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Thread: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Jo Maugham QC@JolyonMaugham · 4 Jul

    We are already pursuing a Government over the £108m PPE contracts it said it entered into with a chocolatier and a supplier of pigeon netting.

    https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/st...11067785633793

    The thread then goes on give a couple more examples of large funds disappearing out of public money into the hands of private entities.

    Interesting and disturbing

    https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/108million/

    Quote How on earth did a company - Crisp Websites Limited - with last reported net assets of £18,047 win a contract worth £108m - and why was there apparently no bidding process?

    The bare facts are quite remarkable. Here is the filing history of Crisp Websites Limited showing at 30 November 2019 it had net assets of £18,047. Here is the Official Journal publication of the 12 month £108m contract it entered into with Matt Hancock's department. That publication states there was only one bidder for that contract.

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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    The thing that makes me send out a warning is the BLOCK/CHAIN digital money concoction which seems a complete mystery/scam setup seemingly without collateral, proof of payment or ownership and no recourse when you are told you have been wiped out. Are people really this stupid? It seems so.

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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Fedcoin: A New Scheme for Tyranny and Poverty
    by ron paul july 27, 2020
    http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/arch...y-and-poverty/

    "If some Congress members get their way, the Federal Reserve may soon be able to track many of your purchases in real time and share that information with government agencies. This is just one of the problems with the proposed “digital dollar” or “fedcoin.”

    Fedcoin was initially included in the first coronavirus spending bill. While the proposal was dropped from the final version of the bill, there is still great interest in fedcoin on Capitol Hill. Some progressives have embraced fedcoin as a way to provide Americans with a “universal basic income.”

    Both the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee held hearings on fedcoin in June. This is the first step toward making fedcoin a reality.

    Fedcoin would not be an actual coin. Instead, it would be a special account created and maintained for each American by the Federal Reserve. Each month, Fed employees could tap a few keys on a computer and — bingo — each American would have dollars added to his Federal Reserve account. This is the 21st century equivalent of throwing money from helicopters.

    Fedcoin could effect private cryptocurrencies. Also, it would limit the ability of private citizens to protect themselves from the Federal Reserve-caused decline in the dollar’s value.

    Fedcoin would not magically increase the number of available goods and services. What it would do is drive up prices. The damage this would do to middle- and lower-income Americans would dwarf any benefit they receive from their monthly “gift” from the Fed. The rise in prices could lead to Congress regularly increasing fedcoin payments to Americans. These increases would cause prices to keep rising even more until we face hyperinflation and a dollar crisis. Of course, we are already on the path to an economic crisis thanks to the Fed. Fedcoin will hasten and worsen the crisis.

    Fedcoin poses a great threat to privacy. The Federal Reserve could know when fedcoin is used, who is using it, and what they use it for. This information could be shared with government agencies, such as the FBI or IRS.

    The government could use the ability to know how Americans are spending fedcoin to limit our ability to purchase goods and services disfavored by politicians and bureaucrats. Anyone who doubts this should recall the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point. Operation Choke Point involved financial regulators “alerting” banks that dealing with certain businesses, such as gun stores, would put the banks at “reputational risk” and could subject them to greater regulation.

    Is it so hard to believe that the ability to track purchases would be used in the future to “discourage” individuals from buying guns, fatty foods, or tobacco, or from being customers of corporations whose CEOs are not considered “woke” by the thought police? Fedcoin could also be used to “encourage” individuals to patronize “green” business, thus fulfilling Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s goal of involving the Fed in the fight against climate change.

    Fedcoin could threaten private cryptocurrencies, increase inflation, and give government new powers over our financial transactions. Fedcoin will also speed up destruction of the fiat money system. Whatever gain fedcoin may bring to average Americans will come at terrible cost to liberty and prosperity.
    Copyright © 2020 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given."
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Quote Posted by TargeT (here)
    Oil hit -$40 a barrel yesterday (IE, if you "buy" the contracts, they will pay you to come pick up oil at 40$ a barrel (good luck finding a place to store it)... granted it was just one contract but it will cause a panic i bet)

    we are in for interesting times....
    i invested heavily in tesla, like eggs in one basket style.

    I think we are in for a HUGE economic shift because of his various companies, I can expand if desired but "what is now" and "what will be" in 5 years will be very shocking in retrospect.

    this will be a hidden economic boon for the US, a very disruptive individual (elon).

    Quote Posted by amor (here)
    The thing that makes me send out a warning is the BLOCK/CHAIN digital money concoction which seems a complete mystery/scam setup seemingly without collateral, proof of payment or ownership and no recourse when you are told you have been wiped out. Are people really this stupid? It seems so.

    do you understand what the blockchain is?

