anticlimactic
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US
If a country cold be portrayed as a person then the US is best thought of as a spoiled 6 year old brat who has tantrums if it doesn’t get what it wants. This idiot child never forgives or forgets if it loses and will go to any length to destroy its opponent.
This little psychopath has no concept of how its’ friends could disagree, but is willing to cause them pain if they do.
For Europe it started with the sanctions against Russia. Actually they were also sanctions against Europe as US companies were little affected. Europe is a competitor so harming its’ economy is a benefit. The sanctions regarding Nordstream2 are more obviously anti-European. Now it is Iran which again affects Europe far more than the US. I am sure that soon it will be China that Europe is not allowed to trade with.
While it can be argued that trade with the US is more important than these countries individually, as a whole they will weaken Europe considerably. Over time Europe will become so weak it will be beyond saving.
What can Europe do if the US imposes penalties, etc.
– Withdraw all military forces from the Syrian conflict, or even aid Assad to stabilise Syria and enable the repatriation of the refugees
– Import tariffs on US LPG.
– Cancel all orders of F35s – The Eurofighter is a capable plane and there are still a few aircraft companies left in Europe which could develop new aircraft.
– Leave NATO and form a European organisation. Militarily Europe is ridiculously weak compared to the size of the economy.
– Request the US to withdraw all military forces from Europe. It seems the US is preparing to go to war with Russia and it also seems obvious that in this event Europe is expendable.I still wonder if Trump is being very clever. He wants to create US jobs and by the use of sanctions and trade wars this will happen by necessity! All with the backing of the Deep State and Neocons!
MUELLER
Mueller has spent over a year trying to find Russian collusion and found nothing.
IF he had been doing the same with Israel then almost everything that Russia has been accused of would be true for Israel!
MSM promotes WWIII
Last weekend world war three almost started. Trump was under pressure to mount a massive attack in Syria on such a scale that Russia would have been forced to respond. Thankfully he was persuaded to mount a symbolic attack instead.
Ahead of the attack Russian warships in Syria moved into position and were joined by Chinese warships in the area. Four Russian TU160 bombers were moved to Iran. Along with the S300 and S400 systems in Syria plus other forces Russia would have been in a position to not only defend but to attack.
Russia can easily sink any US warship, including aircraft carriers. What if it had sunk US and allied ships? Would it have escalated and to what level? I think it would have escalated all the way unless the US military command decided to stop the US committing suicide.
Despite this extremely close call Western mainstream media is still pushing propaganda to promote further escalation in Syria. They do not seem to realise that if they succeed then they will die! Their families will die! Their readers will die! They show impressive loyalties to their masters.
I remember reading about a well-respected German journalist who, when he retired, said that if he had not followed CIA ‘guidance’ he would have lost his job. Certainly the media is being coordinated by someone.
Western media is now so full of propaganda that it is not worth reading. They need to realise that the stakes are far higher than they seem to think.
TESLA
Two business partners were talking. One complained that they lost money on everything they sold. His partner said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll make it up on turnover.’
This is supposed to be a joke. For Tesla it seems to be a business plan!
Perhaps Tesla should register as a charity as it seems to be totally dependent on donations to keep it going.
When I read about Tesla I keep thinking ‘DeLorean’!
SYRIA
My real worry last week was that the attack on Syria would be massive and also targeting the Russians. One article suggests that it was Mattis who stopped it being just that. Had the Russians been forced to respond by, say, sinking US ships then I am sure it would have escalated to a final conclusion.
This is serious, and I feel sure it hasn’t ended. It is claimed the white helmets have supplied several canisters of chlorine gas to various terrorists so another incident can be arranged at any time. If Mattis gets sacked worry a lot!
There appears to have been no chlorine attack according to local medical staff. The Russians claim to have definite proof that the UK contacted the white helmets in advance of the ‘attack’ urging them to hurry up with their propaganda video.
