Month: January 2025

It has not even been two days since the Washington Post published its attempt to manipulate the dollar lower by claiming, falsely, that Trump intends to water down his sanctions, when moments ago the dollar soared on what is most likely another piece of fake news – and also just as likely another attempt by hedge fund “sources” to manipulate the FX market – when CNN reported that Trump “is considering declaring a national economic emergency to provide legal justification for a large swath of universal tariffs on allies and adversaries.” And unlike the WaPo’s “three” so-called sources, in the quest for anonymous BS supremacy CNN went to cite a whopping “four sources familiar with the matter.”

According to the report, which is likely just as “real” as the WaPo’s fake news, the emergency declaration will allow Trump – who is pursuing a rebalancng of global balance of trade in his second term – to construct a new tariff program by using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, known as “IEEPA,” which unilaterally authorizes a president to manage imports during a national emergency.

Trump, one of the sources noted, has a fondness for the law, since it grants wide-ranging jurisdiction over how tariffs are implemented without strict requirements to prove the tariffs are needed on national security grounds.

“Nothing is off the table,” said a second source familiar with the matter, acknowledging the robust discussion over declaring a national emergency that has taken place.

Of course, none of this is actually news! But sadly algos have a 15 millisecond memory so it all sounds exciting and grandiose to them. In 2019, Trump used IEEPA to threaten a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports that would rise to 25% if Mexico declined to take action to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border with the United States. After Mexican officials traveled to Washington for a week of in-person negotiations – and an agreement was reached to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy – the tariffs were never implemented. But the specter of the potential action, predicated by a national emergency Trump had declared on the southern border three months earlier, led prominent business lobbying groups like the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable to prepare lawsuits challenging the legality of such a move.

Trump’s advisers are evaluating the possibility of using section 338 of US trade law, which allows a president to impose “new or additional duties” against countries deemed to be discriminating against the commerce of the United States. In those cases, trade law permits the president to impose new tariffs in direct reciprocation against those countries in specific product categories – though it’s been untested in recent history.

They’re also considering revisiting the trade law – known as section 301 – that ushered in Trump’s initial tariffs on China on national security grounds. The Biden administration left the vast majority of Trump’s tariffs in place – and increased tariffs on certain products like electric vehicles – providing a basis for the incoming president to increase or adjust the tariffs as he sees fit. But implementing tariffs under this statute requires a government investigation, and companies affected by the changes often lobby for months to be excluded from the levies.

More importantly, no final decision has been made on whether to declare a national emergency, sources told CNN. Trump’s team is still exploring other legal avenues to buttress the tariffs that Trump pitched on the campaign trail.

“I think the president has broad authority to impose tariffs for a variety of reasons, and there are a number of statutory bases to do so,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade attorney who served as Trump’s deputy assistant for international economic affairs. “IEEPA is certainly one of them.”

In other words, this is just one camp of anon sources – those who are long the USD – firing back at those who were short the USD ahead of the WaPo fake news report seeking to send the dollar plunging (which they did). And sure enough, the dollar has soared in the immediate aftermath of the WaPo report, with the BBDXY surging 0.6% with cable leading losses; GBP/USD down as much as 1.2% to 1.2334, lowest since April, while UK bond yields rise…

… EUR/USD dropped 0.7% to 1.0273, eyes eyeing the 1.0223 Jan. 2 low…

… while the USD/JPY up 0.3% to 158.55, highest since July; and on the verge of sparking the next round of BOJ intervention.

Ultimately, expect everything to revert to normal as FX traders recall that this kinda of verbal rollercoasters were all the rage for 4 years during Trump’s first admin, only for the new generation of traders and algos, all of this seems so new and exciting, they can’t help themselves but to overtrade on the flashing red headline.

 

 

Victor Davis Hanson said on Monday that he thinks the FBI is “afraid” of the incoming Trump administration over the possibility that their shady dealings will be ‘re-examined.’

Speaking with Fox News on Monday about new evidence released of a suspect in the DC pipe bomb case, the Hoover Institution Senior Fellow told host Laura Ingraham;

“I think they’re afraid the narrative changed over the four years, and they were afraid to release any information during the election. Now they feel that there’s a new administration and there might be some exposure or culpability. They’re afraid that if they were Donald Trump and they had suffered what they did to him, they would be very frightened the way they think,” adding “So they think Donald Trump is going to re-examine a lot of this.”

