Restoring Britain

Authored by Laura Hollis via The Epoch Times,

There’s a revolution brewing across the Big Pond.

The British people were already fed up with the Labour government headed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. And then the man Starmer appointed to be ambassador to the United States—Peter Mandelson—was exposed as having a deep friendship with sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, even after Epstein was convicted on charges of sex with a minor in 2008. Mandelson is now under investigation for possibly passing sensitive government information to Epstein. Starmer is viewed as being crippled by these revelations and losing support within his own party.

But it’s the split on the political Right that is most interesting at the moment. For quite some time, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party has been the favorite to unseat Labour in the next general parliamentary election in 2029. Farage came into the international spotlight as the leader of the movement to take Britain out of the European Union (“Brexit”). But Farage is increasingly viewed as having become “establishment,” particularly on the question of what to do about the millions of Muslim migrants who have poured into England and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Farage and former fellow Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe had a serious falling-out last year.

Lowe was—and is—pushing for mass deportations, a policy that Farage has dismissed as “beyond the point of reasonableness, of decency, of morality.”

Lowe publicly criticized Farage’s leadership of Reform UK; Farage responded by kicking Lowe out of the party, accusing him of “bullying” staff members and of making threats against party chairman Zia Yusef. It would further appear that Farage was responsible for a police raid on Lowe’s home to confiscate his firearms. (No charges were filed against Lowe, and his guns were returned to him.)

Lowe has returned with a vengeance. Two weeks ago, he announced the formation of a new political party, “Restore Britain.”

“Restore,” as it is now commonly referred to, makes nearly daily policy pronouncements on social media platform X.

Among the policies Lowe says the party will advocate for are banning the burqa, return of the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, stronger self-defense protections for British homeowners, reversal of convictions for those accused of “hate speech crimes” and commutation of their sentences, laws ensuring freedom of speech, and mass deportations, starting with migrants who have committed crimes, including and especially the men who have participated in the “rape gangs.”

Perhaps more than any other issue, this one has galvanized the British public. People are shocked to discover that the government was too timid to arrest and prosecute men—largely Pakistani—who were known to be keeping young girls as sex slaves, fearing being called racist. Lowe has sworn he’ll bring all the facts to light and earlier this week released a victim’s statement indicating that members of local police forces were not only aware of the Pakistani rape gangs but, in some cases, were participants.

All of this has created a perfect storm of outrage, and Lowe has very clearly hit a nerve.

Restore Britain has acquired 100,000 members in less than two weeks. To put things in perspective, that places Restore Britain fifth—behind the top four political parties—by membership: Reform UK currently has 280,000 members, Labour 250,000, the Green Party 198,000 and the Conservative Party 123,000.

In his inimitable fashion, X CEO Elon Musk has weighed in, expressing support for Restore Britain.

Their X account now has over 300,000 followers, and videos posted are generating millions of views. Even Americans—who cannot vote or become members of any British political party—are throwing in financial support for Lowe’s Restore party. X is filled with fan art, posters, memes and slogans backing Restore Britain and Lowe. (A favorite is “Aim High—Vote Lowe.”)

The British parliamentary system is very different from America’s political structure, and their general election is—absent some intervening event—three years away. But this feels for all the world like a MAGA-esque revolution in the making. On the Left, the dominant party is Labour—presently in power—which defends unlimited migration into the UK, insists that Muslims add to the rich tapestry of British culture, refuses to conduct an inquiry into the Pakistani rape gang investigations, and prosecutes citizens who complain about the impact of mass migration: the crime, the outrageous government expenditures, the benefits given freely to migrants (while native British struggle to find housing and wait for health care), the unprosecuted rape of thousands of white British girls, and the denigration of British society and culture.

On the Right, the Tories have traditionally dominated. But that party saw five weak prime ministers within 14 years (Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron), leaving it without much public support, and creating the possibility that Reform UK will have the greatest number of seats in the next parliament, and party leader Nigel Farage will become prime minister.

At least, that was the narrative until a couple of weeks ago. Now Restore Britain is being viewed by its supporters—much as Donald Trump was in 2015—as the dark horse that might surprise everyone in 2029.

