iftttwall

Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal is joined by senior editor Ash Bennington to discuss the current state of different asset classes at this unique juncture. Raoul shares his view on the dollar, precious metals, and bitcoin. He also provides a strategic update on his unfolding thesis. Raoul guides viewers from the hope event into the insolvency phase as high-frequency data show slowdowns in economic activity. Raoul and Ash discuss why they think bitcoin is a favorable trade, and they explore why buying calls on the VIX and puts on the S&P 500 could ballast a gold-heavy portfolio. In the intro, Jack Farley discusses today’s Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

Yale Study tests the best Covid vaccine propaganda

Is guilt, self-interest, or anger the most effective way to convince people to get a Covid vaccine?

A Yale study will attempt to answer that question, by studying which message resonates most with the general population. It’s called Persuasive Messages for COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake.

There is no actual vaccine yet. But the study is already testing to see which method of propaganda will most effectively convince people to get a vaccine… whenever that happens to be.

The study will also measure how confident the propaganda makes people feel about a vaccine, and if it makes participants want to persuade others to take the vaccine.

Finally, researchers want to see if the propaganda produces fear in the unvaccinated, and how much social judgment it will cast on those who choose to remain unvaccinated.

Just in case you start to see a “spontaneous” groundswell of popular support for a brand new untested vaccine…

Click here to read about the study on clinicaltrials.gov.

*  *  *

Bed and Breakfast removes insensitive Norwegian flag

Being Norwegian is now racially insensitive.

At least that’s true for people who can’t tell the difference between the Norwegian and Confederate flag.

A bed and breakfast in Michigan calls itself the Nordic Pineapple. The owners used to hang a Norwegian flag out front (next to the American flag) to celebrate the heritage of co-founder Kjersten Offbecker.

But the red flag with a blue and white cross drew criticism from some guests, passers-by, and of course, the Twitter-mob.

The couple who owns the B&B says they received substantial hate mail, bad reviews, and angry phone calls from people who thought they were flying the Confederate flag of the former Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

They had originally tried to educate people that, in fact, THE NORWEGIAN FLAG IS NOT THE CONFEDERATE FLAG.

(Honestly– take a look. The Norwegian flag looks NOTHING like the confederate flag. You have to be totally blind to confuse the two.)

But they quickly realized that the Twitter mob has no mind (or soul) and is hence incapable of being educated.

Ignorance prevails again!

Click here to read the full story.

*  * *

Scottish Hate Crime bill could outlaw the Bible and theater performances

The Catholic Church has expressed concern that the Bible could be outlawed under a section of a Scottish Hate Crime bill.

The legislation would make it illegal to possess “inflammatory material” which could “stir up hatred” of a person or group based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and so on.

For instance, if a prosecutor decides that supporting typical gender roles constitutes “stirring up hatred,” the Bible could be considered “inflammatory material” for any number of relationships depicted– or the rules laid out in the Book of Leviticus.

The bill also specifically takes aim at theater performances, noting that portrayal of fictional characters does NOT exempt an actor or producer from liability.

An actor, director, or writer could be prosecuted under the law when an offense “is committed during a public performance of a play by a person who is a performer in the play.”

So if you’re an actor who plays a fictional bigot that uses racist language, you could be prosecuted under this law.

Of course this gives the government all the power it needs to ban essentially any book or play that they determine stirs up hatred.

This is yet another nail in the coffin for free speech and expression in the [formerly] civilized world.

Click here to read the full bill.

*  *  *

Illinois Lawmaker wants to ban history class for being racist

A State Representative from Illinois is leading a charge to abolish history classes and remove history books from public schools.

He says that these books and lessons currently teach a racist history which promotes systemic racism (similar to how future Nobel Prize laureate Colin Kaepernick called July 4th a “celebration of white supremacy”).

Until the books can be replaced with something that better indoctrinates– or, uh, teaches– kids about the history that the Marxist censors approve of, these classes should be replaced with classes that better promote today’s zeitgeist.

Click here to read the full story.