Many wonder how the Germans during WWII could ignore what was going on in the death camps. Well western interference in the Middle East has now resulted in around two million deaths of mainly innocent people and few seem to care. It is exactly the same.
It will be interesting to see if Russia supplies S300 systems to the Syrian government. A suggestion which really upsets the Israelis! There are already two Russian freighters heading to Syria laden with tanks and other equipment.
The US forces in Syria are supposed to be fighting ISIS, but I can not remember any incident when they actually attacked them. One ‘attack on ISIS’ in a Syrian city meant destroying the local power station! In Mosul an ‘attack on ISIS’ was claimed as being carpet bombing the town. US bases in northern Syria peacefully co-exist with ISIS bases.
It appears that for the first time in ages a US regime change operation has been thwarted and some powerful people are incensed by the fact and will risk everything to stop it. I expect something bad to happen which will disrupt the football world cup.
SYRIA
It gets much much worse!
Now there is talk of involving France and Britain. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ‘on board’ with the US.
There is talk of ‘regime change’ in Syria which would mean taking out the Syrian government AND the Syrian army AND probably the Russian S400 systems and aircraft.
It sounds like it will be a truly major assault, and may even include Iran and Lebanon.
Qatar has the largest US airforce base in the Middle East, plus there is Incerlik in Turkay and Allied bases in Cyprus.
The US would love to disrupt the Football World Cup, but are they insane enough to do so by provoking a war with Russia.
Hopefully I am just being overly paranoid.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-10/saudis-prepare-regime-change-syria
SYRIA
What worries me most is that the US will do something so stupid that Russia will be forced to respond. If Russia does respond I think it means they are prepared to go all the way.
I notice in Trump’s accusations about the chemical atack [that probably did not happen] he mentions Russia and Iran as being complicit. Hopefully his attack will be limited and rational.
I was relieved when Hillary lost the election as it seemed the threat of nuclear war had receded. Now we are back on the brink again – for no real reason.
Russia, China, Iran and North Korea simply want to be peaceful trading nations AND to be left alone. Unfortunately unless they become US vassals the last part does not seem to be acceptable.
It takes so little to destroy civilisation. They reckon two EMP explosions over Europe would be enough to fry all the electronics and possibly take out the power grids. With no transport, communications, food and water, and little possibility of help, most people will die.
If civilisation ends it will be almost impossible to rebuild as all the resources that made it possible have been used up and the remaining resources are far more inaccessible.
What is so frustrating is that it is all pointless. The US feel they can kill/destroy anything without fear of response. The lack of response is thought of as weakness rather than restraint.
They will keep up the provocation until they get a response then blame the other so they feel justified in escalating the situation.Hopefully we will still be alive in a month’s time.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Don’t worry folks, the ‘greenhouse effect’ doesn’t exist! It is easy to show :
Take the Sahara desert – the temperature can change by 40C in a day, a round trip of 80C in a 24 hour period! Absolutely no sign of a ‘greenhouse effect’.
By contrast Brazil, a comparable distance from the equator, only changes a few degrees during a whole day. The only difference is the amount of water vapour whose effect is so huge everything else is miniscule by comparison.
Clouds act as an insulator – reflecting sunlight during the day and preventing warming, and trapping heat overnight preventing cooling.
Worried about methane? Don’t be. It has the same absorption as water vapour so any effect is drowned out. Also it is highly flammable so is unlikely to last in the atmosphere for any length of time.
Worried the oceans can’t absorb enough CO2? Don’t be. At higher levels it reacts with the chemicals in seawater to form insoluble carbonates which sink to the seabed. There is no limit.
Worried the land can’t absorb enough CO2. Don’t be. CO2 is an essential part of plant growth – the more CO2 the better plants grow.
What to worry about : global cooling. Global temperatures are expected to be fairly flat until 2035 when cooling is expected, possibly quite severe.
