Category: simonblack

October 2, 2014
Santiago, Chile

In 1324, Mansa Musa, the tenth emperor of the Mali Empire, set off from Western Africa on his pilgrimage to Mecca.

This was no Spartan journey. He was accompanied on his way by a procession of 60,000 men and 12,000 slaves, each of whom carried up to four pounds in gold bars.

Musa is might just have been the richest person of all time, with an accumulated wealth estimated at $400 billion valued in today’s increasingly worthless dollars.

But it wasn’t just kings and emperors who held gold. Gold has been the most widely-used medium of exchange in world history… across all points of the globe.

Ibn Battuta was a 14th century traveler and explorer whose famous grand adventure spanned 75,000 miles over the course of 24 years, much like Marco Polo’s.

Everywhere he traveled– North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, China – gold was either the dominant currency or an easily accepted medium of exchange.

This barbarous relic has stood the test of time across cultures around the world for millennia as a form of wealth.

Most people in the West have completely lost sight of this.

They view the value of gold through the lens of paper currency, i.e. an ounce of gold is ‘worth’ 1,215 US dollars.

This is a deeply flawed perspective.

Looking at the gold price moving up and down in US dollars is something like sitting in a rowboat on choppy waters believing that it’s the beach that’s moving up and down.

Einstein might say that it’s all relative, but only one has any real stability.

But perspectives can and do change.

There once was a time when most people believed that the entire universe revolved around the Earth.

This was a flawed (and arrogant) view, and it was eventually corrected.

Thinking that the global economy revolves around the US dollar is just as flawed and arrogant. And it will soon be discredited just the same.

History tells us that dominant monetary systems invariably have an expiration date.

From the Byzantine solidus to the British pound, this is especially true when a superpower enters into decline and plays destructive games with its currency.

Today’s system where an unelected central banking elite conjures trillions of dollars and euros out of thin air is no different. It has an expiration date too.

Change is never easy. People don’t like it, and will resist change even if their current situations are terrible. Inertia is the most powerful force in the universe after all.

Desirable or not, it’s happening. The US dollar’s days are numbered.

Now, gold, with its millennia-long history is making a comeback. We’re not just talking about it as a store of wealth or a speculation, but as a regular form of currency.

Moving us back in this direction, Singapore Exchange launched a new arrangement this week where institutional-sized gold contracts will settled not in cash, but in 1kg bars of gold.

This means that each of these contracts is intended to deliver and store gold in Singapore on behalf of large financial institutions, central banks, and even governments.

Sure, Singapore wants to advance itself as THE gold hub of Asia. We’ve been writing to our premium members about this for years

But more importantly, it’s quite telling that major insiders within the financial system itself are pursuing this contract.

They’re effectively setting up a new system, in Asia, to afford governments and central bankers the opportunity to trade in their US dollars for something real.

Just like yesterday’s post about the renminbi/euro convertibility, this is truly a canary in the coalmine moment for the future of the US dollar… as well as gold’s emerging role in the financial system of tomorrow.

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October 1, 2014
Santiago, Chile

The Chinese central bank, People’s Bank of China, issued a press release announcing the authorization of direct trading between the renminbi and the euro on the inter-bank foreign exchange market.

This is huge. The euro is the second most traded currency in the world, after the US dollar. The European Union is already China’s biggest trading partner and this is a major step in further increasing trade and investment ties with the EU as there is now a direct exchange rate between the two currencies, without the need to use the US dollar as the conduit.

The renminbi is quickly marching down the path of internationalization as the Chinese currency is now directly exchangeable with the US dollar, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Japanese yen, British pound, Russian ruble, and Malaysian ringgit.

The use of renminbi in international trade settlement nearly tripled in value worldwide over the past two years according the The Society for Worldwide International Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), and over one third of financial institutions around the world already use renminbi for payments to China and Hong Kong.

This is  another sign of how the system is changing. And it’s a major one. As the following chart from Deutsche Bank clearly shows, the last two centuries or so of Western domination in the global economy is nothing but an anomaly on a long timeline of history.

China and the Indian subcontinent have always been the two major population centers of the world, as well as global economic powerhouses. Spectacular Chinese decline over the course of the 19th century was a result of an archaic state of the Chinese society, as well as its unwillingness to open up and adjust to the world that has clearly changed with the advent of the industrial revolution and the first major wave of globalization.

