The problem, of course, is that when economic activity migrates from the informal and underground economy to the monetized economy it gets recorded as additional output, jobs and income in our Keynesian labor and GDP accounts. In many such cases, however, no new output or income is actually being generated; it’s just being newly recorded.
In short, there is nothing organic, natural, sustainable or strong about the GDP numbers currently being posted—notwithstanding all the Biden-Harris boasting to the contrary. Actually, the US economic is being artificially bloated and levitated by cheap debt compliments of the Fed and other central banks around the world.
A goodly part of the “strong” economy illusion derives from cherry-picking the hideously misleading numbers contained in the BLS establishment survey’s monthly “jobs” count. As we noted in my previous piece, for instance, the index of hours worked in the high-pay, high-productivity goods-producing sector has actually contracted by 18% since peaking way back in 1978, but that has purportedly been more than off-set by a 128% rise in the hours index for the Leisure & Hospitality (L&H) sector, of which 75% is attributable to bars, restaurants and other food service operations.
Alas, however, what might be termed the “great jobs replacement” caper was not remotely a case of apples-to-apples. The typical part-time, near minimum wage “job” in the L&H sector pays the equivalent $24,400 per year or just 37% of the $66,000 annual equivalent for goods-producing jobs. So in terms of economic throw-weight, or the implied market value of output and income, we have been replacing prime labor force players with what amounts to third-stringers on waivers.
But in some cases, it may actually be even worse than that. To wit, neither the BLS employment data nor the GDP accounts are without systematic bias owing to the fact that they were designed and institutionalized mainly by Keynesian economists on the government payroll. The latter naturally equated economic output and jobs with that which their data framework measured—even as such macro-data was mainly of importance to Keynesian policy makers fiddling with the Washington-based fiscal and monetary dials in an attempt to enhance the greater economic good.
Accordingly, the Keynesian fathers of our contemporary economic data dumps didn’t care much about vast sections of the non-monetized economy including household labor, self-service activities (i.e. doing your own driving, shopping and lawn mowing) and the so-called underground economy conducted in cash and away from the tax collectors, regulators and law-enforcers.
The problem, of course, is that when economic activity migrates from the informal and underground economy to the monetized economy it gets recorded as additional output, jobs and income in our Keynesian labor and GDP accounts. In many such cases, however, no new output or income is actually being generated; it’s just being newly recorded.
A man protests in France during a yellow vest demonstration (Telmo Pinto/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)
It’s fashionable to claim that the free market ideas of Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman have failed the country, and that it’s time for new policies. Campaigning in 2020, Joe Biden declared that “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore.” More recently, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt noted that people like Friedman promised that the free market “would bring prosperity for all. It has not.”
This is nonsense. For one thing, I wish we lived in a world fashioned more fully by Friedman’s ideas. Sadly, while his insights have indeed influenced some U.S. economic policies, particularly during former President Ronald Reagan’s administration, the extent of their implementation has been quite limited.
Friedman, for example, would be appalled that federal debt is now roughly the size of annual gross domestic product (GDP), having grown like a kudzu vine since registering at around 25 percent in the early 1980s. Taxes remain lower since the Reagan revolution took place, but our incomes are often taxed multiple times. Nearly every aspect of our lives is regulated by various agencies—local, state, and national. And—no surprise—cronyism is alive and well.
Still, Friedman’s critics are right to treat him as a monumental figure. His ideas helped make trade freer and school choice mainstream. His clarity in contrasting markets with government opened many eyes to the benefits of capitalism. We are immeasurably better off for it. If you don’t believe me, look at my native France, where Friedman has had almost no influence.
The French economy is weighed down by one of the heaviest tax levels among wealthy democratic nations, with regressive taxes and social security contributions representing a significant portion of GDP. This tax haul funds France’s extensive web of social welfare programs, including health care, education, and pensions.
French regulation is also comprehensive, covering many aspects of employment, business operations, and environmental protection. The labor code is particularly onerous. Additionally, its government plays a direct role in the economy, with a significant number of partially state-owned enterprises and interventionist policies intended to safeguard employment and prioritize equality and social cohesion.
Therefore, under a fiat monetary system we cannot know the true value of goods and services. This is why to create a sound economy that provides prosperity we should audit then end the fed.