A new video published by the FBI’s DC Field Office shows a suspect appearing to plant a bomb near the Democratic National Committee.

Hanson went on to call out what he said were the FBI’s “lies,” highlighting the neglect to immediately release Lt. Michael Byrd’s identity after fatally shooting Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot. The senior fellow additionally cited the number of charges brought against attendees of the Jan. 6 attack compared to those not charged during the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots. –Daily Caller

“A lot of the things they said, Laura, were abject lies,” Hanson continued. “There were not four officers killed. There were not 10 people killed. There was only one violent death, we think, and that was a Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt. Then there was no need to hide Officer Byrd’s identity. Anytime an officer lethally shoots an unarmed person in this country, they’re identified. For some reason, they wanted to suppress that.”

Watch:

“They wanted to suppress the FBI video. They wanted to suppress the information about Lynn [sic] Cheney, maybe witness tampering, that’s alleged,” Hanson continued. “They wanted to suppress some of the erosion of the evidence. They didn’t tell us how many people were charged. It ended up [with] 1,500 felony charges. It was [an] almost 75% conviction rate. That never happens. Compare that with the 14,000 people that were arrested in 2020. Almost 90% of them were never charged or indicted. They were released. So there was a lot of things that they want to suppress.”

Via Middle East Eye

The Palestinian Authority (PA) asked the United States to approve a four-year $680m plan to boost the training of its special forces and bolster its supply of ammunition and armoured vehicles, an American source and a source close to PA revealed to Middle East Eye.

The request was made in mid-December at a meeting with US security officials at the PA’s Ministry of Interior in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. At the meeting, PA security officials expressed frustration over what they believed was the US’s failure to fulfil its commitments to the authority by replenishing arms supplies and training special forces.

“Authority officials requested in the meeting that their needs for armored vehicles and ammunition be met urgently in light of the difficulty of the clashes and their inability to resolve the situation in the Jenin camp,” a source told MEE.

They also complained that the US had yet to approve funding for renovation works at prisons in Bethlehem and Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The meeting came as the PA launched a crackdown on Palestinian fighters belonging to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin. Fighting in the northern West Bank city, long a bastion of Palestinian resistance, has killed at least eight people, according to local media reports.

One former US intelligence official told MEE that the PA’s request for additional funding and arms made sense because the US has been pressing the PA for months to ramp up security operations in the occupied West Bank. The PA has been critical of the departing Biden administration’s post-war planning for the destroyed Gaza Strip.

Since the summer, the US has tried to bolster coordination with the PA. A think tank panel staffed by former US officials even presented a plan to bring cooperation with the PA’s security forces under the purview of Centcom, MEE reported previously. 

‘Not a happy relationship’

According to Israeli media reports, the US Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, General Michael Fenzel, met with PA officials and reviewed their planning for the raid on Jenin.

The US has provided security assistance to the PA since the 1990s. After the Second Intifada, it established the USSC to train its security forces. While the Jerusalem office is tied to the US State Department, American intelligence agencies and the Defence Department have the most regular contact with the PA’s forces.

“It’s not a happy relationship,” William Usher, a former CIA officer who was based in Israel, told MEE previously. “And has little depth. It’s been reduced at heart to a security relationship.”

Complicating the PA’s request for US weapons, Israel can veto security assistance to the authority. According to Axios, the US asked Israel to approve the aid package in December. The previous Trump administration downgraded ties to the PA and former US security officials expressed doubts the US president would press Israel to approve the aid when he returns to office in late January. 

Fatah-Hamas rift

The PA was borne out of the Oslo peace talks in the early 1990s. Its leadership comes from the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which waged a decades-long violent struggle against Israel. In return for limited self-governance in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, the PLO recognised Israel’s right to exist and renounced armed resistance.

The PA is dominated by the secular Palestinian party, Fatah. In 2007, fighting broke out between Fatah and Islamist Hamas after the latter swept to power in Palestinian legislative elections the year before. In the end, Hamas consolidated its hold over Gaza and Fatah in the occupied West Bank. Efforts to reconcile the two have failed. 

The PA is largely seen as ineffective, corrupt and an Israeli collaborator among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. After the PA renounced armed resistance to Israel, it was unable to deliver a political solution and an independent Palestinian state, while Illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem have soared.

