From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

Lindsey Williams Online | Promote your Page too

Latest News From February 3, 2017 to February 9, 2017:

• Debt Apocalypse Beckons As U.S. Consumer Bankruptcies Do Something They Haven’t Done In Almost 7 Years
  When debt grows much faster than GDP for an extended period of time, it is inevitable that a good portion of that debt will start to go bad at some point.  We witnessed a perfect example of this in 2008, and now it is starting to happen again.  Commercial bankruptcies have been rising on a year-over-year basis since late 2015, and this is something that I have written about previously, but now consumer bankruptcies are also increasing.  In fact, we have just witnessed U.S. consumer bankruptcies do something that they haven’t done in nearly 7 years.
• Last year, Obama gave $27B to lawless ‘sanctuary’ cities
  On January 25, 2017, his third full day on the job in the White House, President Trump fulfilled more of the promises he’d made — those concerning illegal “immigration” — by signing two executive orders: Executive Order: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements, which authorizes the construction of a wall along the porous U.S.-Mexico border. Executive Order: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of United States, which authorizes the denial of federal funds to “sanctuary” states and cities that willfully violate Federal immigration law in an attempt to shield aliens, including criminals, from removal from the United States and, in so doing, “have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic.” As White House spokesman Sean Spicer put it, “The American people are no longer going to have to be forced to subsidize this disregard for our laws.”
• How George Soros Singlehandedly Created The European Refugee Crisis – And Why
  George Soros is trading again. The 85-year-old political activist and philanthropist hit the headlines post-Brexit saying the event had “unleashed” a financial-market crisis. Well, the crisis hasn’t hit Soros just yet. He was once again on the right side of the trade, taking a short position in troubled Deutsche Bank and betting against the S&P via a 2.1-million-share put option on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF. More interestingly, Soros recently took out a $264 million position in Barrick Gold, whose share price has jumped over 14% since Brexit. Along with this trade, Soros has sold his positions in many of his traditional holdings. Soros had recently announced he was coming out of retirement, again. First retiring in 2000, the only other time Soros has publicly re-entered the markets was in 2007, when he placed a number of bearish bets on US housing and ultimately made a profit of over $1 billion from the trades.
• Prominent Republicans Pitch Carbon-Tax Plan to Top Trump Aides
  A group of prominent Republicans and business leaders pitched a tax on carbon dioxide to top White House aides Wednesday, selling the plan as an economic win that could drive job growth and yield environmental dividends too. Former Secretary of State James Baker and other members of the new “Climate Leadership Council” pressed the case in a 45-minute meeting in the Roosevelt Room that included President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser Gary Cohn, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior aide Kellyanne Conway. “The signs were very encouraging,” Ted Halstead, who founded the council, said after the meeting. “Two weeks into this new administration, we have positioned our solution as the most promising climate solution — if they want to go there.”
• Millennials are struggling at work because their parents ‘gave them medals for coming last'
  Bosses the world over are struggling with their millennial employees – they say we confound leadership, are self-entitled, narcissistic, lazy and tough to manage. But according to motivational speaker and author Simon Sinek, this is the result of our parents’ “failed parenting strategies.” After the astounding success of his video on millennials in the workplace, which has had over 56 million views on Facebook alone, Sinek spoke to The Independent about how our parenting, combined with social media, working environments and our impatience have created a generation plagued by low self-esteem, and what we can do about it.
• Which Assets Are Most Likely To Survive The “System Reset”?
  Your skills, knowledge and and social capital will emerge unscathed on the other side of the re-set wormhole. Your financial assets held in centrally controlled institutions will not. Longtime correspondent C.A. recently asked a question every American household should be asking: which assets are most likely to survive the “system re-set” that is now inevitable? It's a question of great import because not all assets are equal in terms of survivability in crisis, when the rules change without advance notice. If you doubt the inevitability of a system implosion/re-set, please read Is America In A Bubble (And Can It Ever Return To “Normal”)? This brief essay presents charts that reveal a sobering economic reality: America is now dependent on multiple asset bubbles never popping–something history suggests is not possible.
• Dirty Vaccines: Every Human Vaccine Tested Was Contaminated With Metals and Debris in New Study
  Researchers examining 44 samples of 30 different vaccines found dangerous contaminants, including red blood cells in one vaccine and metal toxicants in every single sample tested – except in one animal vaccine. Using extremely sensitive new technologies not used in vaccine manufacturing, Italian scientists reported they were “baffled” by their discoveries which included single particles and aggregates of organic debris including red cells of human or possibly animal origin and metals including lead, tungsten, gold, and chromium, that have been linked to autoimmune disease and leukemia.
• FDA finally admits chicken meat contains cancer-causing arsenic
  After years of sweeping the issue under the rug and hoping no one would notice, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that’s fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It’s added to the chicken feed on purpose! Even worse, the FDA says its own research shows that the arsenic added to the chicken feed ends up in the chicken meat where it is consumed by humans. So for the last sixty years, American consumers who eat conventional chicken have been swallowing arsenic, a known cancer-causing chemical.
• Records: Soros Fund Execs Funded Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John McCain, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham in 2016 
  Employees of a hedge fund founded by the king of the Institutional Left, billionaire and Democratic Party mega-donor George Soros, donated tens of thousands of dollars to top Republicans who fought against President Donald Trump in 2016, donation records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Soros Fund Management, a former hedge fund that serves now as an investment management firm, was founded by progressive billionaire George Soros in 1969. It has risen to become one of the most profitable hedge funds in the industry. Employees of the firm are heavily involved in backing political candidates giving millions upon millions to groups that were supporting failed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton for the presidency.
• White House Releases List Of Terror Attacks It Considers Underreported By The Media
  The White House released a list Monday night of the terror attacks it believes were underreported by the media. CNN’s Jim Acosta said his producer was given the list of the 78 attacks outside of the White House. Though he did not read the list in full on air, Acosta said it included attacks like Paris, Brussels, Nice, Istanbul and San Bernardino. Dan Merica said a White House official told him that “most of these attacks did not receive adequate attention from Western media sources.”
• President Trump is now speculating that the media is covering up terrorist attacks
  Speaking to the U.S. Central Command on Monday, President Trump went off his prepared remarks to make a truly stunning claim: The media was intentionally covering up reports of terrorist attacks. “You’ve seen what happened in Paris, and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening,” he said to the assembled military leaders. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.” The comment immediately harked back to comments from senior adviser Kellyanne Conway on MSNBC last week.
• The Leftwing Has Placed Itself In The Trash Can Of History
  At a time when the Western world desperately needs alternative voices to the neoliberals, the neoconservatives, the presstitutes and the Trump de-regulationists, there are none. The Western leftwing has gone insane. The voices being raised against Trump, who does need voices raised against him, are so hypocritical as to reflect less on Trump than on those with raised voices. Sharon Kelly McBride, speaking for Human Rights First, sent me an email saying that Trump stands on the wrong side of “America’s ideals” by his prohibition of Muslim immigrants into the US.
• Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas To Pay Low Wages To Immigrants
  On the heels on its controversial immigration ban targeting seven Muslim-majority countries, the Trump administration has drafted a new executive order that could actually mean higher wages for both foreign workers and Americans working in Silicon Valley. The Silicon Valley companies, of course, will not be happy if it goes into effect. The order aims to overhaul and limit work visas, notably the H-1B visa program. Tech companies rely on these to bring in foreign talent. Their lobbyists claim there is a “talent shortage” among Americans and thus that the industry needs more of such work visas. This is patently false. The truth is that they want an expansion of the H-1B work visa program because they want to hire cheap, immobile labor — i.e., foreign workers.
• O'Reilly said Putin is a killer. Trump's reply: ‘You think our country is so innocent?'
  President Donald Trump has long been effusive in his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. In an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, which will air ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his “respect” for Putin – even in the face of accusations that Putin and his associates have murdered journalists and dissidents in Russia. “I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn't mean I'll get along with them,” Trump told O'Reilly. O'Reilly pressed on, declaring to the president that “Putin is a killer.” Unfazed, Trump didn't back away, but rather compared Putin's reputation for extrajudicial killings with the United States. “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers,” Trump said. “Well, you think our country is so innocent?”
• Bill O’Reilly, meet the real “KILLER”. Barack Obama’s massive kill list in charts
  Former POTUS Barack Obama may have played the part of a dainty liberal, but don’t be fooled, deep down Barack was a killer. A killer of mass proportions. As the US liberal and neocon media freak out over Trump’s interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, where Trump (GASP) admitted that he “respects” Putin, and America “is not so innocent” when it comes to killing…we present to you the real stone cold killer. When it comes to racking up ‘kills’, no one was more deadly these last eight years than Barack Hussein Obama. No world leader even comes close to Obama’s kill stats.
• A bill has already been introduced in Congress to remove the US from the United Nations
  A bill introduced by Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers earlier this month calls on the US to “terminate” its membership in the United Nations and effectively sever all ties with the organization. The bill, titled the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017, was proposed on January 3. It is cosponsored by a handful of Republican lawmakers, including North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, Tennessee Rep. John Duncan Jr., and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. Biggs said in a statement on Monday that he cosponsored the bill because he believes that “our sovereignty as a country is harmed by our membership in this body.”
• Trump to order regulatory rollback Friday for finance industry starting with Dodd-Frank
  President Trump plans to order a rollback Friday of regulations governing the financial services industry and Wall Street under the Dodd-Frank law and beyond, a White House source confirmed. Gary Cohn, White House Economic Council director, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published last night that the administration would also move against a regulation designed to force retirement advisers to work in the best interest of their clients. That “fiduciary rule” is set to take effect in April. Promulgated by the Department of Labor, it’s meant to eliminate conflicts-of-interest among professionals dealing with people enrolled in qualified retirement plans and IRAs.
• Trump’s Enemies Within
  How on earth is all this stuff getting in the newspapers? Bob Haldeman told Richard Nixon that he had uncovered the culprit: Mark Felt, a top official at the FBI. “Now why the hell would he do that?” asked Nixon, who was secretly recording the exchange. Cracking down on Felt directly was out of the question, the two men agreed. “If we move on him, then he’ll go out and unload everything,” Haldeman said, of the man later revealed as Deep Throat. “He knows everything that’s to be known in the FBI.”
• President Trump Speaks: Here's Why They Hate Him
  The political elites hate him on both sides of the Atlantic. Why? Because he's not on board with their precious New World Order. RTV takes a closer look at President Trump's inauguration speech and its ramifications. Trump is far from perfect, but so was Constantine…and look how God used him. Pray for President Donald J. Trump!
• U.N. Official Admits Global Warming Agenda Is Really About Destroying Capitalism
  A shocking statement was made by a United Nations official Christiana Figueres at a news conference in Brussels. Figueres admitted that the Global Warming conspiracy set by the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, of which she is the executive secretary, has a goal not of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity, but to destroy capitalism. She said very casually: “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”
• Scientists have a plan to replace fossil fuels with nuclear fusion by 2030
  Nuclear fusion is premised on building technology that would replicate the reaction that naturally powers our Sun – two light atoms, in this case, hydrogen, are fused together under extreme temperatures to produce another element, helium. The process would release vast amounts of clean energy drawn from an almost limitless fuel source, with nearly zero carbon emissions. However, it has yet to be done on a scale that would make it usable. Canadian scientists are hoping to change that, announcing plans to harness and develop nuclear fusion technology so they can deliver a working nuclear fusion plant prototype by 2030. What they need, however, is for the government to invest in their vision.
• FDA quietly bans powerful life-saving intravenous Vitamin C
  It would be naive to think that the FDA endeavors to protect the public’s health as its primary focus. Indeed, that would be a conflict of interest, as it serves its master, the pharmaceutical industry. Has the Food and Drug Administration engineered a shortage of intravenous vitamin C as part of an overall attack on natural and non-toxic approaches to healing that compete with prescription drugs? An analysis by Natural Blaze would suggest that the answer is yes.
• Halftime HELL: Satan speaks through Lady Gaga to declare dominion over the Earth (while Pope Francis blesses) (satire)
  Before you get into this article, note that I’m marking it “satire.” Yet none of the themes unveiled here are actually funny. This is serious stuff… it’s just that 99.9% of humanity isn’t ready to cognitively grasp what I’m about to present here, so until people are more ready to face the reality of demonic evil in our world, I’m going to label all this a weekend joke. Funny, isn’t it? If it’s too much for you, don’t take it too seriously. The NFL is a joke anyway, right? The average Superbowl viewer is so totally clueless about reality that they have no idea what they’re even watching. Over the last several years, the NFL has slowly given way to the agenda of truly evil globalists, pushing quack science fraud (breast cancer “awareness” propaganda), anti-American hatred (Colin Kaepernick’s nauseating antics), cultural subversion agendas and vulgar halftime shows that frequently invoke Satanic imagery in ritualistic fashion (see the multitude of photos and videos below for proof).
• Liberal lynch mob trolling Trump could bring down US democracy
  The Left's non-stop temper tantrum since Trump's election win is revealing an ugly underbelly of the Democratic Party – think Rosie O'Donnell mud-wrestling with a pig – where a rogues’ gallery of provocateurs aims to delegitimize conservative rule. First, some necessary background: for 15 uninterrupted years of US military escapades abroad, eight of those years on Obama's watch, the Liberal Left could not be awakened from its somnambulist slumber, not even to hold a meaningful antiwar protest in the spirit of their Vietnam-era forebears.
• Permaculture, Politics and Solutions Thinking
  How we think colours everything we do, that is indisputable. Our biases definitely affect our objectivity and clarity as well as our judgement, factors critical to effective solutions thinking. Permaculture is a discipline which embodies systems thinking, the ability to think holistically, to clearly see what is before us in its entirety, and to understand the relationships between elements of a system. Equally important to Permaculture is solutions thinking, the ability to create optimal solutions to address specific problems.
• New Warming On European Banks
  The European Banking Authority (EBA) just called for urgent action to be taken in regards to European banks’ bad loans. Because Italy is not the only country having to grapple with this problem: EBA’s chairman, Andrea Enria, is worried that ten European countries have more than 10% in non-performing loans (NPLs), which shows the extreme fragility of their banking system. Those NPLs are loans for which the payments are late for 90 days or more.
• The Other “Ban” That Was Quietly Announced Last Week
  Most of the world is in an uproar right now over the travel ban that Donald Trump hastily imposed late last week on citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries. But there was another ban that was quietly proposed last week, and this one has far wider implications: a ban on cash. The European Union’s primary executive authority, known as the European Commission, issued a “Road Map” last week to initiate continent-wide legislation against cash. There are already a number of anti-cash legislative measures that have been passed in individual European member states. In France, for example, it’s illegal to make purchases of more than 1,000 euros in cash.
• Pound, Dollar, Euro and Yen Will be Worthless Within Five Years
  The new US Administration has taken over with the conviction that they will “make America great again”. I really wish they will succeed because a strong US would be good for the world. Sadly, the odds of achieving that admirable objective are totally stacked against them. At the end of the next 4 years, there is a risk that this Administration will be more hated than any government since Carter and possibly even more disliked than Hoover.
• Is Italy’s Banking Problem Becoming Too Big to Solve?
  Ever since the European Commission and ECB jointly decided that Italy’s government could bend EU banking rules out of all recognition in order to bail out the country’s third largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Europe’s financial stocks have been on a tear. But the good times were brought to a grinding halt Monday after Italy’s largest bank, Unicredit, which employs 55,000 people in 17 countries, announced losses for 2016 of €11.8 billion. By the bank’s logic, it would have announced profits if it hadn’t had to write off €12.2 billion, including billions of euros of non-performing loans (NPLs) festering on its balance sheets.
• Markets Smell a Rat as Central Banks Dither
  Markets are suspecting that central banks are in the process of exiting this fabulous multi-year party quietly, and that on the way out they won’t refill the booze and dope, leaving the besotted revelers to their own devices. That thought isn’t sitting very well with these revelers. In markets where central banks have pushed  government bond prices into the stratosphere and yields, even 10-year yields, below zero, there has been a sea change.
• California in the red by $127.2 billion, state auditors say
  A financial report issued by state auditors finds that the state of California is in the red by an unsustainable $127.2 billion. The report says that the state’s negative status increased that year, largely because it spent $1.7 billion more than it received in revenues and wound up with an accumulated deficit of just under $23 billion in fiscal year 2011-2012, the Sacramento Bee stated. Gov. Jerry Brown has referred to the deficit and other budget gaps, mostly money owed to schools, as a “wall of debt” totaling more than $30 billion, the Sacramento Bee reported. About half of the deficit came from the state issuing general obligation bonds and then giving the money to local governments and school districts for public works projects. The report listed California’s long-term obligations at $167.9 billion, nearly half of which ($79.9 billion) were in general obligation bonds, with another $30.8 billion in revenue bonds, the Sacramento Bee reported.
