As banks in India cut off access to cryptocurrencies, the government is rolling out a big brother financial grid complete with their own digital currency.
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Financial writer Charles Hugh Smith recently sat down for an interview in which he boldly declared that ALL currencies – not just the United States dollar -will see a catastrophic drop during the coming economic collapse. It’s not just the dollar, but every currency backed by government force will fall.
In a video interview with USA Watchdog‘s Greg Hunter, Smith details the eventual collapse and says currencies such as the Chinese yuan will also drop. Smith, the author of the new book Money and Work Unchained and founder of the popular site OfTwoMinds.com says, “All these currencies, by which there is nothing backing the currencies except the government’s force. That’s the yen, the euro, the dollar and the Chinese yuan. They are all going to have a catastrophic drop against real assets because they are all based on too much leverage, too much debt, too much money being pumped into the financial system that ends up in unproductive speculation. You can’t grow your debt at six times the rate of your economy. In other words, if you are creating $6, $8 or $10 of debt to eke out $1 of low productivity growth, you are dooming your currency, and all currencies are doing the same thing. All the currencies are going to take a big drop at some point . . . relative to real stuff. Real stuff is commodities we need: water, grains, food, oil, natural gas, and of course, precious metals. Everybody knows they have been money for 5,000 years, and I personally feel there is a role for cryptocurrencies.”
“Once you destroy your currency, you destroy everybody’s savings, everybody’s purchasing power, everybody’s poor,” says Smith. He then explains that how governments run economies is not how economics works. Most assume we can continue to borrow from the future to pay today for the promises made yesterday. It simply doesn’t work that way. “Most of the households in the US are losing ground,” explains Smith. Hunter then asked a powerful question: “Do you think they [global elitists] are trying to crush the dollar on purpose?”
“Yeah…there’s that idea that we boost our exports if we can reduce the value of our currency compared to the yen and the euro and so on. But then of course, we have to think about the other side of that which is…the Japanese are even more dependent on exports than we are, so they don’t wanna see their currency, the yen, shoot up in value becasue their exports then become more expensive here. It’s kind of a zero sum game…no country becomes great by devaluing their currency.“
The entire system of government is broken at every level. Is it time to evolve beyond the need for rulers and authority and central planning? Smith explains that only the elites have access to the capitalism that will lift everyone out of poverty.
“If you’re in the inner circle, then capitalism works for you,” says Smith. The global elitists and politicians who get rich off the backs of those they force socialism upon don’t want a real free market to emerge because that’s how they will be taken down a notch and forced to compete in a real market scenario. “[The global elites] have protected it [capitalism] and only they get access to the benefits of capitalism and everybody else gets a watered down sort of socialism, like universal basic income. You don’t get any opportunity to do well.”
But of course, as with all government programs (including government employment), there’s always a problem, and universal basic income will create a disaster of epic proportions for human beings. The best single description of the problem, according to Smith, came from Hunter. “The fraud of universal basic income has to basically attach itself to a fraudulent money system.”
“It doesn’t really address the underlying problem which is a lack of productive work that gives a positive social role to people. In other words, they feel like they’re contributing to their family and their community. And just giving somebody a welfare check, I mean, how many people on welfare are writing poetry and really happy? I mean, we already have a test audience of what happens when you give people just enough money to scrape by, but no opportunity. What we really need is not universal basic income…we need to create opportunities to serve their community…the whole idea needs to be localized to the community...in a real free market, everybody has an opportunity to pursue what they want and to contribute and this is what we’ve lost.“
Smith says he’s more concerned, however, that the market will slowly decay rather than just crash because he thinks that the public would let the elitists get away with it.
“The consequences of the weight of our policies would become apparent if there’s a 5,000 or 10,000 point drop in the DOW. People would start asking questions…but if it just slowly erodes, people habituate to it.”
Be prepared to protect yourself and your family financially for the dollar’s imminent collapse.
Investor Peter Schiff is warning once again about Bitcoin’s massive speculative bubble. Schiff, who is well-known for predicting the 2008 financial crash, is saying it’s those who are buying in now will be the most vulnerable when Bitcoin hits $0.
“People who got it years ago, even people who got it at the beginning of the year have the opportunity to cash out and make a lot of money. But people who are buying it at these prices or higher prices are going to lose practically everything,” Schiff told RT International Channel. Bitcoin is speculative bubble set to burst at any time, and when it does, many will lose everything.
