Today’s News 30th October 2023

• The Veil Of Silence Over Excess Deaths
  The Veil Of Silence Over Excess Deaths

  Authored by Sonia Elijah via the Brownstone Institute,

  Around the world, there has been a deafening silence over excess deaths from governments and the mainstream media, who not so long ago were quite fixated on the daily death toll for Covid. 

  

  On October 20th, a 30-minute adjourned debate (20 rejections later) on excess deaths in the UK House of Commons was finally secured by Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire and member of the Reclaim Party. 

  Bridgen began his speech to the sound of erupting cheers from the full, upper public gallery, in stark contrast to the almost empty chamber below. 

  Where were the hundreds of MPs who would normally sit shoulder to shoulder in the chamber? It appears, an increase in deaths of their constituents was not a pressing issue for them on that Friday afternoon. 

  We’ve experienced more excess deaths since July 2021 than in the whole of 2020, unlike the pandemic, however, these deaths are not disproportionately of the old, in other words, the excess deaths are striking down people in the prime of life but no-one seems to care. I fear history will not judge this house kindly. 

  Strikingly, excess deaths have been seen across all age groups, which Bridgen pointed out during his speech.

  The graph below shows the pooled weekly total number of deaths for all ages, from 27 participating countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Germany (Berlin), Germany (Hesse), Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK (England), UK (Northern Ireland), UK (Scotland), and UK (Wales).

  

  According to the British Medical Journal, ‘Excess deaths are calculated as the difference between current numbers of deaths and those in a baseline year, and the excess can differ depending on the baseline and methodology used.’ 

  This important point on how excess can differ depending on the baseline used, was raised by Bridgen.

  ONS Manipulating the Data, Again

  Bridgen explained:

  ‘To understand if there is an ‘excess’ by definition, you need to estimate how many deaths would have been expected. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) used 2015-2019 as a baseline…Unforgivably, the UK ONS (Office for National Statistics) have included deaths in 2021, as part of their baseline calculation for expected deaths- as if there was anything normal about the deaths in 2021- by exaggerating the number of deaths expected, the number of excess deaths can be minimized. 

  Why would the ONS want do that?’

  My early 2022 interview with Norman Fenton, professor of Risk Information Management at Queen Mary, University of London, revealed how the ONS had also been manipulating the data on deaths involving Covid-19 by vaccination status. 

  Fenton coauthored a paper analysing the ONS report: ‘Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 24 September 2021.’ 

  The paper concluded that the ONS was guilty of ‘systematic miscategorisation of vaccine status’ and that the COVID-19 vaccines did not reduce all-cause mortality, but rather produced genuine spikes in all-cause mortality shortly after vaccination.

  The Backlog of Unregistered Deaths

  Bridgen went on to highlight a critical failure in how data on deaths are being collected.

  ‘There is a total failure to collect (never mind publish) data on deaths that are referred for investigation to the coroner. Why does this matter? A referral means that it can be many months and given the backlog, many years, before a death is formally registered. Needing to investigate a cause of death is fair enough. Failing to record when the death happened, is not. Because of this problem, we actually have no idea how many people died in 2021, even now. The problem is greatest for the younger age groups, where a higher proportion of deaths are investigated. This data failure is unacceptable.’

  Excess Deaths in the Younger Age Groups

  My investigative report into child deaths following Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine revealed there was an increase in deaths in the 0-14 age group, around the time the mRNA vaccine was authorised in children, 12-15 years of age.

  

  

  

  Bridgen drew attention to the fact that in a judicial review on a decision to vaccinate younger children, the ONS shockingly refused in court to give anonymised details (which they admitted was statistically significant) on the increase in excess deaths observed in the second half of 2021, for young adolescent males. Bridgen made the point that potentially even more excess deaths would have been observed, if those referred to the coroner had been included.

  Excess Deaths Observed in Heavily Vaccinated Countries

  In August 2023, fifteen EU Member States that recorded excess deaths, the highest rates were observed in Ireland (21.1 percent), Malta (16.9 percent), Portugal (12.7 percent) and the Netherlands (9.4 percent), according to Eurostat. It should be noted that, as of January 2023, Portugal had the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Europe having administered 272.78 doses per 100 people in the country, while Malta had administered 258.49 doses per 100. 

  Increase in Cardiac Arrests

  Bridgen, brought attention to the fact that Dr Clare Craig, diagnostic pathologist and co-chair of HART, was the first to highlight the increase in cardiac arrest calls after the vaccine rollout in May 2021.

  Bridgen stated:

  ‘Ambulance data for England provides another clue. Ambulance calls for life-threatening emergencies were running at a steady 2,000 calls per day until the vaccine rollout. From then they rose to 2,500 daily, and  calls have stayed at that level since.’

  

  Category 1: An immediate response to a life-threatening condition, such as cardiac or respiratory arrest. 

  The Anomalies of the Pfizer Clinical Trial

  Bridgen shared the fact that:

  Four participants in the vaccine group of the Pfizer trial died from cardiac arrest compared to only one in the placebo group. Overall there were 21 deaths in the vaccine group up to March 2021, compared to 17 in the placebo group. There were serious anomalies about the reporting of deaths in this trial, with the deaths in the vaccine group taking much longer to report than those in the placebo group. That is highly suggestive of a significant bias in what was supposed to be a blinded trial.

  An Israeli study clearly showed an increase in cardiac hospital attendances among 18-39 year olds that correlated with vaccination not covid. 

  Australia, the Perfect Control Group

  Bridgen explained that Australia had almost no covid when vaccines were introduced making it the perfect control group. 

  The state of South Australia had only had 1,000 cases of covid in total across the whole population by December 2021, before omicron arrived. What was the impact of vaccination there? For 15-44 year olds, there were historically around 1,300 emergency cardiac presentations a month. With the vaccine roll-out to the under 50s, this rocketed reaching 2,172 cases in November 2021 in this age group alone, which was 67% more than usual.

  Overall there were 17,900 South Australians who had a cardiac emergency in 2021 compared to 13,250 in 2018, a 35% increase. The vaccine must clearly be the No.1 suspect in this, and it cannot be dismissed as a coincidence. Australian mortality has increased from early 2021 and that increase is due to cardiac deaths.

  How the Regulators Have Failed

  The regulators also missed the fact that in the Pfizer trial the vaccine was made for the trial participants in a highly controlled environment, in stark contrast to the manufacturing process used for the public – which was based on completely different technology. Just over 200 participants were given the same product that was given to the public, but not only was the data from these people never compared to those in the trial for efficacy and safety, but the MHRA has admitted that it dropped the requirement to provide this data. That means there was never a trial on the Pfizer product actually rolled out to the public, and that product has never even been compared to the product that was actually trialled.

  The vaccine mass production processes use vats of Escherichia Coli and presents a risk of contamination with DNA from the bacteria, as well as bacterial cell walls, which can cause dangerous reactions. This is not theoretical; there is now sound evidence that has been replicated by several labs across the world that the mRNA vaccines were contaminated by significant amounts of DNA which far exceeded the usual permissible levels. Given that this DNA is enclosed in a lipid nanoparticle delivery system, it is arguable that even the permissible levels would have been too high. These lipid nanoparticles are known to enter every organ of the body. As well as this potentially causing some of the acute adverse reactions that have been seen, there is a serious risk of this foreign bacterial DNA inserting itself into human DNA. Will anyone investigate? No they won’t.

  The BBC’s Role

  How ironic that the BBC has chosen to remain utterly silent on the issue of excess deaths, despite its ardent daily coverage of the Covid death toll. 

  In regards to vaccine injuries, the BBC took a far more proactive role. The public broadcaster took it upon itself to collaborate with Facebook to take down the online pages of Covid-19 vaccine injury groups, by drawing attention to the fact that these groups used carrot emojis to circumvent Big Tech censors. 

  

  Many viewers of Bridgen’s speech took to social media to draw attention to the fact that the BBC also took it upon itself to plaster the debate with its own captions, in an attempt to contradict what the MP was saying. 

  One caption read: The NHS says COVID-19 vaccines used in the UK are safe and the best protection from getting seriously ill with the disease.

  What is interesting is that Bridgen did not mention vaccines and autism during his debate but this did not stop the BBC from inserting the caption below.

  ‘NHS guidance states vaccines do not cause autism, there is no evidence of a link between MMR vaccine and autism.’

  

  It must be noted that the BBC helms the Trusted News Initiative (an alliance of Big Tech and the mainstream media) set up in 2019 to combat ‘anti-vax misinformation’ in real-time. Therefore, its collaboration with Facebook to censor stories on vaccine harms; the lack of any coverage on excess deaths and the more recent captioning of Bridgen’s speech – shows just how effectively it has executed that role. 

  In Conclusion

  Bridgen closed the debate by stating the following:

  The experimental covid-19 vaccines are not safe and are not effective. Despite there being only limited interest in the Chamber from colleagues—I am very grateful to those who have attended—we can see from the Public Gallery that there is considerable public interest. I implore all Members of the House, those who are present and those who are not, to support calls for a three-hour debate on this important issue. Mr Deputy Speaker, this might be the first debate on excess deaths in our Parliament—indeed, it might be the first debate on excess deaths in the world—but, very sadly, I promise you it will not be the last.

  Republshed from the author’s Substack

  Sonia Elijah has a background in Economics. She’s a former BBC researcher and now works as an investigative journalist.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 02:00

• Malone: The White House Is Controlled By The Medical-Industrial Complex
  Malone: The White House Is Controlled By The Medical-Industrial Complex

  Authored by Robert Malone via Substack,

  A bit of knowledge about “public health” can be a dangerous thing when financially conflicted partisans control the executive branch…

  

  Last February, the serving White House (WH) Chief of Staff (COS) quietly resigned, and a new one was ushered in. But a comparison of the outgoing and incoming WH Chief of Staff demonstrates striking similarities. A careful reading of the bios of Biden’s two chief of staff picks reveals a disturbing trend. Both choices appear consistent with – first and foremost – the capture of both the “health”-related administrative state and the levers of the Biden administration itself by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex.

  Why is this important? Because the WH Chief of Staff is the most critical political appointee of the President, and functionally serves as the head of the Executive Office of the President of the United States in addition to being a cabinet position. The position is widely considered the most important and powerful job in the Executive branch of the US Government, next to the sitting POTUS.

  In the case of a feeble or incapacitated president, the WH Chief of Staff essentially acts in place of the President. Given the ascendency of the power of the Executive Branch and its permanent Administrative State bureaucracy over the judicial and legislative branches, this appointed position functionally runs the country.

  The job entails:

  • “Selecting senior White House staffers and supervising their offices’ activities;

  • Managing and designing the overall structure of the White House staff system;

  • Control the flow of people into the Oval Office;

  • Manage the flow of information to and decisions from the Resolute Desk (with the White House staff secretary);

  • Directing, managing and overseeing all policy development;

  • Protecting the political interests of the president;

  • Negotiating legislation and appropriating funds with United States Congress leaders, Cabinet secretaries, and extra-governmental political groups to implement the president’s agenda; and

  • Advise on any and usually various issues set by the president.

  • The firing of senior staff members.” (wiki)

  The Chief of Staff is essentially given the keys to the White House. This position clearly has much more power than the Vice-president, and yet the job is not only an unelected one, but it is also not confirmed by the Senate.

  Why do I assert that Biden’s choices for WH COS demonstrate the functional capture of the White House by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex?

  Biden’s first Chief of Staff was Ron Klain. He was Biden’s Chief of Staff when he was vice-president under Biden. During that time, he initially transitioned from managing the allocation of stimulus funds to becoming the Ebola response coordination under Obama. The Ebola response was an “all-hands” government effort, due to a case of Ebola actually occurring on American soil, and the risk that this particular variant might become able to infect via the respiratory tract (thanks to fearporn primarily promoted by Dr. Osterholm).

  Prior to and after Obama’s presidency, Mr. Klain was the executive vice president for Revolution, an investment firm that invested in several healthcare companies, such as BrainScope, Everyday Health and Extend Health. “Extend Health” is now renamed “One Exchange” and is a leading provider of health care solutions for Medicare-eligible individuals.

  After his time in the Obama White House, Klain also became an external advisor for the Skoll Foundation, whose website lists as a main strategic priority the strengthening of global health systems and presenting pandemics. He held this position until his selection to serve as WH Chief of Staff under Biden.

  Ron Klain has worked at high levels in the Clinton, Obama and now Biden’s White House administration. His time in the White House has been punctuated by stints in the corporate world. Hence, he has see-sawed between government and industry, at the highest levels – leveraging both for power, influence and money. By serving in various White House administrations in unelected positions which do not need confirmation by the Senate, he has avoided having to publicly disclose conflicts of interest.

