Analyst: Skyrocketing Debt Cannot Be Supported By Money Printing Forever

Something is eventually going to have to give.  The United State’s debt which has shot up over $21 trillion dollars cannot be sustained by printing money forever, says a financial analyst.

According to TeleTradeBel analyst Mikhail Grachev, the US debt, supported by the printing of dollars could be coming to an end. “From 2009 to 2014. The Fed was actively buying Treasuries as part of a quantitative easing policy (QE). After the QE was scrapped, the Fed continued to purchase the securities, only in smaller quantities. American legal entities and individuals have always been the third major buyer of debt. The growth of debt and the volume of issuance of securities was possible due to the continuous flow of liquidity from the Fed at zero interest rate. It has also supported the unrestrained growth of the American stock market,” Grachev told RT.

But the tides have now turned and the Federal Reserve has begun hiking interest rates citing a “strong” market. In fact,  interest rates are expected to increase to 3.75 percent by 2020, the analyst noted. The investors’ interest in treasuries began to decline and the yield automatically went up. This week, 10-year securities showed a yield of 3.018 percent. “This factor led to nervousness in the markets and raised a lot of questions,” Grachev says.

As other analysts have pointed out, rising interest rates and a $21 trillion debt present a problem. With the rising interest rate and Treasuries’ yields, the question of servicing the mounting debt could become a problem for the US economy, the analyst warns. “Although the economy of the US is great, even they don’t always have the extra money,” said Grachev. When the yields on the 10-Year US Treasury Note rise, it indicates that the demand for the American securities falls, Grachev explains.

“If the yield continues to grow, it can lead to a massive exodus of capital from Treasuries, and even result in the collapse of the world dollar financial system,” Grachev said. The analyst added that a dollar collapse seems far-fetched at the moment since the global economy is very dependent on the greenback. According to the expert, it is more likely that the dollar bubble will continue growing for the while, but a dollar collapse is all but imminent.

Geopolitical Expert: The Coming Financial Crisis Is ‘Going To Be A BLOODBATH’

Charles Nenner, a geopolitical expert, and financial cycle analyst says the coming financial crisis will see the DOW Jones at 5,000. Nenner went on to say that it’s going to be “very bad,” yet he remains “dollar positive.”

Nenner, who appeared in an interview with USA Watchdog’s Greg Hunter said the coming financial crisis will be “Very bad. I called for Dow Jones 5,000, and I still call for Dow Jones 5,000. . . . It’s going to be a bloodbath, but as I said the last time, in the 1990’s when the Dow was 5,000, the world still looked okay.”

“The mainstream media talking heads are telling you to buy, but never tell you to sell,” Nenner says. He added that the time to sell stocks is getting close and explains, “It’s just a hopeless situation. I feel sorry for people who invest their money. We have had a nice ride, but soon the whole thing will come tumbling down. They listen to all these things and have no clue on how to invest . . . . I think soon . . . this will become the longest expansion in financial history. . . . So, this could be the longest expansion ever, what are you playing with? You are gambling with nonsense. So, it’s over.”

 

Nenner goes on to say, “Then, you have the inflation story. The inflation story is brought about by people who don’t do their historical homework. They remember for the last 30 years, there was always inflation. So, they continue to talk about inflation. I proved that in most of the financial history that deflation is the norm. . . . They have talked about inflation for two years, and there is still no inflation. . . . Copper is going down. Crude is going down, and we have a deflation problem, not an inflation problem.”

When asked about whether or not a big debt reset is coming, Nenner says, “The last time we were in this situation was when Roosevelt was President. It was very interesting because they paid off only 25% on the dollar because the inflation that came. Now, the problem is if you don’t have inflation, you still owe the whole amount of money. This is why they urgently need this inflation. So, the value of the money goes down, and you have to pay off less. There is no inflation. So, it is a big problem, but they can keep this going forever. I don’t think it’s a problem because countries can keep printing money as long as they want.”

The other huge concern is a big cycle Nenner has been seeing and is the so-called “war cycle.” Nenner says, “The next four or five years in this war cycle is very dangerous.” But on gold and silver, Nenner is bullish, but “not until after this summer.”

 

Geopolitical Expert: The Coming Financial Crisis Is ‘Going To Be A BLOODBATH’

Charles Nenner, a geopolitical expert, and financial cycle analyst says the coming financial crisis will see the DOW Jones at 5,000. Nenner went on to say that it’s going to be “very bad,” yet he remains “dollar positive.”

Nenner, who appeared in an interview with USA Watchdog’s Greg Hunter said the coming financial crisis will be “Very bad. I called for Dow Jones 5,000, and I still call for Dow Jones 5,000. . . . It’s going to be a bloodbath, but as I said the last time, in the 1990’s when the Dow was 5,000, the world still looked okay.”

“The mainstream media talking heads are telling you to buy, but never tell you to sell,” Nenner says. He added that the time to sell stocks is getting close and explains, “It’s just a hopeless situation. I feel sorry for people who invest their money. We have had a nice ride, but soon the whole thing will come tumbling down. They listen to all these things and have no clue on how to invest . . . . I think soon . . . this will become the longest expansion in financial history. . . . So, this could be the longest expansion ever, what are you playing with? You are gambling with nonsense. So, it’s over.”

 

Nenner goes on to say, “Then, you have the inflation story. The inflation story is brought about by people who don’t do their historical homework. They remember for the last 30 years, there was always inflation. So, they continue to talk about inflation. I proved that in most of the financial history that deflation is the norm. . . . They have talked about inflation for two years, and there is still no inflation. . . . Copper is going down. Crude is going down, and we have a deflation problem, not an inflation problem.”

When asked about whether or not a big debt reset is coming, Nenner says, “The last time we were in this situation was when Roosevelt was President. It was very interesting because they paid off only 25% on the dollar because the inflation that came. Now, the problem is if you don’t have inflation, you still owe the whole amount of money. This is why they urgently need this inflation. So, the value of the money goes down, and you have to pay off less. There is no inflation. So, it is a big problem, but they can keep this going forever. I don’t think it’s a problem because countries can keep printing money as long as they want.”

