Nomi Prins: Collusion! How Central Bankers Rigged the World

This article was originally published by Adam Taggart at PeakProsperity.com

Nomi Prins, Wall Street veteran turned financial industry reformist returns to the podcast this week to explain the findings within her new book Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged The World.

Nomi has put together a timeline of exactly when and how the central banks have plundered the wealth of the masses since 2008, either directly or indirectly through the loss of purchasing power of the currencies they control:

The relationship between the Central Banks, the major ones — the Fed, Europe Central Bank, Bank of Japan — all the larger Central Banks in the world and their private banks was effectively, and is effectively, kept secret. The relationships they have with each other, a lot of it is secret; so you have to really dig in to it to find out what’s really going on.

What I did was dig into the documents that I could find and create a timeline. That’s why each chapter in each region starts in 2008. It works with Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China and Europe and juxtaposes that with what the Fed was doing at that time to see how that collusive behavior wound up happening. The secret-ness is in the relationships of the banks, where that money that was fabricated by these institutions actually went, and when — or if — it’s coming back.

The ‘cheat and deceiving’ part of that definition is also apparent: people have been cheated out of their futures from the standpoint of the central banks’ strategies. So when the Feds creates cheap money, companies and banks and countries borrow more from the future because it is so cheap and easy. This deceives many people into thinking that the economy is somehow therefore being helped by this strategy, which is in acutality an emergency strategy. It’s an emergency that’s gone on now for ten years.

Yes there have been some tweaks here and there — interest rates have gone up a little bit in the United States — but all in all, rates are still pretty much 0% on average globally and quantitative easing still exists. The books of the major Central Banks are as big as they were at their heights through this last ten-year period…and they’re still growing. Just look at Europe and Japan.

Look at the stock market. The stock market is really high right now in a lot of different places. Why is it so high? Because a lot of this money went into debt which was borrowed to buy corporate stock, to buy the stock of banks, or to buy the banks themselves. That’s a major form of manipulation and deception as well.

Why is JP Morgan’s stock going up? Is it just because JP Morgan is such a great bank and so helping? Well, no. It’s because it received a lot of help from the Federal Reserve. It funneled that help into its own shares, and it has continued to pay settlements and be fined on egregious activity against its own clients, which are many because it’s the largest bank in the United States among the largest banks in the world.

There are multiple points of cheating and deception that have been enabled or that occur because of Central Banks policies. Some of those policies are secret; but a lot of them are public. You just have to piece the documents and the timelines together.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris’ interview with Nomi Prins (41m:38s).

Peter Schiff: ‘The Fed Is Like Mr. Magoo! We Are Headed For A Massive Financial Crisis’

Peter Schiff has been saying that even though the stock market is on a slow downward slide, the biggest problem is actually in the bond market. Last week, Schiff warned us to be wary of the calm before the storm, and this week, he said most, including the Federal Reserve, are oblivious to the upcoming crash.

Yields have risen to levels not seen since before the 2008 crash. More significantly, the yield curve is flattening, according to Schiff. 

According to Seeking Alpha, Schiff pointed out, if you go back to the Second World War and look at average bond yields, these low rates are an aberration. They’ve been low for a long time, but they aren’t going to stay low forever. And yet the market seems to think it’s going to go on for another 30 years.

“Clearly, the market assumes that interest rates on 10-year government bonds are going to stay just barely over 3% for the next 20 or 30 years. I mean, that is crazy. Why would anybody think that?”

Just consider the deficits as well. The federal government is running $100 billion per month budget deficits – and this is during a supposed economic expansion. What’s going to happen when we hit a recession? And of course, rising interest rates just compound the problem. As Treasuries come due, the government has to replace them with higher interest rate bonds. This expands the deficit even further.

Also compounding the problem is the money printing scheme the Federal Reserve has taken to.  Why in the world would any rational person assume inflation will remain low?

We also have interest rates at around 3% and there is already some handwringing and nervousness. But as Peter said, they could easily blow through four or even 5%. The Fed keeps saying it plans to reduce its balance sheet, but it hasn’t sold very many bonds to date. What happens if they follow through with tightening plans and start dumping bonds on the market?