Oct. 17 – Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is a 2022 recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics for his writings on how government should respond to bank failures. Honoring Bernanke for his advice on what government should do when banks fail is like giving a fire safety award to an arsonist.
Bernanke was Fed chairman when the housing bubble, created by his predecessor Alan Greenspan in the wake of the bursting of Greenspan’s tech bubble and the 9-11 attacks, exploded. When the housing market collapsed, Bernanke worked with Congress and the Bush administration to bail out big banks and Wall Street firms.
In the years following the meltdown, the Bernanke-led Fed tried to “stimulate” the economy via massive money creation, near zero interest rates, and “quantitative easing,” where the Fed injects liquidity into the market via purchases of financial assets including Treasury bonds.
The Fed’s post-meltdown policies produced sluggish growth at best, while laying the groundwork for the next bust. A sign that the next crash was around the corner came in September of 2019, when the Federal Reserve began pumping billions of dollars a day into the “repurchasing” market, which banks use to make overnight loans to each other, in order to keep that market’s interest rates from rising above the Fed’s target rate. The covid lockdowns then gave the Fed an excuse to push interest rates to zero and massively expand quantitative easing.
The Fed’s actions are the prime culprit behind the price inflation plaguing America’s economy. The Fed has responded to the price inflation by increasing interest rates, although rates remain much lower than they would be in a free market. The fact that even these relatively small increases helped push the fragile economy into recession shows the instability of our debt-based economic system.
Bernanke, and Congress, should have responded to the meltdown by letting the recession that followed the meltdown run its course. This is the only way the economy can adjust to the market distortions caused when the Fed increases the money supply and lowers interest rates.
Those who worry that this “don’t do something, just stand there” approach would inflict long-term economic pain on the American people should consider the economic depression of 1920. During this depression, the Fed refrained from trying to “stimulate” the economy, and Congress actually cut spending. The result was the downturn was quickly over. Sadly, the lessons of 1920 are largely ignored by mainstream economic historians.
In response to my questioning at a Financial Services Committee hearing, then-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke admitted he did not consider gold to be money. Of course, gold and other precious metals are money because individuals have selected them whenever they had the freedom to choose a currency. One reason for this is that precious metals are uniquely suited to serve as a stable unit of account. In contrast, government rulers have favored fiat money precisely because it can never serve as an honest unit of account due to its value being constantly manipulated by central bankers. This is often done at the behest of power-hungry politicians.
Therefore, under a fiat monetary system we cannot know the true value of goods and services. This is why to create a sound economy that provides prosperity we should audit then end the fed.
Indeed, if we ignore that inflation is currency devaluation that can be corrected by well-timed comments from Treasury as is, we can’t ignore that what the Fed vainly presumes to take away via “rate hikes” will be made up for by global credit inflows.
It’s too easily forgotten by the deep and not-so-deep in thought that production is all about the getting. Goods and services always flow. Everywhere. Without regard to embargoes and sanctions.
To be clear, if you’re producing you’re getting.
In the 19th century, England was at war with seemingly every European power of that time at varying times, but the British people still consumed European plenty as though it had all been produced in Manchester. Really, what serious non-British producer in Europe or elsewhere was going to let wars or political decrees of the sanction kind deter profitable engagement with well-heeled customers? The very notion….
Yet this very notion continues to permeate policy and economic commentary. It’s possible it’s something in the water at the New York Times, or just the people Bret Stephens is bumping into, but his commentary about Russia and Ukraine before the invasion indicated backsliding on the thought processes of this always excellent-to-read writer, and normally clear thinker.
Stephens was of the view that the U.S. could utilize banks to cut off the flow of dollars to Russia (yes, Russia is dollarized to some degree as most backwards countries are), but might be careful in doing so. Why? Because Russia could cut off flow of its energy supplies to Europe. And winter was coming….No, none of this was going to happen. The economy is global.
Let’s talk real stuff. For one, there was no way the Russians were going to sit on their energy. Not only would doing so be the same as giving up market share, but doing so would bankrupt Russia the country along with many businesses inside. The oil and gas were going to flow, period. And when market goods flow, there’s no accounting for their final destination. Put in an easily understandable way, while the U.S. has an embargo against Iran, iPhones and other U.S. plenty are still all over Iran. Get it?
