Thank you very much for expanding on this great interview to help us better absorb the information. It's so important for all of us to understand what is going on.
I've been following with interests these posts, your take on Tom Luongo and the Fed as part of the battle against Davos. I've looked at his blog the 3Gs. I don't know enough finance to fully understand all of his arguments. I appreciate your analysis. Obviously, I hope Luongo's take is correct and the Powell can destroy Europe to the extent it is in Davos/WEF's thrall and is trying to destroy us. But, just as a suggestion to you, if you do understand Powell's work and Tom Luongo's analysis and can offer more basic supporting rationale, please do. I'd prefer to understand this aspect of the struggle and believe, hope in it versus having a kind of religious faith. After everything that has happened, I, along with many others, are seeking understanding to make sense of this great struggle of our times.
According to pollster 538, "Joe Biden's" approval ratings have actually increased from a low point in mid-July of 37.5 to 39.3 on Friday. What has he done to increase his ratings over the last two weeks? Right. His megaphones have broadcast mindless bellicosity towards China and Russia across the mainstream media (at the same time downplaying or ignoring surging inflation, increasing unemployment, continuing massive illegal immigration, Congress passing bills to raise taxes, and continuing out-of-control crime in our cities, etc, etc) and Biden's ratings have gone up.
This confirms to me that our Leftist politicians and media (and large elements of the RINO wing of the eGOP) have no interest in being objectively honest with the electorate or in solving problems. Their only interest is in feeding a narrative that will increase their poll numbers in August and their incremental chances of election in November.
And they are not 'wrong' to do so. Their strategy works!
Yeah, Nate Silver is a partisan hack who has been wildly wrong and I actually paused before I cited his poll. But the point still stands, Biden and Pelosi played Stan and Bud (you're old enough to remember who I mean ;-) ) and their ratings actually went *up*.
I follow Rich Baris who is one of the top three pollsters in the country. When he gets started on Silver's incompetence, arrogance, partisanship there is nothing but smoking, salted ruins remaining.
Yes re Silver. Also, I find it very hard to believe that public opinion is shifting based on China/Russia bashing. Latest polls shows nobody thinks Russia is an issue.
Russia may have dropped to the bottom of the list, but the China Clown Show dominated the news, nothing else happened that was remotely favorable (well, gas prices are dropping a bit) and Biden's ratings went up.. Why do you think they went up?
Russia/Ukraine may currently be at the bottom of the list and China/Taiwan may blow over, but come September, I'll bet you they'll come roaring back. What else do the Dems have to run on?
I guess they can always run against Trump again...
I found this interview with Doug Casey to compare with TL. Whereas TL is in essence optimistic that there is a fightback ongoing D.C seems a lot more pessimistic. Thoughts?
Casey has some good things to say but he is a bit like one of those "The End is Nigh!" Christians. Also, his solution is rather contradictory. In his view, you should be hoarding gold and heading off to some quiet part of the globe where you won't be noticed by the Deep State. However, if things get to be as bad as he predicts, there won't be any hidey holes left.
It's fairly typical Libertarian Gold-Bug stuff, along with some typical American cold warrior conservatism. Luongo isn't boxed into all of that. Russia as adversary? Why? He doesn't explain that and can't really. US has nothing to export? Not really true--plus there's a reason why US universities continue to be int'l magnets despite their manifest problems. Commodities can't be used as money? Has he never heard of barter? He has his points, but he oversimplifies.
Wonderful recapitulation, Mark! Just one quibble with Mr Luongo, whom I generally agree with. He, like many other similar commentators, tends to write off us Europeans as slaves. Sure, there is definitely a difference between the US/Anglo mentality and the rather docile Euro one towards authority. However, there are many of us over here fighting too. In Switzerland, supposedly a very docile place, we protested and managed to keep the level of Covid madness limited. Eastern Europeans are pretty feisty and this winter, we may even see the Germans fighting back. Meanwhile the French voters recently clipped Mr Macron's wings in the recent parliamentary elections. The only places in Europe that I see fitting the stereotype are places like Spain, Greece and Ireland, where there were virtually no protests against Covid and other globalist moves and where they have virtually given up on having kids. Those places really are doomed.
One way to look at Luongo's perspective about Europeans is that I think he would say that the decades long American 'subsidy' of the EU and NATO has made Europeans complacent and insufficiently realistic about some hard truths. Since WWII the US subsidized the reconstruction of Europe and for decades has provided a defense umbrella, all to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, allowing the EU to develop its expensive and somewhat precious and idealistic approach to welfare, green politics, 'human rights', etc. Now Europe must confront the real costs of some of its policies (home heating...food on the table...to mention only a few) and the reckoning looks like it will be quite painful in the coming months and years.
Hard to argue with any of that, Cassander. When America was a great nation, it saved our backsides three times: Two world wars and the Cold War. In general, we are definitely weak and spoilt. However, despite the best efforts of the EU to make us into standardised "Europeans", each country will react differently to these challenges. Agreed that there is no doubt that the next few years at least are going to be tough over here.
Yes, and De Gaulle is no doubt turning in his grave now, given that he was very wary of being America’s poodle post WW II (difficult to deal with, for the Americans!), but believed in the necessity of France remaining independent…he went so far as to remove France from Nato. His vision and principles are badly needed now…
What I mean is that he gets into the Romance of Americans as rugged individualists. That's not the reality. Few people are rugged individualists--they mostly need the support of social institutions, starting with strong families, to provide support for good principles. That's the tragedy of family breakup and the Gramscian takeover of our social institutions.
Excellent points. I'm definitely an individualist but I'm not sure how rugged I am! Yes, the break up of the family is a key objective of the statists.
Yes, the Globalists know their enemies, and the nuclear family is high on the list--perhaps at the top. Remember, Hillary gave that away--it takes a village, not a mom and dad.
This may be an oversimplification, but as we try to better understand the re-ordering of the world that is taking place before our eyes, is it too simplistic to project that the whole world will ultimately become defined as a bi-polar place where on the one hand the family structure remains preeminent and on the other hand where it is defeated and destroyed and replaced by 'government'? I'm not sure where China, with its surviving Communist ideologies and massive migrations from rural to urban fits into this dichotomy, but I can certainly see its application to the US (and many of its allies) and to Russia (and many of its allies).
Sometimes Luongo's Libertarian predilections come to the fore and he puts too much faith in the American public. We have our own problems. Also, he will admit, I believe that he tries to be entertaining, so there's that aspect to what may seem over the top.
Masterful job in both your transcription and your comments, Mark. Thank you very much! Do people realize just how important all this is? Your efforts should certainly help.
As you note because of Trump and Brexit the timeline has been moved forward and the sense of urgency among the "Davos" crowd has greatly increased. One thing people should be clear about, the U.S. financial industry (a.k.a. "Wall Street") is not a monolith. You have people like Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan who are against "Davos" on the one hand and people like Blackrock and BoA (+ many corporations) who are for it on the other. This battle is ongoing and it is not certain who the victors will be. There are no perfect guys only guys who are better than other guys.
Congress under the Democrats are our enemies. ESG investing and those who support it (at this point) are our enemies. Climate change propagandists are our enemies. Those promoting collectivism and sacrifice for the "greater good" are our enemies. Learn to see the signals and learn to absolve yourself of the guilt others try to lay on you. Do what you can to resist false propositions and to support the truth and the real data. Don't give yourselves over to those who want to control your life. Affirm that your government was set up to guard and guarantee your freedoms. Be thankful for that, cite it, and never back down.
Good comment on a very good article. You can almost feel the tensions (desperation?) the globalists are under. You can see it in the hysteria about this summer's heatwaves (climate change!) and the anti-Russia/China moves. My takeaway from all this is that the world is just too complex and there are just too many counter interests for the Davos scum to succeed. The key question for us schlubs is how many of us will croak before that defeat comes.