If [the Fed] continues to stay on this path, or at least the rhetoric is on this path, rates could blow through 3% like a hot knife through butter.”

Schiff then discussed Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who said they [the elite globalists that run the Federal Reserve] can’t find any signs of an impending crisis. He said there are no warning signs at all.

“Well, of course, that’s exactly what they said in 2007 and 2008. In fact, even when there was the mother of all warning signs – the crash of the subprime market – the Fed looked at that and said, ‘That’s nothing. It’s contained.’ We’re not worried about that.’ So the Fed has already proved when it comes to warning signs and seeing them in advance, they’re like Mr. Magoo. They have no idea what’s going on. And in fact, just like Mr. Magoo, they create all kinds of havoc all around them as they blindly move through the economy having no idea what’s going on, and there’s just all kinds of carnage.We are headed for a massive financial crisis.”

Schiff has yet to change his mind: we are headed for some major problems in the economy and most are unaware and unprepared.

James Howard Kunstler: The Coming Economy Of “Less”

This report was originally published by Adam Taggart at PeakProsperity

Author and commentator James Howard Kunstler returns as our podcast guest this week for an update on where we are in The Long Emergency timeline.

In this wide-raging discussion ranging from the pervasiveness of propaganda in today’s media to the risk of nuclear war, Kunstler also re-news his warnings of a current secular economic slowdown.

After too many years of market interventions, magical thinking, racketeering, and bleeding the 99% dry, he warns that our culture and economic system will soon reach a snapping point:

The important story is what happens in the financial sector and how it effects the economy in the next twelve to eighteen months. As we know, the financial system is the most abstract and fragile of all the systems that we depend on because the other systems can’t run without it. The trucks won’t make the food deliveries to the supermarkets unless the finance system works. The gasoline won’t get to the pumps at the stations.

Nothing’s going to move if the financial system cracks up. People no longer trust each other to transact, to get paid. And so they stop transacting.

We’re talking about a falling standard of living and getting used to an economy of “less”. It sounds kind of Ebenezer Scrooge-ish to suggest that people may have to do with less rather than more, because more has always been the expectation in our lifetime. But that’s probably a fact. And as I’ve said more than once, reality has mandates of its own. Circumstances are going to inform us about how this economy is emerging and where we need to go with it. And we can either pay attention or just sit there with our fingers in our ears.

What we’re talking about here is the armature of our culture and economy that people hang their lives on. And that armature is crumbling. There are fewer things that people can hang a life on in a meaningful way, or a way that even ensures that they can have a little bit of security looking into even a short-term future.

For example, I had a day yesterday that felt like national Murphy’s Law Day. I got a screw in a tire. The screw was in a place where, under New York State law, they’re not allowed to fix the tire if the screw is near the outside of tread. So I had to buy a brand-new tire. And then I was going to take the trash to the dump in my old pickup truck, which I keep around for that purpose. But the battery was dead. So I had to go down to the auto parts store and buy a new battery, and bring it home and put it in.

Now, I’m among the lucky people in this land who can actually buy a new tire and buy a car battery. But probably some enormous percentage of the population, like 78% or 84% — I’m not quite sure what it is — they don’t have enough money to buy a new car battery if their car dies on some god forsaken freeway shoulder 38 miles from home. Imagine how crazy-making that is. I can easily, because I was a truly starving bohemia until well into my 40s, struggling just to pay the light bill while writing book after book. So I know what it’s like to live day after day in that kind of financial anxiety.

I imagine that the financial anxiety out there right now is just so extreme that there’s a whole mass of people who are being pushed to the limits of their sanity.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris’ interview with James Howard Kunstler (57m:11s).

To read the full transcript, please click here

Inflation Markets Just Flashed Recession-Red-Flag For The First Time Since 2008

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

Amid all the talk of wage growth and surveys suggesting input and output prices are soaring, the market for ‘inflation expectations’ is suddenly flashing a recessionary red flag not seen since July 2008.

