Category Archives: Collapse

How a Country Goes Bankrupt, In 10 Steps, by John Rubino

Posted on March 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

The Japanese are giving a pretty good demonstration, to be followed by Europe and the U.S. From John Rubino at rubino.substack.com:

Gradually then suddenly (2024?)

The past few decades of unnaturally easy money have created a world of “moral hazard” in which a ridiculous number of people borrowed far more than they should have. Now, with money getting tighter, not just businesses and individuals but some governments are staring at the “suddenly” part of that old saying about bankruptcy.

Japan is the poster child for this slow walk towards – then quick rush over – a financial cliff. Here’s how it works for a government, in 10 steps.

Step 1: Build up massive debt. A bursting real estate bubble in the 1990s confronted the Japanese government with a choice between accepting a brutal recession in which most of that debt was eliminated through default, or simply bailing out all the zombie banks and construction companies and hoping for the best. They chose bailouts, and federal debt rose from 40% of GDP in 1991 to 100% of GDP by 2000.  

Step 2: Lower interest rates to minimize interest expense. Paying 6% on debt equaling 100% of GDP would be ruinously expensive, so the Bank of Japanpushed interest rates down as debt rose, thus keeping the government’s interest cost at tolerable levels.

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Posted in Banking, Collapse, Debt, Economics, Economy, Government, Politics, Propaganda, Taxes, Tyranny

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“They Lied To Us All”: Tucker Exposes January 6 Fraud And Kangaroo-Court Cover-Up, by Tyler Durden

Posted on March 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

If you’re surprised that “they lied to us,” you probably should find another website. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

On Monday night, Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson dropped unseen footage from the January 6, 2021 Capitol protest which revealed that the entire Democrat / RINO / MSM narrative underpinning the event was a complete lie.

For starters, the surveillance footage show Capitol Police calmly escorting the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley, throughout the Capitol complex, and even helped him find open doors.

“The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley,” said Carlson. “They helped him. They acted as his tour guides.”

Chansley and his two helpful Capitol police escorts make their way to the Senate chamber 

Chansley, shirtless, adorned in red, white and blue face-paint and wearing a furry bison-head hat, emerged as one of the most iconic symbols of Jan 6. He was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for “obstructing an official proceeding.” 

The video of Chansley is jarringly inconsistent with the leftist characterization of Jan. 6 as an “insurrection.” Far from thwarting Chansley’s ambition to reach the Senate chamber, two Capitol police officers escorted him there. 

Along the way, the trio passed a large group of Capitol police officers, who appear disinterested in Chansley, even despite his flamboyant attire.   

The video shows Chansley and his police escorts approaching various doors to the chamber, with a police officer pushing and pulling them to see if they’re unlocked.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Crime, Government, Politics, Tyranny

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Allegorical Intermezzo, by James Howard Kunstler

Posted on March 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

We’ve reached some sort of climactic upheaval and life for most people is about to radically change. From James Howard Kunstler at kunstler.com:

” If, however, as Pareto suggested… a governing elite is inevitable, then we are certainly under the wrong elites. Whether a circulation of elites can be completed in time to save the world economic system from ruin and the majority from destitution and veritable slavery is a question of no little urgency.” — Michael Rectenwald

     Imagine that on an April evening in 1912, the captain of the RMS Titanic had announced a grand ball at which the male passengers were asked to wear their wives’ clothing and vice-versa…. That was approximately the condition of Western Civ verging on springtime in 2023: preoccupied with silliness while the iceberg awaits.

      But who would have thought the sinking of civilization would occur with such fantastic comic ornamentation? Men, in more ways than mere costuming, pretending to be women… incompetence honored, feted, even worshipped… intellect reduced to anti-thinking… anything of value thrown overboard in some weird post-modern potlatch ceremony of twisted moral righteousness…? But the hour is late, the party is near its end, and the iceberg is struck. The rest of the story will be you holding onto a few valuables, including your life, while the lifeboats get lowered.

     From here forward, things get pretty interesting. And from here on, nobody is really in charge. The vacuum of leadership we’ve been living in becomes impossible to ignore, and nature (it’s rumored) hates a vacuum. For the moment, circumstances are in charge, not personalities.

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Posted in Collapse, Economy, Financial markets, Government, Morality, Politics

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One Year Later in Ukraine: Washington and NATO Got It Very Wrong, by Ryan McMaken

Posted on March 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

The writing was on the wall. Too bad so many people passed by without reading it. From Ryan McMaken at mises.org:

It’s been a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In spite of claims from the regime and its media allies that Russia was the next Third Reich and would soon roll through half of Europe, it turns out that was never even remotely true.

In fact, things have unfolded more or less just like we predicted here at mises.org: the Russians aren’t even close to occupying any place in Europe beyond eastern Ukraine. It’s not Munich 1938. Economic sanctions have not crippled the Russian regime. Most of the world remains ambivalent on the conflict. The conflict will likely end with a negotiated settlement—contrary to what the Washington wants.

