Is The Economic System Being Destroyed On Purpose?
TYLER DURDEN ~ MAY 05, 2024
This post raises two important points. Ever since Technocracy set sail in the 1930s from Columbia University, it has been thwarted by the refusal of Capitalism and free market economics to die. This created a moral hazard to give them a push off the cliff. Some (Parky60 included) are getting the idea that the economy is being intentionally destroyed.
The first point is that the Cloward-Piven strategy is brought up. In 1966, Richard Cloward and Frances Piven cooked up this scheme when both were professors at Columbia University. Need I say more? The outcome would be Universal Basic Income, an original tenet of Technocracy.
The second point is China is moving on the world to displace the United States with its massive Belt and Road Initiative. As noted by many, including me, China has already morphed into a Technocracy and is intent on k*****g capitalism. In 2022, China was the second largest importer of Gold in the world. In 2023, China’s dwarfed the field as per this chart. Notice that the United States is not on this chart:
https://www.technocracy.news/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/gold-2023.png
However, according to FXStreet:
There has long been speculation that China owns far more gold than it officially reveals. As Jim Rickards pointed out on Mises Daily back in 2015, many analysts believe that China keeps several thousand tons of gold “off the books” in a separate entity called the State Administration for Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
What does China (and the Central Bank system at large) want with silly old gold? Didn’t the Central Banks, including the BIS, tell us starting in the early 1970s that gold was obsolete as a monetary asset? Patrick Wood
In one of the most fascinating discussions I’ve had in a while, I spoke last weekend with my friend Andy Schectman about the state of the world, markets, geopolitics and the economy.
What started as a friendly catch-up quickly turned into delving into angles on the state of our nation that I had never before considered — specifically, Andy laying out one theory that started in the 1960’s that could explain the chaos that it appears our economy — and nation — is devolving into.
First, we talked about the bond market, excessive fiscal spending and why gold continues to be the answer. Andy told me: “I think it’s a lot deeper than that, too. I think that we have proven to the rest of the world, largely through weaponizing of the dollar, that if you don’t align ideologically with us, well, that’s even a bigger problem. So, yeah, when you look at what gold has done over the past 25 years, it’s outpaced the bond market, but it doesn’t have the counterparty risk.”
“And I think that’s really the big problem here,” he continued, explaining why he thinks the bond market will eventually lose its footing. “It’s counterparty risk on top of brain-dead monetary policy and as irresponsible a fiscal policy as you could ever imagine. So, yes, I do think it is. And I don’t know if 5% is the line in the sand. I mean, it just seems as though, according to Jim Willey, we can hand money to Ireland and the Caymans and the United Kingdom under the table to continue to, you know, continue the facade, if you will. as to who would be stupid enough to buy any treasuries of maturity, any U.S. bonds of length of maturity, 10-year or greater, who in their right mind would do that?”
Speaking about the Fed potentially cutting rates, Andy said: “Look, I think by cutting, we’ve lost all credibility at that point, complete and total credibility. And I don’t think there is any way that they can lower rates. I really don’t think that there is.”
“And I think there’s nothing but inflation and higher rates ahead of us. But if I had to guess, it will be range bound, you know, just like there was no inflation and then it was t***sitory and then it was structural, then it was gone, then it was back. It’ll be the same thing here,” he added.
As an example: “Well, the economy is a, you know, the economy is a little bit hotter than it was supposed to be. And also we’re not going to be higher for longer. And, you know, but we’re thinking of lowering and maybe we’ll do two rate cuts by the end of the day. Okay. Maybe one, well, maybe we’re not going to do it. They’re not going to do s**t. And I don’t think they really can do much of anything.”
Andy says: “You know, they can’t really raise rates because we have to sell $14 trillion in bonds this year to retire the maturing debt and also pay the current bills. And a lot of this debt’s going to cost far more than the debt it’s replacing, which could lead to even more printing to cover that cost. So, you can’t really raise rates.”
Andy then told me about the “Cloward–Piven theory”, which many have never heard of before.
The Cloward–Piven strategy is a political strategy outlined in 1966 by American sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. The strategy aims to utilize “militant anti-poverty groups” to facilitate a “political crisis” by overloading the welfare system via an increase in welfare claims, forcing the creation of a system of guaranteed minimum income and “redistributing income through the federal government”
The authors pinned their hopes on creating disruption within the Democratic Party, Wikipedia notes:
“Conservative Republicans are always ready to declaim the evils of public welfare, and they would probably be the first to raise a hue and cry. But deeper and politically more telling conflicts would take place within the Democratic coalition…W****s – both working class ethnic groups and many in the middle class – would be aroused against the ghetto poor, while liberal groups, which until recently have been comforted by the notion that the poor are few… would probably support the movement. Group conflict, spelling political crisis for the local party apparatus, would thus become acute as welfare rolls mounted and the strains on local budgets became more severe.”
