Kazakhstan Angrily Calls On Ukraine To Stop Black Sea Oil Terminal Attacks

Kazakhstan is angrily denouncing and protesting the "deliberate attack" on critical energy transport infrastructure of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium in the waters of Russia's port city of Novorossiysk, after on Saturday a naval drone sent by Ukraine severely damaged one of its three loading points.

Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, "We emphasize that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium plays an important role in supporting the stability of the global energy system."

It added: "We view what has occurred as an action harming the bilateral relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and we expect the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future."

Via Reuters

This marks a rare moment that the former Soviet satellite state in central Asia is directly calling out the Ukrainian government and military.

A key section of Caspian Pipeline Consortium near Novorossiysk has as a result of the attack been taken offline until repair and restoration works are completed.

The consortium's over 930-mile pipeline connects oil fields in western Kazakhstan and Russian offshore fields in the Caspian Sea to a marine terminal in Novorossiysk, which means the location serves as the main export route for Kazakh oil, and is one of the world’s largest oil conduits by volume.

Regional sources note that the pipeline transports about 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports. According to the consortium's confirmation of the weekend attack:

CPC said on Saturday that a November 29 naval drone attack on its terminal had “significantly damaged” Single-Point Mooring (SPM) 2 – essentially a floating buoy which connects to tankers to load oil.

“Further operation of Single Point Mooring 2 is not possible,” CPC said. “Loading operations and other operations were stopped [and] tankers were withdrawn from the CPC water area.”

“We believe that the attack on the CPC is an attack on the interests of the CPC member countries,” CPC said.

Kazakhstan Has No Choice. It Changes Oil Export Route After Attack on Novorossiysk

Following a nighttime attack by Ukrainian naval drones on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's marine terminal in Novorossiysk, Kazakhstan has announced that it is forced to seek alternative routes… pic.twitter.com/SerTXJtYK4

— Belsat in English (@Belsat_Eng) November 29, 2025

Moscow for its part decried the Ukrainian attacks as amounting to terrorism and further alleged that European powers are currently engaged in an intense hybrid war against Russia.

However, Ukraine can in turn point to constant and devastating Russian aerial attacks against its energy grid, ahead of what is likely to be a harsh winter - at a moment much of the country is under a rolling power blackout regimen.

Over in Europe, Hungary has also long complained of these Ukrainian attacks on pipelines and energy infrastructure. This summer crude oil flows from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline suffered forced disruptions after Ukrainian drone strike crippled transformer stations and other elements.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/30/2025 - 12:25

Watch: TikToker Hands Out Vodka, Machetes To Mentally Ill And Homeless

TikTok influencers push boundaries to stay visible and relevant in feeds. Some of the stunts have become so outrageous that these clout-chasing fools will do anything for views - even if it means jeopardizing public safety.

The latest absurdity comes from TikToker PovWolfy, who in recent weeks has been handing out machetes and vodka bottles to the homeless population.

The metros where PovWolfy handed out machetes and vodka to the homeless and mentally unstable were not mentioned, but X user Unlimited L’s claimed the 18-inch blades and alcohol were distributed to people experiencing homelessness in Austin, Texas, and New Orleans, adding that the creator is now headed to New York.

NEW: “Influencer” hands out 18-inch machetes and alcohol to homeless people in Austin and New Orleans

Keith Castillo — known online as “povwolfy” — posted the video on Thanksgiving

The caption read, “Keeping the homeless in the streets.”

He is now heading to New York pic.twitter.com/DsetrscSEE

— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) November 30, 2025

PovWolfy made countless videos ...

Handing out vodka and weapons to vulnerable people is nothing more than reckless behavior. There is a possibility that this influencer could face charges such as reckless endangerment, contributing to a dangerous situation (akin to the movie Purge), or even aiding and abetting if harm occurs.

*  *  * BLACK FRIDAY IS STILL HAPPENING

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/30/2025 - 11:05

Rubio, Witkoff Meet With Ukraine Negotiators In Miami To Discuss Plans To End War

Three key Trump administration officials are meeting with Ukrainian negotiators in Miami, Florida this weekend in a push to broker an end to the war Russia began with its 2022 invasion, while setting the stage for talks between Washington and Moscow planned later this week.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner plan to meet with the Ukrainian delegation to discuss portions of a proposed peace deal.