The bronze age warm period [Greek civilisation flourished] was warmer than the Roman warm period [Roman empire flourished] , which was warmer than the medieval warm period [European population flourished], which was warmer than our current warm period. A sequence of lower highs suggests the next downturn in global temperature could be more severe than the Little Ice Age, when a significant proportion of the European population died.
Finally, I must point out that humans produce only 3.5% of the annual CO2, so even cutting annual levels of CO2 by 1% would have a massive effect on quality of life. Don’t expect renewables to save us – it is just a scam. If it needs a subsidy it is not ‘renewable’.
Facebook is nothing special.
We know Google takes information from all its products to create a very detailed profile of everyone. I would assume Twitter does the same and I am sure there are others.
We know all operating systems have back-doors for the US government [possibly excluding Linux].
We know all Android and Apple phones record our GPS locations and upload them.
We know all our phone conversations are recorded.
There were a few articles about how intrusive Windows 10 was at looking at your data and uploading information, although previous operating systems are also suspect.
You must suspect that anything in the cloud is available to ‘other’ people.
I know my Yahoo emails have been read by them. I doubt this is unique.
We know all the websites we access are recorded to give a unique fingerprint, even if you switch to VPN.
Most, if not all, of these organisations will freely share information with the US government.
Another aspect of this is that most of the leaders of these organisations support the Democrats and are willing to use their influence to suppress alternative views. Most notably in recent times Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
Welcome to your world!
FACEBOOK
Although this article is 3 years old it covers recent events with Facebook.
A Very Disturbing and Powerful Post – “Get Your Loved Ones Off Facebook”
Does Novichoks Exist?
When Putin decided to destroy all Russia’s chemical weapons and manufacturing facilities it was carried out under the supervision of the OPCW. Novichoks was not listed. Considering that Putin found chemical weapons morally repulsive it is unlikely that any were hidden.
The only ‘existence’ of Novichoks is from a book by a Russian dissident called Vil Mirzayanov. In 2016 Dr. Robin Black, who had worked at Porton Down, wrote ‘No independent confirmation of the structures or properties of such compounds has been published’.
Okay, so how did Porton Down identify Novichoks when its’ only ‘proof’ of existence is from a book by a Russian dissident?
The UK is sending a sample to the OPCW but they have no information to compare it to! If OPCW confirms it is Novichoks then you know the organisation has beeen corrupted.
It would also explain why the UK is loathe to follow the treaty and send a sample to Russia.
New evidence has left Theresa May’s Russian spy story in tatters
Krill and overfishing
I have never understood why overfishing has become such a problem.
Fish lay thousands of eggs but most of these are eaten by predators. Then the fry join the plankton and again suffer further predation.
It would seem to be simple for the fish to be taken from the wild and their eggs and fry protected until they pass the point when 99% of predation has been avoided when they can be released back into the sea.
I had thoughts of a converted oil tanker where they could mate naturally, or milk them of eggs and milt and mix them in a large bucket!
We already do this with other fish, like salmon. It is not rocket science!
I can go to my local fish and chip shop and buy cod roe, or go the local supermarket and buy taramasalata. Cod eggs seem plentiful so why not turn them into cod?
Skripal poisoning
When you have exotic assassinations then you need to be suspicious.
[1] Russian nerve agent used
[2] Ex Russian spy so suggests Russia
[3] QED!As Russia pointed out, stocks of the nerve agent could still exist in ex-Soviet countries such as the Ukraine, and the UK security forces had the recipe so could make their own batch.
When you want to kill someone you usually want to cover your tracks, not use an ‘It was me!’ method! It’s like a mugger having their address printed on their t-shirt!
Litvinenko :
The story is that polonium was transported unshielded on a public plane in an easily traceable way rather than shielded via a diplomatic pouch. In fact ‘evidence’ could have been added at any point. Also why polonium rather than a less detectable method. It is almost as if someone wanted the most newsworthy story.