Andy laid out how the theory makes all too much sense: “So what is the Fed going to do? Maybe they’re doing what they want to do, and that is to incentivize the reset and not at the hands of Powell or not at the hands of Janet Yellen, even though it really is, but a villain to blame it on. And I mean, I don’t know how else you can explain the stupidity. I mean, you would be a far better president and a far better, you know, head of the Federal Reserve or Treasury Secretary, and I mean that sincerely, I think anyone who listens to this would agree, just because you ooze common sense. Where is the common sense in any of the policy decisions of this government and of this Federal Reserve? Or is it too stupid to be stupid? And I’ll leave that up to you.”
Talking about the Treasury buying back bonds, and how that turns into pure debt monetization, Andy added: “They say, ‘And this is gonna happen in the next few days,’ but who will be the entity that will do the buying? Because the treasury is broke. It ain’t gonna be the treasury. So, who is it? It’s the New York Fed. And they’re gonna have to conjure up cash to buy those bonds. And while a good portion of the world is shunning our bonds, and for good reason, keeping in mind that we do need to sell almost 14 trillion this year to retire 9 trillion and maturing at higher rates, plus the current bills. You know, who’s going to do it? And this is debt monetization. This is the beginning to Weimar Republic. The Treasury says they’re going to do it, but they’re broke. So, it’ll be the Fed that will come up with the cash to do it.”
“You know, they’re looking to raise 4.3 trillion over 10 years by imposing the unrealized gain tax. And I thought your comment was brilliant when you said we could save a trillion just by not sending 100 billion a year to other nations for starters, right?”
“If you spend a hundred dollars every second of every day, it would take you almost 2,000 years to equal the 6.2 trillion the U.S. government has spent in just the last 12 months,” Andy said.
“And the point that you bring up about, you know, what would happen, well, the first thing what happens that everyone would sell. And they would sell before the thing got enacted and it would cripple. Think what Nvidia and think of what Bitcoin, all of those unrealized gains, think of the collapsing. And then your point, which I didn’t think about until I read your article, was spot on. These are the people who have enough money. Like I said, ‘fuck it’ to Minnesota. And I left my corporate office there. I left all my friends there. I left, you know, half my family there. And I said, ‘I’m out’ when they lost their mind. when they defunded the police, led the nation’s charge in defunding the police and let the third precinct, of which one of my best friends from childhood was the sergeant there, watched that third precinct burn down on TV. And then the governor had the audacity to raise income taxes to over 10% in Minnesota, for God’s sakes, where you freeze your ass off.”
Talking about the bifurcation of the global economy and China, Andy said: “Little by little, they continue to distance themselves from the system, slowly selling treasuries, slowly accumulating commodities, striking deals all around the world. You know, I focus a lot on precious metals.”
He adds: “Obviously, the Chinese are the biggest buyers of it and producers of it, but it’s not just precious metals. You know, with the Belt Road Initiative and the BRICS, they’re making relationships with all of these countries for everything from rare earths to soft commodities like corn and wheat and soybeans. They’re buying all of that, not from the US and Australia anymore. In fact, they just canceled big contracts with them in favor of buying them from Brazil, paying for it in Yuan, which is immediately convertible into gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange. I don’t know how many people know this, but the Chinese bought the LME, the London Metals Exchange a few years ago. That’s not the LBMA where the precious metals are traded, but those are all the base metals that you would need to build an economy. And now they are warehousing these metals in China that are traded in London. See, they’re setting the stage and they are buying everything that you need to bust away from a country that’s lost its bearings.”
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“I did not want to split the church. I wanted to reform the church.”
Such were Mark Tooley’s sentiments concerning the theological rift that threatened to split the United Methodist Church (UMC), the denomination in which he had served his entire Christian life.
The efforts of Tooley and others who shared the same desire to steer the UMC back to its biblical moorings were unsuccessful; thus, a formal split ensued, and on May 1, 2022, the Global Methodist Church (GMC) was launched.
Tooley, president of The Institute on Religion and Democracy, an organization that seeks to assist Christians in promoting biblical, historic Christianity in society, spoke about the GMC as it approaches its two-year anniversary.
Current growth
The process of disaffiliating with the UMC proved to be quite difficult for some congregations, and even impossible for many.
Despite the challenges, however, by the December 2023 deadline to exit, some 7,600 U.S. churches had made the decision to separate.
“A little over 4,000, or 55%, of those who chose to exit have joined the GMC, and that number is climbing,” Tooley said. “It will probably rise to at least 70%, maybe 80%.”
It might seem natural for those leaving a liberalized Methodist denomination to gravitate naturally and quickly to a conservative Methodist denomination, but that is not necessarily the case, according to Tooley. However, he believes those congregations now in an independent status can be appealed to and won over.
