Santa Vs The Grinch, Diets, & QE

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

Santa vs The Grinch, Diets, & qe

The week ended with a bang.

At Academy’s Holiday Party, the Marines pulled out all the stops to win the annual “service song” contest (they actually brought out instruments, with Dakota leading the charge on the trumpet).

We rolled (like the Army’s rolling along song), straight into Bloomberg TV Friday morning, where Academy was the guest host for the entire 6am hour. Had some interesting guests on the Geopolitical/European side, a bond portfolio PM, and an analyst who covers Disney (I abstained from asking him a question as I just didn’t think I could contribute usefully to the Disney-OpenAI deal discussion).

Santa vs The Grinch

Post-FOMC, markets rallied making it appear like the Santa rally was well underway. We will be circling back on a couple of things mentioned in our Quick Take on the FOMC. Starting with the final line from that report – the Oracle earnings call could be market moving.

Oracle struggled the next day, but markets fought back from their lows, with some serious “rotation” occurring. But more “questionable” news from the chip and data center/AI space weighed on markets again on Friday, this time, without a late-day stick save.

We use the word “questionable” because on the one hand, we heard phrases like:

• Slight miss, overall solid, decent guidance, new clients added, backlogs, etc.

All phrases that you would not normally associate with individual stocks down double digits or even the Nasdaq 100 down 2%. Clearly expectations are high and valuations still require very strong numbers/guidance for bullishness on data centers/AI to remain intact.

Since November 20th, we’ve seen the Nasdaq 100 lag (still up, but lagging) while the Russell 2000 has been the star of the show.

We pick that date because that was the day we started to see the Fed hawks capitulate – the Santa Rally Recipe.

We argued that breaking the 100-Day Moving Average (DMA) made the Fed “see the light” and turn noticeably dovish (the probability of a rate cut jumped from the 30s to 90s in a matter of days).

We are trading right around the 50-DMA right now on the Nasdaq 100. It could still act as resistance, which we should see Sunday night/Monday morning. But if it breaks through there, the 100-DMA is clearly in play. What is concerning is that it was quite clear to many that the Fed played a crucial role in defending the 100-DMA. Will they do it again if we get there? Possibly, but how? The next meeting is quite far off, by market standards.

We will be watching some of these technical levels closely as it seems that not only is the “free money” gone, but the hurdle to creating further market cap gains has ratcheted higher. We define “free” money as things like announcing $X in spending on AI/data centers and being rewarded with a market cap increase far in excess of $X.

So far, the Grinch hasn’t caught up to the people in Weeville (Russell 2000), but it seems impossible to believe that further weakness here won’t bring down all the markets:

• The stocks just make up such a large portion of the big indices, and it will be difficult for even the Russell 2000, with little actual overlap, to fight the trend. The outperformance can continue, but would likely all be negative.

• The industry makes up such a huge part of the economic story including spending and the wealth effect (more than jobs but there are jobs too). It is difficult to see how markets can do well (though rate cut expectations, which I think are too low, will increase with more cuts coming sooner than is currently being priced in).

More “technical” than usual, but since we “survived” the Fed and the Santa rally seemed back in play, positioning (which goes hand in hand with technicals) may be offsides again coming into a period of low levels of true liquidity.

Which Brings Us to Diets

I cannot remember the last time there was this much chatter about single name CDS, with Oracle’s CDS leading the way. Not only did we end the TV interview on Friday talking about that, but we also spent some time on Friday helping Barron’s understand CDS, in relation to big tech and data centers.

We mentioned Debt Diets a few weeks ago, and want to highlight it again. It was our “Theme for 2019.” At the time, many corporations were seeing their stocks come under pressure, largely due to strains in the credit market for their names. It is “easy” for corporate leadership to ignore the debt markets when their stock price is doing really well. You can probably even give credit markets only a cursory glance if your stock is facing some pressure, but credit is just a side story. But when credit becomes a main part of the story – it is difficult to ignore. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It might sound bad, but it doesn’t have to be.

When Credit Leads the Way

This chart, for me, explains why a “debt diet” may be on the way (and yes, we will explain what we mean by that, and why it isn’t necessarily bad, and follows our end of “free” money narrative).

It is possible that I’m “grasping” at straws, but from the middle of September to the middle of October, the credit market and stock market were not “beating the same drum.” Yes, the stock market faced some selling pressure, but it also had a solid rebound. The credit market basically widened every day during that period.

Now they are back to moving in the same direction and it seems almost impossible to ignore the performance of the credit market when making a decision on the stock market.

Which brings us to the Debt Diet.

• Companies can alter their spending plans.

  • Probably unnecessary here, but for the space as a whole, it might be a good time for CEOs and CFOs to explain their spending plans more clearly. To, not necessarily, pay “homage” to creditors, but make sure creditors understand their concerns are being taken into account.