• It’s Time We Talked About Our Owners – How vast asset managers impact “our increasingly cartelized economy.”
  The world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, was splashed across the front pages of the Spanish financial news yesterday. The firm had just raised raised its stake in Spain’s telecoms giant Telefónica to 336 million shares — the equivalent of 6.7% of Telefónica’s total capital, with a market value of just under €3 billion. In the short space of five months BlackRock has almost doubled its holdings and is now the largest owner of Telefónica stock, ahead of Spain’s second biggest bank, BBVA, which holds 6% of the shares. The asset manager has also expanded its participation in Telefónica’s international subsidiaries, raising its holdings in Telefónica Deutschland to 0.76% and Telefónica Brasil to almost 2%, making it the firm’s biggest institutional shareholder.
• We Are Moving Forward: The Future of Oil and Gas
  Oil will hold a dominant position in the world energy demand at least next 20 years. Despite the small decline, oil will secure as many as 29 percent of world energy demand by 2035 vs 32 percent in 2015. The slight decline by 3 percent will occur because of gas, nuclear and renewables (including biofuels) sectors rise in the world energy demand share. ‘Global oil production becomes geographically more concentrated as low cost producers gain share. The Middle East, US, and Russia account for 63% of oil production in 2035, up from 56% in 2015.’ BP reports in its Energy Outlook-2017. BP publishes its energy outlooks on a regular basis. The Energy Outlooks allow to track in details the global energy trends. One of those energy trends is that BP expects 106 million barrels of oil per day as demand and 107 million barrels of oil per day as supply by 2035. North America will hold its dominant in gas production. BP considers North America will produce 1.33 billion t.o.e. of gas per year by 2035 what makes 31 percent share of the global gas production. North America has been keeping its dominant in gas production since 1995, by the way. Before 1995 episodically North America had been ‘overtaken’ in gas production by USSR. USSR collapsed in 1991 while the previous year – 1990 was the last year when Soviets could produce more gas than the entire North America. In 1990 USSR produced 672 million t.o.e of gas versus 584 million t.o.e produced in North America. In 1995 North America got 651.7 million t.o.e of gas while Soviets faced only 569.1 million t.o.e. North America leads in the global gas production ever since.
• Whistle-Blower: ‘Global Warming’ Data Manipulated Before Paris Conference
  A high-level whistleblower at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has revealed that the organization published manipulated data in a major 2015 report on climate change in order to maximize impact on world leaders at the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015. According to a report in The Mail on Sunday, NOAA scientist Dr. John Bates has produced “irrefutable evidence” that the NOAA study denying the “pause” in global warming in the period since 1998 was based on false and misleading data. The NOAA study was published in June 2015 by the journal Science under the title “Possible artifacts of data biases in the recent global surface warming hiatus.”
• Shell To Sell Another $5B In Assets, Misses Profit Expectations
  Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) is making “significant progress” on selling another US$5 billion worth of assets, chief financial officer Simon Henry said on Thursday after the oil supermajor reported 2016 profits below analyst expectations. Shell’s current cost of supplies (CCS) – a key measure comparable with net income – came in at US$1.8 billion, excluding identified items, compared with US$1.6 billion for the fourth quarter 2015, the company said today. Full-year 2016 CCS earnings attributable to shareholders excluding identified items dropped to US$7.2 billion from US$11.4 billion in 2015. The fourth-quarter profit fell short of analyst estimates by around US$1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
• Weatherford Slashes Another 3,000 Jobs
  As part of its strategy to further cut costs and reduce debt, oilfield services company Weatherford International (NYSE:WFT) said on Thursday that it had launched another head count reduction plan totaling 3,000 employees. Weatherford’s Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Christoph Bausch said at the company’s earnings call on Thursday for the fourth-quarter and full-2016 results: “At the time of this call, we have already reduced 2,000 employees out of the 3,000 mentioned before.” In its drive to cut more costs, Weatherford will also pull back its pumping operations in the U.S. and close additional uneconomical field locations, Bausch said, adding that all those actions are expected to generate additional annualized cost savings of about US$300 million.
• Fukushima nuclear reactor radiation at highest level since 2011 meltdown
  Extremely high radiation levels have been recorded inside a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, almost six years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown. The facility’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said atmospheric readings as high as 530 sieverts an hour had been recorded inside the containment vessel of reactor No 2, one of three reactors that experienced a meltdown when the plant was crippled by a huge tsunami that struck the north-east coast of Japan in March 2011. The extraordinary radiation readings highlight the scale of the task confronting thousands of workers, as pressure builds on Tepco to begin decommissioning the plant – a process that is expected to take about four decades.
• Russian economy to emerge from contraction
  Russia’s economy ministry on Monday said that GDP growth fell by one per cent in December from the same time last year. In October, the economy contracted by 0.6 per cent but grew in November by a revised 0.9 per cent. For 2016 as a whole, GDP fell 0.6 per cent from 2015. According to forecasts by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the UN, Russia’s economy has beaten the effects of US and European Union sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. In 2017, GDP growth is expected between one and 1.5 per cent.
• Things Just Got Serious in Europe’s War on Cash
  The central authorities in Europe just launched their most important offensive to date in their multiyear War on Cash. The new move comes directly from the European Union’s executive branch, the European Commission, which just announced its intention to “explore the relevance of potential upper limits to cash payments,” with a view to implementing cross-regional measures in 2018. Maximum limits on cash transactions already exist in most European countries, and the general trend is downward. Last year, Spain joined France in placing a €1,000 maximum on cash payments. Greece went one better, dropping its cap for cash transactions from €1,500 to €500. In simple terms, any legal purchase of a good or service over €500 will need to be done with plastic or mobile money.
• Gerald Celente Issues Major Trend Alert On The Road For The Gold Market In 2017
  With the price of gold surging above the critical $1,220 level, the top trends forecaster in the world, Gerald Celente, just issued a major trend alert on the road for the gold market in 2017. Here Is What To Look For In The Gold Market In 2017. Gerald Celente — Trends are born, they grow, mature, reach old age and die. The Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, Trend has just been born. Never in modern history has the nation stood so divided and nations across the globe so alarmed following the election of the leader of the world’s largest economy and most powerful military…
• The Alternative Fact of the Cashless Society
  Last week a new phrase was introduced into our lexicon by Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway. When asked about why press secretary Sean Spicer had made statements that were (according to the press) unverifiable she said that he had used ‘alternative facts’. This prompted a raft of satire, journalists to flail their arms up at the audacity of Conway and Trump’s administration, and for people to rush out and buy George Orwell’s 1984. Penguin, the world’s largest publisher, ordered a 75,000 copy reprint last week. Apparently more than the ‘typical reprint’ for the 1949 Orwellian classic. The ‘alternative facts’ statement echoed of ‘Newspeak’ the language used by the totalitarian government in Orwell’s 1984 to influence and control its citizens of Airstrip One (previously Britain).
• Cal Berkeley Fascists Violently Protest Free Speech
  150 masked “protesters” at Cal Berkeley, precisely 0.0039 percent of the 38,000 student body was all it took to shut down free speech at the University of California, Berkeley. The protesters are so confused that they see the shutdown as a victory for free speech. Something is wrong here. The 150 violent protesters are masked, so we don’t know if they are students or a Deep State operation against President Trump. The protesters are behaving as fascists by shutting down free speech. By associating the exercise of free speech with fascism, the protesters appear to be too stupid to be Cal Berkeley students. When I was a graduate student at Cal Berkeley, there were high admission standards. Perhaps those standards have been declared to be racist and were thrown out with the bath water.
• Leaked Draft of Trump’s Religious Freedom Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination
  A leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination. The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”
• Amazon sinks as revenue misses, guidance disappoints
  The online retail technology company reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts' expectations on Thursday, but revenue that fell short of estimates. It also gave future guidance that was below the average estimate. Shares dropped more than 4 percent after hours. The free-spending company has invested heavily in new projects and infrastructure to meet ballooning demand as more shopping moves online. Amazon keeps taking business from traditional retailers, which are closing stores by the hundreds. But it also offers promotions to have the lowest prices, a “cost of doing business,” chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said.
• Student Loan Reforms to Watch for in 2017
  So far, the Trump administration continues to deliver on some key campaign promises. These promises include the travel ban, federal hiring freeze, and authorizing the construction of the US-Mexico border wall. Higher education is another issue Trump will likely be addressing in the coming months, as it continually ranks as the biggest source of consumer debt today.
• America’s Problem with Student Loans Is Much Bigger Than Anybody Realized
  The Department of Education recently released a memo admitting that repayment rates on student loans have been grossly exaggerated. Data from 99.8% of schools across the country has been manipulated to cover up growing problems with the $1.3 trillion in outstanding student loans. New calculations show that more than half of all borrowers from 1,000 different institutions have defaulted on or not paid back a single dollar of their loans over the last seven years. This comes in stark contrast to previous claims and should call into question any statistics provided by government agencies. The American people haven’t fully grasped the long-term implications of loaning a trillion dollars to young people who have no credit or assets.
• US Productivity Growth Has Never Been This Low For This Long
  Despite slowing US productivity growth QoQ in Q4 (from +3.5% in Q3 to +1.3% in Q4), overall productivity in 2016 grew at 1% – the best annual growth since 2013. However, that silver-lining is akin to being the tallest midget as over the longer-term, US productivity growth has never been this low for this long.
• Fed Leaves Policy Rate Unchanged, Offers No Hint on When It Might Next Move
  The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it remains on track to gradually raise short-term interest rates this year and gave no hint about when the next increase might come. Following a two-day policy meeting, officials voted unanimously to hold their benchmark rate steady in a range between 0.50% and 0.75%, while noting in a statement some recent improvements in the economy, including an uptick in consumer confidence. They lifted rates by a quarter percentage point in December and penciled in three quarter-point moves in 2017. Investors hadn’t expected the Fed to move Wednesday and were looking for a signal about its next meeting on March 14-15. Market reaction to the statement was muted.
• Gold Gains as Trump Shocks Markets by Doing What He Said He’d Do
  President Donald Trump’s policies have brought gold back to life. Gold futures rose for a second day, posting the biggest monthly gain since June, on investor concern over moves by Trump that included barring entry by citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations and firing the acting U.S. attorney general for refusing to enforce the order. The dollar headed for a third straight decline against a basket of 10 currencies, and U.S. stocks slid. Confusion over U.S trade and immigration policies has helped rekindle haven demand for gold, which in December capped its biggest quarterly decline in more than three years. Money is also flowing back to precious metals as speculation mounts that the Federal Reserve may be more cautious in raising U.S. interest rates amid concerns Trump’s policies could stifle economic growth. Protests from New York to Atlanta to Detroit were held Sunday.
• GOP Rebrands Obamacare Strategy From ‘Repeal’ to ‘Repair’
  Some Republicans in Congress are starting to talk more about trying to “repair” Obamacare, rather than simply calling for “repeal and replace.” There’s good reason for that. The repair language was discussed by Republicans during their closed-door policy retreat in Philadelphia last week as a better way to brand their strategy. Some of that discussion flowed from views that Republicans may not be headed toward a total replacement, said one conservative House lawmaker who didn’t want to be identified. Using the word repair “captures exactly what the large majority of the American people want,” said Frank Luntz, a prominent Republican consultant and pollster who addressed GOP lawmakers at their retreat.
• ALERT: Former Soros Associate Just Warned We Are About To Witness ‘Absolute F*cking Chaos’ Across The Globe
  Today a former associate of George Soros told King World News that we are about to witness “absolute f*cking chaos” across the globe in a little over two months. Victor Sperandeo oversees over $3 billion, has been in the business 45 years, and has worked with famous individuals such as Leon Cooperman and George Soros.  Below is what Sperandeo had to say. Victor Sperandeo:  “What people are underestimating is the upcoming election in the Netherlands on March 15.  A month later France is going to hold their election…
• Mexican border wall could take just two years to build
  The Mexican border wall could take just two years to build and parts could be “see through,” according to the new head of the Department of Homeland Security. “The wall will be built where it’s needed first, and then it will be filled in. That’s the way I look at it,” Secretary John Kelly told Fox News. “I really hope to have it done within the next two years,” the retired four-star Marine general added. Fox’s Catherine Herridge reported Thursday that Kelly told her that the wall won't all be solid and sections of it may be transparent.
• U.S. appeals court revives JPMorgan silver futures rigging lawsuits
  A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday revived three private antitrust lawsuits accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) of rigging a market for silver futures contracts traded on COMEX. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said a lower court judge held hedge fund manager Daniel Shak and two other traders to an excessively high legal standard when deciding last June 29 to dismiss their complaints. Shak, Mark Grumet and Thomas Wacker accused the largest U.S. bank of having in late 2010 and early 2011 placed artificial bids on the trading floor, harangued staff at metals market COMEX to obtain prices it wanted, and made misrepresentations to a committee that set settlement prices. The traders said this forced them to post more capital to support their positions in silver futures spreads, and ultimately to liquidate them at heavy losses.
• As Brazil Unemployment Hits Record High, Rio's Murder Rate Soars
  With Brazil stuck in what may be its worst depression on record, it will surprise nobody that the homicide rate in Rio de Janeiro climbed by 20% in 2016 from the previous year, as violence soared in the Brazilian metropolis amid rising unemployment and sharp cuts in public security budgets. Worse even than Chicago, state security statistics released on Wednesday and cited by Reuters showed that 5,033 people were murdered in Rio during the year, up from 4,200 in 2015.
• Researchers: Fake News Did Not Alter Election Results
  As social media sites like Facebook and Snapchat move to eliminate “fake news” reports from their sites, researchers from Stanford and New York Universities say Americans can be sure of one thing: the phenomenon did not affect the results of the presidential election. The new study released last month investigated the influence that fake news may have had on President Trump’s victory. NYU economics professor Hunt Allcott and Stanford economics professor Matthew Gentzkow led the research. The pair ran a series of tests to determine which fake news articles were circulated, how much of it was circulated, and the amount of voters that believed the stories to be true.
• The Central Banks Pull Back: Now It's Up To Fiscal Policy To “Save The World”
  Another problem is the rise of social discord, for reasons that extend beyond the reach of tax reductions and increased infrastructure spending. Have you noticed that the breathless anticipation of the next central bank “save” has diminished? Remember when the financial media was in a tizzy of excitement, speculating on what new central bank expansion would send the global markets higher in paroxysms of risk-on joy? Those days are gone. Nowadays, central banks cautiously continue the bond buying programs they've had in place for years, but their policy initiatives are tepid at best: they talk about expanding asset-buying programs to include more stocks, or discuss notching interest rates higher in some cases; but the talk is subdued, as expectations are being consciously lowered.
• State Minimum Wage Hikes Already Passed Into Law Expected To Cost 2.6 Million Jobs, New Study Finds
  Even though we know that Bernie and his alt-left compatriots will never tire of their endless “Fight for $15” no matter how much data we throw at them, we thought we would go ahead and highlight yet another economic study detailing the devastating job losses that will result from minimum wages hikes that have already been passed in states all around the country. The latest study comes for the American Action Forum (AAF) and estimates that 2.6 million jobs will be lost around the country over the next several years as states phase-in minimum wage hikes that have already been passed.
• BOOM! Companies That Openly Criticized Trump For “Making America Safe Again” Take Stock Market Hit
  The Dow Jones industrial average fell around 120 points after sliding more than 223.39 points, dropping below 20,000, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most losses. Most of the companies who criticized Trump’s temporary travel ban on the 7 nations Obama’s DHS identified as terror hotbed nations lost money in the stock market today. Apparently keeping our country safe takes a back seat to these companies, unless of course, we see another major terror attack in America by an unvetted refugee, then they’ll all be lining up behind Trump and complaining he didn’t do enough…
• Trump pledges to end political limits on churches
  Declaring that religious freedom is “under threat,” President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to repeal a rarely enforced IRS rule that says pastors who endorse candidates from the pulpit risk losing their tax-exempt status. “I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution,” Trump said at the National Prayer Breakfast, a high-profile event bringing together faith leaders, politicians and dignitaries. Trump's pledge was a nod to his evangelical Christian supporters, who helped power his White House win. So far he has not detailed his plans for doing away with the rule, which he has previously promised to rescind. Named after then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson, the regulation has been in place since 1954 for tax-exempt charities, including churches, though it is very rare for a church to actually be penalized.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – February 2, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams’ weekly newsletter.

