Ten Years After the Crash, We Have Survived, But Have You Prospered?

The year is 2018 and we have survived. 

Despite all the fear-mongering, all the pessimism, all the chaos, the markets are still here, and they are thriving.

This has blown away many, as their are countless experts in the precious metals community and the financial world at large, who believed that this house of cards would of long ago come crashing down long ago. 

Sparks have flown through the air on an almost daily basis, threatening to set blaze to this bone dry kindling that we call a financial system. Yet, time and time again, the hose is turned on and the small embers are blasted out of existence through a torrent of fiat currency.

The financial "elites" have done what many thought would be impossible, and for that, you have to give them credit, well, at least in the short term.

Endless amounts of money printing may of helped paper over the problem, and arguably, it has, as ten years after the financial crisis of 2008, we are still standing, we are still here and the modern world is still ticking by with each passing day, regardless of how dysfunctional our current political system may be.

So why do people not feel it? Why do so many people still feel like there has been no recovery, and that they are still living through the 2008 crash that is now ten years in our past?

A recent report by Betterment highlights this point and showcases, that despite the market being up a stunning 200% since the market bottom, the majority of Americans are not aware of this, and in fact believe that the market is either flat, or has moved even lower than the 2008 crash.

This survey highlights just how disconnected the vast majority of people really and truly are, and for good reason. Many people lost everything, and as is typical throughout market history, they panicked, and sold at precisely the wrong time, forever locking in their historic losses.

For many others, the crash has never had a chance to recover, as they lost their jobs in the years following and have still not returned to the previous heights they once achieved, many drifting out of the workforce, or taking on two jobs to replace the one higher paying job they previously had.

This survey went on further to prove this point, highlighting that 65% of those asked had not yet recovered from the 2008 crash and 27% had given up plans for retirement, halting their savings entirely as they just attempt to get by.

Meanwhile, the concentration of wealth, during this historic run up in stock prices has resulted in an ever increasing widening gap of the "haves" and "have not's" as the vast majority of the gains move into a smaller and smaller pool of investors.

Ironically, we are once again about to repeat history, as investors slowly begin to dip their toes back into the frothy waters, at precisely the wrong time, buying into an over-inflated market and missing out on the "easy" gains, setting themselves up for the next big downturn, which is inevitably going to come.

While at the same time, both gold and silver continue to be ignored by the vast majority of investors, missing out on the opportunity to buy at these artificially depressed prices. 

This is unsurprising to a contrarian based investor, such as myself, as this is exactly what people have done throughout history, time and time again, getting suckered into the same old dog and pony show.

What can be expected now, is a mass push of irrational exuberance, as professional advisers push to get the sheeple back in at the peak, while at the same time beginning to plant the foundation for their exit plan.

This is a game that has been repeated over and over again, throughout history. 

Don't be caught off guard this time, be alert, be conscious and as always, don't be a victim. Think for yourself and question everything. Prepare now and make hay while the sun still shines. Your future self, will thank you later.

- Source, as first seen on the Sprott Money Blog

US Stocks May Go A Lot Higher For No Fundamental Reasons?

Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest former entrepreneur, former Fortune 500 executive and global macro newsletter writer, Gordon T Long.

During this hour plus interview, Jason and Gordon discuss the US stock markets, extensive central bank intervention into the global economy, the recent US Dollar rally and if it is over, the US vs China trade war just to name a few of the interesting topics discussed.

- Source, Wall St for Main St

Twenty One Trillion Reasons to Prepare Now

Lior Gantz from Wealth Research Group joins me to discuss the economy, the future of the US Dollar and the 21 trillion reasons we should all be preparing for what comes next...

- Source, SGT Report

Catherine Austin Fitts: We’ve Reached “Never Never Land” Accounting

There is good reason people are going to real assets. The U.S. government is “missing” $21 trillion between the DOD and HUD. This fact was uncovered by Fitts and economist Dr. Mark Skidmore last year. 

What was the government’s answer to this gigantic accounting fraud that is the size of the federal deficit? Give the government’s budgets basically classified national security status. 

Investment advisor and former Assistant Secretary of Housing, Catherine Austin Fitts says, “Apparently, the people leading the audit have come to them and said if we do this audit, we will disclose classified projects.

So, the board (Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board - FASAB) came out with a new policy. I say it is illegal. 

You cannot do it under the financial management laws, and you certainly cannot do it under the Constitution, and it said you can keep classified off the books, which means you can cook the books and you can basically do whatever you want. 

