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Monday, July 2, 2018

Spektroskopie eines Kollapses (1) Der Geist aus der Flasche


Teil 1 – Der Geist aus der Flasche




Ein Geist geht um, nein nicht den, ein anderer ist gemeint, und der geht nicht nur in Europa um, er wird weltweit gesichtet. Die Mächte des Westens, welche der Welt ihre seelenlose Wirtschaftsordnung aufgedrückt haben und die Menschen zu Konsumenten degradiert haben, haben sich vorgenommen in zu bodigen. Sie fühlen sich von Ihm bedroht. Bekämpfen ihn mit allen Mitteln, probieren ihn aufzuhalten, ihn zurück in die Flasche zu schicken.
Er lässt sich aber nicht mehr einfangen. Im Gegenteil, er wird dreister, schleicht herum, erscheint mal hier, mal da, ist allgegenwärtig, und immer mehr Menschen nehmen ihn wahr, scheinen gefallen an ihm zu finden. Scheinen ihm zu zuhören.
Um zu verhindern, dass die Völker des Westens an ihm Gefallen finden, werden alle Register gezogen. Da werden Wahrheiten, Halbwahrheiten und Lügen verbreitet…

Obwohl es allen bewusst ist, dass Politiker notorische Lügner sind scheinen die Menschen von den verbreiteten Lügen immer wieder fasziniert zu sein. Willy Meurer, deutsch-kanadischer Kaufmann, Aphoristiker und Publizist trifft den Nagel auf dem Kopf, wenn er schreibt:
«
Politiker sind die notorischsten Lügner: Vor den Wahlen lügen sie immer, und nach den Wahlen regieren sie permanent mit Unwahrheiten. Dagegen sind Wähler die notorischsten Idioten: Vor den Wahlen glauben sie den Lügnern, und nach den Wahlen vertrauen sie permanent der Regierung.“
Da wird man nicht müde, den Völker, die eigenen „Wahrheiten“ immer und immer wieder auf zu tischen, zu erzählen, sogar regelrecht einzutrichtern… Wir sind doch die „Guten“. Wir stehen ein für „Frieden“, „Freiheit“ und „Demokratie“.
Schon Otto von Bismarck sagte: „Eine zweifelhafte Behauptung muss recht häufig wiederholt werden, dann schwächt sich der Zweifel immer etwas ab und findet Leute, die selbst nicht denken, aber annehmen, mit so viel Sicherheit und Beharrlichkeit könne Unwahres nicht behauptet oder gedruckt werden.“…
Also nicht wirklich eine neue Rezeptur…

Von Europa bis nach Nord-Amerika, nach Australien und Neuseeland und zurück nach Europa: die gleiche Leier. „Frieden, Freiheit, Demokratie… in der Endlosschleife.
Wer würde dem Frieden nicht zustimmen?
Wer würde denn die Freiheit, was immer jeder einzelne darunter verstehen mag, nicht wollen?
Wer würde denn nicht glücklich sein darüber in einer Demokratie zu leben?

Natürlich tun dies alle, danach zu fragen ist eigentlich überflüssig, und stimmen dem Loblied über den „Guten“ Westen ein.
Um die Vorzüge, die hohe moralische und ethische Grundsätze des Westens zu bekräftigen, werden, breitverstreut über die Welt, Kongresse, Seminare, Radio- und TV-Talkrunden, Konferenzen gehalten, die Bürger sollen ja auch was sehen und hören, immerhin ist man ihnen was schuldig und der nächste Wahltermin ist ja nie weit. Auf all diesen Events, werden endlos Reden gehalten, es wird diskutiert, aber kaum disputiert.
Es werden Kriegstreiber, der ach „so bösen“ Kapitalismus, die Diktatoren und Autokraten, zumindest diejenigen die dem Westen nicht zu Dienste sind, die bösen Prediger, welche die Menschen verführen, die Unterdrückung von Meinungen in anderen Staaten, angeprangert. Das ganze Unrecht dieser Welt wird dann dem einen oder dem anderen zugeschoben oder angedichtet.
Ebenfalls wird oft die Gelegenheit dazu genutzt eine Bedrohungskulisse aufzubauen. Es wird über, die „bösen“ Russen hergezogen, die sich partout nicht dem westlichen Diktat unterwerfen wollen, die Chinesen, die uns die Kronjuwelen aus der Industrie und Wirtschaft stehlen wollen, die Nord-Koreaner, die Iraner, die uns mit nuklearen Waffen bedrohen…  
Es muss den Leuten so viel Angst eingejagt werden, dass ihnen jede Lösung recht ist, denn wer sich so richtig bedroht fühlt ist ja bekanntlich gefügsamer.