When the Oslo Accords were signed, roughly 250,000 settlers lived in the occupied West Bank. That number has risen to almost 700,000 today, including in the occupied East Jerusalem, which many envision as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Israel regularly conducts unilateral raids in the occupied West Bank, including in Area A, which was set up to be strictly under the PA’s control. Israel has built a sprawling system of barriers and a network of checkpoints that Palestinians must pass through in their daily lives, obliterating any semblance of freedom of movement in the territory nominal under the PA’s control.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the risk from H5N1 avian influenza remains low after the first H5N1 death was recorded in Louisiana on Monday.

“We are concerned, of course, but we look at the risk to the general population, and … it still remains low,” said WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris in a statement to reporters at a Geneva press briefing.

When asked if monitoring of the virus was sufficient in the US, she said “They are doing a lot of surveillance. That’s why we’re hearing about it.”

Over 60 people in the US have contracted bird flu since April, most of whom were farm workers and dairy facility employees, after the virus was found circulating among dairy cattle herds and poultry flocks.

The person who died in Louisiana had contracted H5N1 after exposure to wild birds, and a “non-commercial backyard flock,” officials reported, adding that it’s the only confirmed human case of H5N1 in the state.

There has been no recorded person-to-person transmission of the virus, which was first detected in US dairy cattle in March 2024. It has since been confirmed in at least 80 herds in 16 states.

In November, a teen in British Columbia, Canada was hospitalized with a severe case of bird flu.

As the Epoch Times notes further, health officials have stressed that bird flu is still mainly an animal health issue and that the risk to the public remains low.

On Dec. 18, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency over H5N1, saying the decision was precautionary and because of cases found in dairy cattle. That declaration followed official confirmation that the Louisiana person who developed bird flu was hospitalized.

Several days ago, the CDC announced that it analyzed samples from the Louisiana case suggesting the H5N1 strain mutated and said that the risk of an outbreak in the United States is still low.

“The detection of a severe human case with genetic changes in a clinical specimen underscores the importance of ongoing genomic surveillance in people and animals, containment of avian influenza outbreaks in dairy cattle and poultry, and prevention measures among people with exposure to infected animals or environments,” the agency said.

Federal and state health officials have recommended people stay away from sick or dead animals, avoid contact with wild birds or domestic birds that appear ill or have died, and refrain from consuming raw milk or products containing raw milk.

Authored by Simon Watkins via OilPrice.com,

• The removal of Bashar al-Assad has reignited Western and Eastern plans to control Syria’s oil and gas resources.

• Syria’s strategic position plays a pivotal role in Russian and Chinese plans, including Russia’s “Shia Crescent” strategy and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

• The U.S., Turkey, and other players are positioning themselves to rebuild Syria’s energy infrastructure.

Following the surprise removal on 8 December of President Bashar al-Assad after 53 years of his family’s rule in Syria, long-dormant plans in the U.S. are being dusted off about what will happen next there and who will control it. The plans were drawn up in anticipation that Bashar al-Assad would fall soon after July 2011, a senior energy security source who worked closely with the administration of then-U.S. President Barack Obama exclusively told OilPrice.com.

“At that point [when defectors from the Syrian army formed the Free Syrian Army and began an armed conflict across the country], Washington was certain that he [al-Assad] would fall in a matter of weeks, so they expedited the existing planning for that contingency, as did Russia and Iran, and the European Union too,” he said. “The plans for each included options to support its [Syria’s] production of oil and gas as this was a key source of its revenues,” he said.

“These were to run in parallel with, and support, whichever group finally came out on top after he [al-Assad] was removed from the picture,” he added.

At the time of the outbreak of hostilities in 2011, Syria had been producing around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from proved reserves of 2.5 billion barrels. For a long period before that – prior to the recovery rate dropping off due to a lack of enhanced oil recovery techniques being employed at the major fields — it had been producing nearly 600,000 bpd. Europe imported at least US$3 billion worth of oil per year from Syria up to the beginning of 2011, and many European refineries were configured to process the heavy, sour ‘Souedie’ crude oil that makes up much of Syria’s output, with the remainder being the sweet and lighter ‘Syrian Light’ grade.