Polls conducted this week asking Britons their voting intentions show Restore Britain—which is not even an officially approved party yet—already with 7 percent support. (Keep in mind that these numbers are divided among 10 political parties, with Reform UK having the largest percentage, at 25 percent.) Reform UK is trying to stave off defections, insisting that Restore Britain will “split the vote,” and cannot possibly get enough seats in Parliament to elect the prime minister, thus handing victory to Labour again (or, God forbid, the Green Party).

But this is exactly what establishment Republicans in the United States said when Trump entered the presidential race in 2015.

In the UK now, as in the U.S. then, citizens are disgusted with traditional political parties and their government’s inability—or refusal—to perform what is viewed as its most fundamental responsibility—protecting the British public and preserving the country.

It’s going to be fun to watch.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/27/2026 - 07:20

Memory Crunch Will Spark "Tsunami-Like Shock" On Global Smartphone Shipments

Readers have been briefed on the emerging global high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply crunch, driven by soaring data center demand. We have tracked the progression of this theme for months through what seem to be almost weekly developments, ranging from notable institutional research desks and industry insiders to more recent warnings from electronics device companies about looming shortages and price spikes.

Now, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), which tracks handset shipments, has issued an apocalyptic warning: the smartphone market is headed for a historic downturn due to a memory crunch.

IDC estimates that global smartphone shipments will plunge 12.9% in 2026 to 1.1 billion units, the lowest annual level in over a decade. This outlook is much gloomier than IDC's November forecast.

“What we are witnessing is not a temporary squeeze, but a tsunami-like shock originating in the memory supply chain, with ripple effects spreading across the entire consumer electronics industry,” wrote IDC Vice President for Worldwide Client Devices, Francisco Jeronimo.

Jeronimo continued, “The global smartphone market, particularly Android manufacturers, faces a significant threat. Vendors whose business is mainly at the low end of the market are likely to suffer the most."

"Rising component costs will hit their margins, and they will have no choice but to pass the costs on to end users. By contrast, Apple and Samsung are better positioned to navigate this crisis. As smaller and low-end-positioned Android vendors struggle with rising costs, Apple and Samsung could not only weather the storm but potentially expand market share as the competitive landscape tightens," he explained.

IDC Senior Research Director Nabila Popal, who was quoted by Bloomberg, said, "The tariffs and pandemic crisis seem a joke compared to this."

Popal warned, “The smartphone market will witness a seismic shift by the time this crisis is over — in size, average selling prices and competitive landscape. We don’t expect the situation to ease up until mid-2027, at least.”

Counterpoint, another research firm that tracks handset shipments, published a similarly dire forecast earlier today, warning of a 12.4% decline in global smartphone sales this year. The note also warned of a “full-scale supply shock” related to the HBM supply crunch.

“2026 is shaping up to be the worst year in smartphone history,” Counterpoint analyst Yang Wang said. “The industry has never seen a drop this steep.”

As the memory crunch storm approached, we told readers to prepare:

• "Do It Now": Industry Insiders Urge Consumers To Front-Run PC, TV, Smartphone Purchases As 'Memory Crunch' Will Intensify

• Goldman's Meeting With Top Memory Supplier Points To Higher Prices As Crunch Worsens

• That Escalated Quickly: Goldman Cuts PC Shipment Outlook As Memory Prices Go Parabolic

Professional subscribers have been provided with notes on the memory crunch storm and can read them on our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/27/2026 - 06:55

My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:

• People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much.: The dot-com era generated genuine public excitement. The AI boom is generating anxiety, skepticism, and resentment — even as the money keeps pouring in. (New York Times)

• Constellation Brands: The Fastest Growing Beer Company in America: The parent company of Modelo and Corona has been on a tear, riding the wave of shifting American beer preferences and demographic change. (Fiscal.ai)

• Luxury’s Overexposure Is Biting: The luxury sector bet on ubiquity — logos everywhere, collabs with everyone, accessibility as strategy. Now the bill is coming due as exclusivity evaporates. (Matter / Substack)

• Crypto Is Pointless. Not Even the White House Can Fix That.: Despite unprecedented government support, crypto still hasn’t found a reason to exist beyond speculation. The problem was never regulation — it was utility. (New York Times)

• The Biggest New Fans of 401(k)s Are Small Businesses: New tax incentives and simpler plan structures are driving a wave of small businesses offering retirement plans for the first time. (Wall Street Journal)

• The Trump ‘Affordability’ Pivot That Never Came: The president promised to bring down costs for working families. Heading into the State of the Union, housing, groceries, and healthcare are all still crushing household budgets. (The Bulwark)

• 10 Least Reliable Cars of 2026: Consumer Reports’ annual survey of 380,000+ vehicles names the models most likely to leave you stranded. (Consumer Reports)

• Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras: Citizens are taking matters into their own hands, physically removing the license plate reader cameras that have quietly blanketed American cities. (Blood in the Machine)

• How scammers are using AI deepfakes to steal money from taxpayers: AI-generated voices and faces are being used to impersonate government officials and steal public funds. The fraud is getting more sophisticated faster than defenses can keep up. (Washington Post)

• How Did Hendrix Turn His Guitar Into a Wave Synthesizer?: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer who happened to play guitar. A technical breakdown of how he precisely controlled modulation and feedback loops to create sounds nobody had heard before. (IEEE Spectrum)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Jeff Chang, cofounder and President of VEST. The firm manages over $55 billion in client assets across various “Buffered” and “Target Outcome” strategies. Backed by Y Combinator, the firm launched in 2012 and pioneered an approach to portfolio construction based on defined outcomes and engineered certainty.

 

Irrational Exuberance vs Chat GPT Launch (No earnings versus earnings)

Source: @steve_donze

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

 

 

The post 10 Friday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Trump's FTC Takes Up The Fight Against Big Tech Wokeness

Authored by Paul Bradford via American Greatness,

For years, some of the worst actors in the tech industry were able to do as they pleased without fear of consequence.

They could construct monopolies, censor conservatives, and promote wokeness as much as they wanted. But things are beginning to change with the Trump administration. Thanks to the efforts of the White House, the days of Big Tech wantonness are over. These companies now must follow the basic tenets of the free market and stop suppressing views they disagree with.

One of the leaders in this effort to correct Big Tech is FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson.

His agency recently announced it would ramp up its scrutiny of Microsoft and its allegedly anti-competitive practices. The FTC accuses Microsoft of advancing monopolistic practices in making it very difficult for customers to use the company’s signature products—such as Windows and Office—on rival cloud services. The agency is requesting information from both the tech giant and the companies affected by these malicious policies.

Microsoft is one of the worst offenders in the category of Big Tech malpractice. From dubious business practices to close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, Bill Gates’s company sets the bar for how low these giants can go. The China connection is particularly disturbing, as American Greatness has previously covered. Microsoft has allegedly shared information from Windows and Office code with elements tied to Chinese intelligence, allowed its cloud infrastructure to be compromised by Chinese assets, and had several of its initiatives work closely with partners from the Chinese defense industry. Microsoft certainly doesn’t put America first.

It also doesn’t respect conservative opinions. The tech giant touts one of the most aggressive records of censorship against the Right. Microsoft was one of the major backers of NewsGuard, a service that promoted itself as a guide to media reliability. Instead, it acted as a liberal hall monitor that suppressed conservative news sources and insisted on liberal framing of events. Thanks to NewsGuard, it became harder for internet users to find alternative viewpoints to the partisan mainstream media.

Microsoft is deserving of greater scrutiny due to its practices.

But Ferguson isn’t just focused on this one egregious offender. He’s dedicated to taking on all bad actors in the industry.

The FTC recently sent a letter to Apple, warning the tech giant to stop suppressing right-leaning sources and elevating leftist ones.

Ferguson wrote in the letter:

Big Tech companies that suppress or promote news articles in their news aggregators or feeds based on the perceived ideological or political viewpoint of the article or publication may violate the FTC Act if that suppression or promotion (1) is inconsistent with the terms and conditions of service; (2) is contrary to consumers’ reasonable expectations such that failure to disclose the ideological favoritism is a material omission; or (3) when those practices cause substantial injury that is neither reasonably avoidable nor outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers or competition.

One of his first moves as Trump’s FTC chairman was to announce an investigation into Big Tech censorship.

The agency declared in its announcement of the inquiry, “Censorship by technology platforms is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal.”

The investigation encouraged Americans who have suffered from tech censorship and deplatforming to share their stories with the agency.

Last year, Ferguson reached an agreement with Omnicom, the biggest ad agency, to end discrimination against online ads for political reasons.

Many right-leaning companies and candidates have been affected by such discrimination.

Ferguson ensured that one of the main bodies responsible for it would no longer do so.

Ferguson’s actions are a refreshing and stark contrast to those of Trump’s first-term FTC Chairman Joe Simons, who defied a modest Trump executive order to go after Big Tech companies that deceived consumers about their censorship practices.

With officials like Andrew Ferguson, the second Trump administration is doing its utmost to solve these issues. Continuing the antitrust investigation of Microsoft is an important component of this strategy.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/27/2026 - 06:30

Chocolate Market Enters New Phase As "Double-Digit Raw Material Deflation" Eases Costs

Cocoa prices have collapsed 75% from their 2024 peaks, and Goldman’s latest note points out that the worst of the cocoa shock for chocolate makers may finally be passing after being squeezed by soaring bean costs through 2023, 2024, and into the first half of 2025. This only suggests that lower chocolate bar prices at the supermarket could materialize later this year. Against that backdrop, Goldman reiterated Buy ratings on two confectionery stocks.

Analysts led by Sam Darbyshire said the global chocolate production costs should drop by as much as 10% in 2026 and 2027. She pointed out that weather patterns in West Africa - the mecca of global cocoa farming - have supported increased production for the upcoming harvest, leading to stabilization in global supplies.

Darbyshire pointed out that the cocoa futures curve is no longer backward-dated, with December 2027 delivery now 17% more expensive than March 2026 delivery. She said this would help top confectionery firms to commit to increased volumes.

"Double-digit raw material deflation in chocolate over the next two years is likely to drive an increasingly competitive operating environment as manufacturers strive to return to volume growth," she wrote in the report.

Darbyshire noted that, with elevated chocolate prices, current Nielsen data show that consumer demand for chocolate remained soft in January, with elasticities worsening in Europe (consistent with Mondelez commentary). She said that private players are being more competitive on pricing, with Mars and Ferrero pricing below market.

"With weak underlying volumes and easing raw material inflation, we expect promotional activity to intensify throughout the year," the analyst said.

Darbyshire said this new cocoa pricing regime has generated a "Buy" in Barry Callebaut and Nestle, but "Sell" in Lindt.

Why this matters is that the chocolate industry is about to transition from a period of price hikes to one of greater discounting and tougher competition.

In a separate note, Bonnie Herzog, managing director and senior consumer analyst at Goldman, highlighted in December that sliding cocoa prices could produce "tailwinds" for candy and junk food companies. Read that note here.

Professional subscribers can read the full note on the inflection point the chocolate industry is entering this year, along with many more charts via Goldman, on our new MarketDesk.ai portal. As noted above, attractive setups are emerging in several beaten-down candy stocks.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/27/2026 - 05:45

Xi Purge Latest: China's Top Legislature Abruptly Sacks 9 Top Military Officials

China has removed nine military lawmakers from its national parliament, escalating President Xi Jinping's purge of senior defense officials, which has been a months-long trend, tracked closely by global headlines.

In this latest move, first reported internationally by Bloomberg Thursday, the country's top legislative body stripped Ground Force Commander Li Qiaoming and Information Support Force Political Commissar Li Wei of their seats, along with seven other officers.

Illustrative file image: Reuters

The dismissals were handed down this week, with state-run Xinhua reporting from the 14th National People's Congress that those targeted include Ground Force's chief Ding Laifu; Central Military Commission officials Bian Ruifeng and Wang Donghai; Navy officers Shen Jinlong and Qin Shengxiang; Air Force's Yu Zhongfu; and Rocket Force's Yang Guang. 

State media has not immediately issued details for the dismissals, or specifics on investigations. Back in late January, when Xi's own right-hand military man, Gen. Zhang Youxia - at the time vice chairman of the Central Military Commission - was abruptly removed, the charge was simply "grave violations of discipline and the law."

Such language is often presented in such crackdowns as a euphemism for corruption, which President Xi has in the recent past described as "the biggest threat". But critics as well as Western observers say this has served as a convenient and public PR mechanism for sidelining political rivals, and strengthening Xi's power and hold on the levers of power.

Such is likely also the case with the new firings of these nine military officials. In this fresh case, Beijing has only offered that the officials are suspected of "serious discipline and law violations" - again, just like with the ambiguous Zhang Youxia case.

Xi sent a campaign to eliminate corruption in the armed forces into overdrive around mid-2023, months after securing a precedent-defying third term. Since then, authorities have ousted two vice chairmen of the military commission, three CMC members, a former defense minister, and at least a dozen senior generals who commanded major military units, and possibly many dozens - or perhaps even hundreds - of other officers.

A former CIA analyst who follows Chinese elite politics, Christopher K. Johnson, recently told the NY Times of the ongoing purge trend, "This move is unprecedented in the history of the Chinese military and represents the total annihilation of the high command."

The PLA has seen significant internal turmoil, especially since the Communist Party’s 20th Congress in late 2022. Several top military figures - including Defense Ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, and CMC Political Work Department head Miao Hua - have disappeared or been removed, and many more followed. 

How Xi's military purges could hamper China's ability to fight

Two new studies document the crackdown and raise questions about the People's Liberation Army's ability to carry out large-scale operations, such as a potential assault on Taiwan.https://t.co/NlKJO7iebT

— Taiwan News 247 (@TaiwanNews247) February 26, 2026

In China, the military is controlled by the Communist Party, not the state, and survival at the top depends on absolute loyalty. Even the most senior and trusted officers are not safe in today's political climate.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/27/2026 - 02:45

The Brits & French Want Ukraine To Go Nuclear Out Of Desperation To Hold Onto Donbass

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

Russia’s control over it, whether through Ukraine’s withdrawal or forcible expulsion, is considered to be the basis of the US’ peace plan that the Brits and French are dangerously trying to subvert.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported on the four-year anniversary of the special operation that the Brits and French are plotting to help Ukraine go nuclear. The alleged plan is to provide it with relevant European components and equipment that would then be misrepresented to the world as proof of a domestically developed nuclear program. They’ll also give it at least one actual warhead and/or materials for a dirty bomb.

The purpose is to give Ukraine an edge over Russia in the negotiations.

Zelensky recently claimed that “Both the Americans and the Russians say that if you want the war to end tomorrow, get out of Donbas”, which he flat-out refuses to do, emboldened as he’s been by European support led first and foremost by the Brits and French.

The first are considered to be the masterminds behind various anti-Russian provocations, including false flag plots that Moscow warned about but which never materialized, while the second has been leading the charge to send NATO troops to Ukraine.

Russia has been tight-lipped about what compromises it might consider in exchange for Ukraine at the very least withdrawing from Donbass due to the confidential nature of the negotiations, but it’s possible that its compliance with this demand could lead to a ceasefire. Zelensky and his top two European backers don’t want that even though the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas claimed, regardless of whether one agrees with her, that “Moscow has failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives” so far.

Therefore, the Brits and French want Ukraine to go nuclear out of desperation to hold onto Donbass at minimum, the Kiev-controlled remainder of which consists of the country’s top military fortifications. They expect that Russia would then agree to a ceasefire along the frontlines if Ukraine obtains nuclear capabilities, even if only a dirty bomb, and threatens to use them if it doesn’t comply. At most, this could also hypothetically be leveraged to get it to withdraw from all the territory that Kiev claims as its own.

The reality is that Russia won’t accept a nuclear-armed Ukraine. Putin alluded to Zelensky’s speech at the 2022 Munich Security Conference in which he threatened to revoke Ukraine’s participation in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum under which it transferred Soviet nukes (that were always under Moscow’s control and never Kiev’s) to Russia in his address to the nation announcing the special operation. Most Russian-friendly observers accordingly expect Russia to not let this happen under any circumstances.

Head of the Duma’s Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov debunked the scenario of Ukraine developing its own nuclear program in fall 2024 after Zelensky sensationally suggested going down this route if it’s kept out of NATO before walking his words back later that same day. With that in mind, Russia certainly knows that the only way for Ukraine to obtain nukes is from the Brits and/or French, and any attempt to do so would amount to them going behind Trump’s back to subvert his peace plan.

The gist is that Trump reportedly wants Putin to freeze the conflict if Ukraine withdraws from Donbass or is forcibly expelled from there, with the incentive to do so being a resource-centric strategic partnership between Russia and the US. Regardless of whether or not Putin would agree to this, the point is that the Brits and French’s efforts to help Ukraine go nuclear out of desperation to hold onto Donbass undermine the basis of Trump’s peace plan, so he should thus do everything to stop them if he truly wants peace.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/27/2026 - 02:00

Peter Schiff: Printing Money Is Not the Cure for Cononavirus



In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about coronavirus and the impact that it is having on the markets. Earlier this month, Peter said he thought the virus was just an excuse for stock market woes. At the time he believed the market was poised to fall anyway. But as it turns out, coronavirus has actually helped the US stock market because it has led central banks to pump even more liquidity into the world financial system. All this means more liquidity — central banks easing. In fact, that is exactly what has already happened, except the new easing is taking place, for now, outside the United States, particularly in China.” Although the new money is primarily being created in China, it is flowing into dollars — the dollar index is up — and into US stocks. Last week, US stock markets once again made all-time record highs. In fact, I think but for the coronavirus, the US stock market would still be selling off. But because of the central bank stimulus that has been the result of fears over the coronavirus, that actually benefitted not only the US dollar, but the US stock market.” In the midst of all this, Peter raises a really good question. The primary economic concern is that coronavirus will slow down output and ultimately stunt economic growth. Practically speaking, the world would produce less stuff. If the virus continues to spread, there would be fewer goods and services produced in a market that is hunkered down. Why would the Federal Reserve respond, or why would any central bank respond to that by printing money? How does printing more money solve that problem? It doesn’t. In fact, it actually exacerbates it. But you know, everybody looks at central bankers as if they’ve got the solution to every problem. They don’t. They don’t have the magic wand. They just have a printing press. And all that creates is inflation.” Sometimes the illusion inflation creates can look like a magic wand. Printing money can paper over problems. But none of this is going to fundamentally fix the economy. In fact, if central bankers were really going to do the right thing, the appropriate response would be to drain liquidity from the markets, not supply even more.” Peter explained how the Fed was originally intended to create an “elastic” money supply that would expand or contract along with economic output. Today, the money supply only goes in one direction — that’s up. The economy is strong, print money. The economy is weak, print even more money.” Of course, the asset that’s doing the best right now is gold. The yellow metal pushed above $1,600 yesterday. Gold is up 5.5% on the year in dollar terms and has set record highs in other currencies. Because gold is rising even in an environment where the dollar is strengthening against other fiat currencies, that shows you that there is an underlying weakness in the dollar that is right now not being reflected in the Forex markets, but is being reflected in the gold markets. Because after all, why are people buying gold more aggressively than they’re buying dollars or more aggressively than they’re buying US Treasuries? Because they know that things are not as good for the dollar or the US economy as everybody likes to believe. So, more people are seeking out refuge in a better safe-haven and that is gold.” Peter also talked about the debate between Trump and Obama over who gets credit for the booming economy – which of course, is not booming.