Das Manichäische Weltbild ist ja so Vorteilhaft: Hier sind wir, die „Guten“, dort sind all die anderen, die Bösen“.
Bei diesem ganzen Theater fühlen sich die Massen wohl, - welch ein Glück, dass wir auf der „richtige“ Seite stehen denkt ein jeder, geht abends zu Bett und genießt den Schlaf des Gerechten.
Ja, welch ein Glück!
Friedrich Nietzsche schrieb: „Der Mensch, welcher nicht zur Masse gehören will, braucht nur aufzuhören, gegen sich bequem zu sein; er folge seinem Gewissen, welches ihm zuruft: „Sei du selbst! Das bist du alles nicht, was du jetzt tust, meinst, begehrst.“

Das Wohlfühlprogramm geht aber noch weiter, denn die Massen sollen ja Bloß nicht anfangen nachzudenken. Wo kämen wir denn hin, wenn sie dies täten. Also werden sie mit nichtsagenden bis unsinnigsten News gefüttert, ja regelrecht zugedeckt. Es braucht nicht mal mehr eine Zensur. Warum auch? In der Flut der belanglosen Nachrichten, Berichte, News, Tweets, der Fake News, der Alternative Wahrheiten, deren Halbwertzeit minimal ist, gehen die wichtigen News unter, oder fast. Nur wenige „Empfänger“ schaffen es das „wichtige“ überhaupt wahrzunehmen.
Eine Gesellschaft braucht auch Helden, Menschen, die besonderes leisten, die als Vorbild dienen können. Es gibt immer wieder, den einen oder anderen der durch einen außergewöhnlichen Einsatz diesen Titel auch verdient. Meistens aber, werden Protagonisten aus Entertainment und Sport zu Helden hochstilisiert, werden zu Vorbilder aufgebaut, auch wenn sie die unsinnigsten Aktionen veranstalten. In den „A“Soziale-Medien wird scheinbar ein Wettbewerb geführt wer das dümmste Benehmen an den Tag legt, und dies meistens unter Großen Beifall…, sogenannten Influencer, fast wie Götter bewundert, feuern mit ihren dümmlichen Blogs und Tweets die noch dümmeren dazu an, den letzten Mist auch noch zu kaufen.
«Die Vergangenheit ist ausgelöscht, das Auslöschen vergessen, die Lüge wurde zur Wahrheit.» schrieb George Orwells und und beschrieb damit zweifelsfrei unsere Zeit schon vor Jahrzehnte.
Am wichtigsten aber ist eine andere Seite unserer modernen Gesellschaft.
Der Konsum… er ist das Alpha und das Omega.
Die Massen an produzierte Güter, müssen ja verkauft, müssen „verbraucht“ werden.
konsumier, und du wirst sein, lautet das Motto.

- „Wie? Du brauchst kein neues IPhone!“
- „Wie das letztjährige tut es auch noch!“
- „Aber schau doch mal, das neue Modell ist so viel besser… es kann dies, es kann das„(ob ich den ganzen Schnickschnack wohl brauche?)
- „Mein altes kann dies aber auch… „
- „Aber schau doch das neue genau an, es hat eine andere Farbe, und es kann…“ (Oh ja, eine poppige Farbe muss ich schon sagen, ob es den Preis aber Wert ist… wohl kaum 
!)