The other huge concern is a big cycle Nenner has been seeing and is the so-called “war cycle.” Nenner says, “The next four or five years in this war cycle is very dangerous.” But on gold and silver, Nenner is bullish, but “not until after this summer.”

 

Leading Investor: The Next Financial Downturn Will Be Caused By Corporate Debt

The last recession in 2008 was spurred by excessive debt in the private sector, mostly in the housing market.  But this time, it’ll be worst and much more difficult, as the problem will be caused by corporate debt, according to several leading investors.

The ensuing downturn could be immediate and sharp, once the bull market ends. But some, such as Peter Schiff, already believe we are in a bear market. “Stocks are expensive. The bull market is over. It’s now a bear market. People want to get out. People are allocating out. Growth is slowing whether people want to acknowledge it or not,” said Schiff.

But others still think they have yet to hit the top. “Once we peak, our work shows that we should expect maybe a 40% decline in equities from their peak,” Scott Minerd, chairman of Guggenheim Investments, told Yahoo Finance. “I’m talking about a recession, possibly in early 2020. Stocks tend to do well two years before a recession. But in this rally, it’s the opportunity to sell.”

At the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, the world’s top investors are asking how much longer the good times can last. They claim the current bull-market rally began in 2009, making it one of the longest on record. But others, such as Peter Schiff, said it’s a false recovery because of the money printing scheme employed.

“When we do all that [print money to recover from a recession], the dollar is going to implode because everybody is going to know that the [money printing scheme] experiment failed. Everybody is going to know there is no way out of this box. There is no normalization of rates. That is ever going to happen. Their [The Federal Reserve’s] balance sheet is never going to shrink. The balance sheet is going to grow permanently, which means this banana republic debt monetization. They can no longer pretend that they’re not doing the same things as South American banana republics. It’s a pure ‘we just print money to finance government spending,’ which is going to explode,” said Schiff. –SHTFPlan

The good news, if there is any to be had, is that the tax cuts President Donald Trump signed in 2017 could juice markets a bit longer by leaving more money in American’s pockets. But some investors gathered at the Milken Conference also feel that the corporate forces are now swirling that will trigger the next downturn.

Because the tax cuts didn’t offer a decrease in the size of government, they will add to US government debt. Spending, not taxation, is the problem and will be until the government is reduced. And while the Federal Reserve is gradually raising interest rates, they may still not be high enough to allow for aggressive monetary policy by the time a recession hits and the Fed needs to cut interest rates. “We’re in danger of having a collision between monetary policy and fiscal policy,” Minerd says.  Once interest rates rise, the amount owed on the massive amount of debt corporations hold will increase along with the debt owed by the federal government.

We are in for a rough ride, everyone.

If Minerd is right, some of the riskiest investments include high-yield bonds, other fixed-income securities, and eventually stocks. But some investors will undoubtedly hold on, hoping to squeeze out the last gains before the market turns.

Yahoo‘s suggestion? Keep a parachute handy. But we prefer you actually prepare and store things that are of use. Prepping can be difficult and it’s often hard to take that first step, but if you’re new and interested in learning, it’s never too late to start preparing for any potential outcome.  The book titled The Prepper’s Blueprint offers a simplistic and easy to follow guideline for those who would like to take that first step.

Almost 2/3 Of Americans Have Given Up On Political Parties Citing Corruption In Government

Disillusioned by the promises of politicians and convinced that the entire political system is irreparably corrupt,  many Americans will be staying out of the voting booth for the 2018 elections. This isn’t new, however, as many refused to vote in 2016 as well.

Although that number may seem high, in 2016, faced with the prospect of having to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, 46.9% of eligible voters didn’t even vote in the presidential election. Most of those who no longer vote have given up on the “lesser of two evils” fallacy and the irrational belief that somehow the government has our best interests in mind.

Respondents of the told poll takers at USA Today and Suffolk University in a recent survey:

“Nearly two-thirds of adult U.S. citizens will stay away from the polls during the coming midterm elections, and they say they have given up on the political parties and a system that they say is beyond reform and repair…

A majority of those non-voters would like to see a third party or multiple parties.” –Suffolk University

The Huffington Post noted, “The poll surveyed Americans who aren’t registered to vote or who are registered but say they’re unlikely to cast a ballot. Combined, the two groups include more than 100 million adults, the pollsters note.” And the corruption in government is becoming apparent to those who choose to opt out of voting. About 68 percent of independent voters and party registered voters who say they are unlikely to vote this year agreed with the statement: “I don’t pay much attention to politics because it is so corrupt.” It’s a marked increase over the 54 percent of respondents who agreed to this characterization of politics in the 2012 survey.

The bad news for both major political parties continues too.  According to Truth in Media, around 63 percent of respondents in these categories agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “I don’t pay much attention to politics because nothing ever gets done – it’s a bunch of empty promises,” which is also up from the 59 percent who said the same nearly six years ago.

Only 22 percent of respondents said the Democratic and Republican parties do a good job of representing Americans’ political views, which is down from 32 percent when the question was asked in 2012.

An increasing number of voters from both sides are beginning to see the corruption and manufactured compassion inherent in most (if not all) politicians.

Geologists: ‘North Korea’s Nuclear Test Site Has Collapsed’

A study by Chinese geologists shows the mountain above North Korea’s main nuclear test site has collapsed under the stress of nuclear test explosions. This would render the site unsafe for further nuclear testing and necessitate monitoring for any leaking radiation.

Is this perhaps the reason Kim Jong-Un has agreed to denuclearize North Korea? Perhaps, but of course, we’ll probably never know. The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s announcement that his country was ceasing its testing program.

