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Image | How This Situation Can Quickly Get Much Worse
How This Situation Can Quickly Get Much Worse
 PREVIEW
by Chris Martenson

Executive Summary

  • Why the US' antagonistic approach towards Russia is likely to backfire big time, in both the near and long term
  • How, by definition, the West has already initiated economic warfare against Russia
  • Why things will get very bad in a hurry for the West if Russia reacts by re-directing its energy exports 
  • And how things could get much worse indeed, for everyone, if this conflict erupts into a military confrontation

If you have not yet read Warning: The Ukraine Is At A Flashpoint, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

Poking The Bear

And that finally brings us to Russia, which has a long and complicated history with Ukraine. There are many Russian speaking people in the Ukraine, for whom Russia feels somewhat protective, as perhaps US citizens in Canada or Mexico might expect from the US.

Further, Russia quite rightfully feels that it is being systematically surrounded and cornered by the NATO military structure and they might reasonably ask themselves why and for what purpose(s)?  There are probably other ways to look at this, but it's certainly reasonable to think that Russia might feel just the tiniest bit provoked, if not threatened, at the West's obvious efforts to get Ukraine to join up with NATO.

Instead of sitting down with Russia to try and hammer things out, the US resorted almost immediately to a series of sanctions targeted at Russian individuals and companies, as well as the Russian stock and bond markets, with the intention of creating economic and financial hardship that would get Russia to leave Ukraine to the west.

Here are a few of the efforts so far…

How This Situation Can Quickly Get Much Worse
 PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

Executive Summary

  • Why the US' antagonistic approach towards Russia is likely to backfire big time, in both the near and long term
  • How, by definition, the West has already initiated economic warfare against Russia
  • Why things will get very bad in a hurry for the West if Russia reacts by re-directing its energy exports 
  • And how things could get much worse indeed, for everyone, if this conflict erupts into a military confrontation

If you have not yet read Warning: The Ukraine Is At A Flashpoint, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

Poking The Bear

And that finally brings us to Russia, which has a long and complicated history with Ukraine. There are many Russian speaking people in the Ukraine, for whom Russia feels somewhat protective, as perhaps US citizens in Canada or Mexico might expect from the US.

Further, Russia quite rightfully feels that it is being systematically surrounded and cornered by the NATO military structure and they might reasonably ask themselves why and for what purpose(s)?  There are probably other ways to look at this, but it's certainly reasonable to think that Russia might feel just the tiniest bit provoked, if not threatened, at the West's obvious efforts to get Ukraine to join up with NATO.

Instead of sitting down with Russia to try and hammer things out, the US resorted almost immediately to a series of sanctions targeted at Russian individuals and companies, as well as the Russian stock and bond markets, with the intention of creating economic and financial hardship that would get Russia to leave Ukraine to the west.

Here are a few of the efforts so far…

Image | The State of the Deep State
The State of the Deep State
by JHK

We’ve been hearing a lot about the so-called Deep State lately. What to make of this shadowy monster? Some observers link it to the paranoid fantasy called the New World Order, a staple of political talk radio (and a hobgoblin I don’t believe in). 

I like to say that I’m allergic to conspiracy theories because human beings are generally too inept to carry out schemes at the grand scale, as well as being poor secret-keepers. Insider knowledge is almost always swapped around, even in secretive organizations, often recklessly so, because doling it out confers status, tactical advantage, and sometimes money for the doler-outer. But the Deep State isn’t a secret. It operates in plain sight.
The State of the Deep State
 by JHK

We’ve been hearing a lot about the so-called Deep State lately. What to make of this shadowy monster? Some observers link it to the paranoid fantasy called the New World Order, a staple of political talk radio (and a hobgoblin I don’t believe in). 