It seems Stephens’s New York Times is now getting it. In a report last week, Victoria Kim, Clifford Krauss and Anton Troainovksi wrote that “When the United States and European Union moved to curtail purchases of Russian fossil fuels this year, they hoped it would help make the Russian invasion so painful for Moscow that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin would be forced to abandon it.” From there they acknowledged that such a scenario was “remote at best,” and that other countries in the closed economy that is the world economy like China and India had “swooped in to buy roughly the same volume of Russian oil that would have gone to the West.” You think? Do you think some of what’s sold to “China” and “India” hasn’t already found its way to the Europe that Putin was allegedly going to starve of oil and gas? Figure that during WWI the U.S. embargoed Germany only for U.S. trade with Scandinavian countries to soar. Coincidence? Think again. Trade with Germany never stopped if you seek a clarity.
Seriously, how did serious people gloss over the economics of this so blithely? And it wasn’t just Stephens. His former colleagues at the Wall Street Journal claimed that European countries were now going to suffer their mindless pursuit of green energy with Russia’s invasion in full swing. Oh yes, that’s right. Market actors were just going to kiss off one of the world’s biggest zones of prosperity? More realistically, markets always work around the decrees of political types.
The objective of the BRICS group is simply to present an alternative trade mechanism that permits them to conduct business regardless of the opinion of the multinational corporations in the ‘western alliance.’
This is not some grand conspiracy, ‘out there‘ deep geopolitical possibility, or foreboding likelihood as an outcome of short-sighted western emotion. No, this is just a predictable outcome from western created events that pushed specific countries to a natural conclusion based on their best interests.
You can debate the motives of the western leaders who structured the sanctions against Russia, and whether they knew the outcome would happen as a consequence of their effort, but the outcome was never really in doubt. Personally, I believe this outcome is what the west intended. The people inside the World Economic Forum are not stupid – ideological, yes, but not stupid. They knew this would happen.
[Left to Right] Xi Jinping (China), Vladimir Putin (Russia), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Narendra Modi (India) and Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), the BRICS group.
The finance ministers of the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have decided to create their own financial mechanisms to continue trade between nations of similar disposition. Once the internal issues inside the BRICS alliance are resolved, and once the mechanisms are created, then other nations will be able to decide to join or not. The great global cleaving will commence.
(Reuters) – Russia, hit by Western sanctions, has called on the BRICS group of emerging economies to extend the use of national currencies and integrate payment systems, the finance ministry said on Saturday.
[…] On Friday, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a ministerial meeting with BRICS, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, that the global economic situation had worsened substantially due to the sanctions, the ministry’s statement said.
The new sanctions also destroy the foundation of the existing international monetary and financial system based on the U.S. dollar, Siluanov said.
“This pushes us to the need to speed up work in the following areas: the use of national currencies for export-import operations, the integration of payment systems and cards, our own financial messaging system and the creation of an independent BRICS rating agency,” Siluanov said.
International payment cards Visa and MasterCard suspended operations in Russia in early March and Russia’s biggest banks have lost access to the SWIFT global banking messaging system.
Russia set up its own banking messaging system, known as SPFS, as an alternative to SWIFT. Its own card payment system MIR began operating in 2015.
[…] They were part of Moscow’s efforts to develop homegrown financial tools to mirror Western ones, to protect the country in case penalties against Moscow were broadened.
The finance ministry said BRICS ministers have confirmed the importance of cooperation in efforts to stabilise the current economic situation.
“The current crisis is man-made, and the BRICS countries have all necessary tools to mitigate its consequences for their economies and the global economy as a whole,” Siluanov said. (link)
For a deep dive on BRICS, as predicted by CTH, {SEE HERE}. The bottom line is – the 2022 punitive economic and financial sanctions by the western nations’ alliance against Russia was exactly the reason why BRICS assembled in the first place.
The multinational corporate control of government is exactly what the BRICS assembly foresaw when they first assembled during the Obama administration. When multinational corporations run the policy of western government, there is going to be a problem.
In the bigger picture, the BRICS assembly are essentially leaders who do not want corporations and multinational banks running their government. BRICS leaders want their government running their government; and yes, that means whatever form of government that exists in their nation, even if it is communist.
BRICS leaders are aligned as anti-corporatist. That doesn’t necessarily make those government leaders better stewards, it simply means they want to make the decisions, and they do not want corporations to become more powerful than they are. As a result, if you really boil it down to the common denominator, what you find is the BRICS group are the opposing element to the World Economic Forum assembly.