  During his tenure in Biden’s White House, Klain pursued a vaccine-only strategy and directed White House messaging relating to this policy including that horrible White House statement saying the vaccinated have ‘done the right thing’ and the unvaccinated are ‘looking at a winter of severe illness and death for you and your families’. Adding insult to injury, Klain is the one that asserted that ‘The truth is the truth’ – remember that as Chief of Staff, Klain was directly responsible for “Directing, managing and overseeing all policy development”.

  

  The real “truth” of this whole situation is that the leadership of the Obama Ebola response team from 2014 was brought in to form the core of Biden’s White House operational management team, as documented in a November 2020 Politico article, just a week or two of Biden having “won” the election:

  Klain is one of a number of people Biden has tapped for his administration whose views on battling a health crisis were shaped by what happened in 2014. At an event in Wilmington, Del. last week, Biden highlighted how his just-announced pick for Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, helped combat Ebola and Zika as part of the Obama administration. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, his pick for UN ambassador, “was our top State Department official in charge of Africa policy during the Ebola crisis,” Biden noted. And the former vice president praised Jake Sullivan, who served as his national security adviser during much of the Ebola outbreak, for “helping me develop our Covid-19 strategy”…

  .But many of the public health, communication and government mobilization lessons Klain and his team learned then are not only applicable now; they’re also at the core of Biden’s plan for tackling the pandemic when he takes office in January.

  Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas worked with Klain from 2001 to 2009 at the O’Melveny law firm. Which is interesting because this where Klain has now returned to the firm as a partner.

  This is how one arm of the government has become completely captured by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex via prior “public health emergency” response teams. The clear fact is that the Biden White House was only interested in a vaccine solution, despite the established fact that public health research long ago determined that a vaccine for a rapidly evolving respiratory virus would never succeed. People in the White House must have known this but disregarded that knowledge because either 1) they were corrupted, 2) they were deep in the mass formation psychosis and group think, or 3) they functioned as incompetent useful tools for others.

  I know that I personally spoke with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s Chief of Staff in 2021 about these issues and had assurances that they would discuss the issues with a vaccine approach with the White House. That was the last I heard from them. This all leads me to believe that the resulting amazingly dysfunctional “public health” response was more about their own interests in making money and expanding political power than in developing an actual response that made sense.

  My experience working in the Ebola response on 2014 re-enforced a very different lesson than that of the Biden White House COVID policies. That is that vaccines would never be the answer to an ongoing outbreak. That medical counter measures must include a response that listens to hands-on physicians tinkering to find medical counter measures. That the generic, FDA approved medicines that have worked in the past for early treatments will work in the future. They are the first line of defense. Furthermore, non-respiratory infectious diseases versus respiratory infectious diseases will be very different from each other, in terms of public health responses. And finally, that the US intelligence community is deeply embedded in the bureaucracy that sets “public health” policies, particularly during infectious disease outbreaks, and works hand-in-glove with Bill Gates, WHO leadership, US State Department, and the giants of the BioPharmaceutical industry. Ron Klain’s White House called for an all-of-government response focused on vaccines and that is what they got (all of government meaning DHS, HHS, DoD, Department of State and CIA/IC). This response was developed and operationalized for Klain by Jeff Zients, who was President Biden’s COVID czar. Which brings us to Klain’s replacement.

  Let’s now focus our attention on the professional biography of the new Chief of Staff, Jeff Zients. Although Zients is purported to not have any “public health experience,” the truth is that he has spent his entire career milking the government out of money for his own medical-industrial complex investment funds. He has worked to continuously spin the revolving door between his businesses in the medical-industrial complex and the government- all to the benefit of public health, of course .

  Zients comes from an extremely wealthy family, who played a pivotal role in “health care services” since the 1990s. His father is known to have “helped” outsource veteran’s healthcare services to private industry way back when.

  Jeff Zients joined The Advisory Board Corp in 1992, where he helped “build a research company focused on “providing best practices research and host[ing] seminars for 2,500 health care industry members, including hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and biotech firms.”  The Advisory Board achieved astounding financial success and became one of the “pillars of Washington society”.

  During the presidency of Barack Obama, Zients served as director of the National Economic Council from 2014 to 2017. He was also acting director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2010. He then led the emergency effort to fix Obama care after the troubled launch.

  During his tenure as director of the National Economic Council, Zients’ investment firm, Portfolio Logic – founded in 2003, settled a a multimillion-dollar suit with the Justice Department over allegations that its subsidiary health care firm committed Medicare and Medicaid fraud.  Portfolio Logic LLC was and is an investment firm initially focused on health care and business services. Portfolio Logic’s current valuation is around $182 million and it appears that Portfolio Logic is still privately held by Zients and his family, although information about Portfolio Logic has mostly been scrubbed from the Internet.

  

  While leading the Obamacare (ACA) roll-out, Zients also had an ownership position in PSA Healthcare. Which the Obama White house determined was not a conflict of interest.

  The “American Prospect” writes of Zients:

  Zients was a leader in implementing many of the Obama administration’s most pro-corporate policies. Zients owes his entire public-policy career to his corporate worldview and connections, which have remained strikingly consistent for over a decade—exactly in keeping with his pre-government history.

  In fact, a Fox News article documents that the Wikipedia page for Biden’s chief of staff was scrubbed to hide many of his corporate past dealings. This includes deleting the details in 2020 relating to Zients’ positions at Bain & Company, Portfolio Logic and Facebook. Although his Wiki page now mentions that Zients was CEO of Cranemere up until his leave in 2020, it does not mention that Cranemere Healthcare Services works in the healthcare ecosystem. As he is apparently still on leave from Cranemere, one can assume that he will resume his 1.6 million US Dollar compensation package per year from Cranemere upon leaving the White House.

  Jeffrey Zients’ is considered one of the wealthiest members of the Biden administration, and most of this money was inherited or made while working in the medical-industrial complex, which includes vast profits from the privatization of health-care and billing.

  Zients was part of Biden’s transition team and then started working for the Biden WH as his COVID czar. During this period, he was considered a “special government employee,” and so could continue with his private sector employment and was exempted from filing the public financial disclosures that normal staff must complete. Again, Zients formulated the vaccine only public health policy, including the mandate policies. He alone spoke to major Airline CEOs to insist on vaccine mandates.

  In January 2023, Zients became Biden’s Chief of Staff. Remember, that the position of Chief of Staff is the most important position next to the President. In this capacity, it appears that he has maintained the operational capture by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex of the executive branch of government initiated under Obama in the context of enacting and implementing the “Affordable Care Act”, ergo – the White House and President Biden.

  As Biden has proven to be a fragile and weak president, many believe that this has allowed Zients to seize the reins of executive power. Zients past history predicts that he will use this to further his own financial interests, which clearly represent a significant financial conflict of interest.

  The revolving door just doesn’t stop spinning, and it all seems to revolve most efficiently around Zients, the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex and now future pandemic responses. Talk about the foxes in the hen house!

  

  Do not get distracted, 2024 looms large.

  *  *  *

  Who is Robert Malone is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 23:30

• CVS Stores In DC Resort To Framed Photos Of Toilet Paper
  CVS Stores In DC Resort To Framed Photos Of Toilet Paper

  While Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser tries to restore ‘law and order‘ to the nation’s Capitol, local CVS stores aren’t waiting around – and have resorted to displaying photos of products on their shelves instead of the actual items themselves.

  

  Several tweets have been circulating, showing empty shelves aside from the framed photographs of toilet paper and other items, the National Pulse reports.

  This is from the CVS on H Street in Washington DC.

  Due to the out-of-control theft, they have now put away almost all their items and just have photographs of what is in stock.

  You press the button and the sales associate gets you what you need.

  I was in Barcelona, Spain a few… pic.twitter.com/jOif99w77d

  — Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 27, 2023

  Another DC CVS, in Columbia Heights, has placed items in locked cages.

  Another CVS location in D.C.’s Columbia Heights has placed many items behind locked cages, the aisles of empty shelves decorated with profane graffiti. Crime in the American capital has reached crisis levels. Violent crime is up 41 percent over last year – the city has seen a 33 percent increase in homicides and a 70 percent increase in robberies. According to D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department theft is up 21 percent, with 10,673 incidents reported so far in 2023. Motor vehicle theft has seen a 101 percent increase compared to 2022. -National Pulse

  I checked out the Columbia Heights CVS for myself the other weekend. pic.twitter.com/1fMIlIrjV5

  — John Fubka (@JohnFubka) October 26, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsOver the last month, DC’s homicide rate hit its highest level in 20 years, while auto thefts have more than doubled over the past year.

  “At a time when we’re dealing with historically low staffing levels, these amendments seek to make some common-sense changes recognizing the operational concerns our officers see every day, while also supporting police accountability and public safety,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser, who introduced legislation last week aimed at addressing crime trends, including organized retail thefts.

  During a Congressional hearing on violence two weeks ago, House Republicans criticized a “soft” on crime approach.

  “The crime we are seeing just a few blocks from this building is unprecedented,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who chairs the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. 

  “The man who is in charge of prosecuting the criminals has abandoned his responsibilities, that’s Matthew Graves,” Biggs continued, referring to the US Attorney for DC.

  For comparison, here is how other countries are able to live. https://t.co/5ANVszYlC2

  — Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 27, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 23:00

• Beijing Gets Going With Nine Weeks Left For 2023
  Beijing Gets Going With Nine Weeks Left For 2023

  By Charlie Zhu and Helen Sun, Bloomberg markets live reporters and strategists

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. China’s top leadership is finally making a concerted effort to get the economy and external relations back on track. A rare move to raise the budget deficit mid-year, along with President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented visit to the central bank, underscored a sense of urgency among policymakers to support growth.

  For starters, a plan to sell 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) of sovereign debt over the last nine weeks of the year may finally be the bazooka many investors have been asking for earlier.

  Beijing’s diplomatic moves also provided cause for some optimism. Xi sat down with California’s Gavin Newsom, the first time he met a US state governor in more than six years. Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s US trip has also paved the way for a leaders’ meeting next month.

  The world’s two largest economies rebuilt communication lines on the economic and financial front. Two working groups which involve officials from the central banks, treasury departments, securities regulators held their first meetings last week respectively.

  China also invited US officials to a defense forum to be held this week. While thorny issues remain for the two, these developments help Beijing create a more stable geopolitical environment that serves as a precondition to woo back foreign investors.

  The benchmark CSI 300 Index posted the biggest weekly gain in two months. Foreign investors showed up via the northbound stock connect, buying for two consecutive days, the first time since early August.

  

  2. Those are of course not silver bullets for China’s challenges. Among them, an ongoing property crisis comes on top of the list. With former top developer Country Garden Holdings Co. deemed to be in default on a dollar bond, recent weakness in China Vanke Co. and Gemdale Corp.’s notes spurs concerns that the sector is still deep in the doldrums.

  Economic growth may drop below 3% in 2024 if the real-estate slowdown deepens, according to S&P Global Rating. Its base-case scenario is for growth rate to slow to 4.4%, down from Beijing’s targeted 5% this year.

  A series of arrests across industries, an investigation into Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group — the biggest private employer — along with the removal of Li Shangfu as defense minister without explanation, again shook the confidence of foreign companies.

  The recent reaction from market participants to earlier stimulus measures bear resemblance to the Tacitus Trap, Ken Cheung, Mizuho Bank Ltd.’s chief Asia FX strategist, wrote in a note, referring to a political theory where a government fails to win approval even for the right policies.

  While building confidence in the economy will require time, adopting more timely and targeted policies to address socio-economic issues can help mitigate the risk of falling into the trap, and enhance the effectiveness of the economic stimulus, Cheung said.

  3. China’s slowdown and financial risks are rippling through other markets and global businesses. Falling Chinese stocks are placing as much as $71 billion of structured products in South Korea at risk when they mature next year.

  Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Plc’s profit missed estimates in the third quarter, as the lender took a $186 million charge on Chinese real estate and an impairment of $700 million on China Bohai Bank. Nomura Holdings Inc. is overhauling its local business after losses there snowballed.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 22:30

• Hiking 401k Contributions Can Now Boost College Aid, Thanks To FAFSA Change
  Hiking 401k Contributions Can Now Boost College Aid, Thanks To FAFSA Change

  Thanks to new federal rules, boosting your pre-tax contributions to 401(k) and similar retirement plans may now increase your child’s access to federal financial aid. Another change makes grandparent-owned 529 plans more beneficial. 

  Pre-tax contributions are ones that aren’t exposed to current-year federal income taxation, but instead are taxed when withdrawn. They differ from Roth contributions, which are taxed in the current year but can be withdrawn tax-free in your retirement. 

  Until now, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) asked parents to input their pre-tax retirement-plan contributions. The calculations then added that money back to arrive at the parents’ total income, which in turn increased the amount those parents were assumed to have available to pay for college, and thus reduced the child’s eligibility for aid.  