  • Clarity, especially as to what might make them cautious on building more (maybe some rough alignment of building with profits and positive cash flow in mind, versus an almost “build it and they will come” mentality).

• Companies do not need to be “afraid” of creditors, but a clearer recognition of their importance to your future might be in order.

A lot can be done without changing the plans today. I see a lot of ways that clarification and some identification of issues or trends that might change spending plans could go a long way towards improving spreads and leaving the market hungry for more issuance in 2026 and beyond!

Debt Diets are Manageable – An AI Diet Might Not Be

So far, this seems more like a “debt diet” type of situation in the data center space. The news that has come out doesn’t seem to have changed the overall narrative (backlogs, new clients, etc. all seem to argue this is more about a change in valuations than a meaningful change in trend for the industry).

However, I am nervous that we could see an AI Diet developing:

• How much are companies budgeting for AI spend next year? The following year? Just like the industry itself had “free” money for a period of time, it was impossible for any corporation in America to do anything but spend more on AI. As companies have now been using AI for 2 years or more, are they all seeing the benefits they thought they paid for? Certainly, some are and they are probably rejoicing in their spending. But everyone? Especially in an economy, where away from certain industries (our little i-shaped view of the economy), we are seeing little growth. For now, I think the spending from corporate America continues, but it will be possibly “abated” as opposed to unabated.

• Chips and China. The admin is comfortable selling a greater variety of chips to a greater variety of nations (China being the most important, though I’d argue that the Middle East isn’t far behind in importance). The question is whether China wants chips in the quantity that would fuel real revenue growth? Or is China willing to forego some quality today, in an effort to continue to bootstrap their own chip industry and make them more competitive with the top chips being designed/produced by U.S. companies and TSMC? I think this is more about constraining the upside rather than creating downside risk to spending on U.S. chips, but I have this nagging concern that “we” may be underestimating the resources and skills that China is devoting to this.

• Electricity. If there is one thing our Macro, Structured Products, and Sustainable Finance teams agree on – it is the importance of electricity in today’s economy and the risk that we cannot generate electrons quickly and efficiently enough to satisfy the needs of industry going forward. This “molecules to electrons” has been a theme of ours for quite some time and fits perfectly into our ProSec™ (Production for Security) framework. If you were starting to think, wonder, or even hope that we could go an entire T-Report without mentioning ProSec™, we had to disappoint you.

  • If you have not read Stav Gaon’s work on data centers, I highly recommend you do. You can find his work under the Securitized Products Research & Strategy tab on Academy’s website. You can scroll and pick through his various pieces on data centers.

I think the Debt Diet is real and not necessarily bad. I don’t think the AI Diet is real, but since it is very bad if it occurs, it seemed worth at least highlighting that risk in our “diet” framework.

qe

Is the $40 billion of Federal Reserve purchases QE or a non-event? Or somewhere in between?

It “depends.” Clearly the Fed had to address some issues within the front end of the yield curve. SOFR, as a secured rate, should not be more expensive than unsecured rates. That is embarrassing, and has some small economic consequences. This is NOTHING like elevated LIBOR. When we have problems on interbank lending or even in the commercial paper markets, we can worry. This is much more of an issue with regulations, regulatory capital, and return on capital. The rules have been created in such a way, that it isn’t particularly economic (or even feasible) for the banking industry to price and trade SOFR at levels where “it should trade.” So, to the extent these purchases are “temporary” and designed to get us through year end and “clean things up” (and then they can be reduced or eliminated), it isn’t really QE or even qe. Bitcoin does as good of a job as any asset class at “sniffing” out balance sheet expansion and it has been moderately happy, but not giddy, since the announcement was made.

If the Treasury decides to take advantage of this by reducing issuance of longer-dated bonds, to sell more T-Bills to the Fed, and does this month after month, it starts to look a lot more like QE.

For now, I’ll be in the “qe” camp and that this is more of a “fix,” than in the full-on QE camp, but I’m not sure why Treasury wouldn’t try to make this work a lot more like QE than maybe even Powell intended?

I continue to believe that “we ain’t seen nothing yet” in terms of how the admin and Treasury will work with the Fed to achieve 3% or lower on the front end and a 3-handle (under 4%) on 10s.

At 4.18% on 10s and 2s vs 10s at 66 (the highest since February 2022), I’m tempted to be buying 10s and putting on flatteners. But, it is probably a bit early, as the market doesn’t feel that healthy, and I think that we need Japanese yields to really stabilize and Europe to make it clear on whether they are going to spend aggressively, or seize Russia’s frozen reserves, or let the 5% defense spending fizzle, before we can get too comfortable on U.S. rates.

It does seem ”curious” that Goolsbee went from dissenting on Wednesday (wanted no cut) to highlighting that he thinks there will be more cuts next year than others! I wonder what sort of “bollocking” he got from the admin between the FOMC meeting and his speaking opportunity?

