from Dr. Steve Turley
German Politician Fined $6k for Pointing to Government’s Own Stats On Rapes by Migrants
Found guilty of ‘incitement’ by a district court
by Steve Watson
Modernity News
A German politician has been found guilty of ‘incitement’ by a district court after she posted a link to the government’s own statistics on crimes committed by migrants, specifically rape, and asked why they are so disproportionately high.
A report by the German outlet Kreiszeitung notes that District council member Marie-Thérèse Kaiser of the AfD Party shared a post on social media in 2021 regarding refugee resettlement, asking the question “Afghan refugees, welcome culture for group rapes?”
She included a link to government stats that highlighted a massive disproportion in the number of Afghan migrants who have committed gang rapes in Germany compared to other foreigners and native Germans.
The Tax Free Business Owner with Mark Miller
from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network
Kerry interviewed Mark Miller about his book, “The Tax-Free Business Owner,” which offers over 130 tax mitigation strategies. Miller emphasized the importance of proactive planning to reduce taxes and highlighted the need for formalized tax plans and working towards a zero tax bracket. The conversation also covered the significance of trusts and wealth strategies in minimizing taxes and building wealth, as well as the importance of estate planning and utilizing advanced investing strategies from the Hilton True Wealth portfolios. Miller also shared information about an upcoming book that will delve into the advanced investing strategies utilized by the Hiltons.
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Potential Future of Electronic Payment Systems with Jeremy Lessaris
from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network
Kerry and Jeremy Lessaris discussed cost reduction in credit card processing. Lessaris explained his method of using machine learning to assess the profitability of current processors and negotiate lower fees without requiring businesses to switch processors. He emphasized the importance of regularly reviewing processing statements as pricing can change unpredictably. The conversation also delved into the intricacies of credit card processing fees, the predatory practices of companies, and the potential for alternative payment methods like cryptocurrencies and ACH transactions to offer solutions to these challenges. Paymentbrokers.com was mentioned as a resource for further information on these topics.
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You Need Two Years of Food with Martin Armstrong
by Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog
Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong has new data on how well the Biden economy is doing. Spoiler alert: It’s not doing well, and the financial system is about to tank. I asked Armstrong if the US government could default on its debt if countries around the world continue to stop buying it? Armstrong explained, “I think the US could default on its debt as early as 2025, but probably in 2027. We have kicked the can down the road as far as we can go. It’s not just in the United States. Europe is in the same boat. So is Japan. This is why they need war. They think by going into war, that’s the excuse to default on the debt. They simply will not pay China. If they try to sell their debt–good luck. We are not redeeming it. The same thing is happening in Europe. So, once that happens, you go into war, and that is their excuse on this whole debt thing to collapse, which wipes out pensions etc. Then they can blame Putin. This is the same thing Biden was doing before saying this was Putin’s inflation. Then, with the whole CBDC thing (central bank digital currency) . . . . the IMF has already completed its digital coin, and they want that to replace the dollar as the reserve currency for the world. . . . These people are desperately just trying to hang on to power. Nobody wants to give it up, and nobody wants to reform.”
Open the Overton Window
by Jeffrey Tucker
Daily Reckoning
You may have heard of the “Overton window.”
The concept of the Overton window caught on in professional culture, particularly those seeking to nudge public opinion, because it taps into a certain sense that we all know is there.
There are things you can say and things you cannot say, not because there are speech controls (though there are) but because holding certain views makes you anathema and dismissable. This leads to less influence and effectiveness.
The Overton window is a way of mapping sayable opinions.
The goal of advocacy is to stay within the window while moving it just ever so much. For example, if you’re writing about monetary policy, you should say that the Fed should not immediately reduce rates for fear of igniting inflation.
Inspired Idiot: Canadian “Healthcare” Edition
by James Hickman
Schiff Sovereign
Retired Canadian Army corporal Christine Gauthier lost the use of her legs in a 1989 military training accident.
But that never kept her down; she competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics in canoeing, and regularly competes in other similar events.
Gauthier lives in Canada, which has a socialized healthcare system. That means her healthcare is “free”… of course when the government gives away something for “free” it often turns out to be extremely expensive.
In Christine’s case, she had an endless wait for a home wheelchair ramp, which caused even greater challenges in her life.
Capital Gains Taxes Loom Over Blue States – Welcome to the Great Reset
by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
Eleven states may face capital gain taxes to comply with the Biden Administration’s 2025 budget, in which the government must hunt the people for taxes to pay for a fraction of their spending. The concept of capital gains was not within the original Constitution. The Founding Fathers established a completely new nation in an attempt to flee government tyranny, but yet again, Democracy has fallen into a Republic where the people have no say.
Capital gains were introduced in 1913, The 16th Amendment granted US Congress the power to levy income via taxation, which remained at around 7% until 1921. Congress quickly determined that they needed to extort citizens for more money and created two brackets. The 7% tax became a standard for income tax, but investors who held for over two years, an insignificant amount of time, were punished for saving and forced to pay 12.5% to Washington. Fast forward to 2025, and we are looking at the top marginal rate rising to up to 57.9%! The current capital extortion rate is around a quarter of one’s capital.
Unification of CBDCs? Global Banks Are Telling Us the End of the Dollar System is Near
by Brandon Smith
Alt Market
World reserve status allows for amazing latitude in terms of monetary policy. The Federal Reserve understands that there is constant demand for dollars overseas as a means to more easily import and export goods. The dollar’s petro-status also makes it essential for trading oil globally. This means that the central bank of the US has been able to create fiat currency from thin air to a far higher degree than any other central bank on the planet while avoiding the immediate effects of hyperinflation.
Much of that cash as well as dollar denominated debt (physical and digital) ends up in the coffers of foreign central banks, international banks and investment firms where it is held as a hedge or used to adjust the exchange rates of other currencies for trade advantage. As much as one-half of the value of all U.S. currency is estimated to be circulating abroad.
The $1.3 Trillion Elephant in the Room
by David Stockman
LewRockwell.com
These people have to be stopped!
We are talking about the nation’s unhinged monetary politburo domiciled in the Eccles Building, of course. It is bad enough that their relentless inflation of financial assets has showered the 1% with untold trillions of windfall gains, but their ultimate crime is that they lured the nation’s elected politician into a veritable fiscal trance. Consequently, future generations will be lugging the service costs on insuperable public debts for years to come.
For more than two decades these foolish PhDs and monetary apparatchiks drove the entire Treasury yield curve to rock bottom, even as public debt erupted skyward. In this context, the single biggest chunk of the Treasury debt lies in the 90-day T-bill sector, but between December 2007 and June 2023 the inflation-adjusted yield on this workhorse debt security was negative 95% of the time.
Gold and Silver Finding a Base
by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money
Massive Comex silver deliveries: does this indicate a scramble for metal? And are the silver short positions spiralling out of control?
[…] Gold and silver consolidated this week, with gold testing support at $2300 and silver at $26. In European trade this morning, gold was $2302, down $35, and silver $26.56, down 66 cents. Volumes on Comex in both metals declined as the consolidation has progressed.
The highlight of the week was the FOMC meeting and statement. As it turned out, there was little surprise, other than the pace of quantitative tightening which persuaded optimists that pressure on yields along the curve would be reduced. Consequently, yields ticked marginally lower, as the chart of the 10-year UST note shows:
Interest Rates Higher for Longer, Another Bank Rescue, & the Normie Awakening
I’m calling this “Normie Awakening Week.” And the faster people wake up, the harder the Biden-Handling authoritarians work to create the next fear-inducing crisis. Meanwhile, the economy is stumbling into stagflation, Powell’s statements notwithstanding.
by Dave Fairtex
Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity
My conundrum: “they” certainly have things queued up over the next six months. I feel like I have to walk a tightrope between maintaining my hippocampus (avoiding the effects of fearporn-boosters), while looking to see what is coming next and preparing for it.
Here’s my “queue of events”:
+ Stagflation/Recession – a consequence; starting now
+ H5N1 Bird Flu – fear injection, reduce cows/milk/chickens, lockdowns, mail-in ballots – starting now
+ Bank Failures – Unrealized Losses – depends on the 10-year yield
+ Student/Migrant Riots – fear injection, excuse for National Police/Oligarchy-Gestapo – ramping up
The Ratchet Effect On the Fed’s Balance Sheet
by Paul Mueller
The American Institute for Economic Research
Pay no attention to the balance sheet behind the curtain.