    I think you should look a bit more into it... it's honestly the ONLY WAY to guarantee trust that I know of (think of how many industries this will disrupt... ALL of the financial institutions for sure....) the blockchain is a godsend... digital money leverage it .... they are VERY separate things.

    also... if your worried about "with out collateral" etc... definately quit using the US Dollar, it (as with almost all world currencies) is COMPLETELY with out collateral as it is Fiat currency.
    Last edited by TargeT; 29th July 2020 at 02:20.
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    The State of Our Currencies - Just a Taste

    The Solari Report


    [6 minutes]
    ..................................................my first language is TYPO..............................................

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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Corporate Communism and the Deep State
    10/1/20
    Review from Alexandra Bruce
    https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/cor...he-deep-state/

    "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution is part of a four-book series developed from an academic treatise by economics professor, Anthony Sutton that was based on declassified State Department documents and Military records. It completely debunked the mythology of the Cold War as that of a struggle between the Capitalistic West and the Communistic East.

    I adapted the information from Sutton's book to create a script for a short video report produced by John Chambers, which was released last night to help people understand how the same corporatist banksters that financed the Communist Revolution in Russia in 1917 are now financing the Communist Insurrection in the United States.

    Similarly to what we've seen with Communist China, the financing of Soviet Russia was done by Wall Street and their black ops banks. Wealth transferred to China under the guise of "Globalization" was previously funneled to the Communist East, under the guise of humanitarian aid, military aid, loans, etc. This vital truth has been suppressed by academe and by the Mainstream Media.

    Sutton concluded that the conflicts of the Cold War were "not fought to restrain communism" but were organized in order "to generate multibillion-dollar armaments contracts", since the United States, through financing the Soviet Union "directly or indirectly armed both sides in at least Korea and Vietnam."

    Sound familiar? Neocons at the Project for a New American Century didn't invent "Endless War". These ideas came from an older Rothschild playbook.

    In Sutton's The Best Enemy Money Can Buy, about the military technology transfers up to the 1980s, he summarized the main aspects of his research:

    "There is no such thing as Soviet technology. Almost all —perhaps 90–95 percent — came directly or indirectly from the United States and its allies. In effect the United States and the NATO countries have built the Soviet Union. Its industrial and its military capabilities. This massive construction job has taken 50 years. Since the Revolution in 1917. It has been carried out through trade and the sale of plants, equipment and technical assistance."
    We see all of this repeated in the Uranium One deal and in the never-ending “Russia Collusion” nonsense - parroted just yesterday by Trump’s ex-National Security Advisor, HR McMaster.

    It is the same old game, centuries old!

    Sutton's subsequent books were Wall Street and FDR and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, in which he detailed Wall Street's involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution to destroy Russia as an economic competitor and to turn it into "a captive market and a technical colony to be exploited by a few high-powered American financiers and the corporations under their control" and its involvement in the rise of Adolf Hitler and Franklin Roosevelt, whose policies he saw as essentially the same "corporate socialism," planned by the big corporations.

    Sutton concluded that this was all part of the central banking establishment's "long-range program of nurturing collectivism" and fostering "corporate socialism", in order to ensure "monopoly acquisition of wealth", because it could not survive "if it were exposed to the activity of a free market."

    ***

    CORPORATE COMMUNISM & THE DEEP STATRE

    Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization that claims to fight the power on behalf of the powerless, yet they have the backing of the most powerful corporations on Earth.

    It may come as a surprise that the same can be said about the original Communist Revolution, which was financed by the banker elite. In fact, we see the exact same tactics being used by the Deep State today to finance the current Communist insurrection in the US as was used by them for the Russian Revolution in the early twentieth century.

    In July of 2020, following the death of George Floyd, one hundred of the largest companies in the US committed to donating over $1.6 billion to organizations fighting racism and inequality. Companies that specifically pledged money to the Black Lives Matter Foundation included Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, Xbox, Warner Records, Pepsi, Gatorade and Uggs, among others

    That same month, Hungarian billionaire George Soros announced that he was donating an additional $220 million to the Black Lives Matter movement, with much of the money going into efforts to control 2020 voting systems and to de-fund the police.

    wave of protests and rioting swept across the United States, Soros’ Open Society cheered that this was “the moment we’ve been investing in for the last 25 years.”