Bottom Line

I am not sure how we got to the “bottom line” without mentioning Tuesday’s jobs data. The release date is highly unusual and I certainly don’t understand how the government shutdown will affect the report. Since it is delayed, the response rate could be higher, but maybe much of the preliminary work wasn’t done?

The consensus is for 50k jobs to be created. I’d be leaning towards the under. I do think a weak jobs report would help bonds. I agree with Goolsbee that the Fed will cut sooner and more aggressively than is priced in, but it won’t help the long end much (just yet) and won’t help stocks – as the “slowdown” story (despite the Fed raising GDP expectations for next year) will weigh on stocks.

One thing I can tell you with certainty is that despite all this talk of diets, and probably because of the holidays and travel, I’m very reluctant and even a bit scared to step on a scale.

Have a great week, but expect more chop and volatility coming into year end and the start of next year, which should be a gangbuster one for debt issuance, and may well make credit markets interesting to focus on again! I’ve almost missed the fact that in the past year, where everything in credit seemed so dull (until the latter half when the financing needs started to hit home), we also saw the first signs of unexpected problems in private credit.

With all that is going on in the world, and U.S. service members at risk, it was fun to sit back and watch a great Army-Navy football game

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 18:25

Santa Vs The Grinch, Diets, & QE

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

Santa vs The Grinch, Diets, & qe

The week ended with a bang.

At Academy’s Holiday Party, the Marines pulled out all the stops to win the annual “service song” contest (they actually brought out instruments, with Dakota leading the charge on the trumpet).

We rolled (like the Army’s rolling along song), straight into Bloomberg TV Friday morning, where Academy was the guest host for the entire 6am hour. Had some interesting guests on the Geopolitical/European side, a bond portfolio PM, and an analyst who covers Disney (I abstained from asking him a question as I just didn’t think I could contribute usefully to the Disney-OpenAI deal discussion).

Santa vs The Grinch

Post-FOMC, markets rallied making it appear like the Santa rally was well underway. We will be circling back on a couple of things mentioned in our Quick Take on the FOMC. Starting with the final line from that report – the Oracle earnings call could be market moving.

Oracle struggled the next day, but markets fought back from their lows, with some serious “rotation” occurring. But more “questionable” news from the chip and data center/AI space weighed on markets again on Friday, this time, without a late-day stick save.

We use the word “questionable” because on the one hand, we heard phrases like:

• Slight miss, overall solid, decent guidance, new clients added, backlogs, etc.

All phrases that you would not normally associate with individual stocks down double digits or even the Nasdaq 100 down 2%. Clearly expectations are high and valuations still require very strong numbers/guidance for bullishness on data centers/AI to remain intact.

Since November 20th, we’ve seen the Nasdaq 100 lag (still up, but lagging) while the Russell 2000 has been the star of the show.

We pick that date because that was the day we started to see the Fed hawks capitulate – the Santa Rally Recipe.

We argued that breaking the 100-Day Moving Average (DMA) made the Fed “see the light” and turn noticeably dovish (the probability of a rate cut jumped from the 30s to 90s in a matter of days).

We are trading right around the 50-DMA right now on the Nasdaq 100. It could still act as resistance, which we should see Sunday night/Monday morning. But if it breaks through there, the 100-DMA is clearly in play. What is concerning is that it was quite clear to many that the Fed played a crucial role in defending the 100-DMA. Will they do it again if we get there? Possibly, but how? The next meeting is quite far off, by market standards.

We will be watching some of these technical levels closely as it seems that not only is the “free money” gone, but the hurdle to creating further market cap gains has ratcheted higher. We define “free” money as things like announcing $X in spending on AI/data centers and being rewarded with a market cap increase far in excess of $X.

So far, the Grinch hasn’t caught up to the people in Weeville (Russell 2000), but it seems impossible to believe that further weakness here won’t bring down all the markets:

• The stocks just make up such a large portion of the big indices, and it will be difficult for even the Russell 2000, with little actual overlap, to fight the trend. The outperformance can continue, but would likely all be negative.

• The industry makes up such a huge part of the economic story including spending and the wealth effect (more than jobs but there are jobs too). It is difficult to see how markets can do well (though rate cut expectations, which I think are too low, will increase with more cuts coming sooner than is currently being priced in).

More “technical” than usual, but since we “survived” the Fed and the Santa rally seemed back in play, positioning (which goes hand in hand with technicals) may be offsides again coming into a period of low levels of true liquidity.

Which Brings Us to Diets

I cannot remember the last time there was this much chatter about single name CDS, with Oracle’s CDS leading the way. Not only did we end the TV interview on Friday talking about that, but we also spent some time on Friday helping Barron’s understand CDS, in relation to big tech and data centers.

We mentioned Debt Diets a few weeks ago, and want to highlight it again. It was our “Theme for 2019.” At the time, many corporations were seeing their stocks come under pressure, largely due to strains in the credit market for their names. It is “easy” for corporate leadership to ignore the debt markets when their stock price is doing really well. You can probably even give credit markets only a cursory glance if your stock is facing some pressure, but credit is just a side story. But when credit becomes a main part of the story – it is difficult to ignore. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It might sound bad, but it doesn’t have to be.

When Credit Leads the Way

This chart, for me, explains why a “debt diet” may be on the way (and yes, we will explain what we mean by that, and why it isn’t necessarily bad, and follows our end of “free” money narrative).

It is possible that I’m “grasping” at straws, but from the middle of September to the middle of October, the credit market and stock market were not “beating the same drum.” Yes, the stock market faced some selling pressure, but it also had a solid rebound. The credit market basically widened every day during that period.

Now they are back to moving in the same direction and it seems almost impossible to ignore the performance of the credit market when making a decision on the stock market.

Which brings us to the Debt Diet.

• Companies can alter their spending plans.

  • Probably unnecessary here, but for the space as a whole, it might be a good time for CEOs and CFOs to explain their spending plans more clearly. To, not necessarily, pay “homage” to creditors, but make sure creditors understand their concerns are being taken into account.

  • Clarity, especially as to what might make them cautious on building more (maybe some rough alignment of building with profits and positive cash flow in mind, versus an almost “build it and they will come” mentality).

• Companies do not need to be “afraid” of creditors, but a clearer recognition of their importance to your future might be in order.

A lot can be done without changing the plans today. I see a lot of ways that clarification and some identification of issues or trends that might change spending plans could go a long way towards improving spreads and leaving the market hungry for more issuance in 2026 and beyond!

Debt Diets are Manageable – An AI Diet Might Not Be

So far, this seems more like a “debt diet” type of situation in the data center space. The news that has come out doesn’t seem to have changed the overall narrative (backlogs, new clients, etc. all seem to argue this is more about a change in valuations than a meaningful change in trend for the industry).

However, I am nervous that we could see an AI Diet developing:

• How much are companies budgeting for AI spend next year? The following year? Just like the industry itself had “free” money for a period of time, it was impossible for any corporation in America to do anything but spend more on AI. As companies have now been using AI for 2 years or more, are they all seeing the benefits they thought they paid for? Certainly, some are and they are probably rejoicing in their spending. But everyone? Especially in an economy, where away from certain industries (our little i-shaped view of the economy), we are seeing little growth. For now, I think the spending from corporate America continues, but it will be possibly “abated” as opposed to unabated.

• Chips and China. The admin is comfortable selling a greater variety of chips to a greater variety of nations (China being the most important, though I’d argue that the Middle East isn’t far behind in importance). The question is whether China wants chips in the quantity that would fuel real revenue growth? Or is China willing to forego some quality today, in an effort to continue to bootstrap their own chip industry and make them more competitive with the top chips being designed/produced by U.S. companies and TSMC? I think this is more about constraining the upside rather than creating downside risk to spending on U.S. chips, but I have this nagging concern that “we” may be underestimating the resources and skills that China is devoting to this.

• Electricity. If there is one thing our Macro, Structured Products, and Sustainable Finance teams agree on – it is the importance of electricity in today’s economy and the risk that we cannot generate electrons quickly and efficiently enough to satisfy the needs of industry going forward. This “molecules to electrons” has been a theme of ours for quite some time and fits perfectly into our ProSec™ (Production for Security) framework. If you were starting to think, wonder, or even hope that we could go an entire T-Report without mentioning ProSec™, we had to disappoint you.

  • If you have not read Stav Gaon’s work on data centers, I highly recommend you do. You can find his work under the Securitized Products Research & Strategy tab on Academy’s website. You can scroll and pick through his various pieces on data centers.

I think the Debt Diet is real and not necessarily bad. I don’t think the AI Diet is real, but since it is very bad if it occurs, it seemed worth at least highlighting that risk in our “diet” framework.

qe

Is the $40 billion of Federal Reserve purchases QE or a non-event? Or somewhere in between?

It “depends.” Clearly the Fed had to address some issues within the front end of the yield curve. SOFR, as a secured rate, should not be more expensive than unsecured rates. That is embarrassing, and has some small economic consequences. This is NOTHING like elevated LIBOR. When we have problems on interbank lending or even in the commercial paper markets, we can worry. This is much more of an issue with regulations, regulatory capital, and return on capital. The rules have been created in such a way, that it isn’t particularly economic (or even feasible) for the banking industry to price and trade SOFR at levels where “it should trade.” So, to the extent these purchases are “temporary” and designed to get us through year end and “clean things up” (and then they can be reduced or eliminated), it isn’t really QE or even qe. Bitcoin does as good of a job as any asset class at “sniffing” out balance sheet expansion and it has been moderately happy, but not giddy, since the announcement was made.

If the Treasury decides to take advantage of this by reducing issuance of longer-dated bonds, to sell more T-Bills to the Fed, and does this month after month, it starts to look a lot more like QE.