I like to say that I’m allergic to conspiracy theories because human beings are generally too inept to carry out schemes at the grand scale, as well as being poor secret-keepers. Insider knowledge is almost always swapped around, even in secretive organizations, often recklessly so, because doling it out confers status, tactical advantage, and sometimes money for the doler-outer. But the Deep State isn’t a secret. It operates in plain sight.
Image | How To Oppose the Deep State
How To Oppose the Deep State
 PREVIEW
by JHK

Executive Summary

  • A middle ground approach is best at this stage
  • While the Deep State is threatened by its own dysfunction, a collapse will not be pretty for citizens
  • How not to volunteer for victimhood
  • Where hope lies

If you have not yet read The State of the Deep State, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

On general principle, the sort of odious operations represented by the Deep State, including warrantless police actions, immersive surveillance, and even assassination, ought to be opposed by Americans who care about their country and the ongoing project of remaining civilized. The Deep State’s totalitarian tendencies are self-evident. Therefore, “we the people” are obliged to dismantle it as expeditiously as possible, ideally by voting for electoral candidates who vow to work toward that end, but by resistance if that fails. Political actions might include getting rid of all the redundant “security” agencies piggybacked around the CIA since 9/11; voting the Patriot Act out of existence; and introducing legislation to re-define the “personhood” of corporations and their putative “rights” to “free speech” as defined by flinging money at elections.

However, the electoral process, being subject to the depredations and manipulations of the Deep State, may itself be too much a part of the problem at the present time. Resistance, on the other hand, can beat a fast path into the perilous realm of revolution and sedition, inviting punishment by the Deep State. For the moment then, the preferable action probably lies in the middle ground: political persuasion, speaking out against the Deep State. There is simply not enough of this now, especially among serious people in positions of authority. This, by the way, was exactly what turned the nation against the folly of the Vietnam War.

It begs the question: where are the Bobby Kennedys, Gene McCarthys, and William Fullbrights of our time? Where are the visible people of stature willing to take a stand, to put their careers on the line? Not just…

How To Oppose the Deep State
 PREVIEW by JHK

Executive Summary

  • A middle ground approach is best at this stage
  • While the Deep State is threatened by its own dysfunction, a collapse will not be pretty for citizens
  • How not to volunteer for victimhood
  • Where hope lies

If you have not yet read The State of the Deep State, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

On general principle, the sort of odious operations represented by the Deep State, including warrantless police actions, immersive surveillance, and even assassination, ought to be opposed by Americans who care about their country and the ongoing project of remaining civilized. The Deep State’s totalitarian tendencies are self-evident. Therefore, “we the people” are obliged to dismantle it as expeditiously as possible, ideally by voting for electoral candidates who vow to work toward that end, but by resistance if that fails. Political actions might include getting rid of all the redundant “security” agencies piggybacked around the CIA since 9/11; voting the Patriot Act out of existence; and introducing legislation to re-define the “personhood” of corporations and their putative “rights” to “free speech” as defined by flinging money at elections.

However, the electoral process, being subject to the depredations and manipulations of the Deep State, may itself be too much a part of the problem at the present time. Resistance, on the other hand, can beat a fast path into the perilous realm of revolution and sedition, inviting punishment by the Deep State. For the moment then, the preferable action probably lies in the middle ground: political persuasion, speaking out against the Deep State. There is simply not enough of this now, especially among serious people in positions of authority. This, by the way, was exactly what turned the nation against the folly of the Vietnam War.

It begs the question: where are the Bobby Kennedys, Gene McCarthys, and William Fullbrights of our time? Where are the visible people of stature willing to take a stand, to put their careers on the line? Not just…

Image | Jim Rickards: The Coming Crisis is Bigger Than The Fed
Jim Rickards: The Coming Crisis is Bigger Than The Fed
by Adam Taggart

James Rickards, financier and author of the excellent cautionary best-seller Currency Wars, has recently released a follow-on book: The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System. In it, Jim details how history provides plenty of precedent for the collapse that has begun amidst the major world currencies.

The historical progression is predictable enough that Jim is comfortable claiming that the next economic crisis we face will be bigger than the ability of the Federal Reserve (and the other world central banks) to contain it. And that such a calamity will happen within the next five years:

Jim Rickards: The Coming Crisis is Bigger Than The Fed
 by Adam Taggart

James Rickards, financier and author of the excellent cautionary best-seller Currency Wars, has recently released a follow-on book: The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System. In it, Jim details how history provides plenty of precedent for the collapse that has begun amidst the major world currencies.