During talks in Geneva last Sunday, the sides reached agreements in principle on all but two issues: territory and security guarantees.

A senior U.S. official said the White House wants to close the gaps on those last two issues on Sunday, saying: "The Ukrainians know what we expect from them."

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian delegation lost its lead negotiator between Kyiv and Washington, according to an announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.

Zelenskyy said his chief of staff Andrii Yermak has resigned following a home search by anti-corruption investigators.

Government investigators had uncovered that $100 million was embezzled from Ukraine’s energy sector via kickbacks that contractors had paid.

While neither Zelenskyy nor Yermak has been accused of wrongdoing by those leading the investigation, the Ukrainian president’s political opponents have pushed for more accountability of senior leaders in Kyiv’s government.

As Jacob Burg reports for The Epoch Times, the meeting in Florida is occurring just a week after Rubio met with Yermak in Geneva, with both sides expressing positivity over a revised peace plan from Washington.

Prior to his resignation, Yermak told Axios that territorial concessions could only be negotiated at the presidential level.

But Trump said last week that he would only meet Zelensky and Putin once the parties were close to an agreement to end the war.

"The dialogue based on the Geneva points will continue. Diplomacy remains active. The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end. The Ukrainian delegation has the necessary directives, and I expect the guys to work in accordance with clear Ukrainian priorities," Zelensky said on Saturday.

Following Yermak's resignation on Friday, responsibility for negotiations was passed to Rustem Umerov, the secretary of the country’s National Security and Defense Council.

He has been implicated in the corruption probe but is not a suspect, according to authorities.

He was joined by first deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, an experienced diplomat and negotiator who sat at the table with the Russians in peace talks this spring that made no progress.

Umerov said on Sunday morning that talks had begun to find a “dignified peace”.

The meeting between the Ukrainian delegation and the American side on steps toward achieving a just peace has already begun in the United States.

I remain in constant contact with the President of Ukraine. We have clear directives and priorities: safeguarding Ukrainian… pic.twitter.com/herwCpylWd

— Rustem Umerov (@rustem_umerov) November 30, 2025

As The FT reports, Russian forces this week continued their large-scale missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s capital and critical infrastructure as troops on the ground in the eastern Donetsk region pressed ahead with assaults on key strongholds.

Ukraine, meanwhile, continued its drone attacks on Russian oil and gas facilities and vessels belonging to its shadow fleet in the Black Sea, including the Russian oil terminal near the southern port of Novorossiysk that is owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

That attack on Saturday prompted a stern response on Sunday from Kazakhstan, which called on Kyiv to halt strikes on the facility that handles about 1 per cent of global oil supplies, including from Kazakhstan, where the pipeline begins.

The biggest question hanging over the US-Ukraine talks is how any proposal agreed between them might be agreed by the Russians, who have maintained a maximalist position and have expressed confidence that they currently hold the battlefield initiative in the war. Putin has shown openness to a deal only if it is done on his timeline and terms.

Earlier this week, Russia blamed the Europeans and Kyiv for spoiling the initial proposal, or what the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov described as the “only substantive thing” on the table. Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned that if the revised plan “erased . . . key understandings” reached earlier between Putin and Trump, the situation would be “fundamentally different”.

Nevertheless, Zelenskyy appeared optimistic, telling Ukrainians in his evening address on Saturday that the American side was “demonstrating a constructive approach” to the talks that were set to continue on Sunday.

He added: “In the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end.”
 

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/30/2025 - 10:30

Race To The Bottom: White House Launches 'Media Offenders' Leaderboard

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The Trump White House unveiled a scathing new website Friday, “Media Offenders,” complete with a “race to the bottom” leaderboard ranking outlets like The Washington Post as the worst for “false and misleading stories”—flagging everything from exaggerated Trump “sedition” claims to immigrant horror tales as “heinous” manipulations.

