Court Rules For WaPo Reporter In Major Win For Press In National Security Case

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

There was an important ruling last week by Magistrate Judge William B. Porter of the Eastern District of Virginia in favor of the press regarding the handling of files and materials taken in a search of the home of a Washington Post reporter.

Judge Porter ruled against the Trump Administration in what he called an “unsupervised, wholesale” search of the files of Hannah Natanson, who covers the federal government for The Post.

Instead, the court itself will conduct the review in camera.

In his opinion, Judge Porter chastized the Trump Administration for searching Natanson’s home without additional protections for the journalist’s interests in privileged sources. This has been a long-standing objection of the press to the Justice Department, which maintains that its own “filter teams” can review the files and materials relevant to their investigation and then hand them over to prosecution teams.

The Justice Department was investigating a Maryland government contractor, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who has been indicted on charges of transmitting and retaining classified national defense information.

Judge Porter chastized the government for failing to mention a 1980 law, the Privacy Protection Act, in seeking a search warrant of Ms. Natanson’s home. The PPA mandates that a search for reporting materials “shall be unlawful” unless there is probable cause that the reporter committed certain crimes to which the materials relate. In a prior hearing, Judge Porter asked pointedly, “How could you miss it? How could you think it doesn’t apply?”

Judge Porter ruled that “[a]llowing the government’s filter team to search a reporter’s work product — most of which consists of unrelated information from confidential sources — is the equivalent of leaving the government’s fox in charge of The Washington Post’s henhouse.”

The court indicated that the search was too broad and was insufficiently protective of the journalistic interests in the case, noting that the government has a “legitimate interest in only an infinitesimal fraction of the data it has seized.”

The court said it would issue new guidelines for reviewing the material. It is a significant victory for the press.

Here is the opinion: IN THE MATTER OF THE SEARCH OF THE REAL PROPERTY AND PREMISES OF HANNAH NATANSON

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/02/2026 - 17:00

"Severely Curbed": Gold Shipments Through Dubai Stalled In Wake Of Strikes On Iran

Gold shipments through Dubai are set to stall for several days after airlines suspended flights amid U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s response, according to three industry sources and Reuters.

Because gold is typically transported by air for security and insurance reasons, the cancellations are expected to sharply limit physical flows.

Reuters writes that Dubai is a key supplier to Switzerland, Hong Kong and India. Sources said the broader impact on global supply will depend on how long the disruption lasts. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

Gold futures jumped 3% on Monday morning prior to the cash open in New York. The record high stands at $5,594.82, set on January 29.

Despite the shipping disruption, traders said major financial hubs — including China, India, New York, London and Zurich — remain operational, and market activity on Monday is expected to be driven mainly by financial flows rather than physical supply.

Elsewhere in the world of precious metals, on COMEX, gold delivery volume for February matched what was seen in December.

Despite being below the big months over the last year (Feb/Apr/Oct 2025), the delivery volume was still very strong on an overall historical basis. Inventory heading into March looked sufficient, but it'll be interesting to see how that landscape has shifted now in the wake of the new geopolitical turmoil.

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/02/2026 - 16:40

We Want One Solution, But One Solution Can't Solve Our Polycrisis

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via Substack,

Whatever the problem, our minds seek one solution--preferably a simple one--to escape the trackless wilderness of complex, inter-connected problems. Problem-solving boils down to identifying the key problem and finding a fix that’s easy to understand and straightforward to apply.

Our minds rebel when confronted with polycrisis, a knotted mess of inter-connected problems, and so we apply solutions we already have in hand. As I explained in previous Musings, this leads us to modify our description of the problem so it aligns with the solution we already know.

This approach cannot actually solve the problem, but claiming we have a solution in hand is a highly attractive expediency for those tasked with solving problems, i.e. the leadership elites. It’s equally attractive to the rest of us, as we all want to banish uncertainty and anxiety with a quick painless fix.

Let’s start with the one solution many favor: fix the money, fix the world: if we reinstate sound money, that will fix the world. The proposed solution is easy to understand and straightforward to apply: gold (or bitcoin) is the only legal tender, so paper and digital money will be replaced by gold coins (or bitcoin equivalents).

The impetus for proposing this solution is self-evident: creating money out of thin air or by issuing credit-money that accrues interest is intrinsically self-liquidating, and so the status quo monetary system will run to failure (fiscal-financial-economic crisis) unless we change course.

I have often written that “if we don’t change the way money is created and distributed, we’ve changed nothing,“ because the current monetary system creates money at the top of the wealth-power pyramid and distributes it to the top.