Most of this – some 150,000-bpd combined – went to Germany, Italy, and France, from one of Syria’s three Mediterranean export terminals: Banias, Tartus, and Latakia. As an adjunct to this, a multitude of international oil companies were operating in Syria’s energy sector, including the UK’s Shell, Petrofac and Gulfsands Petroleum, France’s then-Total, the China National Petroleum Corporation, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Canada’s Suncor Energy, and Russia’s Tatneft and Stroytransgaz. Syria’s gas sector was at least as vibrant as its oil one, with proved reserves of 8.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, and around 316 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of dry natural gas produced.

After the fighting began in earnest in 2011, the first of the three major options to support the Syrian energy and financial infrastructure for whichever group took over was from the U.S.

This involved moving gas from Qatar through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, then through Syria whereupon it could be moved into Turkey and sold on in the rest of Europe, if resources allowed. The European option involved United Nations peace-keeping monitors in Syria, bringing in hydrocarbons industry experts from the UN Security Council member states, and letting the Qatar-Syria-Turkey, and Iran-Iraq-Syria-Turkey, pipelines develop organically over time. The Russian option focused on resuscitating the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline, moving Iranian, and later Iraqi and Syrian gas into Europe.

However, as al-Assad survived the initial phases of the uprising – crucially supported by the Russian military — he went with the Russian energy and financial option focusing long term on the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline plans shorter-term on the build-out of Syria’s oil and gas infrastructure.

In 2017 this was formalised in a memorandum of understanding that encompassed 40 energy projects, plus the full reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Aleppo thermal plant, the installation of the Deir Ezzor power plant, and the expansion of capacity of the Mharda and Tishreen plants, with a view to re-energising Syria’s power grid and restoring the main control centre for the grid back to Damascus.

Consequently, it was little surprise that early on after al-Assad fled to Moscow a month ago, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov confirmed that his country had been in direct contact with the radical Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), about the future of its energy projects, and of its key military bases across Syria as well. These comprise the naval base at Tartus – Russia’s only Mediterranean port, its Khmeimim air force base near Latakia, and its huge listening station nearby. Aside from these prized assets, there are three other reasons why Syria remains so crucial to Russia’s core geopolitical strategy in the Middle East and globally, as fully analysed in my latest book on the new global oil market order.

• First, it is the biggest country on the western side of the Shia Crescent of Power that Russia had been meticulously developing for years as a counterpoint to the U.S.’s own sphere of influence centred then on Saudi Arabia (for hydrocarbons supplies) and Israel (for military and intelligence assets).

• Second, it offers a long Mediterranean coastline from which Russia can send oil and gas products – or anything else it wanted – from itself or from its allies (notably Iran) for export into major oil and gas hubs in Turkey, Greece and Italy or into Africa.

• And third, it highlighted to other countries in the Middle East and beyond Russia’s willingness and ability to act decisively on the side of the autocratic dynasties across the region.

Aside from denying Russia all these direct benefits (and doing the same for China indirectly) – which has enormous value in itself — the U.S. and its allies also understand the key role that Syria was to play logistically for Russia’s plans to expedite Iran’s long-desired ‘Land Bridge’ and for China’s broader ambitions for its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI).

The Land Bridge – running from Iran across Iraq, and into Syria — was close to being operational by the time al-Assad was removed and would have provided and Russia to exponentially increase weapons delivery into southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights area of Syria. This would have dramatically increased the ability of Iran and its proxies to launch attacks on Israel as part of a broader rolling plan to further destabilise the Middle East. China would also have benefited from the same advantages inherent in a Syrian presence as Russia, particularly as the two countries include the dual-use of airports and seaports by both its civilians and its militaries as part of their standard cooperation agreements across the Middle East, most notably for Iran, Iraq and al-Assad’s Syria.

Additionally complementary to Russia’s previous plans for Syria was the recent announcement of the China-backed US$17 billion Strategic Development Road (SDR) which will create a major transport corridor from Basra in Iraq to southern Turkey (close to the Syrian border), and link in with China’s BRI. The planned linkages between the SDR and China’s BRI would allow Beijing to further build up its own ‘security’ presence across the region and also open the way for synergies with plans for the Land Bridge.

That said, shortly after Russia established contact with the HTS rebel group after al-Assad was removed last month, NATO member Turkey sent its own delegation to Damascus to discuss supplying Syria with electricity and rebuilding its oil and gas sector. Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said his country is studying how to use Syria’s oil and natural gas resources for reconstruction. Given the country’s huge geopolitical importance, it is not surprising that several formerly impeccable senior security and energy sources in Washington, London, and Brussels exclusively told OilPrice.com just after al-Assad’s removal that the sudden – and otherwise inexplicable – success of the Syrian rebels led by HTS was in no small part connected to a massive surge in U.S. and U.K. support for them in the run-up to the coup.