This matches up with the waiver given to the national security advisor that says corporations, if he waives them (regulations), can also cook their books with the SEC.

- Source, USA Watchdog

The Custodian of Truth Has Been Corrupted, The Free Market Will Restore Sanity

A trend that I have predicted for over a year is once again unfolding in front of our very eyes. Big Tech" is beginning its decline, it is beginning to sow the seeds of its own destruction.

I highlighted this in my piece titled "The War Against Alt Media Goes Hot", almost one year ago. Which showed how "Big Tech", most notably Twitter, Facebook and Google, were engaging in actions that would ultimately lead to their own destruction by taking too strong of a political side, leading to the rapid rise of Alt Media.

Since writing that article, Facebook has been caught in scandal after scandal, forced to testify in front of congress, in a sad attempt to explain their actions, and how they are willing to sell their customers personal data to the highest bidder, shattering the trust of millions forever and accelerating their decline in active user ship.

Making matters worse, was the fact that their long suspected political bias was indeed confirmed by over one hundred employees of Facebook itself, who brought light to the subject within an internal company message board, started by senior engineer Brian Amerige.

Those concerned with the way the company was doing business, stated that Facebook had adopted an "intolerant" liberal culture. Strong words indeed, especially when targeting a business that controls such vast amounts of personal information and dictates many peoples daily social interactions in our modern day world.

But as suspected when I first pondered upon this subject, Facebook is far from alone in their bias, as most of Silicon Valley based businesses are within driving distance of each other, and thus are prone to be influenced by the same culture that they engross themselves in, socializing and finding comfort in their echo chambers, ignorantly assuming that the rest of America thinks just like them.

No, this echo chamber is vast and powerful, and is exactly why both Google and Twitter have joined the shameful ranks of Facebook and now find themselves under intense scrutiny for the way they have targeted conservative view points, hoping to push them into the dark, less they face another defeat in the upcoming 2020 elections.

And that is the problem, as we are now witnessing via the leaked internal Google meeting video, which took place shortly after the defeat of Hillary Clinton by Donald Trump in the 2016 elections, Google executives were distraught and dismayed.

I along with others wrote pieces at the time, which showcased in real time, how Google was actively censoring search results, and manipulating what people viewed, now, as can be confirmed from their actions in the aforementioned video, these "mistakes" as they called them at the time, were ironically in what they viewed to be their best interest.

As I have highlighted before, this should be alarming and concerning, regardless of whether you fall on the political left, right, or in the center.

These massive tech firms literally have the ability to control what is "real" and what is not, how we feel and what is deemed news worthy. In the case of Google, of which people use as their go to source for discovering facts, or truth, this should frighten you to death.

What we deem to be the custodian of truth, should never, absolutely never be affected by such extreme and blatant political bias. This is simply unacceptable.

The sanity of the center needs to be restored, rational thinking needs to come back into everyday practice and fortunately, as we are now witnessing, the free market is once again exerting its will and corrections are being made to the madness we now find ourselves under.

By taking such a strong political bias, Google and other "Big Tech" firms, have sowed the seeds of their own destruction and given room to the rise of Alt Media, Alt media that will be happily embraced by a massive portion of the population looking for any viable alternative. 

The slow death of "Big Tech" is upon us, and nothing, absolutely nothing is going to turn back this tide.


- As First Seen on the Sprott Money Blog

Gregory Mannarino: When Debt Evaporates So Will Half the Global Population

Trader and analyst Gregory Mannarino says the next financial meltdown really takes off when we can no longer borrow money into existence. 

Mannarino explains, “There is a full blown debt crisis in Europe and in the United States. 

The crisis is if we don’t continue to borrow and find ways to borrow ever more cash into existence. If we don’t, the whole system will melt down.

When we hit the moment of maximum saturation, what happens to the currency? What happens to the debt as a whole? It evaporates.

Let’s say we don’t pay the national debt anymore. What does that do? Well, the dollar in your pocket, the euros in your pocket, is connected to that debt. 

What happens if you stop paying the debt? The dollars in your pocket go up in smoke immediately. They are not worth anything. They lose massive amounts of value.” 

In closing, Mannarino predicts, “If debt is maxed out and it just evaporates, we will lose half the world population in a very short amount of time.”

- Source, USA Watchdog

Message Sent, Sleep Cells Activated, The Plan Is Now Active

Message has been sent by the deep state to operatives, the sleep cells are activated. We are now seeing Obama and Clinton come out of the wood work, this is part of the plan. 

