China’s Trade War Against America

The Chinese regime is the creation of the globalists. Going back to the Nixon era, Henry Kissinger set into motion a staged and preferential trading system that would inevitably build the Red Communists into the very model for global dominance. Approving China into the World Trade Organization guaranteed a distorted playing field by favoring PRC and allowing their draconian conditions to engage in business by Oriental Marxists. Even The Guardian reports that World trade rules too weak to stop China distorting market, “It is now clear that the WTO rules are not sufficient to constrain China’s market-distorting behavior.” The end result produced a perverse capitalism that merged with totalitarian oligarchists to distort, extort and circumvent any semblance of a legitimate free trading exchange.

Behzad Yaghmaian provides some valuable insights in China: Empire Building in the Age of Globalization.

“The United States helped China’s economic ascendance by promoting globalization and embracing, in recent years, a free market orthodoxy. In the annals of history, it will be noted that it was the United States itself that championed a new economic structure which ultimately undermined its own position in the world.

How did this happen? China’s decision to open its economy to the world coincided with the U.S. drive for globalization. U.S. and Western corporations opened the economic floodgates to China through direct investment and subcontracting agreements. As Western capitalism globalized, China became the factory of the world.

Meanwhile, its free market ideology and obsession with balancing the budget became policy straightjackets that hobbled the United States’ ability to spend strategically on its future. As a result, money that could have been spent on education, research and development, modern infrastructure and other requisites for out-competing its rivals was in short supply.

Unencumbered by a free market orthodoxy, the Chinese opted for the opposite choice. They poured resources into areas pivotal for building a robust and competitive economy. China became the unintended winner of the limits of the United States’ free market ideology.”

Well, this is the short version of why America has allowed such an enormous balance of payments with China. In real terms, this recipe for economic demise was designed by the transnational corporatists. The intentional encouragement and approval of de-industrializing America has been no accident. The systematic dismantling of the merchantry economy followed as plant and equipment manufacturing moved offshore in order to build the Chinese coolie export dynasty.

This trade and industry structure was planned as a global warfare assault to bankrupt the American economy. The way back to a viable merchantry is to defeat the 21th Century robber barons who are most vulnerable to any significant drop in their exports. China has proven they are threats to any rational receptacle trading partnership.

Alan Tonelson in All of the Reasons Why Trump Can Win a Trade War With China, clearly lays out why China is a distrusted actor and major reasons they will lose far more from a curtailing of their overseas sales into the United States.

“Would a country that could take or leave its trade surpluses work so hard to extort or steal its rivals’ intellectual property? Would it pursue industrial policies aimed precisely at creating advantages for so many designated key sectors of its economy over foreign competitors? Would it limit exports of critical commodities like rare earths (essential for electronics and information technology manufacturing) to give its own producers a leg up on rivals press non-Chinese companies to move operations to the PRC? Would it subsidize massive overcapacity in goods like steel and aluminum in order to undercut the competition globally? Would it place so many restrictions on foreign providers of farm products along with banking, insurance, telecommunications, Internet-related, audiovisual, express delivery, legal and other services? Would it sue its trade partners in the World Trade Organization simply because they’re exercising their right to bring actions against China? Would it remain so determined to keep foreign firms in the dark concerning the regulations concerning licensing and operating requirements; product, investment, and business expansion approvals; and business license renewals?

One of these benefits has to do with achieving a goal that’s become imperative to the Chinese authorities—improving the quality of Chinese growth. As with America, too much of China’s economic expansion depends on ever higher levels of debt, rather than on more sustainable sources of demand. And Beijing at least sounds determined to rein in its unregulated shadow banking firms—particularly important lending culprits that have showered credit on provincial governments anxious to meet politically rewarding growth targets.”

In order to forge a worldwide economic alliance, Trump Is Building An Army Of Nations In Trade War Against China. Only President Trump has the guts to put the Chinese State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the ruling State Council (SASAC) business enterprises in the target sights to reign in their predatory practices.

“Earlier on Thursday Larry Kudlow confirmed that Trump is indeed building an army ahead of the big showdown with China. According to Bloomberg, Kudlow wants to rally “pro-market allies to push back against China’s unfair trade practices,” a senior White House adviser said.

“The damage of our economy comes from China’s restrictive practices. Blame China. They’ve been doing this for decades. Don’t blame Trump,” Larry Kudlow, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, told reporters in Washington.

In threatening to punish China for its abuse of intellectual property, Trump is “doing what everyone in the world has said we should do,” said Kudlow, adding that the administration will have more to say about its efforts to recruit other major economies to support the U.S. position.”

America has been pillaged by China for decades. Much of the rest of the world has also been abused by their same theft methods. Fear that China will strike back ignores the fact that China cannot afford missing out selling to the U.S. consumer. Americans gain the opportunity to defeat this aggressor by becoming independent of Chinese export dependency. The United States can win this trade war, it is time to get serious.

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China Declares Trade War Victory: Gloats At US “Suffering” After “Crushing Counterattack”

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

Barely a day after China dropped the hammer on US stock markets by unveiling retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion in US imports that – unlike US measures that mostly targeted obscure industrial products – actually struck at key industries like soybean farmers, automobiles and airplanes, the Communist Party crowed about what it already sees as its “victory” in the nascent trade war in an editorial published by the Global Times, China’s state-owned, English-language tabloid and extremely hawkish party mouthpiece.

In the editorial, China swatted away US claims – repeated most recently by Larry Kudlow during this morning’s interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo – that China has somehow victimized the US via its trade agreements while gloating about the leadership’s decision to strike at a “massive weak spot” for the US economy.

While the tit-for-tat tariffs could hurt both economies, the damage to China’s economy caused by the US’s Section 301 tariffs will “pale in comparison to the damage done to the US economy via China’s retaliations.”

And just to illustrate that point, literally, a Chinese cartoonist showed that another way Beijing will hurt the US is by a “stockmarket squeeze.”

Furthermore, in standing up to America’s “bullying tactics”, China warns that the pleasure the US had derived from its sanctions in the past “will now cause them suffering as their financial and political gains diminish to zero.”

This is Beijing’s clear show of retaliation toward the proposed tariff list on Chinese products from the US. Beijing showed an impressive response time for its retaliation efforts, taking less than 12 hours to announce its trade countermeasures. Chinese officials agree that its country’s countermeasures match those imposed by the US and that they showcase China’s determination to win this trade war.

It is worth noting that China strikes the US side by targeting its most valuable imports, such as soybeans, automobiles and chemical products. These aspects were targeted because they represent key pillars in the US imports and can create a massive weak spot for the US economy if their profitability is at risk.

Although China will sustain financial losses thanks to the US’ Section 301 investigation tariffs,they will pale in comparison to the damage done to the US economy via China’s retaliations.

China’s counter tariffs are a spectacular way of standing up to America’s bullying tactics, not only for itself, but for other countries threatened by the US’s new trade policies.

And with China digging in for a long, protracted trade conflict, one from which it will never surrender, if it is indeed Kudlow’s – and the Administration’s – hope that China will concede to US trade demands, then there will be much disappointment all around.

