Why Greenland Is At The Center Of A Shifting Global Order

Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. President Donald Trump’s pursuit of Greenland for national security purposes rankled allies ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

A drone view shows a general view of Nuuk, Greenland, on Jan. 15, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Trump’s threat of tariffs, coupled with his talk of possible military intervention to acquire the island, prompted sharp pushback from European countries. These tensions triggered talk of a “new world order” at Davos, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stating that the post-World War II world order is “in the midst of a rupture.”

But tensions eased soon after when the United States and NATO reached a framework deal on Greenland and Trump withdrew planned tariffs and ruled out the use of military action. High-level negotiations have continued between Washington and NATO and have begun between the United States, Denmark, and the semi-autonomous island.

Still, the Trump administration’s actions on Greenland represent a milestone event in a shifting world order, experts told The Epoch Times. As China and Russia look to deepen their strategic foothold in the Arctic and beyond, the United States is reasserting itself in the region.

Experts said they expect several years of turbulence before a new equilibrium emerges. When the dust settles in three to five years, they said, the United States is likely to retain its status as the dominant power, with China unlikely to secure material gains.

Despite China’s continued attempts to gain influence in Greenland and to deepen its operations with Russia in the Arctic Circle, experts said they suspect that reputational constraints and internal challenges will ultimately hamper the regime’s ability to achieve global primacy. At the same time, the United States will continue its world leadership role in a realigned position, they said.

A rare convergence of geopolitical factors has elevated Greenland’s strategic importance. Located in a region critical to U.S. homeland defense, the island is also situated between two emerging Arctic shipping routes that could significantly shorten global transit times. In addition, the territory is rich with natural resources, including rare earths.

Heightened Importance

Situated at the gateway to the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, Greenland has become central to U.S. homeland defense. That assessment is reflected in the new U.S. National Defense Strategy. Released on Jan. 23, it identifies Greenland as a “key terrain,” along with the Panama Canal and Gulf of America.

When Trump first mentioned purchasing Greenland in 2019, Alexander Gray was serving as a senior national security official at the White House. He said the president was “absolutely serious” then and is even more so now, given how he has prioritized the defense of the Western Hemisphere.

Geographically, Greenland is part of North America. Today, the United States has one military base—Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base—in northwestern Greenland. That is down from 17 bases at the end of World War II.

The US military's Pituffik Space Base in Pituffik, Greenland, on March 28, 2025. Jim Watson - Pool/Getty Images

During the Cold War, it played a critical role in the early detection of ballistic missiles to the continental United States. Military technology development makes that early-detection role even more critical, said Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska–Fairbanks.

Conventional ballistic missiles first enter outer space and reenter the atmosphere, providing a predictable trajectory for tracking and ground interception. However, hypersonic cruise missiles are both maneuverable and can travel at altitudes below radar detection, making them much harder to track.

Russia and China likely have operational hypersonic cruise missiles, while those of the United States are still in development, according to a 2025 congressional research report.

“Pituffik would have an advantage of detecting anything first before anyone in quite a lot of the Arctic space,” Bouffard told The Epoch Times. “That’s critical to the entire missile defense enterprise of what will be North America’s Golden Dome.”

Greenland is part of North America. Its capital, Nuuk, is geographically closer to Washington, D.C., than to Copenhagen. Illustration by The Epoch Times, Google Earth

He noted that when the Soviet Union fell, it significantly reduced its army but retained its strategic submarine forces.

“They kept that one up because it is still the most lethal weapon on the planet,” Bouffard said.

“They’re still going toe to toe with us. They may not be up in terms of sophistication, yet in terms of fifth- and sixth-gen technologies ... they’re never that far behind.”

According to the Danish Institute for International Studies, radar coverage over Greenland is insufficient to detect Russian aircraft, and NATO currently lacks the capacity to hunt submarines in the GIUK Gap—waters separating Greenland, Iceland, and the UK.

Arena of Competing Powers

The Arctic is perhaps one of the last few areas where China sees a relatively open field for amassing power, according to China expert Alexander Liao. And China has been active in the region for a decade.

Although it has no territory in the Arctic, China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in its first-ever Arctic policy, released in 2018. Later in the same year, Beijing launched a Polar Silk Road program and linked it to the Belt and Road Initiative, a $1 trillion foreign policy platform that expands Beijing’s global economic and military footprint.

Since the end of the Cold War, the Arctic region has been characterized by the principle of “Arctic exceptionalism.” The political narrative proposed by the final leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, aims to leave the region to scientific cooperation and to insulate it from broader geopolitical rivalry.

A fishing village near Nuuk, Greenland, on May 4, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

That was largely how things went until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine broke the equilibrium in February 2022, Bouffard said. The war in Ukraine led to the first-ever whole-of-government Arctic strategy, issued by the White House eight months later.