Konsumiere, und du wirst Mensch sein…

Um den Konsum anzufeuern müssen die Güter vor allem eins sein, Billig. Produziert wird also dort wo es am günstigsten ist.
Und dies geht nur in einer globalisierten Welt ohne Probleme…
Nicht umsonst hat die westliche Oligarchie die Gesamte, oder fast gesamte, Welt Untertan gemacht. Aus Nord-Amerika, aus Europa wurde der größte Teil der produzierenden Industrie, in „Billiglohnländer“ ausgelagert.
Dort wurde, mit kräftiger Hilfe lokaler Potentaten weiter produziert. Da in diesen Ländern, die Gesetzgebung meistens weniger streng ist, kann zu noch besseren Konditionen, so ganz ohne Rücksicht auf die Umwelt oder der zur Produktion nötige Arbeiterschaft produziert werden.
Die Führungsriegen der Konzerne jubeln, Gewinn und Bonus steigt (sind wir doch großartige Manager…), Aktionäre machen den Reibach und im Westen sitzen die ehemaligen Arbeiter vor den
Ämtern und werden belehrt, sich doch bitte an die neuen Gegebenheiten anzupassen und sich doch, bitte schön, auch mit einem unterbezahlten Teilzeitjob zufrieden zu geben.
In den Billiglohnländer, kann dann, ohne Großen Gewissensbisse der Konzernleitungen, die Arbeiterschaft, sollte sie doch mal die „Frechheit“ haben und „Bessere“ Arbeitsbedingung einzufordern, mit massiver Gewalt bekämpft werden… denn Schuld am Aufbegehren werden nicht das unmenschliche Ausbeutungssystem sein, Oh, nein, sondern Aufwiegler aus der linksextreme Szene oder auch Russland, oder wenn es sein muss Terroristen Gruppen.
Kann ja gar nicht anders sein, da wir ja für alle Menschen auf dieser Welt „bessere“ Lebensbedingungen schaffen… und es gibt viele welche dies dann auch noch glauben.

Tja… geht abends zu Bett und genießt den Schlaf des Gerechten…

Ja, man kann durchaus sagen, dass die westliche Oligarchie welche, hinter der nur noch sehr dünnen Fassade der Demokratie, das System unter Kontrolle hat, alles richtig macht…

Aber Halt!
so einfach geht es jetzt doch nicht.
(frei nach Asterix):
Alle sind froh und happy,
Alle glauben, was man ihnen vorgaukelt und dass wir die unbestreitbaren Guten sind!
Alle?
Nein!
Eben nicht.
Ein kleines Dorf (nein kein Dorf)
Es gibt im Räderwerk auch ein Paar Sandkörner.
Ein Paar wenige üben den Wiederstand…

Die große Masse wird Idealisten und Reformatoren niemals verstehen. Denken wir an Sokrates oder Jesus. Um Erfolg zu haben, muss der Idealist die Menschen entweder an der Nase herumführen oder sich kreuzigen lassen; das heißt es bleibt ihm nur die Wahl zwischen Paradoxie und Selbstaufopferung.
George Bernard Shaw



Friday, June 29, 2018

Russia To Assess Legal Frame For Iranian Oil Imports



Oil rigs

Russia will assess its agreement with Iran to import crude oil in exchange for goods “from the legal point of view,” Energy Minister Alexander Novak told media following reports that the U.S. State Department has started pressuring its allies into completely cutting Iran out of international oil markets.
Russia, of course, does not rank among these allies, and, what’s more, it is—like Iran—subject to U.S. sanctions, so it would probably be the last country to decide it might be wise to heed Washington’s warnings. What’s more, after it brought Iran on board with the production increase at the OPEC+ meeting last week, analysts suggested Moscow is in a position to ask Washington to return the favor.