For now, I’ll be in the “qe” camp and that this is more of a “fix,” than in the full-on QE camp, but I’m not sure why Treasury wouldn’t try to make this work a lot more like QE than maybe even Powell intended?

I continue to believe that “we ain’t seen nothing yet” in terms of how the admin and Treasury will work with the Fed to achieve 3% or lower on the front end and a 3-handle (under 4%) on 10s.

At 4.18% on 10s and 2s vs 10s at 66 (the highest since February 2022), I’m tempted to be buying 10s and putting on flatteners. But, it is probably a bit early, as the market doesn’t feel that healthy, and I think that we need Japanese yields to really stabilize and Europe to make it clear on whether they are going to spend aggressively, or seize Russia’s frozen reserves, or let the 5% defense spending fizzle, before we can get too comfortable on U.S. rates.

It does seem ”curious” that Goolsbee went from dissenting on Wednesday (wanted no cut) to highlighting that he thinks there will be more cuts next year than others! I wonder what sort of “bollocking” he got from the admin between the FOMC meeting and his speaking opportunity?

Bottom Line

I am not sure how we got to the “bottom line” without mentioning Tuesday’s jobs data. The release date is highly unusual and I certainly don’t understand how the government shutdown will affect the report. Since it is delayed, the response rate could be higher, but maybe much of the preliminary work wasn’t done?

The consensus is for 50k jobs to be created. I’d be leaning towards the under. I do think a weak jobs report would help bonds. I agree with Goolsbee that the Fed will cut sooner and more aggressively than is priced in, but it won’t help the long end much (just yet) and won’t help stocks – as the “slowdown” story (despite the Fed raising GDP expectations for next year) will weigh on stocks.

One thing I can tell you with certainty is that despite all this talk of diets, and probably because of the holidays and travel, I’m very reluctant and even a bit scared to step on a scale.

Have a great week, but expect more chop and volatility coming into year end and the start of next year, which should be a gangbuster one for debt issuance, and may well make credit markets interesting to focus on again! I’ve almost missed the fact that in the past year, where everything in credit seemed so dull (until the latter half when the financing needs started to hit home), we also saw the first signs of unexpected problems in private credit.

With all that is going on in the world, and U.S. service members at risk, it was fun to sit back and watch a great Army-Navy football game

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 18:25

Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of December 14, 2025

Monday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, The New York Fed Empire State manufacturing survey for December. The consensus is for a reading of 10.8, down from 18.7.

• 10:00 AM, The December NAHB homebuilder survey.  The consensus is for a reading of 39, up from 38 the previous month. Any number below 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as poor than good.
From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures S&P 500 and DOW futures are little changed (fair value).

Oil prices were down over the last week with WTI futures at $57.44 per barrel and Brent at $61.12 per barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $71, and Brent was at $74 - so WTI oil prices are down about 20% year-over-year.

Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are at $2.87 per gallon. A year ago, prices were at $2.98 per gallon, so gasoline prices are down $0.11 year-over-year.

We're "At The Beginning Of The Credit Destruction Cycle"; Ed Dowd Warns

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Former Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com warned in September we were at the “Beginning of Panic Rate Cut Cycle.”  Since that prediction, the Fed has cut interest rates three times.  Looks like Dowd called it correctly.  

So, when does the panic kick in?  Dowd says, “The panic kicks in when there is some sort of banking wobble or stock market wobble, which is in the process of setting up..."

"Private credit is the first to show problems.  We had Tricolor Holdings (subprime auto lending bankruptcy) go poof.  We had First Brands (bankruptcy) go poof.  This is all private credit.  We have had other lenders like PrimaLend (bankruptcy) starting to go poof.  Private credit is just like subprime.  It not a very big part of the Jenga credit chain, but it’s enough to start a daisy chain of knock-on effects.  

So, this is where we are, at the beginning of the credit destruction cycle.  We are seeing consumer credit card delinquencies nearing all-time highs, auto loan delinquencies and, next up, we will be seeing mortgage delinquencies. 

People stop paying their credit cards first, then their auto loans and stop paying on their homes last. 

As the layoffs accelerate, and we are already seeing more high-profile layoffs at Amazon, UPS and you name it, once those begin, we will be seeing higher delinquency rates.”

Dowd sees much lower prices for homes.  Dowd says,

“There is a distinct problem between homes for sale and homes sold, meaning there are a lot of people wanting to sell their homes and not a lot of people buying them. 

The inventory continues to grow. . .. The only way this clears is through price.  The price of homes is going lower. 

We had an overbuild in multi-family housing because of the illegal immigrants.  Those deals are going sour and rolling over. 

Rents are coming down. . .. It’s all slowly going the wrong way, and it will become a mainstream topic in 2026.”

In past interviews, Dowd points out there was massive fraud in the Biden Administration, especially in unemployment figures. 

That, too, will all be revealed.  This is why Dowd pointed out last year that President Trump “Inherited a Turd of an Economy.”