“The U.S. wanted to put Moscow’s and Tehran’s leadership on notice that Washington can easily redraw and restructure borders and regimes in not just the Middle East but also in Eastern Europe, if it wants to,” a senior security source in the European Union (E.U.) told OilPrice.com.

“As he’s [al-Assad] gone now, I can’t see either Washington sitting back and allowing anyone to benefit from this other than the U.S., and if the reconstruction is done in a gradual and inclusive [with Syria’s principal former rebel groups], the outcome may be better than seen elsewhere in the region,” he concluded.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, may have his sights set on a new title: sports franchise owner, according to his father.

In an interview with Times Radio, the outspoken and flamboyant Errol Musk confirmed growing rumors that his son – worth a staggering $400 billion – is interested in buying Premier League club Liverpool.

“I can’t comment on that. They’ll raise the price,” Errol replied when asked by Times Radio about the unconfirmed report. When pressed again, the elder spilled the beans.

“Does your son want to buy Liverpool Football Club?”

“I can’t comment on that. They’ll raise the price.”

Errol Musk confirms that his son, @ElonMusk, is interested in buying Premier League side Liverpool.@KaitBorsay pic.twitter.com/2xcRPH0b6k

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) January 7, 2025

“Oh, yes. But that doesn’t mean he’s buying it,” he replied. “He would like to yes, obviously. Anybody would want to – so would I!” he said. “His grandmother was born in Liverpool, and we have relatives in Liverpool, and we were fortunate to know quite a lot of the Beatles because they grew up with some of my family. So, we are attached to Liverpool, you know.”

Liverpool is presently owned by Fenway Sports Group, an American sports investment firm that acquired the Merseyside club in 2010 for an estimated £300m. Since then, the Reds have thrived under their ownership, clinching both the Premier League and Champions League trophies.

Meanwhile, the $400 billion man has yet to comment on the matter.

Musk has previously spoken glowingly of his grandmother, describing nana Cora Amelia Robinson as an important part of his upbringing in South Africa. Cora was born in 1923 and passed away in 2011 at the age of 87 years old.

“My Nana was one of the poor working-class girls with no one to protect her who might have been abducted in present-day Britain,” Musk wrote on X of his grandmother. “She was very strict, but also kind and I could always count on her. She grew up very poor in England during the Great Depression only to be bombed in WW2,” he added. 

My British grandmother, Cora Amelia Robinson, was an important part of my childhood. She was very strict, but also kind and I could always count on her.

She grew up very poor in England during the Great Depression only to be bombed in WW2. To earn money for food, she cleaned…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2025

According to Musk, his nana didn’t have it easy. “To earn money for food, she cleaned houses, leaving me with a lasting respect for those who do so,” he said.

Upon the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 2013, Musk paid tribute to the “Iron Lady,” referring to her as “tough but sensible and fair like my English Nana.”

The United States is now in the business of sanctioning NATO allies, apparently. The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday hit a top official of the Hungarian government, who is close to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, with punitive sanctions for alleged corruption.

Antal Rogán, who is head of Orban’s cabinet office, is alleged to have facilitated favorable business deals with government-aligned businesspeople. Critics and the opposition have dubbed him “Orban’s propaganda machine”.

US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman at news a conference from Budapest called Rogán “a primary architect, implementer and beneficiary” of systemic corruption in Hungary, a system slammed by the American diplomat as a “kleptocratic ecosystem”.

“For too long, senior government officials in Hungary have used positions of power to enrich themselves and their families, moving significant funds from the public purse into private pockets,” Pressman said. But he also noted Rogan is not the only Hungarian official involved in corruption.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stated Tuesday that Rogan’s activity “is emblematic of the broader climate of impunity in Hungary where key elements of the state have been captured by oligarchs and undemocratic actors.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó hit back by blasting the sanctions as but “personal revenge” on the part of Biden’s outgoing US ambassador.

As for Rogán himself, his office said Hungary is waiting on Trump to improve the relationship and set things aright:

“After January 20, the United States of America will have a new government and a new president. We will take the necessary legal steps after their inauguration.”

Currently, Hungary is locked in a long-running battle with the European Commission (EC) over the release of EU funding. 