In any case, “the memorandum [with Iran] that we signed in 2014 is still in force,” Novak said. The memorandum stipulates an oil-for-goods mechanism that sought to help alleviate the pressure on the Iranian economy amid international sanctions. However, the mechanism only started working last year, when Russia and Iran agreed with the latter to start shipping 100,000 bpd to Russia in exchange for various goods. This year, Novak talked about an extension of the mechanism by five years.
Yet Russia’s closeness with Iran doesn’t end there. Earlier this year, before President Trump slapped sanctions on Tehran, a Russian presidential aide told media Russia companies including Rosneft, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, and Lukoil that they planned to spend up to US$50 billion on oil and gas field development in Iran.

Since then, things have changed, though by how much remains to be seen. Lukoil, for one, has said it would freeze its Iranian operations for fear of losing access to U.S. financial markets.
Several major importers said earlier that they would seek waivers from the sanctions to continue buying Iranian crude. However, the latest from the State Department does not suggest that the United States would be in any way willing to grant anyone a waiver, even if this means uncomfortably higher prices because of the supply drop.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Russia-To-Assess-Legal-Frame-For-Iranian-Oil-Imports.html
Orignal Edited on oilprice.com.

Turkey, Iraq and China defy Trump on new Iran Sanctions, Act to Hold Tehran Harmless


Turkey, Iraq and China defy Trump on new Iran Sanctions, Act to Hold Tehran Harmless


Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration is unlikely to have the same success in getting other countries to boycott Iranian petroleum as did the Obama administration in 2012-2015, though its officials are making a full court press in that regard.

Proof came in the form of statements from the Turkish, Iraqi and Chinese governments yesterday. Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci was scathing on Trump’s aggressive moves against Iran. Turkey, he said, is not bound by the new US sanctions, which are unilateral. Reuters reports him saying in Ankara, “The decisions that the United States makes are not binding on us. We would be bound by any decisions taken by the United Nations,”

Then Zeybekci, who is certainly speaking for newly reelected Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan, put the sting in the tail: “We will try to pay attention so that Iran, which is a friend and brother country, doesn’t experience injustice or is wronged in these matters.”
Turkey isn’t just not cooperating with Washington on this issue, it is actively defying Trump and Pompeo and promising to run interference for Iran. This stance comes despite the conflict in Syria between Turkey and Iran, where they took opposite sides (though that conflict is winding down and likely few would make policy just on that basis anyway).

Turkey is defying not only the US but also Saudi Arabia. The aggressive moves of Riyadh against Qatar did not sit well with Turkey, which sent a few troops to Doha to make the point that no military assault would be permitted. Turkey also cooperates with Iran in attempt to quell Kurdish nationalism, which both countries see as a mortal threat. Erdogan’s government also has bad diplomatic relations with Israel, another proponent of boycotting Iran, and Ankara would go out of its way to spite Tel Aviv on this issue given what it sees as Israeli arrogance and intransigence on Palestine.

Iraq also says that the change in Washington policy toward Iran will not affect its plans for economic cooperation with Tehran. The logistics of oil transport are such that it makes sense for Iraq to send Kirkuk oil to a refinery in Kermanshah for Iranian consumers, and to accept refined Iranian petroleum into south Iraq at the other end of the country. Baghdad expects the arrangement and the extensive Iraqi economic interaction with Iran to remain in place.

Russia had plans to invest $50 bn. in the Iranian hydrocarbon sector, and while some of those plans may now be shelved, Washington should not count on much cooperation from Vladimir Putin, who has an active battlefield alliance with Iran in Syria.

Most important of all, China’s massive Sinopec oil company says it needs Iranian oil for its new provincial refineries and has no plans to cut back.
While India’s government is telling Indian firms to look around for other sources of supply and to remain flexible in the face of the American demands and threats, at the same time New Delhi is exploring starting back up its rupee trade with Iran, sidestepping the dollar and US-dominated bank exchanges.

