Does anyone know if the Monroe Doctrine is still in play?
Just an FYI for y'all. November 22 will be the 60th death anniversary of JFK. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. while riding in a motorcade in Dallas during a campaign visit. Shots rang out as Kennedy’s motorcade turned past the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza, with crowds lining the streets. The driver of the president’s Lincoln limousine, with its top off, raced to nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital, but after being shot in the neck and head, Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. He was 46 years old. A generation of Americans would forever remember where they were when they heard about the president’s assassination, as it would have a profound political and cultural impact on the nation.
From The White House:
The organization makes 30 million mosquitoes a week — all for the purpose of lowering viral infections.
Billionaire Bill Gates funds the world’s largest mosquito factory in Medellín, Colombia — which is part of the World Mosquito Program — and releases “thousands” of altered mosquitoes per week using gelatin capsules, drones, and motorcycles.
Is this what Flynn was talking about a few weeks ago?
LTG (R) Mike Flynn
@GenFlynn This is fair warning to everyone. Be aware of your surroundings at all times.
Some Comments From The Bundestag
Nord Stream debate in the Bundestag: Where is the enemy?
There was a current hour in the Bundestag on Friday about the attacks on Nord Stream. Various guesses have been made as to where the enemy might be located. Michael Maier 02/10/2023 | 10:44 a.m
Nord Stream after the attack Cover images/imago In a current hour on Friday afternoon, the Bundestag discussed the status of the investigation into the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines. In its argument, the opposition referred to the recent article by the American journalist Seymour Hersh, according to which the American government is said to be behind the attacks together with Norway. Both the White House and the CIA as well as the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sharply rejected the report.
The governing parties met the allegations of the opposition speakers from the Left Party and AfD unanimously on the same levels: they questioned Hersh's journalistic credibility; stressed that for security reasons it is better not to say much to the public; said that Russia was the aggressor and finally promised new confidential bodies to better protect the critical infrastructure in Germany. Sebastian Fiedler (SPD) said the federal government should think about re-establishing a “protection commission”. A panel of scientists should constantly monitor threats and do so without publicity in order to be able to protect better. With regard to the investigation into Nord Stream, Fiedler said that details specific to the population should not be disclosed so that the "enemies of democracy" do not learn these details either. He called the AfD the enemy of democracy.
Nord Stream Attacks: Who is the Investigator Seymour Hersh? The revelation that the US government is behind the attacks on Nord Stream 2 is the subject of a current hour in the Bundestag. By Michael Maier politics 02/10/2023
Ann-Veruschka Jurisch (FDP) called for the establishment of a "National Security Council" that should act as a "superior early warning system". She said that the main threat to German infrastructure was the excessive "dependence on Russia": "Nord Stream 2 should never have been built." For the FDP, Leon Eckert said that the responsibilities had to be clarified because there was currently damage through natural disasters, the federal states are responsible, but in the case of sabotage the federal government is responsible. Konstantin Kuhle from the FDP said that the perpetrators of the destruction of critical infrastructure in Europe are known: Russia is destroying infrastructure in Ukraine and no longer even conceals its goal, namely the "annihilation of Ukraine". Kuhle went on to say that Russia is trying to undermine democracy in Europe by looking for "specific contacts with advocates" in the institutions, "they are sitting on the fringes," said Kuhle, pointing to the left and the AfD, and saying that you have to look ahead protect the "enemies of democracy in our house". Green Party MP Canan Bayram was cautious about the Hersh article, saying: "We cannot judge the veracity of the story." She warned against hasty judgments. Philipp Amthor (CDU) made particularly derogatory and defamatory remarks about Seymour Hersh. He spoke of the "blog post" of an "85-year-old who received a journalism award 50 years ago". AfD man Tino Chrupalla said the government's silence on the attacks "feeds rumors and conspiracy theories".
