Category Archives: Collapse

The EU’s censorship regime is about to go global, by Norman Lewis

Posted on March 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

Big Tech has climbed into bed with the EU to kill the last vestiges of free speech in Europe. It may spread to the rest of the world. From Norman Lewis at spiked-online.org:

The authoritarian Digital Services Act means the death of free speech online.

The EU’s censorship regime is about to go global

Not many people know that 16 November 2022 was the day that freedom of speech died on the internet. This was the day the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) came into law. Under the DSA, very large online platforms (VLOPs) with more than 45million monthly active users – like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – will have to swiftly remove illegal content, hate speech and so-called disinformation from their platforms. Or they will face fines of up to six per cent of their annual global revenue. Larger platforms must be DSA compliant by this summer, while smaller platforms will be obliged to tackle this content from 2024 onwards.

The ramifications of this are immense. Not only will the DSA now enforce the regulation of content on the internet for the first time, but it is also set to become a global standard, not just a European one.

In recent years, the EU has largely realised its ambition to become a global regulatory superpower. The EU can dictate how any company worldwide must behave if it wants to operate in Europe, the world’s second-largest market. As a result, its strict regulatory standards often end up being adopted worldwide by both firms and other regulators, in what is known as the ‘Brussels effect’. Take the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a privacy law which came into force in May 2018. Among many other things, it requires individuals to give explicit consent before their data can be processed. These EU regulations have since become the global standard, and the same could now happen for the DSA.

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The great credit unwind and Powell’s hidden pivot, by Alasdair Macleod

Posted on March 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

Another trenchant analysis in real time by Alasdair Macleod. From Macleod at goldmoney.com:

We are all now aware that the global banking system is extremely fragile. Driving bank failures is contracting credit, which in turn drives interest rates higher. Though it is not generally appreciated, central banks have failed to suppress them.

Some regional banks have failed in the US and the run on Credit Suisse’s deposits has forced the Swiss authorities into forcing a reluctant rescue by UBS. Undoubtedly, as the great credit unwind plays out, there will be more rescues to come.

In this, the earliest stages of a banking crisis, some questions are being answered. We can probably rule out bail-ins in favour of bail outs, and we can assume that nearly all banks will be rescued — they must be in order to prevent systemic contagion. 

In this article I quantify the position of the global systemically important banks (the G-SIBs) and point out that the central banks which are meant to backstop them are themselves bankrupt — or rather they would be properly accounted for. 

Because even a minor failure in the banking system could undermine the entire global banking system, the much heralded pivot is now here, but not in plain sight. Because central banks have lost control over interest rates, the focus on preserving the financial markets underpinning the banking system has shifted to supressing bond yields. This is why the Fed has introduced its Bank Term Funding Programme, likely to be copied in other jurisdictions. 

It is Powell’s hidden pivot — his line in the sand. But it is the last desperate throw of the dice and depends entirely on inflation being transient and interest rates not rising much more. 

The price of even a successful preservation of the banking system is the destruction of fiat currencies, because the bigger picture is still of the greatest credit bubble in history unwinding. And that process has only recently started.

The great unwind accelerates 

Now that everyone in finance knows that there is a banking crisis, cynicism prevails. When a central banker or treasury minister tries to reassure the public, it is disbelieved. The risk to an extremely fragile global banking system is that if disbelief in public statements spreads from financial sceptics to the wider public, the system is doomed. All credit is based on confidence and confidence alone.

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Posted in Banking, Collapse, Currencies, Debt, Economics, Economy, Government

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Squatters Increasingly Taking Over Homes Across US With No End In Sight, Experts Warn, by Jack Phillips

Posted on March 24, 2023 | 2 comments

It’s like something out of Dr. Zhivago, where the comrades take over his mansion. From Jack Phillips at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:

Amid an increase in reports of squatters taking over people’s homes across the country, one expert warned that the phenomenon is on the rise and noted that removing a squatter could take months.

A man walks along a street in a neighborhood of single-family homes in Los Angeles on July 30, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Real estate lawyer Jim Burling told Fox News on Tuesday that any home that is not occupied for a period of time could be targeted by squatters. If the owner tries to call the police, officers may not be able to do much, and at the same time, using the courts could turn into a lengthy and expensive process, he warned.

“I think it’s a fairly big problem and I think it’s pretty hard to avoid,” Burling, who is vice president of litigation for Pacific Legal Foundation, said. In cases where a property owner is attempting to evict a squatter, generally the court system has to get involved to determine whose paperwork is legitimate, he noted.

“If somebody is living in a home and saying ‘hey, I signed a lease, I’m paying rent, I have a right to be here,’ whether or not that’s true, the police hear that story then they hear a story of somebody who’s not living there and saying ‘this is my place these people don’t belong here,’ the police officer can’t make that legal determination,” Burling said.

He added that it’s not the “job” of the police to do that. “That’s not their bailiwick. If you have that kind of dispute it has to go to court,” he said.

