“Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Part I includes our stories for our first two categories: economy & financial markets and geopolitics.

ECONOMY & FINANCIAL MARKETS

Story #1: Secret Books: Harvard, HUD, DOD, and U.S. Treasury Go Dark—The Pricing Mechanism Goes Dark, Too

Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) Statement 56 took effect in October 2018 with the full knowledge and consent of the White House and both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate. Its passage without notice was helped by the shriek-o-meter—perhaps turned up to high volume on purpose?—and “trust the plan” hope porn. FASAB 56 does not just take the U.S. Treasury securities market dark. Government contractors and companies that depend on big government flows effectively have gone dark, too. Statement 56 makes it possible for funds used to purchase Treasury securities by U.S. pension funds and the Social Security Trust Fund—two of the biggest investors—to be transferred out the back door to corporate contractors or investors with no one the wiser. Not only that, but now the leadership can wage greater covert war without Congressional approval by financing mercenary armies with larger amounts of secret monies engineered through FASAB 56—in effect, facilitating a return to corporations waging war as they did in the days of the East India and Dutch West Indies Companies. Statement 56 is the equivalent of a flashing billboard that says, “We are open for proposals for anything that will keep U.S. corporate profits up and help maintain above-market returns.” To keep delivering profits at that level, things are likely to get uglier (think California fires and burning cathedrals).

Story #2: U.S. Debt Spiral and Reserve Currency Pains

The U.S. is in a debt spiral that risks going out of control—official debt outstanding is up 6% last year and 8% this year. As a result, we are in a period of serious currency debasement and hidden inflation. The Trump-Bushie-Neocon-Netanyahu partnership keeps trying to prop up the unipolar empire and dollar hegemony, but foreign investors, including China and Russia, have stopped buying Treasuries and are looking to establish enough liquidity away from the dollar that they can succeed without it. Other countries such as India and Japan are jumping on the bandwagon. China is using its debt capacity to build itself out as a direct competitor—whether with currency, the Silk Road, the military, or telecommunications and data. Russia, spurred by the Rape of Russia in the 1990s and U.S. sanctions, now has almost no debt, has swapped its Treasuries for gold, and has used the opportunity created by the sanctions to significantly improve its agriculture—without GMOs.

Story #3: The Global Slowdown—Recession Looms

There are many signs of global slowdown—what The Economist calls “slowbalization.” Prepare for higher rates of inflation on basic goods and services and remember that changes currently happening slowly and steadily can suddenly start rolling out very fast. With the uncertainty surrounding the dollar’s future dominance, it looks like Mr. Global wants China to take over major responsibility for global financial liquidity. However, China’s 2,000-year history of financial speculation and fraud means the Chinese have to solve their branding problem first and demonstrate trustworthiness, perhaps by showing that they can make a regional currency work. Regional reserve currencies may be a strategy that other countries will use to cushion themselves against eventual American failure. Look at the rise of bilateral currency swaps—for example, between China and Russia, India and Iran, India and Japan, and Japan and Russia. Is a regional unit of account in the works—along the lines of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)—to smooth the process of these bilateral currency agreements? Joseph Farrell’s latest research (described in McCarthy, Monmouth, and the Deep State) traces the historical precedent of a circulating WWII occupation currency that was not denominated in any existing currency of the time.

Story #4: Fed Backs Down

With FASAB 56, the leadership has created the legal infrastructure for the covert side of the economy to run everything. This means giving up on any pretense that the overt side will do anything other than take orders—because almost everyone in the overt economy is either on the take or scared. How else to interpret the Fed’s recent and rapid reversal of its intent to clean up its balance sheet and run a sound money policy? Instead, the Fed went back to no increases in interest rates—apparently acknowledging that it reports to the covert side. There is little doubt that the working group that engineered FASAB 56 understands the hidden system of finance and reports “upstairs” to the folks running the Bush faction, Harvard, and other endowments and foundations.

Story #5: Monopolies Bite

Secrecy has become an out-of-control and costly financial addiction that is supporting centralization into big corporations not subject to market forces. As recently calculated by The Economist, G7 economies are losing billions to monopolization. Even top investor Jeremy Grantham has marveled at the American political class’s “breathtaking” ability to engineer profits into the S&P 500 against all expectations. Centralization, secrecy, and the absence of markets increase the rate of debasement and entropy and can outweigh the productivity benefits that typically come with new technologies. The U.S. does not appear to care about efficiency, productivity, or innovation. So long as the dollar remains the global reserve currency, the U.S. can just buy everyone or wear them down with measures like economic sanctions—particularly if it doesn’t mind paying for expensive shriek-o-meter cover-ups and has secret weapons in the mix.

With Microsoft and Amazon as co-finalists, what happens next with DOD’s JEDI contract will be significant. Amazon’s ownership of Whole Foods gives it a store next to almost everyone in America—and with data from the 17 intelligence agencies already in the Amazon cloud, the company is doing a bellwether job of sucking up data all over the economy. The JEDI contract would give Amazon the ability literally to reengineer the entire American government. (Note: The Department of Defense awarded the JEDI Cloud contract to Microsoft on October 25.)