Nuclear explosions release enormous amounts of heat and energy, and the North’s largest test in September was believed early on to have rendered the site in northeastern North Korea unstable. The data in the latest Chinese study was collected following the most powerful of the North’s six nuclear device tests on September 3, 2017 that they believed could have triggered four earthquakes over the following weeks. The yield of the bomb was estimated at more than 100 kilotons of TNT, at least 10 times stronger than anything the North had tested previously. (The bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 had a yield of about 15 kilotons.)

The University of Science and Technology of China paper, authored by Tian Dongdong, Yao Jiawen, and Wen Lianxing, said the first of those earthquakes that occurred eight-and-a-half minutes after the explosion was “an onsite collapse toward the nuclear test center,” while those that followed were an “earthquake swarm” in similar locations.

“In view of the research finding that the North Korea nuclear test site at Mantapsan has collapsed, it is necessary to continue to monitor any leakage of radioactive materials that may have been caused by the collapse,” the authors said in a summary dated Monday and viewed Wednesday on the university’s website. –USA Today

The Chinese study makes sense and is based on “well-understood research,” said Rowena Lohman, a seismologist at Cornell University who wasn’t part of the work, but believes there’s an international effort that monitors these tests for radiation.  The study is peer-reviewed and has been accepted for publication by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

On Saturday, North Korea announced it will close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests (a move welcomed by President Trump as “big progress”) and which comes ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Kim.

However, the media wants us all to know that the North stopped short of suggesting it will give up its nuclear weapons or scale back its production of missiles and their related components.

Hayward Bay Fault Line MORE DANGEROUS Than San Andreas: It’s A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

Scientists are now saying that the “Big One” in California may not be caused by the San Andreas fault line, but by the Hayward Bay fault line. It is now thought to be the “ticking time bomb” fault line and more dangerous than the San Andres.

The scariest scenario for the next major earthquake may not be from the San Andreas Fault (though that one still threatens), but from the Hayward Fault that runs along the east side of the San Francisco Bay. In fact, many say that the next earthquake on the Hayward Bay fault line would be “disastrous.” According to KTUV, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake along the Hayward Fault could kill as many as 800 people and injure 18,000, according to results of a new research released Wednesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey, citing findings from a simulated tremor with an epicenter in Oakland, said the disaster would cause 400 fires that could destroy 50,000 homes. Nearly half a million people would be displaced, authorities said.

The simulated quake in the video above, known as the “HayWired scenario,” was modeled to occur at 4:18 p.m. on April 18 (yesterday). It replicates a rupture along the fault’s entire 52-mile length, from San Pablo Bay in the north to just east of San Jose in the south. According to this model, the violent shaking from the earthquake could cause the two sides of the fault to split six feet apart in some places. Some of the aftershocks would continue for several months as well. Cities in the East Bay would be hit hard, including Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward.

If a 7.0 magnitude quake occurred like the one simulated, researchers say that the East Bay residents could be without water from anywhere between six weeks to six months. Electricity could be out for up to four weeks in some locations.

According to Business Insider, the statistical chances of this type of an earthquake occurring are not very comforting either. There’s about a 76% chance that the San Francisco Bay Area could experience a 7.2 magnitude earthquake within the next 30 years, according to some recent reports.

The San Andreas Fault under San Francisco rumbled apart about 112 years ago, causing the devastating 1906 earthquake that swallowed city blocks, broke water mains, and triggered massive fires that burned for days.  However, the threat of another major quake for the Bay Area is “real and could happen at any time,” according to researchers for the US Geological Survey.

The Hayward Fault is a “tectonic time bomb, due any time for another magnitude 6.8 to 7.0 earthquake,” according to a 2008 USGS report. Since then, research has indicated that the likelihood of a Hayward quake is greater and more threatening to the 7 million Bay Area residents than a San Andreas quake would be.

“It’s just waiting to go off,” USGS earthquake geologist emeritus David Schwartz warned when speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

Hayward Bay Fault Line MORE DANGEROUS Than San Andres: It’s A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

Scientists are now saying that the “Big One” in California may not be caused by the San Andres fault line, but by the Hayward Bay fault line. It is now thought to be the “ticking time bomb” fault line and more dangerous than the San Andres.

The scariest scenario for the next major earthquake may not be from the San Andreas Fault (though that one still threatens), but from the Hayward Fault that runs along the east side of the San Francisco Bay. In fact, many say that the next earthquake on the Hayward Bay fault line would be “disastrous.” According to KTUV, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake along the Hayward Fault could kill as many as 800 people and injure 18,000, according to results of a new research released Wednesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey, citing findings from a simulated tremor with an epicenter in Oakland, said the disaster would cause 400 fires that could destroy 50,000 homes. Nearly half a million people would be displaced, authorities said.

The simulated quake in the video above, known as the “HayWired scenario,” was modeled to occur at 4:18 p.m. on April 18 (yesterday). It replicates a rupture along the fault’s entire 52-mile length, from San Pablo Bay in the north to just east of San Jose in the south. According to this model, the violent shaking from the earthquake could cause the two sides of the fault to split six feet apart in some places. Some of the aftershocks would continue for several months as well. Cities in the East Bay would be hit hard, including Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward.

If a 7.0 magnitude quake occurred like the one simulated, researchers say that the East Bay residents could be without water from anywhere between six weeks to six months. Electricity could be out for up to four weeks in some locations.

According to Business Insider, the statistical chances of this type of an earthquake occurring are not very comforting either. There’s about a 76% chance that the San Francisco Bay Area could experience a 7.2 magnitude earthquake within the next 30 years, according to some recent reports.

The San Andreas Fault under San Francisco rumbled apart about 112 years ago, causing the devastating 1906 earthquake that swallowed city blocks, broke water mains, and triggered massive fires that burned for days.  However, the threat of another major quake for the Bay Area is “real and could happen at any time,” according to researchers for the US Geological Survey.