We are living in crazy times. I have a hard time believing that most of the general public is not awake, but in reality, they are. We've never seen anything like this; I mean not even under Obama during the worst part of the Great Recession." Now the Fed is desperately trying to keep interest rates from rising. The problem is that it's a much bigger debt bubble this time around , and the Fed is going to have to blow a lot more air into it to keep it inflated. The difference is this time it's not going to work." It looks like the Fed did another $104.15 billion of Not Q.E. in a single day. The Fed claims it's only temporary. But that is precisely what Bernanke claimed when the Fed started QE1. Milton Freedman once said, "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." The same applies to Q.E., or whatever the Fed wants to pretend it's doing. Except this is not QE4, according to Powell. Right. Pumping so much money out, and they are accusing China of currency manipulation ? Wow! Seriously! Amazing! Dump the U.S. dollar while you still have a chance. Welcome to The Atlantis Report. And it is even worse than that, In addition to the $104.15 billion of "Not Q.E." this past Thursday; the FED added another $56.65 billion in liquidity to financial markets the next day on Friday. That's $160.8 billion in two days!!!! in just 48 hours. That is more than 2 TIMES the highest amount the FED has ever injected on a monthly basis under a Q.E. program (which was $80 billion per month) Since this isn't QE....it will be really scary on what they are going to call Q.E. Will it twice, three times, four times, five times what this injection per month ! It is going to be explosive since it takes about 60 to 90 days for prices to react to this, January should see significant inflation as prices soak up the excess liquidity. The question is, where will the inflation occur first . The spike in the repo rate might have a technical explanation: a misjudgment was made in the Fed's money market operations. Even so, two conclusions can be drawn: managing the money markets is becoming harder, and from now on, banks will be studying each other's creditworthiness to a greater degree than before. Those people, who struggle with the minutiae of money markets, and that includes most professionals, should focus on the causes and not the symptoms. Financial markets have recovered from each downturn since 1980 because interest rates have been cut to new lows. Post-2008, they were cut to near zero or below zero in all major economies. In response to a new financial crisis, they cannot go any lower. Central banks will look for new ways to replicate or broaden Q.E. (At some point, governments will simply see repression as an easier option). Then there is the problem of 'risk-free' assets becoming risky assets. Financial markets assume that the probability of major governments such as the U.S. or U.K. defaulting is zero. These governments are entering the next downturn with debt roughly twice the levels proportionate to GDP that was seen in 2008. The belief that the policy worked was completely predicated on the fact that it was temporary and that it was reversible, that the Fed was going to be able to normalize interest rates and shrink its balance sheet back down to pre-crisis levels. Well, when the balance sheet is five-trillion, six-trillion, seven-trillion when we're back at zero, when we're back in a recession, nobody is going to believe it is temporary. Nobody is going to believe that the Fed has this under control, that they can reverse this policy. And the dollar is going to crash. And when the dollar crashes, it's going to take the bond market with it, and we're going to have stagflation. We're going to have a deep recession with rising interest rates, and this whole thing is going to come imploding down. everything is temporary with the fed including remaining off the gold standard temporary in the Fed's eyes could mean at least 50 years This liquidity problem is a signal that trading desks are loaded up on inventory and can't get rid of it. Repo is done out of a need for cash. If you own all of your securities (i.e., a long-only, no leverage mutual fund) you have no need to "repo" your securities - you're earning interest every night so why would you want to 'repo' your securities where you are paying interest for that overnight loan (securities lending is another animal). So, it is those that 'lever-up' and need the cash for settlement purposes on securities they've bought with borrowed money that needs to utilize the repo desk. With this in mind, as we continue to see this need to obtain cash (again, needed to settle other securities purchases), it shows these firms don't have the capital to add more inventory to, what appears to be, a bloated inventory. Now comes the fun part: the Treasury is about to auction 3's, 10's, and 30-year bonds. If I am correct (again, I could be wrong), the Fed realizes securities firms don't have the shelf space to take down a good portion of these auctions. If there isn't enough retail/institutional demand, it will lead to not only a crappy sale but major concerns to the street that there is now no backstop, at all, to any sell-off. At which point, everyone will want to be the first one through the door and sell immediately, but to whom? If there isn't enough liquidity in the repo market to finance their positions, the firms would be unable to increase their inventory. We all saw repo shut down on the 2008 crisis. Wall St runs on money. . OVERNIGHT money. They lever up to inventory securities for trading. If they can't get overnight money, they can't purchase securities. And if they can't unload what they have, it means the buy-side isn't taking on more either. Accounts settle overnight. This includes things like payrolls and bill pay settlements. If a bank doesn't have enough cash to payout what its customers need to pay out, it borrows. At least one and probably more than one banks are insolvent. That's what's going on. First, it can't be one or two banks that are short. They'd simply call around until they found someone to lend. But they did that, and even at markedly elevated rates, still, NO ONE would lend them the money. That tells me that it's not a problem of a couple of borrowers, it's a problem of no lenders. And that means that there's no bank in the world left with any real liquidity. They are ALL maxed out. But as bad as that is, and that alone could be catastrophic, what it really signals is even worse. The lending rates are just the flip side of the coin of the value of the assets lent