  

  The revised FAFSA form, which is geared toward simpler calculations driven by data on income tax returns, won’t ask you about those retirement contributions, which means the more pre-tax money you add to your 401(k) or similar account, the higher your child’s chance of qualifying for federal handouts. 

  For 2023, the 401(k) maximum is annual contribution $22,500, or $30,000 if you’re 50 or older at the end of the calendar year. Note the FAFSA uses data from two years before the academic year you’re seeking aid for. Thus, 401(k) contributions you make in 2023 will effect the FAFSA math for the 2025-26 school year. 

  Debuting in December the new form will no longer use the term Expected Family Contribution, which caused confusion about its meaning. Instead, the key number will be a formula-driven Student Aid Index. 

  Because there are other numbers at play in the aid calculation, jacking up your contributions doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a FAFSA benefit. “This change will have the biggest impact on middle-income households that make around $100,000 a year,” reports the Wall Street Journal’s Oyin Adedoyin, citing financial advisors. 

  In another wrinkle, 529 plans owned by someone other than a student or the student’s parent won’t be included in the asset calculations, even if the student is the beneficiary. That puts generous grandparents and other relatives in a better position to help out.

  You can even add your own money to that 529 — but you better have high confidence in the account owner’s intentions. You should also ponder a scenario where that third-party 529 owner predeceases your college student. If no successor owner is named, the account might go through probate and end up in the hands of someone who’d prefer using the money to buy a new car.  

  Not all the FAFSA changes will make receiving aid easier:

  • The “sibling discount” — which previously cut applicants a break in situations where two kids are in college simultaneously — is vanishing. 
  • Parents will have to start reporting the value of small businesses they own. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 21:35

• David Hogg Now Blames "White Woman In Suburbs" For Gun Violence
  David Hogg Now Blames “White Woman In Suburbs” For Gun Violence

  Anti-gunner and now ‘Harvard-educated’ David Hogg believes just because he went to an elite university (a university that is sympathetic to Hamas), he is the voice of reason when it comes to the Second Amendment. 

  The confused Gen-Zer’s latest post on X now shifts the blame of gun violence from ‘it’s the gun’ to ‘it’s white women in the suburbs’: 

   “We will never end gun violence until white woman in the suburbs stop voting for the republicans who are endangering our schools and communities by flooding them with guns.” 

  We will never end gun violence until white woman in the suburbs stop voting for the republicans who are endangering our schools and communities by flooding them with guns.

  — David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) October 27, 2023

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  Hogg is not ready for this conversation, as his bigotry against white women in the suburbs is uncalled for as a recent poll from NYPost, citing Wallet Hub data, shows murder rates in Democratic areas, including Memphis, Tennesse; New Orleans, Louisana; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, DC; and Detroit, Michigan, with soft-on-crime policies, are surging. 

  

  Instead of being sexist, Hogg might want to step foot in an imploding Democrat metro area, and there are many to choose from, such as Detroit and or Baltimore, where failed progressive policies, such as ‘defunding the police’ have descended these metro areas into a collapsing-state. 

  As for those white women in suburbia (in fact, any woman of any race) – they have a God-given right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect their families and themselves against an intruder in their home – especially since the average police response time in suburbia can be ten minutes or more. 

  Just remember, Harvard-elite Hogg, as well as anti-gun groups Giffords and Everytown, some of which are funded by billionaires, want to disarm law-abiding citizens – at a time their Democrat friends across major metro areas are implementing disastrous policies that have sparked crime waves nationwide. 

  

  Hogg’s idiotic comments aren’t fooling average folks:

  let’s look at where the violence is being committed

  — Garand Thumb (@GarandThumb1) October 27, 2023

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  Wow, we just went from “It’s the guns” to “It’s the white women in suburbs”…that escalated quickly.

  — 🎵The Roaming Bandit(s)🎵 (@roamingbandits) October 27, 2023

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  Stupid white women wanting to be allowed to protect themselves. Bigots.

  — The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) October 27, 2023

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  My Mom is a white woman “living in the suburbs” who called the police last year because she saw someone messing around behind her home at night.

  It took 14 minutes for the police to arrive, but she wasn’t scared.

  She sat in her rocking chair with a AR-15 in her lap, ready to…

  — Snoop Bailey (@realsnoopbailey) October 27, 2023

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  Yeah, yeah.

  Everything is women’s fault.

  Find a new tune to play, fella, cos this one is fucking DONE.

  — Billy Bragg (@Serena_Partrick) October 28, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 20:25

• Breakthrough Study 'Infects' Animals With Human Alzheimer’s Through Microbiome
  Breakthrough Study ‘Infects’ Animals With Human Alzheimer’s Through Microbiome

  Authored by Amy Denney via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Researchers recently discovered that they could give young, healthy animals Alzheimer’s disease by transferring the gut microbiome of human subjects with Alzheimer’s into germ-free rats.

  

  Published on Oct. 18 in Brain, the findings solidify that the microbiome—the collection of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live mostly in the colon—has a role in the development of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, affecting 6.7 million Americans.

  “This study represents an important step forward in our understanding of the disease, confirming that the makeup of our gut microbiota has a causal role in the development of the disease,” King’s College London neuroscience professor Sandrine Thuret, one of the study’s senior authors, said in a statement.

  Our intestines are home to trillions of these microscopic bugs, which mostly live in symbiosis with the human body. Many factors, including antibiotics, glyphosate, medications, and stress, have been proven to kill beneficial microorganisms and cause an imbalance often referred to as dysbiosis.

  Exactly what causes the microbial shift in people with Alzheimer’s disease is unclear.

  “Bigger picture, it is likely that no one factor, food or lifestyle change will, on its own, reduce the risk of developing cognitive decline as we age,” Percy Griffin, Alzheimer’s Association director of scientific engagement, said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

  “Although this work is intriguing, it is still very preliminary. Larger studies in animal models, and then in humans, are required to make generalizations on what can be done in this area to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.”

  Transferring Impairments

  There were 69 healthy control subjects and 64 Alzheimer’s patients in the study. Patients with Alzheimer’s had a higher abundance of inflammation-promoting bacteria in fecal samples, and these changes were associated with their cognitive status. Those traits were then found through a battery of behavior tests in only the rats that were given transplants from Alzheimer’s patients.

  “The memory tests we investigated rely on the growth of new nerve cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. We saw that animals with gut bacteria from people with Alzheimer’s produced fewer new nerve cells and had impaired memory,” lead author professor Yvonne Nolan said.

  Alzheimer’s disease’s link to the microbiome has already been explored in recent studies, although it’s been largely unclear whether the disease caused the dysbiosis or if—as this research indicates—alterations in the intestinal community cause symptoms of dementia.

  Mr. Griffin, who holds a doctorate in molecular cell biology from Washington University in St. Louis, noted that studies in rats don’t always indicate that similar findings will occur in the human body. To build credibility, the research needs to be replicated, he said.

  “This is an interesting study that adds to our growing understanding of how the bacteria in the gut may contribute to risk for Alzheimer’s disease. But this study is in rats, and rats are not people,” he said. “That said, these findings demonstrate a possible role for gut bacteria in affecting the areas of the brain that are (a) associated with memory and (b) involved in Alzheimer’s disease.”

  Presymptomatic Identification of Disease

  However, dysregulation of the microbiome could give early insights into disease, which has long been associated with systemic inflammation.

  “Understanding the role of gut microbes during prodromal–or early stage—dementia, before the potential onset of symptoms may open avenues for new therapy development, or even individualized intervention,” Ms. Nolan said. “People with Alzheimer’s are typically diagnosed at or after the onset of cognitive symptoms, which may be too late, at least for current therapeutic approaches.”

  A study in Cell Death and Differentiation in 2019 found that impaired neurogenesis is a biomarker for Alzheimer’s. Neurogenesis is the continued development of neurons that occurs in two parts of the adult brain, including the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory.

  “Remarkably, it has been recently described that neurogenesis persists in cognitively healthy people until the end of life, but drops off dramatically as AD [Alzheimer’s disease] pathology takes hold,” the study reads.

  New research is showing that neurogenesis impairment begins before amyloid-plaque formation, the clumping of protein pieces found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Taken together, neurogenesis and the microbiome offer evidence that suggests that the disease can be identified in stages in which its development could be halted before symptoms set in.

  Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, which is marked by memory loss and other cognitive disabilities that interfere with daily life. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 1 in 3 people are likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

  “Alzheimer’s is an insidious condition that there is yet no effective treatment for,” Ms. Thuret said. “This collaborative research has laid the groundwork for future research into this area, and my hope is that it will lead to potential advances in therapeutic interventions.”

  What’s Influencing the Microbiome?

  The microbiome is a key area of Alzheimer’s research worldwide due to its vulnerability to lifestyle and environmental factors.

  The Alzheimer’s Association is leading the U.S. POINTER study, which finished recruitment in March and is expected to begin reporting results in 2025. The two-year clinical trial is evaluating whether lifestyle interventions that simultaneously target many risk factors can protect cognitive function in older adults who are at increased risk for cognitive decline.

  “All of our body systems are interconnected, and it is important to understand how they work together to impact the risk and resilience against Alzheimer’s,” Mr. Griffin said. “For ongoing and overall good health, people should speak to their doctors about their digestive health and ways to keep it operating healthfully, such as drinking enough water and eating enough dietary fiber.”

  He’s hopeful that the POINTER study will help determine a sustainable, community-based lifestyle intervention recipe to reduce the risk of developing cognitive decline as we age.

  It’s the kind of work that some organizations have already been doing, even without studies that fill in the blanks of causation with Alzheimer’s disease.

  Dr. Dale Bredesen has been reversing symptoms with a research-based protocol. Sharp Again Naturally offers programs that address nutrition and create a healthy gut microbiome to help participants preserve and improve their brain health.

  The new study is hopeful, according to the board chair of Sharp Again Naturally, Steve Ledvina, who’s also a certified health and wellness coach and the founder of Knowing Alz.

  “This exciting study extends the evidence for the strong connection between the gut microbiome and the brain and suggests poor gut health has a causal role in Alzheimer’s symptoms,” Mr. Ledvina wrote in an email to The Epoch Times. “For individuals, it emphasizes that intentionally maintaining or healing our guts and promoting a healthier gut microbiome is essential to keeping our brains healthy.”

  He said potential causes of poor gut health include excessive sugar or alcohol consumption, antibiotics or other gut-disrupting medicines, and stress.

  “We can promote our gut health by eating prebiotic fiber in vegetables like asparagus and artichoke hearts and probiotics like sauerkraut, kimchi, and low-sugar kombucha,” Mr. Ledvina said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 19:50

• Gold's About To Have Its Day: Jim Grant Warns No One's Prepared For "Higher Yields For Much, Much, Much Longer"
  Gold’s About To Have Its Day: Jim Grant Warns No One’s Prepared For “Higher Yields For Much, Much, Much Longer”

  Authored by Christoph Gisiger via TheMarket.ch,

  The world is experiencing a historic surge in interest rates. Jim Grant, editor of «Grant’s Interest Rate Observer», believes the turmoil could be the beginning of a multi-decade bear market in bonds.

  In this in-depth interview, he explains what the risks are – and where opportunities arise.

  

  The spike was unexpected: In the US, the yield on 10-year treasuries is rising rapidly toward 5%, the highest level since 2007. From Europe to Japan to Australia, long-term interest rates are also trending upward almost everywhere in the world. There is much speculation about the causes. What is clear, however, is that this shock will not be without consequences.

  «It raises the interesting possibility that we are embarked on a new bond bear market,» says Jim Grant, editor of the iconic investment bulletin «Grant’s Interest Rate Observer». «Bonds are unusual in the world of financial assets as their prices historically tend to trend in generation-length intervals; something we don’t see so much in stocks or commodities», he adds.

  In this in-depth interview with The Market NZZ, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity, the seasoned expert on financial history explains what persistently higher interest rates could mean for investors, what risks are associated with this new environment and where long-term opportunities arise.

  «I think gold ought not to trade as an inflation hedge, but as an investment in monetary disorder of which we surely have enough in the world»: Jim Grant.

  Mr. Grant, «Grant’s Interest Rate Observer» is celebrating its 40th anniversary. What are you currently observing in connection with the massive surge in interest rates that the financial markets are experiencing?

  Well, we certainly have something to observe. It’s been a long time, so I would say a couple of things. One is that the movement from interest rates bordering on nothing to interest rates knocking on the door of normal – that speed of rise – is something we have rarely, if ever, seen before. It’s like a car going from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds. So this is a very rapid and, one might conjecture, a very disruptive rise because it has been so fast.

  How can this turmoil in the bond market be put into historical perspective?