The countries run by multinational corporations are in Yellow, the countries who have not yet chosen a side are in GREY:
The BRICS team intend to create an alternative option for all the other nations. An alternative to the current western trade and financial platforms operated on the use of the dollar as a currency. Perhaps many nations will use both financial mechanisms depending on their need.
The objective of the BRICS group is simply to present an alternative trade mechanism that permits them to conduct business regardless of the opinion of the multinational corporations in the ‘western alliance.’
The state of the subsistence fund determines the quality and the quantity of various tools that can be made. If the fund is only sufficient to support one day of work, then the making of a tool that requires two days of work cannot be undertaken. The size of the fund sets the limit on the projects that can be implemented. It also means that the size of the fund determines the so-called economic growth.
To maintain his life and well-being, an individual must have at his disposal an adequate amount of consumer goods. These goods, however, are not readily available. Without tools at his disposal and by means of his bare hands, the individual can only obtain from nature very few goods for his survival.
For instance, take an individual John, stranded in a forest. In order to stay alive, he can only pick up some apples from an apple tree. Apples are the only good available to him that can sustain him. Let us say that by working twenty hours a day, he manages to secure twenty apples, which keep him alive. The twenty apples that John has secured from nature is his subsistence fund, which sustains him (see also on this Rothbard)[1].
John realizes that if he had a special stick this would allow him to become more productive. His daily production of apples could be forty apples (i.e., double his current production). The problem, however, is that the stick is not available—it must be made. To make the special stick requires two days of work. If John were to decide to make the stick, he would have a problem. By spending his time on making the stick, he would not be able to pick up the apples that are required to keep him alive.
The only way out of this predicament is for John to put aside an apple a day for the next forty days. By saving an apple out of his daily production and enduring hunger, after forty days he will have an adequate stock of apples that will sustain him while he is busy making the stick. (We make the unrealistic assumption here that apples can be preserved in edible form for forty days). Thus, after forty days, the John’s subsistence fund will be comprised of forty apples, which will see him through while he is making the special stick. We can see here that the saved or unconsumed forty apples enable the making of the stick, which raises the production of apples and lifts John’s living standard.
Note that the making of the stick is a burden—John has to make a sacrifice and save forty apples thereby endangering his health and well-being. However, the stick will allow him to double his production of apples. If he continues to consume twenty apples a day, this will allow John to increase his subsistence fund. With a larger fund, John could consider allocating his time to make some other tools to enhance his life and well-being.
The state of the subsistence fund determines the quality and the quantity of various tools that can be made. If the fund is only sufficient to support one day of work, then the making of a tool that requires two days of work cannot be undertaken. The size of the fund sets the limit on the projects that can be implemented. It also means that the size of the fund determines the so-called economic growth.
According to Richard von Strigl
Let us assume that in some country production must be completely rebuilt. The only factors of production available to the population besides labourers are those factors of production provided by nature. Now, if production is to be carried out by a roundabout method, let us assume of one year’s duration, then it is self-evident that production can only begin if, in addition to these originary factors of production, a subsistence fund is available to the population which will secure their nourishment and any other needs for a period of one year…. The greater this fund, the longer is the roundabout factor of production that can be undertaken, and the greater the output will be. It is clear that under these conditions the “correct” length of the roundabout method of production is determined by the size of the subsistence fund or the period of time for which this fund suffices.[2]
The essence of the subsistence fund with respect to an individual, John, can be widened to include many individuals that trade with each other.
Frank Shostak‘s consulting firm, Applied Austrian School Economics, provides in-depth assessments of financial markets and global economies. Contact: email.
We have a nation of infants sucking on pacifiers while trapped in their cribs by sociopathic parents/politicians. Infants are incapable of critical thought, must be fed to survive, and diapered at all times. Sounds like the majority of adult Americans today, except the diaper is on the other end.
One month ago I wrote an article – Silent Obedient Consent – about our day in Cape May Lighthouse State Park and my disappointment in seeing so many perfectly healthy young people obediently wearing their face muzzles, as dictated by government bureaucrats, on a bright crisp autumn day in a 244 acre state wild preserve. I found it sad that so many could be controlled so easily by so few.