    They say $70 million will be immediately spent on plans for “ongoing efforts to fight voter suppression and disinformation and ensure safe and secure elections in the midst of the pandemic”. This likely refers to vote-by-mail programs and overturning ballot security laws. The remaining $150 million of the funds are part of a five-year plan to de-fund the police.

    Alex Soros, George Soros’ son and deputy chair of the Open Society Foundations said, “This is the time for urgent and bold action to address racial injustice in America. These investments will empower proven leaders in the Black community to reimagine policing, end mass incarceration, and eliminate the barriers to opportunity that have been the source of inequity for too long.”

    Soros’ group blames America’s founding for racial injustice and vows to stop it, saying “We recognize that the struggle to dismantle systemic racism is an ongoing one; it has existed from the dawn of the republic to the present day and is embedded in every level of government and in our penal and justice systems.”

    It is clear from their tactics that George Soros and his Open Society Foundations are agents of the same central banking establishment that financed the Russian Revolution in 1917 and that Black Lives Matter and Antifa are instruments of the descendants of these same invisible trillionaires.

    In his 1993 book, Wall Street and the Communist Revolution, Professor Anthony Sutton wrote that, “One of the greatest myths of modern history is that the Communist Revolution in Russia was a popular uprising of the downtrodden masses against the hated ruling class of the Tsars.”

    What we find instead, is that the planning, the leadership and especially the financing of the Revolution came entirely from outside of Russia, mostly from financiers in Germany, Britain and the United States.

    This amazing story begins with Jacob Schiff, who was head of the New York investment firm Kuhn, Loeb and Company. He was one of the principal backers of the Communist Revolution. He was also a major contributor to Woodrow Wilson's presidential campaign and an advocate for passage of the Federal Reserve Act.

    During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905, when Russia sought to gain control of a warm water port in the Pacific - and failed miserably - thousands of Russian soldiers and sailors were taken as prisoners by the Japanese.

    Forces hostile to the Tsarist regime outside of Russia paid for the printing of Marxist propaganda and had it delivered to the prison camps. Russian-speaking revolutionaries trained in New York were sent to distribute the pamphlets among the prisoners and to indoctrinate them into rebellion against their own government.

    When the war ended and these Russian soldiers returned home, they played a major role in creating mutiny among the military during the Communist takeover of Russia.

    On March twenty third of 1917, a mass meeting was held at New York City’s Carnegie Hall to celebrate the abdication of Nicolas II and the overthrow of Tsarist rule in Russia. Thousands of socialists, Marxists, nihilists and anarchists attended to celebrate the event.


    The following day, on page two of The New York Times, was the telegram from Jacob Schiff, which had been read aloud to this audience, in which Schiff expressed regrets that he could not attend but which described the successful Russian revolution as, "what we had hoped and striven for these long years".

    Years later in 1949, Schiff's grandson, John, was quoted by a New York newspaper as saying that his grandfather had given about $20 million for the triumph of Communism in Russia. That was a lot of money back then.

    One of the best-known Russian revolutionaries at that time was Leon Trotsky. In January of 1916, Trotsky was expelled from France and he came to Brooklyn, New York. Many believe that his expenses were paid by Jacob Schiff.

    When Trotsky returned to Russia in May of 1917 to organize the Communist phase of the Russian Revolution, he was arrested by Canadian and British naval personnel, when the ship on which he was traveling was docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was found carrying $10,000 for travel expenses, a very large sum, considering the value of the dollar at that time.

    World War I and the Communist Revolution could have been stopped, right then and there, had he been detained but Trotsky was allowed to continue to Russia, due to the intervention of President Woodrow Wilson, who had given him his American passport.

    What emerges is a clear pattern of strong support for Communism coming from the highest financial and political power centers in the United States; from men who supposedly were capitalists and who, according to conventional wisdom should have been the mortal enemies of Socialism and Communism.

    In Trotsky’s book, My Life, he tells of a British financier, who in 1907 gave him a "large loan", to be repaid after the overthrow of the Tsar. That financier was identified as Lord Alfred Milner by White Russian General, Arsène de Goulevitch.

    "In private interviews", Goulevitch said, "I have been told that over 21 million rubles were spent by Lord Milner in financing the Russian Revolution.” Another name specifically mentioned by de Goulevitch was that of Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambassador to Russia at the time.

    Milner would later become the UK’s Secretary of Defense and a signatory to the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War One. In Winston Churchill’s book, The Follies of the Victors, he quoted Milner as saying of the treaty

    "If humanity is to be saved from the nightmare of another Armageddon it will only be by the creation of a New World Order. These million-odd words of the Peace Treaty, with all its seals and signatures, will mean nothing if there is not a change in heart, not only in Germany, but in all nations. The League of Nations by which we set so much store will be reduced to impotence if it is not backed by the moral forces of an enlightened public opinion..."