The last few months have seen short-term (5Y) inflation expectations in the breakevens market surge to their highest in 5 years; and while longer-dated inflation expectations have also risen, they have not kept pace with the short-end. A similar move was last seen in Q1/2 2008.

Simply put, markets are expecting an inflationary impulse in the short-term, but do not expect it to last as it will likely be swamped out by a recession as the economy is not grown fast enough to justify prices rising at that pace, and instead either profit margins will collapse or end demand shrivels as companies fail to pass through rising costs.

And, as a result, for the first time since July 2008, the inflation breakevens yield curve has inverted, with the market’s expectations for 30Y inflation now below that just 5 years ahead.

What is especially notable, is that the last time this happened, the US was already deep in recession (and we note that each time the 5Y has approached the 30Y, it has backed away – which given the sensitivity of stocks to breakevens could be problem going forward).

Psychic Makes 2018 Predictions: ‘North Korea Will Succeed In Sending A Missile’

Self-described psychic Susan Rowlen released a video detailing her predictions for the coming year. One of her most alarming predictions is that she says North Korea will succeed in sending a missile to the US at some point in the coming year.

But don’t fret just yet. Within the first 30 seconds of Rowlen’s video, she admits that she was wrong about some of her 2017 predictions. She says that about 80% of her predictions for last year did come true though.

So what exactly does psychic Rowlen see occurring during the remainder of this year? “Interesting enough, I wanna start off by talking about the tax reform,” she begins. “There’s a lot of hype and there’s a lot of communication of this and that, people going back and forth, yay or nay, some people love the tax form some people don’t. I am here not to take sides, OK? But I am gonna just tell you what I think,” she says.

“The tax reform with the tax rate going for corporations to 21%, that versus what they’ve been paying at the 35%. Now, what is it gonna do to the economy? I actually think it’s really going to help the economy. The reason I see this is because it is going to leave room for job growth. When the corporations can save money on taxes, they can actually spend more time on the employment and growing their business,” Rowlen says.  At least we have a psychic who understands the basic fundamentals of economics.

Rowlen has some bad news for the retailers, however. They will do OK, but they won’t flourish. The in-store purchases will dwindle. Of course, this has been going on for years, as more use the internet to do their shopping. Then she moves onto talking about the stock market and how she predicted 2017 to be a year of unhindered growth. “Second to third quarter is where I see little tumbles, little peaks,” Rowlen said of 2018’s stock market forecast. But she gets more ominous soon after:

“The stock market’s gone as high as it can go. So, it’s going to kind of fade back and forth, second to third quarter. So I do want to say that. So, but do I see anything drastic? Well, if anything ever happened to Donald Trump, that’s where you would see a real dive to the stock market.”

Rowlen then briefly talks about the real estate market suffering. Before she moves onto the allegations of sexual harassment that have been plaguing politicians and celebrities. She sees a male figure come forward to admit he was sexually harassed setting off a chain of events which will allow men to also be more comfortable with coming forward also. She rambles off a few other predictions and says to recycle before she speaks about 2017 and Donald Trump.

“And I’m gonna be really honest with you. I said this in 2017 and I’m gonna say it again. More people that are gonna be dropping from his cabinet and as like I go through underwear…he’s gonna have a lot of people, and let’s face it, he’s had so many that I’ve even done my homework and let’s see…I’ve got pages and pages of all the people in his cabinet that have left or been fired or both. So, the point is, 2018, is it finally ceasing does he finally have the caninet of his dreams? The answer is a big fat ‘no’.”

“Should we worry about North Korea? Absolutley, yes! This man is very unstable and yes, he’s out to get the US…North Korea, I think, is going to actually succeed in sending some sort of missile.”

“Everyone has asked me, do I see president Trump impeached? My answer is no.  I don’t see it. I try to get a vision that I see him leaving the White House and I do not see this man leaving the White House. So for those of you that love him, you’ll be very happy with that and for those of you that don’t like him, you won’t be very happy with that answer.”

So, there are a psychic’s 2018 predictions in a nutshell.

“Don’t Panic”: Banks Make Shifty Moves As Markets Brace for Brexit Impact

This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge.