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How Covid lockdowns primed the current financial crisis, by Christian Parenti

Posted on March 24, 2023 | Leave a comment

First came Covid, then came monetary inflation, then came higher interest rates, and then came a financial crash. From Christian Parenti at thegrayzone.com:

The lockdowns and the stimulus required to keep the economy alive helped drive inflation. Then the Fed jacked up interest rates. And all hell broke loose.

On Friday March 10th, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) died of Covid. Alright, it’s a little more complicated than that, but Covid lockdowns followed by massive government stimulus were a critical – and massively under-acknowledged – factor in propelling the bank’s demise.

At the heart of the crisis is the gigantic pile of low-interest debt that was issued during the height of the pandemic. While private-sector pandemic-era debt like corporate bonds also soared, US government debt like Treasury bonds piled up.

In a nutshell, during the pandemic the government issued enormous amounts of extremely low interest government debt — about $4.2 trillion of it. But now interest rates, including on government debt, are higher than they have been in 15 years and investors are dumping their old low-interest debt. As they dump, the resale price of the old debt goes down. The more it declines, the more investors want to dump. And thus, a panic is born. 

To understand the problem fully, the question of US government debt has to be put into its larger context, which is: the pandemic response as a whole.

When news of the Covid virus first broke in December 2019, the 2 Year Treasury bond was being offered at 1.64% interest; the 10 year was at about 1.80%, and the resale value of such bonds on secondary markets was strong. Then, in March 2020, as Covid cases and deaths spiked, the US began to shutter its economy with panicked lockdowns that were supposed to “flatten the curve” or slow the spread of the virus and thus protect the hospitals. But Covid was politicized and the lockdowns were extended. 

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Posted in Banking, Business, Collapse, Debt, Economy, Government

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central bank digital currencies and banking crises, by el gato malo

Posted on March 23, 2023 | 1 comment

A banking crisis will be the new Covid, and central bank digital currencies will be the new vaccine. From el gato malo at boriquagato.substack.com:

how do you get people to leave banks for a CBDC?

longtime gatopal™ jordan schachtel published a very useful piece on the impending shot at central bank digital currencies in the US.

you should read it.

because as JFK famously said:

you can access it here:

The Dossier

Americans face a rapidly encroaching ’emergency’ CBDC power grab

The American financial system is threatening to come apart at the seams, and for the people who control the levers of power, the only way to patch things up may involve the installation of a monetary Social Credit Score system. In recent years, America’s fiat fractional reserve system has transformed into a faith-based credit system, and the people who …

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a day ago · 205 likes · 126 comments · Jordan Schachtel

jordan lays out the risks and threats of a CBDC. in a nutshell, this is government digital currency. this means they really, truly control the money. it means they can take it right out of your account or fine tune what you are allowed to do with it.

it means they can decide if you are allowed to spend it and on what.

it means they will have instant knowledge of all your transactions.

it’s the end of privacy and agency.

it’s not just a bad idea.

it’s a true blue, no fooling around, weapons grade bad idea.

and it looks to be coming.

this july.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Currencies, Government, Horseshit, Tyranny

Raiding The Taxpayer Piggy-Bank, by David Stockman

Posted on March 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

They call it moral hazard because it’s a moral issue. The people responsible should have to pay when things go wrong, not the taxpayers. From David Stockman at lewrockwell.com:

Janet Yellen is one continuous anti-prosperity horror show and the reason is obvious enough. She got her indoctrination at Yale from the granddaddy of Professor Keynes’ US disciples, James Tobin, in the late 1960s and has spent most of her years since then pontificating in academia or dictating from the Fed.

So now with the arrival of screaming evidence that the banking system desperately needs the disciplining effect of depositor flight, she comes out four-square for euthanizing the $9 trillion of still uninsured deposits in the US banking system.

But let’s cut to the chase. Banks not disciplined by their depositors and not at risk for deposit flight are dangerous institutions. They leave bank executives free to swing for the fences on the asset-side of their balance sheets without fear that attentive depositors will move their money to safer pastures.

For crying out loud. It was bad enough during the last several years when deposits were dirt cheap and knuckleheads like those who ran SVB decided to load up their balance sheets with 10-30 year duration assets against overnight demand deposits, most of which were uninsured.

For the moment that allowed them to book outsized profits and reap the consequent benefit of soaring stock options, but these “profits” were phony as a two-dollar bill. That’s because they were being generated off long-term fixed income assets, the prices of which had nowhere to go except down.