    Indeed, the League of Nations was founded by Woodrow Wilson after World War One but it failed to prevent World War Two it and was folded into what became the United Nations.

    Sutton wrote that in Russia prior to and during the Revolution, there were many local observers, tourists and newsmen, who reported that British and American agents were everywhere, particularly in Saint Petersburg, providing money for the Communist insurrection.

    For example, one report said that British agents were seen handing out 25-ruble notes to the men of a regiment just a few hours before it mutinied against its officers and sided with the Communists.

    It was a repeat of the ploy that had worked so well for the Cabal many times in the past. Once again, the Deep State was working both sides of the conflict to weaken and topple a target government.

    Tsar Nicholas believed that since the British were Russia's allies in the war against Germany, that the British officials would be the last to conspire against him. Yet it was the British Ambassador, himself who represented the hidden group, which was financing the regime's downfall.

    In America at the time, the Deep State didn’t have the advantage of using the diplomatic service as cover, so they used a tactic that has become familiar to us today. They used a highly-respected non-governmental organization and came disguised as Red Cross officials on a humanitarian mission. The group consisted almost entirely of financiers, lawyers and accountants from New York banks and investment firms.

    The demands of World War I had crushed he American Red Cross and it was taken over by these New York bankers, who purchased the organization with large contributions to operate in its name.

    As Professor Sutton tells us, the Red Cross raised $2 million in 1910 from wealthy residents of New York City, like J.P. Morgan, who personally contributed $100,000.

    For the duration of the war, the Red Cross was nominally made a part of the US Army and wore the uniform of Army officers. The entire expense of the Red Cross Mission in Russia, including the purchase of uniforms, was paid for by the man who was appointed by President Wilson to become its head, ‘Colonel’ William Boyce Thompson.

    Thompson was the classic specimen of the Deep State at the time, coming from the world of high finance. When he attended the opera in Saint Petersburg, he was given the imperial box. People on the street called him the American Tsar. Socialist Revolutionary leader, Alexander Kerensky viewed him as the real Ambassador of the United States.

    Thompson coordinated the Wall Street purchases of Russian bonds, totaling ten million rubles. In addition, he gave over two million rubles to Kerensky for propaganda purposes inside Russia.

    Together with J.P. Morgan, Thompson gave the ruble equivalent of one million dollars to the Bolsheviks for the spreading of revolutionary propaganda outside of Russia, particularly in Germany and Austria. The agitation made possible by this funding led to the German Communist uprising, known as the Spartacus Revolt of 1918.

    The Morgan group provided funding for both Kerensky and Lenin. And although both were Socialist revolutionaries, they were in fact bitter competitors for control of the new Russian government. By then, the tactic of funding both sides of a political contest had been raised to a fine art by the Deep State.

    So, when we look at what’s happening in America today, we can see that many of the destabilization tactics being used against us are at least a century old and they were deployed by the financial elite to create the Soviet Union.

    When you go to the Anarcho-Communist website, Antifa.com you are automatically re-directed to JoeBiden.com.

    Although Biden may not tacitly approve of Antifa, he hasn’t really condemned them, either. However, Antifa clearly approves of Biden.

    Biden’s Soros-backed running mate, Kamala Harris approves of the protests. She says the riots aren’t going to stop before the election and they won’t stop afterwards. Moreover, she says that they shouldn’t stop. She says that *we* shouldn’t stop. As President, Kamala Harris would double down on the current Communist insurrection. That’s why she was picked by George Soros.

    House Bill 7120: the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 was introduced by Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Karen Bass and it passed in Congress on June twenty-fifth but it has yet to pass in the Senate and to be approved by the President. Trump would never approve of it but Biden or Harris certainly would.

    House Bill 7120 does to local law enforcement what the Trans-Pacific Partnership aimed to do to the US economy, which was to circumvent US Sovereignty and hand our power over to a transnational consortium.

    Dismantling the police is the tried-and-true plan that NATO has used in countries all over the world to take over a country's police departments, city-by-city. It is a tactic that was outlined in Doug Valentine’s book, The Phoenix Program.

    When you make a donation to the Marxist group, Black Lives Matter, the payment is processed by ActBlue. ActBlue is the activist arm of the Democrat Party, a party that has become Communist, almost overnight. ActBlue distributes these donation funds as they see fit, with most of it going to Joe Biden’s campaign.