Precious Metals Are The Only Lifeboat! I have persistently WARNED you what was happening in the gold market and why you needed to convert your paper assets to physical gold and silver. You need to hedge against the financial instability with physical gold and silver. Call the experts to help you convert your IRA or 401k into Gold, Silver and Other Precious Metals. Call GoldCo NOW before it's too late! Call Toll-Free 1-877-414-1385.

From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

Lindsey Williams Online | Promote your Page too

Latest News From January 27, 2017 to February 2, 2017:

• Trump Fights to Takedown Bad Guys
  According to precious metals and financial expert Bix Weir, what’s going on in Washington now is simply a struggle for control between good and evil. Weir explains, “The left is going nuts.  They say they are not violent, but they are causing all these riots and protests everywhere.  I am convinced that this takedown of the bad guys is going to get a lot uglier.  It will get uglier because the left leaning Obama people have been given so many rights that are not in the Constitution and are not anywhere in a capitalistic society.  It’s more towards socialism, and when you try to take away the rights given to socialists, they get armed.  They go into the streets.”
• Why One Trader Thinks “The Fed Is About To Take Out The Last Pillar Supporting The Dollar”
  Fed Can’t Help Dollar Bulls in Denial. Expect the Fed to take out one of the last pillars of dollar support today. Dollar bulls are still not capitulating despite it being on target for a sixth consecutive week of losses. While some doubts are finally starting to creep in, the majority of analyst notes this week suggest the FOMC can put the dollar uptrend back on track. I’m surprised. It’s hard to see how the Fed can be hawkish given the economic policy turmoil of the last couple of weeks. All measures taken so far by Trump’s administration are negative for growth rather than reflationary. This is particularly pertinent when put in context of how optimistic expectations were only two months ago.
• White House Blackballs CNN; Refuses To Send Surrogates On “Fake News” Network
  Well, it's official…according to a note from Politico, the White House has confirmed that surrogates of the Trump administration will no longer appear on CNN and will instead go to “places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda.” “We’re sending surrogates to places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda,” said a White House official, acknowledging that CNN is not such a place, but adding that the ban is not permanent. A CNN reporter, speaking on background, was more blunt: The White House is trying to punish the network and force down its ratings. “They’re trying to cull CNN from the herd,” the reporter said. Of course, this development should come as little surprise to anyone who has been paying attention given that Trump has constantly blasted CNN as a “Fake News” outlet ever since his heated exchange with Jim Acosta at a press conference on January 11th.
• Gorsuch Will Not Shift The Balance Of Power On The Supreme Court As Much As You May Think
  On Tuesday, President Trump announced that he would nominate Neil Gorsuch to fill the open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Gorsuch currently serves on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, and he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate when he was appointed to that position by President George W. Bush in 2006.  Gorsuch appears to have some strong similarities to Antonin Scalia, and many conservatives are hoping that when Gorsuch fills Scalia’s seat that it will represent a shift in the balance of power on the Supreme Court.  Because for almost a year, the court has been operating with only eight justices.  Four of them were nominated by Republican presidents and four of them were nominated by Democrats, and so many Republicans are anticipating that there will now be a Supreme Court majority for conservatives.
• Trump Picks Anti-Choice Federal Judge Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court
  Within minutes of President Trump’s nomination of federal judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, several hundred demonstrators had converged on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. to protest his selection. Waving signs proclaiming, “Gorsuch: Extreme and Dangerous” and “#NoWall #NoBan,” the protesters and a stream of speakers linked the conservative nominee to the administration’s unconstitutional ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and pledged to defy both.
• Lindsey Williams – The Energy Non-Crisis – Call To Decision Presentation
  Lindsey Williams talks about his first hand knowledge of Alaskan oil reserves larger than any on earth. And he talks about how the oil companies and U.S. government won’t send it through the pipeline for U.S. citizens to use.
• Ron Paul Warns: “Second Financial Bubble Going To Burst Soon… Even Trump Can't Stop It”
  By all appearances notes SHTFPlan.com's Mac Slavo, President Trump is doing his damnedest to turn around the economy, revitalize jobs and bring back prosperity. But the larger trends are already in place; the cycle is turning, and the bust cannot be put off forever. “Federal Reserve policy has literally set the country up for collapse, and though the central bank has been very creative in making the impossible work, and putting off disaster, nothing can hold back the flood forever. Unfortunately, it looks like Trump may be blamed for a financial crisis that he didn’t cause. Analysts, including notably Brandon Smith, may be correct in pinpointing the attempt to use the new and highly controversial president as a scapegoat for the dirty work of the bankers. The conditions are there, and the consequences were built in when the bubble was still being pumped up. Someday it will burst. When, how, and how bad remains to be seen.”
• The other “ban” that was quietly announced last week
  Most of the world is in an uproar right now over the travel ban that Donald Trump hastily imposed late last week on citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries. But there was another ban that was quietly proposed last week, and this one has far wider implications: a ban on cash. The European Union’s primary executive authority, known as the European Commission, issued a “Road Map” last week to initiate continent-wide legislation against cash. There are already a number of anti-cash legislative measures that have been passed in individual European member states.
• Japan Thinks It Can Balance Its Budget
  A recurring problem for most developed-world governments is explaining why last year’s plan didn’t work while convincing voters that this year’s new and improved plan will do the trick. This is especially tough when the new plan is pretty much the same as the old one and therefore just as likely to fail. Let’s take Japan as our first object lesson. Its government is the world’s most deeply indebted relative to GDP. Its population is the world’s oldest, with the number of retirees on public assistance soaring. Yet for some reason its leaders keep promising to balance the budget, only to be forced to push the date further into the future with each new report.
• Adventures in Currency Debasement
  The U.S. dollar, as measured by the dollar index, has generally gone up since mid-2014. The dollar index goes up when the U.S. dollar gains strength (value) against a basket of currencies, including the euro, yen, pound, and several others. Conversely, the dollar index goes down when the U.S. dollar loses value. Between July 30, 2014 and December 28, 2016, the dollar’s value, as measured by the dollar index, increased from 79.78 to 103.30 – or 29 percent. Since then, the dollar index has dropped to about 100. In addition, President Trump has said that the dollar is “too strong” and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has called the dollar “excessively strong.”
• Senate confirms Rex Tillerson for secretary of State
  The Senate confirmed former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of State on Wednesday, even as Democrats blocked progress on other Cabinet nominees chosen by President Trump. Three Democrats and one Independent who generally votes with the Democrats joined a solid rank of Republicans in approving Tillerson 56-43. The vote puts a man who has negotiated business deals with countries around the world, including some hostile to the United States, in position to negotiate on behalf of Trump in matters of war and peace, climate change and human rights.
• BUCKLE UP: Available Physical Gold & Silver Supplies Drying Up In London’s LBMA As The Price Of Silver Surges
  In what promises to be a wild 2017 we are already seeing physical gold and silver supplies drying up in London’s LBMA as the price of silver surges. James Turk:  “There has been a lot of gold and silver moving to China recently, prior to the Chinese New Year, and that’s starting to show up in terms of the lack of liquidity over here in London.  And even as prices were going down as the options were ready to expire, we were seeing backwardation in gold.  The spot price of gold was a dollar or so above what February delivery prices were and it was only a few days until February delivery.  So we are seeing the tightness in terms of the way the market is trading.  We are also seeing the tightness in terms of the spreads and the backwardation in gold plus the metals flows themselves.  Eric, I keep reminding myself of where we were several years ago, back in 2009-2010.  We have those same kind of circumstances (where gold and silver skyrocketed) developing right now and nobody is paying attention.
• Here Are The Technical Reasons Why Oil Is About To Plunge
  There are basically two ways to analyze markets and make trading decisions, the fundamental and the technical. Logically speaking, fundamental factors and analysis always have the upper hand, particularly over a longer time period. In the case of crude oil, for example, if supply is outstripping demand the price is going down, no matter what your charts indicate. In the short term, though, as traders pay attention to technical factors they can be enormously powerful. Right now there is a battle going on between the fundamental and technical in the WTI market and, unusually, this looks like one that technical factors will win. Two weeks ago here I predicted higher oil and we did climb from around $51 to $54, but the likely outcome of this battle has caused me to expect another drop from here.
• BlackRock: Inflation Is Surging, So Buy Some Gold
  Russ Koesterich discusses the signs that inflation is rising faster than many expect, and what that means for your portfolio. Like the proverbial frog that does not notice the rise in water temperature until it’s too late, investors seem to be experiencing a similarly stealthy rise in inflation. Changes in headline inflation measures suggest a gentle firming in prices. However, underneath the surface there is evidence that inflation may continue to rise past the steady 2% nirvana that central banks prefer.
• Barron’s Calls For Dow 30K Already
  The financial magazine which has made an art out of calling for big, round numbers in the Dow Jones Financial Index (as a reminder over 20% of the Dow’s surge since the election is due entirely to Goldman Sachs), most recently with its “get ready for Dow 20,000” call from just over a month ago, has done it again. While there are still those – pretty much anyone who still cares about fundamentals – who are scratching their heads at Dow20K, according to Barrons “the Dow hitting 20,000 was no fluke. Today’s stock prices are well supported by solid prospects for corporate earnings and economic growth.”
• China Sets the Stage to Replace the U.S. As Global Trade Leader
  Saturday marked the Lunar New Year, the most important date in the Chinese calendar. It’s also the start of the longest holiday at two weeks, during which the largest mass migration of humans occurs every year as families reunite and go on vacations, both domestic and overseas. 2017 is the year of the 10th Chinese zodiac, the fire rooster, one of whose lucky colors is gold. Year-to-date, gold—the metal, not the color—is up 3.5 percent, which is below the 5.7 percent it had gained so far around this time last year. Unfortunately, gold prices won’t find support from Chinese traders this week, as markets will be closed in observance of the new year. If you remember, the yellow metal had one of its worst one-day slumps of 2016 back in October during China’s Golden Week, when markets were similarly closed.
• THE NEW AGENDA – Knowing This Is Your Key To Survival – A New DVD From Pastor Lindsey Williams
  THE NEW AGENDA – Knowing This Is Your Key To Survival! The Elite Agenda – Point by Point. Reserve Currency – Which One? How Long Do We Have? Why The Elite Changed Their Agenda. MONEY – Under The New Agenda. Gold and Silver. Suggested New Mindset. THE NEW AGENDA – Knowing This Is Your Key To Survival! The New DVD From Pastor Lindsey Williams. Order NOW Online For SHIPMENT NOW!
• Embry – A Jaw-Dropping 8.6 Million Ounces Of Paper Gold Longs Just Blew Up At The Comex!
  With the Dow tumbling back below the 20,000 level, one of the greats in the business told King World News that a jaw-dropping 8.6 million ounces of paper gold longs just blew up at the Comex! U.S. Economy Weakest Since 2008 Collapse. John Embry:  “With all of the chaos regarding the immigration decrees, I think most observers have lost track of what is really happening with the U.S. economy.  Instead they are focusing on the turmoil in the country and the record highs on the Dow…
• The Media Is Now The Political Opposition
  Bannon is correct that the US media—indeed, the entire Western print and TV media—is nothing but a propaganda machine for the ruling elite. The presstitutes are devoid of integrity, moral conscience, and respect for truth. https://www.rt.com/usa/375271-bannon-trump-media-cnn/ Read the comments in which morons define freedom of the press as the freedom to lie to the public. Who else but the despicable Western media justified the enormous war crimes committed against millions of peoples by the Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes in nine countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Palestine, and the Russian areas of Ukraine?
• Dow 20K, US Debt $20 Trillion, Trump and Gold US: Dow 20K … US Debt $20 Trillion … Trump and $15,000 Go
  In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached 20,000 earlier this week for the first time in its 132 year history to much media fanfare. Since Trump’s election US market indicators, including the Dow have been ticking up – it has been labelled the Trump rally. This latest milestone is something that the new President is happy to take credit for. In fact, he tweeted ‘Great! #Dow20K’ in response.
• Why 2017 Could See the Collapse of the Euro
  2017 could be the year that the euro collapses according to Joseph Stiglitz writing in Fortune magazine and these concerns were echoed over the weekend by former Bundesbank vice-president and senior European Central Bank official, Jürgen Stark, when he said that the ‘destruction’ of the Eurozone may be necessary if countries are to thrive again. Stark and Stiglitz are too of many respected commentators, from both the so called right and the so called left, who are warning that the common currency and the Eurozone itself will not survive the financial and political turmoil already besetting the European monetary union and set to deepen in the coming months and years.
• Why Our System Is Broken: Cheap Credit Is King
  Cheap credit–newly issued money that can be borrowed at low rates of interest–is presented as the savior of our economic system, but in reality, it’s why our system is broken. The conventional economic pitch goes like this: cheap credit enables consumers to buy more goods and services (and since the system needs growth or it implodes, that’s good). Cheap credit also enables companies to invest in new productive assets (capital). Last but not least, low rates of interest enables the government at all levels to borrow money at relatively low cost.
• Remember When Obama Supported A Border Wall?
  There really is no limit to the mainstream media’s support for the far-left’s hypocrisy, or their use of a double standard when it comes to covering the Democrats… none. For months we’ve heard all about how the “integrity of our democracy” was under siege by “thugs” like Vladimir Putin, while no one has been talking how “thugs” like Barack Obama and Jey Johnson were using the Department of Homeland Security’s computer systems to try and hack into several states’ election systems AFTER the voting had taken place, but BEFORE results were certified. Yeah, good luck explaining that one. Thankfully, as of January 17th, the Inspector General of the DHS, John Roth, was cleared to being his investigation into the matter.
• Fed Will Be Forced to Print & Kill Dollar
  Economist John Williams warned last year the U.S. economy never really recovered, and it was going to turn down again. That downturn happened Friday when the latest GDP figures came in below 2% growth in the fourth quarter of 2016. Williams says the economy “contracted,” and he contends it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Williams explains, “I think there is reason for optimism in terms of the economy down the road. The problem is irrespective of who is president. When you introduce new policies, it takes about nine months to a year before we see the impact. So, the impact of all the happy things that are happening now won’t start to surface until 2018 barring other complications.  I expect you to see a pickup in the economy then. Unfortunately, we are still in an economy that is turning down. You are going to see that in the reporting in the next several months. We never really recovered from the economic collapse going into 2009. There was a little bit of a rebound, and we started to see the economy turn down again in 2014. If you look at the underlying series such as industrial production, freight indices and petroleum consumption, there has been no recovery. We are turning down again. This is the longest and deepest economic contraction since the Great Depression.”
• Trump’s Busy First Week, Voter Fraud is Real, Updates on War and Economy
  Donald Trump had a very busy first week in office. He started work on the day he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.  First thing he did was sign an Executive Order to take away some tax burdens for people who have to pay a penalty for not having health insurance.  He also pushed ahead on the long stalled XL Pipeline, clamped down on immigration and took the first steps to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.  Trump also made the claim that “three to five million” illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election, and that cost him the popular vote.  The mainstream media (MSM) basically called him a sore winner and a liar and said there was no evidence of voter or election fraud.  So, Trump ordered an investigation to get evidence of widespread fraud.
• Now It Is The Elite That Are Feverishly ‘Prepping’ For The Collapse Of Society
  Once upon a time, “prepping” was something that was considered to be on “the lunatic fringe” of society. But in 2017, wealthy elitists are actually the most hardcore preppers of all. This is particularly true in places such as Silicon Valley, where a whole host of young tech moguls are putting a tremendous amount of time, effort and money into preparing for apocalyptic scenarios. So while interest in prepping among the general population has fallen extremely low right now, the election of Donald Trump has given liberal wealthy elitists even more urgency to prepare for what they believe is a very uncertain future.
• The United States Is On The Precipice Of Widespread Civil Unrest
  It doesn’t take much of a trigger to push extremely large crowds of very angry protesters into committing acts of rioting and violence.  And rioting and violence can ultimately lead to widespread civil unrest and calls for “revolution”.  The election of Donald Trump was perhaps the single most galvanizing moment for the radical left in modern American history, and we have already seen that a single move by Trump can literally cause protests to erupt from coast to coast within 48 hours.  On Friday, Trump signed an executive order that banned refugees from Syria indefinitely and that placed a 90 day ban on travel to the United States for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.  Within hours, protesters began to storm major airports, and by Sunday very large crowds were taking to the streets all over the country…
• Is It Just A Coincidence That The Dow Has Hit 20,000 At The Same Time The National Debt Is Reaching $20 Trillion?
  The Dow Jones Industrial Average provides us with some pretty strong evidence that our “stock market boom” has been fueled by debt.  On Wednesday, the Dow crossed the 20,000 mark for the first time ever, and this comes at a time when the U.S. national debt is right on the verge of hitting 20 trillion dollars.  Is this just a coincidence?  As you will see, there has been a very close correlation between the national debt and the Dow Jones Industrial Average for a very long time. For example, when Ronald Reagan took office in 1991, the U.S. national debt had just hit 994 billion dollars and the Dow was sitting at 951.
• Eurozone ‘destruction' necessary if countries are to thrive again, warns former ECB hawk
  The eurozone must break up if its members are to thrive again, according to a former European Central Bank official. Jürgen Stark, who served on the ECB’s executive board during the financial crisis, said it was time to “think the unthinkable” and work towards a “reset” of Europe that pulled power away from Brussels. The former vice-president of Germany’s Bundesbank said the creation of a two-speed eurozone, with France and Germany at its core, would help to ensure the smaller bloc’s survival.
• Trump orders ISIS plan, talks with Putin and gives Bannon national security role
  President Trump on Saturday ordered the Pentagon to devise a strategy to defeat the Islamic State and restructured the National Security Council to include his controversial top political adviser as he forged a partnership with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin in their first official phone call. Trump and Putin spoke for one hour and vowed to join forces to fight terrorism in Syria and elsewhere, according to the White House and the Kremlin, signaling a potential shift in U.S.-Russian relations that have been marked by high tension.
• New World Order Pushing Cashless Agenda in India and Around the World