The sum “trickling down” to the bottom 90% is losing purchasing power as prices rise, and so we’re seeking a monetary system that 1) reverses the “trickling” from “down” to “up” and 2) preserves the purchasing power of the bottom 90%’s labor, which is the “capital” they “own.”

The problem with the “gold is the only money” solution is it only fixes one problem: governments inflating away the value of their currency. In a corrupt society, it doesn’t eliminate corruption; it just means corruption will be transacted in gold or bitcoin.

It doesn’t reverse the “trickle” of money from its source from capital to labor/work, it favors capital enriching itself just as much as the current fiat system.

Like all such one-size-fits-all solutions, it also creates problems that are glossed over by its promoters, as everything is connected in ways that are not always visible at first blush.

Let’s break it down to its most basic dynamics.

In a “gold is the only money” economy, ten people each deposit one gold coin in a bank to earn interest on their money. The bank holds two coins in reserve to redeem depositors’ withdrawals, and loans the other eight coins to a new business seeking to expand.

Without the loan, the bank has no income to pay interest on the cash deposits. Without the loan, the enterprise doesn’t have the capital to expand. It’s win-win-win: depositors earn interest, the bank skims a profit for its owners and the enterprise now has the capital needed to expand.

So far so good, but...

Since economies expand and contract cyclically, a downturn occurs, and people spend less as a response to rising risk: revenues drop, workers are laid off and defaults / bankruptcies start rising.

Reducing-risk prudence leads four depositors to demand their coin back, and since the bank only has two coins in reserve, it calls the loan it made to the enterprise. The business has suffered in the downturn and can’t pay back the loan. The bank seizes the business and auctions its assets. Since valuations have fallen in the downturn, the assets only fetch two coins.

The bank now has four coins but the number of depositors demanding their coin back has risen to six. The bank fails, six depositors lose their money, and the enterprise is bankrupt.

This is precisely what happened in “sound money” 19th century America: hundreds of banks failed, depositors and borrowers were wiped out. The risk of panics triggering loans being called, assets being sold off at fire-sale prices, banks failing and depositors being wiped out are all intrinsic risks in this arrangement.

OK, so here’s the fix to panics: the government guarantees all depositors will get their gold coin back should a private bank fail. But the government doesn’t have enough gold to back up every deposit nationally; it too only has a reserve. Once the panic spreads nationally, the government’s reserves of gold coins are soon depleted.

This is the problem with “gold is the only money:” enterprises need capital to expand / launch, depositors seek a return on their capital, banks provide an institutional layer to manage these credit contracts.

After seeing other depositors lose their money, people no longer trust either banks or the government, and gold coins are withdrawn from circulation (stored at home) as a prudent measure. Credit--always limited to what banks had on deposit--becomes ever scarcer, crippling the real-world economy, as enterprises starved of capital have no way to expand.

OK, so here’s the fix: let’s let the government issue paper money “backed by gold.” So the Treasury issues $5,000 (the current global price of an ounce of gold) of currency for every ounce of gold it holds. But without a mechanism to keep currency and the market value of the gold aligned, then the Treasury can over time issue $50,000 of currency for each ounce held in the vault. The “backed by gold” claim is an artifice.

There’s another problem: gold, silver, oil, etc. are all commodities whose priced is “discovered” in global markets, so their value as measured in goods and services fluctuates beyond the control of any government.

As the global economy enters a boom cycle, gold rises to $10,000 an ounce, and the Treasury issues an additional $5,000 per ounce in currency. But when the boom turns to bust and the market value of gold returns to $5,000 per ounce, does the Treasury withdraw half the currency from circulation? No. The “backed by gold” currency has depreciated by half.

As I have often pointed out, “backed by gold” is illusory unless each unit of currency can be converted to gold coins on demand. Anything short of this is a duplicitous artifice.

Here’s another problem: the economy is expanding smartly, but the Treasury’s stash of gold isn’t expanding to match the increase of demand, as the government’s gold mines aren’t yielding much new gold. And since it’s costly to extract and refine the gold, the government spends most of the new gold paying to operate the mine.

The supply of gold coins is limited, and so money is scarce. People revert to barter or start using scrip or credit paper to transact business.

This is precisely what happened in the Medieval trade fairs: gold and silver were scarce, and as economic activity expanded, there weren’t enough coins to grease the expanding universe of transactions and productive enterprises.