The fact is that in spite of the United States’ and North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) efforts to turn Ukraine into World War III, the war in Ukraine remains a regional conflict. It seems most of the world is uninterested in making sacrifices to carry out US policy in Ukraine and that many see the inherent hypocrisy behind US talk about respecting national sovereignty. 

There’s also an important lesson here about listening to the war maximalists who incessantly promote full-scale war as the “solution” to every international crisis. The US clearly wants to fight the war to the last Ukrainian, in what the US is packaging as a global crusade in the style of World War II. But, it seems now that more pragmatic thinkers—i.e., the French and the Germans—recognize that negotiations are the more humane solution. 

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Posted in Collapse, Crime, Debt, Economics, Economy, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Government, Military, Politics, Propaganda, War

The Federal Reserve’s Magic Trick: Big Tech, by Ron Paul

Posted on March 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

Virtually free money distorts companies and markets in all sorts of ways. From Ron Paul at ronpaulinstitute.org:

Now you see it … maybe soon you won’t.

Over the last year, the seeming ability of stock values of many technology companies to keep rising forever met resistance. This was true even for the major technology companies known collectively as “big tech.” During the last 12 months, Meta (parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram), Amazon, and Alphabet (parent company of Google and YouTube) suffered layoffs and big declines in stock prices.

These were the result of both bad decisions and changing market conditions. For example, the end of covid lockdowns obviously reduced demand for Amazon’s delivery services. Also, an increasing number of people are leaving Facebook and other Meta sites for newer social media sites. Many of those who use social media for political organization, education, or discussion are abandoning Facebook and YouTube for sites such as Rumble — sites that don’t deplatform individuals for sharing opinions and news that displeases “woke” bureaucrats and politicians.

The magician in this scenario — the Federal Reserve — played a major role in big (and medium and small) tech’s rise and fall. Technology writer David Streitfeld, writing in the New York Times, recently examined how the Fed’s 2008 market meltdown related policy of near zero interest rates led many investors to throw money at tech companies. In many cases, these investors would not have bought tech companies stock had the Fed not distorted the signals sent by interest rates, which are the price of money. The historic expansion of the Fed balance sheet thanks to “quantitative easing” also helped create a tech bubble. Now that the Fed is raising interest rates (although still keeping them well below what they would likely be in a free market), the tech bubble is being popped as investors are able to get a more realistic view of tech companies’ value. This is causing a painful but necessary correction.

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

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The Attack of the Subversive Elites, by Michael Rectenwald

Posted on March 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

Don’t blame the devil; blame the devil’s henchmen and henchwomen. From Michael Rectenwald at mises.org:

It is tempting, as Naomi Wolf has done recently, to ascribe the breakdown of Western civilization to the debasing of “Judeo-Christian” ethics and the reemergence of malignant supernatural forces. Witnessing the many assaults on the infrastructure and social order of the United States of late, I wouldn’t rule out metaphysical causality either. But to blame the pagan gods, or, in specifically Christian terms, to blame Satan, and not his legions, is to take comfort in an obscured perspective on the current global arrangement. To lay culpability strictly on gaseous, unknowable forces is to let the global elite off the hook.

As I write in The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty, the Western world is in the grips and under the control of “subversive elites.” With inordinate power and influence, these people aren’t naturally superior but have as their object the undermining of Western civilization.

They can be found in such globalist “Round Table” organizations as the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House), the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, and the World Economic Forum (WEF); in their main international intergovernmental counterpart, the United Nations (UN); and in the monetary organizations that fund the globalist regime, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. All these organizations have had as their objective the undermining of nation states, the destruction of the free market, and the control of the world economic system by a globalist elite. These objectives are now being conducted under the rubric of “stakeholder capitalism,” with the WEF running interference for and coordinating the “public-private partnerships” that are ushering in stakeholder capitalism, supposedly to combat “climate change.”

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Geopolitics, Government, Politics, Propaganda, Tyranny

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Whitney Webb on the Globalist Overlords Meeting in Davos, by Dr. Joseph Mercola

Posted on March 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

The World Economic Forum is pushing fascism. From Dr. Joseph Mercola at lewrockwell.com:

Curious about the inner workings of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the driving force behind The Great Reset? Set aside 30 minutes to watch investigative journalist Whitney Webb speak with MintPress News in the video above.1 Every year in January, WEF holds its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The 2023 theme was “cooperation in a fragmented world,” with WEF noting, “The world today is at a critical inflection point. The sheer number of ongoing crises calls for bold collective action.”2

Their actions, however, while carefully packaged to appear altruistic — and steeped in warm-and-fuzzy buzzwords like “green” and “sustainable” — will ultimately propel its small circle further into power while all but guaranteeing a downtrodden populace. If you so much as dip your finger beneath WEF’s surface, it becomes clear that corporatism and, more aptly, fascism, are its modus operandi.

WEF Promotes Fascist Ideology

WEF often speaks about the “transformative potential of public-private partnerships.” According to WEF:3

“The private sector needs to speak the language of social change, and the public sector needs to create economic incentives to harness the private sector’s innovation and expertise to address society’s challenges. With shared goals, targeted action and monitored impact, we can move beyond dialogue and aspiration to the co-creation of a more inclusive, prosperous and sustainable future.”