The Department of Justice tried to stop the AT&T-Time Warner merger, but the courts wouldn’t let them. This leaves AT&T free to continue with its corporate practices. In essence, the U.S. no longer has antitrust protections.

GEOPOLITICS

Story #6: Brexit: The Endless Agony

Brexit is a complex and difficult process to negotiate. That said, the odds of a “no Brexit” outcome are low, despite May’s resignation, because powerful and deeply vested financial interests (including the Queen’s) require it. Look at Commonwealth finances and how they relate to offshore havens and the finances of the royals, and you will appreciate the pressure to maintain offshore secrecy via Brexit. On the European continent, it is an open question whether and how the EU—currently the world’s largest consumer economy—will hold together. From the U.S. perspective, one of the greatest strengths behind the dollar is that the euro does not, at present, offer a viable alternative.

Story #7: Technocracy and the Rise of Environmental Socialism

Technocracy is hyper-materialism on micromanagement steroids—supported by AI, software, and 24/7 surveillance—with no markets, no culture, and no divine mandate. Until recently, technocrats justified their system by creating a scandal, saying “We need to do something,” and passing more rules applied to honest people who didn’t cause the problem in the first place. The new way of justifying technocracy is to channel people’s legitimate concerns about legitimate problems (such as the environment and inequality) into support for technocracy’s further buildout—with the Green New Deal being a case in point. The Green New Deal brazenly lays the foundation for unconstitutional piratization and theft of everything (especially land and real estate) that has not yet been stolen—while making the theft fashionable. The technocrats are trying to get young people to support wiping out their own inheritance through abrogation of contracts to their parents and grandparents. Dr. Naomi Wolf’s analysis of the Green New Deal is a must-watch.

Story #8: Censorship and Disinformation Explode

The arrest and slow-motion murder of Julian Assange was one of the top stories of the quarter, signaling a serious abrogation of domestic and international laws, including those protecting attorney-client privilege and journalists. Censorship also is exploding, often in a sneaky manner, while disinformation accelerates thanks to new technologies such as 24/7 entrainment, technology that can beam thoughts, deepfakes, and—soon—5G. Among the many different disinformation tactics, smear campaigns seem to be common, while the shriek-o-meter keeps people from seeing what is really occurring. We are wasting too much time on things like the Mueller report while missing deeper trends, stories, and news—such as the Trump White House’s approval of FASAB 56. On the other hand, more people are realizing that the arc of American history since the JFK assassination has been one long lie—from Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, and the Oklahoma City bombing to 9/11—and citizens’ level of trust in government institutions is falling toward rock bottom. To avoid becoming a zero-learning culture, we are well advised to cultivate a high learning metabolism and stay in a higher mind.

Story #9: Oil Wars, Trade Wars, and the Rise of the Asian Consumer

We are watching significant U.S. efforts to control the oil market, with the goal being to shut down certain countries’ ability to sell oil—Iran, Syria, and Venezuela—while spiking prices and U.S. profits. Netanyahu won reelection and seems willing to serve as one of the gang leaders fronting for the billionaire oligarchs who are out to make money on continuing economic and military warfare. The Bushies—back in power—have long been masters of using the Israelis and the Mossad to do their dirty work. Meanwhile, accusations of anti-Semitism have become a potent new line of attack against a wide variety of dissenters. Look at the politically expedient rebranding of anti-Zionism as “anti-Semitism” and the biological and vaccine warfare being waged against New York Orthodox Jews who dare to criticize Zionism. With Pompeo’s appointment of a State Department special envoy whose mandate is to monitor and prevent anti-Semitism, the implicit threat is, “If you oppose us in any way, we will accuse you of being anti-Semitic and target you.”

Italy has been thumbing its nose at the EU and is skillfully repositioning itself for the future, becoming the first G7 nation to sign onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In addition to signing a memorandum of understanding with China to involve Italian ports in the Initiative, Italy also has been taking steps to nationalize its gold reserves. The Italians know that they can’t afford to waste massive amounts of money nor allow their population and culture to be debased, destroyed, or overrun by immigrants. The result means moving beyond the EU and G7.

Story #10: Pushing for War—Secret Money for Secret Armies and War with Iran

We are watching a major showdown between the unipolar and multipolar models. On the unipolar side, the escalating drumbeat for war in Iran seems to have resurrected the “seven countries in five years” war plan described by Wesley Clark. FASAB 56 is at the heart of the revitalized war strategy, making it possible to channel secret money through the Israelis, Saudis, or mercenary companies. Russia understands the dangers—and thus far has made it impossible for the U.S. to invade Venezuela or to do to Syria what it did to Iraq—but Netanyahu and segments of the military-industrial complex clearly want the war with Iran.

A factor determining how long the unipolar model lasts is secret weaponry. The California fires, the burning of Notre Dame, weather warfare, and various forms of disaster capitalism all signal the existence of a secret weapons infrastructure that is well beyond the average person’s awareness. In combination with software and AI, it seems possible—unfortunately—that secret weapons might allow the unipolar empire and the thugs who run it to extend their life expectancy or even endure.

Part 1: Top Ten Stories