The Hayward Fault is a “tectonic time bomb, due any time for another magnitude 6.8 to 7.0 earthquake,” according to a 2008 USGS report. Since then, research has indicated that the likelihood of a Hayward quake is greater and more threatening to the 7 million Bay Area residents than a San Andreas quake would be.

“It’s just waiting to go off,” USGS earthquake geologist emeritus David Schwartz warned when speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

OUTBREAK Alert: Flesh-Eating Bacterial Infection Spreads RAPIDLY In Australia

An infectious flesh-eating ulcer caused by a bacteria is spreading so quickly through Australia that scientists in the state of Victoria are declaring this outbreak an epidemic.  Normally abundant in West and central Africa and, the buruli ulcer is now taking hold in the “land down under.”

In a study published Monday in the Medical Journal of Australia, the authors caution that the outbreak of the ulcers, described as an “epidemic” in the study, requires an “urgent scientific response.” They report that Victoria is facing a worsening epidemic “defined by cases rapidly increasing in number, becoming more severe in nature, and occurring in new geographic areas.”

Buruli ulcer is caused by infection with the organism Mycobacterium ulcerans. It often affects the skin by deteriorating the tissue, but can go so deep it affects the bone structure. The organism belongs to the family of bacteria that causes tuberculosis and leprosy. However, M. ulcerans is an environmental bacterium and the mode of transmission to humans remains unknown. The organism produces a unique toxin – mycolactone – which causes tissue damage and inhibits the immune response.

According to numbers reported by CNN, in 2016, there were 182 new cases reported, a spike of 72%. But even this number was dwarfed by a further increase of 51% from November 2016 to the same month a year later. In November 2016, there were 156, which rose to 236 cases.

“In Australia, it seems more to be a terrestrial transmission whereas in Africa, for example, the strain is very different and is mostly transmitted through aquatic ecosystems,” said Andres Garchitorena, a researcher at the Institute of Research and Development in France and an expert on Buruli ulcers, who was not involved in the most recent report.

But the cases in Australia are becoming more severe and doctors also do not know the reason.  “One possibility is maybe there’s some resistance to the antibiotics that they are using,” Garchitorena said. “It is difficult to prevent a disease when it is not known how infection is acquired,” wrote the lead author and associate professor Daniel O’Brien, an infectious diseases consultant.

Although some deaths from the infection have been reported, most cases are not life-threatening, according to Garchitorena. “There are cases where people have died, but the most common outcome when it’s not treated is a handicap: People may need an amputation or surgery with functional limitations for life,” he said. WHO also reports management of the buruli ulcer becomes more difficult when the patient is dealing with a coinfection of HIV, perhaps lending to the increased severity of the infections in Africa, although that’s largely speculation as still more in-depth studies of this disease are warranted.

The majority of cases are still being reported in West and Central Africa, including Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ghana. There are no predictable trends in the number of cases reported yearly either.

CBO Report: Republicans Accelerate The US’s Path Toward Bankruptcy

It doesn’t take a math whiz to know that the nation is headed toward a complete bankruptcy. But now, a new CBO (Congressional Budget Office) report released is ripping the mask off of the Republicans in Congress and showing us who they really are: Democrats.

After the last horrifying budget deal which saw trillion dollar deficits, Republicans can no longer be called the party of being fiscally conservative.  It appears that the Deep State will get their way regardless of who is in power, and there’s nothing the rest of us can do about it.

Last year the Congressional Budget Office warned that Uncle Sam was racing toward fiscal insolvency. Although the CBO expected the deficit to fall to “only” $487 billion this year, it would start growing again next year. By 2022 the flood of red ink would near $1 trillion. By 2027 it would reach $1.4 trillion. The cumulative deficit over the following decade would be more than $9.4 trillion and 4 percent of GDP, as outlays grew ever higher. Expenditures currently are about 21 percent of GDP, above the 50-year average of 20.3 percent. By 2027, CBO projected spending would hit 23.4 percent of GDP. –National Review

The corporate government is bankrupt, and it’s only getting worse in spite of Republican promises to “fix” it.  The CBO’s report on the federal government’s finances over the next decade is the stuff of nightmares.  And with Republicans holding all three branches of government, there’s little they can do to shake the truth: they are all the same.

As the agency politely put it, “projected deficits over the 2018-2027 period have increased markedly since June 2017.” The rise was almost entirely the result of the spending and tax bills approved last year: Uncle Sam will be spending a lot more while taking in a good bit less in the future. That is, the Republican-controlled executive and legislative branches went wild and abandoned even the pretense of fiscal responsibility. It wasn’t the first time, of course: In the early 2000s, President George W. Bush and the Republican Congress spent money faster than even Lyndon Johnson and his Democratic congressional majority. The latest round of GOP budget-busting provides a dramatic reminder that the spending problem in America is bipartisan. -National Review

The US continues to move rapidly down the path of insolvency.  And the numbers continue to look worse when peering down that path. According to the new CBO analysis, the deficit this year will exceed $800 billion, well above last year’s prediction. The deficit will be just shy of $1 trillion next year, continue to shoot upward to $1.3 trillion in 2027, and reach an astounding $1.5 trillion in 2028, higher than even during the financial crisis, which generated four years of trillion-plus-dollar deficits. Total red ink over the next decade will be around $12.4 trillion. As a percentage of GDP, the deficit will run 4.9 percent. In 2027 the total national debt held by the public will be $27 trillion and 94.5 percent of GDP, the highest it’s been since 1946 when the U.S. was paying down its World War II debt.

Future deficit gaps will be accelerated by “mandatory spending” on entitlements, such as social security. According to the CBO, the “increase reflects significant growth— mainly because the aging of the population and rising health care costs per beneficiary are projected to increase spending for Social Security and Medicare, among other programs. It also reflects significant growth in interest costs, which are projected to grow more quickly than any other major component of the budget.” The agency figures that interest payments will rise three times in total and two times as a percentage of GDP by 2028. Revenues also will increase significantly, but not as fast as outlays.