*  *  *

Colorado declaring racism a public health crisis

Colorado has declared racism a public health crisis.

That will allow the Department of Public Health to take funds that were earmarked for things like, you know, health, and divert those funds towards the eradication of systemic racism.

But don’t forget about all the glorious powers the state claimed to fight the Covid public health crisis…

Surely the Governor of Colorado has just as much power to end systemic racism.

For instance, if you can shut down restaurants for spreading Covid, you could shut down restaurants for spreading racism– or perhaps having too large a proportion of white patrons.

If you can force the sick to quarantine, you can detain anyone who says something you consider racist– like “All Lives Matter”– until they are cured.

Remember, one Colorado town even banned property owners from their own vacation properties in the name of Covid-19 safety.

Don’t support Black Lives Matter (i.e. the organization co-founded by– in their own words–  “trained Marxists” that has taken in hundreds of millions of dollars without a shred of financial transparency) ?

Well perhaps the town will restrict you from your property for this thought-crime.

Click here to read the full story.

*  *  *

Trader Joe’s backtracks: “we disagree that any of these labels are racist.”

Trader Joe’s decided that the store will not bow to a teenage girl’s petition we wrote about two weeks ago.

The Twitter mobsters demanded that Trader Joe’s change the culturally insensitive branding of certain products, like Trader Jose’s Beer, or Trader Ming’s Chinese Food.

Originally it appeared that Trader Joe’s would bow to the mob when the chain said that, although the brand names were “rooted in a lighthearted attempt at inclusiveness, we recognize that it may now have the opposite effect.”

But now, Trader Joe’s won’t change the names after all.

The store now disagrees that its labels are racist, and they will make decisions based on customers, not Twitter mobs.

“Recently we have heard from many customers reaffirming that these name variations are largely viewed in exactly the way they were intended­—as an attempt to have fun with our product marketing.”

Click here to read the full story.

*  *  *

On another note… We think gold could DOUBLE and silver could increase by up to 5 TIMES in the next few years. That’s why we published a new, 50-page long Ultimate Guide on Gold & Silver that you can download here.

Christopher Steele’s primary dossier source – alcoholic Russian national Igor Danchenko, who worked at Brookings with a Trump impeachment witness, met with a Russian energy official just four days before Steele produced the first of 17 memos which comprise his infamous opposition research on the Trump campaign.

Notably, Steele’s first memo contained the salacious allegation that the Kremlin was blackmailing President Trump over a video of prostitutes urinating on each other at the Moscow Ritz Carlton in 2013 in a room which the Obamas had previously stayed.

The debunked accusation has made fake news headlines for years, as propagandists such as the New York Times have squeezed as much mileage as possible out of the dossier’s absurd claims.

According to the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross, Danchenko met with Sergey Abyshev – who was a deputy-director in the energy ministry, as well as the editor-in-chief of a Russian finance website, Ivan Vorontsov. The meeting was documented in a Facebook post by Vorontsov, and confirmed by Abyshev.

It is unclear what they talked about – but it occurred as Danchenko was in the thick of his work with Christopher Steele, who the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign and the DNC paid to cook up opposition research on President Trump’s campaign. The dossier was a key component of several FISA warrants issued to spy on former campaign aide Carter Page and his contacts, and was widely distributed by US media outlets in a campaign to discredit Trump.

Danchenko, a Russian national who lives in Washington, D.C., told the FBI in January 2017 that Steele, a former MI6 officer, tasked him in June 2016 to dig up dirt on Trump. Steele was hired in May 2016 by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm working for the Clinton campaign and DNC.

Vorontsov posted a photo on June 16, 2016 from the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), an annual business conclave, saying he had met the prior evening with Danchenko and Abyshev.

“The night before was so nice with Sergey Abyshev and Igor Danchenko,” Vorontsov wrote. –Daily Caller

According to Abyshev, the encounter with Danchenko was “an almost accidental meeting in the center of Moscow with three ‘cheerful’ guys,” adding “As a result, I had to listen to a lecture on investment opportunities for about 20 minutes.”