Schiff’s main concern with Bitcoin echoes that of many preppers, including Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. “These currencies are going to trade to zero or pretty close to it when the bubble pops,” predicts Schiff. “Right now, the only reason why people are buying bitcoin is because the price is going up. When it turns around, they are not going to sell it for the same reason. There is no value in bitcoin, you can’t use it as money,” Schiff points out. “It’s too slow, too expensive and too vulnerable.”
It also doesn’t physically exist in the way gold and silver do. According to Schiff, there is a problem with fiat currencies. However, there are 1,300 digital currencies with massive inflation. “Even bitcoin itself has spun off bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold. There is no limit to supply of bitcoin-branded worthless tokens that can be created,” he said. But as soon as the price begins a downward trend, Bitcoin will implode.
In the video below, Schiff discusses whether or not buying into Bitcoin is like buying a lottery ticket.
“The only value in the cryptocurrency now is the fact that it’s going up,” Schiff says. “And people are buying it because they believe they’ll be able to sell it to somebody else who also thinks it’s going to keep going up because he can buy it, he can sell it to somebody else who has the same outlook. But as soon as the currency really starts to decline, it’s gonna implode and eventually, it will go down to its true value…I think the ultimate value is going to be $0.”
Schiff says cryptocurrencies are also fiat currencies and stands by his assessment that gold is a real alternative to the mess created by all of the fiat currencies (including the United States’ dollar) which have no real value in the end.
This article was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com
There is one simple rule to follow when understanding the tragic history of economies: Never put blind faith in a system built on an establishment-created foundation. You would think this would not be a difficult concept to grasp being that we have so many examples of controlled economies and collapse to reference over the centuries, but in our era more than ever the allure of a virtual world with promises of endless wealth and ease is overwhelming.
Yes, I am referring primarily to cyptocurrency “tulip-mania” (sorry bitcoiners, the description is too fitting, it isn’t going away), but not this issue alone. I am also referring to a far-reaching problem of which cryptocurrencies are a mere reflection. Namely, the fact that humanity is swiftly losing sight of what a true economy is and what it is supposed to accomplish. It is because of this reality that crypto is thriving.
First, let’s be clear, fiat currencies are one of the first machinations of the virtual economy. Once paper currencies printed from thin air by central bankers were separated from tangible backing and accepted by the masses as “valuable” and worth trading labor for, the seed of financial cancer was planted. Today, there is one final step needed for the establishment to accomplish complete tyranny in global trade and that is to disconnect the masses fully from private transactions. In other words, we must be tricked into going digital, where privacy is an absurd memory.
Virtual economics is appealing for several reasons, most of them bad.
Americans and much of the west in particular are increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of real production. The latest generation coming into political and social influence, the millenials, is a perfect example. Surveys show American millenials more than any other generation lack basic workplace competency skills, including scoring low on arithmetic and reading comprehension. Often portrayed as “tech savvy” in popular culture and the media, millenials are quite inept when it comes to core skills that fuel strong business and trade, which is part of the reason why the U.S. is falling into the shadow of foreign workforces.
Millenials in the West also exhibit abysmal technical skills in international testing and lag far behind foreign peers. This has come as a surprise to many mainstream economists and social analysts, primarily because millenials are also considered the “most educated” generation ever. But, of course, we have not only been given a virtual economy in recent decades, but also a virtual educational system. A majority of millenials are lacking when it comes to key production skills and entrepreneurship methods because they have been trained to dismiss such skills as negligible. In other words, millenials have been conditioned to be academic idiots.
Why go through the struggle and hardship required to become an effective producer of tangible necessities when it is far easier to join a collectivist drive for socialism and a structure in which little to no work is required to obtain such necessities? Why not steal from a productive minority and spread it thinly enough to keep the unskilled majority fed? It is only within this kind of culture that virtual production, a virtual society and virtual “money” is seen as an ideal solution.
The notion is becoming more and more prevalent in our popular media, and I believe this is rather symbolic (or ironic) of our conundrum.
For example, consider the book Ready Player One, a pop-culture craze and archetypal zeitgeist for millenials soon to be released as an intended Hollywood blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg. The novel depicts the world of 2045, a world in which fossil fuel depletion and “global warming” have triggered economic and social decline (Remember in the 1980s when they used to tell us that global warming was going to melt the polar icecaps and we would be under water by the year 2000?). A totalitarian governing body controlled by corporate behemoths rules over the dystopian sprawl.
In response to an ever painful existence in the real world, the masses have sought to escape to a virtual world called “the Oasis,” created by a programming genius. The Oasis becomes a nexus for the global economy and a virtual society.