Underscoring China’s preparation for a “scorched earth”, and tit-for-tat escalating war, the Chinese government has told its citizens it is prepared to go toe-to-toe in its fight with Washington. In fact, more and more Chinese citizens think that an “epic trade war” is inevitable, which would knock some common sense into the US government so that it will change its way of dealing with China.

Hawkish politicians in Washington have obviously overestimated the capability and endurance of the US economy in a trade war, since they believe they can do whatever they like. China has shown a great deal of restraint for now, but if the US persists in this trade war, China is ready to fight to the end.

Washington will eventually see what they have lost, thanks to their actions, and it will only serve to embarrass the US. This trade war will serve as a good example to the US that it cannot use intimidating trade tariffs as a form of diplomacy.

Before China announced its recent retaliatory tariffs on US products, Washington enjoyed crushing and threatening other countries on trade sanctions. Now, as China deploys its counterattack, the pleasure that the US achieved from those tariffs will now cause them suffering as their financial and political gains diminish to zero.

If a trade war does happen, China has contingency plans to help its economy avoid a slump.

And, in a dramatic break with precedent, China warned it could even take steps to weaken the US dollar, something that, if history is any guide, should be a concern to the Treasury market as it would suggest that China may be thinking of liquidating its Treasurys .

Many believe that the Trump administration’s $50 billion tariff on Chinese products is meant to pressure China to submit to the US demands. If that is the case, the US will undoubtedly lose. This is because the Chinese government has rallied its citizens and is prepared to go toe-to-toe in its fight with Washington. In fact, more and more Chinese citizens think that an “epic trade war’ is inevitable, and could knock some common sense into the US government, so that it will change its way of dealing with China.

If the trade war happens, China will show that it has just as many reserve plans as the US, if not more. Chinese experts suggest that China could even take actions to weaken the strength of its currency. Since China is the world’s largest trading economy and the largest buyer of commodities like oil products, China could use its influence to push its own currency, RMB, in global markets to reduce the dominance of the US dollar. That would be a heavy blow to Washington.

If this trade war comes to pass, it will be an evenly matched total war between China and the US economies, and not some small scuffle. It would be delusional for the US to think it will be victorious at the end of this trade war. China comes up with the conclusion in confidence, and will not shy away from letting Washington know in this situation.

And while taking overt steps to weaken a currency would violate a G-20 communique agreeing to avoid currency wars through competitive devaluations, we doubt that would stop Beijing should Trump push it too far.

Meanwhile, a greater – and more likely – risk than a Treasury dump by Beijing is another devaluation: after all the Yuan is already back to where it was in the days just before the Yuan’s 2016 deval. Fears about an impending yuan devaluation akin to the drop that unleashed turbulence across global markets back in August 2015 have historically had a negative impact. Traders will remember 2016, when markets got off to one of their worst early performances in decades as continued daily, if less acute, Yuan devaluations hurt stocks.

While this warning appears to have been largely overlooked by markets, it’s definitely something to keep in mind.

Money pumping works — until it doesn’t

According to most economic experts, when an economy falls into a recession the central bank can pull it out of the slump by means of money pumping. This way of thinking implies that money pumping can somehow grow the economy. Indeed US historical evidence supposedly does show that easy money policy seems to work. For instance on average between 1970 and 2018 it took about 11 months before increases in money supply were followed by increases in the growth rate of industrial production.1

The question is how is this possible? After all if money printing can grow the economy then why don’t we print plenty of it to generate massive economic growth? By doing that, central banks could have created an everlasting prosperity for every individual on the planet.

For most commentators the arrival of a recession is due to unexpected events such as shocks that push the economy away from a trajectory of stable economic growth. Shocks weaken the economy, i.e., cause lower economic growth, so it is held.

A likely explanation lies in the fact that as a rule, a recession emerges in response to a decline in the growth rate of the money supply. Usually this takes place in response to a tighter stance of the central bank. Various activities that sprang up on the back of the previous strong money growth rate (usually as a result of loose central bank monetary policy) come under pressure.

These activities cannot support themselves — they survive because of the support that the increase in money supply provides. The increase in money diverts to them real wealth from wealth generating activities. Consequently, this weakens these activities, i.e., wealth-generating activities.

A tighter stance and a consequent fall in the growth rate of money undermines various nonproductive activities and this is what recession is all about. Given that, nonproductive activities cannot support themselves since they are not profitable, once the growth rate of money supply declines, these activities begin to deteriorate. (A fall in the money growth rate means that nonproductive activities access to various resources is curtailed.)

Recession then is not about a weakening in economic activity as such but about the liquidations of various nonproductive activities that sprang up on the back of an increase in money supply.

Why the GDP Framework Presents a Misleading Picture

Economic growth is presented by government statisticians in terms of monetary expenditure data such as gross domestic product (GDP) and industrial production. These indicators are designed along the line of thinking that spending equates with income — hence more spending leads to a higher national income and in turn to a higher economic growth.

On this logic, a tighter monetary stance by the Fed leads to a slower economic growth whilst increases in the money pumping produce higher economic growth. (A stronger growth rate of money supply leads to a stronger pace of expenditure.) In the GDP framework this leads to an increase in overall income in the economy and hence to a higher GDP growth rate.

We suggest that in reality the exact opposite actually takes place — printing more money weakens wealth generators’ ability to grow the economy while a decline in the money supply growth rate strengthens their ability to grow the economy. (Note that an increase in the money supply results in an exchange of nothing for something.)

Once the central bank raises the pace of money pumping in order to lift the economy from a recession this arrests the demise of various nonproductive activities. It also gives rise to new nonproductive activities.

The outcome of so-called economic growth in this case is nothing more than a strengthening of wealth-consumers at the expense of wealth-generators. All this undermines the process of wealth generation and weakens the true economic growth.

Real Wealth Funds Economic Activity

Irrespective whether an activity is productive or nonproductive, at any point in time the number and the size of all activities that can be undertaken is determined by the available amount of real wealth. From this, we can infer that the overall rate of increase in productive and nonproductive activities as a whole is set by the rate of expansion in the pool of real wealth.

Observe that this runs contrary to the GDP framework where the pace of monetary expenditure, i.e., money pumping sets the so-called economic growth. This however does not make much sense.

After all, individuals, whether in productive or nonproductive activities, must have access to real wealth in order to sustain their life and well-being. Note that money cannot sustain individuals, it can only fulfill the role of the medium of exchange.

According to Rothbard,

Money, per se, cannot be consumed and cannot be used directly as a producers’ good in the productive process. Money per se is therefore unproductive; it is dead stock and produces nothing.

As long as wealth producers can generate enough real wealth to support productive and nonproductive activities, easy monetary policies will appear to be successful. (Equivalently, loose fiscal policies are similar to money policy since they also impoverish wealth generators.)

Over time, a situation may emerge where there are not enough wealth generators left due to the persistent loose monetary and fiscal policies. (Wealth generators have been badly damaged by these repeated loose policies over time.) The implication of this is that the real wealth being generated may not be sufficient to support an increase in economic activity. Once this happens, the illusion of loose monetary policy is shattered — real economic growth must come under pressure.

The government’s attempt to boost the growth rate of GDP by raising its own expenditure is also going to fail if the supply of real wealth is dwindling. After all government activities also require real wealth. (Remember every activity irrespective of whether it is productive or nonproductive — must be funded). If the government were to persist with its aggressive stance, this will only make things much worse. (It will deprive funding from wealth generating activities.)