Read the rest of the report here.

Authored by Patrice Lewis via The Organic Prepper blog,

I have a little fantasy which I’ll tell you about it in a moment. First, let me digress to an article I read several years ago. I regret I don’t remember enough details to do an internet search on it, but here’s the gist:

A man committed some sort of misdemeanor crime. He retreated to his rural home and stubbornly refused to appear in court. Rather than instigate what could easily become an armed standoff, authorities informed the man he would be arrested the moment he set foot off his property.

They cut off his water. They cut off his power. (I don’t know if they cut off his mail.)

And yet – he and his family stuck it out for TEN YEARS. For ten years, they were entirely self-contained and made no outside trips at all. After that ten years, the authorities apparently decided the man had been sufficiently “punished” for whatever crime he committed, and lifted the injunction. Then, and only then, did he emerge from his self-imposed exile.

I must admit – putting aside whatever misdemeanor he committed – I have to admire this guy. I’m not saying those ten years were easy or fun. I don’t know how close he or his family came to starving. I don’t know what kind of untreated medical issues they had to deal with. I don’t know how they handled laundry or other sanitation matters.

But they made it. They survived. Whatever your views on this fellow’s shenanigans, you have to admit it was a neat trick.

How does this relate to my fantasy?

Wouldn’t it be something to be completely self-contained for ten years and still manage to stay alive? That said, I’m afraid it will remain a fantasy. I’m currently 58 years old and my husband is 63. We’re in excellent health, but our peak strength is behind us. So, in lieu of being able to self-isolate for ten years, we’re concentrating on becoming anti-fragile instead, a far more achievable goal.

I found the term “anti-fragile” in an American Thinker piece entitled “How to Fight the Woke – and Win” in which the author stated,

“In war, you must always secure your supply lines. One of the Woke’s most powerful weapons is economic pressure, so take that away from them as much as possible. Being anti-fragile will allow you to stand firm when you need to speak the truth.”

The fear of losing everything is very real.

Between the pandemic, potential food shortages, social unrest, and possible economic collapse, we are living in uncertain times. Many people are terrified of the cancel culture, which essentially is a cult of bullies. It’s hard to speak up or fight back when doing so could destroy everything you’ve worked for – your job, your business, your career, your home, your family’s security, even your physical safety.

“My husband has been dealing with this at work for nearly 20 years, and yes, it has recently gotten noticeably worse,” one of my readers said. “We are brainstorming ways to increase the number of income streams that are not dependent on him having the job he currently has, because the conditions are NOT going to improve.”

There are even some warnings about the cancel culture in a cashless society.

Addison Wiggin on the Daily Reckoning wrote, “But there’s another angle to the cashless society that hasn’t gotten much attention:  What if the powers that be can ‘cancel’ people with unpopular political opinions?”

That’s why it’s important to become as “anti-fragile” as possible. The less vulnerable we are, the more we can stand tall and fight back against the bullies.

How can you become less fragile?

Consider these options:

• Can you cultivate multiple income sources? The fear of losing one’s employment is a driving force behind many people’s silence. If you can build up a number of different ways to earn money, then you’re not left destitute if you lose your job.

• Can you reduce your debt? Debt is one of the biggest reasons people cling to jobs in hostile work environments.

• Can you reduce your expenses? Low-cost living is one of the most powerful tools in anyone’s financial arsenal. The fewer expenses you have, the less vulnerable you are to an economic interruption.

• Can you transition to working from home, either full-time or with multiple part-time occupations? The less you have to venture into a hostile society, the better.

• Can you skip college (and its associated student loan debt and insane hostility to American values) and train in the trades or other fields where demand is high? I’ve spent years preaching about the evils of the college industrial complex. Many degrees are worthless in the marketplace  and leave the graduates burdened with massive student loan debt.

• Can you harden your social media position? It’s no accident people are migrating to platforms such as Gab or Parler, which are less likely to discriminate based on political suasions.