  It raises the interesting possibility that we are embarked on a new bond bear market. Bonds are unusual in the world of financial assets as their prices historically tend to trend in generation-length intervals; something we don’t see so much in stocks or commodities.

  How did such generational cycles play out in the past?

  In the United States, bond yields fell from around the end of the Civil War for 35 years to the end of the 19th century. Then, they rose very gradually for 20 years, whereupon they fell again from around 1921 to 1946. Next, the great post-war bond bear market began, taking yields all the way up to 15% in 1981. After that, the great bond bull market started that took yields down to 1% in 2021. Of course, in Europe and Japan yields on shorter-dated securities fell even well below zero, to the tune of $16 trillion of securities were priced to yield less than nothing.

  What can be derived from this for today’s environment?

  Going back about 150 years, there has been a succession of bond bull and bear markets, each one at least 20 years in length. So perhaps since 2021 we have begun a lengthy excursion to the upside in yields – and if that’s the case, the catch phrase ought to be not «yields for longer», but «yields for much, much, much longer». Then again, nothing says this exercise in pattern recognition necessarily guarantees any future outcome. But for what it is worth, this is one way to frame this most violent and dramatic rise in bond yields.

  Why do you think a new cycle may have begun in the bond market?

  Here’s one way to think about it: In 1981, President Reagan saw that the air traffic controllers’ union was threatening to strike. So he warned them not to strike, arguing it’s against the public and it’s illegal. The air traffic controllers struck anyway, so Reagan fired them all and brought in new ones. That was about the time when interest rates peaked. It was a marker of the times. Back then, we didn’t know that this was the end of a 45-year bond bear market. It was a symbolic end: President Reagan broke this important union. It was a change; it was like commodity prices breaking in 1980.

  And what does this have to do with the current situation?

  Fast forward to today, another President, Joe Biden, goes out to Detroit. He walks the picket line in solidarity with the strikers of the auto union, encouraging them: «Hang in there, you got it!» To me, that is another sign of the times, another kind of omen. So it might just be that we are embarked on rates much, much, much higher for much, much, much longer. And, it might just be that we are embarked on not just a cycle of inflation but an age of inflation.

  So should we expect further tremors in the bond market?

  We’ve just talked about how fast this bond bear market we’re hypothesizing about has been to date. But we haven’t talked about the tempo. For instance, at the beginning of the previous bond bear market in 1964, it took ten years for the yield on long-dated treasuries to go from 2¼% to 3¼%. So nothing says that the current rate of speed is going to continue. As a matter of fact, it can’t continue because otherwise rates would need three digits to write them down. So based on form, on the historical precedent, the tempo is going to be very measured at times. In other words, it might just be that for a certain time, the bond market won’t be very dramatic at all. Yet, it won’t go back to 2%, which will be good for some people, not good for others, but in any case, very different from what we’ve seen over the last four decades.

  What are the consequences of this fundamental change for investments?

  During the course of not one investment career, but rather one and a half investment careers, the whole world has become accustomed to interest rates basically only going in one direction. Of course, there was plenty of volatility along the way, but persistent, if not continuous declines in rates have been the norm for the careers and investment minds of most living human beings. Consequently, expectations are deeply embedded in our collective psyche that rates do one thing, which is to decline. Yet here we are, observing them go up. So it’s no wonder that many people don’t exactly want to believe it. It’s highly irregular, and not at all in the way of our collective experience going back many, many years.

  So how will this change the environment for investment?

  During the great protracted bond bull market beginning in 1981, bonds and stocks could reliably be expected to move inversely from one another: Stocks would go up, bonds down, and vice versa. As a result, bonds provided a nice hedge or cushion to one’s equity exposure. That was the case for a long time, and it was especially attractive when bonds were yielding something. Indeed, long-dated treasuries yielded 14% as recently as 1984, and as much as 10% as recently as 1987. So for many of the past forty years, bonds not only provided a portfolio balance, but also delivered a substantial measure of interest income along the way.

  And today?

  This advantageous arrangement ended, or at least became much less advantageous, during the long period of zero percent rates and QE: Bonds yielded very little and might have provided some cushion, if stocks decline. But there was no great interest income for a long time from one’s bond position. Today however, there is a possibility that bonds and stocks could decline at the same time, as was the case for many years in the last bond bear market, beginning in the late Sixties and continuing into the early Eighties. So correlations could change. The popular 60/40 portfolio could deliver disappointing returns, rather than persistently attractive ones – and that too would be a big change in the investment weather.

  That’s not exactly an uplifting outlook.

  This is not to say that in a time of persistently rising yields, there aren’t some distinct advantages from the saver’s, the long-term investor’s point of view. One of the classics of fixed income investing is a book called «Inside the Yield Book» by Martin Leibowitz and Sidney Homer. It came out at a time when yields were printed and bound in books, before the digital era, the Bloomberg era. Chapter one of the 1972 edition of «Inside the Yield Book» is entitled «Interest on Interest». It describes the arithmetic of a bond investor investing semi-annual coupons at rising rates of interest, pointing out that interest on interest for long periods can contribute as much as one half of the total return. It points out further that in times of rising yields, the yield to maturity is going to be higher than the yield at which you purchased the bond because you will be investing not at the coupon rate, but at ever increasing rates.

  How exactly does this compounding effect work?

  Let’s say, you buy a 6% bond maturing in thirty years. In a bond bull market with continually declining interest rates, you reinvested that 6% coupon in ever lower rates and thereby ever lower returns. So the yield to maturity was not 6%, but something less than that. Now, imagine you purchase that same security today in an environment with persistently, if not continuously rising rates over the next thirty or forty years. The rate you earn on that coupon won’t be 6%. It’s likely to be something higher, and therefore your yield to maturity is going to be better than 6%.

  So a bear market in bonds also brings benefits?

  Indeed. For investors, it opens up another new vista to come: opportunities for interest on interest. Of course, this does not apply to people who need coupon income to pay their rent and buy their groceries. But for savers, for pension funds, for sovereign wealth funds, for people who are in the business of reinvesting their interest income this is a not-disadvantageous thing, this bond bear market. But again, to re-emphasize: This is all hypothetical, I don’t want to sound like some cocksure dogmatic prophet, which I assure you I am not.

  But let’s assume you are correct in your thesis on the future development of interest rates. In principle, do bonds therefore offer an attractive alternative to equities in the portfolio?

  Yes, what is old will be new again. Bonds really earn something besides nothing or less than nothing which was the case for a long time. But as mentioned earlier, it’s going to take some time getting used to it. So far, the stock market pretends not to notice. This seems surprising. As we point out in a recent issue of «Grant’s», the volatility of the bond market is very elevated, whereas the volatility of the stock market is very subdued. So you have to ask yourself: How can complacency reign in junior securities, when anxiety is the mood in the market of senior securities? This doesn’t make intuitive sense.

  Where could the pressure of rising rates cause major problems?

  I suspect that this most sudden and even violent lurch higher in interest rates is going to test financial structures that came into being during the period of very low nominal interest rates. Think of what all came into being, when money was proverbially free from 2010 to 2021: Cryptocurrencies flourished, dito venture capital and private equity. There were no constraints on sovereign debt issuance, so public credit was expanded dramatically. Interest expense seemed to be forever minimal and not worrisome because, after all, rates would never rise. To some degree, the entire world was capitalized on the expectation of extremely low interest rates.

  And how do things look now?

  All that has changed, but not in the expectations yet. I think people are still trying to deal with the shock of the perception of the possibility of much higher rates for a long time. Not every company has had to refinance so far, not every private equity company has met a hostile reception in the credit markets, and not every country has had to face the consequences of a potentially ruinously high national invoice for interest expense. All this is still in the making. So I’m not so quick to believe that this rise in rates, as dramatic as it has been, is going to be solitary or helpful just to savers. No, I think it’s a much, much deeper phenomenon and we’ll learn more about it in the coming fiscal quarters and years. That’s for sure.

  With the crisis facing British pension funds and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, we have already seen two situations with major turmoil. Do you expect further stress in the system?

  Who knows, but the protracted selloff in US treasuries is properly raising concerns that the March regional banking crisis never ended but only took the summer off. All-time low interest rates beguiled, seduced and even coerced people into doing things they would not have done perhaps except for interest rates that were not the product of the marketplace but rather the product of the models of the central bankers of the world. The problem with 4%, 5% and 6% interest rates today is not 4%, 5% and 6% on their face. The real problem is the preceding regime of zero percent rates, and the debt accumulation that those rates fostered and brought into being.

  Then again, interest rates could also fall again. Or to put it another way: What are the specific forces that could foster a long bear market in bonds?

  One cause might be an embedded, what they call, structural inflation. If inflation is part of the times, the spirit of the age, that could be one driver. Another cause could be a deterioration of public credit. For a long time, the United States has been in the privileged position of being the one and only superpower and the issuer of the one and only reserve currency of the world. But in its humanity, America is not so very different from other countries.

  What do you mean by that?

  Essentially, the privilege of consuming much more than you produce is sort of the poisoned chalice gift of a reserve currency. It’s like saying: All right, you can pay your bills in your currency you alone can produce and the world will accept it because of your evident strength and enterprise and power. If Uganda, Britain, Singapore or even Switzerland was given this privilege, I imagine any other country would have done the same. But what we have done in America is that we brought up immense net international debts and very large domestic sovereign debts. So altogether a lot of debts, financed with the dollar which – as we convinced ourselves – is kind of the Coca-Cola or Microsoft of monetary world brands. That’s a very seductive thing to have come to believe.

  So the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is proving to be a curse?

  When we speak about the troubles in public credit, that’s another way of saying there are more bonds on offer than are demanded at prevailing rates of interest. The United States has been downgraded by Standard & Poors’ and by Fitch, and Moody’s maybe would prefer to do the same. America is a Triple-A country in many respects. The Statue of Liberty, the Declaration of Independence, you can’t downgrade those. It’s part of the whole business model of this country, and it’s a pretty good business model. But financially speaking, we have taken advantage of these things; the things that make America truly what it is – not the financial gimmicks that make us more encumbered than we ought to be.

  Nevertheless, the US economy is doing remarkably well by international comparisons. This is despite the fact that virtually everyone had feared that the economy would cool down significantly as a result of rising interest rates.

  I thought that combination of an inverted yield curve and the contraction of monetary growth together were pretty strong signals of a pending recession. So again, it turns out there are no surefire indicators. But obviously, a recession will come at some time, and I think it will have its origins in the unhealthy capital structures caused by the suppression of interest rates and the distortion that suppression has brought about over the course of more than a decade. To me, that’s going to be the proximate cause of the next financial difficulties, being part and parcel of the next recession.

  What is the best way to navigate this environment as a European investor based in Zurich, for example?

  I would think that you would continue to look at companies in a company-by-company way. However, you would not be ignorant of the fact that the spread between the American equity market cap and the market cap of the rest of the world is at a record high. So everyone owns America already, and has been well paid for that. But it’s a big world, and there might be opportunities elsewhere as well as in America.

  Where else do you spot attractive opportunities for investments?

  Here’s a question: When you’re looking around for a currency, if you want to hold money in some form, are you really sure you want to hold it in dollars, or in competing fiat currencies? In this regard, I might have mentioned gold once or twice before in our previous conversations. So I would say to the gnomes of Zurich: Don’t forget what got you here! Don’t turn your little backs on gold. But seriously, I think that gold is going to have its day. It really has not had its day yet, as I see it.

  Gold has experienced a strong surge in recent weeks. What speaks for further gains?

  I think gold ought not to trade as an inflation hedge, but as an investment in monetary disorder of which we surely have enough in the world. So it’s a question of getting people interested in the problem, and then in the solution. If you want to go back and look at the long cycles, it might just be that the fifty odd years since the end of Bretton Woods and the end of the dollar’s convertibility to gold, that that cycle is ending. It might be that paper money in the historians’ retro perspective views will seem to have been a failure and that the world is going to charge back on unconstrained central bank credit creation and unconstrained sovereign borrowing. Maybe, that’s one way to look at it. It’s the way I tend to look at these things: longer-term, historical trends – and fifty years in the history of money is about the blink of an eye.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 18:40

• The Influence Of Influencers Is Rising… Except In China
  The Influence Of Influencers Is Rising… Except In China

  Most people trust the opinion of their social circle when making purchasing decisions.

  But, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, data from Statista Consumer Insights shows many also trust the friendly people who freely share their lives with us on social media and at least feel like our acquaintances: influencers.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Influencers currently yield the biggest power over people’s purchasing decisions in Brazil, China and India, according to the survey which is representative of the countries’ online populations.

  While influencers’ sway has only become larger in Brazil and India, it has recently decreased in China, but stayed on a high level nonetheless.

  In most other countries, the trend to follow influencers’ lead when deciding on a purchase gained traction.