In both cases you have to assume the Russian government is totally incompetant using bizarre methods which points the finger at them! Russia does not strike me as being a ‘Keystone cops’ kind of organisation.
The whole storyline is unbelievably ludicrous, except for the Western media of course, which has the credulity of a 6 year old.
Fukushima
Yes, I was out by a factor of 10 and it is only the plutonium 239 which has a half life of 24,000 years. So only potentially dangerous for a 100 thousand years or more.
I think the ‘6 grams’ comes from a suggestion by Ralph Nader that one pound of plutonium dust in the atmosphere was enough to kill 8 billion people, but a more realistic estimate is only around 2 million people – lung cancer from inhalation mainly.
This still does not alter my opinion that Fukushima is a global disaster and it should have had all resources required and all the experts needed to stop it happening as soon as possible.
Fukushima
This is a global disaster but is being treated like an ‘unfortunate incident’.
The reactors had recently been converted to MOX [mixed oxides – a combination of uranium and plutonium].
I did read that 6 grams of plutonium was enough to kill everyone in the UK. Also it has a half-life of 250,000 years so will be in the environment for millions of years.
On a related note – I have recently been wondering about the effect of intercepting incoming nuclear missiles, each one containing several kilograms of plutonium which would burn up in the atmosphere and be distributed over a wide area.
Litvinenko
When you have exotic assassinations then you need to be suspicious. The article below suggests that
[1] Litvinenko was accompanied at the cafe by a criminal who was known to sometimes work for the CIA.
[2] Litvinenko was desperate for money and was trying to blackmail Russian oligarchs and the Russian Mafia
[3] Litvinenko is thought to have smuggled nuclear materialsThree ways to die!
The newest assassination is also suspicious :
[1] Nerve agent suggest a government involvement
[2] Ex Russian spy so suggests Russia
[3] QED!In both cases you have to assume the Russian government is totally incompetent using bizarre methods which points the finger at them!
RUSSIAGATE
If the US media keep saying that Rusiagate is true then it means the CIA and FBI have failed badly, and apparently continue to do so.
Surely Trump needs to sack senior leaders in these organisations for their utter incompetence!
MACEDONIA
Another example of how Soros is running Europe. He sponsored the political party now in power and they are pursuing US requirements that Macedonia joins the EU and NATO.
The main issue is to get round Greece’s objections. According to the article I read plan A is a name change which will remove Greece’s veto. Plan B is to split up Macedonia and divide it between surrounding countries.
“US will overtake Russia as top oil producer by 2019”
Errm! Well, yes and no.
I have seen a few convincing articles arguing that it takes more energy to extract oil and gas from shale than the well actually produces, and that in effect they are Ponzi schemes.
Fracking has been used hundreds of thousands of times over the past 60 years and is standard practice for any oil and gas recovery, however they are usually dealing with large deposits whereas shale fracking is creating small pockets. Initial output can be large but rapidly diminishes.
THE U.S. SHALE OIL INDUSTRY: Swindling & Stealing Energy To Stay Alive
It is surprising how much US wealth is based on the value of companies which seem to have no prospect of ever producing a profit!
‘We Can’t Continue to Run the World’
Spelling mistake! It should be ‘We Can’t Continue to RUIN the World’
LONDON BUSES
The NYT completely fails to understand how London transport works. It is a superb example of how to privatise services but keep control for minimum cost.
Transport for London [TfL] control all bus routes and timetables, and take all the fares. Bus companies can bid to run a particular route for a number of years. This competitive bidding minimises their profits. If you look at the red buses in my area you can see that they may be operated by half a dozen bus companies or more, but the bus system is a single integrated London wide operation.
TfL also operate the tubes and in recent years the urban rail services, plus the Docklands Light Railway and some riverbus services. It runs like a nationalised integrated service but utilises a great many private companies.
It would be an ideal model for Jeremy Corbyn to use to re-nationalise British Rail : create a national timetable then have companies bid to run services, possibly down to individual train sets.