    If Joe Biden wins the presidency, the Deep State, comprised of the banking, corporate and media elites will have succeeded in ushering in a nascent Communist regime in the United States."
    Last edited by onawah; 2nd October 2020 at 22:16.
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    I will expand if needed, however.....

    TESLA is going to be the biggest company on earth (at least for a while) and we are in the phase that "very few" know this.

    Elon is almost the definition of altruism (in action).... I have already over doubled my investment and I don't even think this is what will be recognized as "the beginning" .

    ALWAYS do your own study, your own due diligence.

    I feel that this person is the most worthy to invest in (as a person as well as financially) due to his extremely disruptive and aggressive approach to sustainability (THAT is his goal, nothing else... the further-ment of human kind.... if you have read the DUNE books, you will see a simile)


    anyway, the things he is doing will transform the entire globe (*again, I can expand if your research does not turn this up) with in the next 5 years.

    Of all the dark I read and think on, this is one of the few ultra bright lights that I from time to time feel that is "too good to be true"... but again.... the pendulum swings and is always corrected, balance is always sought.... and it's been a bit dark lately................
    Last edited by TargeT; 3rd October 2020 at 04:47.
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Quote Posted by TargeT (here)
    I will expand if needed, however.....

    TESLA is going to be the biggest company on earth (at least for a while) and we are in the phase that "very few" know this.

    Elon is almost the definition of altruism (in action).... I have already over doubled my investment and I don't even think this is what will be recognized as "the beginning" .

    ALWAYS do your own study, your own due diligence.

    I feel that this person is the most worthy to invest in (as a person as well as financially) due to his extremely disruptive and aggressive approach to sustainability (THAT is his goal, nothing else... the further-ment of human kind.... if you have read the DUNE books, you will see a simile)


    anyway, the things he is doing will transform the entire globe (*again, I can expand if your research does not turn this up) with in the next 5 years.

    Of all the dark I read and think on, this is one of the few ultra bright lights that I from time to time feel that is "too good to be true"... but again.... the pendulum swings and is always corrected, balance is always sought.... and it's been a bit dark lately................
    Just a question - isn't Musk trying to put thousands of 5G satellites in space? I haven't researched his altruism but this would seem to point in the other direction of a control society. What's your understanding about this aspect please?

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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Quote Posted by IChingUChing (here)
    Just a question - isn't Musk trying to put thousands of 5G satellites in space? I haven't researched his altruism but this would seem to point in the other direction of a control society. What's your understanding about this aspect please?
    5g cannot transmit very far, and even "low earth orbit" is EXTREMELY far (a bit less than 400 miles in this case, and 5g transmissions are measured in hundreds of feet).

    SpaceX applied in the United States for use of the E-band in the Gen2 constellation. The generation 2 Starlink constellation is expected to include up to 30,000 satellites and provide complete global coverage. originally they used V band

    The E band is in the EHF range of the radio spectrum.

    Now, the military will most likely be a customer of it (and who knows what the NSA/CIA will have access too, one can hope not much as Elon seems to not bow down to government edicts)


    Trump getting COVID is negatively effecting all the markets... wait 14 days and she'll swing back up again; good buying opportunity if your an investor in tech.
    Last edited by TargeT; 3rd October 2020 at 17:59.
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Quote Posted by IChingUChing (here)
    I haven't researched his altruism
    Read between the lines on this short video.... he will use capitalisms own mechanisms to force transition to clean and VASTLY CHEAPER energy


    its nothing short of amazing (and, exactly why TSLA is such a good investment right now, this will be the biggest company IN THE WORLD with in 5 years..... maybe sooner).
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Goldman Sachs Charged in Foreign Bribery Case and Agrees to Pay Over $2.9 Billion
    96,616 views•Oct 22, 2020

    "The Justice Department
    The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Goldman Sachs or the Company), a global financial institution headquartered in New York, New York, and Goldman Sachs (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. (GS Malaysia), its Malaysian subsidiary, have admitted to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with a scheme to pay over $1 billion in bribes to Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials to obtain lucrative business for Goldman Sachs, including its role in underwriting approximately $6.5 billion in three bond deals for 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB), for which the bank earned hundreds of millions in fees. Goldman Sachs will pay more than $2.9 billion as part of a coordinated resolution with criminal and civil authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and elsewhere."
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Nordic Countries Are Not Socialist Paradises
    Opinion: A Mom’s Research (Part 1):
    Jean Chen
    February 12, 2021
    https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-moms...g-2021-02-12-3
    Commentary


    Stockholm, Sweden, on July 27, 2020.(Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images)


    "As the mother of a 17-year-old in a deep blue state, I am often asked questions about socialism and communism. Not always being able to answer them, I have to do extensive research. I guess this is the situation many Epoch Times readers encounter: having to discuss these topics with family and friends.