The point here is using only precious metals as money comes with its own restrictions and risks. This is why economies augmented “sound money” in the first place. Using a commodity--which is subject to the same price discovery of supply and demand as any other commodity--is intrinsically problematic.

Basing a currency on a basket of commodities ends up facing the same problem: as the global price of the commodities fluctuates, so does the value of the currency, opening the door to distorting arbitrage and financial panics.

You see the other problem: the wealthy who have accumulated gold and silver are the lenders, and the commoners who only have their labor to sell / invest are the borrowers. There is risk on both sides of this equation, but over time those collecting interest will get richer and borrowers will be wiped out by a panic or downturn.

The wealth “trickles up,” and if the wealthy don’t lend their wealth to new enterprises, the economy stagnates. If banks don’t exist due to social trust being limited, then lending is restricted and the economy stagnates.

As a general rule, labor needs some working capital to turn work into a productive enterprise or other assets. So when entrepreneurial commoners sought to expand production in the “sound money” 1200s to 1400s, since they had little gold/silver or access to credit, they reverted to letters of credit and bills of exchange--forms of “paper money” that enabled transactions that would have otherwise never occurred.

As always, I recommend Braudel’s trilogy for those interested in gaining a more comprehensive understanding of money and the development of capitalism:

The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century Volume 1

The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization & Capitalism 15th-18th Century, Vol. 2

The Perspective of the World: Civilization & Capitalism, 15th - 18th Century Volume 3

I covered these topics in my books Money and Work Unchained and A Radically Beneficial World, in which I explain why attempting to make one form of money do all the work we need money to do is doomed by the intrinsic limits of each form of money.

Money that excels at being a “store of value” fails in an expansive capitalist economy as a “means of exchange” for all the reasons outlined above, and all the fixes to this create additional problems, as outlined above.

This is why the Chinese introduced paper money: it wasn’t to rip off commoners via inflation, it was the necessary means of greasing local commerce in an economy without credit and scarce precious-metal coinage, much of which was in the hands of the wealthy as it was an excellent “store of value.”

Every fix that’s easy to understand and straightforward to apply has similar limits that generate inherent problems which cannot be resolved with easy fixes, as those fixes generate another set of problems.

So to end corruption, we impose more laws, more oversight, and stiffer penalties. But as recent revelations have shown, changing the rules of governance, adding transparency laws and boosting penalties did not stop corruption from seeping into every nook and cranny of America’s ruling elites.

As Lao Tzu observed, “The more laws and restrictions there are, the poorer people become. The more rules and regulations, the more thieves and robbers.“ Corruption isn’t reduced by adding more laws, it’s reduced by changing the incentives and what society accepts or deems unacceptable.

Adding more laws to be skirted by elites doesn’t change anything; only the withdrawal of The Mandate of Heaven can disempower elites serving their own interests with absolute impunity.

Here are other examples of “this one solution will fix the world.”

If there’s “plenty of energy, that fixes the world.“ But if inequality has reached extremes, having lots of energy for the wealthiest few to enjoy isn’t going to solve inequality, or the social disorder it generates.

Or this solution: AI will fix the world. Since AI is owned and controlled by the ruling elites, it will do nothing but entrench the extremes of inequality that are destabilizing the social, political and economic realms.

Or this: technology will fix all our problems. Putting data centers owned by our corporate overlords into orbit fixes nothing.

The point I endeavored to make in my Revolution Trilogy--The Mythology of Progress, Ultra-Processed Life and Investing in Revolution --is that all these conventional solutions are self-serving artifice, expedient illusions that relieve our anxiety but at the cost of leaving problems unaddressed while layering on more problems.

There are no monetary or technological fixes to moral decay and the corruption of ruling elites. Stable social orders--from tribes to empires--are successful because their ruling elites have a reciprocal relationship with the commoners who sustain the entire system. Each class has its own duties and responsibilities to the other classes.

Records from the Roman Empire’s rule in Egypt show that much of the ruling elite’s time was spent responding to pleas for assistance from the subservient classes and resolving administrative / managerial issues.

When ruling elites renounce reciprocity to serve their own interests with absolute impunity, then the social order soon reaches the “let them eat brioche” phase where society fragments. If redress (i.e. rebalancing) is suppressed, then retribution comes to the fore: the Mandate of Heaven is lost and chaos ensues.

In either case, the only way to reconnect reciprocity / rebalance a fatally imbalanced system is a social revolution that is neither political or economic per se but which transforms both the political and economic realms by changing what’s acceptable and what’s no longer acceptable.