Ditto on the work that Mark has done and continues to do in keeping us informed as well as giving intelligent context to the information. This is somewhat rare in this world gone mad and I am grateful for Mark's work as well as the the intelligent comments and addition information and sources you all provide in the comment section. Thank you all!
So how many of our esteemed politicians are aware of this, excluding those who are in on the “Davos fix” of course? The scale of this thing is mind boggling, and we are as needy for sharp minded politicians as we are for insightful diplomats, and honestly, I don’t think folks like Linseed Graham and Mittens Romney are up to the task.
You mentioned the other day that when this mess starts to shake out, things could get dicey domestically, today’s post certainly provided some scale to that statement.
Also, looks like Powell was the right guy at the right time. Kinda like the guy that nominated him for the job.
Not only are Graham and Romney not up to the task of fixing the problem, they are a big part of the problem. Sundance (over at Last Refuge) calls them DeceptiCons and it is an apt term.
I hope Luongo is right about Powell. I knew him many years ago as a decent, likeable, bright and fundamentally honest guy. But he went along with the Bernanke/Yellen game plan (which Luongo would call the Davos game plan) for quite a while. Now he is facing an enormously difficult task which either (or any) way he goes will result in great pain. Let's keep our fingers crossed for him.
This is “ONE” high stakes that’s for all the marbles, so we need all the breaks we can get. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and, as Mark said, wait and see.
Luongo's claim is that Powell was forced to go along with Bernanke/Yellen and that that was before the New York Boys had fully caught on to what it all meant for commercial banks. He cites SOFR, in a way, as proof that they get it now. We'll see.
Yes, you are correct. The current SCOTUS seems willing to take back our Constitutional state. The problem, however, is that federal agencies execute decisions daily that reflect the anti-constitutional power of the Administrative State. There is no one to stop them from doing this...day in and day out...until a plaintiff is found for a specific case and an expensive and lengthy litigation process wends its way through the courts until a final and binding decision...hopefully upholding the Constitution...is finally reached. In the meantime the Administrative State has made hundreds and thousands more decisions in the exercise of its powers. The scales are tilted.
True, but by shifting power back to the states in the cases that they handled this term they may be pointing to a way out of this. Sort of. In the meantime, advocacy groups may be able to bring more of those suits and get temp injunctions from Trump judges. It's better than it was.
FWIW, Mark, I think the ultimate solution lies in Congress' hands. They have got to stop writing barebones, skeleton laws which basically cede legislative authority to the agencies. That's how we got the Administrative State in the first place and that's how to take it down.
You can actually lay a lot of the blame for where we are at the feet of Congress which quite a while ago stopped doing its job.
That's actually the problem--we never would have wound up in this position if Congress hadn't decided to go there and the SCOTUS hadn't bowed to the pressure during the New Deal. And they won't change without a degree of political pressure that I'm hard put to imagine where enough would come from. The SCOTUS is doing what it can, but I've had experience trying to put cats into bags. It's a pretty thankless task. A revolution on the needed scale is hard.
I can't imagine where enough pressure would come from either...but I have a radical idea...
I was reading the Constitution the other day and I made an astounding discovery. It turns out that the People elect Congress! This truly amazed me because I had gotten used to the idea that Lobbyists, and PACs, and Big Media, and Party Hacks and Billionaires elect Congress, but I guess I was wrong.
Seems like the People actually do it.
I guess the People could just begin to vote for candidates who will do what the People want them to do.
Thank you very much for expanding on this great interview to help us better absorb the information. It's so important for all of us to understand what is going on.
I've been following with interests these posts, your take on Tom Luongo and the Fed as part of the battle against Davos. I've looked at his blog the 3Gs. I don't know enough finance to fully understand all of his arguments. I appreciate your analysis. Obviously, I hope Luongo's take is correct and the Powell can destroy Europe to the extent it is in Davos/WEF's thrall and is trying to destroy us. But, just as a suggestion to you, if you do understand Powell's work and Tom Luongo's analysis and can offer more basic supporting rationale, please do. I'd prefer to understand this aspect of the struggle and believe, hope in it versus having a kind of religious faith. After everything that has happened, I, along with many others, are seeking understanding to make sense of this great struggle of our times.