  Denmark and Japan were among the countries paying influencers little mind, even though their following was growing in these nations also.

  Among Europeans, Italians were most “under the influence”, at 24 percent saying in 2023 that they had made a purchase because a celebrity or influencer advertised the product.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 18:05

• Jack Smith's War On Free Speech: AG Garland Should Rein In His Special Counsel
  Jack Smith’s War On Free Speech: AG Garland Should Rein In His Special Counsel

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Below is my column in The Messenger on the renewed effort of Special Counsel Jack Smith to gag former President Donald Trump.

  At the same time, Judge Arthur Engoron has repeatedly fined Trump for his public statements about the New York fraud case. Engoron declared this week “Anybody can run for president. I am going to protect my staff.”

  There is widespread support for barring attacks on court staff and Trump did attack the Court’s clerk in a prior posting. However, most of his comments have been directed at Engoron and his alleged hostility toward Trump. Where to draw this line is the subject of this column. In my view, criticism of the case, the court, and the prosecutor should be treated as protected speech.

  

  Here is the column:

  In 2016, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion overturning a conviction that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had seemed willing to secure at whatever cost to the rule of law. The case involved the prosecution of former governor Bob McDonnell (R-Va.), and the lead DOJ prosecutor was now-special counsel Jack Smith. The court dismissed the “tawdry tales” offered by the DOJ and declared that it was far more concerned with the damage that Smith was causing to the legal system with his virtually limitless interpretation of criminality.

  The rebuke came to mind this week as Smith continued his unrelenting effort to gag former president Donald Trump before the 2024 election. Some of us have previously denounced the gag order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan as unconstitutional, but even that order was more limited than what Smith had demanded.

  Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a leading critic of Trump, has come out against Smith’s efforts as an attack on the First Amendment.

  Undeterred, Smith now wants to reinstate and expand the gag on Trump, citing Trump’s comments about his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who reportedly has been given an immunity deal by Smith. (Meadows’ lawyer disputes those reports.)

  Smith wants to bar Trump from criticizing any witnesses as well as the prosecution and the court. That would include criticisms of former Vice President Mike Pence, currently one of his opponents for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, on his allegations linked to the earlier election.[Update: after this column ran, Pence withdrew from the presidential campaign]

  Of course, gagging Trump will not materially affect the jury pool in the case. The Smith prosecutions are one of the biggest issues in this election. Moreover, it will not protect potential witnesses from withering criticism in the middle of an election that could turn on the public view of these cases.

  Indeed, Smith has insisted on trying Trump before the election but now also wants to prevent him from speaking fully about the case before the election. Trump alone would be gagged, even as other politicians and pundits debate the merits of the cases and the countervailing allegations of the weaponization of the criminal justice system.

  The prior order issued by Judge Chutkan is shockingly vague and overbroad. It bars Trump from “targeting” Smith or his staff or potential witnesses or the “substance of their testimony.” It leaves an undefined and uncertain line as Trump campaigns on what he (and millions of citizens) view as the abuse of the criminal justice system to target President Biden’s main political opponent.

  Smith would add to the scope and ambiguity of the order in his latest motion. He is arguing that the court should “modify the defendant’s conditions of release … by clarifying that the existing condition barring communication with witnesses about the facts of the case includes indirect messages to witnesses made publicly on social media or in speeches.”

  Consider that for a moment: Smith would treat comments about witnesses, such as Meadows or Pence, as an effort to communicate with a witness.

  Thus, Smith continues to litigate with a sense of utter abandon, showing his signature lack of concern for the implications of his legal arguments. It is the type of blind purpose that leads — as it did in the McDonnell case — to a unanimous ruling against you on an otherwise divided Supreme Court.

  Ironically, it calls for a level of self-restraint that the trial court itself failed to show in the past. In sentencing a rioter in 2022, Judge Chutkan said that January 6 defendants “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.” She added that it was “a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”

  Despite clearly indicating with her comment that she believed Trump should be jailed (long before he was indicted), Chutkan has refused to recuse herself in this trial.

  The lack of restraint shown by Smith only magnifies the lack of leadership from Attorney General Merrick Garland. The attorney general has repeatedly said that he would give the special counsel full authority and independence. However, that would not ordinarily mean that the attorney general would reduce himself to a mere pedestrian in this process.

  This is an example of the ever-shrinking profile of Garland at the Justice Department. He has often told Congress that his knowledge of controversies is limited to what he has read in press accounts. Even beyond the special counsel’s investigations, he seems as proactive as a ficus plant.

  Yet, this new gag motion presents a far more serious cost to Garland’s passive role at the department. Smith is taking a hatchet to the First Amendment in these motions. In doing so, he is fueling anger over the perception of a weaponized criminal justice system.

  Smith’s deafening attacks on free speech are matched equally by Garland’s utter silence. The attorney general seems to believe that removing himself entirely from these investigations is more important than guaranteeing that his department does not become the enemy of core constitutional rights.

  As Smith seems intent on inviting another unanimous Supreme Court opinion against his department, Garland may want to consider voicing a modicum of concern over the cost to free speech in Smith’s efforts to gag Donald Trump.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 17:30

• Attacks On US Bases In Syria Continue Unhindered After Pentagon's Friday Airstrikes
  Attacks On US Bases In Syria Continue Unhindered After Pentagon’s Friday Airstrikes

  Attacks on US military outposts in Iraq and Syria have continued over the weekend. Al-Mayadeen news and other regional outlets have reported that there have been several attacks by Iran-backed militias on Saturday and Sunday. Russian media has also reported on the fresh attacks, calling recent Pentagon airstrikes on Syria an “unsuccessful bid to deter the militias.”

  A statement by a coalition of Shia paramilitary groups said, “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted the American occupation base in Al-Tanf, Syria, with two drones, which directly hit their targets.” They carried out the attack from just across the Iraq border into Syria.

  

  Reports say separately that the al-Shaddadi base in eastern Syria was also hit with two drones, and al-Omar base and oil field was struck. The latter was reportedly attacked a mere hours after the US airstrikes.

  Al-Mayadeen had says ago cited a statement from the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades which said the group is willing to fight “a war of attrition against the enemy that will extend for years.”

  In the early hours of Friday, the US had sent fighter jets to attack multiple locations of Iran-linked paramilitaries in Syria. The Associated Press summarized the action based on US official statements as follows:

  Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that the strikes near Boukamal by F-16 and F-15 fighter aircraft targeted a weapons storage facility and ammunition storage facility used by the IRGC and affiliated groups. “Both facilities were destroyed,” he said. “We currently assess there were no casualties in the strikes.”

  “These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in the aftermath. 

  “Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people,” he added. 

  Iraqi Shia militias have released a video of them launching a suicide drone toward a U.S. military base.

  A Palestinian flag is showed on the drone before it is launched.

  More than 20 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in recent attacks on military bases in Syria and Iraq. pic.twitter.com/OB7VHDGsyb

  — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 28, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  But given the rocket and drone attacks have continued into the weekend, it’s become clear that these US strikes didn’t have the desired deterrent effect. 

  US spy plane fights along the eastern Mediterranean, including stepped up drone activity, have increased in relation to Israel’s ongoing ground assault on Gaza.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 16:55

• Cocky Runner Sprints From 172nd To 5th Place After Competing As A Girl
  Cocky Runner Sprints From 172nd To 5th Place After Competing As A Girl

  Authored by Jackson Elliott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Former cross country runner Teagan Ewings feels a bit bewildered watching her sister, Teanne, run at high school meets.

  

  That’s because Teanne Ewings has to run against a boy who identifies as a girl.

  “When I was in high school, even the thought of a transgender athlete being in my race was not even on my radar,” 21-year-old Teagan Ewings told The Epoch Times.

  But much has changed in school sports.

  Even just a year ago, a 16-year-old cross-country runner from Maine Coast Waldorf School (MCWS), ran as a boy.

  He placed 172nd in the state men’s cross country during his freshman year.

  But then he grew his short hair out and transitioned to women’s cross country. Now, his running times allow him to be considered one of the state’s top girl runners.

  In a meet on Oct. 5, he won the 5K (3.1 mile) race with a time of 18:09, beating the second-place girl, Emma Young, by 66 seconds.

  As of Sept. 26, he ranked fifth in the state among all women and third among the state’s small-school athletes, according to online rankings by Maine track and cross country time website MileSplit.

  Teanne Ewings ranks second overall and second in the state’s division for small-school athletes.

  

  The Epoch Times attempted to contact the male runner, but his Instagram is private. His profile picture shows a crying child, along with the Pride flag and transgender pride flag.

  The Epoch Times contacted MCWS but received no comment by publication time.

  The Maine Principals Association (MPA) emailed The Epoch Times a statement that state law requires them to include him in women’s sports.

  “The Maine Principals’ Association is committed to working with schools across the entire state to ensure that Maine State Law is followed,” the MPA’s statement reads.

  “The state of Maine recently enacted laws that explicitly prohibit ‘Unlawful educational discrimination in schools based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, a physical or mental disability, ancestry, national origin, race, color, or religion.'”

  Teagan Ewings said her sister’s peers are divided about whether a boy who identifies as a girl should participate in women’s cross country.

  Some girls told her sister to “run faster” and said sports are all about having fun, she  said.

  “They just want everyone to have fun, and everybody can do what they want.”

  End of Women’s Sports?

  Other women see the inclusion of boys as the end of women’s sports.

  “There’s just not going to be female sports anymore,” Teagan Ewings said. “It’ll just be male sports and then males pretending to be females.”

  Local parent Cathy Ross has concerns about this, too.

  High school boys have far better running times than women, she said.

  “There’s a handful of us moms who have seen our daughters work like crazy,” she said. “These are kids who run over 40 miles a week. Sometimes, at the height of their season, they give up their Saturdays, so that they can travel two-and-a-half hours to a meet far away.”

  After all of the effort and sacrifice, losing to a man is “crushing” for the girls, Ms. Ross said.

  

  Currently, the young male beats the girls he runs against by two minutes. He’s several inches taller than the girls he competes with.

  Scientific studies show male hips give men a more efficient running stride than women. Testosterone also allows men to build more muscle than women.

  Basically, biology means that he has a larger heart, more leg muscle, larger lungs, and stronger bones than the girls he competes with, Ms. Ross said.

  Allowing him into women’s sports amounts to Maine giving a special privilege to a man over every girl in the state, she said.

  “I don’t understand why the gender identity of one individual, and trying to validate that, is seen as far more important than the hard work and the efforts and the need to compete fairly and honestly and to achieve success for girls,” Ms. Ross said.

  More Male Physical Advantages

  Katherine Collins has a son and daughter in cross country, she said.

  The female-identifying runner “is going to get faster because he’s getting older,” she said. “All he did was grow his hair out and put braids in his hair. I mean, that’s all he did. He didn’t have to prove anything” to be allowed to compete as a girl.

  No matter how much training they endure and dedication girls bring, it’s not enough to beat the testosterone advantage, Ms. Collins said.

  “The fastest boys’ 5K time in Maine is more than two minutes faster than the fastest girls,” she said. “There’s just no comparison.”

  Friends have confessed to her that their daughters don’t want to compete anymore because they know they’ll lose, she said.

  And she’s frustrated hearing “people say, ‘Oh, well, they should just work harder,'” she said. “It’s impossible. It’s physiologically impossible.”

  

  Letting men enter women’s sports likely will cost a generation of children their shot at competitive athletics, said Marshi Smith, a former NCAA women’s swimming champion,

  “How many girls are going to be sacrificed in the meantime?” she asked rhetorically during an interview with The Epoch Times.

  “My daughter is 7 right now. In 10 years, that will be her entire childhood athletic career.”

  For some female students in Maine, the male runner’s victories will rob them of accolades that could affect their college applications, Ms. Collins said.

  “If you’re applying to college and you say that you’re nationally ranked or a state champion, that is a big deal,” said Ms. Collins.

  So his inclusion is a “slap in the face” to female athletes, Ms. Collins said.

  “The MPA doesn’t care about girls,” she said. “They don’t care about women.”

  Rules Allowing Men Versus Women

  Parents in Maine opposed to allowing a boy to compete as a girl have few options to change the situation, Maine parental rights advocate Shawn McBreairty told The Epoch Times.

  But parents can file complaints with their local school district citing Title IX, the landmark U.S. law meant to bring equity between men and women in most facets of education, Mr. McBreairty suggested.

  If that doesn’t change things, they can consider filing lawsuits, he said.

  Although the boy didn’t crack the top 100 of Maine’s male runners, he’s one of the best “female” runners in the state, Mr. McBreairty said.

  The MPA’s handbook includes the word “gender” 39 times and the word “transgender” nine times.

  “The MPA supports student-athletes regardless of their gender identity or expression,” the handbook reads. “The MPA also recognizes that high school sports teams have traditionally been binary [single sex] and believes that it is important to continue to offer single-sex interscholastic athletic teams in order to ensure equal athletic opportunities for girls.”