The Obama administration had two things going for it that Trump does not. The first was the United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran, the authority of which other countries recognized. Those sanctions were abolished in January, 2016, as a result of the successful negotiations with Iran on restricting its civilian nuclear enrichment program (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of JCPOA of summer 2015). When the US went to 12 Asian countries with a demand that they abide by UN sanctions, it was a powerful pitch. Of course, it was backed up by the threat of third-party sanctions, i.e. that the US Treasury Department would fine companies dealing with Iran in dollars and via bank exchanges over which Treasury had influence. That was the second advantage Obama had– his team developed a whole set of new instruments that damaged Iran’s ability to get insurance and even oil supertankers, and to transfer currency to pay and get paid.

But now there are no UNSC sanctions, and there won’t be any because everyone else on the Security Council is satisfied with Iran’s observance of the 2015 deal. Indeed, they see Trump as the rogue in violating it.

And, Iran and its trading partners were able to develop ways around US sanctions even in Obama times. Iran had supertankers built so it could export oil itself, and insured them itself. It did soft-currency exchanges with countries like India, from which it accepted rupees for its oil, and then spent the rupees on imports from India. There is a cost in doing things this way (maybe 15%?), but it can be done economically.

Even Obama had limited success. Iran ordinarily exports 2.5 million barrels a day of petroleum, which it was doing in 2011 and is doing again today. At the height of the Obama sever sanctions, Iran was still exporting 1.5 mn. barrels a day. Arguably, what hurt more than the Obama severe sanctions was the fall in the price of petroleum in late 2014.

Today, in contrast, oil markets are tight, and despite a recent OPEC agreement to slightly raise export quotas, the markets will likely remain tight for a while. Ironically, the prospect that Trump will try to take Iranian oil off the market is causing futures prices to spike. At least in the short and maybe the medium term, any Trump success in reducing Iranian exports may well be offset by higher prices, allowing Iran to earn more from the oil it does sell abroad.

Another irony is that Trump’s Iran policy is causing gasoline prices to rise in the US, which is typically bad for the incumbent party in US elections. Moreover, higher gasoline prices will only accelerate consumer switching to electric vehicles and solar panels. Trump could end up achieving nothing, and producing the opposite of all his major policy goals, with this Iran push.

Original edited by Informed Comment.
https://www.juancole.com/2018/06/turkey-sanctions-harmless.html
Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment and Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Follow him at @jricole

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

How Long Can The Federal Reserve Stave Off the Inevitable?

How Long Can The Federal Reserve Stave Off the Inevitable?