Pulitzer Prize Winner: US blew up Nord Stream pipelines Star journalist Seymour Hersh claims that US divers planted explosive devices on the gas pipelines with the help of Norway. Joe Biden was involved. Ukraine 02/08/2023
The Left's Sevim Dagdelen said Hersh's career has made the difference between journalism and government statements clear. She told the Berliner Zeitung: "It is shocking how the US reporter Seymour Hersh is defamed for his research into the terrorist attacks on Nord Stream and urged to disclose his source. It is part of the basics of journalism to protect whistleblowers.” She called for an “international investigation under the auspices of the United Nations”. She said: "Despite Hersh's revelations, the federal government still seems to lack a real will to clarify." The member of parliament Jürgen Hardt from the CDU said in the current hour that he was proud that all the speakers in his parliamentary group were members of the Atlantic Bridge e.V., because he could not remember that the Americans had ever done anything bad. The destruction of a pipeline was unimaginable a few years ago. Shortly before 4 p.m., to the laughter of his group, he asked for the debate to be closed because he had to catch his train to Wuppertal.
PART 2
The White House was concerned that it might be lost, that Germany and Western Europe would stop supplying the weapons we wanted, and that the German Chancellor might put the pipeline back online—that was a big concern in Washington. I would ask Chancellor Scholz a lot of questions. I would ask him what he learned in February when he was with the President. The operation was top secret and the President wasn't supposed to tell anyone about our ability, but he likes to chat, he sometimes says things he shouldn't say.
The Nord Stream 2 gas leak near Bornholm in Denmark. Danish Defense Command Your story was reported in the German media in a rather cautious and critical manner. Some attacked your reputation or said you only had one anonymous source and that it wasn't reliable. How could I talk about my source? I have written many stories based on uncredited sources. If I named anyone they would be fired or worse, jailed. The law is very strict. I've never unmasked anyone, and of course when I write I say, as I've done in this article, that it's a source, period. Over the years, the stories I've written have always been accepted.
How did you check your facts? I worked with the same experienced fact-checkers I used to have at the New Yorker for the current story. Of course, there are many ways to verify obscure information shared with me. The personal attacks on me also miss the point. The point is that Biden has decided to let the Germans freeze this winter. The President of the United States would rather see Germany freeze than Germany possibly stop supporting Ukraine, and that to me is a devastating thing for this White House. The point is also that this can be perceived as an act of war not only against Russia but also against Western allies, especially Germany.
US President Joe Biden (left) with CIA Director William Burns. Samuel Corum/AFP I would put it more simply. The people involved in the operation saw that the President wanted to freeze Germany for his short-term political goals, and that horrified them. I'm talking about Americans who are very loyal to the United States. The CIA, as I put it in my article, works for power, not for the constitution. The political advantage of the CIA is that a president who can't get his plans through Congress can walk the CIA director in the Rose Garden of the White House to plan something secret that's across the Atlantic -- or where anywhere in the world – can meet many people. That was always the CIA's unique selling proposition -- which I have my problems with. But even that community is appalled that Biden has decided to expose Europe to the cold to support a war he will not win. This is nefarious to me.
PART 1
Interview with Seymour Hersh: Joe Biden blew up Nord Stream because he didn't trust Germany
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has published a controversial investigation into the Nord Stream attack. We spoke with him. An interview. interview : Fabian Scheider 02/14/2023 | 10:58 a.m Journalist Seymour Hersh. Everett Collection/imago
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has published an investigation according to which the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines were arranged by the US government with the support of Norway. The US government and CIA, at Hersh's request, have denied his account. Many media outlets have accused Hersh of not disclosing his anonymous source, making his claims unverifiable. Criticism was also formulated that the research was inconsistent. The Berlin publicist Fabian Scheidler spoke to Seymour Hersh for the Berliner Zeitung.
Mr. Hersh, please detail your findings. According to your source, what exactly happened, who was involved in the Nord Stream attack and what were the motives? It was a story that begged to be told. In late September 2022, eight bombs were to be detonated near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, six of which went off in an area that is fairly flat. They destroyed three of the four major Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline has provided Germany and other parts of Europe with very cheap natural gas for many years. And then it was blown up, as was Nord Stream 2, and the question was who did it and why. On February 7, 2022, just over two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, US President Joe Biden said at a White House press conference he held with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the US would stop Nord Stream. Biden literally said: "If Russia invades, there will be no more Nord Stream 2, we will put an end to the project." And when a reporter asked how exactly he planned to do that, since the project was primarily under German control , Biden just said, "I promise we'll be able to do it."
His Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, who was deeply involved in the events of the Maidan revolution in 2014, had made a similar statement a few weeks earlier. They say the decision to shut down the pipeline was made even earlier by President Biden. You write in your report that in December 2021, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called a meeting of the newly formed task force of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, the State Department and the Treasury Department. They write, "Sullivan wanted the group to come up with a plan for the destruction of the two Nord Stream pipelines."
Pipes for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. Stefan Sauer/dpa This group was originally convened to study the problem. They met in a very secret office. Right next to the White House is an office building, the Executive Office Building, which is connected to the White House by an underground tunnel. And at the top is an office for a secretive outside group of advisors called the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. I brought this up to signal to the folks in the White House that I have information. So the meeting was convened to examine what we would do if Russia went to war. That was three months before the war, before Christmas 2021. It was a high level group that probably had a different name, I just called it the Interagency Group, I don't know the official name if there was one. They were the CIA and the National Security Agency, which monitors and intercepts communications, the State Department, and the Treasury Department, which provides money. And probably a few other organizations that were involved. The Joint Chiefs of Staff were also represented. The point was to make recommendations on how to stop Russia, either with reversible measures such as further sanctions and economic pressure or with irreversible, "kinetic" measures, e.g. B. Blasts. I don't want to go into the details here or talk about a specific meeting because I need to protect my source. I don't know how many people took part, do you know what I mean?
In your article, you wrote that in early 2022, the CIA working group reported to Sullivan's "Interagency Group" and said, quote, "We have a way of blowing up the pipelines."
In your article, you wrote that in early 2022, the CIA working group reported to Sullivan's "Interagency Group" and said, quote, "We have a way of blowing up the pipelines."
They had a way. There were people there who knew what we in America call "mine warfare." In the United States Navy there are units that deal with submarines, there is also a nuclear engineering command. And there is a mine squad. The area of underwater mines is very important and we have trained specialists in it. A central location for their education is a small vacation town called Panama City in the middle of nowhere in Florida. We train very good people there and employ them. Underwater miners are of great importance, for example to clear blocked entrances to harbors and blow up things that stand in the way. You can also blow up a specific country's underwater petroleum pipelines. It's not always good things they do, but they work absolutely in secret. It was clear to the group in the White House that they could blow up the pipelines. There's an explosive called C4 that's incredibly powerful, especially at the level they use. You can control it remotely with underwater sonar devices. These sonars emit signals at low frequencies. So it was possible, and that was communicated to the White House in early January, because two or three weeks later, Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland said we could do it. I think that was January 20th. And then the President, when he held the press conference together with the German Chancellor on February 7, 2022, also said that we could do it. The German chancellor didn't say anything concrete at the time, he was very vague. One question I'd like to ask Scholz if I was chairing a parliamentary hearing is this: Has Joe Biden told you about this? Did he tell you then why he was so confident that he could destroy the pipeline? As Americans, we didn't have a plan in place then, but we knew we had the ability to do it.
You write that Norway played a role. To what extent was the country involved - and why should Norwegians do something like that? Norway is a great seafaring nation and they have deep sources of energy. They are also very keen to increase their natural gas supplies to Western Europe and Germany. And that's what they did, they increased their exports. So why not join forces with the US for economic reasons? In addition, there is marked hostility towards Russia in Norway.
The Johan Sverdrup oil field in the North Sea. Carina Johansen/dpa In your article you write that the Norwegian secret service and the Navy were involved. They also say that Sweden and Denmark were informed to some extent, but did not know everything.