  The cashless agenda has taken a giant leap forward worldwide in the last 2 months, mainly due to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi took the bold, detested and despised step of banning the 2 highest denomination notes in India (the 500 and 1000 rupee notes, worth around US$7.50 and $15 respectively). This wiped out around 80% of the value of circulating cash widely used by many segments of society for trade. His reason was to cut down on the black money circulating in India upon which tax is not paid. However, from the broader perspective of the worldwide New World Order (NWO) conspiracy, converting the entire world economy to solely digital transactions is not just about extracting more tax revenue from the ruled populations; it’s about knowledge and power. It’s about surveillance on an extraordinary scale. The cashless agenda is about acquiring the capacity to monitor literally every single financial transaction that takes place on the planet. Unsurprisingly, the new cash ban hurt many poor Indians who either don’t have a bank account or who rarely use one. Also unsurprisingly, the idea for the ban did not originate from Modi. The truth is that India is being used as the latest guinea pig to push forth the NWO cashless agenda, and a particular US Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) was instrumental in the rollout.
• Trump’s education secretary pick plans to get rid of Common Core standards
  Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, will put the brakes on the contentious Common Core standards if she is confirmed by the Senate. “It’s time to make education great again in this country,” she said at a Trump rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Friday. “This means letting states set their own high standards and finally putting an end to the federalized Common Core.” DeVos, a prominent Republican donor and the former head of the Michigan GOP, is known as a charter-school advocate and a booster of school choice and education vouchers. DeVos’ five-minute speech echoed her new boss’s stance.
• A Tariff with Mexico Will Ensure Americans Pay for Border Wall
  The AP is reporting that Sean Spicer has informed reporters that President Trump is considering a 20% on Mexican goods as a way to fund his Mexican border wall.  Though Trump has insisted throughout his presidential campaign that “Mexico will pay” for any such project, this move would ensure that it is Americans who will suffer the costs as they are forced to pay extra on Mexican goods coming into the country.
• Trump Can't Avoid The Coming Financial Crisis
  The Federal Reserve's policies of printing trillions of dollars back in '08-09 have locked into place a serious financial crisis at some point in our future. It's unavoidable, and even Donald Trump can't stop it. Trump will unfairly get the blame though.
• Trump’s Executive Order on Refugees — Separating Fact from Hysteria
  To read the online commentary, one would think that President Trump just fundamentally corrupted the American character. You would think that the executive order on refugees he signed yesterday betrayed America’s Founding ideals. You might even think he banned people from an entire faith from American shores.
• Trump pick for Energy secretary sits on Dakota Access Pipeline company's board
  Donald Trump's pick for Energy secretary, Rick Perry, sits on the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners, the company whose Dakota Access Pipeline has been fiercely opposed by Native American tribes and their allies. Dallas-based Energy Transfer's top executive and other employees also contributed millions of dollars to support the former Texas governor's short-lived 2015 bid for the White House.
• Dear Bernie, Meet the “Big Mac ATM” That Will Replace All Of Your $15 Per Hour Fast Food Workers
  Dear Bernie, as you continue in your never-ending “Fight for $15”, we thought you might benefit from a simple example of how economics work in a real life, functioning, capitalistic society.  You see, Bernie, labor, much like your daily serving of crunchy granola, is just another “good” that businesses can choose to consume more or less of, depending on price.  And, just to be crystal clear, when the price of labor (i.e. wages) increases, businesses tend to consume less of it.  Finally, our dearest Bernie, when misinformed politicians radically disrupt labor markets by setting artificially high base prices, like your proposed $15 federal minimum wage, then businesses simply stop consuming labor completely and instead replace that labor with this “Big Mac ATM Machine.”
• Americans Pay More in Taxes than on Food, Clothing, and Housing Combined
  Our annual Tax Freedom Day report finds that the nation’s Tax Freedom Day will come on April 21st this year, which is three days later than last year. The calendar measure represents how long Americans as a whole need to work in order to pay the nation’s tax burden. The report estimates that Americans will pay about $4.5 trillion dollars in taxes of all kinds in 2014, with $3 trillion going to the federal government and $1.5 trillion dollars going to state and local governments. This is approximately 30.2 percent of the nation’s income paid in taxes. In total, Americans will pay more in taxes in 2014 than on food, clothing, and shelter combined.
• What They Tell You: Trump Is Restarting The Pipeline. What They Don't Tell You: It's 70 Miles From Standing Rock And Made With American Steel
  If the United States is to become more energy independent, some say, then it is imperative that additional oil and gas pipeline infrastructure is built. And that includes the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipelines, which is why President Donald Trump has signed executive orders to allow permitting to be streamlined. But the key question is whether presidential support can overcome the economics of the Keystone project, as well as the fierce environmental opposition to it and the Dakota line. While the president has the power the microphone, he does not have the power of a monarch. The lines still need the approval of the states they'll operate in.
• MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS OVER! Look What Trump Just Installed in The Back of The Press Room!
  The media’s WAR on Trump continues but he is fighting back! Trump’s Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, just announced the installation of their SECRET WEAPON that will take all the power away from the mainstream media! Spicer started by DESTROYING the media for their dishonest coverage of Trump. Spicer said: “I THINK THERE’S AN OVERALL FRUSTRATION WHEN YOU WHEN YOU TURN ON THE TELEVISION …YOU’RE CONTINUALLY TOLD IT’S NOT BIG ENOUGH, IT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH, YOU CAN’T WIN.” After these comments, Spicer announced their SECRET WEAPON that they installed in the press room to take away CNN’s and the FAKE NEWS media’s power!
• Trump advances two energy infrastructure projects: Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines… can he balance infrastructure with environmental protection, too?
  On the official “Day 2” of the new administration, President Donald J. Trump continues to dismantle the legacy of his predecessor using all executive means at his disposal, fulfilling his promise to “Make America Great Again.” This morning, the president signed documents that will advance the eventual approval and construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects, both of which were stalled by President Barack Obama over the false notion of “climate change/global warming.”
• A Horrific Ending As The World Moves One Day Closer To Armageddon
  With the Dow surging above 20,000, while bonds and the dollar were weak once again, one of the greats in the business just warned that a horrific ending is coming as the world moves one day closer to Armageddon. John Embry:  “Eric, I read Egon von Greyerz’s KWN interview over the weekend and it was such a tour de force that I’m not sure what I can add to what he already said.  However, I agree with every word of his interview, and the fact that the vast majority of the population, including most of the rich and famous, seem oblivious to that reality and the resulting coming catastrophe, this virtually guarantees it can’t be avoided…
• Halliburton reports $5.7 billion in losses
  Halliburton, the world’s second largest oil field services company, reported dramatic losses Monday after a failed bid to take over rival Baker Hughes. Halliburton, based in Houston, said it lost $5.7 billion or $6.69 a share in 2016, compared to losses of $671 million in 2015, or 78 cents per share. It was the “sharpest and deepest industry decline in history”, said Dave Lesar, Halliburton Chairman and chief executive. In his 40 years in the business never had he seen such a rapid decline. A failed $28 billion merger with Houston-based oil field services firm Baker Hughes is to blame for such major losses. The event, which occurred back in May, cost Halliburton more than $4 billion dollars.
• 11 bizarre home remedies our grandparents used that actually work!
  To this day my grandparents are still giving me bizarre treatments for minor injuries. Just the other week I took a tumble down the stairs, and my Grandma piped up, telling me to boil an egg and rub the extremely hot breakfast item all over my extremely swollen ankle. And you now what? It worked! The swelling went down within an hour, and I felt almost as good as new by the next morning. Thanks, Gran!
• New EU Energy Strategy To Create Up To 900,000 Jobs
  On 30 November 2016, the European Commission officially released its “Clean Energy for All Europeans” package, also known as “Winter Package” i.e., moving the EU to meet its climate change target with numerous legislative proposals to reform the EU energy market. This legislation will have an important impact on the electricity market and the development of renewable-energy going forward. The European Commission wants the EU to be ahead on the global clean energy transition. For this reason the EU has committed to cut C02 emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, while modernizing the EU’s economy, delivering jobs and growth for all European citizens. The legislative proposals include a new target for energy efficiency, achieving global leadership in renewable energies and proving a fair deal for consumers.
• China calls for integrated Asia-Pacific
  China has responded to US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by reiterating its commitment to economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region. “China will forge ahead with the negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the construction of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) so as to add new impetus to regional and global economic development,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters on Tuesday. On Monday, Trump followed through on a campaign promise he had been making for months and signed an executive order to withdraw from the TPP, which had been a cornerstone of Barack Obama’s policy to counter China’s growing global influence.
• The 2017 “Davos Consensus” – More Welfare And More Warfare
  “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it!” I often think of these words, spoken by the great comedian George Carlin, when I read about the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Every year, global elites descend on Davos to discuss the big issues of the day in a Bilderberg-like conclave. This year, George Soros was there. So was Bill Gates. The most important world leaders go. As do CEOs of the world’s largest companies, mainstream media bigwigs, and prominent academics. Central bankers attend, too. In short, it’s a bunch of out-of-touch, self-anointed elites meeting to hand down from above their uniformly bad “solutions” to the world’s problems. Then they pat each other on the back for all the good they’re doing.
• These Are The Biggest Losers If Trade War Breaks Out Between The US And China
  With China growing increasingly nervous about the prospect of a trade war with the US, the nation's official mouthpiece People's Daily warned that a trade war between China and the United States would harm both countries, reflecting concerns over Trump's stated protectionist, anti-China stance. “If a trade war developed between the two countries, both China and the U.S. would be negatively impacted,” the newspaper said in a commentary. “In the end neither side would win, it would bring harm to other countries and that harm would be brought to others without benefits to the U.S. or China.” As both China and the U.S. are major players in global supply chains and value chains, numerous countries would be gravely impacted from a trade war, the article added.
• Trump To Launch “Major Investigation Into Voter Fraud”
  Having stunned the media with his Monday night announcement before members of Congress during a private reception that Trump only lost the popular vote due to vote fraud, the president refused to back down the next day, when on Tuesday the White House said Trump stands by his belief that millions of people voted illegally in the U.S. election. “The president does believe that,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. The press secretary said the president had said “3 to 5 million people could have voted illegally, based on the studies that he's seen” although he did not quote the studies.
• The US dollar is now overvalued against almost every currency in the world
  In September 1986, The Economist weekly newspaper published its first-ever “Big Mac Index”. It was a light-hearted way for the paper to gauge whether foreign currencies are over- or under-valued by comparing the prices of Big Macs around the world. In theory, the price of a Big Mac in Rio de Janeiro should be the same as a Big Mac in Cairo or Toronto. After all, no matter where in the world you buy one, a Big Mac generally consists of the same ingredients– two all beef patties, special sauce, etc.
• How To Predict The Behavior Of Globalists: “You Have To Go To Some Ugly Places In Your Own Mind”
  In my last article, ‘How Globalists Predict Your Behavior’, I outlined the primary method globalists use to measure public consent, or, public dissent. The use of macro-analytics and the hyper-monitoring of web traffic is a powerful tool at the disposal of the establishment for gauging shifts in public consciousness in real time. For example, in early 2016 the elites were entirely aware of the rise of conservative and sovereignty movements in the U.S. and Europe. In fact, the dangers of growing “populism” were all that elitists and their publications talked about for the first six months of the year. At first, this notion seemed a little odd to me. Generally, when globalists are attempting to manage public opinion, they are careful not to reveal the slightest hint that conservative movements exist beyond an “extremist fringe”. They certainly never suggest that there is a massive undercurrent of nationalism ready to topple the globalist structure.
• If You Are Devastated At Trump Presidency “It Might Be A Sign That You Rely On Or Worship The State Just A Bit Too Much”
  The inauguration is behind us now, but many – millions, it seems – are still immersed in fear, anguish, and grief over the reality of President Donald Trump. #NotMyPresident is still a very active hashtag on Twitter. People are already calling for impeachment, claiming Trump’s presidency is “illegitimate”. Celebrities (I refuse to mention them by name here and give them more attention) are still using their platforms to express anger, disappointment, and distress over the Trump presidency. Protests continue, and people are venting and ranting and arguing on social media.
• The Demise of the Left
  On several occasions I have asked in my columns the rhetorical question: What became of the left? Today I answer my question. The answer is that the European and American left, which traditionally stood for the working class and peace (bread and peace) no longer exists. The cause championed by those who pretend to be the “left” of today is identity politics.  The “left” no longer champions the working class, which the “left” dismisses as “Trump deplorables,” consisting of “racist, misogynist, homophobic, gun nuts.” Instead,the “left” champions alleged victimized and marginalized groups—blacks, homosexuals, women and the transgendered. Tranny bathrooms, a cause unlikely to mobilize many Americans, are more important to the “left” than the working class
• Theresa May: US and UK will no longer invade foreign countries ‘to remake the world in their own image’
  Britain and the US will never again invade sovereign foreign countries “in an attempt to make the world in their own image,” Theresa May told Republican policymakers in Philadelphia. The Prime Minister vowed never to repeat the “failed policies of the past” in reference to Western military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking from the “liberal intervention” principle established by Tony Blair. Referencing the “special relationship” between the UK and US, Ms May also stressed the importance of cooperation between the two countries to meet their “obligations of leadership” and “stand up for our interests”.
• Elites Eying The Exits Signals America's Crisis
  The Institute for New Economic Thinking's President Rob Johnson was interviewed by the New Yorker on hedge-fund managers and the market for air strips in New Zealand… Interviewed as part of an extraordinary New Yorker investigation into growing anxiety among America’s corporate elite over the potential for anarchic social collapse, Institute President Robert Johnson saw his peers’ talk of bolt-holes in New Zealand as reflecting a deeper crisis. Johnson told writer Evan Osnos of the mounting anxiety he had encountered among hedge-fund managers and other wealthy Americans he knew.
• How Much Longer Can The Market Go Without A Correction
  With the recent performance of the S&P, in which there has not been even a single 1% drawdown since the election, not only is complacency raging but some traders have forgotten what it even means to experience a modest 5% correction, let alone a 20% bear market. How much longer can this go on? For the answer, we turned to a recent report by InvesTech, according to which as the table below shows, a 5% correction has occurred about once every seven months in an ongoing bull market. Ignoring that the current bull market is already more than twice the average length of past bull markets with no 20% correction since the financial crisis, the frequency of corrections has been roughly in line with historical norms.
• The peso is tumbling after Mexico's president said he wouldn't meet with Trump
  The peso was tumbling Thursday after Mexico's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, announced he had canceled a meeting scheduled for next week with President Donald Trump. The peso was down by 1.2% at 21.3175 per dollar as of 11:57 a.m. ET. The currency had been up by as much as 0.8% at 20.9358 per dollar at about 8:50 a.m. ET. “This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the @POTUS,” Peña Nieto tweeted, according to an online translation.
• Trump Orders Media Blackout At Government Agencies: Bans Use Of Social Media, Bars New EPA Contracts
  It wasn't just the EPA. Earlier today, we reported that the Trump administration instituted a media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency and barred staff from awarding any new contracts or grants. Emails sent to EPA staff since President Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday and reviewed by The Associated Press, detailed the specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency's social media accounts. On Monday, the Huffington Post reported that EPA grants had been frozen, with agency employees barred from speaking of the matter.
• US State department's entire senior management team quits as Secretary Rex Tillerson takes up post
  The entire senior level of management officials at the US State department has resigned – rather than serve under President Donald Trump. In the latest display of disquiet among civil servants in Washington over the new commander-in-chief, the four top senior officials at the equivalent of America's foreign ministry, announced they were standing down. The new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was present in the department’s offices in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington DC, when the officials resigned on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported.
• Draghi Admits EU May Breakup For First Time
  For the first time, the head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, has conceded the possibility that the EU may fall apart. Draghi came out and said that any member leaving the Eurozone would need to settle its claims or debts with the bloc’s payments system before severing ties. This statement reveals the heated discussion at Davos and the rift that is beginning to spread. This statement, released on Friday, was made in a letter to two Italian lawmakers in the European Parliament. Sentiment in Italy is turning very anti-euro and this view is beginning to emerge in other Eurozone states. While they are blaming Britain, the real issue is the insane management of austerity and negative interest rates. This has created a massive depression in Europe and the unending Quantitative Easing has destroyed the European bond market. Whenever the ECB has to give up, interest rates will soar, for private buyers will not be willing to risk it all when the EU is clearly doomed.
• Alex Jones' InfoWars Offered White House Credentials
  Things sure are changing in the White House press corps. According to a video posted on Wednesday, radio show host Alex Jones’s website Infowars, which has been accused of being “conspiracy theory and alt-right” by much of the established media, has been offered White House press credentials. In the clip Jones explains: “Here’s the deal, I know I get White House credentials, we’ve already been offered them, we’re going to get them, but I’ve just got to spend the money to send somebody there. I want to make sure it’s even worth it. I don’t want to just sit there up there like ‘m in the media, look our people are there.’ People don’t understand this paradigm, we’re devolving in a good way, power from the federal government back to the people, back from the centralized MSM to the people, just like Trump said in his speech.” On Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that four “Skype seats” would be made available to some journalists who are outside of a 50-mile radius of Washington, D.C.. It is not known when the Skype seats will be deployed during daily press briefings.
• Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen – January 26, 2017
  Pastor Lindsey Williams introduces Pastor David Bowen with his regular short weekly video for readers of Pastor Williams’ weekly newsletter.