  The handbook also states that “most high school-aged boys have a distinct athletic advantage” over girls.

  The MPA’s Gender Identity Equity Committee (GIE) can decline a request for cross-sex competition—when a boy who identifies as a girl asks to compete with girls—if members are convinced the student is only pretending to be transgender, the handbook reads.

  The GIE committee makes this decision under a long list of criteria.

  Some criteria involve physical traits like height, weight, previous athletic performance, and whether a student has passed puberty.

  Other criteria include whether the student has consistently identified as transgender, whether a student has already changed their gender identity in school records, and what sports the student plans to do.

  However, no test can determine if someone is transgender because “gender identity is an internal identification and experience,” according to guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

  The MPA handbook also states that the committee can decline a student’s request to play on opposite-sex teams if the student would gain an “unfair athletic advantage or pose an unacceptable risk of physical injury to other student-athletes.”

  Parents wonder how the current case, in which one participant jumped more than 100 places up in ranking when switching to compete as a girl, can be within the bounds of fairness by the MPA’s standards.

  “They’re acknowledging that boys have an athletic advantage,” Ms. Ross said.

  “Basically, they don’t intend to do anything about it.“

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 16:20

• Wider War Will Bring Inevitable Attempts At Martial Law In America
  Wider War Will Bring Inevitable Attempts At Martial Law In America

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  Not long ago at the height of fear over the global pandemic the US underwent a change that many people argued would never happen. For years I have heard people say that authoritarian controls in America are “tinfoil hat conspiracy theory” and doom mongering – All the prepping, all the talk of community organizing, all the guns and the gear and the training were for nothing.

  Then…the covid agenda hit like a freight train.

  

  Our constitutional rights were no longer set in stone, but mere guidelines that government officials could bend or break in the name of “public health safety.” Laws no longer had to be passed through a series of checks and balances; mandates could be implemented as if they were laws without public oversight and enforced unilaterally.

  There was talk (primarily among Democrats) of severe punishments for people who refused the pointless covid vaccines. They wanted vaccine passports, they wanted prison time for those that spoke publicly against the vax, they wanted people’s jobs taken away, they wanted their children taken away, and there were even plans to build covid detention centers to segregate and lock up “vax deniers.”

  It boggles the mind, but this was serious debate within the US and it was all triggered in the span of a year. Nearly half the country was willing to abandon the Bill of Rights over a virus with a survival rate of 99.8%. The conspiracy theorists were right all along; our freedoms rest on a razor’s edge and preparing to survive and fight for those freedoms is perfectly rational.

  Luckily, the covid agenda failed. The mandates were ultimately blocked by red states and in many rural areas they were barely enforced at all. Biden’s vaccine passport attempt was stopped cold by the Supreme Court, but I have long believed that the Supreme Court made this decision exactly because of the level of public resistance.  They knew if they pressed the issue, civil war was on the table.

  Medical authoritarianism collapsed because conservatives and independents were not onboard and they could not be shamed into compliance.

  But what happens when there is a crisis that DOES scare conservatives? What happens when the political right perceives a true threat? Does freedom then become untenable?

  Viruses frighten progressives (most things frighten progressives), but what frightens conservatives?

  Well, it’s not a hard fast rule, but generally speaking conservatives are most disturbed by the threat of invasion. Ask any conservative if they were worried about covid or worried about the crisis on the southern border during the pandemic and the vast majority of them would say the border without hesitation. Conservatives fear cultural infiltration and co-option, they fear the steady and deliberate whittling away of their American heritage and by extension their freedoms by alien impostors. And, they fear the certain blitzkrieg of the US by organized terrorism should the borders remain open.

  The question is, are they willing to assuage their fears by sacrificing the very freedoms they want to protect?

  In 2001 after 9/11, the conservative movement was a much different animal than it is today. This was pre-Ron Paul and pre-Libertarian influence. The Neo-cons ruled the roost and had far reaching power over public perception, making the push for the dismissal of constitutional rights unprecedented. The Patriot Act mentality was widespread and the thirst for war was palpable. I have seen conservatives stray from the Bill of Rights in the past in the name of fighting against a possible invasion.  I remember this vividly.

  Today, the elements in play are not the same as 2001. Anyone who argues otherwise was likely a child during the 9/11 era or has a skewed understanding of the changes that have taken place among conservatives since those days. The Ron Paul movement changed a lot for the better, but primarily within the conservative constituency. Regular people changed their thinking on what it means to trade liberty for security. The GOP? It’s a pipe dream to think we could ever completely change the GOP.  At least covid proved we have allies at the state and local level

  The real problem is in the old guard of Neo-cons still influencing the path of the Republican Party. These are people who happily ally with Democrats behind the scenes, they have close ties to establishment elites and their loyalty rests in the hands of globalists. If the globalists want war, then the Neo-cons want war and they will do anything to get it, including create it. That’s how it works.

  And this time around I think they’re going to get what they want. The Ukraine event failed to lure Americans into supporting direct intervention (a majority of Americans don’t even support funding for Ukraine), but Israel is another matter. There are very old and tribal implications than pull on the souls of conservatives when it comes to the conflicts in the Middle East. There are religious factors, yes, but I suspect this is overblown by critics who think evangelicals are running the show. This is not reality.

  The Christian mandate has nowhere near the same influence it did back in 2001. In fact, churches have become so weak that they are now being overtaken by LGBT infiltration and trans activism. This never would have been tolerated 20 years ago – They would have tarred and feathered such activists back then. If this sort of thing is being allowed to happen right in our backyards today then you can be damn sure that religion is not the driving force for war overseas.

  No, when it comes to Israel and the implications of war the concern is once again rooted in cultural erasure. To be fair, it’s not a paranoid delusion.  Western culture is in fact being systematically dismantled and mass immigration is a part of that agenda. It’s also true that Islamic ideology is completely incompatible with western beliefs including the concept of individualism. Muslim systems are authoritarian in nature, that is what Sharia Law is.

  So, when conservatives see the potential for the fall of Israel they associate this with the fall of the west, and they will seek to stop it if they can. Beyond Israel is the concern that an invasion of Muslim extremists is already well underway in the US with open border policies becoming the norm under Joe Biden. And here is where the trap is set…

  Martial law in the US would only ever work if a majority of conservatives support it. This is a fact. Without our backing martial law will fail, just as the covid mandates failed. Keep in mind, Biden and his globalist friends have used every possible tactic to make martial law an inevitability. Economic instability and stagflation have created a spike in violent crime and looting. Mass illegal migration is dragging down state welfare systems and is creating a trend of cultural dilution. Open borders have allowed any number of possible foreign hostiles into the US.

  In the midst of war the government desire to control information and public discourse will be at its apex.  However, as we have seen during covid and the Ukraine war, they have not proven effective at accomplishing this.  As long as the internet is in place it does not matter what kind of algorithms Big Tech applies to stifle the truth, the truth still finds a way.  This means that the establishment will have to pursue extreme measures that could only be achieved within a martial law environment.  I see this situation going one of two ways if the current geopolitical trend continues…

  Option A:

  A multi-front war breaks out in the Middle East including nations like Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen. Israel faces serious failure. The US is dragged into the war, or, Israel uses its nuclear arsenal to destroy the resources (including populations) of enemy nations, leading to the possible involvement of China and Russia, and thus, the US is still dragged in.

  Riots and terror attacks become a regular occurrence in the US, not just initiated by Muslim extremist infiltrators but also leftists who have attached themselves to the cause.

  A draft is initiated which conservatives support in the hopes that it will help dissolve the riots. The draft will sink millions of weak, soft zennials (including women) into a bloody quagmire that they have no capacity to adapt to.  Draft protests and riots become the norm, pushing conservatives to support even stricter enforcement.

  Finally, martial law is announced, but the soldiers used on American soil to “protect us” from riots and terrorists will be primarily foreign nationals – Illegal migrants given an easy shot at citizenry if they join the military and put the boot down on dissenters, which they will gladly do because they have no cultural attachment to America or Americans. At this stage the constitution will essentially die.

  Option B:

  The war expands and Israel faces imminent destruction. Biden commits US naval forces to the fight along with ground troops, primarily Special Forces. He then calls for full deployment of US ground forces to the region, but in this scenario the majority of conservatives do not support the action, just as they did not support deployment to Ukraine.

  Biden tries to implement a draft in order to force the momentum. Conservatives refuse to comply or allow their children to be sent to die in a foreign conflict. On this one issue, conservatives and leftists actually agree, even if it is for completely different reasons. The country is then hit with an endless series of terror attacks, each one presented as a reason why the public must back the war. Each attack is cheered by the leftist activists as an act of “decolonization.”

  Conservatives see this ploy for what it is and still refuse to support the war, taking an “America First” position. Why fight overseas when it’s America that’s under duress?

  Biden still attempts martial law. He offers automatic citizenship to illegal immigrants if they serve in the military and uses some of these troops as an occupation presence at home. Leftists don’t want to fight in the Middle East, but they do like to see migrants given easy citizenship and power. They defend the measure – They figure if the migrants fill the ranks of the military maybe they won’t be drafted.

  Conservatives rebel, America enters either balkanization or civil war, or both. Patriots are accused of helping the enemies of the United States and are also labeled terrorists. From this point on, anything could happen.

  I believe the Israeli trigger may be bigger than covid in terms of the potential global disaster and global tyranny that could unfold. If it continues to escalate and turns into a multi-regional conflict the chances of the fight coming back to America are high. Not just in terms of terrorism, but also in terms of civil unrest and war on our doorstep. If we support the war, martial law is a certainty. If we don’t support the war, martial law will be attempted but at least there are scenarios where it could fail.

  I would argue that the only thing that will save America at this stage is the growth of the America First movement.

  When we talk about America First, this includes not just American security but also American freedoms.

  There is NO REASON why we can’t have both. If conservatives (and independents) get lured into WWIII, it will be the end.

  *  *  *

  If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 16:01

• Watch: Muslim Rioters Storm Airport, Surround Rumored Flight From Israel, In Southern Russia
  Watch: Muslim Rioters Storm Airport, Surround Rumored Flight From Israel, In Southern Russia

  There are shocking and surreal scenes coming out of the southern Russian Republic of Dagestan, after word spread that a flight from Tel Aviv was set to land at its international airport.

  Rumors that a flight full of Israeli Jews was set to land triggered Muslim mobs to raid the airport, where they broke past barriers and even at one point stormed the airstrip in search of Jews.

  In #Dagestan, a crowd stormed the building of Makhachkala airport in search of Jews from a flight from Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/TaBvakBKIE

  — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 29, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “A flight from Israel to the Russian Republic of Dagestan earlier today was forced to divert from its intended destination in the capital of Makhachkala after pro-Palestinians protesters stormed the airport, seeking to attack the Israeli arrivals, according to multiple reports,” Times of Israel (TOI) described of the chaotic scene.

  Several videos have emerged showing angry rioters yelling “Allahu Akbar” while seeking to intercept offboarding passengers from the Israeli flight. 

  A Russian Pilot telling Passengers on a Plane at Makhachkala International Airport in Dagestan to not attempt to Open any of the Doors due to the Rioters on the Tarmac which are trying to enter the Aircraft. pic.twitter.com/lwTW0Zg3V6

  — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 29, 2023

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  It appears police or security personnel were nowhere in sight as the mob, reportedly mainly made up of Palestinians who live in Dagestan, rampaged through the terminal.

  “Dagestan’s population is overwhelmingly Muslim,” TOI noted. “According to Channel 12, the crowd was apparently largely made up of Palestinian expats.”

  The flight from Tel Aviv either diverted or took off after briefly landing. There are reports that the mob tried to break into a plane on the tarmac. Some reports say that the aircraft which was surrounded was full of Russian citizens.

  Some of them tried to storm the plane, per Izvestia https://t.co/js5uaaYkSg pic.twitter.com/bwJuMGH57g

  — max seddon (@maxseddon) October 29, 2023

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  Regional media said the group went so far as to begin checking the IDs of travelers exiting the airport by car: 

  Some of the signs held by demonstrators read “Child killers have no place in Dagestan” and “We are against Jewish refugees.”

  The independent Medizona news website reported that the demonstration was prompted by calls spread on the Telegram messaging app earlier on Sunday to block a plane scheduled to arrive directly from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.  

  According to local media, some of the demonstrators were stopping cars outside Makhachkala’s airport to check the personal identification documents of drivers and passengers as they searched for Israeli citizens among the motorists. 

  The flight from Tel Aviv landed at 7:17 p.m. local time, according to the airport’s website, after which the protesters stormed into the airport, breaking past security and running onto the tarmac.