What is working are precious metals, especially gold.  Dowd does not see gold losing its shine anytime soon.  Dowd says,

“If we get any kind of credit crisis, gold may get sold temporarily where people sell what they can, but not what they want.  Long term, gold looks like it’s going to $10,000 an ounce on the charts by 2030.  Everything is conspiring fundamentally and technically to lead us that way.  They made gold a Tier 1 asset.  

That makes gold money again in the banking system. . .. I would not get scared out of my physical gold position anytime soon.”

Dowd has new cutting-edge analysis on China for institutional investors.  China is a lot weaker than anyone can imagine.  Dowd says,

“Not only does China have long-term structural problems, our report identifies a very acute part of their real estate crisis, which is beginning now and accelerating into 2026. . .. China is struggling mightily.  We have more bargaining chips than a lot of us think.  When I hear things like ‘China holds all the cards and Trump is screwed,’ I laugh.”

There is much more in the 45-minute interview.

There is lots of free information on Dowd’s website called PhinanceTechnologies.com.

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 16:20

We're "At The Beginning Of The Credit Destruction Cycle"; Ed Dowd Warns

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Former Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com warned in September we were at the “Beginning of Panic Rate Cut Cycle.”  Since that prediction, the Fed has cut interest rates three times.  Looks like Dowd called it correctly.  

So, when does the panic kick in?  Dowd says, “The panic kicks in when there is some sort of banking wobble or stock market wobble, which is in the process of setting up..."

"Private credit is the first to show problems.  We had Tricolor Holdings (subprime auto lending bankruptcy) go poof.  We had First Brands (bankruptcy) go poof.  This is all private credit.  We have had other lenders like PrimaLend (bankruptcy) starting to go poof.  Private credit is just like subprime.  It not a very big part of the Jenga credit chain, but it’s enough to start a daisy chain of knock-on effects.  

So, this is where we are, at the beginning of the credit destruction cycle.  We are seeing consumer credit card delinquencies nearing all-time highs, auto loan delinquencies and, next up, we will be seeing mortgage delinquencies. 

People stop paying their credit cards first, then their auto loans and stop paying on their homes last. 

As the layoffs accelerate, and we are already seeing more high-profile layoffs at Amazon, UPS and you name it, once those begin, we will be seeing higher delinquency rates.”

Dowd sees much lower prices for homes.  Dowd says,

“There is a distinct problem between homes for sale and homes sold, meaning there are a lot of people wanting to sell their homes and not a lot of people buying them. 

The inventory continues to grow. . .. The only way this clears is through price.  The price of homes is going lower. 

We had an overbuild in multi-family housing because of the illegal immigrants.  Those deals are going sour and rolling over. 

Rents are coming down. . .. It’s all slowly going the wrong way, and it will become a mainstream topic in 2026.”

In past interviews, Dowd points out there was massive fraud in the Biden Administration, especially in unemployment figures. 

That, too, will all be revealed.  This is why Dowd pointed out last year that President Trump “Inherited a Turd of an Economy.”

What is working are precious metals, especially gold.  Dowd does not see gold losing its shine anytime soon.  Dowd says,

“If we get any kind of credit crisis, gold may get sold temporarily where people sell what they can, but not what they want.  Long term, gold looks like it’s going to $10,000 an ounce on the charts by 2030.  Everything is conspiring fundamentally and technically to lead us that way.  They made gold a Tier 1 asset.  

That makes gold money again in the banking system. . .. I would not get scared out of my physical gold position anytime soon.”

Dowd has new cutting-edge analysis on China for institutional investors.  China is a lot weaker than anyone can imagine.  Dowd says,

“Not only does China have long-term structural problems, our report identifies a very acute part of their real estate crisis, which is beginning now and accelerating into 2026. . .. China is struggling mightily.  We have more bargaining chips than a lot of us think.  When I hear things like ‘China holds all the cards and Trump is screwed,’ I laugh.”

There is much more in the 45-minute interview.

There is lots of free information on Dowd’s website called PhinanceTechnologies.com.

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 16:20

Watch: Top Biden Official Belatedly Admits Ukraine War Truth Bombshell

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is way behind the times. On Sunday he very belatedly expressed willingness to drop Ukraine's bid to join NATO. In place of this, he's seeking robust security guarantees. "We are talking about bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the United States — namely, Article 5-like guarantees ... as well as security guarantees for us from our European partners and from other countries such as Canada, Japan and others," Zelensky told journalists in a group chat, as reported in Financial Times.

"These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression," he said. "And this is already a compromise on our part." But this should have been taken off the table all the way back in February of 2022, on the eve of the Russian invasion, or even well before. He's much too late 'offering' this 'concession' just as White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner are meeting Sunday in Berlin with Zelensky, and then separately with the national security advisers of Germany, France and the UK.