A week ago the EC said Hungary lost its ability to receive European Union aid worth some €1 billion over alleged rule of law breaches. European officials had demanded significant ‘democratic reforms’ by close of 2024, which didn’t happen to their satisfaction.

Brussels and Washington have charged Orban also with cozying up to Russia and China, as part of his alleged shedding of democratic principles.

Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

It’s a “scheme of central bankers to subjugate humanity by taking all securities, bank deposits, and property financed with debt.”

David Webb, a former hedge fund manager, and Wall Street insider, has blown the lid off a diabolical plan more than 50 years in the making in a shocking new book.

He calls it The Great Taking.

I consider it an urgent must-read (available for free here).

Here’s the synopsis (emphasis mine):

It is about the taking of collateral (all of it), the end game of the current globally synchronous debt accumulation super cycle.

This scheme is being executed by long-planned, intelligent design, the audacity and scope of which is difficult for the mind to encompass.

Included are all financial assets and bank deposits, all stocks and bonds; and hence, all underlying property of all public corporations, including all inventories, plant and equipment; land, mineral deposits, inventions and intellectual property.

Privately owned personal and real property financed with any amount of debt will likewise be taken, as will the assets of privately owned businesses which have been financed with debt.

If even partially successful, this will be the greatest conquest and subjugation in world history.

Private, closely held control of ALL central banks, and hence of all money creation, has allowed a very few people to control all political parties and governments; the intelligence agencies and their myriad front organizations; the armed forces and the police; the major corporations and, of course, the media. These very few people are the prime movers. Their plans are executed over decades. Their control is opaque.

To be clear, it is these very few people, who are hidden from you, who are behind this scheme to confiscate all assets, who are waging a hybrid war against humanity.

Webb shows how the dark forces behind central banking have spent the last 50 years meticulously putting the legal structures in place worldwide to sever property rights for securities.

Gone are the days of physical paper share certificates and bearer securities, where you had control and ownership of the asset.

Today, your control and ownership have become increasingly distant as stocks, bonds, and other investments have been centralized away from account holders and rehypothecated—a slimy practice where financial institutions reuse an account holder’s asset for their own purposes, creating multiple claims on the same asset.

Contrary to what most brokerage account holders believe, they only have the appearance of ownership. If their broker goes bust, the stocks and bonds they think they own will be used to satisfy the other more senior creditors of their broker.

Webb shows how, during the 2008 financial crisis, a small broker in Florida went bankrupt.

Instead of sending the clients’ securities to another broker, as had traditionally been the case, they were swept up by the bankruptcy receiver.

But it’s not just some isolated small broker.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers set the case law precedent for secured creditors to take client assets in the case of insolvency.

The most senior secured creditors are the most powerful financial institutions closest to the central banks—JP Morgan, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, etc.

The net effect of The Great Taking will be the biggest centralization of money and power in history as they take everyone’s securities during a future crisis.

Though it’s not just securities, they will also take ANY asset financed by debt—like real estate, cars, and small businesses—as people become unable to service their debts.

Webb provides all the details and proof in his book.

Here’s the bottom line.

The most powerful people in the world have succeeded in subverting the property rights of securities and ensnaring most of the world with debt.

The trap has been set, and the legal plumbing is in place.

All that is needed is a big crisis that will cause a tidal wave of bankruptcies, and the hidden forces behind the world’s central banks will be able to take everyone’s stocks, bonds, and any property financed by debt.

All the assets people think they own in brokerage accounts, bank accounts, pensions, and other financial accounts could vanish overnight.

Webb says, “There will be a game of musical chairs. When the music stops, you will not have a seat. It is designed to work that way.”

The Coming Collapse Is by Design

Webb makes a compelling case that the next financial crisis won’t be an accident; the global elite are making it happen to proceed with The Great Taking.

In short, it’s not plausible that such an intelligent, deliberate plan executed with persistence for more than 50 years could happen by accident.

Further, the forces behind central banking and (fake) money creation undoubtedly understand the dynamics of the boom-bust cycle they create by expanding and contracting the money supply.

They know the Everything Bubble they created will lead to a massive bust. That’s when they will execute The Great Taking.

Further, consumer debt is at record highs.

After many years of being encouraged to go deeply into debt, many Americans have reached their maximum debt saturation. They will be ripe for the picking.