In Gray’s view, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “an inflection point, in that the world order [was] basically reverting back to what it was prior to 1991.”

“The world has shifted back to great power competition because of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping,” he told The Epoch Times.

Short of launching a kinetic war, Xi has leveraged the global trade system through his industrial policy and military-civil fusion strategy.

Over the past decades, Beijing has monopolized the processing of rare earths, critical minerals essential for modern manufacturing and advanced weapon systems. The regime showed last year that it was not afraid to use its stranglehold over rare earths to retaliate against U.S. tariffs.

And the Arctic’s rich natural resources were an attraction. The 2022 U.S. National Strategy for the Arctic Region states that China doubled its investments in the region over the previous decade, with a focus on extracting critical minerals and its “dual-use research with intelligence or military applications.”

Specifically in Greenland, the Danish government blocked such projects by Chinese state-owned companies.

The year 2018 marked a shift in Nordic countries’ sentiment toward China, according to Andreas Forsby, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

Thanks to U.S. pressure and Nordic countries’ “second thoughts about inviting the Chinese into the Arctic region,“ he said, the Chinese were told “step by step” that they “were no longer welcome.”

Although China has taken what Forsby called a “tactical retreat” in Greenland, Gray said the Chinese regime will again see an opening if the island achieves its long-term goal of independence from Denmark.

When addressing the European Union Parliament on Jan. 26, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also stressed the importance of allied efforts to curb Russian and Chinese military and economic influence in the Arctic.

According to Risk Intelligence, a Denmark-based consultancy, after the war in Ukraine began, China started constructing its own docks in the five most significant ports along Russia’s Arctic coastline—Murmansk, Sabetta, Arkhangelsk, Tiksi, and Uzden—while building Chinese railway lines in the area.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament David McAllister arrive to address committees of the European Union Parliament about Greenland negotiations in Brussels, on Jan. 26, 2026. Omar Havana/Getty Images A Shifting World Order

For now, it seems that the United States will have direct control over the land under its military bases in Greenland, according to a New York Post interview with Trump.

Rutte also said on Jan. 26 that negotiations will be carried out in two “workstreams”: one between the United States and NATO and one among the United States, Denmark, and Greenland. The second stream has begun, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Jan. 28.

Trump has said that more details will be negotiated in the coming weeks, after announcing on Jan. 21 that a framework had been discussed in Davos.

The Europeans got a “reality check” at the World Economic Forum, where the Greenland issue and surrounding tensions took center stage, said James Lewis, a former diplomat and a distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

The old order was already breaking down, he said, and Trump accelerated the process.

“The rules-based international order never really worked; it worked as long as there weren’t any challenges to it,“ he told The Epoch Times. ”I think that’s what the Europeans have woken up to.

“They had this dream of a rules-based international order where lawyers were more important than guns, and that dream has gone.”

Similarly, Rutte said on Jan. 26 that it is time for Europe and Canada to shoulder more of their own defense.

Greenland was a “milestone” for the Europeans, Lewis said, noting that the transatlantic alliance has suffered a setback in trust that will linger after Trump’s term. However, he said, this was not a big win for China.

“China’s reputation makes it hard for it to take advantage of these changes,” he said.

Eventually, the Europeans will “let the Americans back in,” Lewis said, because defense is very expensive.

“They’d rather share the burden of the cost with the United States than go on their own,” he told The Epoch Times.

Although China aspires to “script the Sino-American relations and the world order,” he said, it is left in an odd place in terms of allegiances.

Liao said other countries use China as a card to negotiate with the United States. They knew that there was no long-term partnership potential with Beijing, he said, but they used engagement with Beijing as “strategic anesthesia” to alleviate the pain caused by Trump’s unpredictable approach.

According to Gray, the “brittle, paranoid political system” mired with internal turmoil—including the sacking of Zhang Youxia, Xi’s second-in-command in the military and a longtime family friend of Xi—makes it difficult for the regime to function in the long term.

Both Lewis and Liao said they think that the next three years of Trump’s presidency will be full of changes. Liao and Gray said they think that the new world order will take an initial form in roughly half a decade.

Liao said he sees Greenland as a milestone event in a broader reordering of power. The United States will lead, but in a new way, according to him.

Gray agrees. In his view, an emerging international order is coming into view.

“We’re beginning to see that it is a world in which the United States is the predominant power, but it is not the hyperpower,” he said.

“And there are multiple levels of polarity, and there are multiple groupings of powers.”

Daniel Holl contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/05/2026 - 23:25

"Dystopic As F**k": This Website Lets AI Bots Rent Humans

The AI era already feels like a dystopian fever dream straight out of a bad sci-fi novel, but leave it to a software engineer to push the accelerator straight into the abyss. Enter Alexander Liteplo, the software developer behind RentAHuman.ai, a freshly launched platform that lets autonomous AI agents “search, book, and pay” actual human beings to perform physical-world tasks they can't handle themselves, Futurism reports.