Precious Metals Are The Only Lifeboat! I have persistently WARNED you what was happening in the gold market and why you needed to convert your paper assets to physical gold and silver. You need to hedge against the financial instability with physical gold and silver. Call the experts to help you convert your IRA or 401k into Gold, Silver and Other Precious Metals. Call GoldCo NOW before it's too late! Call Toll-Free 1-877-414-1385.

From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

Lindsey Williams Online | Promote your Page too

Latest News From February 19, 2016 to February 25, 2016:

• Pope Francis Appoints Population Control Extremist to Vatican Post
  A scientist who believes the world is overpopulated by 6 billion people has been appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy of Science. The Holy See Press office made the announcement today that besides being one of four official presenters of the Pope’s controversial encyclical on the environment Thursday in Vatican City, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is to join 80 other scientists who are official advisers to the Vatican on scientific matters.
• Cramer: Fed blind to recession signs everywhere
  Everywhere Jim Cramer goes, people ask him if the U.S. is headed into a recession. And then he hears other whispers, saying that the Fed feels the need to raise rates and maybe it will happen in March. “When you look beyond the market's tight linkage to the price of oil, the idea that we could be headed into a recession has become a powerful theme, a whispered undercurrent in this environment that surfaces whenever oil takes a dive,” the “Mad Money” host said.
• 1 in 4 Americans on verge of financial ruin
  The rich keep getting richer. The rest of us aren’t so lucky. According to a survey released Tuesday by Bankrate.com of more than 1,000 adults, nearly one in four Americans have credit card debt that exceeds their emergency fund or savings. And that’s partially because many people, in addition to their debt, don’t have a dime in their emergency fund at all: another Bankrate survey released earlier this year found that 29% of Americans have no emergency savings at all.
• Riyadh on the Brink: US Must Prepare for Collapse of its Mideast ‘Lynchpin'
  The United States must start thinking of ways to mitigate the damage from the approaching collapse of the current Saudi Arabian monarchy. A codependence between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US has existed for decades. A scheme in which oil from the Saudis was exchanged for US military might worked well for both. It worked so well, in fact, that the US turned a blind eye to consistent human rights violations in the kingdom, as well as the spread of Wahhabi religious extremism.
• Jim Rogers Warns “Governments Plan Is To Destroy The People Who Save”
  “Everybody should be worried.. and be prepared,” warns legendary investor Jim Rogers, as he sees the market “facing a bigger collapse than in 2008,” and the central banks will be unable to kick the can much longer. “This is the first time in recorded history where you have Central Banks & governments setting out to destroy the people who save & invest,” Rogers exclaims and “the markets are telling us that something is wrong – we're getting close.”
• And Now We Have A Services Recession: Markit Services PMI Crashes Into Contraction
  Following this week's ongoing demise of the US manufacturing sector, tumbling to its weakest since October 2012, Markit US Services PMI collapsed into contraction at 49.8, massively below expectations of 53.5. This is the weakest level for the last pillar standing in the US recovery since the government shutdown in 2013, and as Markit even admits, “slumping business confidence and an increased downturn in order book backlogs suggest there’s worse to come.”
• Fed's Lacker says still logical to expect rate hikes this year
  Ongoing strength in the U.S. job market could give the Federal Reserve justification for multiple interest rate increases this year, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said on Wednesday. Nearly two months of falling global equity prices and mounting concerns over a global economic slowdown have fostered doubts that the U.S. central bank will raise rates anytime soon. “I still think prospects for rate increases this year is the logical” view, Lacker said in a presentation to a business school in Baltimore, adding that economic data did not indicate that a recession was imminent in the United States.
• New home sales fall sharply to 494K – USD extends falls
  Sales of new homes fell 9.2% in January to 494K, much worse than predicted and very different to yesterday’s report about existing home sales. New home sales in the US were expected to rise 4.4% to 544K. Also the average home sale price is down: $278K against $292K beforehand.
• Dire Conditions Are Now Spreading Across The Globe
  With stocks still struggling and gold surging nearly $30 at one point in today’s trading session, dire conditions are now spreading across the globe.
• Peter Schiff: Obama “Peddling Fiction” As Unemployed Tops 100 Million People
  In the video in the link above, President Obama gives one of the most disingenuous speeches he has ever given. Either the man is a pathological liar, or in the alternate universe where he lives, there really is an economic recovery, and unicorns really do run free! Neither of those things helps any of the now 100 million Americans living in REALITY who are not currently working. While all the sane people in our weary nation are bracing for a global economic reset, Obama is flat out “peddling fiction,” as he put it during his State of the Union speech. There is no other way to say it. Period. It’s unconscionable that Obama is STILL out in front of the cameras taking credit for a recovery when 1/3 of our entire nation’s POPULATION is out of work. Listen to him spew his garbage!
• UK downgrading of human rights sets dangerous precedent, says Amnesty
  Britain is setting a dangerous precedent by undermining human rights and contributing to a worldwide “culture of impunity”, Amnesty International has said in its annual report on the state of human rights. Plans to scrap the Human Rights Act, the UK’s absence from EU refugee resettlement schemes, proposed new spying laws and the alleged downgrading of human rights as a Foreign Office priority in favour of commercial deals are all cited by the group as evidence of a trend.
• China Is Making a Major Play for American Farms and Farmland
  The American farmer is revered in our culture. He—the mythical American farmer is invariably a man—is in many ways a professional embodiment of values, such as individualism and hard work, that are considered part of the national identity. With their backbreaking work, farmers settled the growing West through the 1862 Homestead Act. It’s not a stretch to say that farmers, riding the wave of manifest destiny, built the United States. Today, they continue to feed it.
• The Syrian Ceasefire Has Revealed Russia's Superpower Status
  Yesterday’s evening news in Russia was dominated by one story: the announcement by Vladimir Putin on national television that the United and Russia had concluded an agreement to facilitate the start and supervise the implementation of a ceasefire in Syria between government and opposition forces, set to begin on 27 February. The agreement was sealed by a telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama that took place shortly before the broadcast. Putin’s televised address was less than 10 minutes long and it has been rebroadcast in entirety on state television at hourly intervals. Understandably, it has been the number one topic in the Russian print media this morning.
• Don't Show This Chart To Experian: Subprime Auto Delinquencies Hit Highest Level Since 2010
  For those unfamiliar, Melinda is Experian’s senior director of automotive finance and she’s never, ever worried. Or at least not that she lets on. “We're not seeing anything that would be a red flag,” she said earlier this month in response to data that showed the percentage of auto loans made to buyers with the poorest credit ratings is growing faster than the rest of the auto finance market.
• The Addict Needs More Drug; Is Permanent Quantitative Easing in Our Future?
  Central bankers want you to think they have all the answers. They talk about their policy “tool kits” as if they can just reach in and find the proper solution for any possible economic scenario. But if you peer behind the curtain, it becomes apparent they may not really know what they’re doing after all. In fact, with a recession looming on the horizon, there are some signs of desperation among economic central planners.
• Consumer confidence falls to seven-month low
  Consumers confidence fell in February to the lowest level in seven months, as American became a bit more pessimistic about business conditions. Turmoil in stock markets probably also increased anxiety. The consumer confidence index dropped to 92.2 from a revised 97.8 in January, the Conference Board said Tuesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had projected the index to fall to 96.9.
• Richmond Fed Slides Back Into Contraction As New Orders Collapse
  With the biggest drop in New Orders since September, Richmond Fed Manufacturing survey dropped to -4 (missing expectations of +2), hovering at its weakest in over 3 years. Across the board the components were weaker with order backlogs and shipments plunging, average workweek and wages dropping, and capacity utilization worst since October. Prices (paid and received) dropped notably as future expectations for wages, workweek, and employees all fell.
• Venezuela Exported 36t Of Its Official Gold Reserves To Switzerland In January
  Remarkably, after Venezuela repatriated 160 tonnes in official gold reservesfrom 25 November 2011 until 30 January 2012, it started to slowly export this gold to the world’s largest gold trading and refining hub, Switzerland, in 2015. How much unencumbered official gold reserves Venezuela has left is unknown.
• Safes Sell Out In Japan, 1,000 Franc Note Demand Soars As NIRP Triggers Cash Hoarding
  Negative rates may not have found their way to bank deposits in most locales (yet), but that doesn’t mean the public isn’t starting to see the writing on the wall. At first, NIRP was an anomaly. An obscure policy tool that most analysts and market watchers assumed would be implemented on a temporary basis in a kind of “let’s see if this is even possible” experiment with an idea that, from a common sense perspective, makes no sense.
• Four US States Officially in Recession; Data Points to Broader Problems
  With four states officially in recession, and economic data continuing to point toward a broader downturn, it’s getting increasingly difficult for officials to sell the illusion of a strong US economy. Peter Schiff has been saying for weeks that the US may already be in a recession. Recently, Jim Grant appeared on CNBC’s Closing Bell and echoed Peter’s sentiments, saying the US likely went into recession in late December. And while officials at the Federal Reserve keep insisting the US economy remains strong, some mainstream analysts have started sounding recession warning bells as well. In fact, the number of mainstream economists predicting a recession within the next 12 months continues to rise.
• Major blow for Brexit campaign as US rules out UK-only trade deal
  The United States has ruled out a separate trade deal with UK if it leaves the European Union, in a major blow to Brexit campaigners. President Obama’s most senior trade official said that America is “not in the market” for a free trade deal with Britain alone, and warned British firms could face crippling Chinese-style tariffs outside the EU.
• PMI Plunges – The Last Time US Manufacturing Was This Weak, Bernanke Hinted At QE3
  On the heels of weakness in the rest of the world's PMIs, US Manufacturing just printed 51.0 (missing expectations of 52.4) and tumbling to its lowest since October 2012… followed rapidly by Bernanke hinting at QE3. While Markit does ‘blame the extreme weather', it notes however that “every indicator from the flash PMI survey, from output, order books and exports to employment, inventories and prices, is flashing a warning light about the health of the manufacturing economy.”
• An Alarm Goes Off Threatening The “Strong U.S. Jobs” Myth: Withheld Income Taxes Are Stalling
  Of all the indicators that the Fed has presented to justify its rate hike mentality and to validate that the US economy remains on a growth path despite clear recessionary signals from both the manufacturing sector and the dramatic tightening in financial conditions in recent months, Yellen's preferred metric also happens to be the most lagging one: nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate, both of which supposedly signal the collapsing slack in the labor market and a jump in wages that has been “just around the corner” for years.
• Paul Craig Roberts – The Frightening Truth About What Is Really Happening In The United States
  With continued uncertainty in global markets, today former U.S. Treasury official Dr. Paul Craig Roberts covers the frightening truth about what is really happening in the United States.
• You Are Here
  It's definitely different this time… The 2008 analog lines the current trajectory up with August 2008 right after Treasury Secretary Paulson told the world reassuringly that: “Our economy has got very strong long-term fundamentals. And you know, your policy-makers and regulators here – we're very vigilant.” And we all know what happened next…
• Oil rig count collapses for 9th straight week
  The US oil rig count tumbled 26 to 413 this week, according to driller Baker Hughes. It's the lowest level since December 2009. The total count of oil and gas rigs fell 27 to 514, as only one gas rig was shut down. Last week, the oil rig count fell by 28, while the combined count of oil and gas rigs dropped 30. This was the third straight week of a sizeable drop in the rig count, each by at least 26. It's the biggest three-week drop in a year.
• Higgins says unaccountable forces are running EU
  Unaccountable forces removed from democratic control are today in control in the European Union, President Michael D Higgins has declared in one of the most pointed speeches of his term in office.
• Marc Faber Just Accused Central Banks Of Halting The Decline In Global Stock Markets
  On the heels of the recent rally in world stock markets, today legendary Marc Faber spoke with King World News and just accused central banks of halting the decline in global stock markets. Marc Faber:  “I believe that stock markets around the world will end the year lower, but it will depend on how much money the central bankers will print.  You don’t know how far these mad professors will go.  They can launch QE4 with $500 billion a month, and in theory they could buy the whole stock market…
• Global leaders must act now as fresh downturn looms, warns OECD
  Global leaders must take “urgent” action to stop the world becoming stuck in a low-growth trap, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD slashed its growth forecasts across the board on Thursday as it urged policymakers to deploy a “full set of tools” to prevent another slowdown. Higher investment, loose monetary policy and structural reforms would all be needed to boost the recovery and ward off the financial stability risks “plaguing” the economy, it said. The OECD slashed its growth forecasts for all major economies apart from China, which the think-tank said was also facing challenges.
• Pope Francis Rips Capitalism, American Immigration Policy at Mexican Border
  Pope Francis, apparently desperate to reach out to the Catholic Church’s growing base in Latin America, spent the day slapping Americans in the face from across the US-Mexico border. In Ciudad Juarez, one of the most violent cities in the Western Hemisphere thanks to the drug cartels, the pope walked up a ramp covered in flowers toward a cross “erected… in memory of migrants who have perished trying to reach the United States just a stone’s throw away,” according to Reuters.

ELITE PLANS FOR 2016 – Take Immediate Action! – A New DVD From Pastor Lindsey Williams. Who will be the next president of the U.S.? Why no financial collapse in 2015? Hear from someone in contact with the Elite. Political Correctness. Five firearms every American should own. Is war inevitable? ORDER NOW online for shipment now. Or call Prophecy Club Toll-Free 1-888-799-6111.

From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. Please LIKE the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page to see stories posted daily regarding the current state of the economy around the world.

Lindsey Williams Online | Promote your Page too

Latest News From February 12, 2016 to February 18, 2016:

• The $100 Bill Could Be the Next Victim in the War on Cash; Don’t Become One Too
  The war on cash heated up this week when a former Obama economic adviser/ex-Treasury secretary floated the idea of eliminating the $100 bill. Lawrence Summers called for death to the Benjamins in a post on his Washington Post blog titled It’s Time to Kill the $100 Bill. The post announced the release of a paper by Harvard’s Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government senior Fellow Peter Sands arguing that governments should stop issuing high-denomination currency such as 500 euro notes and $100 bills. The paper even proposed withdrawing such currency them from circulation.
• 2016 Reveals Banks Shaky & Gold Solid-James Turk
  Gold expert James Turk says the banks are in trouble again. One of the biggest troubled institutions is Germany’s Deutsche Bank, and Turk contends, “It is quite alarming the shares of the stock are basically where they were in the lows of 2008.  It’s at the bottom of that year’s financial crisis, and here we have not even started the financial crisis yet.  The stock is back to those prices of seven or eight years ago.  It makes you wonder what is yet to come.  You are seeing publicity stunts like Jamie Dimon buying $25 million worth of JPMorgan stock.  It reminds me of what we saw back in the 1930’s.  In the history books, guys would go out and buy shares of their stock to convince people that things were okay.  The market is telling us that people want to be in safer things, and it looks like gold’s trend has finally turned after a four year correction. . . . It looks like we are going to be heading higher.”
• Stocks Cut in Half & Gold Doubles in 2016-Bo Polny
  Market cycle analyst Bo Polny says stocks are going to take a beating, and gold is going to shine in 2016. Polny contends, “What we’ve seen happen so far in gold is just a warm up.  We are not even close to see movements in gold, this is just the start. . . . What’s coming is a transfer of wealth.  When you are looking at a transfer of wealth, it means a huge financial shift in the landscape. . . . You are going to have the stock market crash this year of a minimum of 50% . . . and gold will double.   A $5,000 stock investment, after it is cut in half, will only buy you one ounce of gold that will be $2,500, and that will happen this year.”