This resulted in the British Empire being propelled to the top spot as the world’s superpower. World Wars changed that and the United States became the undisputed top dog in the 20th century.

Now, this historical anomaly is being rectified and China is again reclaiming its spot in the world, with the Chinese currency following suit.

For anyone following this trend closely, this is a very exciting time to be alive. Major changes like this happen rarely; perhaps every hundred years or so. And these changes offer incredible opportunities for those attuned to them, and a tremendous amount of turmoil for those ignoring the trend.

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October 1, 2014
Santiago, Chile

Edmundas B. was in Tel Aviv when he got the idea for a startup to better connect web designers and developers with their clients.

Grabbing his mobile phone and laptop, he quickly set up an LLC, for his startup TrackDuck, back in his home country of Lithuania.

He’d previously tested setting up businesses in Tel Aviv and Tallinn, both of which are quite prominent tech startup locations in the world, but in the end he decided to move TrackDuck back to Vilnius.

Why?

Because Lithuania is a small country with big aspirations, and with the right attitude to make them happen.

Being quite small and unknown, Lithuania has had to work hard to build up an attractive reputation.

The best places in the world to live and do business are often some of the smallest, for precisely this reason. Not only are the governments generally more in touch with their populations, but they’ve got to try much harder to appeal to outsiders.

When countries are actively competing for you and your business, you are always the winner.

They want your business and so they’re willing to make things easier for you to start it there. That is why in Lithuania it takes up to 100 euros and less than a week to start a business.

Even after starting up, they want to keep you, which is why the country is home to one of the lowest tax regimes and slimmest bureaucracies in the European Union.

Here you can have the benefit of direct access to the coveted European market, whilst minimizing your costs as a business.

Even as an individual, relocating to Vilnius is great for your budget. For those who like Europe, but not the prices, Vilnius is in the Top 5 least expensive EU capitals for living costs. So you are able to get European standards of living at a fraction of the cost. And you’re a short and cheap flight away from the rest of the continent.

Eager to take advantage of all this, a number of tech and online startups have sprung to relocate their operations to Vilnius. A significant number of Russian startups are amongst this list, but businesses are coming in from all over. This includes prominent online web-development platform Wix.com, based in Tel Aviv, which recently moved its app development department to Vilnius.

As a part of the European Union, talent as well as capital can and does easily flow in from any part of the region.

Locals are highly skilled, with not only university degrees as the norm, but English and usually Russian language proficiency as well. It’s generally common for students to spend their summers working abroad, and in the UK in particular, making for easy communication and capable people.

Investors are taking notice of Lithuania as well, with Accel Partners and Insight Venture Partners recently putting $27 million into a local Lithuanian startup Vinted.

In general, Vilnius is simply an artsy-cool place to be. In just this past summer alone there were over 60 festivals in the lush forests that cover the whole country, attracting people from all over to join in the Lithuanian vibe.

This vibe certainly crosses over into the startup scene, with frequent startup events in the capital. Whether it be for entrepreneurship, art, or music, you will always find something new and interesting to be a part of in Vilnius.

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September 30, 2014
Santiago, Chile

He had a vision for what the state could be.

His vision was a state that was intricately involved in every person’s life from cradle to the grave.

It was responsible for their education, it was their place of work and source of income, and it would monitor and guide the entertainment for all of the society.

Life would be characterized by the government provision of care and support throughout. People would grow to rely upon the state in every aspect of their lives, and they would have no reason to seek out alternatives.

Eventually people would become dependent on the state’s survival for their survival. Thus their lives would then be dedicated to the ‘greater good’, with the individual existing simply for the state.

This terrifying vision of a dystopian society could only be the construct of an author like George Orwell or Ayn Rand, right? Something you would only see elaborated on the pages of fiction.

In fact, this was the vision of Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Imperial Germany in the 19th century.

And this wasn’t just a dream. It was a strategy.

From government healthcare at birth to education in a government school, followed by a career in civil service, and a government pension in old age, the state was with you from beginning to end.

One of the most important stages in the life-long relationship between the state and the individual in Bismarck’s mind was through employment.