Likewise, if the Fed were to accelerate its monetary pumping while the pool of real wealth is declining this runs the risk of severely damaging further the pool of real wealth. Those commentators who subscribe to the view that the acceleration of money pumping here could fix things hold that something can be created out of nothing.

From this, we can deduce that there is no such thing as stimulatory policies that can grow the economy. Neither the Fed nor the government can grow the economy. All that stimulatory policies can do is to redistribute real wealth from wealth producers to nonproductive activities. These policies encourage consumption not supported by the wealth generating production.

Conclusions

So-called economic growth in response to loose policy simply mirrors the monetary expenditure growth rate and not true real economic growth. Since economic indicators such as GDP and industrial production reflect monetary expenditure, hence the more money pumped by the Fed, the larger the so-called economic growth is going to be. Over time however, a situation can emerge where there are not enough wealth generators left due to persistent loose monetary and fiscal policies which erodes their ability to generate real wealth. Consequently, the real wealth that is generated may not be large enough to support an increase in economic activity. In this situation neither loose monetary policy nor loose fiscal policy can “work.”

Via Mises Institute

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Featured Image: Tax Credits/Flickr

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US to file WTO suit against China for trade law violations

Update (10:30 am ET): US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said late Thursday morning that he sees Brazil, Argentina and the EU to be added to the list of exemptions to steel and aluminum tariffs.

* * *

Yesterday, a flurry of media reports pertaining to the size of anti-China tariffs, and the timing of their announcement, suggested that the Trump team was still working to iron out the details. But with less than five hours to go until Trump’s 12:30 ET announcement, the Wall Street Journal quietly reported Thursday morning that the US is also expected to announce a lawsuit against China at the World Trade Organization for trade law violations. The tariffs would be assessed separately without going to the WTO.

The aggressive move comes a day after the WTO said on Wednesday that the US “did not fully comply with a 2014 ruling against its anti-subsidy tariffs on a range of Chinese products.” Indeed, the WTO has ruled against the US and US companies several times in recent years. That was the perceived advantage of pursuing actions under Section 301 of the US Trade Act: It would allow the Trump administration to effectively circumvent the WTO.

The U.S. is also expected to announce it would sue China at the World Trade Organization for trade law violations. The tariffs would be assessed separately without going to the WTO.

Trump officials had earlier said that the tariffs would apply to about $30 billion in Chinese imports. An accompanying report on Chinese trade practices is expected to estimate that the harm to the U.S. from improper technology transfer to Chinese firms is $30 billion annually. Beijing improperly forces U.S. firms to transfer their technology to Chinese joint venture partners as a requirement to do business in that nation, the U.S. trade officials allege.

It’s not clear why the administration appears to have settled on a larger number. On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the U.S. was using a computer algorithm it developed to decide which products to target. The U.S. is looking to restrict imports of goods that would harm Beijing, but cause relatively little harm to U.S. consumers and companies.

Trump has said that the tariffs would apply to a list of 100 products, primarily technology exports.

Meanwhile, reports surfaced Thursday that the US would be seeking a dialogue with the European Union about tariffs as Trump insists that the US would never again tolerate unfair trade practices.

For years, China has demanded US companies turn over invaluable source code and other intellectual property as a price of admission to the Chinese market. China has also vowed to retaliate.

Thursday’s announcement will be the culmination of an investigation that Trump ordered in August.

* * *

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross revealed Thursday morning that the US is “processing” between 100 and 200 applications for exemptions to the aluminum and steel tariffs recently adopted by the US. Already, Canada, Mexico and Australia have been granted exemptions.

At this rate, it looks like the US could grant exemptions to everybody but China. Which, of course, is the whole point: To harden the rest of the world against China as the US struggles to defend its hegemonic dominance of global markets against the challenger that poses the greatest threat.

Via Zero Hedge

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Featured Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

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Here It Comes: China About To Launch “Tens Of Billions” More In Tariffs

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

This morning the market has been on edge over, and traders are obsessed with just one question: how will China retaliate to Trump’s trade war and tariffs… further. After all, the initial response of a modest 15-25% tariff on $3 billion in 128, mostly agricultural, products, seemed laughably small and appeared to be more of a warning shot than a real response to Trump’s $50BN in Section 301 tariffs.

One answer was revealed moments ago when as we reported that China’s ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai did not rule out the possibility of scaling back purchases of Treasuries in response to Trump’s tariffs.

“We are looking at all options,” he said, when asked whether China would consider reduced purchases of Treasuries. “That’s why we believe any unilateral and protectionist move would hurt everybody, including the United States itself. It would certainly hurt the daily life of American middle-class people, and the American companies, and the financial markets.”

But the more likely reaction is that China will simply escalate with a “brute force” tit-for-tat retaliation, and as Citi notes, the editor-in-chief of the state-controlled Chinese newspaper Global Times, Hu Xijin, confirmed precisely that when he tweeted: “I learned that Chinese govt is determined to strike back.”

More importantly, he explained the confusion over the “disproportionate” $3 billion response, noting that “Friday’s plan to impose $3b tariffs is simply to retaliate to tariffs on steel and aluminum products”, i.e. a response to the previous, Section 232 round of tariffs, and has nothing to do with the latest round of $50 billion in Section 301 tariffs.

Instead, Hu warns that “China’s retaliation lists against the 301 investigation will target US products worth $ tens of billions. It is in the making.”

I learned that Chinese govt is determined to strike back. Friday"s plan to impose $3b tariffs is to retaliate tariffs on steel and aluminum products. China"s retaliation lists against the 301 investigation will target US products worth $ tens of billions. It is in the making.

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) March 23, 2018

Or, in other words, China’s real retaliation – one which is guaranteed to infuriate Trump with its proportionality and lead to further tit-for-tat responses – is about to hit.

As a reminder, here is a list of the main US exports to China, which – if this warning is accurate – are about to be crushed.

Here Are The Full Details Of The “Negotiable” Tariffs Trump Will Enact

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

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.

The tariffs will come into force within 15 days and are expected to draw retaliation from the EU and other steel producers and heighten fears of a descent into a trade war.

Here are the highlights from Reuters:

• TRUMP TO ANNOUNCE ON THURSDAY IMPORT TARIFFS OF 25 PCT ON STEEL, 10 PCT ON ALUMINUM STARTING IN 15 DAYS -SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL


• U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS CANADA AND MEXICO TO BE EXEMPTED FROM TARIFFS FOR UNDETERMINED PERIOD; CONTINUATION OF EXEMPTION DEPENDS IN PART ON PROGRESS IN NAFTA TALKS


• TRUMP’S TARIFF PROCLAMATIONS TO INCLUDE PROVISION TO CONSIDER ‘ALTERNATIVE WAYS’ TO ADDRESS THREAT TO U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY CAUSED BY OTHER NATIONS’ STEEL, ALUMINUM EXPORTS -OFFICIAL –


• U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE LIGHTHIZER TO HANDLE DISCUSSIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES ON ALTERNATIVE REMEDIES TO ‘FLEXIBLY MODIFY’ TARIFF PROCLAMATIONS -OFFICIAL