Editor’s Comment: In the long run, Brexit represents a healthy draw down of European superstate power. But in the short run, almost anything can be a flashpoint for panic, as everyone hates change. Markets immediately become risky, the regulatory approach to withdraw while maintaining trade between Britain and Europe is confusing at best, and worrisome in nature.

The banks and the powers that be want a bit of panic, and there’s almost the chance of something bigger unwinding into a bigger mess. It remains to be seen what the larger picture will be, but the system is likely to retract and hold onto as much as what it can of what was already in place.

Banks To London Employees: “Don’t Panic”

by Tyler Durden

With Brexit officially a go, banks in Britain are scrambling to undo months of verbal damage, and reassure their London employees over possible Brexit disruptions, a potential shift in jobs to continental Europe, and also talking down warnings made in recent months about leaving the City, some in now dashed hopes of getting a Brexit revote.

It now appears that many of those “threats” were hollow and as Reuters reports, investments banks such as Goldman and Nomura were among those who sent messages to employees in London as they work out how to keep serving clients across the European Union without spooking staffers, prompting employee defections to more hospitable employers. Richard Gnodde, CEO of the European arm of Goldman Sachs, stressed that no big changes were imminent even though he said last week that the Wall Street bank would begin by moving hundreds of staff as part of its “contingency plans” for Brexit. It seems a lot can change in one week.

“All of this work leads us to conclude that although Brexit may well bring some changes to our footprint, a lot will continue to operate as it does today,” he said in a voicemail sent to all London employees’ phones last Friday.

Morgan Stanley also informed employees in Europe that no decisions had yet been made on changes for when Britain departs. Rob Rooney, CEO of Morgan Stanley International, was blunter in updating staffers on the work of a committee comprising senior leaders at the bank which has been making Brexit contingency plans for over a year. “As prudence would dictate, we have been preparing for a worst case scenario, in which we would need to establish a more significant entity within the EU 27,” Rooney said in a memo to staff on Wednesday seen by Reuters. “We continue to monitor the situation closely and, when appropriate, will take the necessary decisions and begin to execute on our plans.”

Cited by Reuters, Gnodde said Goldman Sachs could make long-term decisions only after May’s two years of negotiations to exit negotiations to exit the EU were complete. “We also understand that you will have many questions regarding the implications of Brexit,” he said. “We are sensitive to those concerns, and want you to know that we will share any information on changes that will impact our European footprint as quickly as we can.”

Fearing they could lose top-performing staff, banks are treading carefully as they contemplate moving London-based workers to continental centers such as Frankfurt, Paris and Luxembourg, or paying them off and hiring employees locally.

In a similar message by Japan’s Nomura, the bank said in a message to staff on Wednesday that although it had been actively planning for Brexit, no final decision had been made on either location or timing of any new European entity, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Banks are enacting two-stage contingency plans for Brexit. The first involves relatively small numbers of jobs to make sure the requisite licenses, technology and infrastructure are in place, while the next requires longer-term thinking on what their European business will look like in the future. This is when bigger moves might take place.

According to Reuters, the British Bankers’ Association and the City of London Corporation, which runs the financial district, said in statements it is crucial that after the conclusion of the talks banks retain as much access to the single market as possible.

They both also said that Britain should announce a staggered departure from the EU that would allow British-based banks to prevent market disruption

Regulatory and banking experts working for the City of London and lobby group TheCityUK are drawing up proposals for a ‘mutual recognition’ system.

Under this, the EU and Britain would broadly accept firms in each other’s financial markets because their home regulatory systems apply similar standards. The aim is for London-based banks to keep serving continental clients, although skeptics say mutual recognition is largely untested globally and would struggle to win approval within the EU.

That said, perhaps in this particular case London banks are more worried than they should be: after all, with banks in Europe hurting and few actively hiring (Deutsche Bank’s “no bonus” policy will hardly prompt massive demand for lateral moves), with the buyside aggressively cost-cutting, and hedge funds shuttering left and right despite all time highs in global stocks, just where are the “panicked” bankers going to go?

This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge.