Hidden Amongst the Furore: Synchronised Warnings From the BIS and the IMF

It has become a disconcerting trend that as geopolitical events intensify and keep a majority of people engaged in the latest outbreak of political theatre, the words of central bankers fall on increasingly deaf ears.

At a seminar of the European Stability Mechanism this month, Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustin Carstens delivered a speech called, ‘Shelter from the Storm‘.

World’s Most Important Bank Issues Urgent “Zombie Alert”

 

What my research for my book Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World revealed was how central bankers and massive financial institutions have worked together to manipulate global markets for the past decade.

Major central banks gave themselves a blank check with which to resurrect problematic banks; purchase government, mortgage and corporate bonds; and in some cases — as in Japan and Switzerland — buy stocks, too.

They have not had to explain to the public where those funds were going or why. Instead, their policies have inflated asset bubbles while coddling private banks and corporations under the guise of helping the real economy.

The Global Financial System Is Unraveling, and No, the U.S. Is Not Immune

 

The “recovery”/Bull Market is in its 10th year, and yet central banks are still tiptoeing around as if the tiniest misstep will cause the whole shebang to shatter: what are they so afraid of?

The cognitive dissonance/crazy-making is off the charts:

On the one hand, central banks are still pursuing unprecedented stimulus via historically low interest rates, liquidity and easing the creation of credit on a vast scale. Some central banks continue to buy assets such as stocks and bonds to directly prop up the “market.” (If assets don’t actually trade freely, is it even a market?)

Europe Is Working On Alternative To SWIFT For “Financial Independence” From The US

German foreign minister Heiko Maas

 

In the aftermath of a report that Germany was working on a global payment system that is independent of the US and SWIFT, on Monday Germany and France said they’re working on financing solutions to sidestep U.S. sanctions against countries such as Iran, including a possible role for central banks, Bloomberg reported.

“With Germany, we are determined to work on an independent European or Franco-German financing tool which would allow us to avoid being the collateral victims of U.S. extra-territorial sanctions,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday during a meeting with press association AJEF. “I want Europe to be a sovereign continent not a vassal, and that means having totally independent financing instruments that do not today exist.”

The discussions, which also involve the U.K., are a signal that European powers are trying to get serious about demonstrating a greater level of independence from the U.S. as President Donald Trump pursues his “America First” agenda.

A Central Banker’s Plan for Your Money

[Shutterstock]

 

Jim Rickards calls them “silent dog whistles.”

Through these signals, in the frequencies beyond normal human hearing… elites communicate with each other.

Their communications are public.

But their language can be so thick, so technical — so innocuous — not one in a hundred can crack it open.

Only the intended audience can penetrate the deeper message within… and that audience is their fellow elites.

Goldman Warns That Market Valuations Are at Their Highest Since 1900

 

• Returns likely to be lower across all assets in medium term
• Risk scenario sees inflation jump that ushers ‘fast pain’

A prolonged bull market across stocks, bonds and credit has left a measure of average valuation at the highest since 1900, a condition that at some point is going to translate into pain for investors, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Financial Crash Warning: Markets to ‘be hit’ by triple collapse ‘worse’ than 2008 crisis

The next crash could be even bigger than 2008, according to Mike Maloney [GETTY]

 

THE next financial crisis will be worse than the collapse seen in 2008, and investors should seek shelter from the storm in precious metals and crypto currencies, according to an analyst who has predicted a triple market burst.

Mike Maloney said housing, bond and stock markets are now in for a big fall, after forming an ‘everything bubble’ which will have devastating effects when it bursts.

The crash will push investors into gold, silver and the likes of bitcoin, according to the gold analyst.

European Central Bank can’t fix Europe’s economy, warns UBS boss

EUROPE’s monetary policymakers can’t fix the bloc’s economy woes, the boss of a leading investment bank has warned.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has the near impossible task of nursing the region back to health and has tried a number of desperate initiatives in recent years to kick-start growth.

