims in Kashmir, Modi is escalating tensions with Pakistan—prompting an ex-JP Morgan Chase banker who is now an Indian MP to give a fiery speech on the seven signs of fascism. Modi's actions appeared to have the clear permission and support of the Western world, including Netanyahu (before his election loss) and Trump. Is some of the motivation for these offensives coming from a desire to get rid of the only Muslim nuclear power (i.e., Pakistan) and to eliminate destabilizing influences that might hamper Silk Road success? Let's not forget that Muslims—almost one-fourth of the world's population—are likely to contest a financial model that lets banks operate with a zero to two percent cost of capital while charging everyone else 17% to 40%.

The Climate Change Op

As Elana Freeland's research suggests, there may be no such thing as "natural weather" any more. With predictions of hurricanes possibly making landfall in Southern California for the first time in history, are we witnessing an escalation of unintended consequences? The users of exotic technologies may be able to manipulate the weather, but they are dealing with open systems, so they may not be able to control it or predict the outcomes with accuracy. Meanwhile, the Obamas just purchased a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard next to the ocean—even though the Obama Administration's climate models predicted that the island will be underwater soon.

Story #9: Washington Faces Off with a Multipolar World

Former member of Trump's cabinet General Jim Mattis published a review of the Trump Administration critiquing Trump for alienating allies. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke at Harvard, indicating that the Trump Administration had been tricked and led astray by Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Trump keeps adding more former Bush appointees to his administration, including Robert O'Brien as the new National Security Advisor. Is this a sign that the Ziocons' and Israelis' influence over Trump's picks is waning?

Trump Administration, the Middle East, and the Silk Road

Story #10: Geopolitical Disney World

Reality is diverging from official reality—with official reality including a combination of nonsense and old news. On the covert side, there are many hints that a "hot" war may be going on, which could involve multiple players. This year alone, there were explosions affecting Russian ammunition dumps, a Russian biotech facility, a Russian rocket, and a Russian submarine. There were other recent explosions at a Turkish ammunition dump and Chinese chemical plants, and we saw strange seismic waves in Oklahoma centering around an ammunitions plant. Hurricanes also seem to be part of the covert war and played a role in the off-the-charts Brexit fight. How else to interpret the hurricane that just eviscerated certain islands in the Bahamas—the number-one British tax haven in terms of size and number of accounts—yet left all of the area's resorts and casinos relatively untouched and open for business? Most people can't recognize what is going on because they do not know that exotic technologies may exist—and 5G, unfortunately, is likely to usher in even stronger entrainment.