I was told: They did what they did and they knew what they were doing and they understood what was going on, but maybe no one ever said yes. I've done a lot of work on this subject with the people I've spoken to. Anyway, for this mission to go ahead, the Norwegians had to find the right place. The divers, who were trained in Panama City, could dive up to 100 meters deep without heavy equipment. The Norwegians found us a spot off the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea that was only 260 feet deep to operate there. The divers had to return to the top slowly, there was a decompression chamber, and we used a Norwegian submarine hunter. Only two divers were used for the four pipelines. One problem was how to deal with the people monitoring the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is monitored very closely, there is a lot of data freely available, so we took care of it, there were three or four different people on it. And what was then done is very simple. For 21 years, our Sixth Fleet, which controls the Mediterranean Sea and also the Baltic Sea, has been conducting an exercise for the NATO navies in the Baltic Sea every summer (BALTOPS, editor's note). We're sending an aircraft carrier and other large ships to these exercises. And for the first time in history, the NATO operation in the Baltics had a new program. A 12-day mine dumping and mine detection exercise was to be conducted. A number of nations sent out mine teams, one group dropped a mine, and another mine group went in search and blew it up. So there was a time when things blew up, and that was when the deep sea divers who put the mines on the pipelines were able to operate. The two pipelines are about a mile apart, they're a little under the seabed silt, but they're not difficult to reach and the divers had practiced. It only took a few hours to place the bombs.
So that was in June 2022? Yes, they did towards the end of the exercise. But at the last minute, the White House got nervous. The President said he was afraid to do it. He changed his mind and issued new orders, giving the ability to remotely detonate the bombs at any time. You do that with a regular sonar, a Raytheon product by the way, you fly over the spot and drop a cylinder. It sends a low-frequency signal, you can describe it as a flute sound, you can set different frequencies. However, the fear was that the bombs would not work if they stayed in the water for too long, which in fact should be the case with two bombs. So there was concern within the group to find the right remedy, and we actually had to reach out to other intelligence agencies, which I intentionally didn't write about.
What do you think were the motives for the attack? The US government was against the pipeline for many reasons. Some say she opposed it because she wanted to weaken Russia or to weaken relations between Russia and Western Europe, particularly Germany. But maybe also to weaken the German economy, which is a competitor to the US economy. High gas prices have prompted companies to relocate to the US. What is your take on the US government's motives? I don't think they've thought this through thoroughly. I know that sounds strange. I don't think Secretary of State Blinken and some others in the government are deep thinkers. There are certainly people in American business who like the idea that we are becoming more competitive. We sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) at extremely high profits, we make a lot of money from it. I'm sure there were some people who thought, Boy, is this going to give the American economy a long-term boost. But in the White House, I think they've always been obsessed with re-election, and they wanted to win the war, they wanted to get a victory, they wanted Ukraine to somehow magically win. There might be some people who think that maybe it's better for our economy if the German economy is weak, but that's crazy. I think we got caught up in something that won't work, the war won't end well for this government.
How do you think this war could end? It doesn't matter what I think. What I do know is that there is no way this war will end the way we want it to, and I don't know what we will do as we look further into the future. It scares me that the President was willing to do something like this. And the people running that mission believed that the President was aware of what he was doing to the people of Germany, that he was punishing them for a war that wasn't going well. And in the long run, this will not only damage his reputation as President, it will also be very damaging politically. It will be a stigma for the US.
Is Abbott WEF?
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is considering new elections in the state's Harris County after it was discovered that a shortage of ballot paper was more widespread than officials had estimated it to be.
On Tuesday, Abbott said the shortage was so much larger than initially believed that it "may have altered the outcome of elections." "It may necessitate new elections," the governor tweeted. "It WILL necessitate new LAWS that prevent Harris Co. from ever doing this again." An analysis of equipment and voter turnout records conducted by local news outlet KHOU 11 found that 121 voting centers lacked sufficient ballot paper needed to cover voter turnout—more than double the number of centers that Harris County estimated to be affected. The county had previously said 46 to 68 centers ran out of their allotted ballot paper.
In a statement sent to Newsweek, the Texas secretary of state's office said that it was first notified of the alleged improprieties in Harris County shortly after Election Day in 2022 and that the information was referred to the Texas attorney general's office and the Harris County district attorney's office for investigation.