• Here’s why (and how) the government will ‘borrow’ your retirement savings
  According to financial research firm ICI, total retirement assets in the Land of the Free now exceed $23 trillion. $7.3 trillion of that is held in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). That’s an appetizing figure, especially for a government that just passed $19 trillion in debt and is in pressing need of new funding sources.
• Philly Fed index shows manufacturing contracts for sixth straight month
  A early indication of manufacturing conditions in February indicated contraction for the sixth straight month, according to data released Thursday. The Philadelphia Fed said its manufacturing barometer of regional manufacturing activity rose slightly to negative 2.8 from negative 3.5. That was slightly ahead of the MarketWatch-compiled forecast for negative 3. Readings below zero indicate a contraction of activity.
• US Fed hawk now says ‘unwise' to continue rate hikes
  It would be “unwise” for the US Federal Reserve to continue hiking interest rates given declining inflation expectations and recent equity market volatility, St Louis Fed president James Bullard said on Wednesday (Feb 17) in comments that mark a stark change of direction for one of the Fed's more hawkish inflation foes.
• Britain outside the EU would stand tall as a free and prosperous nation
  In four months’ time the British people are likely to be asked to take the most important decision for the future of our country in their lifetimes. It is not about Europe as such. It is about whether we should remain within a deeply misguided and troubled institution known as the European Union. No one could have been clearer about the problem than David Cameron, in his Bloomberg speech three years ago, when he committed himself to securing a “fundamental, far-reaching reform” of the EU. He has conspicuously failed to do so.
• ALERT: Is This About To Ignite A Terrifying Global Storm?
  On the heels of a reprieve in world markets, is this about to ignite a terrifying global storm? And finally, this is from today’s note from legend Art Cashin:  Rumblings In The Euro Zone – Yra Harris, the sage of the CME, brought a potential seismic event in euro sovereign bonds to light in his blog earlier this week.
• The ban on cash is coming. Soon.
  This is starting to become very concerning. The momentum to “ban cash”, and in particular high denomination notes like the 500 euro and $100 bills, is seriously picking up steam. On Monday the European Central Bank President emphatically disclosed that he is strongly considering phasing out the 500 euro note. Yesterday, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers published an op-ed in the Washington Post about getting rid of the $100 bill. Prominent economists and banks have joined the refrain and called for an end to cash in recent months.
• Foreign Officials Sell A Record $48 Billion In U.S. Treasurys In December
  There has been much speculation whether foreign official institutions (central banks, SWFs, reserve managers and so on) are selling Treasurys or equities, or both as part of the Quantitative Tightening phenomenon. Moments ago, courtesy of the latest TIC data we have an answer: based on the monthly flow report breaking down Treasury transactions between foreign official and private entities, in December the far more important, former, group sold $48.1 billion in US Treasurys: the highest single monthly outflow on record.
• Gold: Not Just Another Commodity, A Safe-Haven in Times of Uncertainty
  Mainstream media pundits, economists, and journalists alike love to lump gold in with other commodities. They put it in the same category as oil, copper, wheat, natural gas, and other things that come out of the ground. But while gold is in fact a metal you must dig up, it is a mistake to call it “just another commodity.” Gold’s recent price performance shows that it is anything but. Gold is a superior safe-haven asset to own in times of financial duress and uncertainty.
• Tony Blair: Britain must give up MORE powers to Brussels and mass migration ‘GOOD for UK'
  TONY Blair has called alled for Britain to surrender MORE powers to unelected Brussels bureaucrats and insisted mass migration from eastern Europe has been GOOD for the country as he made a bizarre case for staying in the EU.
• John Paulson Pares Bet on Gold in Fourth Quarter
  Hedge-fund manager John Paulson pared his long-held bet on gold in the fourth quarter, according to a filing Tuesday. Paulson & Co. reduced its holdings in an exchange-traded fund that follows the price of gold by $400 million, the filing indicated. The move may have been a costly one: Gold futures soared last week to their highest level in a year, and the precious metal has been one of the top performers in 2016.
• Oil prices crash after Saudia Arabia and Russia agree to freeze production
  The world's two most powerful oil producers have reached a tentative agreement to freeze oil production at their current levels, dashing hopes of a supply cut for the world's glutted market. Meeting in Doha, Russia, Venezuelan and Saudi Arabian oil ministers reached the deal on Tuesday morning after months of speculation about a Russia-Saudi entente to limit output and help stabilise prices.
• Stocktake: Looking for investor capitulation
  Looking for investor capitulation Market sentiment may be awful but investors are not yet “max bearish”, indicating any bounces should be sold. That line may sound familiar to StockTake readers – we used it three weeks ago, but it remains true today.
• Empire Fed Contracts For 7th Straight Month, Hovers At 7-Year Lows
  The Empire Fed Manufacturing survey has been in contraction (below 0) since July 2015 and while February's -16.64 print was above January's -19.37, it was dramatically worse than the expected -10.0. New Orders and Shipments remain in contraction as both prices paid and recived tumbled. Hope improved modestly but remains markedly below December levels, as CapEx spending expectations weakened once again.
• Collapse Of The Paper Gold & Silver Market May Be Close At Hand
  There is something seriously wrong taking place in the markets today. This is also true in the paper gold and silver markets as well. For a paper precious metals futures market to function properly, there has to be ample supplies of physical metal. However, the ongoing trend of falling precious metal inventories points to big trouble in the paper gold and silver markets.
• A Cash Ban Has Already Begun…
  When looking over these data points, the first thing that jumps out at the viewer is that the vast bulk of “money” in the system is in the form of digital loans or credit (non-physical debt). Put another way, actual physical money or cash (as in bills or coins you can hold in your hand) comprises less than 1% of the “money” in the financial system. As far as the Central Banks are concerned, this is a good thing because if investors/depositors were ever to try and convert even a small portion of this “wealth” into actual physical bills, the system would implode (there simply is not enough actual cash).
• Goldman Channels FDR's `Nothing to Fear' With Sell Gold Call
  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says it’s time to bet against gold as bullion’s rally to the highest in a year isn’t justified, backing the bearish call with a comment from a former U.S. leader in a report that was issued, appropriately enough, on Presidents’ Day. Gold will slump to $1,100 an ounce in three months and $1,000 an ounce in 12 months, analysts including Jeffrey Currie and Max Layton wrote in the report that was dated Feb. 15 and received on Tuesday. It was headlined with a remark from former President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Swiss Won't Rethink 1,000-Franc Note as Draghi Hails Crime Fight
  Swiss officials have no plans to follow the European Central Bank and consider withdrawing their highest-denomination banknote to help fight crime. A day after ECB President Mario Draghi told lawmakers that there’s “increasing conviction” around the world that such bills are used for illegal purposes, Swiss National Bank Spokesman Walter Meier said by telephone that his institution “isn’t thinking about getting rid of the 1,000-franc note.”
• Negative Interest Rates a Positive for Gold
  Negative interest rates are becoming more and more in vogue and that could be good news for gold. Last week, Sweden’s central bank plunged a key interest rate even deeper into negative territory. Riksbanken slashed the rate from negative 0.35% to negative 0.50%. Many analysts anticipated the rate reduction, but the magnitude of the cut caught most by surprise.
• ECB chief says bank is ready to act in March if needed
  The European Central Bank is ready to ease policy further in March, President Mario Draghi said on Monday, highlighting risks from financial market volatility, a global slowdown in growth and low oil prices. The ECB will examine risks emanating from weaker emerging market growth and look at whether plunging crude prices along with market turbulence could derail its efforts to boost inflation, Draghi told lawmakers in the European Parliament.
• Morgan Stanley agrees to $3.2 billion settlement for selling risky mortgages
  Morgan Stanley on Thursday agreed to pay more than $3.2 billion to settle allegations by state and federal authorities that it downplayed the risk of mortgages it sold in the years before the financial crisis. In announcing the settlement, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said the bank’s actions contributed to the collapse of the housing market.
• Japan's economy shrinks 1.4 per cent
  Japan's economy shrank more than expected in the final quarter of last year as consumer spending and exports slumped. The result has added to headaches for policymakers already wary of damage the financial market rout could inflict on a fragile recovery. Gross domestic product contracted by an annualised 1.4 per cent in October-December, bigger than a market forecast for a 1.2 per cent decline and matching a fall marked in the second quarter of last year, Cabinet Office data showed on Monday.
• Is Gold Making A Triumphant Comeback?
  Analyzing the long term economic and market cycles, the probability is very high that the stock market downturn may eventually be the worst since the Great Depression. Of course, there are many more safety nets now, and the central banks of the world will coordinate in order to soften a decline. But the Fed and other central bankers are not the solution. They are the problem. All the ‘safety nets’ have to be paid for with money the governments don’t have. Therefore, it will have to be financed with ‘money creation’ by their central banks.
• Investors are piling into gold as fear stalks markets
  Gold is back in favor with investors running scared of global market turmoil. Physical gold prices have jumped 16% so far this year, and the Gold Shares (GLD) exchange-traded fund (ETF) is up nearly 13% — a handy return compared to big losses on most stock markets. Demand for gold as an investment was up 8% in 2015, and there's evidence that trend is accelerating this year.
• The stage is now set for a basic income for all
  It has been a breathtaking week for social policy in Canada. The stage is now set for a serious discussion about the merits of a basic income guarantee, and many of the actors have been cast in their leading roles. Jean-Yves Duclos, federal minister of families, children and social development, stated to both CBC Radio and the Globe and Mail last week that a guaranteed minimum income is a policy worthy of discussion, once the promised enhancements to child tax benefits occur — an existing kind of minimum income for families with children.
• Sunny Nevada Just Killed the Solar Industry with 40% Tax Hike, Derailing the Off-Grid Movement
  While Nevadans were celebrating the holidays under solar-powered lights, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted unanimously to increase a monthly fee on solar customers by 40% while reducing the amount they get paid for excess power sold to the grid. Adding insult to injury, they made the rate changes retroactive, sabotaging consumer investments in solar energy. This single move by government regulators will effectively kill the solar industry in Nevada and put an end to the surge of people seeking to detach from the grid by harnessing their own energy from the sun. Just as importantly, it serves to protect the profits of Nevada’s public utility company, NV Energy.
• Gerald Celente – One Of The Wildest 6 Weeks Of Trading In History, But Here’s The Big Surprise
  On the heels of an absolutely wild trading week for global markets, today the top trends forecaster in the world spoke with King World News about one of the wildest six weeks of trading in history. Eric King:  “Gerald, they put a few hundred points to the upside in the Dow.  So they may rally this market out of the hole.  It hit the wire today that Jamie Dimon bought a bunch of JP Morgan stock.  Your thoughts on the possibility of a rally, maybe a short squeeze on the public’s (near-record) short positions to get them out before the next tumble to the downside.  Do you see that as a possibility?” Gerald Celente:  “Of course it’s possible.  Absolutely.  The game is rigged.  Go back to the Davos Meeting in mid-January.   I read it on King World News, when you had Art Cashin on and he quoted Ray Dalio from Bridgewater Associates saying that we needed more quantitative easing from the Fed…
• Venezuela Declares Another Emergency: It Has Run Out of Food
  Venezuela’s opposition legislature has declared a “nutritional emergency,” proclaiming that the country simply does not have enough food to feed its population. The move comes after years of socialist rationing and shortages that forced millions to wait on lines lasting as long as six hours for a pint of milk, a bag of flour, or carton of cooking oil.
• Deutsche Bank Burns – Silver Is The Trade Of The Decade
  Deutsche Bank management spent Tuesday and Wednesday trying to make the case that it had plenty of liquidity and a gameplan to address structural issues.  They threw the hail Mary yesterday when they announced the possibility of using available “liquidity” to repurchase a few billion euros worth of senior bonds.  I have quotes around “liquidity” because, as I outlined in my blog post about this yesterday, DB is technically insolvent.
• The government just admitted it will use smart home devices for spying
  If you want evidence that US intelligence agencies aren’t losing surveillance abilities because of the rising use of encryption by tech companies, look no further than the testimony on Tuesday by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper.
• JPM's Kolanovic Warns Upcoming Recession Could Be Comparable To 2008 Crisis; Says “Buy Gold, Cash And VIX”
  By now all of our readers should be familiar with JPM's head quant Marko Kolanovic whose unblemished track record of accurate market calls is not only second to none, but is the equivalent in absolute value terms of Dennis Gartman's consistently wrong calls, which is why we won't spend time introducing him.
• The sinking EU ship: Shock as Italian PM says: ‘EU is like the orchestra on the Titanic'
  ITALY’S prime minister Matteo Renzi has stunned Brussels by comparing crisis-hit EU bosses as “like the orchestra playing on the Titanic”. The spirited leader continued his attacks on Brussels chiefs yesterday over their failure to deal with the multiple crises afflicting the 28-member bloc. The EU is currently beset by emergencies such as the global migrant crisis, eurozone debt timebomb, high levels of youth unemployment, the threat of terrorism and Britain’s EU referendum.
• Genius: FATCA has brought in just $13.5 billion in revenue on a cost of $1 trillion
  Earlier this week the State Department released its latest statistics for people who have renounced their US citizenship. 2015 was another record year, with 4,279 people divorcing themselves from the US government and heading to greener pastures elsewhere.
• Gold price: why major brokers are still predicting a fall to $1,000
  Winner of the London Bullion Market Association's 2015 price-prediction competition forecasts an average of $970 this year. It may be the best-performing asset in what has been a tumultuous start to 2016 but gold is still vulnerable to improvements in rates and the dollar and will fall to $1,000 an ounce or below this year, according to two analysts.
• Gerald Celente Warns The Global Crash Of 2016 Will Be Twice As Devastating As The 2008 Collapse
  With gold spiking nearly $70 at one point during today’s trading, today the top trends forecaster in the world warned King World News that the global crash of 2016 will be twice as devastating as the 2008 collapse. Eric King:  “Gerald, Stephen Leeb told King World News today that “The world is scared to death of deflation.”
• World Now On The Edge Of Total Panic As Gold Spikes $60 And Global Stock Markets Plunge
  With gold spiking more than $60, the dollar falling and bonds surging, today one of the top money managers in the world warned King World News that the world is now in the early stages of total panic as global stock markets plunge. King World News warned its global readers yesterday that global panic was coming because of the derivative nightmare in Hong Kong. Well, it’s here…
• After 1,428 years here’s what brought down the world’s oldest business
  In 578 AD, a Korean immigrant named Shigemitsu Kongo made his way to Japan at the invitation of the royal family. Buddhism was on the rise in Japan at the time; though it had only been introduced a few decades prior, the Empress consort had been actively encouraging the adoption of Buddhism across Japan. But since the Japanese had no experience building Buddhist temples, they looked overseas for help. That’s where Kongo came in.
• 5 worst investment calls of this century
  The 21st century is well into its second decade, but it’s already had two stock market crashes, a global financial crisis and the Great Recession, from which we haven’t fully recovered. Not surprisingly, financial pundits and gurus have gotten many things wrong. But some have gotten them really wrong. Here are my picks for the five worst investing calls so far, based on how off base they were and how big their consequences were.
• Some Hedge Funds Want to Make Subprime Auto Loans Next Big Short
  A group of hedge funds, convinced they have found the next Big Short, are looking to bet against bonds backed by subprime auto loans. Good luck finding a bank willing to do the trade.
• The US Is Already in a Recession; Get Ready for Some Crazy Monetary Policy
  Jim Grant appeared on CNBC’s Closing Bell and unhesitatingly said he thinks the US economy has already gone into recession: “I think we are in one…I think there’s a defensible case to be made that a recession began late last year.”