    One comment I received: “Yeah, I know communism is bad. But I want socialism, like the kind in Sweden or other Nordic countries.”

    Indeed, Nordic countries are often used as models of “good” socialism by leftists, like Bernie Sanders, the Clintons, and Barack Obama. In 2010, National Public Radio praised Denmark as “a country that seems to violate the laws of the economic universe.” Although having high taxes, it had “one of the lowest poverty rates in the world, low unemployment, a steadily growing economy, and almost no corruption.”

    In 2003, Sweden’s social democratic former Prime Minister Göran Persson used a bumblebee as an example to illustrate his country’s economy: “With its overly heavy body and little wings, supposedly it should not be able to fly—but it does.”

    Dr. Nima Sanandaji, a Swedish researcher and author, wrote the book “Scandinavian Unexceptionalism: Culture, Markets and the Failure of Third-Way Socialism,” which provides a very good explanation of the realities in Nordic countries. Let me summarize the book for you in case you don’t have time to read it.

    Culture—Not the Welfare State—Lead to Nordic Countries’ Success
    “A Scandinavian economist once said to Milton Friedman (American economist, 1976 Nobel Prize laureate in economics): ‘In Scandinavia, we have no poverty.’ Milton Friedman replied: ‘That’s interesting, because in America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty, either.’” —Quoted by Joel Kotkin, Chapman University professor

    The welfare state is not the reason for the Nordic countries’ success. The Scandinavian societies had achieved low income-inequality, low levels of poverty, and high levels of economic growth before the development of the welfare state.

    Before the implementation of welfare state policies, between 1870 and 1936, Sweden’s growth rate was the highest among industrialized nations. However, as the welfare state was gradually adopted between 1936 and 2008, the growth rate of Sweden fell to 13th.

    According to Dr. Sanandaji, “High levels of trust, a strong work ethic, civic participation, social cohesion, individual responsibility and family values are long-standing features of Nordic society that predate the welfare state. These deeper social institutions explain why Sweden, Denmark, and Norway could so quickly grow from impoverished nations to wealthy ones as industrialization and the market economy were introduced in the late 19th century. They also played an important role in Finland’s growing prosperity after World War II.” (All quotations in this article are taken from Sanandaji’s book unless otherwise noted.)

    The book indicates that religion, climate, and history all seem to have played a role in forming these special cultures. These countries have homogeneous populations with similar religious and cultural backgrounds. Protestants tend to have a very strong work ethic; a very hostile natural environment make Scandinavia a difficult place to survive unless a farmer works exceptionally hard; many farmers own their own land and have complete control over the fruits of their labor, so it has been financially rewarding to work hard.

    Culture matters. It is the culture, free-market capitalism, and the rule of law that has made the Nordic countries prosperous, and made it possible to implement welfare policies without serious adverse consequences. It is also the culture that has fostered the success of the descendants of Scandinavian immigrants to America. Most of those migrants came to America in the 19th century before the implementation of welfare state policies. They were not elite groups, but their descendants are more successful than their cousins in Scandinavia, which suggests that the welfare state policies have impeded the growth of economy.

    Southern European countries, such as Italy, France, and Greece, have adopted similar welfare state policies as Nordic countries, but have had much less favorable outcomes. Again, this strongly suggests that culture really matters.

    Welfare State Policies Weaken the Nordic Cultures and Values
    “It took time to build up the exceptionally high levels of social capital in Nordic cultures. And it took time for generous welfare models to begin undermining the countries’ strong work ethic.” —Dr. Nima Sanandaji, Swedish Researcher

    Policies help to shape the character of a society. As Scandinavians became accustomed to high taxes and generous government benefits, their sense of responsibility and their work ethic gradually deteriorated.

    When asked during a 1981–84 survey if “claiming government benefits to which you are not entitled is never justifiable,” 82 percent of Swedes and 80 percent of Norwegians agreed. But in a similar survey in 2005–08, only 56 percent of Norwegians and 61 percent of Swedes agreed with the statement.

    Generous welfare benefits reduce the incentives for taking a job or working hard. It also weakens parents’ incentives to teach their children to work hard. More and more people have become dependent on government welfare payments. And the dependency would pass from one generation to the next. This growing population in turn voted to support more welfare and bigger government, and therefore higher taxation, which has pushed the Nordic countries toward more extremes of socialism.