Paul Craig Roberts

When are America’s global corporations and Wall Street going to sit down with President Trump and explain to him that his trade war is not with China but with them? The biggest chunk of America’s trade deficit with China is the offshored production of America’s global corporations. When the corporations bring the products that they produce in China to the US consumer market, the products are classified as imports from China.
Six years ago when I was writing The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, I concluded on the evidence that half of US imports from China consist of the offshored production of US corporations. Offshoring is a substantial benefit to US corporations because of much lower labor and compliance costs. Profits, executive bonuses, and shareholders’ capital gains receive a large boost from offshoring. The costs of these benefits for a few fall on the many—the former American employees who formerly had a middle class income and expectations for their children.
In my book, I cited evidence that during the first decade of the 21st century “the US lost 54,621 factories, and manufacturing employment fell by 5 million employees. Over the decade, the number of larger factories (those employing 1,000 or more employees) declined by 40 percent. US factories employing 500-1,000 workers declined by 44 percent; those employing between 250-500 workers declined by 37 percent, and those employing between 100-250 workers shrunk by 30 percent. These losses are net of new start-ups. Not all the losses are due to offshoring. Some are the result of business failures” (p. 100).
In other words, to put it in the most simple and clear terms, millions of Americans lost their middle class jobs not because China played unfairly, but because American corporations betrayed the American people and exported their jobs. “Making America great again” means dealing with these corporations, not with China. When Trump learns this, assuming anyone will tell him, will he back off China and take on the American global corporations?
The loss of middle class jobs has had a dire effect on the hopes and expectations of Americans, on the American economy, on the finances of cities and states and, thereby, on their ability to meet pension obligations and provide public services, and on the tax base for Social Security and Medicare, thus threatening these important elements of the American consensus. In short, the greedy corporate elite have benefitted themselves at enormous cost to the American people and to the economic and social stability of the United States.
The job loss from offshoring also has had a huge and dire impact on Federal Reserve policy. With the decline in income growth, the US economy stalled. The Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan substituted an expansion in consumer credit for the missing growth in consumer income in order to maintain aggregate consumer demand. Instead of wage increases, Greenspan relied on an increase in consumer debt to fuel the economy.
The credit expansion and consequent rise in real estate prices, together with the deregulation of the banking system, especially the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, produced the real estate bubble and the fraud and mortgage-backed derivatives that gave us the 2007-08 financial crash.
The Federal Reserve responded to the crash not by bailing out consumer debt but by bailing out the debt of its only constituency—the big banks. The Federal Reserve let little banks fail and be bought up by the big ones, thus further increasing financial concentration. The multi-trillion dollar increase in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet was entirely for the benefit of a handful of large banks. Never before in history had an agency of the US government acted so decisively in behalf only of the ownership class.
The way the Federal Reserve saved the irresponsible large banks, which should have failed and have been broken up, was to raise the prices of troubled assets on the banks’ books by lowering interest rates. To be clear, interest rates and bond prices move in opposite directions. When interest rates are lowered by the Federal Reserve, which it achieves by purchasing debt instruments, the prices of bonds rise. As the various debt risks move together, lower interest rates raise the prices of all debt instruments, even troubled ones. Raising the prices of debt instruments produced solvent balance sheets for the big banks.
To achieve its aim, the Federal Reserve had to lower the interest rates to zero, which even the low reported inflation reduced to negative interest rates. These low rates had disastrous consequences. On the one hand low interest rates caused all sorts of speculations. On the other low interest rates deprived retirees of interest income on their retirement savings, forcing them to draw down capital, thus reducing accumulated wealth among the 90 percent. The under-reported inflation rate also denied retirees Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, forcing them to spend retirement capital.
The low interest rates also encouraged corporate boards to borrow money in order to buy back the corporation’s stock, thus raising its price and, thereby, the bonuses and stock options of executives and board members and the capital gains of shareholders. In other words, corporations indebted themselves for the short-term benefit of executives and owners. Companies that refused to participate in this scam were threatened by Wall Street with takeovers.
Consequently today the combination of offshoring and Federal Reserve policy has left us a situation in which every aspect of the economy is indebted—consumers, government at all levels, and businesses. A recent Federal Reserve study concluded that Americans are so indebted and so poor that 41 percent of the American population cannot raise $400 without borrowing from family and friends or selling personal possessions.
A country whose population is this indebted has no consumer market. Without a consumer market there is no economic growth, other than the false orchestrated figures produced by the US government by under counting the inflation rate and the unemployment rate.
Without economic growth, consumers, businesses, state, local, and federal governments cannot service their debts and meet their obligations.
The Federal Reserve has learned that it can keep afloat the Ponzi scheme that is the US economy by printing money with which to support financial asset prices. The alleged rises in interest rates by the Federal Reserve are not real interest rates rises. Even the under-reported inflation rate is higher than the interest rate increases, with the result that the real interest rate falls.
It is no secret that the Federal Reserve controls the price of bonds by openly buying and selling US Treasuries. Since 1987 the Federal Reserve can also support the price of US equities. If the stock market tries to sell off, before much damage can be done the Federal Reserve steps in and purchases S&P futures, thus driving up stock prices. In recent years, when corrections begin they are quickly interrupted and the fall is arrested.
As a member of the Plunge Protection Team known officially as the Working Group on Financial Markets, the Federal Reserve has an open mandate to prevent another 1987 “Black Monday.” In my opinion, the Federal Reserve would interpret this mandate as authority to directly intervene. However, just as the Fed can use the big banks as agents for its control over the price of gold, it can use the Wall Street banks dark pools to manipulate the equity markets. In this way the manipulation can be disguised as banks making trades for clients. The Plunge Protection Team consists of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the SEC, and the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation. As Washington’s international power comes from the US dollar as world reserve currency, protecting the value of the dollar is essential to American power. Foreign inflows into US equities are part of the dollar’s strength. Thus, the Plunge Protection Team seeks to prevent a market crash that would cause flight from US dollar assets.
Normally so much money creation by the Federal Reserve, especially in conjunction with such a high debt level of the US government and also state and local governments, consumers, and businesses, would cause a falling US dollar exchange rate. Why hasn’t this happened?
For three reasons. One is that the central banks of the other three reserve currencies—the Japanese central bank, the European central bank, and the Bank of England—also print money. Their Quantitative Easing, which still continues, offsets the dollars created by the Federal Reserve and keeps the US dollar from depreciating.
A second reason is that when suspicion of the dollar’s worth sends up the gold price, the Federal Reserve or its bullion banks short gold futures with naked contracts. This drives down the gold price. There are numerous columns on my website by myself and Dave Kranzler proving this to be the case. There is no doubt about it.
The third reason is that money managers, individuals, pension funds, everyone and all the rest had rather make money than not. Therefore, they go along with the Ponzi scheme. The people who did not benefit from the Ponzi scheme of the past decade are those who understood it was a Ponzi scheme but did not realize the corruption that has beset the Federal Reserve and the central bank’s ability and willingness to continue to feed the Ponzi scheme.
As I have explained previously, the Ponzi scheme falls apart when it becomes impossible to continue to support the dollar as burdened as the dollar is by debt levels and abundance of dollars that could be dumped on the exchange markets.
This is why Washington is determined to retain its hegemony. It is Washington’s hegemony over Japan, Europe, and the UK that protects the American Ponzi scheme. The moment one of these central banks ceases to support the dollar, the others would follow, and the Ponzi scheme would unravel. If the prices of US debt and stocks were reduced to their real values, the United States would no longer have a place in the ranks of world powers.
The implication is that war, and not economic reform, is America’s most likely future.
In a subsequent column I hope to explain why neither US political party has the awareness and capability to deal with real problems.


