World Economic Conference 2015
We will no longer accept reservations at this time for seating. Our maximum capacity is 500 in the USA and we have well exceeded that number in total. Depending on the venue for Europe and how many people attend that event rather than the one in the USA, then we will know how many seats we have left. So to be safe, we are suspending any more reservations until the European venue is confirmed and we know for sure how many seats we will have left in each venue.
We apologize. But we really do not want to exceed 500. This will be a major conference and probably the biggest one ever held in the financial industry with such a quality audience. This no doubt is a sign of the times. We probably will not be able to exceed 300 seats in Europe. We are trying to nail down this venue ASAP.
Even Flowers Know When to Follow the Sun
The reason for Optimism is knowing that something exists and that empowers us with the ability to change. We can learn from nature if we look at the divine structure of how things really work just for once. Some garden flowers follow the sun as it travels across the summer sky. Flowers that track the sun are called heliotropic or phototropic flowers. Heliotropic flowers actually turn their blossoms to face the sun while phototropic flowers grow toward the sun. Many plants with heliotropic flowers belong to the Sunflower family (Asteraceae), which includes more than 24,000 species. If nature has figured out a way to create a species that follows the sun, why can’t we examine the past to come up with practical solutions for the future?
By 2020, according to our models based upon rising interest rates that will unfold, the total interest expenditure on an annual basis will exceed the total defense spending. The current monetary system is unsustainable. Even if we leave interest rates and assume the impractical that they will flat-line and not rise, total interest expenditures will exceed total defense spending by 2024. We may even see this hit by 2017 if interest rates double.
We can survive. Yes you should have some gold coins as aHEDGE against a reset in the monetary system that is coming. But that is for diversification – not to exclusion of everything else. We are headed into a control-alt-delete reset. There is no avoiding this outcome for the system is being run by lawyers who are as corrupt as they come. We need a hedge fund manager at this point to reset the economy – not more lawyers.
We can do this. It is like watching the weather reports and seeing a hurricane is coming. You board up the windows and ride it out. Just get ready – that’s all. No need to be doom and gloom. This is just one of those times that tries the soul and forges courage and wisdom through experience. When the economy turns down in the USA, then people will listen to you. So don’t waste your breath now. I will be on tour in Europe for six weeks with a grueling schedule from Poland to Barcelona. Every day I am getting another request to speak in another city. Why? They already feel the pain. The USA is just not quite ready for prime time. Don’t worry – it’s coming.
Is There Something Behind the Power Outage in Washington DC?
The April 7th, 2015 power outage in Washington DC is curious to say the least. Virtually instantaneously, the government declare it was not a terrorist attack. After all, how could that possibly be when the NSA guards the country. If there was an attack on the power-grid, then the NSA would have to answer for their failure. So clearly, if it was an attack, they would never admit it.
Instead, this has been attributed to a piece of metal breaking loose from a power line 43 miles southeast of the District of Columbia, which knocked out electricity to the White House, State Department and wide area including parts of Maryland. Can a simple piece of metal break and shut down that much power of a strategic area as DC? That seems to be an excuse like some drunk driver knocked over a power pole.
Only six days before Obama had to switch to emergency power was on April 1st in Rome where the power supply was out for hours effecting the Lazio region. That included the major Roman airport of Fiumicino. The cause of that event somehow remains unknown.
Just the day before in Turkey there was another power failure. That was the worst blackout since the devastating Marmara earthquake of 1999. Chaos in the capital and much of the country drew more than 70 million Turks into chaos. Public transport was paralyzed, traffic lights were dark, conveyor belts continued. Elevators halted and mobile phones were silent. Even hospitals switched to emergency mode and the NSA style surveillance cameras in the capital Ankara went black.
There, left-wing extremists broke into the Palace of Justice and kidnapped a prosecutor during the massive power outage. The prosecutor had worked on the case of a protester who had been shot in Gezi Park. Even Prime Minister Davutoglu suspected spontaneous “sabotage”.
Are we dealing with a series of unfortunate events, enriched with a touch of typical government mismanagement? According to the Turkish newspaper Hürryiet , the national energy grid in Turkey was quite sophisticated and mismanagement was not enough to explain the massive power failure. Many in Turkey suspect a cyber attack. The Turkish Internet is full of speculations and theories, including the allegation to the Government, the blackout was staged to make propaganda for the development of nuclear energy.
Then there was Amsterdam. In the Netherlands, on March 27th a series of questionable blackouts took place is a very dubious chain of events. Large parts of the Northern Netherlands with nearly three million people experienced a devastating power failure. Thousands were stuck on trains, trams and elevators. The official statement was that a high-voltage switch-gear in the Amsterdam suburb Diemen failed due to the power overloading. Was Europe’s fourth largest airport and the entire rail network in the north of the country simply a victim of an accident or perhaps the target of a cyber-attack?
The technology age is highly vulnerable and the movement to electronic money is interesting for if the power-grid goes down for any prolonged period, what new risk factors will the economy absorb? During war, it is common for the other side to counterfeit their opponent’s currency. The way to accomplish this today is to take out the power-grid.