This sounds like a rousing background for a story of rebellion, and it is about that… sort of. Unfortunately, here is where the disturbing ties between our world and the fictional world of Ready Player One meet. The “rebellion” is for all intents and purposes also virtual, and for millenial audiences in particular, this is supposed to be inspiring.
Perhaps this is why cryptocurrencies are so appealing to the millenial crowd in particular. Think about it — the dismal economic doldrums of Ready Player One exist NOW; we don’t have to wait until 2045. Millenials are already feeling disaffected, indebted and disenfranchised, and most of them are also skill-less. Self reliance to them is an idea so alien it rarely if ever crosses their minds. So, how do they fight back? Or, how are they tricked into thinking they can fight back against a virtual system that has left them in the gutter? Why, with a virtual community and a virtual currency, of course.
Millenials and others think that they are going to rebel and “take down the banking oligarchs” with nothing more than digital markers representing “coins” tracked on a digital ledger created by an anonymous genius programmer/programmers. Delusional? Yes. But like I said earlier, it is an appealing notion.
Here is the issue, though; true money requires intrinsic value. Cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value. They are conjured from nothing by programmers, they are “mined” in a virtual mine created from nothing, and they have no unique aspects that make them rare or tangibly useful. They are an easily replicated digital product. Anyone can create a cryptocurrency. And for those that argue that “math gives crypto intrinsic value,” I’m sorry to break it to them, but the math is free.
In fact, for those that are not already aware, Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hash function, created by none other than the National Security Agency (NSA) and published by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
Yes, that’s right, Bitcoin would not exist without the foundation built by the NSA. Not only this, but the entire concept for a system remarkably similar to bitcoin was published by the NSA way back in 1996 in a paper called “How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography Of Anonymous Electronic Cash.”
The origins of bitcoin and thus the origins of crytpocurrencies and the blockchain ledger suggest anything other than a legitimate rebellion against the establishment framework and international financiers. I often cite this same problem when people come to me with arguments that the internet has set the stage for the collapse of the globalist information filter and the mainstream media. The truth is, the internet is also an establishment creation developed by DARPA, and as Edward Snowden exposed in his data dumps, the NSA has total information awareness and backdoor control over every aspect of web data.
Many people believe the free flow of information on the internet is a weapon in favor of the liberty movement, but it is also a weapon in favor of the establishment. With a macro overview of data flows, entities like Google can even predict future social trends and instabilities, not to mention peek into every personal detail of an individual’s life and past.
To summarize, cryptocurrencies are built upon an establishment designed framework, and they are entirely dependent on an establishment created and controlled vehicle (the internet) in order to function and perpetuate trade. How exactly is this “decentralization”, again?
TOTAL information awareness is the goal here; and blockchain technology helps the powers-that-be remove one of the last obstacles: private personal trade transactions. Years ago, a common argument presented in favor of bitcoin was that it was “completely anonymous.” Today, this is being proven more and more a lie. Even now, in the wake of open admissions by major bitcoin proponents that the system is NOT anonymous, people still claim anonymity is possible through various measures, but this has not proven to sway the FBI or IRS which have for years now been using resources such as Chainanalysis to track bitcoin users when they feel like doing so, including those users that have taken stringent measures to hide themselves.
Bitcoin proponents will argue that “new developments” and even new cryptocurrencies are solving this problem. Yet, this was the mantra back when bitcoin was first hitting the alternative media. It wasn’t a trustworthy assumption back then, so why would it be a trustworthy assumption now? The only proper assumption to make is that nothing digital is anonymous. Period.
With the ludicrous spike in bitcoin prices, champions of the virtual economy are unlikely to listen to any questions or criticisms. I have never argued one way or the other in terms of bitcoin’s potential “market value,” because it does not really matter. I have only ever argued that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are in no way a solution to combating the international and central banks. In fact, cyrptocurrencies only seem to be expediting their plan for full spectrum digitization and the issuance of a global currency system.
Bitcoin could easily hit $100,000, but its “value” is truly irrelevant and consistently hyped as if it makes bitcoin self evident as a solution to globalism. The higher the bitcoin price goes, the more the bitcoin cult claims victory, yet the lack of intrinsic value never seems to cross their minds. They have Scrooge McDuck-like visions of swimming in a vault of virtual millions. They’ll only accuse you of being an “old fogey” that “does not understand what the blockchain is.”
The fact is, they are the one’s that do not really understand what the blockchain is — a framework for a completely cashless society in which trade anonymity is dead and economic freedom is destroyed.