According to pollster 538, "Joe Biden's" approval ratings have actually increased from a low point in mid-July of 37.5 to 39.3 on Friday. What has he done to increase his ratings over the last two weeks? Right. His megaphones have broadcast mindless bellicosity towards China and Russia across the mainstream media (at the same time downplaying or ignoring surging inflation, increasing unemployment, continuing massive illegal immigration, Congress passing bills to raise taxes, and continuing out-of-control crime in our cities, etc, etc) and Biden's ratings have gone up.
This confirms to me that our Leftist politicians and media (and large elements of the RINO wing of the eGOP) have no interest in being objectively honest with the electorate or in solving problems. Their only interest is in feeding a narrative that will increase their poll numbers in August and their incremental chances of election in November.
And they are not 'wrong' to do so. Their strategy works!
@Forbes
Yeah, Nate Silver is a partisan hack who has been wildly wrong and I actually paused before I cited his poll. But the point still stands, Biden and Pelosi played Stan and Bud (you're old enough to remember who I mean ;-) ) and their ratings actually went *up*.
I follow Rich Baris who is one of the top three pollsters in the country. When he gets started on Silver's incompetence, arrogance, partisanship there is nothing but smoking, salted ruins remaining.
Yes re Silver. Also, I find it very hard to believe that public opinion is shifting based on China/Russia bashing. Latest polls shows nobody thinks Russia is an issue.
@Mark
Russia may have dropped to the bottom of the list, but the China Clown Show dominated the news, nothing else happened that was remotely favorable (well, gas prices are dropping a bit) and Biden's ratings went up.. Why do you think they went up?
Russia/Ukraine may currently be at the bottom of the list and China/Taiwan may blow over, but come September, I'll bet you they'll come roaring back. What else do the Dems have to run on?
I guess they can always run against Trump again...
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/08/doug-casey/rise-of-alternatives-as-the-us-led-global-order-falters/
I found this interview with Doug Casey to compare with TL. Whereas TL is in essence optimistic that there is a fightback ongoing D.C seems a lot more pessimistic. Thoughts?
Casey has some good things to say but he is a bit like one of those "The End is Nigh!" Christians. Also, his solution is rather contradictory. In his view, you should be hoarding gold and heading off to some quiet part of the globe where you won't be noticed by the Deep State. However, if things get to be as bad as he predicts, there won't be any hidey holes left.
It's fairly typical Libertarian Gold-Bug stuff, along with some typical American cold warrior conservatism. Luongo isn't boxed into all of that. Russia as adversary? Why? He doesn't explain that and can't really. US has nothing to export? Not really true--plus there's a reason why US universities continue to be int'l magnets despite their manifest problems. Commodities can't be used as money? Has he never heard of barter? He has his points, but he oversimplifies.
Wonderful recapitulation, Mark! Just one quibble with Mr Luongo, whom I generally agree with. He, like many other similar commentators, tends to write off us Europeans as slaves. Sure, there is definitely a difference between the US/Anglo mentality and the rather docile Euro one towards authority. However, there are many of us over here fighting too. In Switzerland, supposedly a very docile place, we protested and managed to keep the level of Covid madness limited. Eastern Europeans are pretty feisty and this winter, we may even see the Germans fighting back. Meanwhile the French voters recently clipped Mr Macron's wings in the recent parliamentary elections. The only places in Europe that I see fitting the stereotype are places like Spain, Greece and Ireland, where there were virtually no protests against Covid and other globalist moves and where they have virtually given up on having kids. Those places really are doomed.