People need to seem them again to place them in the forefront. The battle has started in Syria, channels have been taken down. Q drops more breadcrumbs, cells are now active, message are acknowledged, everything is going according to the plan.

- Source, X22 Report

Dave Janda: Deep State Unhinged, EMP Attack Possible

Dr. Dave Janda retired from medicine to dedicate himself to his red hot radio show called “Operation Freedom.” 

Janda has top notch political, law enforcement and intelligence sources from years of consulting work in Washington D.C. on healthcare issues. 

Janda says the Deep State is so unhinged and about loss of power, wealth and coming prosecutions that they may attack America. Janda says his Washington D.C. sources say, “Here is what they are really worried about and why there are so many people concerned about what is going on. 

My sources told me they are very concerned about an EMP event in the near future. That would lead to problems with the rule of law in this country and to the financial markets.

They are concerned about an attack from the Deep State, as an act of not power, but as an act of desperation.”

- Source, USA Watchdog

Bill Baruch: $1,204 Is Gold’s New Critical Level

Gold now needs to sustain the $1,204 an ounce level before positive momentum could be maintained, Bill Baruch, president of Blue Line Futures, told Kitco News. 

“$1,204 now comes back in and aligns with the trend lines from the lows, and we’re testing it here today as the dollar against the emerging markets has increased a lot,” said Baruch. 

He added that gold has been losing its status as a safe haven currency to the dollar. 

Baruch noted that the gold market is still in bottoming process, and investors could expect to see lows of $1,180 an ounce before a rebound occurs. 

“A move down there, if it had to happen, if it held, that would be a good thing,” Baruch said.

- Source, Kitco News

The Market Falls Into Complacency As Another Jobs Report Beats Expectations

Despite the constant outcries from the Mainstream Media, despite the ongoing, almost constant negative coverage of President Trump and his administration, the economy continues to chug along at a rapid pace, rising and accelerating in momentum.

This cannot be denied and it is a true testament to just how resilient the American economy is at the moment, despite the fact that the world grows increasingly more geopolitically unstable with each and every passing day.

Confirming this positive direction was the recent August Jobs Report, which is hot off the press, showing that once again, the American public is growing in confidence and as a result, putting their money where their mouths are.

Businesses continue to not only hire additional workers, but are in fact increasing their wages at levels not seen since 2009.

Once again beating market expectations, the August Jobs Report showed that 201,000 additional net jobs were added throughout the month, and hourly wages increased by 2.9% year over year.

This is a sharp increase in both numbers and is exactly why the stock market continues to chug higher and higher with each additional positive report, surprising the markets each and every time.

Adding fuel to the bull market fire, is the fact that unemployed remains at an incredibly low level, 3.9%, with no signs of immediately changing direction.

As previously noted, consumer confidence remains at elevated levels, despite all the perceived negativity in the world at the moment, resting at an 18 year high.

Not surprisingly gold and silver were once again immediately pounded upon hearing these reports, as market pundits rejoiced and shed off the need for their insurance policies that come in the form of hard metals.

Yet, mark my words, despite all the positive news that you have read above, this is a mistake and once again the sheep are being led to the slaughter.

Things may be going good, and consumer confidence may be at all time highs, but much of this faith is being blindly placed  in bogus, jerry-rigged government statistics. People should never get too comfortable and assume that "this time is different".

It should come as no surprise that much of the ruling elite are not happy with President Trump, or the way that he is running roughshod over their carefully orchestrated plans, plans that they have been working on for decades.

People can savor the moment, and hope for the best, but to shed their precious metals insurance policies at this time, would be insanely foolish. In fact, it is times of artificial suppression such as these, that one should in fact be slowly adding to their positions, making hay when the sun shines.

To fall into complacency at this period in time would be the worst thing that you could do.

Geopolitical, and internal political pressures are reaching an intense boiling point all over the world as people become increasingly more insular in their self selected echo chambers of their choice, while at the same time the MSM stokes of the fires of unrest.

Be on guard, be prepared and remember always, this time is not different. It never is.


- Source, As First Seen on the Sprott Money Blog

Ron Paul: Steady State? Or Deep State? The New York Times Hate Driven Coup

The New York Times has published an explosive - but anonymous - op-ed purportedly written by a "senior official" in the Trump Administration outlining how his fellow officials are working night and day to thwart the US President's agenda. Is this a coup?

- Source, Ron Paul

Brace for IMPACT...The Storm Is Here, You Have Been Warned, Prepare Now!

68% of voters are against illegal immigrants coming into the country. Federal Judge says that Obama's DACA rule is illegal. Russia to stop carrying astronauts to the space station. 