• Can you leave the city and move somewhere less chaotic and less expensive? Not only will this be safer, but it may lower your mortgage.

• Can you back up your computer, your blog, your website? This may sound trivial when compared to the above list – until suddenly your computer crashes or is hacked and you lose immeasurable amounts of data. (Trust me on this.)

• Can you grow your own food? In a crashed economy, food becomes currency, and food security means you can’t be extorted by people seeking control over you.

• Can you homeschool? Having control over your children’s education gives them both stability and continuity.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Learn to eat lentils, folks

Obviously these are difficult steps for many people – which, sadly, means they’ll have to continue what they’re doing (shutting up and keeping their heads low). Nor can any of this be done overnight. It takes time to pay down debt or cultivate alternate income streams.

The point is, the more you can become self-sufficient, the less people can tell you what to do, threaten your livelihood, “cancel” your existence, or otherwise bully you into submission. Becoming anti-fragile won’t be easy, but it’s a goal worth striving toward.

This is not a new concept. There’s a story about the Greek philosopher Diogenes. Another philosopher named Aristippus had obtained a comfortable position at the court of the tyrant-king Dionysius. One day, watching Diogenes preparing a humble meal of lentils, Aristippus observed, “If you would only learn to compliment Dionysius, you wouldn’t have to live on lentils.” To which Diogenes replied, “If you would only learn to live on lentils, you wouldn’t have to flatter Dionysius.”

This sums up the tactic of being anti-fragile. Maybe you can’t self-exile for ten years, but at least you can give the middle finger to the cancel culture.

The virus-induced recession has abruptly upended younger millennials (ages 24 to 29) from living on their own, have now moved back home, according to a new survey.

The new survey, commissioned by TD Ameritrade (seen by CNBC), found that out of the 2,000 young millennials surveyed, about 39% are in the process or have already moved back home because of the crushing economic downturn. 

About 15% of the respondents said they’re on financial life-support, with their parents helping to subsidize rent, while another 15% said their parents are covering all rental expenses.

An overwhelming majority (82%) said they don’t want to rely on their parents for financial support, but due to the economic downturn, it seems like many have no other choice.

A crushing recession could be the best thing for millennials. Allows them to move home, save money, pay down pesky auto loans, credit card debt, and student loans. So by the time the next economic upswing starts, their debt loads will be low, allowing them more economic mobility. 

Another reason why millennials should considering moving back is that the recovery stalled in mid/late June, and some cases reversing. A recovery heading south again is bad news for the labor market, as we noted this week, the second round of layoffs is well underway. 

For more color on this, the latest Chase credit and debit card data shows consumer spending activity is well below the baseline and stalled in mid-June.

The stalled recovery has led to a reversal in the labor market with Initial Claims and Continuing Claims now on the upswing. The slowdown in the economy has been widely attributed to rising COVID-19 cases and deaths in Sun Belt states, resulting in much of the country to slow down, pause, or reverse reopenings. 

What this means is that the economic surprise index will likely reverse.  

Young millennials are making the right choice to move home as the crushing virus-induced recession persists. 

Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

High tensions mean communications are often difficult in the modern era, and countries have used a direct hotline as a way to keep things from spiraling out of control. Recently, the US and China are considering an updated version of the hotline to avoid catastrophes.

But US-China relations are at a multi-decade low, and distrust is such that intelligence and military officials are offering rather paranoid predictions of ways that China might abuse the hotline to deceive the US.

The biggest objection to the phone seems to be based on it being a phone, with retired Captain James Fanell, a former director of intelligence in the Pacific Fleet warning the US might feel dependent on the phone, and then have China “fail to answer” when there is a crisis.

“There are those within the government who have long advocated for establishing communications channels with the PLA at the operational levels of command, in the belief this would help avert a conflict, especially for cases of accidents at sea or in the air,”  Fanell told The Washington Times.

“I am not sure how effective such a communications channel would be, as [China] may try and make us dependent upon such a protocol but then in the midst of a crisis fail to answer the other end of the line,” he added.