The Memo
One of my tests is whether people would feel the same if the situation was reversed. So if the GOP had acted with the FBI in the same way that the DNC did, would the Democrats accept it as reasonable behaviour?
I suspect not.
The worst aspect of this ‘Get Trump’ campaign is that it has taken us to the brink of nuclear war with Russia. It is worse than the cold war ever was as then there was always excellent communications between the US and Russia on the military and government level to ensure nothing happened by accident. Any suggestion that this should happen now is cried down.
It is strange that the Western media is so keen to get us into a nuclear war as most of them and their families would die. All just to cause some problems for Trump. Is this really worth it?
KURDS
“Free Democratic Party (FDP) MP Graf Alexander Lambsdorff also expressed sharp criticism of the Turkish action against the Kurds in Syria. “This invasion is not legitimized by international law. There is no mandate from the United Nations and it is not self-defense. All states should call on Turkey to end the campaign and ask them to work on a political solution instead.””
What a creep! What a vile human being! No murmer that the US presence has no UN mandate in Syria and in itself constitutes a war crime. No complaint that the US is trying to continue war in Syria by arming the Kurds. Also there are strong claims by Russian media that the US are training the remnants of ISIS in the south.
Another thing he may ponder : Turkey has 3.5 million Syrian refugees. There are two options : Stabilise Syria and repatriate them or send them on to Europe. Which is better for Germany?
Is it possible to truly ‘steal’ Bitcoins?
Every Bitcoin has a complete record of previous owners, so for Mt Gox for example it should be possible to find out which accounts the Bitcoins were switched to. While it may not be possible to retrieve them at least those accounts could be blocked and so make any ‘theft’ pointless.
_________________It is surprising how many countries are saying they MIGHT block Bitcoin trading. Anyone who took out Bitcoin shorts on the futures market must be making a fortune. I wonder if they are related?!
__________________Selling Bitcoins twice.
This should not be possible. Any distributed system requires a 2-phase system to prevent this from happening. Phase one is notifying servers that a particular Bitcoin might be sold, and the servers should block it from any other transaction. Phase two is confirmation that the transaction is complete [or abandoned].
A similar procedure should be in place for online buying to cover the time between someone ordering an item and actually paying for it or cancelling it.
BREXIT & BANKING
France and Germany have tried a few times to introduce rules which would destroy the City of London in the hope that a few crumbs would migrate to Frankfurt and Paris. It was inevitable they would use BREXIT to try again.
There is nothing magical about the City – its growth is simply down to taxes. I was working in the City [in IT] when Ireland changed the tax rates on FX trading. Within a year every FX desk in London had migrated to Dublin.
Banks outside the EU should be unaffected as they will have separate links to both the EU and the UK. EU banks will be cut off from London so will suffer compared to their non-EU rivals. European banks are already weak competitors to the US banks so any lack of access to London will mean their US rivals will pick up even more business.
Moria refugee camp
It was my impression that the EU ensured that not a single Euro be given to Greece to help with the refugee problem, instead giving hundreds of millions of Euros to NGOs. If so, why is this camp not run bu NGOs. Why is this camp being singled out – is it much worse than those camps run by NGOs, or Is it just an excuse to criticise the Greek government?
Also, if there are 6,000 refugees with a lot of time on their hands is there no-one capable of cleaning? Is there no-one capable of screwing some hinges on to doors? Or digging latrines? I think the materials needed would be cheap enough.
BITCOIN UK
“The proposed changes come amid increasing fears that Bitcoin is being used by gangs to launder the proceeds of crime while also attracting currency speculators”
How is Bitcoin used for money laundering? You need a bank account to buy Bitcoin, by which time the money has already been laundered. The last estimate I read about for money laundering through the global banking system was about 150 billion dollars per year.
The only currency worth speculating against is Bitcoin itself, as it is so volatile. Will the UK legislate against people making money from Bitcoin which would be liable for capital gains tax [40%]?