against. If the rates go up, the value goes down. And with rates spiking to 10%, how far does the value fall? Enormously! And if banks had to actually mark down the value of the assets to reflect 10% interest rates, then my god, every bank in the world is insolvent overnight. Everyone's capital ratios are in the toilet, and they'd have to liquidate. We're talking about the simultaneous insolvency of every bank on the planet. Bank runs. No money in ATMs, Branches closed. Safe deposit boxes confiscated. The whole nine yards, It's actually here. The scenario has tended to guide toward for years and years is actually happening RIGHT NOW! And people are still trying to say it's under control. Every bank in the world is currently insolvent. The only thing keeping it going is printing billions of dollars every day. Financial Armageddon isn't some far off future risk. It's here. Prepare accordingly. This fiat system has reached the end of the line, and it's not correct that fiat currencies fail by design. The problem is corruption and manipulation. It is corruption and cheating that erodes trust and faith until the entire system becomes a gigantic fraud. Banks and governments everywhere ARE the problem and simply have to be removed. They have lost all trust and respect, and all they have left is war and mayhem. As long as we continue to have a majority of braindead asleep imbeciles following orders from these psychopaths, nothing will change. Fiat currency is not just thievery. Fiat currency is SLAVERY. Ultimately the most harmful effect of using debt of undefined value as money (i.e., fiat currencies) is the de facto legalization of a caste system based on voluntary slavery. The bankers have a charter, or the legal *right*, to create money out of nothing. You, you don't. Therefore you and the bankers do not have the same standing before the law. The law of the land says that you will go to jail if you do the same thing (creating money out of thin air) that the banker does in full legality. You and the banker are not equal before the law. ALL the countries of the world; Islamic or secular, Jewish or Arab, democracy or dictatorship; all of them place the bankers ABOVE you. And all of you accept that only whining about fiat money going down in exchange value over time (price inflation which is not the same as monetary inflation). Actually, price inflation itself is mainly due to the greed and stupidity of the bankers who could keep fiat money's exchange value reasonably stable, only if they wanted to. Witness the crash of silver and gold prices which the bankers of the world; Russian, American, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Arab, all of them collaborated to engineer through the suppression and stagnation of precious metals' prices to levels around the metals' production costs, or what it costs to dig gold and silver out of the ground. The bankers of the world could also collaborate to keep nominal prices steady (as they do in the case of the suppression of precious metals prices). After all, the ability to create fiat money and force its usage is a far more excellent source of power and wealth than that which is afforded simply by stealing it through inflation. The bankers' greed and stupidity blind them to this fact. They want it all, and they want it now. In conclusion, The bankers can create money out of nothing and buy your goods and services with this worthless fiat money, effectively for free. You, you can't. You, you have to lead miserable existences for the most of you and WORK in order to obtain that effectively nonexistent, worthless credit money (whose purchasing/exchange value is not even DEFINED thus rendering all contracts based on the null and void!) that the banker effortlessly creates out of thin air with a few strokes of the computer keyboard, and which he doesn't even bother to print on paper anymore, electing to keep it in its pure quantum uncertain form instead, as electrons whizzing about inside computer chips which will become mute and turn silent refusing to tell you how many fiat dollars or euros there are in which account, in the absence of electricity. No electricity, no fiat, nor crypto money. It would appear that trust is deteriorating as it did when Lehman blew up . Something really big happened that set off this chain reaction in the repo markets. Whatever that something is, we aren't be informed. They're trying to cover it up, paper it over with conjured cash injections, play it cool in front of the cameras while sweating profusely under the 5 thousands dollar suits. I'm guessing that the final high-speed plunge into global economic collapse has begun. All we see here is the ripples and whitewater churning the surface, but beneath the surface, there is an enormous beast thrashing desperately in its death throws. Now is probably the time to start tying up loose ends with the long-running prep projects, just saying. In other words, prepare accordingly, and Get your money out of the banks. I don't care if you don't believe me about Bitcoin. Get your money out of the banks. Don't keep any more money in a bank than you need to pay your bills and can afford to lose.











The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more













The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more

The FBI released a summary of its file from the Hillary Clinton email investigation on Friday, showing details of Clinton's explanation of her use of a private email server to handle classified communications. The release comes nearly two months after FBI Director James Comey announced that although Clinton's handling of classified information was "extremely careless," it did not rise to the level of a prosecutable offense. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the next day that she would not pursue charges in the matter. "We are making these materials available to the public in the interest of transparency and in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests," the FBI noted in a statement sent to reporters with links to the documents. The documents include notes from Clinton's July 2 interview with agents, as well as a "factual summary of the FBI's investigation into this matter," according to the FBI release. Throughout her interview with agents, Clinton repeatedly said she relied on the career professionals she worked with to handle classified information correctly. The agents asked about a series of specific emails, and in each case Clinton said she wasn't worried about the particular material being discussed on a nonclassified channel.