It sounds good in theory. But what, exactly, is a public-private partnership? It’s when private entities like multinational corporations join with the public sector, putting the two on equal ground. The problem is that most politicians receive money and other favors from these same multinational corporations, so many facets of the government are essentially owned by these corporations.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Economy, Energy, Geopolitics, Governments, Morality, Politics, Propaganda, Tyranny

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The Military-Industrial Complex and American Fascism, by William J. Astore

Posted on March 2, 2023 | Leave a comment

The MIC is the embodiment of fascism. From William J. Astore at antiwar.com:

Since Ike’s warning more than 60 years ago, the MIC has only grown stronger and more anti-democratic

President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) had it right. The military-industrial complex (MIC) is fundamentally antidemocratic The national security state has become the fourth branch of government and arguably the most powerful one. It gets the most money, more than half of the federal discretionary budget, even as the military remains America’s most trusted institution, despite a woeful record in wars since 1945.

A colleague, Christian Sorensen, says that when we look closely at the MIC we see something akin to American fascism. As he put it to me: “Our fascism certainly doesn’t look like past European movements, but it is far more durable, has killed millions and millions (SE Asia, Indonesia, Central America, Middle East), and has manifold expressions: wars abroad, wars at home, surveillance state, digital border, militarized law enforcement, economic warfare in the form of sanctions, militarization of space.”

It’s hard not to agree with him, not in the sense of Hitler’s Germany or Mussolini’s Italy but in the sense of concentrated government/corporate power that draws sustenance from nationalism at home and imperialism abroad. It’s true that America doesn’t have goose-stepping soldiers in the street. There are no big military parades (though Donald Trump once wanted one). It still seems like we have contending political parties. But when we look deeper, a militant nationalism and aggressive imperialism powered by corporations and enforced by government, including notably the Supreme Court, is the salient feature of this American moment.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Geopolitics, Governments, Intelligence, Military, Tyranny

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A Contagion of Cowardice, by Jeffrey A. Tucker

Posted on March 2, 2023 | Leave a comment

Not very many people stepped up to the plate to challenge Covid totalitarianism. From Jeffrey A. Tucker at brownstone.org:

contagion of cowardice

Jordan Peterson’s interview with Jay Bhattacharya is one of the more insightful conversations to come out of the post-pandemic period. It’s fascinating to see Peterson coming to terms with the sheer scale of the lockdown during which time he was rather sick. We could have used his voice then and I have no doubt that he would have been fantastic. 

Fortunately for the whole world, we did have Jay. It’s not just his credentials or his position at Stanford University. It’s his erudition that gave him the reach to make sense of our times. In this interview, Jay explains the unfolding of events in ways I personally found compelling. 

Summing up his message, the response upended a century of public-health practice based on computer modeling that was not informed by any medical knowledge or public-health experience. That modeling came to be fused with a military-style response that waged a war on a pathogen with no exit strategy. Powerful industrial interests saw their chance to realize every hidden agenda.

That was further complicated by severe political division. Even though the lockdowns began under the Trump administration, opposing them mysteriously came to be seen as “right-wing” even though the pandemic policies violated every civil liberty, massively harmed the poor, divided the classes, and trampled essential freedoms, which one might suppose were concerns of the left, once upon a time.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Governments, Media, Medicine, Tyranny

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The World Economic Forum’s ‘AI Enslavement’ is Coming for YOU! By J.B. Shurk

Posted on March 2, 2023 | Leave a comment

The lives of you and your children will be the fodder for a “sustainable” future. From J.B. Shurk at gatestoneinstitute.org:

[F]or every peaceful religious community seeking separation from modern civilization, there is a power-hungry tyrant seeking to impose his will upon everyone else.

Although the World Economic Forum (WEF) has spent the last 50 years organizing conferences, publishing policy proposals, and connecting global leaders in industry, banking, information technology, intelligence gathering, military strategy and politics, its mission objective is remarkably simple: the smartest, best people in the world should rule everyone else.

The WEF is nothing new. Its foundations have been around at least since the time of Plato, when two and a half millennia ago the Greek philosopher proposed that the ideal city-state would be ruled by “philosopher kings.” Just as Plato surveyed the world and predictably concluded that people from his own vocation should logically govern everyone else, the World Economic Forum’s global “elites” have come to a strikingly similar determination…. to no-one’s surprise, those same “philosopher kings” have nominated themselves to do the ruling. How convenient.

Should [Klaus Schwab] and the WEF clan pull it off, they will do so by using technology to enfeeble, rather than empower, the human race. Already, people have become familiar with the new terms of their future enslavement. Central bank digital currencies will allow governments not only to track every citizen’s income and purchase history in real time but also to limit what a person may spend depending upon government-determined social credit scores, perceived infractions of the “common good,” or perhaps unfair possession of “systemic privilege.”

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