• MAY HAVE TO RAISE TARIFFS ON OTHER COUNTRIES IF CANADA, MEXICO EXCLUDED; CAPACITY USE TARGETS MUST BE MAINTAINED -OFFICIAL


• TRUMP OFFICIAL DECLINED TO SPECIFY ALTERNATIVES THAT OTHER COUNTRIES COULD SEEK TO AVOID STEEL, ALUMINUM TARIFFS

And the details, from Bloomberg:

Steel tariff to be set at 25%, aluminum at 10%

• Beyond that, proclamations almost identical


• To take effect in 15 days


• Official says may have to raise tariffs modestly on everyone else if Canada, Mexico excluded long-term; adds document flexible enough to allow that

On exclusions:

• Canada, Mexico will be specifically exempted from both tariffs initially
  
  
  
  • Trump has linked the exemptions to Nafta talks ongoing; exemption isn’t open-ended, official says
  
  
  
  


• For other countries, will have ability to modify order owing to national security
  
  
  
  • European countries and others could be able to request exclusion
  
  
  
  

On economic impact:

• White House official says there will be no significant downstream price effects, and thus no significant downstream job effects
  
  
  
  • 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
  
  
  
  


• Only job effects White House sees are positive ones in U.S. steel, aluminum industries: official


• Says process extremely, carefully well vetted

In short, tariffs but with notable exemptions, which begs the question: why did Gary Cohn quit again?

Trump Trade Wars A Perfect Smokescreen For A Market Crash

This article was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com

First, I would like to say that the timing of Donald Trump’s announcement on expansive trade tariffs is unusual if not impeccable. I say this only IF Trump’s plan was to benefit establishment globalists by giving them perfect cover for their continued demolition of the market bubbles that they have engineered since the crash of 2008.

If this was not his plan, then I am a bit bewildered by what he hopes to accomplish. It is certainly not the end of trade deficits and the return of American industry. But let’s explore the situation for a moment…

Trump is in my view a modern day Herbert Hoover. One of Hoover’s first actions as president in response to the crash of 1929 was to support increased tax cuts, primarily for corporations (this was then followed in 1932 by extensive tax increases in the midst of the depression, so let’s see what Trump does in the next couple of years).  Then, he instituted tariffs through the Smoot-Hawley Act. His hyperfocus on massive infrastructure spending resulted in U.S. debt expansion and did nothing to dig the U.S. out of its unemployment abyss. In fact, infrastructure projects like the Hoover Dam, which were launched in 1931, were not paid off for over 50 years. Hoover oversaw the beginning of the Great Depression and ended up as a single-term Republican president who paved the way socially for Franklin D. Roosevelt, an essential communist and perhaps the worst president in American history.

This is not to say Hoover was responsible for the Great Depression. That distinction goes to the Federal Reserve, which had artificially lowered interest rates and then suddenly raised them going into the economic downturn causing an aggressive bubble implosion (just like the central bank is doing right now). But Hoover did actually aid the Fed in their undermining of economic stability by pursuing policies which were poorly timed.

I’m hitting readers with all of this because I am growing rather tired of the contingent of Trump apologists in the liberty movement scrambling to defend every single Trump action no matter how illogical. These people should know better. Sorry, but Trump is not “playing 4D chess” against the globalists. His primary actions have only served so far to create a useful distraction away from the globalists.

The disturbing key to all of this is the fact that many of Trump’s policies are things that I and many others have argued for in the past. The problem is, he is implementing them out of order and with bad timing, which will only make such policies appear destructive in the end, rather than constructive.

In terms of the implementation of tariffs, the people who are defending this action at this time do not seem to understand the basics of international trade. Tariffs can only be enacted from a position of economic strength and resource development. This strength comes from internal self-sufficiency in production; meaning, in order for the U.S. to force a trade balance (which is what tariffs are supposed to do) the U.S. must have a strong industrial base and MUST be capable of producing most if not all necessary goods and goods in broad demand.

The fact is, U.S. manufacturing has been utterly outsourced by the very corporations Trump just gave a 10% tax cut to, and rebuilding that industrial base would take decades. Why? Because there are no incentives for corporations to bring manufacturing back.

As I already stated, Trump is instituting potentially solid policies but he is doing so out of order. Tax cuts for corporations should have been enacted only as an incentive for manufacturing jobs to be returned to America. Instead, corporations got tax cuts for absolutely nothing. And will those tax cuts go towards more jobs or innovation? Nope. They will be going to pay off unprecedented corporate debts, and stock buybacks, most of which were accrued through borrowing from the Federal Reserve.

Will this stock buyback bonanza even generate new highs in the Dow? Probably not. But I’ll explain why that is later.

If Trump had given tax incentives for corporations to bring manufacturing back into the U.S., and then given those corporations a few years to make the shift, only then would tariffs have been an effective action. But as the situation stands now, we have minimal tangible production in this country, and, historic debts held by the same overseas competitors that Trump is now seeking to “teach a lesson.”

Debt is the next issue which needs to be addressed before tariffs can ever be implemented in a practical way. In terms of national debt, rather than setting up a plan to reduce U.S. debt expenditures, Trump is increasing debt by reducing taxes while at the same time increasing spending. Trump did not take a hard stand on the debt ceiling debate as he originally claimed he would, and so, the debt train continues unabated.

Who is going to purchase this debt, I wonder? Over the past several years the largest buyer of U.S. treasury debt was the Federal Reserve through fiat money creation. Now, the Fed has tapered quantitative easing and is dumping their balance sheet at a rate faster than anyone expected. The Fed is pulling the plug on its artificial support of the economy.

The next largest buyers are major foreign central banks in countries like China, Japan and to some extent the supranational EU. If the debt buyers of last resort are now the very same countries Trump is seeking to enact tariffs over, how do you think this little theater will end? Yes, with a dump of U.S. treasury bonds and perhaps the dollar as world reserve by those nations.

But what about the U.S. consumer? Isn’t the consumer market in America so enticing that nations like China would “never dare” dump U.S. debt or the dollar? No, not really. If we are talking about a trade “war,” then a country like China, which has a vast manufacturing base and which has also been building up its own domestic consumer market, would be willing to make the sacrifice. America would be hurt far more by the threat of debt default and the loss of the dollar’s international buying power than China ever would be by the loss of American consumers. With tariffs being implemented, they may lose the American consumer anyway.

Our retail market is hardly as appetizing as it was 10 years ago given the decade of drudgery Americans have endured, with the largest number ever of working age citizens no longer participating in the jobs market, as well as real worker wages in continued decline while the American consumer is now more indebted than at any other time in history.

All of these negative effects are weighing down our economy while the Federal Reserve is quickly deflating the fraudulent markets that the establishment used during the Obama administration to argue that America was “in recovery.” Of course, alternative economists have known since the beginning that this was a lie, and that the only thing propping up the economy and stock markets was central bank manipulation.

The Fed under Jerome Powell has made it crystal clear that they WILL be raising interest rates and cutting the Fed balance sheet, perhaps more than their dot plots had indicated in the past. Without low rates and a steadily rising balance sheet we have already seen the results. Stocks in particular have gone crazy compared to the past few years, dumping nearly 10% one week, spiking about half that the next week. One thing is certain, the supposedly endless bull market induced by the Fed years ago is now over. Stocks are in heart attack mode.