There you were directly working to support the government’s aims (for the greater good of course), while at the same time being wholly dependent on them for your survival.

This was the cornerstone of his plan for the strength of the empire—having a populace entirely dependent on (and thus committed to) the state.

“My idea was to bribe the working classes, or shall I say, to win them over, to regard the state as a social institution existing for their sake and interested in their welfare,” Bismarck explained.

You can be sure that Bismarck would approve of modern society.

Today in the Land of the Free, everyone is required to pay into the Social Security system, and over 90% of students go to public schools.

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the state is exerting its control over your medical care. And now with a new bill comes the crown jewel of state employment.

Presenting Senate Bill 2726: the Strengthening Forgiveness for Public Servants Act.

If passed, the bill aims to get young people into government employment by promising to forgive their student loan debt.

Could they be any more devious?

First they’ve managed to let inflation absolutely explode, especially when it comes to the cost of university education.

Then they actively encourage students to pay for said education by going deeply into debt, often with government loans funded by the [Chinese] taxpayer.

This created a massive class of young people who are now deeply enslaved by their state debt as they vie for jobs as assistant manager at the Gap.

And now the government has created a way out. Young people need only become public servants. Emphasis on ‘servants’.

Somewhere Otto von Bismarck is smiling.

PS: Don’t forget to check out this new study. As you can probably guess, they conclude that it’s been terribly negative for the US economy.

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September 30, 2014
Santiago, Chile

Earlier this month both the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserves published the results of a survey they conducted asking business owners how the Affordable Care Act has changed how they operate.

Bear in mind, healthcare reform was sold on the basis that it would be good for the American people and good for the US economy.

Their economic reasoning was that the amount of money currently being spent on medical care in the US would be reduced. And that spending would shift to more productive areas of the economy.

But then, earlier this year, it turned out that the exact opposite happened.

Healthcare spending as a proportion of GDP had actually gone UP rather than down after the introduction of Obamacare.

So then the government flipped the message around. Suddenly the healthcare spending increase wasn’t a sign of failure, it was a sign of success!

That extra 0.1% of GDP that came from increased government spending in the last quarter of 2013 was all that kept the US from slumping back in to recession. Thus, Obamacare had saved the economy!

Now the Fed is chiming in with its own data showing that, in general, Obamacare has had a negative impact on the labor market.

21.6% of firms surveyed said that they were going to employ fewer workers as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

And another 20.2% said they were shifting from full-time employees to a part-time workforce as a result of the law.

Only 2.3% said there was a beneficial impact to employment as a result of the Act, and a whopping 81.4% of businesses said that their per-employee costs were increasing as a result of the Act.

Moreover, 36.4% of businesses plan on increasing the prices they charge their customers as a result of the Act, essentially passing on the costs of the legislation to consumers.

As for the quality of care itself, a survey of 3,072 physicians nationwide by medical HR firm Jackson Cocker showed that 44% of physicians are not planning to participate in the ACA network. Only 32% are participating or plan to join.

And incredibly, 60% of physicians surveyed said they expected the quality of patient care to be negatively impacted as a result of ACA, vs. only 14% who thought the law would have a positive impact.

None of this sounds particularly beneficial to the economy, or to the American people.

It was a really noble and compassionate idea. All they wanted was to help people who don’t have access to quality medical care.

But the execution was a total failure, both in deed and concept.

You cannot legislate your way to high quality medical care any more that you can legislate sunshine.

It’s the entire system that’s broken.

There’s too much expensive regulation, cost prohibitive malpractice insurance brought on by frivolous lawsuits, shortages in workers with critical skills, and crippling taxes that take away much of physicians’ financial incentive to practice medicine.

There are so many things wrong with this picture, and many of them are caused by the absurd amount of laws already on the books.

This isn’t something you fix by passing even more laws. That has the exact opposite effect.

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September 29, 2014
Santiago, Chile

“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, unite!”

Most people remember Karl Marx’s most potent points and phrases, and the mountain of corpses his disciples left behind, especially in the 20th century.

However, most forget or don’t even know the specific policies that Marx advocated.

Within his 1848 Communist Manifesto, Marx outlined a list of ten short-term demands. These, he thought, would be the precursor to the ideal stateless, classless communist society.