The historical progression is predictable enough that Jim is comfortable claiming that the next economic crisis we face will be bigger than the ability of the Federal Reserve (and the other world central banks) to contain it. And that such a calamity will happen within the next five years:

Image | Have We Reached Peak Wall Street?
Have We Reached Peak Wall Street?
by charleshughsmith

Though the mainstream financial media and the blogosphere differ radically on their forecasts—the MFM sees near-zero systemic risk while the alternative media sees a critical confluence of it—they agree on one thing: the Federal Reserve and the “too big to fail” (TBTF) Wall Street banks have their hands on the political and financial tiller of the nation, and nothing will dislodge their dominance.

But what id Wall Street’s power has peaked and is about to be challenged by forces that it has never faced before? Put another way,what if the power of Wall Street has reached a systemic extreme where a decline or reversal is inevitable?
Have We Reached Peak Wall Street?
 by charleshughsmith

Though the mainstream financial media and the blogosphere differ radically on their forecasts—the MFM sees near-zero systemic risk while the alternative media sees a critical confluence of it—they agree on one thing: the Federal Reserve and the “too big to fail” (TBTF) Wall Street banks have their hands on the political and financial tiller of the nation, and nothing will dislodge their dominance.

But what id Wall Street’s power has peaked and is about to be challenged by forces that it has never faced before? Put another way,what if the power of Wall Street has reached a systemic extreme where a decline or reversal is inevitable?
Image | The Implications of a ‘War of Elites’
The Implications of a ‘War of Elites’
 PREVIEW
by charleshughsmith

Executive Summary

  • The Deep State, and its dawning realization that Wall Street is a foe vs an ally
  • Why Wall Street's threat to the dollar hegemony is of such concern
  • History gives us many examples to predict a 'war of elites' (e.g. Wall Street vs the Deep State) is highly likely
  • Who will lose? And what implications will it have for the rest of us?

If you have not yet read Have We Reached Peak Wall Street?, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part 1, I sketched out why the financial sector—the Fed, Wall Street and “too big to fail” banks—pose a strategic threat to the nation, as their policies threaten one key foundation of American pre-eminence, the U.S. dollar.   Should money and credit creation cause the dollar to lose its reserve status, the nation would lose the fundamental advantages that go with being able to print a reserve currency.

I then suggested that the Deep State might eventually wake up to the strategic threat posed by a self-serving financial sector, and this would lead to a showdown between the financial Elites and the Deep State.

The Systems-Level view: the S-Curve works on Wall Street, too

Long-time readers know that I often refer to systems-level dynamics, one of which is the S-Curve, which traces the rise, maturation and decline/crash of systems both natural and human-designed. An astonishing array of systems has been found to follow an s-curve, from the spread of infectious diseases to financial bubbles.

Why would Wall Street be uniquely immune to these systemic forces? I submit that Wall Street’s power has topped out and is about to decline precipitously, just like any other system which has over-reached by sucking its habitat dry.

I think we can chart Wall Street’s S-Curve thusly…

The Implications of a ‘War of Elites’
 PREVIEW by charleshughsmith

Executive Summary

  • The Deep State, and its dawning realization that Wall Street is a foe vs an ally
  • Why Wall Street's threat to the dollar hegemony is of such concern
  • History gives us many examples to predict a 'war of elites' (e.g. Wall Street vs the Deep State) is highly likely
  • Who will lose? And what implications will it have for the rest of us?

If you have not yet read Have We Reached Peak Wall Street?, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part 1, I sketched out why the financial sector—the Fed, Wall Street and “too big to fail” banks—pose a strategic threat to the nation, as their policies threaten one key foundation of American pre-eminence, the U.S. dollar.   Should money and credit creation cause the dollar to lose its reserve status, the nation would lose the fundamental advantages that go with being able to print a reserve currency.

I then suggested that the Deep State might eventually wake up to the strategic threat posed by a self-serving financial sector, and this would lead to a showdown between the financial Elites and the Deep State.