  One group of people who ran onto the airport’s tarmac surrounded a plane and jumped onto one of its wings, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia reported.

  A plane from Israel lands in Dagestan:

  The voice of the flight-attendant: Return into the plane immediately! https://t.co/ADzRxxwqMu pic.twitter.com/6g3IEAAiJf

  — Russian Market (@runews) October 29, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The FT’s Moscow correspondent Max Seddon wrote of one video, “Remarkable to see security forces in Russia standing by for so long. By now, according to Baza, police in Makhachkala have chased them off the runway and outside the airport, where they are now protesting.”

  The Dagestan airport was forced to temporarily close as the military and police belatedly tried to gain control of the situation and restore order. Per regional N12 News:

  “Security official: the event in [Dagestan] is not over yet. A relatively small number of Israelis and Jews are isolated and secured at the airport. We are working for them to take off from there for an onward flight to Moscow as soon as the conditions allow.”

  When word spread that a plane from Tel Aviv was landing in Dagestan, Russia, a mob stormed the airport in what can only be described as a modern-day pogrom. pic.twitter.com/1G6phfdraz

  — Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 29, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Some observers are speculating that security forces essentially turned a blind eye and allowed the disturbing scene to happen.

  It is indeed remarkable that given the typical high security nature of international airports, the mob so easily breached all security checkpoints and overwhelmed both the terminal and tarmac.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 15:55

• The Specter Of Hyperinflation Looms Over The Economy
  The Specter Of Hyperinflation Looms Over The Economy

  Authored by Michael Matulef via The Mises Institute,

  The threat of hyperinflation has haunted fiat money economies throughout history. Although past empires crumbled under the weight of unrestrained money printing, modern bankers at the Federal Reserve assure us that today’s financial system is immune to such a fate. Austrian business cycle theory, however, reveals that current economic stimulation may be propelling us toward a crisis of catastrophic proportions: a crack-up boom that marks the dramatic end of this boom-and-bust cycle. When a central bank expands the money supply to reinflate bubbles, it destroys the currency’s purchasing power. This endgame, in which the monetary system crumbles beneath a weak economy, represents the ultimate failure of interventionism.

  Once the public expects prices to keep rising, hyperinflation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  

  The Expanding Boom-and-Bust Cycle Ends in a Crack-Up Boom

  To comprehend the precarious state of America’s monetary system, we must first review the boom-and-bust cycle as formulated by Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school. The Austrians observed that the artificial suppression of interest rates by a central bank initiates an unsustainable economic boom by promoting malinvestment. Pushing rates below natural market levels sends a distorted signal to businesses that long-term capital investment is more profitable than the economy can actually support. In the euphoric boom phase, jobs multiply and GDP grows with investment. But the investments lack economic merit, so the house of cards eventually collapses.

  With the liquidation of malinvestments, the bust phase emerges: unemployment soars, output contracts, and a recession begins. Since the investments were built on quicksand, they must unwind. Each failed business further curtails consumer spending, rippling the bust through the economy. But rather than letting liquidation and market corrections occur, policymakers add stimulus, setting up a larger bubble and more painful bust down the line.

  At this point, people panic and exchange currency for real assets before rapid devaluation consumes their savings. As the crack-up boom picks up steam, the demand for money plummets while prices of real goods skyrocket, leading to hyperinflation. This psychological shift marks the event horizon where monetary policy is rendered impotent. Mises describes the nature of this crisis:

  This phenomenon was, in the great European inflations of the ’20s, called flight into real goods (Flucht in die Sachwerte) or crack-up boom (Katastrophenhausse). The mathematical economists are at a loss to comprehend the causal relation between the increase in the quantity of money and what they call “velocity of circulation.”

  The characteristic mark of the phenomenon is that the increase in the quantity of money causes a fall in the demand for money. The tendency toward a fall in purchasing power as generated by the increased supply of money is intensified by the general propensity to restrict cash holdings which it brings about. Eventually a point is reached where the prices at which people would be prepared to part with “real” goods discount to such an extent the expected progress in the fall of purchasing power that nobody has a sufficient amount of cash at hand to pay them.

  The monetary system breaks down; all transactions in the money concerned cease; a panic makes its purchasing power vanish altogether. People return either to barter or to the use of another kind of money.

  The crack-up brings the unsustainable, debt-fueled boom to a catastrophic end. Personal savings are wiped out along with the monetary system’s credibility. Society becomes less stable as the populace loses faith in institutions and scrambles for resources. The economy finds its ultimate bottom not in recession but in the total decay of the currency itself.

  The Facade of Stability

  Today, deficits balloon out of control as a result of efforts to sustain demand. Rather than allowing healthy corrections, the Fed piles on monetary stimulus at the first signs of financial crisis. Like an addict, the economy needs increasingly larger doses to maintain the status quo. But this trajectory of interventionism cannot persist forever without severe consequences: the Faustian bargain of trading long-term stability for short-term gain will backfire catastrophically.

  With each intervention, the Fed suppresses market corrections, inflates asset bubbles, and encourages high-risk debt. This constant flood of stimulus promotes moral hazard as it optimizes the economy for speculation while curtailing organic productivity. How much longer can this monetary dance along the precipice of hyperinflation continue before the dollar plunges into the abyss?

  Despite the veneer of stability, individuals sense that the economy rests on a precarious foundation of debt and deceit. They intuitively grasp that capitalism has metamorphosed into a cronyism that disproportionately rewards those with political connections in an amalgamation of concentrated power, unrestrained money creation, and escalating inequality.

  The Mirage of Reform

  Hoping for a return to monetary and fiscal restraint may prove naively optimistic. Exercising prudence would require immense political courage and social responsibility, qualities rarely exhibited in politics. Politicians face overwhelming incentives to maintain short-term stability through stimulus, spending, and low rates. And restructuring programs with enormous and unfunded liabilities like Medicare and Social Security would spur public backlash, even if it was fiscally prudent.

  After decades of excess, the economy is addicted to perpetual stimulus and deficit spending. The prevailing social mindset assumes that unending, debt-fueled growth is the natural state of affairs. With little political will for discipline, reform may depend on a crisis to force change. In the meantime, politicians, paralyzed by the status quo, are unlikely to make the difficult choices that could preempt such a crisis.

  It is all but inevitable that central banks will continue expanding the money supply to delay the day of reckoning and preserve the facade until the inevitable hyperinflationary crack-up boom, although the sheer weight of debt alone may produce this outcome. Promises of reform have been made, only to go unfulfilled. In order to prevent disaster, we must fundamentally rethink our monetary and fiscal policies against the temptations of short-term political gain. To quote Ayn Rand:

  Just as a man can evade reality and act on the blind whim of any given moment, but can achieve nothing save progressive self-destruction—so a society can evade reality and establish a system ruled by the blind whims of its members or its leader, by the majority gang of any given moment, by the current demagogue or by a permanent dictator. But such a society can achieve nothing save the rule of brute force and a state of progressive self-destruction.

  The Erosion of Centralized Control

  A crack-up boom would erode the power of the federal government: with a dramatic fall in the currency’s purchasing power, the administration’s ability to fund programs and institutions would deteriorate, the Treasury would go bankrupt, and the government would have to either massively downsize or attempt to fund operations by printing even more money. Along with the value of the promissory notes, trust in centralized authority would evaporate.

  With the federal government weakened and desperate, power would naturally shift back to individuals and their local communities. When faced with harsh economic realities, communities depend on themselves rather than flailing national policy. Individuals and communities should strengthen their local networks to weather the coming storm, increasing local involvement and forging bonds of cooperation. Joining area organizations and neighborhood groups can foster mutually beneficial relationships and support systems, invaluable resources for when the currency buckles. With shared purpose, communities enhance their capacity to withstand the crisis.

  Equally vital are the practical skills and knowledge that can provide real value to others when centralized systems fray. Pursuing expertise in food production, energy generation, medicine, engineering, and other technical fields equips people to meet local needs. In these ways, proactive societies can cultivate the true source of lasting wealth: strong social webs and skilled human capital. Global forces are beyond local influence, but strong communities retain some control over their destiny, even in hyperinflation’s wake.

  Praxeological reflection, the methodology of Austrian economics, can expose the unsound foundations that stretch currencies to their breaking point. It cannot foresee when hyperinflation will arrive, but it can point to the causes and guide human action toward stability and prosperity.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 15:30

• Desperate Gazans Raid UN Food Warehouses As Norway, France Condemn 'Disproportionate' Israeli Attacks
  Desperate Gazans Raid UN Food Warehouses As Norway, France Condemn ‘Disproportionate’ Israeli Attacks

  After three week under Israeli siege and a bombing campaign which has been unprecedented in its intensity, Gazans are getting increasingly desperate. The Strip is almost completely enveloped in darkness, also with communications cut, which happened Friday, and the United Nations is now warning of a total breakdown in civic order.

  UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza has said that thousands of Palestinians have broken into several of its warehouses in the Strip, raiding wheat, flour, and hygiene stores – among other basic necessities stored there.

  

  “This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege,” UNRWA director Thomas White told press agencies. 

  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also in fresh Sunday statements called the crisis a “nightmare” and again urged a ceasefire. “The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations.”

  Over the weekend the Gazan death toll surpassed 8,000 – with Gaza’s Health Ministry saying that most of these are women and young people. The Biden administration, which has repeatedly affirmed that it “stands with Israel”, has also said that it doesn’t trust casualty figures being issued by Hamas or Palestinian sources.

  There are reports that communications were restored to much of the Gaza Strip as of Sunday, possibly the result of growing international pressure on the Israelis. Ten more aid trucks have also reportedly crossed from Egypt on Sunday.

  According to Al Jazeera, “The Israeli military said on Sunday it had struck more than 450 targets over the past 24 hours, including Hamas command centres, observation posts and antitank missile launching positions. It said more ground forces were sent into Gaza overnight.” The Israeli ground offensive has continued expanding, with The Guardian observing, “Under the cover of strikes and artillery, Israeli ground troops have begun moving into the north of the strip in Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in what the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described as the “second stage” of the war triggered by Hamas.”

  As we continue to expand our ground operations in northern Gaza:

  🔴IAF aircraft, guided by IDF troops, struck Hamas structures.
  🔴Anti-tank missile launch posts & observation posts were struck.
  🔴Multiple terrorists were eliminated. pic.twitter.com/XMwKPKGZ1R

  — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 29, 2023

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  IDF troops have been seen reaching a point some two miles into Gaza:

  Israeli troops appear to have advanced over two miles into Gaza, according to a CNN analysis of video published by an Israeli media outlet. 

  The troops in the video, taken on Saturday, are seen putting an Israeli flag on a Gaza resort hotel’s roof. CNN geolocated the video to an area just over two miles from the Gaza-Israeli border.

  “Soldiers of the 52 Battalion of the 401 Brigade are waving the Israeli flag in the heart of Gaza, by the beach,” a soldier is heard saying in the video, taken several miles north of central Gaza City. “We will not forgive nor forget, and we’ll not stop until the victory.”

  Palestinian sources are also saying another major hospital, which is treating hundreds of patients and giving shelter to over 10,000, has come under attack:

  Israeli airstrikes have “caused extensive damage to hospital departments and exposed residents and patients to suffocation” at the Al-Quds Hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Sunday.

  The aid organization accused Israel of “deliberately” launching the airstrikes “directly next to Al-Quds Hospital, with the aim of forcing the medical staff, displaced people, and patients to evacuate the hospital.”

  Major bulldozing and tank operations have been observed on the beach in Gaza…

  Israeli Defence Forces over the last few hours continued to strike and kill terrorists in the Gaza Strip. IDF soldiers operating adjacent to the Erez Crossing identified a number of terrorists exiting the shaft of a tunnel in the Gaza Strip. Following the identification, the… pic.twitter.com/EKGA69Vvdo

  — Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) October 29, 2023

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  A statement cited in The Times of Israel described:

  The IDF says troops killed a number of Hamas gunmen who opened fire at the ground forces in the Strip, and other terrorists identified on the beach in Gaza, near the southern Israel community of Zikim.

  Hamas and the IDF have continued to exchange gunfire, but the status of forces on either said remains unknown and for the moment lost in the fog of war. At this point, if either suffers significant casualties, they are unlikely to make it publicly known.

  

  Meanwhile, the intensifying crisis for Palestinian civilians has not only led to massive street protests in various nations, particularly in Europe, but has resulted in rare criticism aimed at Israel from leading Western nations. The French government has issued scathing criticism of “unacceptable” Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank:

  More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip earlier this month, mostly during raids by Israeli forces or attacks by settlers, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.

  “France strongly condemns the settler attacks that have led to the deaths of several Palestinian civilians over the past few days in Qusra and Sawiya, as well as the forced departure of several communities,” said a foreign ministry statement.