In the wake of the recent FOMC meeting, few people are talking about the Fed’s balance sheet. While the FOMC took no action on their interest-rate target, they enacted a significant change to their quantitative tightening policy. This change tells us that the Fed is quite happy with the new normal of providing massive liquidity to markets with very little accountability.
Fed officials began its quantitative tightening in August 2022 to help bring inflation down, allowing maturing securities to “roll-off” the balance sheet rather than be reinvested. They capped the monthly roll-off of agency debt and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) at $35 billion and the monthly roll-off of Treasury securities at $60 billion. This meant the balance sheet could decline by up to $95 billion per month.
AI Regulators Are More Likely to Run Amok Than is AI
Proposed AI legislation would enshrine tech-killing precautionary principle into law.
by Ronald Bailey
Reason.com
Deploying the precautionary principle is a laser-focused way to kill off any new technology. As it happens, a new bill in the Hawaii Legislature explicitly applies the precautionary principle in regulating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies:
In addressing the potential risks associated with artificial intelligence technologies, it is crucial that the State adhere to the precautionary principle, which requires the government to take preventive action in the face of uncertainty; shifts the burden of proof to those who want to undertake an innovation to show that it does not cause harm; and holds that regulation is required whenever an activity creates a substantial possible risk to health, safety, or the environment, even if the supporting evidence is speculative. In the context of artificial intelligence and products, it is essential to strike a balance between fostering innovation and safeguarding the well-being of the State’s residents by adopting and enforcing proactive and precautionary regulation to prevent potentially severe societal-scale risks and harms, require affirmative proof of safety by artificial intelligence developers, and prioritize public welfare over private gain.
The Hawaii bill would establish an office of artificial intelligence and regulation wielding the precautionary principle that would decide when and if any new tools employing AI could be offered to consumers.
Our Deer in the Headlights Moment: The “Worst Market Crash Since 1929” is Rapidly Approaching and the Fed Doesn’t Know Which Way to Go
by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
The Federal Reserve is stuck between a rock and a hard place. If the Fed pushes rates higher, interest payments on our 34 trillion dollar national debt could spin wildly out of control and bank balance sheets will be in even worse condition than they are now. First Republic just bit the dust, and literally thousands of other small and mid-size banks and in serious jeopardy. So it would be suicidal to hike rates at this point. But if the Fed were to reduce rates, that would be like injecting jet fuel into a raging fire. Our ongoing inflation crisis is absolutely crushing working families, and the rising cost of living has risen to the top of the list of things that U.S. voters are concerned about. The Fed seems very hesitant to cut rates, because that would make inflation even worse. So at this point the Fed is essentially caught in a “deer in the headlights” moment because it doesn’t know which way to go.
But staying on the path that we are currently on is only going to end in disaster.
Everyone Wants to Know if Rate Cuts Are Happening in 2024
from King World News
Everyone wants to know if rate cuts are happening in 2024. Take a look…
May 4 (King World News) – Matthew Piepenburg, partner at Matterhorn Asset Management: Poor America. Poor Jerome Powell…
A Real Cliff, Fake Smile
It is no fun to be openly trapped, and even less fun to be in open decline while meekly declaring all is fine.
I have the image of Uncle Sam (or Aunt Yellen) hanging off a cliff with a forced (i.e., political) smile.
Georgia Accuses Washington of Trying to Overthrow the Country in Order to Open a Second Front Against Russia
by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org
It is just as I said, and Putin’s inability to recognize reality and endlessly prolonging the conflict in Ukraine is bringing Russia and the world more trouble.
Putin’s dithering has now brought the French Foreign Legion to the front lines in Ukraine, and western Ukraine is accumulating NATO troops. As I have emphasized from the beginning, wars need to be quickly won, not extended indefinitely.
Putin pretends he is engaged in a limited military operation when in fact he is at war with the West.
The limited operation has spun out of control precisely as I said it would. Now there are Western troops and intelligence services involved, and Russia has to defend against long-range missiles striking deep into Russia while Washington schemes to open a second front against Russia and to separate China from Russia.