This article was originally published on Paul Craig Roberts Institute for Political Economy.
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/06/26/long-can-federal-reserve-stave-off-inevitable-paul-craig-roberts/

Bulle aus "Der Stadt auf dem Hügel"

Unsere Unfehlbare,
Allwissend Majestät,
King Donald der Erste,
Fürst der Stadt auf dem Hügel
Herrscher über den Himmel, die Sternen und die Erde,
Herr der Mächte, der Thronen und der Gewalten,
das Alpha und das Omega, der bringt Glück und Reichtum,
Grossmeister des Heiligen Orden des Föhn,
Herr über das Chaos,

Bezwinger des Grossen Drachen,
Grossmeister des Orden der Ritter des Tweets
und erhabenen der spricht das Urteil über alle Völker,

Erbauer der Grosse Heilige Mauer,
der dessen Macht von Gott verliehen wurde,
gibt an alle seine Untertanen folgendes bekannt:

Ab den, 4. November des Jahres II Unserer Gerechten Herrschaft, verbieten Wir, Donald der Erste, allen Völker, überall auf dieser meine Welt jeglichen Kauf von Erdöl aus dem Reich der Finsternis und des Strahlenkönigs.
In Unserer grosse Güte werden wir dafür sorgen, dass unsere Untertanen kein Mangel an Erdöl leiden werden.
Ebenfalls wünschen wir, dass ab sofort alle Völker das Erdöl und das Gas aus unseren eigenen Gärten verwendet.
Wir werden alle, die Unserem Wunsch nicht entgegenkommen, mit der gerechte Strafen belegen und sie in die Ewige Verdammnis verbannen.

Gezeichnet am 26. Juni des Jahres II Unserer Herrschaft
Gelobt sei die Macht.

Donald I.