Since my state has been on lockdown since our escape to Cape May and the weather has been cold, wet and snowy, we’ve been mostly cooped up in our home prison. The fear propaganda campaign has worked wonders, as our traditional Christmas Eve bash with 50 or so relatives and neighbors, was limited to six relatives. Monday, when I saw the temperature was going to 48 with bright sunshine, I insisted we needed to go to the 3,500 acre Valley Forge National Park to take a long walk.
We have lived eleven miles from Valley Forge Park for the last twenty-five years. I’m a student of history, so living this close to a national treasure, where a ragtag army of farmers showed tremendous fortitude and courage during the brutal deathly Winter of 1777-78, has been an endless source of enjoyment and learning for me, my wife and sons. The walking trails wind through beautiful rolling hills of trees, dotted with soldier quarters as they appeared 242 years ago.
Many an afternoon did we hike up Mount Joy over the mountain to reach General Washington’s headquarters. The museum on the headquarters site is filled with interactive displays describing the tremendous sacrifices made by these men to keep a the hopes of a fledgling country alive. You can’t help but be inspired by the bravery and courage of these men. They left their families and were willing to die for a cause that seemed unreachable. They were willing to sacrifice their lives to gain freedom from tyrannical monarch mandates.
The park rangers have always been friendly and helpful. We signed our two youngest sons up for a program where we took them there every Saturday and they were trained as recruits in the Continental Army with pretend muskets. It was fun for them and they learned about an important event in the founding of our country. Our three boys were full of energy and we would do the five mile trek around the park every time. They would roller blade, scooter or walk, but we always made two stops. One was the battery of cannons, where they would imagine blasting some redcoats.
The other was a huge climbing tree which we assumed was around in 1778 when General Baron von Steuben was drilling his Continental Army recruits, instilling discipline and teaching them tactics. Picturing the past heroic actions of true patriots is easy to do at Valley Forge. When we could get them down from the branches we would set the timer on our camera and take a picture for posterity.
All of my memories of time spent at Valley Forge Park were positive, until this past Monday. Once again, I was aghast at what I witnessed on a sunny brisk winter day. At first I was surprised at the huge number of cars in the parking lot. Many people had the same idea, as indoor dining has been banned by Generalissimo Baron von Wolf for the last month. Our level of enthusiasm for our enjoyable trek through this national treasure of a park waned immediately as we witnessed hundreds upon hundreds of young people, families, bikers, and joggers fully muzzled, as demanded by covid czar Dick/Rachel Levine and dictator in chief – Tom Wolf.
We were going to enjoy our unmasked walk no matter how many compliant sheep we had to pass. Lone bikers, near no one, were masked. Lone joggers were masked. One jogger would pull up her mask when she passed someone and then pull it down after passing. Little kids were masked. Mothers, fathers, teens on dates, and young guys were all masked.
I couldn’t help but think how government school indoctrination had worked wonders on these obedient serfs. Have years of helicopter parenting created such a pathetic generation of infant like rule followers? Are they so willfully ignorant they can’t do the basic research to realize masks don’t work, based on CDC studies and the actual case rates in states and cities with mandatory masking and lockdowns?
Based on my observations, at least 60% of these people, out getting exercise and fresh air (not too fresh with a filthy diaper on their faces), were obeying their tyrannical politicians and bureaucrats, or entrapped in fear by a flu with a 99.7% survival rate. We didn’t have the slightest hesitancy in walking next to or passing others resisters (aka anti-maskers, aka granny killers) who chose to live on the edge by breathing fresh air. I never have a problem choosing not to be one of the crowd and not following the lemmings.
The most embarrassing aspect of our afternoon was when fully masked sheeple would take a wide berth into the grass when they saw we were un-muzzled. They treated us like plague carrying super spreaders. This happened at least a half dozen times. When we passed two young fully masked parents pushing a stroller with an infant sucking on his pacifier, I jokingly said to my wife that I should patent a face mask with a built in pacifier. Too late. They already sell them on the internet. We truly must be living in some dystopian Twilight Zone episode.
If it was in my power, anyone who willingly wears a mask in the fresh air should be required to wear this mask. It would represent the infantilization of Americans during this era of idiocracy.