    Are Scandinavians More Tolerant of High Taxes? No.
    “Fiscal illusion distorts democratic decisions and may result in ‘excessive’ redistribution.” —Jean-Robert Tyran, Swiss Economist, and Rupert Sausgruber, Austrian economist

    Scandinavians have not been fully aware of the cost for a bigger government. Politicians have created a “fiscal illusion” in which a large portion of taxes is indirect or hidden, like those in effect before wages are paid, in the form of employers’ fees or employers’ social security contributions, and those included in the listed price of goods, like VAT. These taxes eventually fall on all people, but they are not aware of them.

    Dr. Sanandaji described a survey conducted in 2003: “The Swedish public was asked to estimate the total amount of taxes they paid. The respondents were reminded to include all forms of direct and indirect taxation. Almost half of the respondents believed that the total taxes amounted to around 30–35% of their income. At the time of the survey, the total tax rate levied on an average income earner, including consumption taxes, was around 60%.”

    According to a database of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Dr. Sanandaji’s calculations, from 1965 to 2013, all Nordic nations’ tax burdens have increased significantly, but most of their visible taxes have decreased, except in Denmark.

    This has successfully created an illusion that government expansion would not cost much. So why not elect politicians that expand government size and increase welfare?

    A Failed Socialist Experiment in Sweden
    “Sweden is the world champion in ‘jobless growth’.” —Headline of a 2006 article in the Swedish business daily Dagens Industri

    From the beginning of the social democratic era in the 1930s until the 1960s, Nordic countries had remained relatively free-market-oriented, and had similar tax levels as other industrialized nations.. It was at the beginning of the 1970s when radical social democratic policies were adopted, and the fiscal burden and government spending reached high levels.

    Sweden went the furthest toward socialism among Scandinavian nations since the late 1960s. The basic idea was to replace free markets with a model closer to a socialist planned economy. “Not only did the overall tax burden rise, but the new system also discriminated heavily against individuals who owned businesses. As politics radicalized, the social democratic system began challenging the core of the free-market model: entrepreneurship.”

    According to Swedish economist Magnus Henrekson, in 1980, “the effective marginal tax rate (marginal tax plus the effect of inflation) that was levied on Swedish businesses reached more than 100 percent of their profits.” This means that a private entrepreneur would actually lose money if he or she made a profit. Henrekson draws the conclusion that the tax policies were “developed according to the vision of a market economy without individual capitalists and entrepreneurs.”

    The result of the policy is obvious: the establishment of new businesses dropped significantly after 1970. In 2004, “38 of the 100 businesses with the highest revenues in Sweden had started as privately owned businesses within the country. Of these firms, just two had been formed after 1970. None of the 100 largest firms ranked by employment were founded within Sweden after 1970. Furthermore, between 1950 and 2000, although the Swedish population grew from 7 million to almost 9 million, net job creation in the private sector was close to zero.”

    As for the jobs in the public sector, they increased significantly until the end of the 1970s. At that point, the public sector could not grow larger because taxes had already reached the highest possible level. “When the welfare state could grow no larger, overall job creation came to a halt—neither the private sector nor the public sector expanded.”

    At the beginning of the 1980s, “employee funds” were introduced in Sweden. It was to take away a portion of companies’ profits and transfer them to funds controlled by labor unions. The purpose was to achieve socialism moderately by gradually transferring the ownership of private companies to the unions. “Although the system was abolished before it could turn Sweden into a socialist economy, it did manage to drive the founders of IKEA, Tetra Pak, H&M, and other highly successful firms away from the country.”

    The dreadful policy of “employee funds” was finally abolished in 1991, which is around the time that Sweden faced its most severe economic crisis since WWII. It took almost two decades for the employment to reach its pre-1990 level. As a comparison, it took only seven years for Sweden to recover, in terms of employment, from the Great Depression in the 1930s.

    Finally, Welfare Reform
    “Sweden was the more socialist of the Scandinavian countries a few decades ago. It is also the country that has reformed the most.” —Dr. Nima Sanandaji, Swedish Researcher

    Beginning in the 1990s, almost all Nordic nations realized that welfare reform is inevitable, except Norway. In 1969, one of the largest offshore oil fields in the world was found in Norwegian waters. The oil wealth makes it possible to sustain its generous welfare systems. Since Sweden and Norway are quite comparable in many ways except for welfare reform, it is a great experiment to see the impact of the reform.

    The reform in Sweden includes reducing welfare benefits, lowering taxes, liberalizing the labor market, and implementing gate-keeping mechanisms for receiving sickness and disability benefits. After the reform, from 2006 to 2012, the population supported by government benefits decreased from 20 percent to 14 percent in Sweden. In comparison, the population supported by government benefits in Norway decreased by only less than 1 percent in the same period of time.