Because Harris County is already subject to additional post-elections audits, the secretary of state's office said that "we have been collecting even more information to ultimately provide the public with greater clarity on the root causes of the issues witnessed in Harris County during the 2022 General Election." The Harris County Elections Administration released a preliminary report last month acknowledging the difficulties on Election Day, but said that a full analysis will take months to complete. It did not provide an explanation for why voting centers ran out of ballot paper.
Abbott's call to legislate new measures to prevent a paper shortage on Election Day was applauded by other Republicans, like the Harris County Republican Party (HCRP) and Arizona's former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who called on election officials in her state to do the same.
"Your turn, @maricopacounty," Lake's campaign tweeted on Wednesday. Lake, who lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes, has continued to refuse to accept the results of the November election, even after she exhausted all her viable legal options to overturn the results of the election. In December, a lower court judge ruled against Lake's lawsuit seeking to be declared the winner of the gubernatorial election.
However, Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor at the University of Houston, told Newsweek that while the elections in Texas have problems, calling for an election re-do would be "a dramatic and largely unprecedented step considering the scope of the mistakes made in Harris County."
A lot of info here......
U.S. Election Software Company Previously Built Confucius Institute 'Communication Platform' Konnech Inc., creator of the 'PollChief' software used by 'thousands of Election Offices across North America' built ChineseBrief.com for the Confucius Institute.
https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/us-election-software-company-previously
A lot of info here......
U.S. Election Software Company Previously Built Confucius Institute 'Communication Platform' Konnech Inc., creator of the 'PollChief' software used by 'thousands of Election Offices across North America' built ChineseBrief.com for the Confucius Institute.
https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/us-election-software-company-previously
Read some of comments, interesting
A lot of info here...... U.S. Election Software Company Previously Built Confucius Institute 'Communication Platform' Konnech Inc., creator of the 'PollChief' software used by 'thousands of Election Offices across North America' built ChineseBrief.com for the Confucius Institute.
https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/us-election-software-company-previously
A lot of info here......
U.S. Election Software Company Previously Built Confucius Institute 'Communication Platform' Konnech Inc., creator of the 'PollChief' software used by 'thousands of Election Offices across North America' built ChineseBrief.com for the Confucius Institute.
https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/us-election-software-company-previously
It's Reuters, has to be a lie!
Donkey Cox
Wow! Looks like we now have a Star Chamber in DC. Hope Bannon hits hard.
Wasn't it the Romney, Ryan and Pence Trio. Trump was supposed to be removed and Pence would be POTUS, Ryan VP. If I remember right, the plot was discovered by emails.
Also came across this review of "200 Years Together", found it very interesting.
Ed Richardson 1 year ago “Two-Hundred Years Together” is awesome, and it’s no surprise to me that an English print has been a long-time coming, liberals would oppose this getting out until the end. He is as objective as it gets about Jews, you never hear the sound of an axe grinding. Being a big-time student of the Bolshevik Coup of 1917 (excuse me, “Russian Revolution”) is, of course, Jewish involvement. He explains how the Zionist parties were initially not revolutionary but that changed via Jewish student upheaval (it’s always young moron college kids). This was a major eye-opener. We’re all familiar w/ the Kaiser’s train of Lenin and his 30 Bolsheviki, funded with the equivalent of tens of millions to church out propaganda and buy the support of Latvian rifle guards that would become the thugs of the armed wing of the Bolshevik Party, what we never hear about is the SECOND TRAIN:
“Take those two famous trains that crossed hostile Germany without hindrance and brought to Russia nearly 200 prominent individuals, 30 in Lenin’s and 160 in Natanson-Martov’s train, with Jews comprising an absolute majority (the lists of passengers of the ‘exterritorial trains’ were for the first time published by V. Burtsev).[32] They represented almost all Jewish parties, and virtually all of them would play a substantial role in the future events in Russia. Hundreds of Jews returned from the United States: former emigrants, revolutionaries, and draft escapees – now they all were the ‘revolutionary fighters’ and ‘victims of Tsarism’. By order of Kerensky, the Russian embassy in the USA issued Russian passports to anyone who could provide just two witnesses (to testify to identity) literally from the street. (The situation around Trotsky’s group was peculiar. They were apprehended in Canada on suspicion of connections with Germany. The investigation found that Trotsky travelled not with flimsy Russian papers, but with a solid American passport, inexplicably granted to him despite his short stay in the USA, and with a substantial sum of money, the source of which remained a mystery.*33+) On June 26 at the exalted “Russian rally in New York City” (directed by P. Rutenberg, one-time friend and then a murderer of Gapon), Abraham Kagan, the editor of Jewish newspaper Forwards, addressed Russian ambassador Bakhmetev “on behalf of two million Russian Jews residing in the United States of America”: “We have always loved our motherland; we have always sensed the links of brotherhood with the entire Russian nation…. Our hearts are loyal to the red banner of the Russian liberation and to the national tricolor of the free Russia.” He had also claimed that the self-sacrifice of the members of Narodnaya Volya *literally, The People’s Will, a terrorist leftwing revolutionary group in Tsarist Russia, best known for its assassination of Tsar Alexander II, known as ‘the Tsar Liberator for ending serfdom+ “was directly connected to the fact of increased persecution of the Jews” and that “people like Zundelevich, Deich, Gershuni, Liber and Abramovich were among the bravest.”*34+
And so they had begun coming back, and not just from New York, judging by the official introduction of discounted railroad fare for ‘political emigrants’ travelling from Vladivostok. At the late July rally in Whitechapel, London, “it was found that in London alone 10,000 Jews declared their willingness to return to Russia”; the final resolution had expressed pleasure that “Jews would go back to struggle for the new social and democratic Russia.”*35”
The FDR State Dept was utterly overrun with communist spies, passports for Jewish communists were no big deal, the WARE GROUP was part of that underground network. Also, the US was backup for Bolshevik demons if they lost the civil war, they could seek refuge there.
Nice part where he names some big names:
“However the fact is proven: Jewish renegades have long been leaders in the Bolshevik Party, heading the Red Army (Trotsky), the VTsIK (Sverdlov), the two capitals (Zinoviev and Kamenev), the Comintern (Zinoviev), the Profintern (Dridzo Lozovski) and the Komsomol (Oscar Ryvkin, and ‐ later Lazar Shatskin, who also headed the International Communist Youth).”
And just to show the enormity of the actions of these Jewish renegades:
M. Agursky rightly points out: for a country where it was not customary to see Jews in power, what a contrast! “A Jew in the presidency of the country… a Jew in the Ministry of War… There was there something to which the ethnic population of Russia could hardly accustom itself to.”18 Yes, what a contrast! Especially when one knows of what president, of what minister it was! The first major action of the Bolsheviks was, by signing the peace separated from Brest Litovsk, to ‐ cede to Germany an enormous portion of the Russian territory, in order to assert their power over the remaining part. The head of the signatory delegation was Ioffe; the head of foreign policy, Trotsky. His secretary and attorney, I. Zalkin, had occupied the cabinet of comrade Neratov at the ministry and purged the old apparatus to create a new organisation, the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.”
You can find "200 Years Together" here. It can be downloaded in PDF. A very good read, but a long read. See link below:
GameStop Announces Four-for-One Stock Split
July 6, 2022 GRAPEVINE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 6, 2022-- GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) (“GameStop” or the “Company”) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved and declared a four-for-one split of the Company’s Class A common stock in the form of a stock dividend. Company stockholders of record at the close of business on July 18, 2022 will receive a dividend of three additional shares of the Company’s Class A common stock for each then-held share of Class A common stock. The stock dividend will be distributed after the close of trading on July 21, 2022. Trading will begin on a stock split-adjusted basis on July 22, 2022.
https://news.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-release-details/gamestop-announces-four-one-stock-split
https://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article70371.html
I wonder if this has something to do with the situation.
Trial Begins in Gold & Silver Manipulation Case Against J.P. Morgan Official Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022 Jul 10, 2022 - 07:05 PM GMT By: MoneyMetals
Commodities Fears of further Fed tightening continue to weigh on metals markets.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its most recent policy meeting. As CNBC reported, central bankers remain fixated on inflation.