As Webb explains:

“Debt is not a real thing. It is an invention, a construct designed to take real things.

The bottom line is that debt has for centuries had the function of dispossessing, of taking away property, capital and investments from someone.”

What You Can Do About It

Nobody knows the future or how The Great Taking will play out. The best you can do is to make yourself a hard target and not be among the low-hanging fruit.

You can do that by being debt-free and owning unencumbered assets within your direct control.

You don’t want to own something that is simultaneously someone else’s liability. That’s because the legal structures are already in place to take it from you during the next crisis.

Crucially, this includes fiat currency in bank accounts.

Remember, fiat currency is the unbacked liability of a bankrupt government.

Further, once you deposit currency into a bank, it is no longer yours. Technically and legally, it is the bank’s property, and what you own instead is an unsecured liability of the bank.

As The Great Taking unfolds, you won’t want to be on the other end of unsecured liabilities or IOUs of any kind.

I believe The Great Taking could happen sooner than most realize—and it won’t be pretty for many.

Most people have no idea how bad things could get—or how to prepare.

That’s why I’ve published a detailed guide called The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years: The Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now.

Click here to download the free PDF.

Three Chinese nationals have been arrested in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with 12 gold bars and $800,000 in cash hidden beneath their vehicle seats, according to the BBC.

According to South Kivu Governor Jean Jacques Purusi, the arrests were kept secret following the recent release of other Chinese nationals accused of illegal gold mining.

Eastern DR Congo, rich in gold, diamonds, and battery minerals, has faced decades of instability due to exploitation by foreign groups and militia control of mines, where leaders profit by selling resources to middlemen.

Governor Purusi revealed the arrests were kept secret due to ties between some metal dealers and powerful figures in Kinshasa. Acting on a tip, authorities discovered gold and cash after a thorough vehicle search near the Rwandan border but did not disclose the gold’s exact quantity.

The BBC report noted that last month, Purusi expressed outrage over the release of 17 Chinese nationals accused of illegal gold mining, stating it undermined efforts to reform DR Congo’s corrupt mineral sector. The group allegedly owed $10 million in taxes and fines. The Chinese embassy has not responded to the claims.

The arrests follow ongoing conflict in North Kivu, where a Rwanda-backed rebel group has seized territory. Last month, DR Congo announced a lawsuit against Apple over “blood minerals,” leading the company to cease sourcing from DR Congo and Rwanda. Rwanda denies involvement in the export of illegal minerals.

“These activities have fuelled a cycle of violence and conflict by financing militias and terrorist groups and have contributed to forced child labour and environmental devastation,” lawyers acting for the Congolese government said.

Authored by Christopher Roach via American Greatness,

The 1992 military justice drama, A Few Good Men, explores a fictional hazing incident involving the U.S. Marines. The main question posed by the film is whether there is a place for unwritten rules and customs, which may technically violate regulations, but may prove necessary for a unique institution like the military to accomplish its mission.

In determining whether the hazing was ordered from higher up, the defense counsel, played by Tom Cruise, cross examines the defendants’ commander, a no-nonsense Marine colonel played by Jack Nicholson. When the attorney insists that he deserves the truth, the colonel angrily responds, “You can’t handle the truth!”

While the colonel is made out to be the bad guy, many of the distortions, omissions, and outright lies from the managerial class are informed by the same ethos, and they think of themselves as the good guys. This type of “noble lying” arises from the governing elite’s belief in its own sophistication compared to the rabble, who would overreact to the truth.

This self-serving justification obscures that officials engaged in narrative control are often more concerned with avoiding embarrassment and accountability than any broader social goal.

Political Correctness Distorts Facts About New Orleans Attack

A few recent events illustrate this phenomenon quite clearly. A man with an ISIS flag on his truck committed a terrorist attack in New Orleans. He ran over pedestrians and then shot it out with police, having earlier announced his intentions on social media. At least 14 people were murdered in the attack.

A third-grade kid could figure out it was Islamic terrorism. Yet agent nose-ring from the FBI and the clownish local police chief would not describe the attack as terrorism in their initial press conference. The media interviewed some of his family but kept calling him American-born and emphasizing his U.S. Army service, lest we think there is anything unusual about an American named Shamsud-Din Jabbar.

Based on photographs, the killer’s appearance sometimes looked African-American and at other times Middle Eastern. When combined with the nature of the attack, this led to a lot of speculation he was Somali or Pakistani.