There is no real silver lining.  Spending will not decrease, not enough to keep the government from its eventual implosion and collapse under its own weight anyway.  The only thing we can do is to pay off as much debt as possible and prepare for an economic collapse of the government’s doing.

Prepping and survivalism can be a daunting task.  But if you’re interested in getting started, not only is now a great time to begin, but a book called The Prepper’s Blueprint written by Tess Pennington can be a helpful ally in giving you a launch point.

Crack In East African Rift: Continent Is ‘Splitting In Two’

A large crack, spanning several kilometers, made a sudden appearance recently in south-western Kenya. The tear, which is continuing to grow, is evidence to scientists that the continent is “splitting in two.”

The huge crack caused part of the Nairobi-Narok highway to collapse recently and was accompanied by seismic activity in the area. The East African Rift Valley stretches over 3,000 kilometers from the Gulf of Aden in the north towards Zimbabwe in the south, splitting the African plate into two unequal parts: the Somali and Nubian plates. Activity along the eastern branch of the rift valley, running along Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, became evident when the large crack suddenly appeared in south-western Kenya.

Rifts exhibit a very distinctive topography, characterized by a series of fault-bounded depressions surrounded by higher terrain. In the East African system, a series of aligned rift valleys separated from each other by large bounding faults can be clearly seen from space.

A crack that opened up in Kenya’s Rift Valley, damaging a section of the Narok-Nairobi highway, is still growing… pic.twitter.com/T5YocDauYj

— BBC (@BBC) March 26, 2018

An example of a place on Earth where this has happened before is in the South Atlantic Ocean, which resulted from the break up of South America and Africa around 138 million years ago. Those coastlines match like pieces of the same puzzle.

Continental rifting requires the existence of extensional forces great enough to break the lithosphere. The East African Rift is described as an active type of rift, in which the source of these stresses lies in the circulation of the underlying mantle. Beneath this rift, the rise of a large mantle plume is doming the lithosphere upwards, causing it to weaken as a result of the increase in temperature, undergo stretching and breaking by faulting. –PBS

Evidence for the existence of a “hotter-than-normal” mantle plume has been found in geophysical data and is often referred to as the “African Superswell.” This superplume is not only a widely-accepted source of the pull-apart forces that are resulting in the formation of the rift valley but it has been used to explain the anomalously high topography of the Southern and Eastern African Plateaus.

 

Self-Defense Is A Basic Human Right: A Website That ENDS The Gun Control Debate For Good

A website is putting the final nails in the coffin of the gun control debate for good.  If you’ve ever been on the fence about whether or not you think guns should or should not be regulated, look no further.

A Human Right, the website, breaks it down so far that even the most emotionally sensitive and over the top “ban all guns” Nazis can understand what they are actually marching for and demanding.

Once on the website, you’ll be directed to choose whether you feel guns are a “liability” or a “useful tool.” If you select liability, you’ll be walked through a questionnaire designed to actually get your brain to function the way it was meant to without the ingrained bias shoved in there by the mainstream media. Should you already know that a gun is a useful tool and click on that section, you’ll be taken to a page that will link to several varying articles about topics affecting your rights and ways you can get active to prevent others from stripping you of your fundamental human right to defend yourself with the most effective tool available.

From the Gun Control section of A Human Right’s website:

Imagine a pack of hyenas stalking a human. As they close in for the kill, their intended prey repulses them with a rifle. As the surviving predators retreat, they think: “If only we could separate that human from her gun!”

People who think as those hyenas are less naive than the idealists who wish to ban guns outright. “Gun control” is a misnomer for what they have in mind. They are evil: they wish to control others. One of the easiest way to control other people is by making them defenseless.

Communists, fascists and other totalitarians world over have rendered their subject defenseless as the first step towards total control. Then they could imprison or murder millions with complete impunity.

A Human Right even has a section about the bias in the mainstream media.  It isn’t just guns the media attempts to propagate with fear, but many events. Even after being caught lying and using propaganda on the American public, many still trust that what they see on TV is in fact, a fact.

Although the website is simple, it lays out a basic and easy to read fundamental moral: Self-defense is a basic human right.  Whether the Constitution lists our rights or not makes no difference.  We are all born with those same basic rights because we were born human beings. You have the right to use a tool to defend your life because you are a human.  You have a right to speak your mind because you’re a human. Governments can only list your rights; they and others do not get to decide what your rights are and therefore, cannot take them away regardless of the laws they write mandating such.

Peter Schiff: There’s A BIG Problem With The Economy, ‘Americans Are BROKE’

Financial analyst Peter Schiff says there’s a big problem with the economy even though the mainstream media is reporting that rising interest rates are a good thing.  The problem, however, is that Americans are broke, and those interest rates could have a major impact on some of our wallets.

“The bad news is, we are going to live through another Great Depression and it’s going to be very different. This will be in many ways, much much worse, than what people had to endure during the Great Depression,” Schiff says. “This is going to be a dollar crisis.”

“When you are talking about the magnitude of the debt we have, that extra money [raising interest rates] is big. That’s going to be a big drain on the economy to the extent that we have to pay higher interest to international creditors…a lot of this phony GDP is coming from consumption, while the average American who is consuming is deeply in debt and they are going to impacted dramatically in the increase in the cost of servicing that debt…given how much debt we have, and how much debt is going to be marketed the massive increase in supply will argue for interest rates that are higher.” –Peter Schiff

 

Retail sales “unexpectedly” fell again in February even though most media outlets are touting a booming economy that can support raising the interest rates. It was the third straight monthly drop and the first time the US economy has seen three straight months of declining retail sales since 2012.

Sales fell 0.1% in February even though analysts had expected an uptick of 0.3%. According to CNBC, households cut back on purchases of motor vehicles and other big-ticket items, pointing to a slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter. But Peter Schiff won’t sugarcoat this one for us: Americans are broke.

