Link to Part I here: The Belligerents - 20 Minutes, 25 Slides
Bushfire Battles Blazing
Bushfire battles are igniting everywhere around the globe. The underlying problem of liquidity pumping by the developed economies is is increasingly causing widening distortions in the following hotspots:
- Japan
- Argentina
- Venezuela
- Europe
- Switzerland
Following the Argentina Road Map
The developed world is clearly following the well trodden Argentinian Road Map. Whether intentional or simply the natural consequence of unsound money, the unfolding similarities are eerie.
- Nationalized Private Pensions, plundering the retirement savings of her people.
- Increased Tax Rates across the board-- income, VAT, import duties, etc. as well as imposed a new wealth tax.
- Inflated Argentina's Money Supply, printing currency with wanton abandon; M2 money supply has increased 215% in the past three years.
- Currency Devaluation - Driven the value and purchasing power of the currency down by 50%. Street-level inflation is now 30%+ per year.
- Economic Reporting - Made a mockery of official statistics, comically understating the level of Argentine inflation and unemployment. She even began punishing economists for publishing private estimates of inflation that didn't jive with the government figures.
- Nationalization - Taken over control of one industry after another, most notably the nationalization of Spanish oil firm YPF's Argentine assets.
- Imposed Export Controls of agriculture products from beef to grains, forcing growers to sell at artificially lower domestic prices.
- Imposed Capital Controls, reducing her citizens' capability to dump their poorly performing currency and hold gold, dollars, Euros, or anything else.
- Price Controls - Imposed a two month 'price freeze' on items in the supermarket, and encouraged retail consumers to rat out any grocer that doesn't abide by the government order.
- Media Controls - Imposed controls over the media, most recently ordered an advertising ban in Argentine newspapers (weakening their financial position).
Currency Wars Lead to Capital Controls which leads to Export Controls, which leads to Price Controls, which leads to Media Controls, which leads to.... more AUTHORITARIAN CENTRAL STATE CONTROLS.
22 Minutes, 32 Slides