The Systems-Level view: the S-Curve works on Wall Street, too

Long-time readers know that I often refer to systems-level dynamics, one of which is the S-Curve, which traces the rise, maturation and decline/crash of systems both natural and human-designed. An astonishing array of systems has been found to follow an s-curve, from the spread of infectious diseases to financial bubbles.

Why would Wall Street be uniquely immune to these systemic forces? I submit that Wall Street’s power has topped out and is about to decline precipitously, just like any other system which has over-reached by sucking its habitat dry.

I think we can chart Wall Street’s S-Curve thusly…

Image | “The Government Comes Up With the Money”
“The Government Comes Up With the Money”
by Adam Taggart

I'm half-heartedly watching the State of the Union address right now. What a cynic I've become.

My younger self would be shocked and saddened to learn how I've come to view these annual addresses as little more than a game of charades. The President (not just Obama, but his predecessors, too) reads a carefully and expensively constructed script designed either to elicit self-congratulatory applause from the echo chamber side of the hall, or to lob political harpoons into the other.

But in the end, it's nothing more than a game of words. And the real issues that desperately need addressing get ignored, glossed over, or showered with pablum and over-promises that will never materialize.
“The Government Comes Up With the Money”
 by Adam Taggart

I'm half-heartedly watching the State of the Union address right now. What a cynic I've become.

My younger self would be shocked and saddened to learn how I've come to view these annual addresses as little more than a game of charades. The President (not just Obama, but his predecessors, too) reads a carefully and expensively constructed script designed either to elicit self-congratulatory applause from the echo chamber side of the hall, or to lob political harpoons into the other.

But in the end, it's nothing more than a game of words. And the real issues that desperately need addressing get ignored, glossed over, or showered with pablum and over-promises that will never materialize.
Image | What If Nations Were Less Dependent on One Another?
What If Nations Were Less Dependent on One Another?
by charleshughsmith

Autarky is more than a ten-dollar word for self-sufficiency, as it implies a number of questions that “self-sufficiency” alone might not.

The ability to survive without trade or aid from other nations, for example, is not the same as the ability to reap enormous profits or grow one’s economy without trade with other nations. In other words, 'self-sufficiency' in terms of survival does not necessarily imply prosperity, but it does imply freedom of action without dependency on foreign approval, capital, resources, and expertise.
What If Nations Were Less Dependent on One Another?
 by charleshughsmith

Autarky is more than a ten-dollar word for self-sufficiency, as it implies a number of questions that “self-sufficiency” alone might not.

The ability to survive without trade or aid from other nations, for example, is not the same as the ability to reap enormous profits or grow one’s economy without trade with other nations. In other words, 'self-sufficiency' in terms of survival does not necessarily imply prosperity, but it does imply freedom of action without dependency on foreign approval, capital, resources, and expertise.
Image | Bill Ryerson: The Challenges Presented by Global Population Growth
Bill Ryerson: The Challenges Presented by Global Population Growth
by Adam Taggart

As we embark on a new year, it's important to keep the really big elements of our global predicament squarely in mind. To that end, we're surfacing this excellent discussion on population growth that Chris recorded in 2012 with Bill Ryerson of the Population Institute.

At the heart of the resource depletion story that we track here at PeakProsperity.com is the number of people on earth competing for those resources.

The global population is more than 7 billion now and headed to 9 billion by 2050. If world population continues its exponential growth, when we will hit planetary carrying capacity limits with our key resources (or are we already exceeding them)? What are the just, humane, and rights-respecting options that are on the table for balancing the world’s population with the ability of the earth to sustain it?
Bill Ryerson: The Challenges Presented by Global Population Growth
 by Adam Taggart

As we embark on a new year, it's important to keep the really big elements of our global predicament squarely in mind. To that end, we're surfacing this excellent discussion on population growth that Chris recorded in 2012 with Bill Ryerson of the Population Institute.

At the heart of the resource depletion story that we track here at PeakProsperity.com is the number of people on earth competing for those resources.