And the worse things get, the less investors seem to notice.

What makes matters even worse is on Friday, we got the “too good to be true” and “just what the doctor ordered” Goldilocks jobs report that said 1 million people got jobs. Schiff said this “good news” report doesn’t make any sense, actually.

“So why didn’t any of those million people take their paychecks and spend them at a retailer? I mean, Trump is talking about all the great jobs, and all the raises that people have, and all the tax cuts. Why are retail sales down for three months in a row?” –Peter Schiff

Unfortunately, we also saw Americans running up record high levels of debt at the same time that the government is running massive deficits.

Last month, the New York Fed released the latest data on US household debt, revealing it has grown to a record $13 trillion. So yes, Americans have been spending, but they’ve been putting a lot of it on plastic. Credit card balances grew by $24 billion in the last quarter of 2017 alone. Could it be that Americans have maxed out the plastic?

At some point, a house of credit cards will collapse.

Schiff is hard on Donald Trump too, and rightfully so.  Lower taxes are always a good thing, the lower the better, in fact.  But Republicans refused to cut any government spending while instead, increasing it to the point of running massive deficits, making them worse than Democrats when it comes to being fiscally conservative.

The cold truth is that a back plan is needed, and most Americans don’t have that.  Many would be in some serious trouble during a financial downturn, and the country is most definitely headed that way.

Air Force General Admits The US Can’t Stop Chinese Or Russian Hypersonic Missiles

A top United States Air Force general has admitted that the US is powerless against hypersonic missiles capable of killing millions of people. Air Force General John Hyten testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 20 and admitted the horrifying reality.

When asked about the effectiveness of US defenses, General Hyten revealed the country would be powerless against some state-of-the-art weapons, such as the hypersonic missiles currently in the hands of the Chinese and Russians. According to The Daily Star, hypersonic missiles can deploy warheads that travel at 20 times the speed of sound and can dodge air defenses as they loop through the skies.

“We have a very difficult – well, our defense is our deterrent capability,” said Hyten. “We don’t have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us, so our response would be our deterrent force, which would be the triad and the nuclear capabilities that we have to respond to such a threat.” Hyten eluded that should the US be attacked with one such missile, that the military could respond with a nuclear attack.

These comments come as fears of a third world war continue to heighten and among the major advancements in the Russian and Chinese weapons technology. Both of these countries would be a force to be reckoned with should another world war break out.

The Russians have been accomplishing a great deal in stealth technology, especially with Kilo-class boats converted into stealth subs. Dubbed “the black holes of the Russian Navy,” these quiet refitted diesel subs with the stealth technology are starting to roll steadily off of the assembly lines.

The Chinese are also upgrading their submarine fleet from a technological perspective (the boat) and also making improvements in their missile systems.  Such actions come on the heels of American positioning in the Pacific. –SHTFPlan

Zhou Chenming, a Beijing-based military observer, previously warned of the dangers posed by the sophisticated technology. “Compared to conventional ballistic missiles, HGVs are more complex and difficult to intercept,” Zhou said. “The US, Japan, and India should be worried about China’s developments in HGV technology because it can reach targets quicker and more accurately, with military bases in Japan and even nuclear reactors in India being targeted.”

Award-Winning Journalist: ‘The Target Of The Globalists Is America’

The target of the globalists is America, and the number one target is the “America First” president, Donald Trump. Award-winning journalist Alex Newman recently sat down for an interview with USA Watchdog‘s Greg Hunter, and he revealed that the New World Order is “freaking out” about Trump.

“This has come through loud and clear, and they have made clear America, as we patriots understand it with “self-evident truth” and our Founders said we were “all created equal” and “we were endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights,” is not going to fly with their little vision of a New World Order,” said Newman. “They need to eliminate that idea, and they make very clear they are coming after that. What we see in their actions and what we see in their words is they are trying to break down this idea of America. . . . It’s very clear their vision for the New World Order is totalitarian to the core. . . .They really can’t stand this whole agenda articulated by President Trump. We are going to put America first. We are going to stop globalism. We are going to get out of these so-called trade deals that undermine our sovereignty. You can tell they are freaking out about this, and it came through in the speeches at the World Government Summit most recently.”

Newman begins by blasting social media as a propaganda arm of the globalists and deep state. “It’s actually really hard to tell where the social media berms begin and where the deep state ends. They’re practically one in the same and this has been true from the start. A lot of these big social media companies ended up getting seed money from the intelligence community through In-Q-Tel the investment arm of the US intelligence community. And what you see is that all these globalist con bags…the leading executives of Facebook and Eric Schmit of Google and Twitter and LinkedIn and Amazon and all these…of course they all have memberships with the Council on Foreign Relations…they are undergoing a systematic campaign to censor, to silence, and to sideline conservatives, Christians, libertarians, people who say anything that contradicts the agenda.”

Hunter then says that so many people still believe the New World Order (one world government) is just a myth. However, the World Government Council met back in February and no one in the mainstream media dared to alert the public.

“This World Government Summit, which was the sixth one they have had, which takes place on the Arabian Peninsula . . . is all out in the open.  It did not get any coverage in the American media, even though Sky News and CNN have cosponsored this event. . . . You had the heads of all these UN agencies, the Head of the IMF, the Head of the World Bank, you had top globalists and executives from social media companies, very senior government officials and the head of the United Nations last year.  So, this is very serious business.  They told us what their agenda was.  They came out with an official press release and said we need to realign our institutions to get ready for the New World Order.  It’s not a conspiracy anymore because a conspiracy requires secrecy, and they are in the open now.  It’s not a theory, it’s a fact and you cannot argue with the facts.  They just haven’t told the American people their agenda.”