Polycrisis can’t be untangled with simple top-down, one-size-fits-all solutions or by modifying the definition of the problem so some painless fix can be touted as a solution. These illusory fixes only make the problems worse.

The more productive approach is to decentralize control and capital so more flexible, adaptive units can experiment with solutions: households, communities, cities, counties, locally based enterprises and regions.

The entire Waste Is Growth Landfill Economy mindset must be replaced with new incentives based on a new understanding that artifice is not a replacement for authenticity, and monetizing what is most valuable destroys it.

Adapt or die sounds harsh, but if real adaptation is required, then illusory fixes, self-serving elites and expedient redefinitions of the problem will only accelerate the unraveling and the reckoning.

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/02/2026 - 16:20

Hormuz Paralyzed: Another Tanker Hit, Floating Parking Lot Of Ships Swells

Update (1555ET):

The latest Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel-tracking data, via Bloomberg, shows that tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been paralyzed, with only a few tankers still transiting the critical maritime energy chokepoint.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X that IRGC naval power has been severely degraded after U.S. forces and their allies eliminated eleven warships.

Two days ago, the Iranian regime had 11 ships in the Gulf of Oman, today they have ZERO. The Iranian regime has harassed and attacked international shipping in the Gulf of Oman for decades. Those days are over. Freedom of maritime navigation has underpinned American and global… pic.twitter.com/nzdkMVMqZC

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 2, 2026

That may explain why Brent crude futures have not been able to sustain $80 per barrel, as traders appear to assess that the IRGC's loss of warships would make any attempt to mount a blockade short-lived, especially given U.S. naval power in the region.

Late U.S. cash session, UBS analyst Jonathan Garber told clients that "Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander said the Strait of Hormuz is closed and they will set any ship on fire that tries to pass through, Reuters reports, citing Iranian media. WTI crude oil is now up more than 7% following the headlines."

BBG Headlines:

• IRGC ADVISER SAYS WON'T LET OIL LEAVE REGION: IRAN STATE TV

However, the loss of IRGC naval power should not lead investors to discount the regime's asymmetric capabilities, such as using missiles and drones to target tankers in the narrow waterway.

Two maritime sources confirm the oil tanker Athen Nova stopped in the Strait of Hormuz after being reportedly struck by two drones by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

— FinancialJuice (@financialjuice) March 2, 2026

That risk appeared to materialize late in the U.S. cash session, when reports emerged that two IRGC drones struck the oil tanker Athen Nova.

Rapidan Energy Group analyst Fernando Ferreira noted:

The US-Israeli offensive has shifted Tehran's calculus from deterrence to regime survival.

Iran cannot contest US control of the Gulf in a conventional fight, but it does not need to. Its strategy has always centered on denial, using drones, missiles, and mines to raise the cost of commercial transit through Hormuz.

Even if the IRGC Navy takes heavy losses, the core threat remains. Drone and missile attacks can still disrupt shipping and rattle energy markets. 

With that said, the critical maritime chokepoint responsible for 20% of global seaborne oil flows now appears likely to remain disrupted indefinitely.

*   *   * 

FGE NexantECA Chairman Emeritus Fereidun Fesharaki told Bloomberg TV on Monday morning that any attempt by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to choke off the critical Strait of Hormuz using warships, drones, and missiles would likely be short-lived, as the regime's naval capability is too weak to sustain a blockade against U.S., British, and French naval forces.

"It's just a fear factor," Fesharaki said earlier on Bloomberg TV, following his prediction one week earlier on Bloomberg TV: "I don't think the U.S. has a choice but to go to war. It is very hard for me to see a scenario in which they would simply avoid this, turn the ships around, and go home." Fesharaki has tracked the market for decades.

Fesharaki said this morning, "The Revolutionary Guard navy is a minor force compared with what the American navy, the British, and the French can bring in."

Fesharaki's comments about the duration of the war mirrored President Trump's remarks to The Daily Mail on Sunday, in which he said Operation Epic Fury would last about four weeks. He also described the IRGC as a "paper tiger."

On Sunday, Trump announced that nine Iranian naval ships had been sunk in the operation.

"I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk nine Iranian naval ships, some of them relatively large and important," Trump wrote in a post on X, adding that Iran's naval headquarters has been "largely destroyed" in a different attack.

"We are going after the rest — they will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also!" Trump wrote.