The interactive page features an “Offender Hall of Shame” logging repeat offenders and a weekly spotlight, like the current “Media Misrepresents and Exaggerates President Trump’s Calls for Democrat Accountability,” where Democrats and “Fake News” implied Trump issued “illegal orders” to the military—contrasted with “THE TRUTH”: “Every order President Trump has issued has been lawful.”

The site pits outlets like The Washington Post (worst for bias), MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, The New York Times, and Politico in a humiliating tally of “false and misleading stories flagged by The White House.”

See it for yourself ?https://t.co/bRfpnhKjbT

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 28, 2025

Users can sign up for “Offender Alerts” delivered weekly, promising “Scroll for the Truth” on each entry.

The “Offender Hall of Shame” catalogs hits like “L.A. mother says she was taken to U.S. border, being held until she self-deports” and “Trump’s new wall: His push to oust immigrants legally in the U.S.,” debunking them with White House counters.

The spotlight today falls on “Media Misrepresents and Exaggerates President Trump’s Calls for Democrat Accountability,” where outlets like the Boston Globe and The Independent twisted Trump’s push for accountability on Democrats’ military mutiny calls into “execution” threats.

From the site:

“THE OFFENSE”: “The media misrepresented President Trump’s call for Members of Congress to be held accountable for inciting sedition by saying that he called for their ‘execution.'”

“THE TRUTH”: “Democrats released a video calling for service members to disobey their chain of command, and in turn, implied President Trump had issued illegal orders. Every order President Trump has issued has been lawful. It is dangerous for sitting Members of Congress to incite insubordination in the United States’ military, and President Trump called for them to be held accountable.”

This counteroffensive directly exposes MSM’s scripted “talking point” directives amid the info war, where CNN, MSNBC, and NYT puppets cordinate “balanced” spins on Trump’s policies. The leaderboard’s “false and misleading stories” section catalogs such distortions, from immigrant “horror” tales to “Trump wall” exaggerations, proving the “enemies of the people” script is real.

The White House takedown also resonates with FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s November probe into BBC corruption for “rigging the news,” where he slammed “heinous” manipulation as a “threat to democracy” that erodes trust.

As Carr vowed to “expose and prosecute” such tactics, the leaderboard’s “repeat offenders” section—flagging outlets that “don’t just get it wrong – they do it over and over again”—mirrors his call for structural reforms, tying scripted bias to broader info war threats.

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 Sun, 11/30/2025 - 09:20

VW Aims To Cut Development Costs In Half With New "Made In China" Car

Volkswagen says it can build an electric car entirely in China at roughly half the cost of producing one in Germany, helped by quicker development, lower labor expenses, easier battery sourcing and a more efficient supply chain, according to FT.

After heavy investment in its new R&D base in Hefei, which includes more than 100 labs for software, hardware and powertrain testing, the company says it can now validate software, hardware and full vehicles at the same time.

According to VW’s China technology chief Thomas Ulbrich, the facility gives engineering teams “an entirely new level of integration,” allowing them to shorten decision cycles and speed up innovation. VW says the development timeline for new Chinese EVs is about 30 per cent shorter than the traditional 50-month process.

FT writes that the carmaker intends to introduce around 30 EV models in China over the next five years as it tries to regain momentum in the world’s largest auto market, where competition from domestic EV makers has eroded its earlier dominance.

Although the strategy began as “in China, for China,” executives say the company is now considering exporting Chinese-built models and applying Chinese-led advances to its global operations.

Other European manufacturers, such as Renault, are also trying to match China’s rapid development pace by simplifying components and relying more on local engineering talent.

Still, VW stands out for the scale of its investment, committing almost €4bn in China since 2022 through efforts including its partnership with Xpeng and its funding of Horizon Robotics, with which it is developing an AI chip for autonomous-driving features.