POVERTY
The primary way to earn real money is to create goods and sell them [this includes food]. Essentially it is using energy to create new products, i.e. manufacturing.
A secondary way to earn money is on the back on manufacturing, either selling raw materials or in services.
The money earned is the main driver of the economy via workers wages and share income via pension funds.
The third way is to print money, but this is fake money as it is mot earned. It usually ends up harming the economy, not stimulating it.
The impetus is to change this fake money for tangible assets such as houses, shares and land. This increases the cost of rents, mortgages and food, and also means pension funds pay more for shares while receiving the same income.
Because real money is not increased [wages] it means that those who depend on it face increased living costs with no increase in income. In general the result is less discretionary spending which drives the economy downwards. For the poorest the increases in rent and food means extreme poverty.
LIBYA
Libya had the highest standard of living in north Africa. As Gadaffi wrote : he ensured there was free education [imcluding girls], a free health service and enough food for all. Gadaffi had also agreed to stop migrants using Libya as a staging post to Europe.
However Gadaffi committed two crimes which meant he had to be removed. Firstly [as with Saddam] he threatened to trade oil in Euros rather than dollars. But according to Hillary’s emails his worst crime was to propose a new gold backed currency for north Africa. That’s it!
The victors were extremely racist and rounded up all the black Africans working in Libya. The West quickly accepted the idea that they were mercenaries, even though Gadaffi never employed mercenaries. The idea that they are traded as slaves in not a surprise.
We left Libya in chaos with hundreds of thousands dead. It was a truly evil action by the West.
Saudi Arabia and MbS
No-one seems to know what the outcome will be.
It can be regarded as a lesson to the global elites. If MbS does extract 800 billion dollars from the Saudi elites it will show that wealth and their owners can soon be parted!
Some of the princes are amongst Hillary Clinton’s strongest supporters and wealthiest benefactors, so Trump has a ‘win’.
Some people think that MbS will start trading oil in Yuan, removing the principle support of the dollar. Others believe that this is required so the ‘New World Order’ can replace it with the IMF SDR.
MbS has burned so many bridges that he has nothing to lose. To stay alive he can be as vicious as he wants.
While a war with Lebanon or Iran may not pan out the above would be enough to change the world.
Having read an overview of Hezbollah’s capabilities I can understand why Israel would not want to go to war with them.
A war with Iran could be a total disaster for the EU. If oil stopped flowing from the countries involved then EU countries could very quickly have catastrophic problems. The US is more self sufficient in oil so could squeak by. China is thought to have a stockpile of 600 million barrels of oil plus a good supply from Russia. I haven’t heard of any significant stockpile in the EU. How would it fare without Gulf oil for a month or more?
BITCOIN
I do not think that Bitcoin has reached the bubble stage yet. The main reason driving its’ value is as a store of wealth.
The world is moving towards the banning of cash. Money will have to be stored in a bank. If the bank goes bust then some or all of ‘your’ money will be used to pay off the bank’s gambling debts. Gold is traditionally used but the price is heavily manipulated, which leaves Bitcoin.
Also Bitcoin is popular in countries where the local currency is destroyed, like Venezuela and Zimbabwe. I read that the Greek government contemplated replacing Euros in Greek bank accounts with Bitcoin overnight. I presume to try and circumvent the act of war by the ECB.
It is also popular when countries feel threatened, such as Japan [North Korea] and Iran [Possible US sanctions]. It is also used to bypass capital controls [China].
It is now being viewed as an investment vehicle so may enter a bubble phase. I remember an article saying that Bicoin will crash but may reach 150,000 dollars first!
BREXIT
I voted for BREXIT.
My main reason in the hope it would give the UK a chance to avoid TPP, where democracy is abandoned in favour of multinationals. Thankfully due to Trump this is not much of an issue at the moment.
My second reason is the treatment of Greece. Recently I have begun to wonder whether the situation was planned from the start. I am also wondering whether it is a prototype.