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The World Economic Forum and the West’s Next Act? By J.B. Shurk

Posted on March 22, 2023 | 2 comments

Where will the less-than-mediocre lead us? From J.B. Shurk at gatestoneinstitute.org:

  • [E]conomic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned [about] the “crapification” of the U.S. economy…. customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last.
  • Politicians seem to be heading in a similar direction…. Western governments are filled to the brim with people entirely lacking in real-world experience or specialized knowledge.
  • In recent decades, a noticeable trend in the West has been to elevate politicians, as young and inexperienced as possible, into offices as high as possible…. Such a system — in which those who have proven themselves the least are given responsibilities that would test even those who have proven themselves time and again — hardly looks ideal.
  • If Western politicians seem just as second-rate these days as what customers all too often find in stores, there may be a simple reason why: International financial titans make, sell, and own both… and may be planning to own you, too.
Western governments are filled to the brim with people entirely lacking in real-world experience or specialized knowledge. In recent decades, a noticeable trend in the West has been to elevate politicians, as young and inexperienced as possible, into offices as high as possible. Pictured: National leaders, including US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau strike a deep, contemplative pose at the G20 summit on November 16, 2022 in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. (Photo by Hebestreit/Bundesregierung via Getty Images)

If you are a consumer today, inflation is only one of the problems harming you. As prices go up, quality continues to go down. What most stores have to offer you might crassly be called “cheap crap.” In fact, economic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned that the “crapification” of the U.S. economy is the natural result of a “neoliberal-hyper-financialization-hyper-globalization model,” in which quasi-monopolist manufacturers mass-produce goods with the cheapest possible components, while customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last.

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The Biggest COVID Question: What Will Happen in 10 years? By Dr. Joseph Mercola

Posted on March 20, 2023 | 1 comment

The potential answers are bone-chilling. From Dr. Joseph Mercola at theburningplatform.com:

covid question what will happen in 10 years

Story at-a-glance

  • So far, children have been largely unfazed by COVID-19 because their interferon pathway works really well. Interferon is an immune molecule that protects cells against invading pathogens
  • The COVID jab inhibits the type-1 interferon pathway, so mass injecting young children may actually erase the natural herd immunity against COVID-19 that would develop if all children remained unjabbed
  • Aggressive cancers have exploded among adults who got the shots, even though it’s only been a little over two years since their rollout
  • Analysis of U.S. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) data suggests the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is redesignating cancer deaths as COVID deaths to eliminate the cancer signal, and has been doing so since April 2021
  • We’ve also seen massive increases in excess mortality from abnormal clotting issues and heart problems since the COVID shots rolled out. If side effects such as cancer, heart disease and stroke are killing working age adults in unprecedented numbers already, what will the excess mortality be, say, 10 years from now if children and teens keep getting mRNA boosters every year?

What will the future hold for people whose exposure to COVID-19 occurs during the first years of life? That question was recently asked by Katherine J. Wu, a staff writer at The Atlantic.1

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Pfizer, CDC Withheld Evidence of Myocarditis After COVID Shots, New Documents Reveal, by Michael Nevradakis

Posted on March 20, 2023 | 1 comment

This should land someone in jail. From Michael Nevradakis at childrenshealthdefense.org:

Pfizer and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) withheld evidence that COVID-19 vaccinations were causing myocarditis, according documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense via a Freedom of Information Act request to the CDC, and documents leaked this week to Project Veritas.

Pfizer and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) withheld evidence that COVID-19 vaccinations led to an increased risk of myocarditis, especially in young males, according to two sets of documents made public this week.

Confidential Pfizer documents leaked Thursday by Project Veritas show the company had “evidence that suggests patients who receive a COVID-19 vaccine are at an increased risk of myocarditis.”

And heavily redacted CDC documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request indicate the agency provided an undercounted figure of post-COVID-19-vaccination myocarditis cases to Israel’s Ministry of Health in early 2021.

The latest revelations come as Germany, Japan and other governments are raising questions about the significant numbers of severe adverse events recorded in individuals following administration of the COVID-19 vaccines.

According to researchers at the National Organization for Rare Disorders, myocarditis can result from infections, or it may result directly from a toxic effect such as a toxin or a virus.

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This Has Got to Stop, by James Howard Kunstler

Posted on March 20, 2023 | Leave a comment

And somebody’s going to have some splainin to do . . . under oath. From James Howard Kunstler at kunstler.com:

“As the evidence mounts of an even broader censorship effort by the Biden administration, the Democrats’ attacks have become more unhinged and unscrupulous. After shredding any fealty to free speech, they now are attacking journalists, demanding their sources and claiming their reporting is a public threat.” — Jonathan Turley

And it will stop because, as the old wag Herb Stein laid down in his law years ago: Things that can’t go on, stop. Which raises the question: which things? And the answer is the things Western Civ is doing in its attempted suicide: inciting war, recklessly running up debt, persecuting its own citizens and stealing their liberties, subjecting them to medical malfeasance, destroying their goods production and food-growing capabilities, and subjecting the public to incessant mind-fuckery in a campaign to falsify and disfigure reality.

     A consortium of public and corporate bureaucracies has institutionalized the falsification of reality under the pretense of saving the human race from a pack of hobgoblins led by climate change, racism, and normal sexual reproduction. They have been driven insane by the actual reality of pending economic collapse, which has only been accelerated by their own suicidal activities. What they apparently really want to save is their own positions, perquisites, and power. Their enabling mechanism is the digital computer and its many ways of assembling and controlling information, and thus controlling people, especially those who object to totalizing control. They do it because they can.

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