We have a nation of infants sucking on pacifiers while trapped in their cribs by sociopathic parents/politicians. Infants are incapable of critical thought, must be fed to survive, and diapered at all times. Sounds like the majority of adult Americans today, except the diaper is on the other end.
As we passed maskers by the dozens on the walking path, I found myself wondering if any of these people appreciated the irony of the cowardice and dishonor shown to those brave, honorable men who spent a brutal winter battling bitter cold, snow, starvation, typhus, small pox, dysentery, and the threat of attack from the most powerful army on the planet only thirty miles away in Philadelphia. These men faced death every moment of their existence. Meanwhile, our current army of Valley Forge maskers cower from the phantom menace of a highly non-lethal flu bug.
There are hundreds of statues scattered throughout the park honoring the patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice to create a new nation of self-reliant, strong, independent minded, citizens who didn’t require coddling by a massive overbearing Federal government. They just wanted to be left alone to work their farms, raise their families, and live as free men. Statues to honor our current day “heroes” would look like this.
When assessing the state of our nation, it is always a prudent choice to seek out the wisdom of our founding father who led the troops at Valley Forge – George Washington. I think the quote below captures the essence of what has been happening in this country over the last ten months.
The downward spiral crisis in this country is reflected in the apparent trivial submission of a vast swath of the populace to a psychotic belief a thin piece of cloth will save them from a moderately annoying flu that won’t kill 99.9% of Americans. This is a turning point in the history of our country. And not one which will go down in glory, taught in history books as a story of courageousness, fortitude, bravery and common sense.
“The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.”― George Washington
If General George Washington was alive today, he would be praying for the end of this societal mass delusion and for leaders who were not cunning, ambitious, unprincipled and intent on destroying everything he fought for during those times that tried men’s souls. The subversion of power by a cadre of extremely wealthy globalist traitors has succeeded beyond their expectations.
The future of our country hangs in the balance, just as it did in the Winter of 1777/78. The question is whether we remain sunshine patriots wearing masks as demanded by the monarchy or will we stand now, shed our masks and fight the tyranny engulfing this nation. The choice is ours.
“However political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”― George Washington
For a real free market to function, weak or corrupt elements must be allowed to fail and die. Instead, central banks around the world and most prominently the Fed kept all of those destructive elements on life support.
This has created what amounts to a “zombie economy:”
The “great reset” is just another phrase for “the new world order.” It is important to understand that the reset these people are talking about has actually been engineered and staged for many years.
The U.S. economy has been on the verge of collapse for at least a decade, ever since the crash of 2008 and the subsequent explosion in fiat stimulus from the Federal Reserve. While the mainstream media has always claimed that central bankers “saved” us from another Great Depression, what they actually did was set us up for a far worse scenario — a stagflationary implosion of our society.
Here is the primary problem: By injecting trillions of bailout dollars into the system, the Federal Reserve prevented the economy from going through its natural purging cycle. This cycle would have been painful for many, but survivable, and it would have removed large amounts of excess debt, parasitic corporations that produce little or nothing of use, as well as numerous toxic assets with no legitimate value. For a real free market to function, weak or corrupt elements must be allowed to fail and die. Instead, central banks around the world and most prominently the Fed kept all of those destructive elements on life support.
This has created what amounts to a “zombie economy:” a system that needs constant outside support (stimulus) in order to continue moving forward. In the process of keeping zombie corporations and other parts of the body alive, healthy parts of the economy, like the small business sector, get devoured. Jenga Classic Game Check Amazon for Pricing.
The zombie economy is, however, highly fragile. All it takes is one or two major shocks to bring it down, and the moment this happens the whole facade will disintegrate, leaving the public in panic and disarray. This is what is happening right now in 2020, and it will get much worse in 2021.
Bailouts encourage and reward unhealthy financial behavior, and this is why national debt, corporate debt and consumer debt have recently hit historic highs. When every pillar of the economy is encumbered with the weight of debt, any instability has the possibility of bringing all those pillars down at once. The Federal Reserve turned the U.S. into an economic time bomb, and the Fed is itself more like a suicide bomber than some kind of fiscal savior.
The “Great Reset”
I first heard the term “global reset” or “great reset” back in 2014/2015. I wrote an article about how the reset was actually a long term process in my article The Global Economic Reset Has Begun. Christine Lagarde was the head of the IMF back then, and she mentioned it briefly in multiple interviews.