Financial Strategist: Trade War Could Usher In Dire Financial Crisis MUCH SOONER

According to a Societe Generale strategist Albert Edwards, a trade war would bring about a financial crisis a lot sooner than anyone expected. Edwards has warned in the past that currency devaluation could spark an economic recession worse than 2008, and now he’s sounding the alarm about Donald Trump’s trade policies.

Edwards now points to the Trump administration’s trade policy as yet another catalyst that could hasten the next crisis. Recent tariffs the US imposed on steel and aluminum imports threaten a full-scale trade war, he claimed.  While tariffs and taxes always get passed onto the American consumer in the form of higher costs for goods, it is unfortunate that the tariff talk is ongoing.

The US could also turn on other trading partners as Trump continues to advance his “America First” agenda, reported the Financial Tribune. “Boiling away in the background is Germany’s, and now also the eurozone’s, outsized trade surpluses” with the US, Edwards said. He added, “Expect Trump to soon turn his protectionist fire on both Germany and the EU. That will be messy.”But there is some good news many in the mainstream media continue to ignore:

While much of what Trump is announcing today has already been leaked, here are the details of the import tariffs Donald Trump formally adopted on steel and aluminium imports which allow US allies to negotiate and apply for exemptions, a sign of the growing concern that the president was alienating America’s closest international partners, and that 2 of the 4 largest foreign suppliers of steel will be exempt. –Zerohedge

“A trade war and competitive currency devaluation was always going to be the end game in our Ice Age thesis as a global deflationary bust destroyed wealth, profits, and jobs,” Edwards said in a note on Thursday. “But it looks as if it might be arriving sooner than we had anticipated.”

China exports just 1.1% of its steel to the United States, therefore, the tariffs are considered unlikely to do any serious damage to Chinese businesses. The more immediate fuel for a trade war, Edwards said, is retaliatory action against China by the US for alleged intellectual property theft. The Nikkei Asian Review reported Wednesday that the US was set to impose tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese products as punishment. Yet remember, a tariff isn’t going to punish the Chinese; it will punish the American consumer as prices go up to cover the cost of the new tax.

A White House official says there will be no significant downstream price effects, and thus no significant downstream job effects, according to Zerohedge. But that expectation counters multiple statements and prognostications from several companies and industry groups that use steel and aluminum, as well as lawmakers representing them, who have warned the tariffs will harm their businesses or industries.

Gold Expert: ‘If Deep State Is pushed In A Corner Much Further, They Can Pull The Plug

Gold and silver expert David Morgan recently appeared in an interview with USA Watchdog‘s Greg Hunter.  Morgan said point blank that “if the Deep State gets pushed into a corner much further, they can basically pull the plug,” and may just crash our economy.

Morgan explains why he thinks it is a great idea to have some physical gold and silver in your portfolio.  “That means the stock market could come tumbling down, and then they [the deep state] could blame the Trump Administration,” said Morgan.

“If you are losing the chess game, you just get up and turn the table over and the pieces go flying everywhere. That is a metaphor for a war. That’s a metaphor for crashing the stock market. That’s a metaphor for crashing the bond market, and it’s a metaphor for it happening on its own. I am concerned that if you win, you lose. This is why the unraveling is being done extremely carefully,” he continued.

“I am not saying it is going to happen. I am saying it could happen. These people are so used to winning a rigged game, if they start being caught, and they have been caught, then they are going to do things that are not necessarily predictable. They are not going to act in a rational manner. They are going to do anything possible to protect themselves. You cannot rule out the possibility that they will turn the table over and that’s it.”

Morgan explains that the problem with the market is its manipulation by the deep state. Once they begin to lose their grip on those they feel are underneath them, they could just “end the chess game” by “flipping the table.”

A good portion of the interview shows Morgan discussing the importance of silver.

There is some free information on TheMorganReport.com regarding precious metals. You can also become a subscriber to The Morgan report and get much more timely and detailed analysis of the financial markets.  If you want to find out more about the “cryptographic silver monetary system” mentioned by Morgan in the interview, click here to go to Ag.Lode.One.

Global Elitists: Bitcoin’s ‘Intrinsic Value Must Be Zero’, Bubble About To Burst

Allianz Global Investors, the investment arm of Europe’s biggest insurer, employees economists who say Bitcoin is absolutely worthless, and a bubble that’s about to burst. Allianz Global, which manages almost 500 billion euro, says Bitcoin “ticks off all the boxes” for a major asset bubble.

“In our view, its intrinsic value must be zero,” Stefan Hofrichter, the company’s head of global economics and strategy, wrote in a recent web post. “A bitcoin is a claim on nobody – in contrast to, for instance, sovereign bonds, equities or paper money – and it does not generate any income stream.”  Gold doesn’t generate an income stream either but has been a viable currency for over 2,000 years.

But according to Bloomberg, the investors at Allianz Global have more to say about Bitcoin. Additionally, they added that the world’s largest cryptocurrency “ticks all of the boxes” of the essential criteria for any asset bubble, including overtrading, “new-era” thinking and rising leverage, he wrote. Bitcoin mania is a textbook-like bubble, “one that is probably just about to burst.”

Hofrichter is far from the only person to make comments regarding Bitcoin’s value. Even Peter Schiff says the cryptocurrency is heading toward its “real worth” of $0.  University of Pittsburgh researchers have concluded it’s “an asset which has no value by traditional measures” and economist Nouriel Roubini called it the “biggest bubble in human history.”

Others, such as Jeff Berwick from The Dollar Vigilante, says that it isn’t the Bitcoin bubble we should worry about. We should be more concerned about the elites engineering an economic collapse and blaming the cryptocurrency as an excuse to ban or heavily regulate all sources of “money.” It is easier to believe the global elitists dislike Bitcoin, because of the mere fact that the currency is decentralized and regulating it is incredibly difficult.

But that doesn’t stop many in the global economy scene from continuing to bash Bitcoin while passively admitting the risks are small. “Bitcoin’s demise would have few spillover effects on the ‘real world,’ since the market for this cryptocurrency is still quite small in size,” Hofrichter said. “As a result, we believe that the risks to financial stability stemming from bitcoin are negligible — at least as of today.”