Ask yourself this: Why is it that central banks around the world (including the BIS and IMF) are investing in Bitcoin and other crytpocurrencies while developing their own crypto systems based on a similar framework? Could it be that THIS infusion of capital and infrastructure from major banks is the most likely explanation for the incredible spike in the bitcoin market? Why is it that globalist banking conglomerates like Goldman Sachs lavish blockchain technology with praise in their white papers? And, why are central bankers like Ben Bernanke speaking in favor of crypto at major cryptocurrency conferences if crypto is such a threat to central bank control?
Answer — because it is not a threat. They benefit from a cashless system, and liberty champions are helping to give it to them.
Above all else, the virtual economy breeds weakness in society. It encourages a lack of tangible production. Instead of true producers, entrepreneurs and inventors, we have people scrambling to sell real world property in order to buy computing rigs capable of “mining” coins that do not really exist. That is to say, we may one day soon be faced with millions of citizens expending their labor and energy in order to obtain digital nothings programmed into existence and given artificial scarcity (for now).
It also encourages false rebellion. Real change requires actions in the real world. Removing banking elitists and their structures by force if necessary (and this will probably be necessary). Instead, freedom activists are being convinced that they will never have to lift a finger to beat the bankers. All they have to do is buy and mine crypto. The day will come in the near future when the folks that embrace this nonsense will wake up and realize they have wasted their energies chasing a unicorn and are ill prepared to weather the economic reset that continues to evolve.
To maintain a real economy in which people are self reliant and safe from fiscal shock, you need three things: tangible localized and decentralized production, independent and decentralized trade networks that are not structured around an establishment controlled system (like the internet is controlled), and the will to apply force to protect and preserve that production and those networks. If you cannot manufacture a useful thing, repair a useful thing or teach a useful skill, then you are essentially useless in a real economy. If you do not have localized trade, you have nothing. If you do not have the mindset and the community of independent people required to protect your local production, then you will not be able to keep the economy you have built.
This is the cold hard truth that crypto proponents do not want to discuss, and will dismiss outright as “archaic” or “not obtainable.” The virtual economy is so much easier, so much more enticing, so much more comfortable. Why risk anything or everything in a real world effort to build a concrete trade network in your own neighborhood or town? Why risk everything by promoting true decentralization through localized commodity-backed money and barter systems? Why risk everything by defending those systems when the establishment seeks to crush them? Why do this, when you can pretend you are a virtual hero wielding virtual weapons in a no risk rebellion in a world of electronic ones and zeros?
In truth, the virtual economy is not legitimate decentralization, it is a weapon of mass distraction engineered to kill legitimate decentralization.
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You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com
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(ANTIMEDIA) — As the transition towards a blockchain based economy continues, the established financial powers are desperately trying to stay relevant. In an attempt to boost their credibility, analysts at Deutsche Bank are finally admitting that state-run fiat currencies are becoming obsolete. For years, blockchain entrepreneurs and other critics of central banking have been branded either conspiracy theorists or criminals. But recently, those controversial opinions about the inevitable changes coming to the world’s financial system are being echoed by mainstream pundits.
Deutsche Bank’s top strategist, Jim Reid, recently articulated a view on the economy that is shared by many but rarely talked about:
“Central banks and governments which have ‘dined out’ on the 35 year secular, structural decline in inflation are not able to prevent it rising as raising interest rates to suitable levels would risk serious economic contraction given the huge debt burden economies face. As such they are forced to prioritise low interest rates and nominal growth over inflation control which could herald in the beginning of the end of the global fiat currency system that begun with the abandonment of Bretton Woods back in 1971.”
The most surprising part came when he acknowledged the crucial role cryptocurrencies may play in the move away from unbacked paper money.
“Although the current speculative interest in cryptocurrencies is more to do with blockchain technology than a loss of faith in paper money, at some point there will likely be some median of exchange that becomes more universal and a competitor of paper money.”
The people’s trust in centralized control of currencies has never been directly challenged on this scale before. Competition in the emerging digital economy between different cryptocurrencies has introduced an alternative monetary system that empowers the individual and rewards based on merit, not special interests.
Any paradigm shift like this is guaranteed to have growing pains, but those who refuse to adapt will suffer most. Even though Bitcoin, Ethereum, and countless other blockchain applications may create tremendous value for years to come, the current volatility is still more than most can stomach. One of the first things new people in the space love and hate is the tendency toward massive swings in price that occur seemingly at random. Those who do decide to get involved need to make their primary focus self-education. Trying to stay objective without understanding the fundamentals behind issues like scalability, forks, different algorithms, and mining incentives will be nearly impossible. The reactions driven by ignorance, greed, and fear are all amplified in these new unregulated markets, meaning there is no safety net for amateurs. These wild fluctuations will eventually level out as broader adoption occurs and the ability for major players to manipulate price diminishes. Before building a large position in crypto, it may be more important to develop a strong understanding of the technology and history.