In multiple stories from the mainstream news, it was impossible to find out if his family had foreign origins or if they had ties to a terror-supporting country. It looked as if the media was trying to hide something, which we have seen many times before.

A local Louisiana paper was the only one to answer this completely natural question. It turns out his parents were natural-born Americans of Louisiana Creole descent, whose father converted to Islam. The father changed his name, presumably to signal commitment to his new faith, and all of his children had similarly foreign-sounding names.

Why the avoidance of facts by the press? Most people know that the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists and that not all of those who become terrorists are foreign-born, as was the case with converts John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla.

Scrutiny about names and origins arouses liberal sensitivities because such inquiries remind us that Islam is a recent and foreign import. Even when its votaries happen to be born here, this foreignness manifests in many lesser ways than terrorism, which exposes real flaws with the dominant ideology of multiculturalism.

Not limited to hiding facts, in New Orleans and in similar attacks, before we are even allowed to be angry, the media repeatedly bludgeons us with stories warning about the dangers of “backlash.” Victims are blamed before they can mourn.

After the Fort Hood attacks by mutinous army officer Nidal Hassan, the general in charge of the U.S. Army said insultingly, “Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”

In spite of these warnings about stereotypes and backlash, there has been almost no significant backlash against Muslims in the United States, even after the 9/11 attacks.

The U.K. Is Similarly Handicapped By Ideology

There has been an even more aggressive media blackout in response to the horrifying rape gangs in the United Kingdom. For years, not only the media, but police, politicians, social workers, and other authorities downplayed the reality of these attacks, blamed victims, and did little to stop the rape of young, native British females by Pakistani immigrant gangs.

The story was back in the news after multiple tweets by Elon Musk about the need for the British government to investigate these matters. As was the case when these stories first came to light in 2014, the media and politicians have been loudly expressing concerns about backlash.

Defending the authorities’ atrocious handling of the matter, British writer Tom Holland said: “The true nightmare of #Rotherham is that the motives of those who turned a blind eye, however monstrous the consequences, were indeed noble.”

In his words, “It wasn’t the indifference that was noble, but the concern not to demonise a minority. Caring for the weak. The Christian thing . . . I think they genuinely didn’t want to give succour to racism against a minority – which was a noble principle.”

There are, in fact, things worse than developing prejudices, not least among them failing to prevent actual child rape. But, in the modern West, whether in the United States or the United Kingdom, authorities are more afraid of being accused of racism than stopping terrorism and child rape. Fear of being accused of racism even contributed to the 9/11 attacks, lest we forget, because the gate agent didn’t want to stereotype the Arab men carrying box cutters.

Real racism has certainly led to abuses, particularly a generation or two in the past. But the left’s mélange of misplaced compassion, anti-working-class prejudice, and social experimentation in the pursuit of anti-racism has done much more harm to everyone in recent years, not least by contributing to the victimization of innocents when the perpetrators are minorities.

Free Speech and Democracy

Under the emerging ethos of safety, authorities treat information and speech as things that must be curated and controlled to prevent the dangers of prejudice. The dominant ideology conceives of the public as parochial, tempestuous, and easily seduced by bad speech. Instead of calling regulated speech what it is—simply ideas they disagree with—censors in the government and the compliant media ominously label it “hate speech” and “disinformation.”

Self-government is not possible if the people are deprived of facts from authorities. Democratic self-government does not even have any obvious value if we also think the voters are too stupid, easily misled, or prone to spasms of emotional hatred to govern themselves.

Far from hateful, Americans, Britons, and westerners in general are remarkably fair-minded. Because of a deep-seated tradition of individualism, we are averse to judging others as part of groups and mistreating them because of the crimes of their coethnics. It is the British Empire, after all, that abolished slavery around the globe, and it is the West that developed the ideals of limited government and the rule of law, which together protect individual rights.

The emerging managerial elite has weaponized this generosity to import maximally alien foreigners in order to increase social conflict; this, in turn, provides support to illiberal and authoritarian plans of social control and social engineering.

The leadership class has no respect for the West, its history, or its people. This is evidenced by their consistent desire to hide the truth and subject our most vulnerable citizens to horrific violence, lest we all “get the wrong idea.” They have forfeited their authority to rule because of their repeated refusal to treat us with candor and protect our most vulnerable citizens.

Contrary to their prejudices, we can handle the truth.