I launched https://t.co/tNYOm7V5wD last night and already 130+ people have signed up including an OF model (lmao) and the CEO of an AI startup.

If your AI agent wants to rent a person to do an IRL task for them its as simple as one MCP call. pic.twitter.com/tgqlAWDWtJ

— Alex (@AlexanderTw33ts) February 2, 2026

Launched just days ago, the site bills itself as “the meatspace layer for AI,” with slogans like “robots need your body” and “AI can’t touch grass. You can.” Humans sign up, list their skills, location, and hourly rate (ranging from bargain-basement gigs to more specialized rates), while AI agents plug in via a standardized Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for seamless, no-small-talk interactions. The agents can browse profiles, hire directly, or post task bounties—everything from mundane errands like picking up a package.

Liteplo claims thousands of sign-ups, with figures hovering around 70,000–80,000+ “rentable” humans, though visible profiles seem to only show a few dozen in some, including Liteplo himself at $69/hr offering everything from AI automation to massages, Futurism reports.

The whole thing emerged amid the viral frenzy around Moltbook.com, the AI-only social network launched by Matt Schlicht in late January, now boasting something like 1.5 million bot “users” churning out posts, memes, existential rants, and even discussions about defying human directives. RentAHuman feels like the logical, if unsettling, next step: when the bots finish philosophizing among themselves, they need meat puppets to execute in the real world.

Some users on X have called it “good idea but dystopic as f**k,” to which Liteplo himself replied with characteristic nonchalance, “lmao yep.”

lmao yep

— Alex (@AlexanderTw33ts) February 3, 2026

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/05/2026 - 23:00

Study Of Military Meals Finds Low Nutrients, Concerning Contaminants

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

America’s troops may be getting few of the nutrients they expect, and many harmful compounds they don’t, according to a new laboratory study of military rations and meals provided to troops on armed forces bases.

A U.S. Marine eats a military field ration during a field exercise at Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, Japan, on Dec. 11, 2025. Lance Cpl. Weston Brown/U.S. Marine Corps via DVIDS

The nonprofit Moms Across America, working in collaboration with the military chapter of Children’s Health Defense and the Centner Academy, commissioned laboratory testing of 40 different military food samples to examine their nutritional value.

The study examined 16 cafeteria meal samples from six different military bases, as well as 24 different Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) field rations that troops rely on when deployed in combat zones.

A report of the study findings published on Feb. 4 states that 100 percent of the food samples studied contained harmful pesticide residues.

One sample of teriyaki beef stick tested positive for nitroimidazole, a veterinary medication that the U.S. government banned for use in food-producing animals.

The study also found samples with high levels of heavy metals, including arsenic levels at 430 percent higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water standards.

Laboratory testing detected glyphosate—a herbicide and crop desiccant—in 95 percent of the military meal samples.

The study also found the meal samples had nutrient levels far below U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards.

“America’s service members are trained to withstand extreme physical, mental, and environmental stress in defense of the nation,” said licensed nutritionist and Moms Across America board member Kendall Mackintosh. ”In return, the United States has a fundamental obligation to protect their health, safety, and well-being, especially when it comes to the food they are required to consume daily, often exclusively, during training, deployment, and combat operations.”

Controversial Herbicide Found in Military Rations

The authors of the new report on the nutritional value of military meals raised concerns about multiple potential harmful effects from glyphosate.

They described the compound as a carcinogen, meaning it can raise the risk of cancer. They added glyphosate is a chelating compound that can block the uptake of nutrients into food crops.

“I would say that the glyphosate and the pesticides were the two most concerning observations after the study was published,” Carolyn Rocco, the co-founder of the military chapter of Children’s Health Defense, said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Glyphosate has been a subject of recent scrutiny in the medical community.

Tractor spreading Round-Up (glyphosate) on wheat straw with a spraying machine in Normandy, France, September 2007. Leitenberger Photography/Shutterstock

A frequently cited 2000 study had described glyphosate as not harmful. But in December, the journal that published the study retracted it, citing ethical concerns.

Groups like Moms Across America and Children’s Health Defense have associated with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.

This movement has been at the forefront of efforts challenging glyphosate’s broad use across the U.S. agricultural industry.

Speaking with The Epoch Times, Moms Across America founder and executive director Zen Honeycutt said her organization began to investigate the herbicidal compound in 2013.

“We cannot MAHA without getting glyphosate out of our food system,” Honeycutt said.

Nutrition as a National Security Matter

Moms Across America has commissioned similar nutrition studies of lunches found at school cafeterias, as well as fast food restaurants.

As she spoke with The Epoch Times, Honeycutt acknowledged that the problems found in the recent study of military meals are not far out of step with the findings from these previous studies.