Rapidan Energy Group analyst Fernando Ferreira provided more insight on the Strait:

Iran understands that threatening traffic through Hormuz is its most credible asymmetric lever. Even limited interference can raise oil prices and impose immediate economic costs on the U.S. and its partners, increasing pressure on Washington to de-escalate.

We expect at least moderate disruptions to Gulf oil flows in the coming days, with the risk tilted toward something more severe if tensions escalate further.

As of Monday morning, Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel-tracking data via Bloomberg shows that tanker activity in the critical maritime energy chokepoint has mostly frozen, with limited transits.

Related:

• "Expect Moderate Disruptions": Oil Tankers Avoid Strait Of Hormuz As Operation Fury Hits Iran

• Three Maritime Incidents Reported In Strait Of Hormuz Energy Chokepoint

Goldman analyst Adam Crook told clients over the weekend that any prolonged disruption of the Strait could push Brent crude prices toward $100/bbl. Currently, Brent crude futures trade around $79 as of 0900 ET.

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/02/2026 - 15:55

US Vigilant Against Possible Domestic Attacks Amid Iran War: Hegseth

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says the Trump administration is monitoring for any sleeper cell activity in the United States.

Hegseth’s March 2 comments came after questions about a possible attack on the homeland in response to the strikes on Iran.

“We’re ready for that,” the secretary told reporters at the Pentagon.

“We’ve seen these types of folks before, and the American people can rest assured that we’re vigilant.”

Hegseth was also questioned about the March 1 shooting that took place in Austin, Texas, that resulted in multiple casualties.

According to reports from Austin Police, an armed man opened fire outside a bar, killing two and wounding 14 others.

FBI official Alex Doran told reporters that the shooter’s motivation had not been established. Evidence found on the individual and in his vehicle, however, suggests a “potential nexus to terrorism,” but “it’s still too early to make a determination,” he said.

When questioned about the attack over the weekend, Hegseth said that the event “does not change [Operation Epic Fury] at all.”

The operation in Iran is not slowing down, with Pentagon officials saying that additional U.S. forces will continue to flow into the Middle East.

The strikes on Iran have been termed “major combat operations,” and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine says hundreds of land and sea missions have been launched in Operation Epic Fury.

Caine offered a briefing alongside Hegseth, saying the U.S. military’s mission is to “protect and defend ourselves, and together with our regional partners, prevent Iran from the ability to project power outside of its borders.”

Hegseth and Caine emphasized the preparation that went into the recent military strike, saying the operation in Iran was the result of months, even years, of planning.

However, according to the general, the mission is not yet complete.

“We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Caine added.

“The effort continues to scale,” Caine said, going on to describe the equipment used and extended efforts to take out Iranian weapons systems.

“I am proud today, as I am every day, to stand as a member of America’s Joint Force. There is no mission too complex, no distance too great, and no adversary too determined for the men and women who wear our nation’s uniform.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/02/2026 - 15:40

NYC Pakistan-Owned Hotel Took $146M For Illegals But Owes $13M In Taxes

Authored by Luis Cornelio via HeadlineUSA,

The Pakistani government owes New York City taxpayers millions in unpaid taxes despite making nearly $150 million through the Roosevelt Hotel by housing illegal aliens. 

The Roosevelt Hotel, owned by Pakistani International Airlines, a quasi-state entity, has $13.6 million in overdue property taxes and nearly $1 million in unpaid water bills, according to the New York Post. 

The hotel became a hub for illegal aliens after then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams entered contracts allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to live on the premises. 

According to the Post, the Roosevelt Hotel processed more than 173,000 of the 232,000 illegal aliens in the city.  

Taxpayers paid a total of $146.6 million, or $202 per room each night, for roughly 2,600 illegal aliens each night from May 2023 through June 2025. 

Among those staying at the formerly luxury hotel was Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan gang member serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia. 

The unpaid property taxes stem from a payment agreement with the city’s Department of Finance in September 2023, which required the hotel to pay $573,361 on Jan. 2. But as noted by the Post, that half-a-million-dollar bill again went unpaid, as did the $3.9 million half-year installment. 

But New Yorkers expecting those bills to be paid could be out of luck. 

The hotel recently entered a deal with the federal government to redevelop the landmark property, which could allow the Pakistani government to avoid future taxes. 

According to the Post, the arrangement might trigger a federal tax exemption, as the U.S. Department of State often asks city governments to grant exemptions when foreign governments purchase U.S. properties. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance said the agency has not “received” such a request but warned that prior charges “must still be paid.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/02/2026 - 15:00

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.