CNBC Reporter: The minutes of the latest Fed meetings show that officials agreed that another rate hike of 50-75 basis points would likely be appropriate at its meeting later this month. Officials also acknowledge that there could be an even more restrictive stance that could be appropriate if inflation remains high. Now, the minutes show that Fed officials were worried about inflation becoming entrenched, that was debated several times in this document. Many participants viewed that as a significant risk.
The Fed has abruptly pivoted from insisting inflation is transitory to scrambling to prevent it from becoming entrenched. But worsening economic conditions may force it to pivot abruptly again to try to stave off a recession.
FOMC policymakers didn’t mention the “R” word in their latest statements. But markets are now pricing in an 85% chance of a recession. Data to come may confirm that we are already in one.
But as usual, the Fed will find itself behind the curve and late to act.
Among the indicators flashing recession warnings is the copper price. Often referred to as “Dr. Copper,” the industrial metal tends to have a better forecasting track record than most Ph. D economists.
Copper prices have plunged more than 30% from their spring highs. Although they did rally strongly on Thursday, the magnitude of the decline suggests that industrial demand and therefore economic output is heading down.
As for gold, it tends to be much less economically sensitive than base metals. It can even move in the opposite direction during recessions.
Despite strong, sustained demand for physical bullion, the paper trading markets for precious metals continue to be dominated by institutional short sellers. The ongoing suppression of gold and silver prices is causing physical investors to feel frustrated – perhaps even cheated.
These markets have often been the targets of organized manipulation schemes. But some of the bad guys have been caught red handed and now face being brought to justice.
This week brought some major developments in metals market manipulation cases.
On Wednesday, a U.S. appeals court upheld the 2020 fraud convictions of two Deutsche Bank futures traders. The traders had placed "spoof" orders for precious metals contracts, generating phony market action to manipulate prices in their favor.
And on Thursday, the trial of one of the most powerful players in the paper gold market kicked off. Former JPMorgan Chase managing director Michael Nowak stands accused of generating hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from fraudulent precious metals trades.
Using spoofing and other tactics to manipulate futures markets, Nowak allegedly helped enrich J.P. Morgan's top clients at the expense of small traders. Prosecutors charge him and two colleagues with running a criminal enterprise.
The trial could expose some of the banksters’ most closely guarded secrets. They have a long history of engaging in shady practices to dominate futures markets.
According to Bloomberg, J.P. Morgan controls three times as many precious metals derivative contracts as the next biggest player. If the mega bank were forced to relinquish its market dominance, it could be a game changer for price discovery in metals contracts.
But for now, J.P. Morgan continues to throw its weight around in gold and silver markets on a daily basis. And it continues to fuel suspicions that it is keeping an artificial lid on prices.
Gold and silver investors would be wise to steer clear of futures markets and derivative products that are controlled by large financial institutions. There are no paper substitutes for physical metal. And the fewer people who play in the rigged financial casinos, the less control the big banks will be able to exert on prices.
Turning to current market conditions in the U.S. retail bullion market, premiums have not yet risen in response to overwhelming demand over the past week triggered by the latest market correction -- but that could change soon if the bargain hunting persists. With only a couple exceptions, there are no shipping or processing delays at Money Metals.
Meanwhile, bureaucrats at the dysfunctional U.S. Mint have again fallen flat on their faces, this time with respect to 2022 Gold Eagle production. Poor planning at the government institution will lead to shortages of nearly all types of gold Eagle coins -- and higher premiums as well.
Money Metals continues to encourage customers to steer clear of gold and silver Eagles and choose from the many other more cost-effective ways to accumulate precious metals. There’s really no good reason to tie up good money in high premium items when there are so many other great options available – whether it be coins minted by other sovereign mints, or privately minted rounds and bars.
By Mike Gleason
NATO will be trashed. Putin will clean Europe. US Military will clean USA. Just my 2 cents. UN will be dissolved! CFR will disappear!
I may be wrong, but wasn't this bio lab shit signed into law by HWB in 1992. Another act of the Bushies.
I have been looking for the last two years also, only dated 2017. Until last week, I got a couple of fives dated 2021 and signed by Janet Yellen.