It is no coincidence that the first two times the Fed reduced its balance sheet the Dow plunged over 1,000 points. The latest dump of $23 billion at the end of February resulted in a drop of around 1,500 points. It is too early in this process to know what the trend will be, but it seems to me that stocks are being steam valved down every month. With a marked decline just after a balance sheet dump, followed by a less impressive dead cat bounce the week after.

In the meantime, Trump’s “trade war” is now being blamed in the mainstream for the decline in stocks that the Fed is actually responsible for. As I have always said, Trump is the ideal scapegoat for the inevitable economic crisis the central bankers have staged. Trump’s tariffs might exacerbate the problem, just as Hoover’s policies did in the beginning of the Great Depression, but the blame rests squarely on the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world. Will the average person understand this dynamic once the dust settles on our financial system? Probably not.

So, to summarize, while Trump has indeed set in motion policies that conservatives in general tend to approve of, he has done so in an impractical way that will ultimately be blamed for a market crash the Fed created. If conservative ideals such as limited government and sovereign trade protection get the blame for an unprecedented economic crisis then this could sabotage conservatism for generations to come. If elections are still even a factor as this crisis unfolds, the chances of the public accepting a socialistic nightmare regime after Trump exits the White House are high. And, the banking elites that conjured the whole mess will escape once again without any punishment.

The question we must ask is this – Is Trump aware that his policies are creating a perfect distraction for those same banking elites? I believe we will know for certain the answer to that before 2018 is over.

***

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You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com

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Trump Trade Wars A Perfect Smokescreen For A Market Crash

By Brandon Smith

First, I would like to say that the timing of Donald Trump’s announcement on expansive trade tariffs is unusual if not impeccable. I say this only IF Trump’s plan was to benefit establishment globalists by giving them perfect cover for their continued demolition of the market bubbles that they have engineered since the crash of 2008.

If this was not his plan, then I am a bit bewildered by what he hopes to accomplish. It is certainly not the end of trade deficits and the return of American industry. But let’s explore the situation for a moment…

Trump is in my view a modern day Herbert Hoover. One of Hoover’s first actions as president in response to the crash of 1929 was to support increased tax cuts, primarily for corporations (this was then followed in 1932 by extensive tax increases in the midst of the depression, so let’s see what Trump does in the next couple of years).  Then, he instituted tariffs through the Smoot-Hawley Act.  His hyperfocus on massive infrastructure spending resulted in U.S. debt expansion and did nothing to dig the U.S. out of its unemployment abyss. In fact, infrastructure projects like the Hoover Dam, which were launched in 1931, were not paid off for over 50 years. Hoover oversaw the beginning of the Great Depression and ended up as a single-term Republican president who paved the way socially for Franklin D. Roosevelt, an essential communist and perhaps the worst president in American history.

This is not to say Hoover was responsible for the Great Depression.  That distinction goes to the Federal Reserve, which had artificially lowered interest rates and then suddenly raised them going into the economic downturn causing an aggressive bubble implosion (just like the central bank is doing right now).  But Hoover did actually aid the Fed in their undermining of economic stability by pursuing policies which were poorly timed.

I’m hitting readers with all of this because I am growing rather tired of the contingent of Trump apologists in the liberty movement scrambling to defend every single Trump action no matter how illogical. These people should know better.  Sorry, but Trump is not “playing 4D chess” against the globalists.  His primary actions have only served so far to create a useful distraction away from the globalists.

The disturbing key to all of this is the fact that many of Trump’s policies are things that I and many others have argued for in the past. The problem is, he is implementing them out of order and with bad timing, which will only make such policies appear destructive in the end, rather than constructive.

In terms of the implementation of tariffs, the people who are defending this action at this time do not seem to understand the basics of international trade. Tariffs can only be enacted from a position of economic strength and resource development. This strength comes from internal self-sufficiency in production; meaning, in order for the U.S. to force a trade balance (which is what tariffs are supposed to do) the U.S. must have a strong industrial base and MUST be capable of producing most if not all necessary goods and goods in broad demand.

The fact is, U.S. manufacturing has been utterly outsourced by the very corporations Trump just gave a 10% tax cut to, and rebuilding that industrial base would take decades. Why? Because there are no incentives for corporations to bring manufacturing back.

As I already stated, Trump is instituting potentially solid policies but he is doing so out of order. Tax cuts for corporations should have been enacted only as an incentive for manufacturing jobs to be returned to America. Instead, corporations got tax cuts for absolutely nothing. And will those tax cuts go towards more jobs or innovation? Nope. They will be going to pay off unprecedented corporate debts, and stock buybacks, most of which were accrued through borrowing from the Federal Reserve.

Selco: The Reality of Barter and Trade in a SHTF Economy

This article was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper

Barter is a hot topic in prepper circles, so I thought we should ask someone who has a lot of real-world experience with trade in a dangerous situation.

If you don’t know Selco, he survived a year in Bosnia when his city was blockaded. Supplies were not allowed in or out, and residents were left without utilities and services. This interview is in his own words.

How quickly did people turn to barter once your city was locked down?

It was a matter of a few weeks.

Actually, for ordinary folks, it was a matter of few weeks because we did not get the new reality right at the beginning of everything.

Later when I remembered that period, I realized that even right at the beginning of SHTF there were people who did not want to take money for goods. They asked for valuables like gold, jewelry, or weapon for goods that they had.

Some of them were smart enough to realize that money was gonna become worthless really soon, and even gold and jewelry were only good in the first period, and then only if you had a connection to outside world to exchange it for something useful.

Ordinary folks needed few weeks. It was a process that went from buying goods with money, then buying goods from people who still wanted to take money (at outrages prices) to the moment when money was worthless, and only goods for goods were accepted.

It was rare, but sometimes you could find someone who would sell you something for foreign money but at the 20-50 times bigger prices.

For example if pack of cigarettes cost around 1,50 German Mark (outside of the war region) we could buy that pack for 40 German Marks.

US dollar and Canadian dollar had even worse value.

Obviously, people would accept that money had connection to the outside world, and some of them ended up as millionaires because of that.

Same ratio was for precious metals and jewelery.

For small and quick trades, the usual currency were cigarettes, because of the percentage of people that smoked.

Even values were expressed often like “Oh, that’s worth 10 cigarettes.” In other situations it was ammunition-bullets.

How were trade items valued? If someone wanted to make a trade, who set the terms?

Nothing was fixed.

Through the whole period, the value of goods went up and down based on a lot of things.

For example if a UN food convoy managed to enter the city and some local warlord (usually) took it all, and the majority of the food was cans of fish, you could count on the fact that that month those types of cans gonna be cheaper then the month before. Or if that day’s US airplanes managed to “hit“ with airdrops in our area then MREs were going to be bit cheaper to find.

Sometimes a simple rumor (planted by rival groups) for example about “poisoned“ cans of cookies meant that people did not valued it so highly anymore.

Some things did not change value too much during the whole period, like alcohol, simply because it was available.

Other things’ value was a matter of the situation.

For example, if you had a sick kid at home, and you needed antibiotic and you spread that word, you could expect high price simply because you give that information that you need something really hard and fast.

But usually, we knew the value of things (goods) for that week for example, at least approximately.

What were the general rules of trade during this time?

The value of things and trading “rules on the ground“ were similar to trade rules at normal life flea markets.