Ironically in today’s world, Marx’s demands look pretty much mainstream.

That is because nearly every single item on the list has been implemented to varying degrees in the United States.

Think that couldn’t be possible in the Land of the Free? Just take a look.

Topping Marx’s list is the abolition of private property.

True, private property exists, but only until the state wants to take it. With its powers of eminent domain, the government can and does confiscate people’s property when it wants for public use.

Your property isn’t unconditionally yours. Just think of property taxes, for example.

If it’s actually YOUR private property, then why would you need to pay tax on it? And why do they have the authority to take it from you if you don’t pay?

Likewise, while we haven’t seen the complete abolition of inheritance (another Marx demand), the government can take up to 40% of your estate when you die.

So ultimately your estate is not your own. You don’t get to control what happens to your wealth and possessions when you die. It’s just a matter of proportion.

Marx also demanded the centralization of transportation and communication. Check, and check.

Try broadcasting over the airwaves in the Land of the Free without a license and special permission.

Practically the entire electromagnetic spectrum is tightly controlled by the state, centralized by a handful of government agencies.

Same with the network of roads and highways. Because, after all, without government, who would build the roads…

Another point of Marx is state-guided agricultural production and combination of agriculture and manufacturing.

And the Land of the Free does not disappoint. Though its activities may not be as prominent in the news, the US Department of Agriculture is easily one of the busiest government departments.

With a budget of $146 billion a year, and much more for subsidies, USDA tirelessly works to dictate every major and miniscule activity in the sector.

Next on the list, is equal liability of all to labor. If you have at any point wondered, as I have, why politicians are always pushing jobs for the sake of jobs, rather than value and wealth creation—now you know why.

Between minimum wage laws and the constant stream of legislation that promises jobs for all, it is clear that politicians have wholly internalized this Marxian ideal.

Now, you might think that this is just a fluke, just a coincidence that some US policies resemble what’s on Marx’s list of demands.

But then you see these demands, which have not only been fully implemented in the US already, but are thoroughly entrenched in the national psyche:

First, there’s free education for all children, to enable the uniformity of thought. Check.

Then there’s a heavy progressive income tax. Yep, I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with this one, which has actually become so mainstream, that to have any system other than this would be considered revolutionary. Check.

Third, is the confiscation of the property of emigrants (expatriates) and rebels.

Between the IRS bullying of political opposition groups and the imposition of exit taxes for those that renounce their citizenship, the United States is firmly set up to discourage dissent and escape. Check.

And last but not least, the centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank. Check.

Remember, Karl Marx thought central banking was a great idea—the same guy who thought that individual success and private property were evil.

Think about that the next time the Federal Reserve comes up with a plan to help businesses and fix the economy.

So now you know, America isn’t communist. It’s only about 70% communist. No reason to worry.

PS- I also want to encourage you to check out these articles about the obscene peaks in stock and bond markets:

1) This has got to be the top

2) Retail investors are pouring into stocks at their all-time high

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September 29, 2014
Bali, Indonesia

[Editor’s note: This note was penned by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose.]

A few days ago, Bill Gross, the world’s most famous bond fund manager, sensationally resigned from PIMCO, the firm he co-founded in 1970.

Trouble had been brewing behind the scenes at PIMCO for months, and speculation was rife that all was not well at the bond behemoth.

Gross’s resignation, and decision to join the much smaller competing firm Janus Capital seems conform this.

Following the news, the market reaction was extraordinary.

Stock in PIMCO’s parent company Allianz, the giant German insurance company, fell 6.7%. And there was a ridiculous 43% surge in Janus shares.

It’s a perfect illustration of how there is MUCH more to market moves than fundamentals.

In a nutshell, investors are guessing about where money might flow as a result of Bill Gross leaving PIMCO.

People seem to think that tens of billions of dollars will follow him out the door to Janus Capital, and that’s what primarily drove these moves.

But even more wild than that is the rather significant move in the US Treasury market, worth nearly $17 trillion.

This is a testament to how absurd the system has become– that one man’s decision about where to work can cause wild gyrations in the biggest, most liquid securities market on the planet.

I think it’s a very clear sign that the bond market has reached its peak.