These moves come as VW continues to cut costs in Germany, where high production expenses and weak European demand have led to a plan to reduce its domestic workforce by 35,000 by 2030.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/30/2025 - 08:45

Here is another update on lumber prices.
SPECIAL NOTE: The CME group discontinued the Random Length Lumber Futures contract on May 16, 2023.  I switched to a physically-delivered Lumber Futures contract that was started in August 2022.  Unfortunately, this impacts long term price comparisons since the new contract was priced about 24% higher than the old random length contract for the period when both contracts were available.
This graph shows CME random length framing futures through August 2022 (blue), and the new physically-delivered Lumber Futures (LBR) contract starting in August 2022 (Red).
On November 28, 2025, LBR was at $544.00 per 1,000 board feet, down 7.6% from a year ago.
Click on graph for larger image.

There is somewhat of a seasonal demand for lumber, and lumber prices frequently peak in the first half of the year.
The pickup in early 2018 was due to the Trump lumber tariffs in 2017.  There were huge increases during the pandemic due to a combination of supply constraints and a pickup in housing starts.  
Now, even with the tariffs, prices are down slightly year-over-year suggesting weak demand.

The post Trump Crazy# 27542: Replacing the Income Tax with Tariffs appeared first on CEPR.

NATO's Potential "Anschluss" With Austria Would Be For Purely Narrative Reasons

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

This would be nothing but “another (faux) victory over Putin” that could be spun as having made the populace’s reduced living standards worthwhile after they dropped due to the anti-Russian sanctions.

Former Russian President and incumbent Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev published a piece at RT in late August about “NATO’s Anschluss” in which he warned about the consequences of Austria joining the bloc like some there want to do. This issue affects his country’s prestige since the USSR was one of the guarantors of Austrian neutrality. Any unilateral moves towards NATO membership in violation of Moscow’s veto would therefore provoke an international legal crisis.

This would accelerate the breakdown of international law that’s been in progress for a while and bring the West closer towards fully revising the post-WWII order in Europe. Germany’s remilitarization plans from 2022 onward arguably made this a fait accompli but Austria’s moves towards NATO membership might finally provoke a long-awaited political crisis over this issue. Medvedev also proposed that international institutions in Vienna be relocated abroad to a truly neutral country in that scenario.

As for the military-security consequences, he warned that “Austria’s Bundesheer units may find themselves included in the Russian Armed Forces’ long-range mission plans. A package of countermeasures was adopted against Sweden and Finland after their NATO accession, and Austria should not expect any exceptions here.” Any NATO-Russian war would likely result in Austria becoming unlivable whether it’s neutral or not, as well as a lot of the Northern Hemisphere, so that’s a moot point.

Nevertheless, it’s important for Austrians to realize that they’d be shattering their country’s neutral reputation and putting a target on their backs in the event of war, but none of that matters for NATO. Its potential “Anschluss” with Austria would be for purely narrative reasons in order to spin it as “another (faux) victory over Putin” to go along with Finland and Sweden’s membership in NATO. The scenario of Serbia sanctioning Russia and Bosnia fast-tracking its NATO membership would complement this notion.

The goal of NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine has always been to inflict a strategic defeat upon Russia, first by using Ukraine as a platform from which Russia could be blackmailed into submission via NATO infrastructure there and then via more direct means after the special operation sought to preempt that. After the special operation, this goal was openly declared and advanced through the dual means of sanctions and then 2023’s counteroffensive, but both failed and a strategic defeat was averted.

Accordingly, any political resolution of the Ukrainian Conflict will therefore be seen as a defeat for the West, ergo the need to engineer faux victories that could be spun as having made the populace’s reduced living standards worthwhile after they dropped due to the anti-Russian sanctions. Formalizing Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO memberships after years of them being de facto members and the bloc’s “Anschluss” with Austria are easy means to this end while the mentioned Balkan ones are a bit tougher.

Circling back to Medvedev’s article, he’s right about the legal-political and military-security consequences of Austria joining NATO, but his piece could have benefited by addressing the question of why this is being discussed right now despite it having no significant impact on the balance of power. The answer is that it’s all for perception management purposes vis-à-vis the Western public after the Ukrainian Conflict failed to result in Russia’s strategic defeat despite the costs that they’ve paid for this.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/30/2025 - 07:00

4 Dead, 10 Wounded After Mass Shooting At Stockton, California Banquet Hall

Four people were killed and ten others wounded late Saturday in Stockton, California, after a gunman opened fire inside a banquet hall during a family birthday party. This is a shooting that authorities say appears to have been a "targeted" one.