The open secret has for years been that the Washington and EU establishments know full well that it was historic and recent constant NATO expansion which led to this horrific, grinding war. This reality is so well understood that in their private, non-official commentary even former top Biden officials fully admit the fact. Yet these same Biden officials had while in government pursued policies fueling the Ukrainian proxy war as they wanted to 'weaken' Russia. They considered the issue of NATO expansion as a prime rationale of Russia's invasion to be an off-limits talking point. Indeed for any sincere, independent commentators... to so much as raise the issue would get them smeared as a "Putin apologist". But watch this recent and highly revealing clip below of Joe Biden's top official for Europe and former national security official Amanda Sloat admitting the truth:

Absolut MUST Watch!

Joe Biden's top official for Europe Amanda Sloat casually admitting explosive facts that the Blob not only suppressed for years, but you would have been accused of being a Putin apologist if you ever raised.

Remember the energy expended to silence and… pic.twitter.com/8caof42O1D

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) December 12, 2025

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 15:45

Watch: Top Biden Official Belatedly Admits Ukraine War Truth Bombshell

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is way behind the times. On Sunday he very belatedly expressed willingness to drop Ukraine's bid to join NATO. In place of this, he's seeking robust security guarantees. "We are talking about bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the United States — namely, Article 5-like guarantees ... as well as security guarantees for us from our European partners and from other countries such as Canada, Japan and others," Zelensky told journalists in a group chat, as reported in Financial Times.

"These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression," he said. "And this is already a compromise on our part." But this should have been taken off the table all the way back in February of 2022, on the eve of the Russian invasion, or even well before. He's much too late 'offering' this 'concession' just as White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner are meeting Sunday in Berlin with Zelensky, and then separately with the national security advisers of Germany, France and the UK.

The open secret has for years been that the Washington and EU establishments know full well that it was historic and recent constant NATO expansion which led to this horrific, grinding war. This reality is so well understood that in their private, non-official commentary even former top Biden officials fully admit the fact. Yet these same Biden officials had while in government pursued policies fueling the Ukrainian proxy war as they wanted to 'weaken' Russia. They considered the issue of NATO expansion as a prime rationale of Russia's invasion to be an off-limits talking point. Indeed for any sincere, independent commentators... to so much as raise the issue would get them smeared as a "Putin apologist". But watch this recent and highly revealing clip below of Joe Biden's top official for Europe and former national security official Amanda Sloat admitting the truth:

Absolut MUST Watch!

Joe Biden's top official for Europe Amanda Sloat casually admitting explosive facts that the Blob not only suppressed for years, but you would have been accused of being a Putin apologist if you ever raised.

Remember the energy expended to silence and… pic.twitter.com/8caof42O1D

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) December 12, 2025

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 15:45

Gunman Who Killed 3 Americans In Syria Was Member of Syrian Government Forces

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com

The gunman who killed two members of the Iowa National Guard and an American civilian interpreter in an attack in Palmyra, central Syria, on Saturday was a member of the Syrian government’s security forces, according to the Syrian Interior Ministry.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) first reported that the attacker was a member of the security forces and called for the Syrian government, which is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, to get rid of members who have an "ISIS ideology."

The Syrian Interior Ministry claimed that, before the attack, Syrian authorities had "decided to fire him" for having "extremist Islamist ideology" and had planned to do so on Sunday. "We discovered him in December and were going to dismiss him, but we didn’t make it in time because it was a holiday," said ministry spokesman Nour al-Din al-Baba, according to The Cradle.

US Army Sergeant with a translator & two Syrian soldiers during a training in Syria on April 30, 2025. US Army photo

A Syrian security official told AFP that the attacker had been in the security forces "for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra."

According to Wael Essam, a Palestinian journalist who has covered the conflict in Syria for many years, the perpetrator has been identified as Tariq Satouf al-Hamd from the Aleppo countryside. Essam said that al-Hamd was previously a member of ISIS, but after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, he traveled to Idlib, the former home base of HTS, and joined the General Security.

The attack occurred when US military officers were meeting with Syrian Interior Ministry officials while US and Syrian troops stood guard at a base near the city of Palmyra. According to The Wall Street Journal, a lone gunman appeared in a window and opened fire on the US and Syrian soldiers, and he was pursued by Syrian troops and killed. However, according to Essam’s report, the attacker blew himself up.

"The attacker tried to reach the meeting room in the headquarters of the General Security in Palmyra (formerly the Military Security headquarters) where senior officers are present, and in the corridor he clashed with the American guards and the translator and blew himself up," Essam wrote on X.

Essam also suggested that other members of the Syrian security forces were involved in the attack. "Security sources confirmed to me that Syrian intelligence, along with the Coalition forces, arrested six elements from the General Security at the headquarters in Palmyra, accused of coordinating the operation with him, and it is said that they are from the group that moved with him from the desert to the General Security in Idlib," he said.