The FBI arrests 5 of the New Mexico terrorist compound. CIA admits to infiltrating America via civilian jobs. Q drops more breadcrumbs and says to prepare for impact. 

The new is about to drop and the people of the US are going to be shocked. The deep state might retaliate using their Horizon program. Prepare now and be ready.

- Source, X22 Report

Stupid Amounts of Money Seeking Physical Gold and Silver...

Macroeconomic analyst Rob Kirby is a broker of physical precious metals by the ton for wealthy clients, and he says people are quietly panicking. 

Kirby explains, “If you look at a duck moving across the water, it looks very graceful. But if you take a picture of what’s going on underneath the waterline, you see the duck paddling seriously. 

In the precious metals space, what we see above the waterline is the reckless suppression of physical precious metals, but what’s really going on beneath the waterline is mega, mega money is on a ‘seek and acquire’ mission to secure physical precious metals in amounts that would stagger most people.

There will come a point where physical precious metals will be hard, if not impossible, to find in exchange for fiat currency.

The amount of money seeking physical precious metals would alarm a lot of people. You are talking stupid amounts of money.”

- Source, USA Watchdog

The Federal Reserve Puts on an Epic Display of Jawboning, Causing Stocks to Soar Higher

Another infamous Jackson Hole meeting, in which the FED puts on a grand display of epic jawboning has once again come and gone. 

The doves were in full flight as the new(ish), Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell took the stage and signaled that interest rates would once again remain near their historically low levels.

This sent stocks surging to new heights, pushing the envelope as they continue to tick higher and higher, increasing the distance that they will inevitably have to fall, when the next big crash descends upon us.

Stocks, housing, gold, silver, nothing goes up forever and a major correction lies in wait for the general markets as a whole, which has experienced a record breaking bull market on the back of intense consumer confidence.

Yet, sadly, people are once again falling into the old traps that they have time and time again, throughout history. Once again putting their faith blindly in government officials and central bankers, who quite bluntly, have proven repeatedly that they don't have a clue what they are talking about. Jerome Powell being no exception.

The fact of the matter is this, interest rates cannot and will not be raised, unless an intentional crash is meant to be triggered, a crash that some, especially those on the far left would be more than happy to see occur, due to the damage that it would inflict on President Trump's chances of getting re-elected in 2020.

Yet, although I once believed that this would be the approach that the "elites" would take in dismantling President Trump's dominance in the Oval Office, I believe that they are coming to the same realization that I have already reached, which is that even a market crash won't reduce his popularity amongst the right, which is record breaking and only rivaled by Abraham Lincoln.

The lines in the sand have been drawn and the MSM have created a hostile political climate that is going to one day come back to bite them you know where, as when the tables are turned, so too will the rules of the game against their candidate of choice.

Despite this increasingly hostile political climate, the market is showing that it has faith in "America's First" policy being pursued by the President's administration, but for how much longer can the constant assaults last before it brings the entire system to its knees and forces a crisis upon not just America, but the West as a whole?

Taking note of this chaos, countries such as Russia and China are buying record amounts of gold, while others such as India are doubling down on silver. 

Meanwhile, savvy investors continue to dollar cost average into both precious metals, taking advantage of these artificially reduced prices while they can.

This puts the FED in between a rock and a hard place, giving them little to no room to move, as the last thing that they want to be blamed for bringing this house of cards down by ratcheting up interest rates in any meaningful way.

Therefore, moving forward you can expect more of the same of the new FED Chairman Jerome Powell and his ilk, nonsensical, meaningless jawboning, and nothing more. IE, business as usual.

- As First Seen on the Sprott Money Blog

Jim Sinclair and Bill Holter: The World is Becoming Venezuela

Renowned gold and financial expert Jim Sinclair and financial writer Bill Holter get ready for the reset in the price of everything including gold and silver. Sinclair also says, “It’s going to be a Friday to Monday event. 

There is going to be an explosion, and the explosion is a change. It may blow your mind, but the explosion would not be three or four months or a year in upticks in these items (gold and silver prices). 

Oh, they are going to uptick. That’s for sure. The finality of this is going to be the reset. It is going to be something entirely new that doesn’t exist now. It may be engineered and not happening by natural causes.

You need to know who President Trump is, what he is a master of and what tools he has used effectively as part of his business. 

It’s not “The Art of the Deal,” it’s the science of bankruptcy.” How bad is it going to get? 

Holter sums it all up when he says, “The world is Venezuela.”

- Source, USA Watchdog