A few of those “rules on the ground“ during the trade were:

1. If YOU need something then the price is going up. (Do not look like you desperately need something.)


2. Do not offer all that you got in “one hand“ or on one try. (Do not go to trade with your best shots all together, it looks desperate, and you are losing all the advantage then.)


3. Do not ever give a reason for someone to take the risk of attacking you because you have way too cool stuff (or way too much stuff) with you. (Have some amount of food, or ammo, or whatever, do another trade at another time with more of that. Remember people will take chances if they calculate it is a risk worth taking.)


4. Never give info how much of the goods you actually have at home. ( The reason is same as above.)


5. Never do trade at your home (unless you trust the person 100%) because you never know to who you are giving valuable information about how much you have, what your home look like, how many people are there (defense) etc.


6. Doing the trade in other trader s home might mean that you are at his “playground“ (or he is stupid) so you are losing the edge. You are risking of being on unknown terrain. Always try to choose neutral ground somewhere that you can control the situation, giving the opponent the chance to feel safe. (But not safer than you).

It is most important that you understand when SHTF (for real) system is out, and only thing that protect you from losing everything is you.

Trade is gonna be a matter of carefully planning. It starts with information about who has something that you need, then checking that information, and rechecking, and then sending information to him that you want to trade, then setting the terms about the place and number of people where you’re gonna do the trade.

Usually, there was a rumor or information about who was safe to trade with. There was information about people who like to scam other people during the trade. If you did a good and fair trade with a man you could “save him“ as a safe trader (to some extent) for future trade.

Everything else is matter of trust and skills.

Maybe, just maybe, if you are living in some nice small town there is gonna be something like a market, where people freely gonna exchange their goods between each other.

I never saw anything like that because it needs some kind of system to back it.

Trade when SHTF is a high-risk situation simply because it is about resources, and there is no law, no system.

Are skills or products more valuable?

In the long run, skills were more valuable, simply because you can not “spend“ your skills.

If you had medical skills you could expect that people over the time (through the word on the street) will hear that, and that you simply will have opportunities to get something for that skill.

I pointed out in an earlier article that when a serious collapse happens, things fall apart around you fiscally, there are no services, so skills for “repairing“ were valuable, and so were technical skills.

Medicines were substituted with home (natural) remedies so knowing that stuff was valuable, making simple cloth pieces was good, and repairing weapons. I knew people who did good because they made very basic cigar holders from wood and empty bullet shell simply because people smoked bad tobbaco hand rolled in paper.

Skills that made the new reality easier.

Skills were also more safe to trade simply because by attacking and killing you, the attacker cannot take away your skills from you.

What were the top physical items for barter? Do you recommend that people stock up on things specifically for barter? If so, what kinds of things?

In my case those were MREs, meat cans, alcohol, batteries, candles, cigarettes, weapons and ammo, drugs, and medicines… but if we are talking about the future, preparing, some things need to be mentioned.

There are lists about “100 things to store for SHTF“, and while they are good lists, they may be completely different from “100 things to trade when SHTF.”

Obviously when SHTF you will miss everything, because the “trucks are stopped“ and there are no stores and normal buying.

The basics that you need to cover are something that every prepper already knows: food, defense, water, shelter, fire, medicine, and communication.

Out of these essentials, you go in deeper. Like under medicine you’ll have antibiotics but also some knowledge about natural remedies. Under food, you’ll have cans but also some way to produce food like seeds or hunting or whatever.

If you are PLANNING to store things for trade then you need to have a strategy for that.

Let’s say you are storing huge amounts of food for you and your family for SHTF but you are also planning to trade that food for other items when SHTF.

Some advice for people who are counting to store things for trade are:

1. Store things of everyday use, nothing too fancy. For example store rice or pasta (if that food is common in your region), lighters, batteries, or candles.


2. Store small things, or in small packages, stuff that is gonna be easy to carry hidden on you, in your jacket, for example, lighters, spices, cigarettes, quick soups… not cannister of fuel, bags of wheat. I am not saying not to store fuel. I am saying it is much better to carry 20 AA batteries to trade then a 20-liter canister of fuel especially because value might be similar. Remember, do not give reason to anyone to take the risk of attacking you because you have something.


3. Think about things that are cheap today, may have multipurpose uses when SHTF, and do not take too much space to store (alcohol pads or condoms for example).


4. Think about things that you can “sell but keep“. For example, a solar panel with a setup for charging batteries for people. You are selling charging of batteries to people.


5. NEVER be the “big trader“ or the person who has a lot of interesting stuff. Be the small person who is gonna offer good things through the network of a few people. Being big trader means attracting too much attention with too many cool things that you have. Hide your trading activities through a network of other traders.


6. Understand today’s value and the value when SHTF. Think about the small things that save lives, antibiotics, anti-tetanus shots, povidone pads [iodine]. For example, candles are really cheap today but will be rare when SHTF.


7. Do not underestimate things that are people addicted to, no matter what you think about it. Cigarettes, alcohol, or coffee (or whatever is case in your region) – the value will go way up.


8. “Store“ skills and knowledge. It is best investment. Learn skills that are gonna be valuable like gardening, shoe repairing, clothes making. Maybe you can be the person who has knowledge about natural remedies.

Should you have precious metals as a means for buying goods when the SHTF?

Through human history, gold and silver were valuable. They were used for getting goods in all times, including hardest times like wars and similar.

Having precious metal for SHTF is big in the prepping community but I need to point out some things.

The value of gold went down during SHTF so much that you need to think about it very hard.

For example, in normal times (I am using these numbers as an example) you could buy with one gold ring 300 small cans of meat. When SHTF you could buy 20, and you could buy 20 if you could find a man who wanted to take that ring from you.

He did not usually want to take it because he could take stuff that he could immediately use, like weapons, drugs, or medicines.

He simply could not do anything immediately useful with it.

Having precious metals is a great idea for later, when some kind of system jumps in, because they are gonna be again precious.

Right in the middle of SHTF, the value of it is poor.

That is one of the reasons why some local warlords came out as very powerful people after everything. They simply took precious metal from folks for a “can of the soup“ value (or sometimes for nothing) and they had enough power to store that metal for the time when it would be valuable again.

Do not throw everything into precious metals. Store immediately useful things.

What were the top skills?

It was simple: skills that you might use to kill people or to heal them.

So fighting, security, medical skills, knowing herbal remedies, repairing a weapon, making a new one.

Right after those skills were skills about food.

Knowing what kind of herbs around us you could eat, or even knowing what kind of tree bark you could eat maybe, how to make some plants edible mixed with other ingredients, how to repair clothes and things in your home.

Were there markets for bartering or did people mostly do this in private?

In one period of time there was something like a market, but it was strictly under control of local warlord, so it was not smart to go there since you really could not know what to expect.

Almost all the trades were made in private arrangments after you got information about someone who had something that he wants to trade.

The best situation was if you knew that person prior the war so you had already built trust from before.

Scams were usual, attacks during the trade happened too, especially if the value of goods was high.

If you need to trade for something, do that in advance. In other words, do not wait to be completely without food and then go to look for food through the trade, because you are under pressure, you are desperate. It is not a good setup for trade.

How did you remain safe when trading goods and services? What were the risks?