Historically, this is exactly the sort of thing that happens at top of any market: shake-outs, surprises, news coming to light about less than savory business practices (PIMCO is under investigation from the SEC), and so on.

Gross himself has been calling the top of the bond market for a couple of years now, most recently when 10-year US Treasury yields hit a nadir of 1.67% in April 2013.

Regardless, it’s hard to see that there is any investment benefit in lending money to the most indebted government in the history of the world at interest rates that are below the rate of inflation.

In a world rife with overvalued assets, bonds are one of the most overvalued asset classes of all.

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September 29, 2014
London, England

[Editor’s note: This letter was written by Tim Price, frequent Sovereign Man contributor and Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management in the UK.]

“Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.” – Anonymous.

The French statesman George Clemenceau once commented that war is too important to be left to generals.

At this stage in the game one might be tempted to add that monetary policy is far too important to be left to politicians and central bankers.

We get by with free markets in all other walks of economic and financial life – why let the price of money itself be dictated by a handful of bureaucrats?

It should be striking that government bonds, in nominal terms, have never been this expensive in history, even as there have never been so many of them. The laws of supply and demand would seem to have been repealed.

As evidence for the prosecution we cite the US Treasury bond market, the world’s largest.

The US national debt currently stands at $17.7 trillion. With a ‘T’.

Benchmark 10 year Treasuries currently offer a yield to maturity of 2.5%. US consumer price inflation currently stands at 1.7%. (We offer no opinion as to whether US CPI is a fair reflection of US inflation.)

On the basis that US “inflation” doesn’t change meaningfully over the next 10 years, US bond investors are going to earn an annualized return just a smidgen above zero percent.

Now it may well be that US Treasury yields have further to fall. As SocGen’s Albert Edwards puts it,

“Our ‘Ice Age’ thesis has long called for sub-1% bond yields and I see this extending to the US and UK in due course.”

We nurse no particular view in relation to how the government bond bubble (for it surely is) plays out.

It could be that yields grind relentlessly lower for some time yet. Or perhaps they burst spectacularly on the back of the overdue return of economic common sense.

But as Warren Buffett himself once said, “If you’ve been playing poker for half an hour and you still don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.”

The central bank bond market poker game has been in train for a good deal longer than half an hour, and the stakes have never been higher.

Sometimes, if you simply can’t fathom the new rules of the game, it’s surely better not to play.

That’s why we’re not in the business of chasing US Treasury yields, or Gilt yields, or Bund yields, ever lower – we’ll keep our bond exposure limited to only the highest quality credits yielding the highest possible return.

Even then, if Fed tapering does finally dissipate in favor of Fed hiking (stranger things have happened, though we can’t think of any off the top of our head), it will make sense to eliminate conventional debt instruments from client portfolios.

But such madness is not limited to the world of bonds. Malign, unthinking mental slavery has fixed itself upon the equity markets, too.

It’s extraordinary that as stock markets have powered ahead, index trackers have enjoyed their highest ever inflows.

The latest IMA data show that more UK retail money was put into tracker funds in July than in any other month since records began.

In other words, retail investors are pouring into the market at its all-time high.

We accept the ‘low cost’ aspect of tracker funds and ETFs; we take serious issue with the idea of buying stock markets close to or at their all-time.

But there is a middle way between the Scylla of bonds at all-time low yields and the Charybdis of stocks at all-time high prices. Value.

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September 26, 2014
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

We like to think of the solutions we provide here at Sovereign Man as seatbelts—common sense tools you might never need it, but could save your life in a real emergency.

If you live, work, bank, own property, invest, structure a business, store gold, etc. all in the same country of your citizenship, you’re at mercy of the political climate of one single jurisdiction.

This is a lot of faith to place in one country… especially if that country is on a downward slide of debt, money printing, and erosion of freedom.

The idea of international diversification is to spread different aspects of your life across different jurisdictions so that no single country has total control over you.

Only then can you be truly free and independent.

One key node in any international diversification strategy is having multiple citizenships and passports.

Having another passport means having more options. It means you can travel. It means you can live in other countries. You can do business in other countries. You have greater ease in opening investment and financial accounts.

It also means that, in a worst-case scenario occurred and you had to get out of Dodge, you’ll always have a way out… and a place to go.