“There are still hundreds of churches that have been burned by their denominational experience and think they don’t need a wider structure in which to belong,” Tooley explained. “So, the GMC needs … to demonstrate that, unlike the old UMC, it is not a coercive bureaucratic structure, but it is more of a network of collaboration.”
Potential prospects
Should the UMC officially liberalize at the 2024 General Conference as expected, Tooley anticipates many more congregations will desire to exit, though admittedly, it will be very difficult.
“Some will find a way to fight their way out,” Tooley said. “So maybe a few hundred more will exit, and some of those will want to join the GMC.”
But Tooley sees great potential for growth as he looks beyond the U.S. and surveys the global landscape.
“There are 7 million United Methodists in Africa, most of whom will want to exit after the UMC fully liberalizes,” he said. “Hopefully … nearly all will want to join the GMC, but we don’t know how that’s going to break out yet.”
Additionally, Tooley has been encouraged by the international interest in the GMC by Filipino, European, Latin American, and Asian congregations.
Bright future
Though initially opposed to it, Tooley now sees the GMC as a necessary and worthwhile endeavor.
“I’ve heard many stories of local churches that have exited and feel very liberated and relieved that conflict is behind [them]. … Some churches are growing and have a vision for a better future. So, I think overall, it’s been very positive,” Tooley said.
“The 7,600 churches that exited is a significant new body of Christian believers. It’s, for example, bigger than the whole Episcopal church denomination,” Tooley explained. “So, it could have a significant impact on American Christianity – if it works well and is faithful.”
Confidence in institutions such as the Federal Reserve may be falling, but it hasn’t fallen nearly as far or as fast as it should. Trillions of dollars, yen, euros, and yuan are invested according to central bank policy and propaganda. It isn’t going well.
The U.S. economy is massively distorted, unhealthy, and hopelessly dependent on Fed stimulus. The Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) sectors of the economy have been overwhelming beneficiaries during the modern age of activist central banking.
Those sectors have collectively doubled in size since 1947 as a percentage of gross domestic product, and they now account for just under 21% of the economy. More than one out of every 5 dollars is generated by banks, brokerages, insurers, and realtors – people who produce nothing tangible.
Manufacturing has fallen from 25.6% of GDP in 1947 to just 10.3% in 2023.
Meanwhile, government spending as a percentage of GDP has gone up nearly tenfold since the late 1920’s and the dawning of the big government era, during the Great Depression.
All of this central planning has done wonders for growth in the government sector and for the FIRE economy. The wealthy, with connections to government and Wall Street, have grown wealthier.
But it has been a disaster for most Americans. During this period American households have shifted from needing one income to two incomes.
Housing is completely unaffordable for most Americans. Household debt has risen dramatically, along with every taxpayer’s portion of the public sector debt.
Many Americans seem to be checking out. The rate of employment – the percentage of working age people actually working – is in steady decline and more people are dependent on government assistance.
The worse news is that average Americans will likely still wind up holding the bag for all of the economic and monetary mismanagement.
Financial assets are largely disconnected from economic fundamentals. They are dependent instead on Fed policy.
Last week’s rally in stock prices, based upon surprisingly weak jobs data, is an example. It might have been bad news for businesses and job seekers, but money managers and trading algorithms ignored that and focused on rising odds of interest rate cuts.
Central planners at the Fed have cultivated massive bubbles in stocks and real estate.
Today, much of their efforts are on keeping these bubbles inflated. Which means the U.S. economy, and others, are one or two policy errors away from disaster. If history repeats, it will be Wall Street and the well-connected who receive bailouts, not average Americans.
The trouble is these errors may not be visible except for in hindsight.
Fed officials assured us the U.S. economy was strong and that housing was not in a bubble immediately prior to the 2008 financial collapse. The Japanese economy has languished for decades. Central bankers there have tried one stimulus program after the next for more than 30 years, without success.
Now the yen has collapsed to its lowest levels versus the U.S. dollar since 1990, when the malaise set in.
Anyone who thinks the central planners in the U.S. (or Europe or China) are smarter and more capable than those in Japan are kidding themselves.
American investors who might be counting the FOMC and economic policy advisors in Washington DC to safeguard the U.S. economy should watch this incredible clip and reevaluate.
NotMAGA wrote:
X, XX, XY, XXY, XXYY, XYY...
Those are the 6 karotypes that can occur in humans. Some of those have particular traits. Do you think God doesn't make all people, or doesnt understand science? Try harder.
Contrary to what you may or may not believe, God DOES understand science as there are only two sexes or g****rs... XX and XY.
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh... And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Genesis 2:18, 21-22So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have d******n over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:27-28God did NOT create homosexuals. They and all other deviations from the norm are the result of the Fall.