Germany Marches Toward Reinstating Military Conscription, Starting With Fitness Database

Under US pressure to bolster its armed forces so as to deter supposed Russian aspirations to invade NATO countries, Germany is moving toward reinstating military conscription, with the initial steps centering questionnaires and medical exams that will feed a database detailing each young man's fitness, aptitude and willingness to serve. The plan was agreed upon by Germany's coalition government on Thursday, and now goes to parliament, where the ruling coalition has a slim majority of 12 seats out of a 630 total.   

If Germany reinstates conscription, holding a German passport means possibly fighting in a foreign war, while not holding a German passport means access to the welfare state.

The German government pays foreigners while contemplating sacrificing what is left of its native youth. pic.twitter.com/a1NZ1gfd7y

— Ralph Schoellhammer (@Raphfel) August 19, 2025

Today, the German armed forces -- the Bundeswehr -- has about 180,000 service members. The government said it was laying out a plan to have 260,000 people on active-duty service, with another 200,000 reservists, which is triple the current reserve force. In the first step, to be taken in 2026, the government will send questionnaires to every 18-year-old in the country. Men will be legally obliged to complete it; for women, it will be optional. The questionnaires will gauge respondents' inclination and willingness to serve. Then, starting in July 2027, men will be required to report for a medical examination.

Germany drafted men for military service from 1956 until 2011, when the country adopted the US model of a professional, voluntary force. Rather than abolishing conscription -- which would have required a constitutional amendment -- it was merely suspended that year. Reinstating it would only require a simple majority of the parliament. However, unless the constitution is changed, women will remain exempt. 

Earlier this month, protesters in Munich carried a banner that read "Against Conscription. End War Preparation." (Michael Nguyen/NurPhoto/ Getty via The Times)

For now, conscription will not be put to a vote, as the government hopes to achieve its enormous military expansion -- 44% growth in active-duty ranks -- via recruitment of willing volunteers.  “We will make voluntary service more attractive,” said Jens Spahn, parliamentary leader of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) party. “We want to win over as many young people as possible for the service for the fatherland.” If that fails, however, "we'll need to make it obligatory," he added. Without providing details, the government has said a lottery system would be employed. The Bundeswehr will report on its recruitment efforts every six months, ready to request the reinstatement of conscription to make up any shortfalls.

A recent poll for Stern magazine found that a slim majority of Germans favored reinstating the draft. However, 63% of Germans between 18 and 29 years old opposed it.  

German defense minister Boris Pistorius told Germans there was "no cause for concern...no reason for fear...The more capable of deterrence and defense our armed forces are, through armament through training and through personnel, the less likely it is that we will become a party to a conflict at all." Pistorius and Chancellor Friedrich Merz have set a goal for having Europe's largest military and to be "war-ready" by 2029. Doing its part to promote German militarism, the Wall Street Journal's report on the conscription plan credulously cited unnamed "military analysts [who] think Russia may be able and willing to attack NATO" by that year. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/15/2025 - 09:55

New Facial Recognition Vans Rolled Out For Use By 7 More UK Police Forces

PA Media via The Epoch Times,

A new fleet of facial recognition vans are to be rolled out by seven police forces across the UK in an expanded pilot programme.

A police officer views a camera feed from inside a live facial recognition (LFR) van. Andrew Matthews/PA

The Metropolitan Police, South Wales Police and Essex Police have been using the facial recognition vans for some time to mixed receptions.

The software enables officers to use cameras mounted on top of their vans to locate people on their watchlists by filming the surrounding area.

Home Office funding has been provided for new facial recognition vans in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire.

The Met released a report last month which said that from September 2024 to September 2025 the software had a false alert rate of 0.0003 percent from more than three million scans.

Civil liberties and anti-racism groups criticised the software for having a “well-documented history of inaccurate outcomes and racial bias” ahead of the Notting Hill Carnival this year.

In response, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley acknowledged that the software was “limited” when it was used at the Carnival in 2016 and 2017 but has made “considerable progress” since then.

Ahead of the new rollout, Chief Inspector Andy Hill, of Surrey Police, was asked if he still harboured concerns about false readings from the technology.

He said: “There’s been a lot of development with the software, a lot of national testing to give us confidence in the software and, at the last Notting Hill Carnival this year, their positive alerts were much higher.”

The police watchlists uploaded to the van are bespoke and will include details and photos of wanted people and people subject to court orders like sex offenders.

If their faces are scanned by the van’s cameras it will alert the officer to the match, and they can verify whether the comparison is correct and take action.

“It’s a positive step in terms of using the latest technology available to us, and it’s about pursuing criminals, it’s about investigating crime thoroughly and also reassuring the public that we are out and about and we are visible and we’re doing our job,” Mr Hill said.

Across the seven new centres, 10 new vans are to be deployed including one in Surrey and another in Sussex which will at times be used in tandem.

The police have said that images of people walking past the van which do not set off an alert will be deleted in less than a second.

Mr Hill said: “We want to be as open and transparent about our deployments, we publish them on our website at least seven days in advance, and we’ll publish the results afterwards as well,

“And during the deployment, we’ve got signage up to inform people that they’re entering a zone of live facial recognition with information on that, and also they can talk to any of our officers at any time about the technology.”

Surrey Police will be deploying a Live Facial Recognition van in Redhill on November 13.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/15/2025 - 09:20

US, Switzerland Reach Tariff Deal That Lowers Duties, Stokes Investment

The United States and Switzerland have reached a trade deal under which Swiss imports to America will be subject to a reduced 15 percent duty, officials said.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC on Nov. 14 that the administration had “essentially reached a deal” with the Swiss government after months of negotiations in the context of President Donald Trump’s reset of U.S. trade ties with the rest of the world.

Under the Trump administration’s trade policy, Swiss goods were hit with a 39 percent tariff, one of the highest rates imposed on any country and substantially higher than the 15 percent applied to European Union member states.

The new agreement, which lowers Switzerland’s levy to match that of EU countries, includes measures that support Trump’s goal of reindustrializing the United States quickly, after decades of offshoring.

“They’re going to send a lot of manufacturing here to the United States—pharmaceuticals, gold smelting, railway equipment—so we’re really excited about that deal and what it means for American manufacturing,” Greer said, adding that the White House would release details of the agreement later in the day.

As Tom Ozimek details below for The Epoch Times, the Swiss government confirmed the deal in a social media post, thanking Trump for his “constructive engagement” and acknowledging a “productive” meeting with Greer.

“Switzerland and the U.S. have successfully found a solution: U.S. tariffs will be reduced to 15%,” it said.

In a statement offering further details on the agreement, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said that the country would reduce its import duties on a range of U.S. products. These include all industrial products, fish and seafood, as well as American agricultural products that are considered “non-sensitive.”

For certain categories of U.S. agricultural products considered sensitive due to their potential impact on the Swiss market, Switzerland will grant duty-free quotas, including 500 tonnes of beef and 1,500 tonnes of poultry from the United States.

Swiss companies have also agreed to invest $200 billion in the United States by the end of 2028, partly in initiatives meant to boost vocational training.

“The announcement of the reduction in additional US tariffs on Swiss imports will serve to stabilise bilateral trade relations,” the Swiss government said.

“Although overall tariffs remain higher than before the additional tariffs were introduced in April, the agreed reduction in additional tariffs is expected to have a positive impact on the Swiss economy.”

The announcement comes a day after Greer met with Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin in Washington for talks on resolving outstanding trade issues and finalizing the deal.

The deal stabilizes the approximately $188 billion in bilateral trade between the United States and Switzerland, whose export-driven economy heavily relies on U.S. demand for its pharmaceuticals, high-precision machinery, and world-famous watches.

The United States absorbs more than one-fifth of all Swiss foreign direct investment, making it Switzerland’s top investment destination.

The tariff accord ends months of tension for Swiss exporters, who had warned that the 39 percent duty was disrupting shipments and forcing companies to rethink production plans.

Additional technical talks are scheduled for the coming weeks as details of the new quotas, tariff schedules, and investment pledges are finalized.

Nearly 1,200 U.S. companies operate in Switzerland, employing about 95,000 people. Swiss firms, meanwhile, rank among the highest-paying foreign employers in America, with average wages above $130,000, according to Switzerland’s foreign affairs department.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/15/2025 - 08:45

Tucker Exposes Trump Would-Be Assassin Thomas Crooks' Social Media History, The FBI Coverup, And More Strangeness

Tucker Carlson has just released a deep dive into Donald Trump's attempted assassin, Thomas Crooks - who both the Biden and the Trump FBI have been very quiet about since the July 13, 2024 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

In late September, Carlson's team received an anonymous tip from someone who said they had gained access to some of Crooks' online accounts, which he found using 'tools commonly used by private investigators' after obtaining Crooks' phone number and gmail address from public documents. He then traced that to two encrypted foreign email accounts (bcook[at]mailfence.com and americangamer[at]gmx.com). He also had a snapchat account, a Venmo, Zelle and PayPal account among several others. 

"It turns out that Crooks was hardly an online ghost," Carlson reports. "And yet, federal investigators lied and told us there was no trace of him online."

The source was able to obtain all materials from Crooks' deactivated YouTube account - which includes his search history, watch history, and 737 public comments. 

When Carlson's team asked the FBI why they hadn't shared this information with the public, the agency replied by asking if they could verify the authenticity of the shooter's account. 

What did Crooks say?

The comments by Crooks were posted between 2019 and 2020, when he was between 15 and 17-years-old. "They show two things," Carlson explains. "First, that Thomas Crooks was not some secretive lone wolf who never warned anyone that he was planning on violence. Just the opposite. Years before he showed up in Butler, Crooks was leaving a detailed digital trail of violent threats - including calls for assassinations and political violence. Second - they show a man who started out as a radical Trump supporter, whose views on the President transformed - changed completely, during Covid. The FBI lied about that fact, and that Crooks was a right-winger."

Pro-Trump: 

On July 19, 2019 Crooks writes: "Ilhan Omar and others are invaders and should honestly be killed and their dead bodies sent back."

On July 20, 2018, Crooks writes: "If youre saying trump is a bad president you arent a patriot as trump is the literal definition of Patriotism"

Seven hours after that comment, Crooks writes: "I hope a quick painful death to all the deplorable immigrants and anti-trump congresswoman who dont deserve anything this countru [sic] has given them"

Later that evening he wrote: "Everyone of the Trump hat-ing democrats deserve to have their heads chopped of and put on steaks for the world to see what happens when you fuck with America"

These types of comments continued for months, "and became increasingly violent." 

"If any of the democratic candidates win. They wont be in there for long. Because unlike the dems we have guns and lots of them"

He also quoted Mao - writing "The only real political power comes from the barrel of a gun." 

The Change:

In early 2020 as the pandemic shifted into the headlines, crooks "radically" changed - writing of "trumps stupidity." 

He then began to mock the idea of the deep state - writing that "The deep state is simply made up of anybody who dis-agrees with the right wing. Conversation over." 

In Feb. 2020, Crooks called out Trump supporters as "brainwashed," and a "cult."

Later that day, Crooks called Trump a racist. 

And in April 2020 when the COVID panic was in full swing, Crooks became pro-lockdown, writing "It seems that you people don't understand that sometimes Public safety comes before your Personnel rights." 

He then wrote: "...going to a chinese new years party in america isn't putting you at risk for corona virus because believe it or not viruses don't spread through race like Tucker Carlson probably told you." 

In May of 2020, Crooks called Republican concerns over voter fraud "ignorant." 

He then wrote a comment that sounded like a "digital manifesto," Carlson reports. 

"they only way to fight the gov is with terror-ism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building a set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to asasinate them. Any sort of head fight is suicide and even ambush/surprise attacks likely aren't going to end well."

The Agitator

Then - a YouTube user @Willy_Tepes began seemingly encouraging Crooks... writing "If a gun and a badge is all that is needed, then authority obviously comes from the barrel of a gun. We have more guns than they do ;)" 

"We have nothing to lose and everything to win,.....and the alternative, a global police state, is unacceptable!" Tepes continues in another comment. 

Carlson asks who Tepas could be - noting that the FBI hasn't made any mention of him, but that someone had screenshotted his YouTube page despite the fact that he had very few followers. 

That said, the usernme was used on a foreign Antifa website linked to the Nordic Resistance Movement, which was designated a terrorist organization by the US State Dept. 

Crooks' online comments mysteriously disappear after his interactions with Tepas, and Carlson notes that Crooks was 'ripe for recruitment' by someone. However his search history was still available:

From early 2019 to mid-2020, "Crooks searched for Trump more than 700 times online," and searched for "Jack Ruby" , "Best places for mass shooting." , and how to make various explosives and devices for mass killings. He also searched for "Sniper in Dallas shooting" , "American Nazi Party" , "German National Anthem 1933-1945," and "Hitler's speeches with subtitles." 

FBI Coverup? 

"Why is the FBI keeping Crooks' views a secret?" asks Carlson, adding "Why are they ignoring Congressional subpoenas to divulge information?"

"So here you have a volatile, troubled, possibly mentally ill young man with a long record of espousing violence in public," Carlson continues. "The FBI clearly knew he existed. And then you have at the very end of his years commenting in public, espousing violence, an exchange with a mysterious figure affiliated with a group that we know is being monitored by the US State Department." 

Turns out that around the same time as Thomas Crooks was making assertions and posting overt threats of violent against public figures on YouTube, the FBI was issuing contracts to private sector tech surveillance firms to harness the power of mass data collection tools to monitor social media for people just like Thomas Crooks," Tucker continues. "It's hard to imagine that Thomas Crooks is making these posts publicly and in his own name, and had not been identified and looked at closely by federal law enforcement. In fact, it's impossible to imagine." 

"We know that the FBI had access to these YouTube comments."

Yet, "they used a selective read of those comments to lie about what Thomas Crooks was saying."

Two and a half weeks after the attack, a 'source familiar with the investigation' told CNN that "Federal investigators are looking into a YouTube account possibly connected to Crooks in which the user espoused political violence as well as antisemitic and anti-immigration themes."

Carlson says that the FBI "knew full well" that it was Crooks' account. "There was never any question." 

Biden's FBI Deputy Director lied the same day as the CNN report in Congressional testimony, while the NY Post reported in Feb. 2025 that the "FBI has obstructed efforts to solve the mystery of why Thomas Matthew Crooks, who left no manifesto, did what he did."

Other notable facts: 

• Crooks' body was cremated on orders from the FBI the same day the House Homeland Security and Oversight Committee began their investigation.

"Can't do a new tox(icology) screen, because the body doesn't exist," Carlson points out. 

• Photos from the day after the shooting "show an FBI agent hosing down the site where Crooks died," which high-level sources told Carlson was 'very strange,' as the FBI 'usually hires out crime scene cleanup to third-party contractors - but in this case they did it themselves." 

• Biden FBI officials accessed Crooks' phone using software from an Israeli firm, Cellebrite, and accessed his phone, computer and his encrypted messaging apps in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany - "yet none of the online activity the FBI discovered was referred to in any way in the final Congressional report." 

Carlson then notes FBI Director Kash Patel and Assistant Director Dan Bongino's awkward and evasive answers when asked whether we'll find out more...

These interviews are from May. Patel and Bongino told us there would be another release from FBI on Butler and that we’re going to know everything they know … here we are in November and crickets.

Where is their release? We don’t know anything close to what they know. https://t.co/xR5rviChxp pic.twitter.com/UzxnuquK54

— JaneDoeUKnow (@MsJaneDoeUKnow) November 14, 2025

More Weirdness

Carlson also points out that Crooks had an unbelievably 'lucky day' the day of the shooting, which the FBI is stonewalling the public over. 

For example: 

• Within days of the shooting, the FBI had 'collected all the relevant surveillance footage,' which includes footage from local businesses, state police,  and "critically, the gun range where Thomas Crooks trained." Did he train alone? We don't know, because to this day the FBI refuses to release the footage.

• Some of Crooks' comments were erased from the internet archive after the shooting. 

• On the day of the attack, Crooks conducted surveillance at Butler - flying a drone over the rally site for 11 minutes - right as the Secret Service's anti-drone system was mysteriously down. 

• Police at Butler saw Crooks with a rangefinder and a backpack, identified him as a suspicious person, but 'quickly lost track' of him. 

• Crooks climbed onto the only building in the area that did not have a video surveillance system, and was 'remarkably' outside the Secret Service's security perimeter. 

• Two local cops saw crooks but did not report it, while a 3rd police officer who was supposed to be covering the building 'left early.'

Watch the entire thing below:

Who is Thomas Crooks? pic.twitter.com/WwjvPGGRwS

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 14, 2025

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Tyler Durden Sat, 11/15/2025 - 08:20

Germany's "Council Of Economic Experts" Calls For Higher Inheritance Taxes, And Bows To The State

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

In its latest annual report, Germany’s Council of Economic Experts — once regarded as a market-oriented corrective to government excess — has presented what can only be described as a courtesy opinion. Rather than challenging the political status quo, the five “wise men” largely echo Berlin’s own agenda: more state intervention, higher taxes, and tighter regulation.

On Wednesday, the council presented its annual report at the federal press conference. For the first time, Chancellor Friedrich Merz received the economists’ assessment in person. What they handed him, however, reads less like independent advice and more like a compilation of familiar political slogans.

At the top of the list stands — yet again — the call for “cutting bureaucracy,” a mantra repeated endlessly but never realized. Meanwhile, the council ignores the core problem: the German economy is suffocating under its own regulatory machinery. In the past three years alone, businesses have had to hire roughly 325,000 additional staff just to deal with the avalanche of new rules — a massive diversion of resources that adds nothing to productivity.

Bureaucratic Strangulation, Military Keynesianism

Among the council’s key recommendations is “more joint procurement and innovation” in the defense sector — another item perfectly aligned with government priorities. Together with its uncritical support for climate policy, the report reveals how deeply the economists have internalized state narratives.

Instead of questioning the economic burden of the artificial “green industry,” which drags down productivity across all sectors, the council now embraces the logic of a war economy as the next growth engine. The parallels are disturbing. Rather than recalibrating Germany’s economic compass, the report doubles down on the same failed assumptions: more state, more coordination, less individual responsibility.

Phantom Growth, Real Debt

When it comes to growth, the council again mirrors the government’s projections. Both the experts and the Economics Ministry expect a meager 0.2% GDP growth for 2025. That means the massive, debt-financed stimulus packages — which will push public debt up sharply in the coming years — have already fizzled out.

With the state share at roughly 50% of GDP and net new borrowing around 4.2% (including special funds and off-balance items), the implication is devastating: the private economy has contracted by more than 4%.
This is a resounding failure of the government’s Keynesian strategy — yet the economists respond not with structural criticism but with timid nods to bureaucracy reform, while otherwise parroting eco-socialist talking points.

Inheritance Tax: The New Redistribution Tool

The council’s most controversial proposal concerns inheritance taxation. Once a bastion of market-oriented reasoning, the body now advocates raising taxes on inherited business assets, denouncing the current exemptions as “socially unjust.” The language could have been lifted straight from the Green Party’s manifesto.

Specifically, the report suggests limiting the tax exemption for business assets to €26 million, and either abolishing or sharply restricting relief for larger inheritances. Payment deferrals would be introduced to avoid liquidity crises during succession. 

Behind the talk of “asset mobility,” however, lies a distinctly socialist vision — one aimed at broader redistribution and fiscal relief for the state.

Meanwhile, Germany’s real debt (including special funds and hidden borrowing) will rise by over 5% next year. Yet the council sees no problem, as long as Berlin remains in the good company of the EU’s “debt club.”

The State as Sacred Cow

Any notion of shrinking government or ending the interventionist spiral has vanished. The council now fully embraces the political orthodoxy. In doing so, it breaks decisively with the principles of private property and free enterprise, aligning itself intellectually with Marcel Fratzscher’s DIW — a think tank long known for its statist bias.

The report even promotes a state-guided “retirement savings fund” that would channel private investment toward politically defined objectives — above all, climate policy. Once again, the state seeks to steer private capital allocation while dressing it up as “financial inclusion.”

The underlying message is unmistakable: the state is no longer the problem, but the solution.
Even by Berlin standards, this marks a profound paradigm shift.

The Fall of the Economic Council

The council’s ideological transformation — especially in its endorsement of higher inheritance taxes — is a turning point. It confirms what many suspected: Berlin’s bureaucracy has wrapped itself in a belt of compliant advisors, ensuring that no fundamental market-liberal critique can pierce its walls.

Now, even family-owned businesses are to be fed into the meat grinder of redistribution. This represents the low point of a once-proud institution that has steadily drifted away from the foundations of economic freedom.
The principle of private property, generational continuity, and the right to dispose freely of one’s already-taxed assets — all this has been subordinated to the new orthodoxy of “social justice.”

If economists truly value civilizational progress, these principles should be their starting point, not their target.
It is a bitter moment for German academia — assuming one can still call it that.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/15/2025 - 08:10

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.