  And Norway too has condemned what it says is a massive and “disproportionate” response and death toll among Palestinians in the wake of the Oct.7 Hamas terror attack which killed 1,400 people. “International law stipulates that [the reaction] must be proportionate. Civilians must be taken into account, and humanitarian law is very clear on this. I think this limit has been largely exceeded,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store aid in a public broadcast radio interview.

  “Almost half of the thousands of people killed are children,” he stressed. “Israel has the right to defend itself, and I recognize that it is very difficult to defend against attacks from an area as densely populated as Gaza,” Store said. “Rockets are still being fired from Gaza into Israel, and we condemn this.”

  Israeli flag flies inside Gaza for first time since 2005pic.twitter.com/uc0sJrNyXW

  — Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) October 29, 2023

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  Even the White House has begun to urge caution, with national security advisor Jake Sullivan telling the Sunday shows that even though Hamas used civilians as “human shields” – it’s still ultimately Israel’s responsibility to avoid hitting them.

  “They’re putting rockets and other terrorist infrastructure in civilian areas. That creates an added burden for the Israeli Defense Forces,” he said. “But it does not lessen their responsibility to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians and to protect the lives of innocent civilians as they conduct this military operation.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 15:05

• Kendi's Critical Race Theory Is A Failed Marxist Doctrine
  Kendi’s Critical Race Theory Is A Failed Marxist Doctrine

  Authored by David Brady Jr via The Mises Institute,

  Ibram X. Kendi, the controversial author of How to Be an Antiracist, has been revealed as not only a hustler of horrid ideas but also a poor businessman. Kendi was appointed the head and founder of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research in 2020 following the aptly named “summer of love,” which saw riots in most major cities over calls for “racial justice.”

  

  Now, Boston University is committing mass layoffs of employees, as the Center has lost the $43 million that was donated to it at its opening. There have also been several complaints about management practices. The Center is laying off much of its staff as it switches to a new model that it hopes will keep it alive. It is another profound case of fiat academia being inefficient and unproductive, as well as peddling half-baked half-dead ideas.

  Kendi is not an original thinker so much as a wannabe-philosopher who repaints bunk ideas to drum up societal conflict.

  Kendi’s general philosophical thesis could be summed up simply as “Everyone is racist, and that extends to all of society. History can be understood as a white supremacist culture getting better at hiding its underlying racism.”

  Kendi and other critical race theorists theorize that, throughout history, so-called advancements in the welfare of racial minorities are merely a white supremacist culture’s success at better hiding its racism. One can summarize it best with a quote from the thriller The Usual Suspects: “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

  The devil, for Kendi, would be “white supremacy” in culture. Every so-called advancement—from the outlawing of slavery to the end of Jim Crow laws—is simply this devil getting better at hiding itself.

  This is not an original idea on Kendi’s part in any respect. One can trace these ideas back to the philosophical ancestor to critical race theory: Karl Marx. When one analyzes critical race theory, it becomes abundantly clear that it is a portrayal of Marxist conflict and power theory but with the dimensions of race applied rather than class. Rather than the bourgeoise class oppressing the proletariat, it is the white class oppressing the nonwhite classes of society.

  A fundamental aspect of Marxist theory is that of the substructure, or base, and the superstructures of society. Marx posited that the fundamental relations in society are economic ones, between the working class and the exploitive capitalist class. The base creates the superstructure, which includes art, politics, religion, and other social relations that supposedly exist to reinforce the base. This is where Marx’s famed line “Religion is the opiate of the masses” comes from. Religion, as an aspect of the superstructure, exists to draw eyes away from the social relations that matter in the minds of Marxists.

  The critical race theory about the “white supremacy inherent in culture” is much the same. The base for the theorists is race relations. These theorists believe that the oppressive white class has constructed society to necessarily maintain a power dynamic over the nonwhite classes. Political achievements, no matter how much they may benefit racial minorities, belong as part of the superstructure, and thus they must be some protective shell over the true social dynamics.

  The Emancipation Proclamation, for example, would be seen as a means of preserving the base of society. Any and all political results short of revolution against the base are simply adaptations of the superstructure to protect the base. Kendi’s ideology ultimately becomes a revolutionary one. There cannot be a true advancement against “white supremacist culture” unless there is a true revolution, according to the critical race theorists.

  Kendi posits that the solution to racism is “antiracism,” or active discrimination against the “oppressor class.” This reeks of Joseph Stalin’s extermination of the kulaks or of Maoist reeducation. Mao Zedong’s goals may be the most aligned to the goals of Kendi. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion” seminars, taught for much the same reasons as Kendi’s “antiracism,” reek of Maoist struggle sessions.

  The modern kulaks of Kendi’s Marxist revolution are the “white supremacists.” According to Kendi, discrimination is needed to overthrow the base structure. The ideas of Kendi and the critical race theorists boil down to Marxist power dynamics, with a mixture of gnosticism and postmodernism. It is violent egalitarian ideology that attempts to paint history under one dynamic. It turns out that history is far more complex than that.

  So, one should not be surprised at the squandering of millions of dollars by Kendi and his “antiracist” center. Marx has been repudiated by economists, philosophers, and history itself. All the critical race theorists seek to do is repaint Marxist power dynamics under a new lens. There is no sound backing to their ideas so it is no wonder they continue to fail, even in academia.

  Kendi laments in a March 23 article: “The traditional construct of the intellectual has produced and reinforced bigoted ideas of group hierarchy—the most anti-intellectual constructs existing. But this framing is crumbling, leading to the crisis of the intellectual.”

  Marxism can be best understood as the unproductive of society demanding a place at the top of a new hierarchy.

  They prey upon the productive members of society and redistribute the success of others to themselves through violent revolution. It is an ideology of envy and failure. Kendi is one such unproductive citizen, one who would have no reinforcement in any sane “marketplace of ideas.” It is no wonder at all that he has failed even in fiat academia.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 14:00

• Visualizing The Key Investment Theme Of Each Decade (1950-Today)
  Visualizing The Key Investment Theme Of Each Decade (1950-Today)

  Over modern history, a key investment theme has broadly characterized each decade.

  In each case, a particular asset class, sector, or region captivated investors for an extended period, driving returns and outperforming the rest of the market.

  In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld shows 70 years of key investment themes, based on analysis from Ruchir Sharma of Morgan Stanley Investment Management via NS Capital.

  

  Investment Themes by Decade

  These decade-defining themes are often the product of a confluence of factors, including the macroeconomic environment, geopolitics, monetary policy, or other structural shifts like technological disruption.

  Here are the central investment themes since the 1950s, each with at least 400% cumulative returns over each period:

  

  *Price change for gold and oil, represented as an average. **Equity market performance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and oil prices, represented as an average.

  The 1950s saw a boom in European stocks during the post-war recovery. This was fueled by significant investment from corporations and governments as Europe became more integrated.

  Then in the 1960s, investors poured into blue chip stocks in the “Nifty Fifty” including Johnson & Johnson, Disney, and Coca-Cola. The main premise was that these strong franchises would deliver high returns over the long run. During the 1973-1974 bear market, shares cratered.

  As oil skyrocketed from $3.35 to $32.50 through the 1970s amid production and output cuts, commodities dominated, along with emerging economy exporters of oil and gold.

  Later, through the 1980s, Japanese stocks dramatically increased. In 1989, the Tokyo Stock Exchange made up 41% of all global equities. It had eclipsed the value of the U.S. equity market just two years earlier.

  In part owing to strong U.S. economic growth, American tech stocks flourished through the 1990s. While many high-flying tech stocks were wiped out during the crash in 2000, some still remain today. Qualcomm, which jumped 2,620% in 1999, is a multi-billion dollar semiconductor company. Amazon and Cisco were other survivors of this era.

  Pivoting from growth assets, investors returned to commodities and emerging markets over the 2000s, this time with BRIC economies—Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The 2010s saw the rise of FAANG stocks as tech proliferated across countless industries.

  The Next Decade Ahead

  Given how each decade seems to be defined by a key investment theme, Sharma suggests that it won’t be another driven defined by American stocks.

  The disconnect between the size of U.S. equity markets, at 43% of the global share, and its economic output, which is 26% of the world’s total, is one reason driving a new shift.

  Another factor is stark differences in valuations. Today, the U.S. stock market compared to the rest of the world is at its highest relative level in 100 years, suggesting it is overvalued and primed for a shift.

  Whether global stocks gain a greater global equity market share—to become a key investment cycle of this decade—remains an open question.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 13:25

• DOJ Corroborated Information From FBI Source Who Provided Biden Bribery Allegations: Official
  DOJ Corroborated Information From FBI Source Who Provided Biden Bribery Allegations: Official

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  U.S. Department of Justice officials corroborated some of the information an FBI source provided to the bureau on allegations that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, were bribed, a former official who worked on the case said in newly reviewed testimony.

  “We did corroborate certain things” from the source, Scott Brady, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, told a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Oct. 23.

  

  Members of Congress obtained and released over the summer a copy of the summary from FBI agents who spoke with the source, with the source conveying comments from Burisma executives concerning the Bidens.

  Among them was the claim that it cost $5 million to pay one Biden and $5 million to pay another Biden.

  Mr. Biden worked for Burisma, a Ukrainian firm, for years while President Biden was vice president, including in 2016. That’s the year the discussion involving bribery took place, the source told the FBI in 2020.

  Mr. Brady, appointed under President Donald Trump in 2017, told members this week he was tasked by superiors to accept and vet Ukraine-related information sent to or gathered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which includes the FBI.

  “We were to assess the credibility of information and anything that we felt was credible or had indicia of credibility, we were then to provide to the offices that had predicated grand jury investigations that were ongoing,” Mr. Brady, who was asked to resign by President Biden after he took office, told the House panel.

  Lack of Communication

  After working to corroborate some of the information from the interview summary, Mr. Brady said his team passed the summary and the work they’d done to multiple offices, including the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Delaware.

  That office is headed by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, another Trump appointee. Mr. Weiss has for years been investigating Mr. Biden for intentional tax avoidance and other crimes.

  Mr. Brady’s team briefed Mr. Weiss’ team in October 2020 on the summary, known as an FD-1023.

  “What we were doing was, as a part of the briefing, giving them the investigative steps that we had taken within our limited ability to corroborate the information that the [source] had provided us, and we informed them that we felt that the 1023 had indicia of credibility sufficient to merit further investigation,” Mr. Brady said. “And so that’s what we communicated to them.”

  Neither Mr. Weiss’ office nor any of the other U.S. attorney’s offices who received the 1023 from Mr. Brady’s team reached back out about the document, according to Mr. Brady.

  He said there was “both a skepticism of the information that we were developing, that we had received, and skepticism and then weariness of that information” from Mr. Weiss and Mr. Weiss’ team.

  “I don’t want to speculate as to why, but I know that there was no information sharing back to us about what they were—or very limited. And, at one point, the communication between our offices was so constricted that we had to provide written questions to the investigative team in Delaware, almost in the form of interrogatories, and receive written answers back,” Mr. Brady said.

  That was not normal, he added.

  Mr. Weiss’ office declined to comment.

  Ukraine Funding

  The FBI source was reinterviewed in 2020 by the FBI at the request of Mr. Brady, who wanted more details about the allegations regarding the Bidens. The summary that resulted was ultimately obtained and released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).

  The document showed the source traveled to Ukraine and spoke with top Burisma executives, including owner Mykola Zlochevsky. The source said executives said Burisma hired Mr. Biden “to protect [the company], through his dad, from all kinds of problems” and that Mr. Biden would take care of problems “through his dad.”

  Ukraine’s president ultimately ousted Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, at the behest of President Biden.

  “I said, ‘We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money,'” President Biden said at a public event in 2018, relaying the interaction about a $1 billion loan guarantee he threatened to withhold. “Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired.”

  The FBI has largely declined to comment on the substance of the document but said previously the summary was part of a “sensitive investigation” and should not have been released to the public.

  The transcripts of the recent congressional interviews with Mr. Brady and U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada, appointed by President Biden, were obtained and reviewed by The Epoch Times.

  In his interview, Mr. Estrada confirmed IRS whistleblower accounts and said he rejected Mr. Weiss’ request to partner to prosecute Mr. Biden in California.

  Mr. Estrada also said that he believed several attorneys with Mr. Weiss’ office were able to bring charges in his district, the Central District of California, and that he offered office space and administrative support if they did.

  Mr. Biden was ultimately charged with tax and firearm crimes in Delaware. He has not been charged in California or Washington, another district where the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney turned down a request from Mr. Weiss to partner.

  Mr. Weiss earlier this year was made special counsel as he continues investigating Mr. Biden. Both Mr. Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland, appointed under President Biden, have been unable to explain why he needed to be made special counsel if he already had what they described as the “ultimate authority” to bring charges against the target.

  Mark Tapscott contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 12:50

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