Business

China has finally come full circle. Recall that last year as equities surged, Chinese "investors" opened enough brokerage accounts for every man, woman, and child in LA. The slowing of the economy and pending devaluation of the currency led the smart money to short the market, putting significant downward pressure on stocks. The answer to all of this was to of course arrest anyone who was involved in short selling stocks.

Guest Post - Path to the Great Reset

By Joe Withrow

Author of 'The Individual is Rising'

The financial, political and economic powers wish you and I to remain confused about what constitutes money because this promotes apathy and the desire to let the 'experts' remain in control. And while the subject can be complex, it can also be summarized rather elegantly when the author wishes to clarify rather than confuse. We welcome Joe back for another lesson in simplification.

Cognitive Dissonance

Submitted by Alasdair Macleod via GoldMoney.com,

It is commonly assumed that the gold price and interest rates move in opposite directions.

In other words, a tendency towards higher interest rates is accompanied by a lower gold price. Like all assumptions about prices, sometimes it is true and sometimes not.

The war on cash just got serious, and of course, it is the extreme policy experimenters of Japan that are pushing the boundaries. Having dived headlong into negative interest rates, Japanee policymakers recognize full well the historical reaction of "hording cash" will not 'create' the nirvana of 2% inflation and break the 'deflation mindset' that they so long have waited for.

During a leisurely stroll around Germany, one may encounter many strange sights but nothing would stranger than the following ad (courtesy of Peter Barkow) which promises negative 1% interest rates for consumer loans up to 24 months.

Here is the quick and dirty: take out a loan and pay 1% less.

For the fine print we go to Santander Consumer Bank AG, which has this to which has this to say about this self-amortizing (if only in the beginning) loan.

 

-1.0% FINANCING