Mass Shooting in Stockton: 19 Shot, 4 Dead at Children’s Party. Location is banquet hall on Lucille and Thornton.

19 victims. 4 dead as of now, all children. #stockton pic.twitter.com/9J8x0kajtB

— 209 Times (@209TimesCA) November 30, 2025

Authorities say they received calls of a shooting just before 1800 local time near the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue.

***INFORMATIONAL UPDATE***

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Shortly before 6:00 p.m., our dispatch center received reports of a shooting that occurred near the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in Stockton. We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck… pic.twitter.com/aqMWRWnsRa

— San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office (@SJSheriff) November 30, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle reports: 

The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office said it received reports of a shooting in the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue around 6 p.m., the office said.

Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee said, on a social media post, a children's birthday party was the site of a mass shooting, adding that an "ice cream shop should never be a place where families fear for their lives."

However, the Associated Press reported that the shooting occurred at a banquet hall, and that the victims were both children and adults.

The sheriff's office said there are indications that the shooting could have been a targeted attack.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's Office wrote on X that they've "briefed on the horrific shooting in Stockton." 

>>@CAGovernor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the horrific shooting in Stockton.

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (@Cal_OES) is monitoring this evolving situation and coordinating with local law enforcement.

— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) November 30, 2025

Fox News reported early Sunday that the shooter remains at large, prompting a massive manhunt as authorities work to track down the suspect.

*Developing... 

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/30/2025 - 06:35

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• Inside the DOGE Succession Drama Elon Musk Left Behind: What really happened when he logged out of Washington. (Politico)

• They were looking for work — but found a scam instead: Innovative scammers are posting jobs that are nearly indistinguishable from legitimate listings, including on trusted websites like LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter. (NBC News) see also Americans With Four-Year Degrees Now Comprise a Record 25% of Unemployed Workers: Americans with four-year college degrees now comprise a record 25% of total unemployment, underscoring a sharp slowdown in white-collar hiring this year. (Bloomberg)

• AI Meets Aggressive Accounting at Meta’s Gigantic New Data Center: Favorable treatment off the balance sheet hinges on some convenient assumptions. (Wall Street Journal)

• What It Takes to Defeat the Leaf Blowers: To end the use of gas-powered blowers, advocates in one New Jersey town focused on public health and made their case directly to local elected leaders. (CityLab)

• New X Games: Legitimate Groyper or Bangladeshi Bot? The ragebait in your timeline may be coming from abroad. (The Bulwark) see also On the Internet No One Knows You’re a “MAGA patriot” in Lagos: On X’s new location feature… (Agents of Influence)

• The Ultrarich Are Spending a Fortune to Live in Extreme Privacy: In Miami and elsewhere, the wealthy are moving in increasingly private spheres, shelling out big money to bypass the indignities of public life. (Wall Street Journal)

• Deportation Inc.: Cost to Deport One Person: The US government says it spends an average of $17,121 to deport a single person. One man’s journey through the process shows the price can be significantly higher. (BusinessWeek)

• It’s the ‘most important fish in the sea.’ And it’s disappearing. If the menhaden decline continues, striped bass could be next to vanish.  (Washington Post) see also First, the frogs died. Then people got sick. An emerging area of research is uncovering surprising links between nature and human health. (Washington Post)

• Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People: This is what the auto industry wants people to see: sparkling factories turning reclaimed lead into batteries for Ford, Toyota, GM and the rest. But in Africa’s lead recycling capital, reality looks very different. Factories are poisoning people. We know because we tested them. (New York Times)

• The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined: Inside the most important, and also least important, story of our time (The Ringer) see also We Are Not Amused: The Olivia Nuzzi Return is a Disgrace. Olivia Nuzzi Return is a Disgrace (Unpopular Front)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Wilhelm Schmid, CEO of famed watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne, the Glashütte, German watchmaker, recorded live at the Audrain Newport Concours d’Elegance.

 

More Americans are getting their power shut off, as unpaid bills pile up

Source: Washington Post

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To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.

 

The post 10 Sunday Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

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.