With regards to BREXIT I did not appreciate what morons were in government. While ignorance of the complexity of the EU rules was to be expected, the idea that by remaining ignorant you can believe whatever you want and regard it as being true is extremely alarming, and potentially disastrous.
In the UK one group of people centred on the website EUreferendum.com have spent years studying the EU rules and worked out ‘the least worst way of leaving the EU’ which they have published in their plan, ‘FLEXCIT’. At no point have they been consulted, or asked to use their knowledge of the EU rules to help with BREXIT. Instead the government have used academics who study the complex EU rules for a week or two and come up with an opinion, usually wrong.
The principle first step in Flexcit is ‘stay in the EEA’, which would give free trade. The government plans to leave the EEA which could mean that at the time of BREXIT the UK will have no agreement to trade with any other country in the world, nor any agreement to fly aircraft to the EU and seventeen other countries.
Initially at least this would be a complete disaster. In the longer term it will show whether the UK is resilient, although much has been destroyed so it would be very difficult to become self-sufficient.
TESLA
At no point has Tesla been in a situation where it would be able to make a profit. It has made a loss on every car it has sold yet the hope is that it will make profits on the series 3 which costs a fraction of its’ previous products. This is despite massive subsidies, bank loans, money from investors, deposits for series 3 cars, etc.
The other main problem is that lithium batteries are inappropriate foe electric cars. Apart from the expense there is the question of what percentage of the energy pumped in is actually stored. Of the battery technologies I have tread about I favour those based on carbon, preferably charcoal or graphite.
There does appear to be a new carbon based battery technology but it is based on graphene. Graphene is a relatively exotic form of carbon – a flat sheet of carbon atoms, and I believe it is expensive to make so the battery price may currently be too high for it to change the world. However if the demand is there then I am sure someone will develop a method to make it cheaper.
If it is a viable technology then it is another stake through the heart of Tesla which has invested huge amounts in producing thin film lithium batteries!
https://www.autoblog.com/2017/11/13/fisker-has-filed-patents-for-solid-state-batteries/
By coincidence, an article describing how to control a country through debt :
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201711161059158765-economic-hitman-interview-us/
KYLE BASS and bargain Greece
A recent RT documentary om austerity in Europe made a very important point. The Eurozone countries are in effect trading in a foreign currency. They have absolutely no control, most horribly shown during the Greek referendum when the ECB shut off all funds overnight and bringing Greece to its’ knees.
A similar event occurred with Ireland when their banks went bust. The Irish government was told by the ECB to assume all their banks’ debts or be thrown out of the Euro overnight. The Irish government went from surplus to deficit and has been struggling to recover ever since.
This seems to be part of a standard technique – to encourage countries to have debt in a foreign currency. At some point there are ‘problems’, the local currency collapses and suddenly that debt is huge. To repay the debt local resources and assets have to be sold on the cheap.
I read that governments of new EU states were encouraged to rack up debts in Euros until there were ‘problems’ and the local currencies were hit and hey, debt slaves! The same is done with emerging countries using dollars.
Kyle Bass’s ‘investment’ in Greece is just saying that people will buy when they think the market is at rock bottom.
FOSSIL FUELS
I am not surprised that fossil fuel usage is increasing. ‘Green’ solutions use as much or more fossil fuel than they are supposed to be saving.
Electric cars use more energy than conventional ones. Biofuels generally use as much or more energy to create than they actually produce. Wind and solar are variable in output so require backup power.
For example, here in the UK tens of billions have been spent on wind and solar to produce enough energy to replace one gas fired power station costing two billion pounds. The sting is that because the power is variable that power station is still needed on standby, which uses half the fuel it would need to replace all the wind and solar. In fact it would be more cost effective to not have the wind and solar but use the money on insulating houses.
I am angry that Green organisations back such expensive and ineffective ‘solutions’, and which require vast amounts of fossil fuel to create. I am also suspicious that it seems to enrich a few at the cost of the many.