The basic rule is not to go alone to trade.

The reasons are very simple because you have resources with you for trade, you are possible target so you need more security – more people.

The trade place usually needed to be checked for possible ambush or scam setup. You needed people for that.

You needed a guard during the trade, someone to check up things during your negotiation with the other trader, someone who was going to watch for things.

The ideal number of people was 3.

The risks are scams (bad goods) or an attack.

You could lower that risk by trading with known people or simply by showing enough force so that they understand it is not worth the risk.

Scams were avoided by checking goods of course. If you are buying batteries you need to check them all. You need to taste coffee – is it mixed with old coffee that was used and dried? Cigarettes packs were carefully opened and 1-2 cigarettes could be missing and the pack glued again.

It was like a chess game. 

What are some myths about barter that most people think are the truth?

Trade is probably the survival topic with largest number of myths.

It is partly because we like to think that somehow the world will collapse but the majority of people will live by the rules from normal times, and partly because we are influenced by movies, shows, and fiction books. 

“When SHTF people simply get all together and help each other, and that goes for trade too.“

No, actually when times get really hard people jump into survival mode, or perish.

For you it may mean that you ‘l be nice, and do only good things, for another, it may mean that he will do whatever it takes so he and his family survive.

That may include killing you over 3 MREs during the trade.

“When SHTF I will thrive because I stored a lot of things for trade, and I will simply be the biggest trader.“ 

It is possible. People did that and survived. And even got rich after everything was over.

But they had gangs around them, enough manpower to protect the goods, the control to not be overrun, and they were ruthless.

Most probably, you are an ordinary person who just wants to survive SHTF. You do not have 100 armed people with you. You just need to be small and careful.

You are not a warlord.

“When it comes to trade it is all about weapon and force.“

Actually, it is not.

It is about the correct mindset to decide what makes sense in that moment and what you really need (and what you do not). Weapons help a lot but do not solve the problem alone.

It is very similar to bargaining at a flea market with the possibility of violence.

Anything to add?

After years of being in the survival world, talking with other preppers and writing my articles I found out that a great number of people  think something like “I cannot wait to go to trade when SHTF!“

In reality, one of the points of careful preparing is to delay the moment when you need to go out and trade as long as you can.

Why?

Because you’re gonna need time to scan what is going on and who is who in the new collapsed world. You need to gather information about who is good and who is not, who is trusted and who is a scammer, what area is safe

If you need to go out on the 10th day in order to trade something maybe you are doing something wrong?

***

More information about Selco

Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution.

In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today.

He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months.

Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world.

Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/

And take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge and advice by signing up for the outstanding and unrivaled online course. More details here: https://shtfschool.com/survival-boot-camp/

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

America"s New "Trick" To Beat Black Friday Crowds: Wear Employee Uniforms

US shoppers’ lust for Black Friday bargains this year has reached absurd new levels, evidenced by a viral joke that morphed into a disturbing new trend to help shoppers beat Wal-Mart and other big box store crowds by disguising themselves as temporary holiday employees. It started when Twitter user @OverlyLiked announcing he would be selling his Walmart vest for $100.

“I’m selling this Walmart vest for $100,” he wrote. “Use it to skip the line during Black Friday. You can even walk in, grab what you want, and walk out."

I’m selling this Walmart vest for $100. Use it to skip the line during Black Friday. You can even walk in, grab what you want, and walk out????????‍??. pic.twitter.com/Q0UyDHUeU0

— 6"4 (@OverlyLiked) November 20, 2017

Although the tweet was reportedly meant as a joke, earning @OverlyLiked more than 30,000 retweets and almost 80,000 likes, it wasn’t long before he was being inundated with real requests to buy his shirt.

“The popularity of the tweet really did not surprise me… What shocked me was the news coverage of that,” @OverlyLiked told RT, explaining that apart from the bidders, he was also sought out by numerous media outlets covering the story.

Lol people really been trying to buy the Walmart vest. It was a joke i don’t even own a Walmart vest. pic.twitter.com/WFnhEAaNWZ

— 6"4 (@OverlyLiked) November 21, 2017

But @OverlyLiked’s disappointed would-be buyers didn’t need to wait long for other offers to materialize. It seems former and current Wal-Mart employees quickly caught on to the idea and began selling their own uniforms in earnest...

Going out for Black Friday?

Pick up this Walmart vest for $30!

Might be able to cut some lines. https://t.co/8P9MR1SPwz pic.twitter.com/vEsghCDX0K

— Fat Kid Deals (@FatKidDeals) November 21, 2017

Now I know them Walmart vest seemed like a good deal ,but I got these Best Buy joints going for $110 walk right in , skip the line , and take whatever you want !! pic.twitter.com/eVzML3RYbQ

— Teezy (@Jayteeezyyy) November 22, 2017

 

Walmart vest for sale ??80 dollars ..Walk right in ;Get what u want and walk right out on Black Friday ????????‍?? I"m willing to negotiate #FirstComeFirstServe pic.twitter.com/An9yHp275b

— benneth (@KennethRaw) November 20, 2017

 

While others went out looking for them,

If anyone works or has worked at Walmart and has an employee vest..please let me buy it. I’m tryna test something out black Friday.

— scythe (@FuckDae) November 22, 2017

Meanwhile, Walmart has apparently caught on to the hustle, and has asked its employees to “question” anyone they see wearing one of their vests, but whom they do not recognize.

this spread so fast that at the manager meeting today we were told that if we see anyone we don’t recognize on thursday/black friday wearing a walmart vest, to question them. ???????????????? https://t.co/IEA9CTFrkQ

— Emily Gould (@emg_emily) November 21, 2017

The American “Black Friday” tradition has intensified in recent years as big-box stores have sought to fend off the encroaching “Cyber Monday” when shoppers order all their items online - read Amazon - instead of trudging through massive crowds at Wal-Mart, Best Buy or any other retail mecca. Retailers typically open late Thursday evening, before the holiday has even ended, to offer massive bargains, prompting nationwide anarchy as dozens of stories and videos emerge of shoppers fighting one another for the cheapest deals on anything from blenders to widescreen TV’s to underwear. The insanity of Black Friday was perhaps encapsulated best by this meme that made the rounds a few years back:

 

Automation Nation: America"s Largest Employer "Secretly" Tests Self-Driving Floor-Scrubbers

Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon, America’s middle class must come to the realization that the country’s largest employer–Walmart is quietly testing an army of robots that soon will replace their jobs. The latest installment is an autonomous floor scrubber being tested at five store locations near the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The autonomous cleaning robot dubbed Emma, an A.I. navigated system capable of operating floor care equipment on nightshifts, is able to clean the entire store front without human interaction. San Diego-based startup Brain Corp., works with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop novel machine learning algorithms that focus on taking jobs from middle class Americans. BrainOS is the company’s flagship product that enables robots to “perceive their environments, control motion, and navigate using visual cues and landmarks, while seeing and avoiding people and obstacles”.

A Walmart spokesperson, Kory Lundberg, confirmed to Chip Cutter, Managing editor at LinkedIn, that Walmart was indeed testing the robotic scrubbers, but said it is still in a “proof of concept” phase.

“We’re always testing new ideas and new technology,” Lundberg said. “We still have a lot more to learn about how this technology will work best for our different retail locations.”