    For young Norwegians, there is very little incentive to work hard. Employers are therefore turning to foreign labor, including from Sweden. Between 1990 and 2010 the number of young Swedes employed in Norway increased by more than 20 times because of higher wages in Norway brought by oil revenues. According to a survey of Norwegian employers, three out of four answered that Swedish youth work harder than Norwegian youth.

    After the reform, during the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, Sweden showed impressive economic performance. The reforms lead to greater economic freedom, stronger incentives for work, and less reliance on government welfare.

    Denmark and Finland also reformed their welfare systems. Even in Norway, some market reforms have been made. More are likely to come.

    A Caution to Americans
    The Nordic nations are returning to their free market roots. They have learned their lessons through their forays into welfare states or even tentative socialism, and have turned around from a dead end. We Americans should not fall for leftist propaganda and rush into a future that is doomed to failure.

    Jean Chen is originally from China, and writes under a pen name in order to protect her family in China.

    Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times."
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Quote Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)
    I popped into this sub-forum and the forum software notified me that there has not been a post in this sub-forum in the past 60 days - a long time in a supposedly precarious economy.

    We know that the mainstream economic prognosticators and trend watchers are owned and controlled by the corporate media, a subset of the Global Corporate Network, so we know the mainstream talking heads are not to be believed. Jon Stewart, to his credit, ambushed and disemboweled a particularly egregious syndicate lapdog, Jim Cramer, for shepherding people to buy Bear Stearns just before they collapsed. But, most of the compromised, corporately entangled talking heads just sell whatever their bosses tell them to, and have not been called out.

    Formerly active member and admin, Paul, and physically recovering member and admin, Hervé, used to keep this topic current, but are not here to do this now.

    Can someone step in and fill the shoes (I sure can't.)

    I must say that I would not personally be interested in having someone just post links to their blog, and really, it would be good if the person/persons that step up to fill this role are truly independent and can provide some analysis and not just links to Gerald Celente or whoever's videos. Buying a can of beans or paying a mortgage payment affect pretty much all of us, so - boring as the topic can be - it's kinda important.
    No, no I can't. Trying to understand financial markets make me drool and then brain hurt. I will bump the request though.

    Here's a video by a popular, professional crypto-currency trader, MMCrypto. He doesn't talk about anything but crypto trading normally, only examining the last few hours of Bitcoin at a time. But here he chats more about how bitcoin fairs against other typical investments. Bitcoin is bombing right now; it's price has dropped by half or something like that. So this guy is reassuring Bitcoin holders, expressing his opinion that conventional financial system are in serious trouble. He says there's a reason to freak out


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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    its all built on a system that is manipulated by a small pool of people, we are currently poised for a "correction" (could be very dramatic if the commercial real-estate situation follows the 2008 pattern).

    not a good time to be a casual stock investor, a GREAT time to sell a house and take advantage of these silly high prices; I expect the summer will be a big ugly as the fed realizes you can't just print money for a year with no consequence.

    I'd expect echo's of inflation to stick around... definitely time to be more risk adverse than the last year.
    Hard times create strong men, Strong men create good times, Good times create weak men, Weak men create hard times.
    Where are you?

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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    Good time to sell your bitcoin, if you have any. Bitcoin is riding the "everything bubble" that seems about to burst.
    Jim Rogers says that as long as bitcoin remains just an investment asset, governments will probably not outlaw it. But if it ever starts competing with fiat currency as an everyday currency, it will probably be outlawed.

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    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
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    Default Re: Economic and Financial Prognostications, Trends, and Data, 2020

    If there is a plan to take down the US (which I don't doubt at all), it won't be hard given how busy Congress has been over the years giving billions away for nonsensical projects, and even now in this financial crisis, the madness continues as usual.
    It's nothing new to be sure, but continues to be as mind-boggling as ever, and one can't help but wonder how on earth the Senators and Representatives can sleep at night.
    Case in point, 7 million to a project developing a Smart toilet that flushes automatically and takes photos of your derriere while you are eliminating.
    ( What is this, some kind of new fetish? )
    "You Can't Make This Stuff Up": Rand Paul Continues Listing Wasteful Government Spending
    69,588 views•May 28, 2021
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    Forbes Breaking News
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    "In further Senate floor remarks this morning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) listed "wasteful" NIH studies that he says squander taxpayer money."
    Last edited by onawah; 28th May 2021 at 22:12.
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