I made a mental note of it because it seemed planted into the discussion very awkwardly, as if it was scripted. I rarely heard it mentioned for years after that. In 2020, as we descend into social and economic chaos, I’m seeing the phrase used everywhere in the media and by globalists.
Over the past decade, globalist institutions have come up with numerous phrases that seem to refer to a worldwide planned and dramatic shift in human society sometime in the near future. The “great reset” is just another phrase for “the new world order.” It is important to understand that the reset these people are talking about has actually been engineered and staged for many years. This is not something that just popped up in 2020 — they have been talking about it since at least 2014. And before that, they talked about the new world order, and “multilateralism,” and the “multi-polar world order,” and Agenda 2030, etc. Exploding Kittens Card… Buy New $9.99 (as of 06:08 EST – Details)
The reset is the catalyst phase of an agenda that has been in the works for a long time now. The goal, as they have openly admitted many times, is to centralize the entire globe into one monetary structure, one highly interdependent and socialized economy, and eventually one faceless and unaccountable governing body.
One of the biggest obstacles to the finalization of the reset and the formation of the new world order has been liberty-minded populations across the planet — most of all, the liberty-minded people within America. The U.S. has to be destabilized or eliminated; the old world order has to be brought down before the new world order can be introduced. The people have to be beaten down and desperate, so that when the globalists offer their “reset” as the solution, the people will gladly accept it without question — simply because they want the economic pain and uncertainty to stop.
A common statement made by globalists from Klaus Shwab at the World Economic Forum to the current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, is that the coronavirus pandemic is the “perfect opportunity” to trigger the “great reset.” As globalist Rahm Emanuel is famous for admitting, in crisis there is opportunity to do things you were not able to do before.
In other words, when people panic in the face of crisis, they become easy to manipulate. And, if a crisis doesn’t happen naturally, then why not create a crisis from thin air and use that to cause panic?
Enter the economic lockdowns…
The lockdowns have not only been proven to do nothing to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but they are also a clear attack on what’s left of our economic system. The small business sector in particular is being gutted as more than 60% of those that shut down during the first lockdown were unable to reopen. Small businesses provide more than half of all employment in the U.S.. When they collapse, the U.S. economy will have nothing left except the big-box corporations that the Fed put on life support over a decade ago. Throw Throw Burrito by… Buy New $24.99 (as of 06:08 EST – Details)
Real unemployment, which is already at 26%, will skyrocket even further if a second national lockdown is initiated. The speedy collapse of the U.S. economy will be assured, and the “great reset” can commence. At least, that is what the globalists want to happen…
With the U.S. presidential election currently being contested, it is hard to say how the next few months will play out in detail. As I have been pointing out since July, a contested election is the best possible scenario for the globalists because it creates a Catch-22 situation:
If Trump stays in office, the political left will accuse him of usurping the presidency and there will be mass riots in the streets. Conservatives will be tempted with the idea of bringing in martial law to suppress rioters, and such measures will undermine the flow of the U.S. economy, causing its fragile structure to implode.
If Biden enters the White House, then he will attempt a Level 4 lockdown similar to the lockdowns we have seen in Australia, France, Germany and the UK; perhaps even worse. Our economy will crumble, conservatives will revolt, and Biden will attempt martial law measures.
Either way, the globalists get their crisis, and therein their opportunity.
Surviving the lockdowns and deterring the globalists
Taco Cat Goat Cheese P… Buy New $9.99 (as of 06:08 EST – Details) But here is where things get less certain for the elites. If liberty-minded Americans organize immediately for security and mutual aid, we can defuse the Catch-22. If we provide for our own security within our own communities, there will be no rationale for Trump to institute martial law. Community security is an awesome deterrent against leftist rioting and looting, and basic economic trade can continue.
By extension, if we organize our own community security as well as localize our economies with barter and trade, we also act as a deterrent to Biden and any ideas he might have of enforcing national lockdowns. The point is, we can’t allow the globalists to dictate the terms of the crisis. We must act to change the rules of the game.
The reset is not a natural inevitability, it is a con, a trap. No matter how bad the crisis in our nation becomes, it is the people — namely the liberty-minded people — who will determine the future, not the globalists. Their plan relies on our panic. Instead of panic, let’s show them a unified front and a plan of our own.
This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Birch Gold Group
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