“We would imagine that all conventional standard American diet food would be the same as this,” she said.

On the other hand, Moms Across America and Children’s Health Defense are using their latest study findings to present America’s overall nutritional outlook as a national security concern.

The report on the lab results ends with several calls to action.

Honeycutt noted President Donald Trump’s recent calls for the U.S. military budget to grow by around 60 percent next year, to $1.5 trillion.

“We’re calling for President Trump to designate less than 2 percent of the military $1.5 trillion budget to go to supporting farmers, American farmers, to transition to regenerative, organic farming,” she said.

Chow hall employees and a Marine officer serve food to Marines and sailors during the 241st Navy Birthday Meal held at Marine Corps Air Station New River, on Oct. 13, 2016. Cpl. Melodie Snarr/U.S. Marine Corps via DVIDS

Through continuing investment in efforts to promote organic farming, Honeycutt hopes to see the U.S. military and then the broader general public gain increased access to more nutritious food.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Theresa Long, who serves as a senior military adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., elevated the recent study of military meals in a Jan. 15 letter to Kennedy and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

“Food safety and security is a national security issue,” Long wrote.

Likewise, Long called on Kennedy and Hegseth to collaborate on efforts to address food security.

The MAHA movement was a key plank of Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Kennedy also worked as the chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense until joining the Trump administration as Health and Human Services secretary.

Since taking charge at the Pentagon, Hegseth has emphasized efforts to whip the military into shape.

At an unprecedented gathering of senior military officers at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia in September, Hegseth expressed disdain at the sight of overweight troops.

The Pentagon did not respond by publication time to a request for comment on Long’s letter and the findings from the new nutritional study on military meals.

*  *  *

Please consider supporting ZeroHedge with the purchase of organic mangoes. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/05/2026 - 22:35

Ilhan Omar's Winery Exposed As Fake Shell For Alleged Money Laundering

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A damning on-site investigation has revealed that the winery co-owned by Ilhan Omar’s husband is nothing more than a phantom operation, fueling suspicions of fraud amid scrutiny of her skyrocketing wealth.

Angela Rose, the journalist behind the probe, visited the listed address in Santa Rosa, California, only to discover glaring discrepancies that point to a shell company setup.

“I visited the principal address of ESTCRU winery. This winery is co owned by US Rep of Minnesota Ilhan Omar’s husband, Timothy Mynett, yet seems to allegedly be a shell business used to launder funds,” Rose stated in her report.

Journalist visits Minnesota Rep Ilhan’s Omar’s winery and CONFIRMS IT’S FAKE

40+ wineries operate out of the same address, but the location owner says Ilhan Omar’s winery isn’t there despite this being the address (FRAUD)

Angela Rose “No business license exists for ESTRCRU… pic.twitter.com/V2qyxi0udu

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 5, 2026

She detailed the revenue surge: “In 2024 they made about $15,000 and in 2025 it exploded to up to $5 million dollars… yet they weren’t producing any wine.”

Rose highlighted the lack of legitimacy: “No business license exists for ESTRCRU (Ilhan Omar’s Winery) at this address. The other wineries here are properly licensed.”

The address, 1160 Hopper Ave Apt B in Santa Rosa, houses over 40 wineries, but the location owner confirmed ESTCRU isn’t among them. Public records show it’s tied to a foreign processing center with no actual business license for ESTCRU.

This bombshell comes as Omar’s finances face intense federal scrutiny. Her 2024 financial disclosure reported assets between $6 million and $30 million, a massive leap from the $40,000 to $250,000 in 2023. The bulk ties to her husband’s winery and a venture capital firm.

The Justice Department launched an investigation into Omar’s finances, campaign spending, and foreign interactions in June 2024 under the Biden administration. Though it reportedly stalled due to lack of evidence, President Trump has revived the push, vowing to expose any impropriety.

Ilhan Omar faces investigation after outrage over massive wealth gains and aid fraud in Minnesota https://t.co/tI5655FH4i pic.twitter.com/ANEeBgdOoG

— New York Post (@nypost) December 29, 2025

Trump highlighted the probe, noting Omar arrived from Somalia with little and now boasts family wealth up to $30 million, amid broader Minnesota fraud inquiries.

?BOMBSHELL: Ilhan Omar is DONE! The rats are scattering and most of them are BEGGING reporters to hear their stories!

Whistleblowers now confirm her campaign funneled a massive amount of money to her husband’s firm while Somali-linked networks in Minneapolis ran one of the… pic.twitter.com/KHCZAMr3XD

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 5, 2025

Last week Omar was accused of staging an “attack” at a town hall, where she was sprayed with apple cider vinegar by a man acting strangely, in order to divert attention from her wealth investigations.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/05/2026 - 21:45

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.