The global population is more than 7 billion now and headed to 9 billion by 2050. If world population continues its exponential growth, when we will hit planetary carrying capacity limits with our key resources (or are we already exceeding them)? What are the just, humane, and rights-respecting options that are on the table for balancing the world’s population with the ability of the earth to sustain it?
Image | Get Ready For Strange Days
Get Ready For Strange Days
 PREVIEW
by JHK

Executive Summary

  • The case for a regional fracturing of the US
  • Why the balance of power will shift from the Federal government to local seats
  • How each US region will likely fare during this transition, given their idiosyncrasies
  • Why chaos will trump order moving forward

If you have not yet read Part I of The Disenchantment of American Politics, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

The last time the USA faced a comparable political convulsion was the decade leading into the Civil War, but this time it will be more complex and confusing and it will have a different ending.

A Preview of What's to Come?

In the 1850s, the dominant Whig party choked to death on its own internal contradictions — mainly its failure to take a coherent position on slavery — and morphed into the Republican Party. The original Democratic Party broke apart into southern and northern factions. All of the doctrinal and legal debates of the day — states’ rights, property rights, et cet. — could not overcome the growing moral revulsion against human bondage. When Lincoln was elected in 1860, seven southern slave states seceded from the Union before his inauguration. The ferocity of the ensuing Civil War — the world’s first industrial-strength slaughterfest — came as a great shock to many who had expected little more than a few symbolic romantic skirmishes on horseback preceding a negotiated settlement.

I believe we are headed now into a breakup of the nation into smaller units, but this time there will be no reconstituting the original USA as in 1865. I realize this is a severe view, but the circumstances we face are more severe than the public seems to imagine. To some degree the coming political rearrangement would appear to be the unfinished business of the 1860s. The old animosities remain, mainly in cultural rather than economic terms. But the real driving force of schism will be catabolic economic collapse expressing itself in scale reduction of all our support systems: food production, energy production, transportation, finance, commerce, and governance. Everything is going to have to get smaller, get more local, and be run differently. Just as political rhetoric failed to contain the revulsion against slavery, all the debates of the Left and Right in our time will not overcome the geophysical limits of energy resource scarcity and its affect on the other major systems of everyday life. Environmental degradation (including climate change) will amplify the journey downward in the viable scale of human operations…

Get Ready For Strange Days
 PREVIEW by JHK

Executive Summary

  • The case for a regional fracturing of the US
  • Why the balance of power will shift from the Federal government to local seats
  • How each US region will likely fare during this transition, given their idiosyncrasies
  • Why chaos will trump order moving forward

If you have not yet read Part I of The Disenchantment of American Politics, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

The last time the USA faced a comparable political convulsion was the decade leading into the Civil War, but this time it will be more complex and confusing and it will have a different ending.

A Preview of What's to Come?

In the 1850s, the dominant Whig party choked to death on its own internal contradictions — mainly its failure to take a coherent position on slavery — and morphed into the Republican Party. The original Democratic Party broke apart into southern and northern factions. All of the doctrinal and legal debates of the day — states’ rights, property rights, et cet. — could not overcome the growing moral revulsion against human bondage. When Lincoln was elected in 1860, seven southern slave states seceded from the Union before his inauguration. The ferocity of the ensuing Civil War — the world’s first industrial-strength slaughterfest — came as a great shock to many who had expected little more than a few symbolic romantic skirmishes on horseback preceding a negotiated settlement.

I believe we are headed now into a breakup of the nation into smaller units, but this time there will be no reconstituting the original USA as in 1865. I realize this is a severe view, but the circumstances we face are more severe than the public seems to imagine. To some degree the coming political rearrangement would appear to be the unfinished business of the 1860s. The old animosities remain, mainly in cultural rather than economic terms. But the real driving force of schism will be catabolic economic collapse expressing itself in scale reduction of all our support systems: food production, energy production, transportation, finance, commerce, and governance. Everything is going to have to get smaller, get more local, and be run differently. Just as political rhetoric failed to contain the revulsion against slavery, all the debates of the Left and Right in our time will not overcome the geophysical limits of energy resource scarcity and its affect on the other major systems of everyday life. Environmental degradation (including climate change) will amplify the journey downward in the viable scale of human operations…

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 "It's About Control": An Interview with David Icke
Just got my result that I’m C19 positive.
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