Others suggested China might delay answering the phone in a time-sensitive situation to delay a US reaction to something.

While these are technically possible, it’s hard to imagine the US getting into a fight with China and not attempting to communicate first, whether or not there is a dedicated phone to do so.

Yesterday, we reported that a former Wirecard business partner named Christopher Bauer who likely played a key role in the $2 billion accounting fraud that was exposed in June, precipitating the company’s slide into bankruptcy, had apparently turned up dead in Manila. Or that’s at least what Bauer wanted the world to think.

As the FT’s digging into Wirecard’s sprawling fraud takes its reporters across Southeast Asia, the paper’s intrepid reporters have apparently found a series of suspicious loans to Bauer’s third-party company, an couple other Wirecard ‘payment partners’ that look more like the company was being looted by executives and probable participants in the fraud right before the hammer came down.

That hammer came in the form of KPMG’s independent report, which was, ironically, commissioned by the company under pressure from the media and investors. These loans were made to partner companies in the Dubai, Singapore and Philippines, further complicating, and potentially obscuring, the fraud. Bauer’s former company, PayEasy, and a handful of others named below.

Here’s more from the FT:

Money flowing out of the company accelerated in the months before the collapse. About €155m appears to have been paid out over the first three months of 2020. The bulk of the new loans extended in early 2020 went to Ocap — a Singapore-based company run by a former Wirecard executive whose wife at the time still worked in a senior position at the company. In the first quarter, Ocap received almost €100m, giving it a total debt to Wirecard of €230m, according to a document seen by the FT and two people familiar with the matter. Ruprecht Services, another Singapore-based payments company, received a loan of €40m in the first quarter, lifting its total outstanding debt to Wirecard to €53m, according to a person familiar with the details. It suspended operations this week. The additional lending to the two Singapore-based entities pushed Wirecard’s total loans to business partners in Asia to €870m ($1bn) by March 2020, according to a document seen by the Financial Times. The additional lending came even as KPMG was conducting a special audit at Wirecard in an effort to confirm or refute allegations published in the FT about accounting fraud at the company. Loans also went to Al Alam in Dubai, PayEasy in Manila and Senjo in Singapore — three companies that Wirecard has in the past said processed credit card payments on its behalf in jurisdictions where it did not have its own licences to operate.

Meanwhile, authorities in Singapore have arrested another senior Wirecard executive who allegedly helped the company hide the $2 billion hole in its balance sheet by signing off on fraudulent reports.

Here’s more on that from BBG:

Singapore has accused a director of a local accounting firm of falsifying documents, making its first charges in relation to the scandal surrounding disgraced German payments company Wirecard AG.

R. Shanmugaratnam, a director of Citadelle Corporate Services Pte, was charged with “wilfully and with intent to defraud” falsifying letters to Wirecard, stating that the Singapore firm held tens of millions in euros in escrow accounts, according to charge sheets filed last month and seen by Bloomberg News.

The 54-year-old Singaporean is the first person to be indicted in the city-state over the spectacular collapse of Wirecard, a scandal which has reverberated across the world. The German digital-payments company filed for insolvency in June after saying that 1.9 billion euros ($2.3 billion) previously reported as assets didn’t exist.

The first of the four charges against Shanmugaratnam says that in March 2017, he falsely stated that there was a balance of 177.5 million euros held by Citadelle in an escrow account on Dec. 31, 2016. The other three charges say that in March 2016, he misrepresented that there was 66.4 million euros, 47 million euros and 30 million euros held by Citadelle in three escrow accounts on Dec. 31, 2015.

Singapore was the headquarters of Wirecard’s mostly fraudulent southeast asian business. As far as the loan money goes, our original theory, that Bauer was knocked off by organized criminals nervous about his knowledge of Wirecard’s work with front companies for organized crime.

But since he disappeared in the Philippines and officials apparently haven’t seen a body, we strongly suspect that Bauer may have taken his share of the stolen billion (a large slug worth hundreds of millions of euros) and vanished to live out his days on a beach somewhere (probably in Russia).