Google has also come out swinging against Bitcoin, saying it will ban ads for all cryptocurrency. Remember, the elites that run things are actively trying to keep things from the public.  There’s probably a very good reason why tech giants and the globalists who run them don’t want people involved in cryptocurrencies.  “Improving the ads experience across the web, whether that’s removing harmful ads or intrusive ads, will continue to be a top priority for us,” said Scott Spencer, Google’s director of sustainable ads, in a blog post. The post did not explain why digital currencies may be harmful.

This follows a similar move by Facebook as a part of an effort to” clear unregulated financial products off its platform.” Does anyone catch the keyword “unregulated” in there? If the elitists can’t control your money, they can’t control you.

Elon Musk: Humans Must Colonize Mars To Survive WW3 But AI Is More Dangerous Than Nukes

Elon Musk, the founder of Space X, says humanity must colonize Mars so that our survival is insured after the onslaught of a third world war. Amid rising nuclear tension, humans must make the colonization of Mars a priority, says Musk.

According to The Guardian, Musk believes getting to the Red Planet should be at the top of humanity’s to do list. “If there’s a third world war we want to make sure there’s enough of a seed of human civilization somewhere else to bring it back and shorten the length of the dark ages,” Musk said, responding to questions from his friend Jonah Nolan, co-creator of TV show Westworld. “It’s important to get a self-sustaining base on Mars because it’s far enough away from Earth that [in the event of a war] it’s more likely to survive than a moon base,” Musk said on stage at SXSW, just days after Donald Trump announced plans to meet the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, in an attempt to defuse rising nuclear tension.

Space X is currently working on a vehicle that will take humans to Mars in a 100-meter ship codenamed the BFR (Big F**king Rocket). But building a colony would require “tremendous entrepreneurial resources”, Musk said.  He also suggested that Mars may be an “escape hatch for rich people.”He said, “It will be like Shackleton’s ad for Antarctic explorers: ‘Difficult, dangerous, a good chance you’ll die, excitement for those who survive.’ That kind of thing.”

He also said those risks may outweigh the rewards. “There’s not many people who will want to go in the beginning,” he said, adding that over time the Red Planet colony would be hospitable and have “great bars. The Mars Bar! I love dad jokes, I’m a dad!”

The BFR will fly for the first time in the first half of 2019, Musk said, acknowledging that his “timelines historically have been optimistic”.  Musk said he initially gave SpaceX and Tesla an estimated likelihood of success of just 10 %. “I wouldn’t let my friends invest because I didn’t want them to lose their money,” he said of SpaceX. Instead, he funneled his own money, from the sale of PayPal, into the businesses. “SpaceX is alive by the skin of its teeth. So is Tesla. If things had gone a little bit the other way, both companies would be dead.”

But Musk also had a warning for humanity. “Mark my words,” he said, “AI is much more dangerous than nukes.”

Cost Of Housing Has Soared So High Americans Are Sliding Into Poverty

Housing prices in the United States continue to rise at unprecedented rates, forcing many into poverty. This worsening epidemic is explained well in a video by The Money GPS and it’s been engineered this way.

As nations increase taxes and regulations, the price of complying also goes up. Many of these hikes are passed onto to those who are already living paycheck to paycheck forcing them to live in poverty. “You came here for the truth, so let me unveil that for you,” says Money GPS.

 

Severe damage to the nation’s economy can occur when people don’t have disposable income. “People are spending a larger and larger share of their income on their housing. This is something they can’t avoid. It’s not as if they are buying a home and can be renting instead, we are talking about people who rent their homes. It’s very serious,” The Money GPS says.

“There’s definitely an issue with the amount that people spend on shelter, electricity, food, and other basic essentials…we have a big problem on our hands. It’s not being addressed and the bubble just keeps getting larger…they keep saying there’s a limited supply [of housing options].”

“The median asking rent for vacant rental units is consistently rising. when you rent prices continuously increasing specifically for vacant rental units.” All this is happening as the rate of homeownership declines as well. So perhaps there is some correlation between market saturation and prices, but we fail to account for the fact that property taxes put a heavy burden on homeownership and those taxes are passed on to renters in the form of higher rents.”

But the YouTube channel Bull Boom Bear Bust says this is all just a part of the global elitist’s plans to force more people into rentals and out of homeownership. According to the description of their video about this issue, it is becoming more and more clear that the central banking fiat currency system was designed to extract wealth from the poor and middle class and further enrich bankers that are creating a nation [sic] of debt servants.

“It’s a global plan,” says the narrator of the video. “These disasters and downturns in the economy are opportunities for the big money and big investors to come in and actually buy these homes.” He then discusses the reasons banks have for not foreclosing on properties right away, and it’s as simple as a wealth transfer from the middle and lower classes to the billionaires and investors:

“A reason why in some cases the banks don’t foreclose on the property right away, not only to keep the home off the market, but it also keeps the financial responsibility of the property onto the previous homeowner. So things like back due property taxes and fines for failure to keep the property up, banks don’t want to take on that responsibility, so technically in many cases, they’ll not take immediate foreclosure proceedings and in some cases, years and then the unpaid debt can come back and destroy the previous homeowner’s credit, and not hurt the bank.”

“This whole system…of the middle class being wiped out and the poor getting poorer, the increase in homelessness, the increase in people going into more and more debt, the shift from home ownership to home occupied to financial companies and institutions and investors owning these homes. This whole system has been engineered from the top down.”

He continues to explain that it all goes back to the Federal Reserve and was designed to break the average family while benefiting those already at the top. We often refer to these people as elitists. They are the politicians who are bought and paid for by corporations who push laws and regulations on the middle class that they themselves are exempt from and can profit immensely by doing. The entire system has been rigged to transfer wealth to the elites in the government and the deep state who pulls the strings.