It also diverts resources from research into things which can make a difference. We desperately need a new cheap and efficient battery technology, for example.
Derivatives should be banned completely, or only allow very limited types. They are a mix of insurance and gambling, and are one of the greatest threats to the world.
I believe derivatives are the main reason for Greece’s current situation. In the early days of Greece’s problems it wanted to default on 70 billion Euros of debt, not a massive amount in today’s world. BUT it would have triggered derivatives with a total payout of 700 billion Euros, which could possibly have destabilised the global financial system. It couldn’t be allowed to happen, and wasn’t! I think this is the point when Greece was taken over.
The last estimate I read about suggested derivatives had a possible value of 1,000 trillion dollars. By comparison one article said you could buy every piece of land and building in the whole world for around 500 trillion dollars. While most derivatives would cancel each other out there would still be many trillions in payouts.
As derivatives usually involve some kind of security they have been senior debt in bank failures. With bail-in this means that if a bank goes bust your life savings would be used to pay off these derivatives. Oh, and if you have a mortgage with a bank it has possibly pledged your house as security against a loan so you could lose your house as well [rehypothecation].
PARADISE
The ‘fury’ over the Paradise papers goes too far.
I keep reading how close EU banks are to failure and with ‘bail in’ it would mean anyone with a substantial amount of money would lose nearly everything. Why would any sane person keep their wealth in such a risky place. Also, this is THEIR money, which should already have been taxed so why should anyone be told what to do with it?
The West is also guilty in that it persuades the rich in developing countries to move their wealth to the West.
Keiser talks about compounding gains of over 20% per year! How!! I think I have read of one investment company which managed this kind of return.
The tax regimes in the West are infamous for favouring the elite over everyone else. Of course the elite end up with more money than they can spend. Of course they are going to do the best they can to preserve it. Of course they will use their influence to make sure the tax loopholes keep coming.
When governments have made sure that most of the wealth migrates to the elite you can’t say that it is the fault of the elites that this has happened, or that if the elites kept their money in the West it would somehow migrate to everyone else. It is the fault of the governments in the first place that wealth is unequally distributed – taking it away from those most likely to spend it in the economy and give it to those who won’t!
BITCOIN
‘the only reason today to buy or sell bitcoin is to make money’ – not really.
Another reason is as a store of wealth.
The world is moving towards the Swedish model where cash is banned and money has to be stored in a bank account. Bank accounts in Sweden have a negative interest rate and if the bank goes bust then some or all of ‘your’ money will be used to pay off the bank’s debts. If you want to be out of the system then cash is becoming less of an option, gold is traditionally used but the price is heavily manipulated, which leaves Bitcoin.
Also Bitcoin is replacing dollars in some countries. In Venezuela people are using Bitcoin a lot despite government crackdowns. Admittedly it is because there are so few US dollars in the country.
I read an article saying that Iran is making a major effort to make Bitcoin easy to use. I assume this is replace the US dollar if the US goes ahead with sanctions. I think this has huge implications – if a whole country replaces the dollar with Bitcoin for international trading. I can imagine a few countries would be happier with Bitcoin rather than dollars, especially when the US is so willing to use it as a weapon. I doubt China has forgotten Trump threatening to stop their trade in dollars!
BITCOIN [2]
Another article confusing Bitcoin transactions with Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin transactions take almost no energy but Bitcoin mining, according to a recent article, takes about 20 barrels of oil [equivalent] per Bitcoin. BUT that Bitcoin is worth over 100 barrels of oil!! [Bitcoin hit seven thousand dollars yesterday]
Serious Bitcoin mining companies are moving to Iceland. The cold air means the energy needed for cooling is vastly reduced. The energy is cheap and is from geothermal and hydroelectric sources so is actually quite ‘green’!
However the main point that Bitcoin mining is using ever increasing amounts of finite energy resources is valid and worrying.