He added that Syrian authorities were “unable to identify his previous affiliation with the organization (ISIS), and there are hundreds like him, due to the large numbers who joined and which the security apparatus needed after the fall of the regime.”

President Trump and other US officials have called the incident an "ISIS attack" and have left out the detail that the perpetrator was a member of the Syrian military, which the US has allied itself with despite HTS’s al-Qaeda past, and as of Sunday, ISIS hasn’t taken credit for the shooting.

"This was an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is "extremely angry" about the attack. Trump recently hosted Sharaa at the White House despite his past as an al-Qaeda leader and ally of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS.

The Syrian government itself has contradicted the below Trump claims...

Trump on Syria:

We had 3 great patriots terminated by bad people.

It was not the Syrian government, it was ISIS.

The Syrian government fought by our side. pic.twitter.com/oIO0ntdHvL

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 14, 2025

Both Trump and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth vowed there would be retaliation for the attack, and according to the SOHR, there’s been an escalation of US operations in the region, including surveillance flights and arrests of people on suspicion of "affiliating with ISIS and/or adopting its ideology."

The Syrian government has also announced its escalating operations against Syria. During Sharaa’s visit to the Oval Office, his government officially joined the US-led anti-ISIS coalition despite its al-Qaeda links and many of its soldiers having a similar ideology to ISIS, putting US troops operating in Syria at risk of insider attacks.

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 15:10

Gunman Who Killed 3 Americans In Syria Was Member of Syrian Government Forces

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com

The gunman who killed two members of the Iowa National Guard and an American civilian interpreter in an attack in Palmyra, central Syria, on Saturday was a member of the Syrian government’s security forces, according to the Syrian Interior Ministry.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) first reported that the attacker was a member of the security forces and called for the Syrian government, which is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, to get rid of members who have an "ISIS ideology."

The Syrian Interior Ministry claimed that, before the attack, Syrian authorities had "decided to fire him" for having "extremist Islamist ideology" and had planned to do so on Sunday. "We discovered him in December and were going to dismiss him, but we didn’t make it in time because it was a holiday," said ministry spokesman Nour al-Din al-Baba, according to The Cradle.

US Army Sergeant with a translator & two Syrian soldiers during a training in Syria on April 30, 2025. US Army photo

A Syrian security official told AFP that the attacker had been in the security forces "for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra."

According to Wael Essam, a Palestinian journalist who has covered the conflict in Syria for many years, the perpetrator has been identified as Tariq Satouf al-Hamd from the Aleppo countryside. Essam said that al-Hamd was previously a member of ISIS, but after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, he traveled to Idlib, the former home base of HTS, and joined the General Security.

The attack occurred when US military officers were meeting with Syrian Interior Ministry officials while US and Syrian troops stood guard at a base near the city of Palmyra. According to The Wall Street Journal, a lone gunman appeared in a window and opened fire on the US and Syrian soldiers, and he was pursued by Syrian troops and killed. However, according to Essam’s report, the attacker blew himself up.

"The attacker tried to reach the meeting room in the headquarters of the General Security in Palmyra (formerly the Military Security headquarters) where senior officers are present, and in the corridor he clashed with the American guards and the translator and blew himself up," Essam wrote on X.

Essam also suggested that other members of the Syrian security forces were involved in the attack. "Security sources confirmed to me that Syrian intelligence, along with the Coalition forces, arrested six elements from the General Security at the headquarters in Palmyra, accused of coordinating the operation with him, and it is said that they are from the group that moved with him from the desert to the General Security in Idlib," he said.

He added that Syrian authorities were “unable to identify his previous affiliation with the organization (ISIS), and there are hundreds like him, due to the large numbers who joined and which the security apparatus needed after the fall of the regime.”

President Trump and other US officials have called the incident an "ISIS attack" and have left out the detail that the perpetrator was a member of the Syrian military, which the US has allied itself with despite HTS’s al-Qaeda past, and as of Sunday, ISIS hasn’t taken credit for the shooting.

"This was an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is "extremely angry" about the attack. Trump recently hosted Sharaa at the White House despite his past as an al-Qaeda leader and ally of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS.

The Syrian government itself has contradicted the below Trump claims...

Trump on Syria:

We had 3 great patriots terminated by bad people.

It was not the Syrian government, it was ISIS.

The Syrian government fought by our side. pic.twitter.com/oIO0ntdHvL

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 14, 2025

Both Trump and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth vowed there would be retaliation for the attack, and according to the SOHR, there’s been an escalation of US operations in the region, including surveillance flights and arrests of people on suspicion of "affiliating with ISIS and/or adopting its ideology."

The Syrian government has also announced its escalating operations against Syria. During Sharaa’s visit to the Oval Office, his government officially joined the US-led anti-ISIS coalition despite its al-Qaeda links and many of its soldiers having a similar ideology to ISIS, putting US troops operating in Syria at risk of insider attacks.

Tyler Durden Sun, 12/14/2025 - 15:10

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.