Many have seen recent attempts by China and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) to regulate ICOs as a negative sign, but in reality, these actions only signal the institutional gatekeepers’ acceptance of this new asset class. The growing acceptance of Bitcoin payments has driven the blockchain revolution thus far, but the technology is just beginning its potential to reform the economy. Major retailers continue to accept payments in cryptocurrencies, and platforms like Exodus are dealing with the complexity that burdens the user experience. Soon, the average person will be able to safely get involved in this new financial frontier without having any technical knowledge or dealing directly with third-party exchanges.
Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, and other pillars of the financial world will continue to play catchup in this dynamic process of decentralization. If the public continues to wait for the opinions of these so-called experts, they will miss the opportunities that lie on the cutting edge of the blockchain market. As the new currencies around the world cut ties with the central banks, it’s crucial for individuals to not leave their financial fate to the once trusted investment experts.
A bill recently introduced in Texas seeks to obliterate the Federal Reserve’s much-maligned monopoly on currency by establishing gold and silver as legal tender — but the groundbreaking legislation, if passed, would also prohibit those precious metals from being seized by State authorities.
If passed, Texans would secure stability by reclaiming their purchasing power — without being subject to the whims of The Fed — an institution widely regarded as a devious manipulator of currencies and markets.
Senator Bob Hall introduced the bill last month, which, the Tenth Amendment Center explains, “declares specifically that certain gold and silver coins are legal tender, and prohibits any tax, charge, assessment, fee, or penalty on any exchange of Federal Reserve notes (dollars) for gold or silver. The bill authorizes the payment of taxes and fees in gold & silver in certain circumstances. It would also prohibit the seizure of gold or silver by state authorities.”
Further subverting the current economy’s fealty to Dr. Ron Paul’s Enemy Number One, SB 2097, as the legislation is better known, would prevent any contracts explicitly to be paid in silver or gold to be instead paid with Federal Reserve notes — if you agree to pay in precious coins, you cannot then proffer payment in dollars.
Enforcing such contracts legally, the Tenth Amendment Center notes, would encourage their proliferation — and that of gold and silver coinage.
Constitutional tender expert, William Greene, agrees. He explained,
“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a ‘reverse Gresham’s Law’ effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”
Texas law currently mandates all debts and taxes be paid in Federal Reserve Notes and coins issued by the Treasury — ironic, considering Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution states,
“No State shall … make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”
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It wasn’t until 1913, with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act — which only came after a concerted, covert campaign by U.S. banking magnates — that the loosely hybrid system placed massive control of money in the hands of Big Banks with little oversight from the government. But the ‘central banking’ system has failed to prevent further financial crises — and has been given even a greater chokehold and increased authority as compensation.
Additionally, fiat currency has become a monster issue — once gold no longer backed U.S. dollars beginning in 1971, excuses to just print more bills naturally multiplied.
Where the public has no voice in the value of Federal Reserve Notes, Texans — and any states to follow its lead — could theoretically eschew using dollars, altogether, in favor of payment in gold and silver coins.
As it stands, officials of the Federal Reserve — a private institution — make decisions behind closed doors, where collusion and corruption can easily sway opinion away from the public’s, if not world’s, best interests.
Notably, the most efficacious watchdog against such practices in any given industry — an independent audit — has never been required of The Fed.
“While the debasement of the currency is the result of federal policy and banker collusion, the effect is broad and deep,” Tenth Amendment Center explains. “While there has been talk about reform, or at least an audit of the Fed, it is virtually a certainty that the federal government will never relinquish the power it enjoys through control of the monetary system. That said, there are practical steps that can be taken at the state level to promote the use and acceptance of sound money and undermine the Fed’s monopoly on money.”
If passed, Texas would join a smattering of states instituting sound money policies by returning gold and silver to a status as legitimate currency the metals have enjoyed throughout much of recorded history.
Last June, Texas paved the way for this new bill by establishing the first state-level gold depository, where an “account holder may transfer any portion of the balance of the holder’s depository account by check, draft, or digital electronic instruction to another depository account holder or to a person who at the time the transfer is initiated is not a depository account holder.”
Should lawmakers side with the financial interests of Texans and pass this legislation, Texas would join Utah, which began recognizing gold and silver coins issued by the United States as legal tender in 2011.