If you’re lucky enough to have ancestors from places like Poland, Italy or Ireland, then obtaining a second passport is very straightforward.

But for most people who aren’t part of the lucky bloodline club, obtaining a second citizenship and passport requires one of three things:

• Money
• Time
• Flexibility

You can obtain citizenship through investment or “donation” in places like St. Kitts, Dominica, Antigua, or Malta.

These options are expensive, though. The cheapest citizenship-by-investment programs run well into six figures, hardly a trivial sum for most.

But if you’re flexible with your time and lifestyle, you can obtain citizenship in one of these places at relatively little cost:

Brazil

If you’re flexible and willing to go the unorthodox way, you can obtain citizenship in Brazil after as little as a year of living there by having a Brazilian child. It works, I know several folks who have done this or are in progress.

Another route to citizenship is by marrying a Brazilian. In fact, the marriage route just got easier. [Note to Premium Members: I’ll tell you more about this soon.]

Panama

Panama is the easiest place in the world to establish residency under the so-called “Friendly Nations Visa”.

It’s a straightforward process that involves setting up a local company and opening a bank account with a fairly small sum. You don’t even have to spend time in the country. And after five years, you’re eligible to apply for naturalization.

Israel

Are you Jewish? Do you want to be? Any Jew can qualify for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. The added benefit is that, just like Brazil, Israel doesn’t extradite its citizens, which is a good option to have if you ever find yourself in a pinch.

The downside of course is that a 2-year stint in the Israeli Defense Forces might be required as well.

Belgium

Three years of residency in Belgium qualifies you for naturalization. “Residency” is quite flexible—you don’t actually have to spend time there, especially if you move around the borderless Schengen area.

As long as you demonstrate some ties to Belgium – family, business, property, paying taxes – you’ll be able to get citizenship.

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September 25, 2014
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

It was only 18-months ago that one of the brokest banking systems in the world became the first modern example of financial cannibalism.

I’m sure you remember how it all went down in Cyprus last year… but I’ll review it anyhow because it just never gets old.

For days, weeks, months leading up to the big event, banks were operating as usual. People could log on to a bank website, check their account balance, and see a number printed on the screen.

As it turns out, though, there’s a huge difference between a number on a screen and a well-capitalized bank.

Cypriot banks didn’t actually -have- the money. They had huge liabilities, minimal assets, and were roundly insolvent.

Worse, they no longer had the ability to borrow money. Cyprus is part of the eurozone, and consequently, its central bank didn’t have the ability to print money in order to bail out the insolvent banking sector.

The government was too broke as well. So finally, devoid of options and forced to face its financial reckoning, Cypriot banks were shuttered for an extended ‘holiday’, and every person in the country had his/her bank account frozen.

People went to bed one evening last March and they assumed everything was fine. They woke up the next morning to find that they no longer had control over their savings. The money they -thought- was there was actually wasn’t. Their account balance was a gigantic lie.

Suddenly they had no means to pay the rent. Buy food. Fuel. Everything was on lock down.

Even after the freeze was lifted, Cyprus spent more than a year suffering through debilitating capital controls. If you wanted to send some extra cash to your son or daughter studying abroad, you had to submit your request to a committee.

This was clearly the height of economic freedom.

Now it’s been 18-months. And as we told you in July, things haven’t changed much. The capital controls have largely been lifted, but Cypriot banks are as broke as ever.

Two months ago, the country’s largest bank (Bank of Cyprus) was forced into selling shares in order to raise more capital. Surprise, surprise, the bank was still poorly capitalized.

There were hardly any takers, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a supranational government financial institution, had to step in and take a huge chunk of the new shares.

The latest news is that the country’s central bank sent a letter to Bank of Cyprus on Monday, publicly ‘requesting’ that the bank’s -entire- board of directors resign.

This is clearly another favorable sign.

The lesson here is pretty obvious; these problems don’t just happen overnight. Banking systems (and nations) go broke after years… decades… of bad decisions.

And it’s not something that can be turned around after a few months of capital controls and clever propaganda.

There’s something rotten in the system itself. And nothing gets fixed until there’s a complete reset. Anything else is just a snake oil solution that kicks the financial reckoning can down the road.

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