Yet most recent figures signal the bloc is still struggling to stay afloat.

Pensions Timebomb in “Slow Motion Detonation” In U.S., EU and Internationally

 

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the end of retirement which many Americans, Britons, Europeans and others will suffer as their pensions are decimated in the coming years due to zero percent interest rates and ultra loose monetary policies pursued for the benefit of banks and corporations.

Governments and central banks bailed out banks at the expense of pensioners and the pensions of workers who have been “thrown under the bus”.

This Looks Like the 2008 Stock Market Crash All Over Again

U.S. markets logged their fifth straight week of gains last week, pushing the Dow and S&P 500 into positive territory for the first time in 2016. But despite those gains, the fears of a stock market crash are still very real.

In fact, Money Morning Capital Wave Strategist Shah Gilani says this rally reminds him of the one that preceded the 2008 stock market crash…

Foreign governments dump U.S. debt at record rate

In a bid to raise cash, foreign central banks and government institutions sold $57.2 billion of U.S. Treasury debt and other notes in January, according to figures released on Tuesday. That is up from $48 billion in December and the highest monthly tally on record going back to 1978.

Deutsche Bank Is Scared: “What Needs To Be Done” In Its Own Words

As each day passes by, it looks like Germany will lead the world into economic collapse and bring the EU with it. However, this will not lead to a complete breakup of Europe, but a United States of Europe — Germany’s long-term ambition for decades. The crisis, be it economic or social, is leading to further integration within some member states, such as forging the creating of a European Army. The greatest heist of all time is under construction and destroying what we see as the EU today, in order to reshape it into the United States of Europe.

If you follow Bible prophecy and know of the great late David Wilkerson, you might give pause to think about what’s going on today, as his vision laid out in 1973.

 

It all started in mid/late 2014, when the first whispers of a Fed rate hike emerged, which in turn led to relentless increase in the value of the US dollar and the plunge in the price of oil and all commodities, unleashing the worst commodity bear market in history.

The immediate implication of these two concurrent events was missed by most, although we wrote about it and previewed the implications in November of that year in “How The Petrodollar Quietly Died, And Nobody Noticed.”

The Return Of Crisis

 

Financial markets the world over are increasingly chaotic; either retreating or plunging. Our view remains that there’s a gigantic market crash in the coming future — one that has possibly started now.

…

Bubbles arise when asset prices inflate above what underlying incomes can sustain. Centuries ago, the Dutch woke up one morning and discovered that tulips were simply just flowers after all. But today, the public has yet to wake up to the mathematical reality that over $200 trillion in debt and perhaps another $500 trillion of un(der)funded liabilities really cannot ever be paid back under current terms. However, this fact is dawning within the minds of more and more critical thinkers with each passing day.

The Deflation Monster Has Arrived

(Source)

 

 

As we’ve been warning for quite a while (too long for my taste): the world’s grand experiment with debt has come to an end. And it’s now unraveling.

Just in the two weeks since the start of 2016, the US equity markets are down almost 10%. Their worst start to the year in history. Many other markets across the world are suffering worse.

If you watched stock prices today, you likely had flashbacks to the financial crisis of 2008. At one point the Dow was down over 500 points, the S&P cracked below key support at 1,900, and the price of oil dropped below $30/barrel. Scared investors are wondering:  What the heck is happening? Many are also fearfully asking: Are we re-entering another crisis?

Sadly, we think so. While there may be a market rescue that provide some relief in the near term, looking at the next few years, we will experience this as a time of unprecedented financial market turmoil, political upheaval and social unrest. The losses will be staggering. Markets are going to crash, wealth will be transferred from the unwary to the well-connected, and life for most people will get harder as measured against the recent past.

Deutsche Bank Economist: The Fed Is in Danger of Making a Mistake of Historical Proportions

Please see the source for the video.

 

David Folkerts-Landau, global head of research at Deutsche Bank, says that staying at the zero bound of monetary policy for any longer would be a historic mistake.