Fractional Banking Myth – & Giro Banking
QUESTION:
Hi Martin,
I have only just found you and started reading your articles this last month after your interview on … radio.. It is a pain in the Butt we are not taught any of this in school, but I still have an HUGE aversion to a fractional reserve system where a private group or cartel is allowed to create debt based money out of thin air and then lend it to the public and nations as a loan at interest where by always creating more debt in the system than available currency to repay. This is a wealth transfer back to ever holds that power it seems, but maybe I’m wrong.. It seems we should have a currency of some sorts that the public can use to transact in that does not bear interest and create a sucking motion of our wealth and production back to the banksters and some type of lending system along side that..
If the system needs to have a fractional reserve system, then ok, but who is to get these free benefits of its creation and the attaching of interest to it? A cartel of banksters? The Government? Can I just lend out currency created out of thin air myself at interest? lol
ANSWER: I understand that there are people who have spun this whole fractional banking thing into some evil conspiracy and preach that it must end without understanding that such a move would be to collapse the entire economy sending us into a Dark Age. Such an event would bring the end of civilization which is created by a synergy of people coming together – that means sharing resources including capital. The banks do not create money out of thin airwith some endless supply and just keep all the profits (interest). If they keep about 8% as reserves to facilitate the normal amount of cash withdrawals, then this becomes the fractional basis of banking. End fractional banking and the entire real estate grid would collapse. They are fighting with windmills.
Let’s look at this propaganda closely. How do they create money out of thin air? A bank must have deposits and then can lend outONLY what has been deposited. They do not just create $100 and lend you something and pocket the interest. That is just not possible. People seem to be exaggerating this whole thing to sell precious metals on the theory that only gold is tangible money and real. Nice propaganda to dupe a lot of people, but this is sophistry if not criminal fraud.
The NY Money Center banks have transformed banking into wild trading houses and they front-run their customers who are no longer cherished client relationships. They live from deal to deal and are not interested in traditional banking. This is all about the quick buck that has become transactional banking. They DO NOT systemically manipulate the precious metals. If that were true, then why bother even buying something that can never go up? This is an excuse to cover-up bad or fake analysis. The metals will rally when it is TIME,and NOT before. Everything has to be aligned to get the rally.
The first step in the evolution of banking after simply a depository service was really GIRO banking. GIRO banking simply evolved to facilitate trade. If you had and account and I had an account at the same bank, the difference between a GIRO bank and a simple depository was rather significant. The GIRO bank was a facility where I could just write you a check and transfer the money from my account to yours. Checking was a major advancement in banking.
A depository bank would mean you would have to withdraw money to then physically hand it to me since there was no ability to transfer between accounts. This presented huge problems with tangible coins, which could be counterfeit or clipped. You would have the burden of certifying each coin. Illustrated here is a coin from ancient Lydia 7th century BC with nine counter-marks by money-changers all certifying that they tested the coin.
Fractional banking emerged as it became clear that the average maximum amount of money people would demand to be withdrawn in the normal course of business was roughly 8%. This is NOT evil and it is NOT the source of all out problems. This is nonsense sold by those who are still living in the past and cannot grasp that we are no longer in a BARTER economy exchange commodities as money. Money is the total productive capacity of the people. Japan rose from the ashes without gold or commodities to the second largest economy in the world on the back of its people. China may have been buying gold AFTER it rose, but it was its people that produced and brought it wealth. Russia has gold and oil, but it has restricted its growth replacing communism with an oligarchy rather than the freedom of its people to compete and produce, which is why it did not perform as did China. Russia has the natural resources, but it MUST change philosophies or it will not survive long-term as was the fate of Spain when the natural resources from the America ran out.
Fractional banking absolutely doesNOT create money out of thin air. If you deposit $100 and leave that in a savings account, the bank is paying you interest and it lends 90% of that money to another person. It is not that they are really printing money out of thin air for that would meant it does not need a deposit to begin with. That is a gross misrepresentation. The money on deposit is LEVERAGED but not created without some monetary base. As for those who misunderstand the issue who propose government should run the banks and decide who gets credit, well Venice had such as system and the bank was a government monopoly. That still failed for corruption. Then there was Wisselbank of Amsterdam which there too the bank failed and the city had to promise to repay since it was using the money for itself when it was supposed to be just a depository bank. It is amazing how people constantly propose the same ideas that have failed over and over again. So have a nice time Iceland – I will short the country.
This is the same nonsense spread about “paper gold” and futures are evil. The futures market has been around since Babylonian days. A farmer has the risk of growing a crop and then not knowing what the price of the market will be. He sells his crop for FUTUREdelivery. Yes, technically, it does not yet exit. So you are buying life insurance in case you die to take care of your family. Your company can also insure you as a key-man. There is only one life here, but there can be multiple contracts benefiting different people.
Leasing gold allows someone to own it and earn money. Otherwise, gold pays no income or interest and would be a dead asset. This is why institutions cannot buy gold for they need income.
It is NOT fractional banking that is the problem. Listen to some of these people rant and rave about fractional banking and you see how uneducated they truly are about finance. If you ended this system, the entire world economy would end. All real estate would collapse for how can there be a mortgage? You retirement fund would vanish. Nothing would exist economically. Like paper gold they usually also want to end, you would quickly see gold would lose all value if there is no market to trade. Stocks are more LIQUID than real estate BECAUSE there is a central place to trade. Eliminate “paper gold” and you eliminate the ability to trade and then gold would lose its liquidity and thus its value.
Let’s stay focused on the problem – transactional banking. The money center banks have become greedy and prefer to trade with other people’s money and constantly blow up because they are terrible traders. They blackmail government because government needs to sell its debt. This is the problem - NOT fractional banking.