According to LinkedIn, here are more details documenting the ‘secret tests’ of robotic scrubbers at various Supercenters..

Multiple employees who work at the retailer’s 24-hour Supercenter in Pineville, Mo., about 20 minutes north of Walmart’s home office, confirmed the use of the device to me this week, saying it had been tested in their store for about a month this fall.

 

In a private Facebook group earlier this month, someone who claims to be a worker at the Pineville store shared a photo of the greyish vehicle making a turn near a display for $78 deer feeders. No one is seated in the driver’s seat, and two “caution, cleaning in progress” banners are shown on both sides of the device. An ICE logo is also affixed; Holland, Mich.-based International Cleaning Equipment, a Brain Corp. partner, manufactures the scrubbing equipment itself.  

In October, Walmart said it’s rolling out self-scanning robots in more than 50 U.S. stores to replenish inventory on shelves. The company is determined to automate the daily tasks of its workers, but said the bots would not lead to a drop in headcount.

With the retail apocalypse in full-swing, “retailers are looking for opportunities to automate processes and stop paying people,” said Richard A. Feinberg, a professor of consumer sciences and retailing at Purdue University, who forecasts automation could save retailers such as Walmart.

He also noted, “it changes the nature of the jobs; it may not mean fewer jobs, it may mean they can retrain the people to do things that are more useful for them, business wise,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it reduces headcount, but I don’t know.”

More importantly, a Walmart spokesperson said “the maintenance team is actually quite ‘excited’ to work with new technology.” What they don’t know is that their jobs will be obsolete in a few years after the 50 state rollout commences. All fun in games today until someone gets a pink slip.

As Fox News reports, Walmart is not the only company testing this technology..

According to Phil Duffy, VP of Innovation & Marketing for Brain Corporation, the company is currently working with approximately 50 malls and big box retailers across the U.S.

 

“We are also in airports, educational campuses, corporate campuses and industrial sites. In addition, we will be launching in Japan, through our partner, SoftBank Robotics, by summer 2018,” Duffy said.  

In a preview of what’s to come, Brain Corp., funded by DARPA is leading the charge through Walmart, America’s largest employer to automate low skill jobs. The middle class or what is left of them have many dark and difficult days ahead, as we expect this trend to gain momentum in the coming years.

Vital: The Real Dreamers are Elite Corporations

By Jon Rappoport

And the unknown trade deal that cost the US a hundred thousand jobs

This isn’t one of the big trade deals everybody knows about.

This one was launched during the glorious Obama years:

The (South) Korea Free Trade Agreement.

Signed, sealed, and delivered by Obama in 2011 with his assurance that it would create 70,000 American jobs.

His assurance was on the level of his promise that, under Obamacare, you would be able to choose your own doctor.

Four years later, in 2016, this was the outcome of the Globalist Korea Free Trade Agreement, as reported by Public Citizen:

“…the loss of more than 102,554 American jobs.”

Oops. Slight miscalculation.

“U.S. goods exports to Korea have dropped 10 percent, or $4.5 billion…”

Sorry about that.

“U.S. imports of goods from Korea have increased 18 percent, or $10.8 billion…”

Sorry about that, too.

How could this have happened? I’ll tell you how. It’s simple. Despite claims, these trade deals are written and calculated to torpedo economies. That’s what Globalists do.

Why?

Because an ultimate top-down takeover of populations is easier that way.

Here’s another example: NAFTA. Remember that trade treaty? It enabled, among other consequences, the export of very cheap corn—massive amounts—from the US to Mexico. Result? 1.5 million Mexican corn farmers were thrown out of business. Boom. Many of them decided to come across the border to the US.

Does that sound like an all-around economy-building scenario?

Globalism: the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

No more countries—only elite corporations in control, making markets wherever they can find them…

There’s just one problem. As these corporations and their Globalist leaders play economic game with countries and their people, the net effect is decreasing the number of customers who can afford to buy the corporations’ products.

You can’t just shift the beneficiaries of trade deals from one nation to another, in an unending shuffle and reshuffle of the deck. Sooner or later, you wind up with more sellers than buyers.

German Food Chain Faces Backlash After Airbrushing Crosses From Churches On Food Packaging

Europe’s war on religion has reached an absurd milestone.

According to the Telegraph, customers of budget supermarket Lidl have expressed outrage after the company airbrushed Christian symbols from packaging of its "Eridanous"-branded Greek-food line, which featured images of the Anastasis Church in Santorini, Greece, in order to remain "religiously neutral," as the company claimed.

“The German chain"s Greek food range features images of the famous Anastasis Church in Santorini, Greece, complete with its world-renowned blue dome roof."

Shoppers have taken to the company’s Facebook page to express their "disappointment" that the cross was photoshopped. One user, Daniel Novak, wrote: "I"m highly disappointed in a company that is bending over to cater to specific people. Why are you hiding from the history?”

"We are all to learn from history, removing it with Photoshop will cause the same mistakes of the past to be done over and over again."

One user demanded to know who the company thought it would be offending with the crosses.

“Steve West added: ‘Why have you taken the crosses off the top of Greek churches in your advertising?

‘Is there somebody you will think takes offence? There is. Me, Greeks and many others. I definitely won"t be using you again if you don"t reverse this policy.’”

Another asked why the company felt compelled to erase reality.

“And Daisy Matthews wrote: ‘Why are you erasing the reality from a photo?’

If there were products from Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, or Muslim countries with their symbols depicted on there I wouldn"t have a problem buying them.”

Still others said they felt discriminated against as Christians, and doubted that the company would treat an image of a mosque the same way.

“‘As a Christian I feel really hurt, discriminated against, upset and disappointed that you have done this, if it is the case I won"t be shopping at your store anymore.’

The "Eridanous" range features Greek delicacies such as olive oil, Moussaka, yogurt and gyros.”

In fact, customers have also pointed out that some of the packaging for Halal meats sold at Lidl appear to feature buildings with minarets, a piece of Islamic religious architecture. According to the Telegraph, the row has spread across Europe, with shoppers in Belgium and Germany criticizing the policy.

The company quickly apologized, but it did little to quiet customers’ anger.

"We have been selling our highly popular Eridanous own-label range in Lidl stores across Europe for over 10 years now, and in that time the design of the packaging has been through a number of updates.

"We are extremely sorry for any offence caused by the most recent artwork and would like to reassure our customers that this is not an intentional statement. In light of this we will ensure that all feedback is taken into consideration when redesigning future packaging."

But the Belgian arm of European TV and radio station RTL, which originally picked up the story after a reader who noticed the packaging wrote in, said it had been given a different statement.

Ironically, the company said it airbrushed the cross because it didn’t want to “exclude” customers of different faiths.

“‘We are avoiding the use of religious symbols because we do not wish to exclude any religious beliefs,’ it quoted a spokesman as saying.

‘We are a company that respects diversity and this is what explains the design of this packaging.’”

"Our intention has never been to shock," said the supermarket"s spokesman.

"We avoid the use of religious symbols on our packaging to maintain neutrality in all religions.

‘If it has been perceived differently, we apologize to those who may have been shocked.’”

Lidl’s experience is one that’s becoming increasingly common in the modern PC-dominated culture: Companies offending large groups of customers while actively trying to do the opposite.