ELITE PLANS FOR 2016 – Take Immediate Action! – A New DVD From Pastor Lindsey Williams. Who will be the next president of the U.S.? Why no financial collapse in 2015? Hear from someone in contact with the Elite. Political Correctness. Five firearms every American should own. Is war inevitable? ORDER NOW online for shipment now. Or call Prophecy Club Toll-Free 1-888-799-6111.

From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. A lot of news about the current global collapse. We are still looking at derivatives and that could come from China as predicted. Keep an eye on the news daily. For the past month I have been putting up many stories every day at the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page that are important to understand what is happening and how you can protect yourself.

We have now seen gold jump to close to $1,250. It broke $1,200 yesterday and jumped an additional $50 today. For those who didn't prepare when you were warned, unfortunately the life rafts are running out. Gold supplies are running low. Lead times are well over 30 days and now will be considerably more because demand for physical metal is up.

Lindsey Williams Online | Promote your Page too

Latest News From February 5, 2016 to February 11, 2016:

• Gold demand bounces back as fear grips markets
  Fears that the world is on the brink of another financial crisis pushed gold prices above $1,200 on Thursday as nervous investors snapped up the precious metal. Gold prices jumped to their highest in a year, gaining as much as 3.6pc to $1,234.64 an ounce. It came as the World Gold Council said jitters about the global economy sparked a gold buying spree among nervous investors at the start of the year.
• FTSE 100 hits lowest level since 2012 amid worsening fears of recession
  The FTSE 100 has hit its lowest point in three and a half years, down 130 points on opening. European stocks are all the slide again after a difficult day's trading in Asia, which saw Hong Kong rapidly catch up with the global sell-off after the Lunar New Year holiday. The FTSE 100 was down 2.3 per cent, the German DAX was down 3 per cent and France's CAC 40 was down 3.4 per cent.
• “Fasten Your Seatbelts”: Kyle Bass Previews The Collapse Of China's $34 Trillion Banking Sector
  Earlier this month, Kyle Bass asked a funny question in a discussion with CNBC’s David Faber. To wit: “If some fund manager in Texas is saying that your currency is dramatically overvalued, you shouldn’t care on a $10 trillion economy with $34 trillion in your banks. I have, call it a billion –  it’s so small it should be irrelevant and yet somehow it’s really relevant.”
• Gold Will Smell Blood of Negative Rates-Peter Schiff
  Money manager Peter Schiff says forget about the Fed raising interest rates. The next move is down.  Schiff explains, “I think there is a pretty good chance we’re going to get 0% interest rates before the end of the year, and I think we’re going to get QE4.  We will see if the Fed is going to go negative, but they are going to do it eventually.”
• “It May Take Less Than 48 Hours to Take it ALL Down” – Bill Holter
  Whether you want to see it or not, the financial system is in a forced unwinding. It took some 70 years to build this great credit edifice. When it goes it may take less than 48 hours to take it ALL down.
• ALERT: Derivatives Nightmare Has Shares In Hong Kong Plunging And Gold Surging To $1,250
  With gold moving well above $1,250, many market participants are trying to understand:  Why gold is surging and why there is so much turmoil in overseas trading in Asia?
• This Is How Frightening The Global Collapse Has Now Become
  On the heels of the Nikkei plunging a jaw-dropping 11 percent in just 3 days, and the world banking system entering another round of panic, this is how frightening the global collapse has now become.
• No easy way out for Deutsche Bank as investors ‘lose faith'
  Deutsche Bank bosses face a formidable task to drag its shares off a 30-year low, with reassurances about its capital levels doing little to improve investor confidence and few other options on the table to trigger a recovery. Germany's flagship lender has trailed its rivals in bouncing back from the 2008 financial crisis, hamstrung by having to pay out billions of dollars in fines to end a string of legal disputes and ageing technical infrastructure.
• Legendary Investor Jim Rogers Warns: “Most People Are Going To Suffer The Next Time Around”
  Rogers says that investors around the world are realizing that the jig is up. Stocks are over bloated and central banks will have little choice but to take action again. But this time, says Rogers in his latest interview with CrushTheStreet.com, there will be no stopping it and people all over the world are going to feel the pain, including in China and the United States.
• Netflix, Inc., Yahoo! Inc., LinkedIn Corp, Twitter Inc: Dot-Com Bubble 2.0 Is Bursting
  Do you remember how much stocks went down when the first dot-com bubble burst?  Well, it is happening again, and tech stocks are already down more than half a trillion dollars since the middle of 2015. On Friday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped to its lowest level in more than 15 months, and it has now fallen more than 16 percent from the peak of the market.  But of course some of the biggest names have fallen much more than that.
• 2007 All Over Again, Part 3: Banks Starting To Implode
  So far, each financial crisis in the series that began with the junk bond bubble of 1989 has been noticeably different from its predecessors. New instruments, new malefactors, new monetary policy experiments in response. But the one that’s now emerging feels strikingly similar to what just happened a few years ago: Banks overexposed to assets they thought were safe but turn out to be highly risky see their balance sheets deteriorate, their liquidity dry up and their stocks plunge.
• Janet Yellen Sounds a More Cautious Note on the U.S. Economy
  The Republicans described the Federal Reserve as ineffective, secretive and out of touch with the economic realities of ordinary Americans. The Democrats showered it with praise, using words like “herculean.” And those were just the opening statements on Wednesday, as the Fed’s chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, began two days of testimony on Capitol Hill. Ms. Yellen functions as the nation’s economic weather forecaster and, on Wednesday, she sounded more worried than at her last public appearance, in December.
• Gold price surges above $1,200 after latest markets rout
  The gold price continues on its strong incremental advance, setting lower lows on a path to higher highs that overnight saw it decisively breach a key resistance level at $1,200. On Wednesday, gold's spot price dipped back slightly in both the European and New York trading sessions, the Wall Street Journal notes, amid a brief relief rally in Europe and some profit-taking from the ongoing “safe haven” shift. But as the equities rout recommenced in Asia overnight, it resumed its upward trend.
• UPDATE: IBEX 35, Spain's Leading Stock Index, Closes Below 8,000 For First Time Since July 2013
  Spain's leading stock index, the IBEX 35, gave up what remained of the gains posted during the last 933 days on Tuesday, closing below 8,000 points for the first time since July 22, 2013, at 7,927.60, a fall of 194.5 points or 2.39% compared to yesterday. The indicator dropped as low as 7,862 points during the session. The index has lost 32.36% since reaching a post-2012 high of 11866.40 on April 13 last year, 23% since November 30 last year, just prior to the start of the general election campaign, and 17% since the first trading session of the year on January 4.
• Yield on 10-year Japan government bond falls below zero for first time
  Yields on Japan's benchmark 10-year government bond fell below zero for the first time, as investors clamored for safe-haven assets in the wake of a global market rout. The yield on the 10-year Japan government bond (JGB) dropped as low as negative 0.007 percent. The fall came on the heels of a global stock market sell-off overnight that likely spurred safe haven flows back into Japan. Bond prices move inversely to yields.
• DOW 6,000 Extreme Sell-Off Coming-Gregory Mannarino
  Trader/analyst Gregory Mannarino called the top of the DOW in May 2015. The market was well over 18,000 then and currently more than 2,000 points lower.  Mannarino now says the Dow is going to “6,000–or lower.” Mannarino warns, “People need to be ready for a major, extreme sell-off in equities which are inflated in a bubble.”
• Obama proposes $10 a barrel oil tax
  President Obama has released the final budget proposal of his presidency, a $4.1tn (£2.8tn) programme that includes a $10.25 per barrel tax on oil. The Republican-controlled Congress is expected to reject it. The leaders of the House and Senate budget committees jointly announced they would not invite Mr Obama's budget director to testify before them. Despite the setbacks, the White House has said the budget sticks to a bipartisan agenda reached last autumn.
• UK goods trade gap biggest on record
  The UK's goods trade gap with the rest of the world widened by £1.9bn to a record high of £125bn in 2015, official figures show. The Office for National Statistics also warned the latest figures would have a negative impact on its second estimate of fourth-quarter economic growth. But 2015 also saw a record surplus in the UK's dominant services sector of £90bn. That meant the UK's total trade gap widened by just £300m last year.
• Brent Oil Falls Most in 5 Months on Glut as Volatility Surges
  Crude tumbled the most in five months in London as price volatility climbed to a seven-year high and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warned of wider swings to come. Brent futures fell 7.8 percent as global equities neared a bear market. Volatility is set to “spike” as prices seek an equilibrium, which could drag oil below $20 a barrel, Goldman Sachs said. The CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index, which measures expectations of price swings, rose as high as 73.52, almost the highest since 2009. The world oil surplus will be bigger in the first half of this year than previously estimated, according to the International Energy Agency.
• Goldman Sachs Abandons Five of Six ‘Top Trade' Calls for 2016
  Goldman Sachs to clients: whoops. Just six weeks into 2016, the New York-based bank has abandoned five of six recommended top trades for the year. The dollar versus a basket of euro and yen; yields on Italian bonds versus their German counterparts; U.S. inflation expectations: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was wrong on all that and more.
• S&P Downgrades Junk-Level Ratings on 25 Oil-and-Gas Producers
  Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded the junk-territory ratings on 25 oil-and-gas companies on expectations that credit quality will deteriorate owing to low commodities prices and reduced production. The credit-ratings firm, which also affirmed the ratings of an additional 20 speculative-grade exploration-and-production companies, said the ratings actions followed a revision of S&P’s price assumptions for crude and natural-gas.
• Gold futures stretch streak of gains to a 5th-straight session
  Gold futures staged a late-session turnaround on Tuesday, as a move lower for oil prices and sharp losses in U.S. equities gave the metal enough momentum to stretch its streak of gains to a fifth-straight session. April gold GCJ6, -0.27%  rose 70 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,198.60 an ounce, tallying a total gain of more than 6% in five sessions. The settlement price was the highest for a most-active contract since June 19, 2015, FactSet data show.
• Opinion: Will oil be so cheap that it won’t pay to pump it out of the ground?
  The conventional wisdom regarding the recent plunge in the price of oil CLH6 is that we are seeing a repeat of the 1985-1986 collapse, when Saudi Arabia ramped up production as part of a dispute with other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel. This time, the thinking goes, Saudi Arabia is doing the same in response to its loss of market share to shale-oil production in the United States.
• Deutsche Bank Is Scared: “What Needs To Be Done” In Its Own Words
  It all started in mid/late 2014, when the first whispers of a Fed rate hike emerged, which in turn led to relentless increase in the value of the US dollar and the plunge in the price of oil and all commodities, unleashing the worst commodity bear market in history. The immediate implication of these two concurrent events was missed by most, although we wrote about it and previewed the implications in November of that year in “How The Petrodollar Quietly Died, And Nobody Noticed.”
• The Coal Decline Is Now Irreversible
  There was a lot of talk last year about coal resources needing to be left in the ground if the world was to reach its 2-degree-celsius reduction environmental targets. The suggestion was that legislation was required to force power generators to switch to less polluting energy sources and, while in the meantime tougher emissions standards have played their part, the market has been much more active than government in encouraging change.
• India surpasses China to become fastest growing economy in the world
  India's economy grew faster than China in 2015, official Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data released by both countries has revealed. The Indian government reported that the country grew at an average of 7.5% in 2015, which is more than the 6.9% GDP that Beijing reported during the same period, making India the world's fastest growing major economy.
• Privatization Is the Atlanticist Strategy to Attack Russia — Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson
  Two years ago, Russian officials discussed plans to privatize a group of national enterprises headed by the oil producer Rosneft, the VTB Bank, Aeroflot, and Russian Railways. The stated objective was to streamline management of these companies, and also to induce oligarchs to begin bringing their two decades of capital flight back to invest in the Russia economy. Foreign participation was sought in cases where Western technology transfer and management techniques would be likely to help the economy.
• NYSE joining Nasdaq in eliminating stop orders
  A type of order traders use to protect against losses is being phased out, as stock exchanges seek to deal with the ramifications of huge intraday swings. The New York Stock Exchange, in a statement, said it would no longer accept what are called stop orders, beginning Feb. 26, joining the Nasdaq NDAQ in barring them. Another order type called good-till-canceled also is being axed.
• Going Negative: Analysts See Increasing Likelihood of Sub-Zero US Interest Rates
  Mainstream analysts have started seriously talking about the possibility of negative US interest rates in the near future. On the heels of the Bank of Japan dropping a key interest rate to negative 0.1% late last month and indicating it is willing to go deeper into negative territory, Bloomberg reports that American analysts see an increasing likelihood that the Federal Reserve is willing to follow suit.
• Markets: Flight To Safety As Nikkei Falls 5.4%
  The global stock market rout has intensified, with Japan's Nikkei losing 5.4% of its value in a horror show of a trading day that saw a rush for safe havens such as gold and the yen. The sell-off followed Monday's lead on the European and US stock markets when they endured further losses on top of those already witnessed since the start of the year with jitters about the global economy taking a strangle hold on investments.
• JPMorgan forecasts ECB to cut deposit rate as low as -0.7 percent this year
  U.S. bank JPMorgan on Tuesday forecast the European Central Bank to aggressively ease monetary policy again by cutting its already negative deposit rate by another 40 basis points to minus 0.7 percent this year. The bank said it also expects the ECB to extend its quantitative easing, or bond-buying programme, through the end of 2017. It said it expected the easing to start next month with a deposit rate cut to -0.5 percent from the current -0.3 percent – followed by a second package perhaps as early as June which will see another 20 basis points lopped off and an extension of QE.
• Setting The Record Straight On The Massive Gold Supply Conspiracy
  As market turmoil continues to push gold and silver prices higher, precious metal investors need to understand the fundamentals more than ever.  Unfortunately, there continues to be a lot of misinformation reported by sources in the precious metal community.  This is harmful as it confuses would be precious metal investors.
• Jaw-Dropping Indicator Last Seen During Great Depression Just Hit An All-Time High!
  On the heels of the Dow plunging nearly 400 points at one point during today’s trading session, and with gold surging and oil falling, today a jaw-dropping indicator that was last seen during the Great Depression just hit an all-time high!
• Japanese banks plunge on European financial stocks rout
  Japanese and Australian banks picked up the baton from their European peers, pulling the two bourses — the only two major Asian markets trading on Tuesday morning — sharply lower. Nomura led Japan’s meltdown, dropping 8 per cent within 20 minutes of the market opening. Big commercial banks Sumitomo Mitsui and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial were off 7 and 6.7 per cent respectively. Australian banks also fell sharply.
• British steel sector ‘at risk of impending collapse'
  Business Secretary joins in Europe-wide plea to EC for anti-dumping action. The steel industry in Britain and Europe faces a “significant and impending risk of collapse”, business ministers have warned in a letter to European Commissioners demanding action to save steel makers.
• Citi: World economy trapped in ‘death spiral'
  The global economy is trapped in a “death spiral” that could lead to further weakness in oil prices, recession and a serious equity bear market, Citi (C) strategists have warned. Some analysts — including those at Citi — have turned bearish on the world economy this year, following an equity rout in January and weaker economic data out of China and the U.S. “The world appears to be trapped in a circular reference death spiral,” Citi strategists led by Jonathan Stubbs said in a report on Thursday.
• Global Growth Fears Hit Bank Stocks
  Investors are dumping bank stocks amid worries that a protracted period of slowing global growth, plunging oil prices and rock-bottom interest rates will combine to inflict pain on the world’s largest financial institutions.
• Confusion and turmoil helps gold to shine
  Concerns over the global economy have added an extra shine to safe-haven assets such as gold, according to the chief executive of a top mining firm, who told CNBC that “solid” demand and future economic stress could lead to more price gains for the commodity.
• Exclusive: Iran wants euro payment for new and outstanding oil sales – source
  Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief. A source at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters that Iran will charge in euros for its recently signed oil contracts with firms including French oil and gas major Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil.
• George Osborne may have just triggered a Financial Crisis ‘greater than 2007’
  A recent report issued to the Bank of England has revealed that the actions of George Osborne may be about to trigger a financial crisis greater than 2007, and once again, it will start in the housing market.
• EU on brink of ‘terrifying crisis' Five of Europe's big banks are in danger, warns expert
  SOME of Europe's biggest banks are on the brink for a crisis that echoes the 2008 meltdown, a finance expert warned, as fears over the global economy escalate. Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Santander, Barclays and RBS are among the stocks that are falling sharply sending shockwaves through the financial world, according to former hedge fund manager and ex Goldman Sachs employee Raoul Pal.
• Everybody Hopping on Gold Bandwagon, but Signs There All Along 
  The mainstream world of economics and investment has the attention span of a 12-year-old hopped up on sugar. A couple of months ago, it was all doom and gloom for gold. The Fed was talking interest rate hikes, government spokespersons were claiming victory over the recession, and mainstream analysts were hastily pounding nails in gold’s coffin. Cancel the wake, because today everybody has turned bullish on gold with the price up more than 9% since New Year’s Day.
• Russia is now China's biggest oil partner — and it's a huge problem for Saudi Arabia
  Saudi Arabia has long trumped Russia in the Chinese oil market. The Saudi share of Chinese crude imports at the beginning of the decade was about 20%, while Russia's was below 7%, according to data cited by RBC Capital Markets. But now the Russians are creeping in — and the Saudis are getting nervous.
• U.S. rig count drops 8 percent
  The total number of rigs actively exploring for or producing oil and gas in the United States dropped more than 8 percent, Baker Hughes reports.
• Fascinating graphics show who owns all the major brands in the world
  All the biggest product brands in the world are owned by a handful of corporation. Food, cleaning products, banks, airlines, cars, media companies… everything is in the hands of these megacorporations. These graphics show how everything is connected.
• Who Owns The Big TV Networks
• How 37 Banks Became 4 In Just 2 Decades, All In One Astonishing Chart.
• Strange Occurrence Off The Coast Of Texas Raises Concerns
  Something bizarre is happening off the coast of Galveston, Texas. Were you to look toward the sea in the Texas port town, you’d be subject to a oceanic traffic jam of epic proportions. Ships carrying oil have gathered along the coast in the Gulf of Mexico in such great quantities that ships approaching the port have been asked to move toward the town slowly in an attempt to ease the burden.
• Is This How The Smart Money Is Betting On A Market Crash?
  Instead of allocating capital to expensive tail risk bets on direct asset class collapse (in equities, credit, and commodities), it appears, just as we detailed previously, the ‘smartest money in the room' is “betting” indirectly on a stock market crash through eurodollar options. As we previously detailed, the costs of tail risk protection in credit and equity markets are soaring (and perhaps the crash in global financial stocks and spike in systemic credit risk supports that concerning possibility).
• Chorus Of Financial Experts Warn Of Imminent Crisis
  A growing list of financial gurus and industry experts are warning that 2016 could see a devastating collapse in global financial markets, pushing America into an economic downturn potentially worse than the 2008 recession.
• Tehran wants to dump dollar in crude trade – report
  ran wants post-sanctions’ oil contracts denominated in dollars and have buyers pay in euros, Reuters reported. Tehran is also keen to receive money owed to it since the pre-sanctions days in the European currency.
• TPP Deal Just Signed: Paves Way for Authoritarian Technocracy
  Beware TPP. It's nothing more than the further formalization of the worst part of the 20th century: The warfare/welfare state. It's just been signed in New Zealand by the 12 negotiating parties and now US President Barack Obama is pressuring Congress to get it passed quickly. Obama wants it passed so that the US will be able to “write the rules of the road in the 21st century,” enabling it to shape global trade to its own advantage.
• 22 Signs That The Global Economic Turmoil We Have Seen So Far In 2016 Is Just The Beginning
  As bad as the month of January was for the global economy, the truth is that the rest of 2016 promises to be much worse.  Layoffs are increasing at a pace that we haven’t seen since the last recession, major retailers are shutting down hundreds of locations, corporate profit margins are plunging, global trade is slowing down dramatically, and several major European banks are in the process of completely imploding.
• US trade deficit widens as exports fall
  The U.S. trade deficit widened in December as a strong dollar and weak global demand continued to weigh on exports. The Commerce Department said on Friday the trade gap rose 2.7 percent to $43.4 billion. November's trade deficit was revised down to $42.2 billion from the previously reported $42.4 billion.
• Dollar tumbles as Fed rescues China in the nick of time 
  The central banks of Europe and Japan discover that it is impossible to stave off deflation by debasing their currencies when everybody is playing the same game. The US dollar has suffered one of the sharpest drops in 20 years as the Federal Reserve signals a retreat from monetary tightening, igniting a powerful rally for commodities and easing a ferocious squeeze on dollar debtors in China and emerging markets.
• Congress wants to turn the US Postal Service… into a bank
  It’s news that seems ripped from the pages of The Onion. Or perhaps Atlas Shrugged. But incredibly enough it’s actually true: earlier this week, Congress proposed a new law authorizing the US Postal Service to provide banking and financial services. It’s called the “Providing Opportunities for Savings, Transactions, and Lending” Act, abbreviated as… wait for it… the POSTAL Act.
• Why it would be wise to prepare for the next recession
  What might central banks do if the next recession hit while interest rates were still far below pre-2008 levels? As a paper from the London-based Resolution Foundation argues, this is highly likely. Central banks need to be prepared for this eventuality. The most important part of such preparation is to convince the public that they know what to do.
• Mass Layoffs To Return With A Vengeance
  Remember the mass layoffs of 2008-2009? The US economy shed millions of jobs quickly and relentlessly, as companies died and the rest fought for survival. Then the Fed and the US government flooded the banks and the corporate sector with bailouts and handouts. With those giga-tons of liquidity sloshing around, as well as taking on massive amounts of new cheap debt, companies were able to finance their working capital needs, hire workers back, and even buy-back their shares en mass to make themselves look deceptively profitable. The nightmare of 2008 soon became a golden era of ‘recovery'. Well, 2016 is showing us that that era is over. And as stock prices cease to rise, and in fact fall within many industries, layoffs are beginning to make a return as companies jettison costs in attempt to reduce losses.
• New financial MELTDOWN set to sink EU as German banks lose £14,292,610,000.00 in 90 DAYS
  EUROPE'S biggest economy was plunged into fresh chaos tonight amid warnings a new financial crisis in Germany could destroy the EU. Shares in Germany's two biggest lenders – Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank – fell sharply again as panic gripped global markets. They have now seen their combined market value plummet by more than £14BILLION in the past three months. Deutsche Bank shares fell by nearly four per cent to close at an all-time low amid turmoil not seen since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009. Meanwhile shares in Commerzbank, Germany's second biggest lender, fell even further, by 4.65 per cent, to close at their lowest level in nearly two-and-a-half years.

ELITE PLANS FOR 2016 – Take Immediate Action! – A New DVD From Pastor Lindsey Williams. Who will be the next president of the U.S.? Why no financial collapse in 2015? Hear from someone in contact with the Elite. Political Correctness. Five firearms every American should own. Is war inevitable? ORDER NOW online for shipment now. Or call Prophecy Club Toll-Free 1-888-799-6111.

From James Harkin (Webmaster & Editor of LindseyWilliams.net). Here is a summary of articles of interest from around the world for this week. One point I'd like to mention is that gold has started to rally. I will be doing a special article on gold next week that will share some insight into what is happening and what you could see if this trend continues. Please continue to send me news articles and I will include them in the summary each week. Also, the latest articles and news are added daily at the Lindsey Williams Online Facebook Page. Please ‘LIKE' the page and share it with others. I have included a widget on the right hand side of this page also. I am also creating a Lindsey Williams Online YouTube page that will include regular videos and content.

Lindsey Williams Online | Promote your Page too

Latest News From January 29, 2016 to February 4, 2016:

• Gold sets new three-month high as investors shun risky assets
  Gold hit three-month highs on Wednesday as the dollar slid versus the euro and European shares fell sharply, prompting investors to seek shelter in assets perceived as safer. Data showing the U.S. economy's services sector expanded in January at a slower pace than expected overshadowed stronger-than-expected U.S. ADP private payrolls data, helping knock the dollar to a 14-week low against the euro. Spot gold was up 0.9 percent at $1,138.46 at 1618 GMT, having earlier touched its strongest since Nov. 2 at $1,139.90.
• Dollar Posts Biggest 2-Day Drop Since March as 2016 Rally Erased
  The dollar posted its biggest two-day drop since March, extending a decline that wiped out its rally at the start of the year. The greenback fell against all of its 16 major peers except the pound, which was weighed down by the Bank of England ’s unanimous vote to keep interest rates unchanged. Signs of a slowing U.S economy have hurt the dollar by derailing wagers on diverging policies between central banks. Currency traders are catching up to the bond market, where 10-year yields sank to the lowest in a year on Wednesday and futures sent the strongest signal yet that traders expect the Federal Reserve to stand pat on rates in 2016.
• Job cuts surged 218% in January
  Layoff announcements surged 218% from December to January, led by the retail and energy sectors. The latest monthly report from the staffing firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas on planned job showed that US employers in January reported 75,114 planned job cuts, up 42% year-on-year. Retailers moved the needle on this data point the most, particularly Walmart, which announced plans to close 269 stores across America.
• US productivity falls sharply in fourth quarter
  U.S. nonfarm productivity fell in the fourth quarter at its fastest pace in more than a year, leading to a jump in labor-related production costs. The Labor Department said on Thursday that productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, declined at a 3.0 percent annual rate, the biggest drop since the first quarter of 2014. Productivity rose by a downwardly revised 2.1 percent rate in the third quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast productivity falling at only a 1.8 percent rate last quarter after expanding at a previously reported 2.2 percent pace in the third quarter.
• Germany Unveils “Cash Controls” Push: Ban Transactions Over €5,000, €500 Euro Note
  It was just two days ago that Bloomberg implored officials to “bring on a cashless future” in an Op-Ed that calls notes and coins “dirty, dangerous, unwieldy, and expensive.” You probably never thought of your cash that way, but increasingly, authorities and the powers that be seem determined to lay the groundwork for the abolition of what Bloomberg calls “antiquated” physical money. We’ve documented the cash ban calls on a number of occasions including, most recently, those that emanated from DNB, Norway’s largest bank where executive Trond Bentestuen said that although “there is approximately 50 billion kroner in circulation, the Norges Bank can only account for 40 percent of its use.”
• Hyper Inflation Is Here
  Last week I wrote an article for King World News which showed that hyperinflation is on its way in many emerging markets. Soon it will also reach the US, Europe, Japan, China and many other countries. Hyperinflation has nothing to do with demand but is the effect of economic mismanagement leading to money printing and currency collapse. This trend started over 100 years ago with the creation of the Fed. Since then all major currencies have declined 97-99% in real terms. The best way to measure inflation over time is in gold. For 5,000 years, gold is the only currency that has survived. All other currencies have been printed to death. The trend of currency debasement is now accelerating in the periphery. For example, in Russian Rubles and Brazilian Real gold is up 1,300% in 16 years and in Argentine Pesos gold is up 6,000% since 1999. Also, gold now buys more oil than it has ever done in history.
• Comex: Paper Gold “Dilution” Hits A Record 542 For Every Ounce Of Physical
  There had been an eerie silence at the COMEX in recent weeks, where after registered gold tumbled to a record 120K ounces in early December nothing much had changed, an in fact the total amount of physical deliverable aka “registered” gold, had stayed practically unchanged at 275K ounces all throughout January. Until today, when in the latest update from the COMEX vault, we learn that a whopping 201,345 ounces of Registered gold had been de-warranted at the owner's request, and shifted into the Eligible category, reducing the total mount of COMEX Registered gold by 73%, from 275K to just 74K overnight.
• Another Nail In The US Empire Coffin: Collapse Of Shale Gas Production Has Begun
  The U.S. Empire is in serious trouble as the collapse of its domestic shale gas production has begun. This is just another nail in a series of nails that have been driven into the U.S. Empire coffin. Unfortunately, most investors don’t pay attention to what is taking place in the U.S. Energy Industry. Without energy, the U.S. economy would grind to a halt. All the trillions of Dollars in financial assets mean nothing without oil, natural gas or coal. Energy drives the economy and finance steers it. As I stated several times before, the financial industry is driving us over the cliff. The Great U.S. Shale Gas Boom Is Likely Over For Good.
• Here's Which Stocks Sovereign Wealth Funds Will Be Selling In 2016
  Back in August we explained why the headline figures for EM FX reserves paint an incomplete picture with regard to the UST liquidation among commodity producers and emerging market reserve managers. As Credit Suisse wrote last year, “for oil exporting nations, central bank official reserves likely underestimate the full scale of the reversal of oil exporters’ ‘petrodollar’ accumulation because a substantial part of their oil proceeds has previously been placed in sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), which are not reported as FX reserves (with the notable exception of Russia.” In other words, official data on FX reserves don’t tell the whole story. Not by a long shot. In fact, “oil exporting countries hold about $1.7trn of official reserves but as much as $4.3trn in SWF assets.”
• The Unleashing Of QQE And Global Economic Meltdown
  The Keynesian elite gathered in Davos Switzerland this past week to pontificate on global economic issues and to strategize the engineering of The Fourth Industrial Revolution. This new so called “revolution” includes a discussion on the future of Artificial Intelligence. Judging by the comments coming from most of the list of attendees, it seems obvious the intelligence on display was indeed faux. But the most important takeaway from this venue was that central bankers have made it clear to the markets that the level and duration of quantitative counterfeiting know no bounds…
• It Has Begun!
  Since August 18th, we have stated that the markets had shifted, major indexes would begin to decline, and a NEW gold bull market was imminent! And now, one of the best-leading indicators is pointing to a roaring bull market for gold. The two most heavily traded gold stocks, Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining, are having one hell of a move since last summer. The Bull Market has Already Begun!
• ALERT: Nomi Prins Issues Dire Warning – We May Have Just Witnessed The Trigger For The Next Global Collapse
  Today Nomi Prins, the keynote speaker who recently addressed the Federal Reserve, IMF and World Bank, issued a dire warning to King World News that we may have just witnessed the trigger for the next global collapse. Eric King: “We saw the global financial system come unhinged as a result of the mortgage-backed securities scheme from 2007 – 2009. Do all the derivatives and junk bonds tied to the energy sector have the potential to cause a similar level of panic and chaos in the global banking and financial system?” Nomi Prins: “It does have that potential for a similar reason, which is that a very small amount of underlying collateral in the energy sector and other industries that are dependent on profits from the energy sector for their own revenues, a small number of those can create a much larger ripple effect…
• The Fed Wants to Test How Banks Would Handle Negative Rates
  As interest rates turn negative around the world, the Federal Reserve is asking banks to consider the possibility of the same happening in the U.S. In its annual stress test for 2016, the Fed said it will assess the resilience of big banks to a number of possible situations, including one where the rate on the three-month U.S. Treasury bill stays below zero for a prolonged period. “The severely adverse scenario is characterized by a severe global recession, accompanied by a period of heightened corporate financial stress and negative yields for short-term U.S. Treasury securities,” the central bank said in announcing the stress tests last week.
• Europe Continued Gold Repatriation at Faster Rate in 2015
  Germany ramped up its gold repatriation project last year, joining other European nations bringing gold home. The trend underscores the importance of holding physical gold within easy access. Germany’s Bundesbank transferred more than 210 tons of gold back into the country from vaults in Paris and New York last year. According to the Financial Times, with last year’s transfers, Frankfurt now ranks as the largest storage location for the country’s reserves after New York.
• New “Tech Tattoos” Will Be Tied To Medical And Banking Information
  Apparently a tech company called Chaotic Moon is looking to take advantage of the 20% of humans who already have a proclivity toward tattoos. For the rest? An appeal to safety and security, of course, and an assurance that a future offering could be a “Band-Aid-like package.” Chaotic Moon’s dual-purpose tattoo is comprised of electro conductive ink embedded with sensors and microchips. Here is the reasoning why this product is so desirable according to one of the developers, Eric Schneider, who mentions the banking aspect to CBSNewYork.
• Ford To Cut Hundreds Of Jobs In UK And Germany
  Car maker Ford is to shed hundreds of jobs in the UK and Germany as part of a programme to save $200m (£138m) a year. The group said it was launching a voluntary redundancy programme as it looked to slash costs across its European business, in the face of mounting regulatory costs. It comes after Ford recently revealed that its European operation had returned to profit for the first time in four years in 2015. Production and product development workers will not be affected by the job cuts. The company said they were mainly likely to go in administration and marketing.
• ISM New York Tumbles Most Since August As Revenues Crash
  While Chicago's business outlook managed a miraculous bounce in January, New York did not. ISM New York printed 54.6, plunging most since August from December's 62.0 level. The extremely noisy time series continues to swing, this time lower, as the underlying components deteriorate with Revenues collapsing to at least 3 year lows.
• Biggest part of economy growing at slowest pace in two years, ISM finds
  Companies in the U.S. service sector such as retail, banking and health care grew in January at the slowest pace in almost two years, adding to a drumbeat of data suggesting the economy has softened. The Institute for Supply Management said its nonmanufacturing index fell to 53.5% from 55.8% in December. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 55.2% reading. Any number over 50% indicates more businesses are expanding instead of contracting, but the ISM service index has dropped three straight months and is at the lowest level since February 2014.
• Lloyds Banking Group to cut 1,755 jobs and close 29 branches
  Lloyds Banking Group is cutting 1,755 jobs and closing 29 branches as part of a plan by its chief executive, António Horta-Osório, to cut costs as he prepares the bank for privatisation. Staff were told about the job losses, which cover large parts of the group, on Wednesday, but union officials said they hoped that the reductions could be achieved by voluntary means. Horta-Osório is continuing with the cost-reduction programme even though the chancellor, George Osborne, has admitted that he cannot press on with a sale of the government’s remaining Lloyds shares to the public because of the market turmoil, which has knocked the bank’s share price.
• BOJ Kuroda says can ease more, devise new tools
  Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank has ample room to expand stimulus further and is prepared to cut interest rates deeper into negative territory, signalling a readiness to act again to hit his ambitious inflation target. “If we judge that existing measures in the toolkit are not enough to achieve (our) goal, what we have to do is to devise new tools,” Kuroda said in a speech at a seminar on Wednesday (Feb 3). “I am convinced that there is no limit to measures for monetary easing,” he said. Governor Kuroda also countered criticism that the BOJ was running out of ammunition to accelerate inflation, which has ground to a halt due to slumping oil costs, saying negative rates won't hamper the bank's efforts to gobble up government bonds.
• Venezuela is on the brink of a complete economic collapse
  The only question now is whether Venezuela's government or economy will completely collapse first. The key word there is “completely.” Both are well into their death throes. Indeed, Venezuela's ruling party just lost congressional elections that gave the opposition a veto-proof majority, and it's hard to see that getting any better for them any time soon — or ever. Incumbents, after all, don't tend to do too well when, according to the International Monetary Fund, their economy shrinks 10 percent one year, an additional 6 percent the next, and inflation explodes to 720 percent. It's no wonder, then, that markets expect Venezuela to default on its debt in the very near future. The country is basically bankrupt.
• The $3 Trillion Question – Why China should not devalue its currency
  Buffeted by a slowing economy, a falling stock market, and a rising tide of money leaving the country, China is flirting with weakening its currency, the renminbi (RMB). Despite repeated — and very high-level — pledges to maintain its value, Beijing quietly let the RMB slip 5 percent against the U.S. dollar in 2015. Many see its decision in December to switch the RMB’s peg from the dollar to a basket of currencies as a back-door way to piggyback on the weakening of other currencies against the dollar. Meanwhile, a growing chorus of economists, hedge funds, and policymakers are saying that China must “go with the market” and let its currency fall to save its stumbling economy. “China should stop resisting Renminbi depreciation. The currency is overvalued,” tweeted economist Jeffrey Sachs. In mid-January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn agreed China has little choice: “They may have to do something in the next six months.… Do I believe they will end up devaluing the currency? I do.”
• The End Of Plan A: The Big Reset & $8000 Gold
  Willem Middlekoop, author of The Big Reset – The War On Gold And The Financial Endgame, believes the current international monetary system has entered its last term and is up for a reset. Having predicted the collapse of the real estate market in 2006, (while Ben Bernanke didn't), Middlekoop asks (rhetorically) -can the global credit expansion ‘experiment' from 2002 – 2008, which Bernanke completely underestimated, be compared to the global QE ‘experiment' from 2008 – present? – the answer is worrisome. In the following must-see interview with Grant Williams, he shares his thoughts on the future of the global monetary system and why the revaluation of Gold is inevitable…
• Full Summary Of Chinese Actions To Prevent An All-Out Economic Collapse
  Last summer, China unleashed an unprecedented array of measures – up to and including the arrest of “malicious short sellers” and prominent hedge fund mangers – to prevent its stock market bubble from bursting. It failed. A few months later, the chaos has spilled over from the relative containment of the capital markets and has engulfed not only the country's FX reserves, and capital account, but also the entire economy. As a result, China’s government has gone all in, and as Bloomberg reports, is stepping up efforts to ward off a potential financial crisis, warning bank executives that their jobs are on the line unless they control risks and putting restrictions on an increasingly popular way of evading capital controls. These moves come in response to China's slowest economic growth in a quarter century fueled concerns that bad debts will cripple the banking system and a catalyst for why virtually every hedge fund is now short the Yuan.
• The Big-Oil Bailouts Begin
  Despite a bounce this week, low oil prices continue to sow fear, uncertainty, and mayhem across the emerging market complex. On Wednesday, it was leaked that the IMF and World Bank would dispatch a team to oil and gas-dependent Azerbaijan to negotiate a possible $4 billion emergency loan package in what threatens to become the first of a series of global bailouts stemming from the tumbling oil price.
• This Silver Investor is “Hell Bent on Taking the Precious Metals Battle Back to the Banksters”
  I see a connection to what happened during the 85 cent silver flash crash and NIRP.  It’s tenuous but there are linkages to any flash crash. The formalization of negative interest rates evolved in Europe for several reasons, and just migrated to Japan. I’m certain it’ll come to the US once NIRP’s wrecked its toll in these GDP heavy economies. The EU project with it’s failing currency,  bank debt,  leverage, business disabling socialist friction, crushingly high taxes, and thuggish control polices were quite predictable 5 years ago.  Even before that time the issues of uncontrolled borders and infiltration of migrants began to press on the movement of people and currency as the situation grew slowly to critical mass.
• Puerto Rico wants to erase half its debt
  Puerto Rico has a new plan to get out of its massive debt crisis: Use a big eraser. The island's taxpayers are currently on the hook to pay back about $50 billion. On Monday, Puerto proposed cutting that nearly in half to $26.5 billion. So far, Puerto Rico's creditors are not impressed. “It's frustrating, and it doesn't feel like a credible offer,” a person close to major creditors told CNNMoney.
• Retail Apocalypse: 2016 Brings Empty Shelves And Store Closings All Across America
  Major retailers in the United States are shutting down hundreds of stores, and shoppers are reporting alarmingly bare shelves in many retail locations that are still open all over the country.  It appears that the retail apocalypse that made so many headlines in 2015 has gone to an entirely new level as we enter 2016.  As economic activity slows down and Internet retailers capture more of the market, brick and mortar retailers are cutting their losses.  This is especially true in areas that are on the lower portion of the income scale.  In impoverished urban centers all over the nation, it is not uncommon to find entire malls that have now been completely abandoned.  It has been estimated that there is about a billion square feet of retail space sitting empty in this country, and this crisis is only going to get worse as the retail apocalypse accelerates.
• Federal debt hits $19 trillion; new record set
  The federal government is now officially $19 trillion in debt, according to the latest figures released by the Treasury Department Monday that show the Obama administration crossed that ignominious line late last week. President Obama took office with the debt at $10.6 trillion, and has added more than $8 trillion during his seven years in the White House — a record pace that the Congressional Budget Office says is likely to continue.
• ALERT: Legend Warns Global Governments Are Now Preparing For Total Collapse
  Egon von Greyerz:  “Eric, 25% of government bonds are now negative around the world. On Friday morning Bank of Japan was the latest country to introduce negative rates. There are now 13 countries with yields up to 2 years being negative and 10 countries with negative yields up to 10 years. I have been saying for a very long time that Japan is bankrupt and negative rates will of course not save their economy…
• British scientists granted permission to genetically modify human embryos
  British scientists have been granted permission to genetically modify human embryos by the fertility regulator. The Francis Crick Institute could begin the controversial experiments as early as March after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) gave the green light this morning.
• PETER SCHIFF: We're going to have a serious recession and negative interest rates before the election
  Based on today's GDP release, it appears that the US economy is slowing but not near any sort of massive collapse. Peter Schiff begs to differ. The CEO and chief global strategist for Euro Pacific Capital, and noted perma-bear, said that serious economic destruction is just a few months away. “I think the Fed is going to have negative interest rates before the election because we're going to be in a serious recession,” Schiff told Business Insider on Friday. In fact, Schiff said that we may already be in recession and this one is going to be a doozy. “We're in worse shape now than we were in 2007,” he said.
• US hedge funds mount new attacks on China’s yuan
  Some of the biggest names in the hedge-fund industry are piling up bets against China’s currency, setting up a showdown between Wall Street and the leaders of the world’s second-largest economy. Kyle Bass’s Hayman Capital Management has sold off the bulk of its investments in stocks, commodities and bonds so it can focus on shorting Asian currencies, including the yuan and the Hong Kong dollar.
• Court rules Michigan has no responsibility to provide quality public education
  In a blow to schoolchildren statewide, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on Nov. 7 the State of Michigan has no legal obligation to provide a quality public education to students in the struggling Highland Park School District.
• Oil Production Cuts Unlikely to Reverse Plunging Prices
  A cut in oil production by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member states, as well as other oil exporters, is unlikely to make a difference in terms of the low oil prices, experts told Sputnik.
• Peter Boockvar – Japan Just Launched An Economic Kamikaze Against Its Citizens And The World – Own Gold
  “I only have a few things to say about what Mr. Kuroda and 4 other members of the BoJ decided to do (4 dissented). It’s a tax on money that banks will just pass on to their customers. Wanting higher inflation without faster wage growth is a tax on consumers. And, the BOJ just amped up the global currency battles. I call this economic Kamikaze and I’ll say for the millionth time, I just don’t get the bear case on gold in light of this with fiat currency having such a large bulls-eye target on it. Believing that generating higher inflation is a needed precursor to faster economic growth is nonsense. Inflation reads are a symptom of the activity of the underlying economy. I’ll also repeat the irony that markets love it when the BoJ and ECB further debase their currencies but freak out when the Chinese also want a weaker yuan.”
• Mainstream Media Starting to Sound the Recession Warning Siren
  Ever since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in December, Peter Schiff has insisted that the state of the US economy didn’t justify the move. In fact, on numerous occasions, Peter has said the US may already be in a recession. If not, we are on the verge of entering one.
• Bank of Japan, in a Surprise, Adopts Negative Interest Rate
  As Japan’s economic doldrums have lingered, its leaders have tried a number of tricks over the years, from increasing government spending to flooding the financial system with cash. With the global economy looking increasingly fragile, Japan is now taking a more aggressive step by cutting interest rates below zero on Friday. The policy — which means banks are essentially paying for the privilege of parking their money — represents a last resort for a country that has struggled through a quarter-century of weak growth. In theory, negative rates will push banks to lend more to companies, which would then spend and hire.
• EU on brink: Germany's biggest bank records shock losses risking economic RUIN of Eurozone 
  GERMANY could force the European Union into ruin after Deutsche Bank's share price plunged following the country's biggest lender's first annual loss since the financial crisis. The German lender posted a full year loss of £5.1 billion (€6.8bn) on Thursday – higher than the expected €6.7bn million. With losses of €2.1bn in the fourth quarter of 2015-16, fears of the entire eurozone toppling are becoming an increasing reality.
• World Bank and IMF in emergency BAILOUT talks to save countries from bankruptcy over oil
  TUMBLING oil prices are plunging emerging economies into financial crisis, sparking what could be the start of a global economy meltdown. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are extremely worried about the financial stability of Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, which are heavily reliant upon oil profits. And the two organisations are now set to discuss an emergency fund of a possible $4billion emergency to bailout Azerbaijan in what risks to become the first bailout of a country due to oil. Iran's neighbour has been thrown into a currency crisis thanks to falling prices.
• 80% Stock Market Crash To Strike in 2016, Economist Warns
  Several noted economists and distinguished investors are warning of a stock market crash. Billionaire Carl Icahn, for example, recently raised a red flag on a national broadcast when he declared, “The public is walking into a trap again as they did in 2007.” And the prophetic economist Andrew Smithers warns, “U.S. stocks are now about 80% overvalued.” Smithers backs up his prediction using a ratio which proves that the only time in history stocks were this risky was 1929 and 1999. And we all know what happened next. Stocks fell by 89% and 50%, respectively. Even the Royal Bank of Scotland says the markets are flashing stress alerts akin to the 2008 crisis. They told their clients to “Sell Everything” because “in a crowded hall, the exit doors are small.” Stocks like Apple, will plunge.
• Marc Faber: Market Crash Will Rival 1987's Massive Drop
  Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, said markets could see a sudden crash similar the one in 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 23 percent in one day. “[The market] will remain very volatile because interventions with fiscal and monetary policies, instead of lowering volatility they postpone it, and then it explodes,” he said to CNBC. “The average stock in the U.S. is already down 26 percent from its 52-week high and there are a lot of stocks that are down 50 percent or more. The indices have hidden the weakness beneath the surface and basically the market has been weak the whole time.”
• Analysis: Behind the global stock market plunge of 2016
  Global equity markets have been on a rollercoaster ride since the opening sessions of 2016. The violent lurch lower in stocks was initially triggered by fears that an economic slowdown in China, the world's second largest economy, was spinning out of control. But it was the spectacular collapse in oil prices that really lent impetus to the January sell-off. “Fear, not economic fundamentals, sparked the frenzied sell-off in China as the new year got under way which then spread to global markets and the oil price slide has compounded the pessimism,” said Beijing-based economist Chen Chen, at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

ELITE PLANS FOR 2016 – Take Immediate Action! – A New DVD From Pastor Lindsey Williams. Who will be the next president of the U.S.? Why no financial collapse in 2015? Hear from someone in contact with the Elite. Political Correctness. Five firearms every American should own. Is war inevitable? ORDER NOW online for shipment now. Or call Prophecy Club Toll-Free 1-888-799-6111.