@Steghorn21
One way to look at Luongo's perspective about Europeans is that I think he would say that the decades long American 'subsidy' of the EU and NATO has made Europeans complacent and insufficiently realistic about some hard truths. Since WWII the US subsidized the reconstruction of Europe and for decades has provided a defense umbrella, all to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, allowing the EU to develop its expensive and somewhat precious and idealistic approach to welfare, green politics, 'human rights', etc. Now Europe must confront the real costs of some of its policies (home heating...food on the table...to mention only a few) and the reckoning looks like it will be quite painful in the coming months and years.
Hard to argue with any of that, Cassander. When America was a great nation, it saved our backsides three times: Two world wars and the Cold War. In general, we are definitely weak and spoilt. However, despite the best efforts of the EU to make us into standardised "Europeans", each country will react differently to these challenges. Agreed that there is no doubt that the next few years at least are going to be tough over here.
Yes, and De Gaulle is no doubt turning in his grave now, given that he was very wary of being America’s poodle post WW II (difficult to deal with, for the Americans!), but believed in the necessity of France remaining independent…he went so far as to remove France from Nato. His vision and principles are badly needed now…
What I mean is that he gets into the Romance of Americans as rugged individualists. That's not the reality. Few people are rugged individualists--they mostly need the support of social institutions, starting with strong families, to provide support for good principles. That's the tragedy of family breakup and the Gramscian takeover of our social institutions.
Excellent points. I'm definitely an individualist but I'm not sure how rugged I am! Yes, the break up of the family is a key objective of the statists.
Yes, the Globalists know their enemies, and the nuclear family is high on the list--perhaps at the top. Remember, Hillary gave that away--it takes a village, not a mom and dad.
This may be an oversimplification, but as we try to better understand the re-ordering of the world that is taking place before our eyes, is it too simplistic to project that the whole world will ultimately become defined as a bi-polar place where on the one hand the family structure remains preeminent and on the other hand where it is defeated and destroyed and replaced by 'government'? I'm not sure where China, with its surviving Communist ideologies and massive migrations from rural to urban fits into this dichotomy, but I can certainly see its application to the US (and many of its allies) and to Russia (and many of its allies).
Sometimes Luongo's Libertarian predilections come to the fore and he puts too much faith in the American public. We have our own problems. Also, he will admit, I believe that he tries to be entertaining, so there's that aspect to what may seem over the top.
Masterful job in both your transcription and your comments, Mark. Thank you very much! Do people realize just how important all this is? Your efforts should certainly help.
As you note because of Trump and Brexit the timeline has been moved forward and the sense of urgency among the "Davos" crowd has greatly increased. One thing people should be clear about, the U.S. financial industry (a.k.a. "Wall Street") is not a monolith. You have people like Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan who are against "Davos" on the one hand and people like Blackrock and BoA (+ many corporations) who are for it on the other. This battle is ongoing and it is not certain who the victors will be. There are no perfect guys only guys who are better than other guys.
Congress under the Democrats are our enemies. ESG investing and those who support it (at this point) are our enemies. Climate change propagandists are our enemies. Those promoting collectivism and sacrifice for the "greater good" are our enemies. Learn to see the signals and learn to absolve yourself of the guilt others try to lay on you. Do what you can to resist false propositions and to support the truth and the real data. Don't give yourselves over to those who want to control your life. Affirm that your government was set up to guard and guarantee your freedoms. Be thankful for that, cite it, and never back down.
Good comment on a very good article. You can almost feel the tensions (desperation?) the globalists are under. You can see it in the hysteria about this summer's heatwaves (climate change!) and the anti-Russia/China moves. My takeaway from all this is that the world is just too complex and there are just too many counter interests for the Davos scum to succeed. The key question for us schlubs is how many of us will croak before that defeat comes.
Ditto on the work that Mark has done and continues to do in keeping us informed as well as giving intelligent context to the information. This is somewhat rare in this world gone mad and I am grateful for Mark's work as well as the the intelligent comments and addition information and sources you all provide in the comment section. Thank you all!
So how many of our esteemed politicians are aware of this, excluding those who are in on the “Davos fix” of course? The scale of this thing is mind boggling, and we are as needy for sharp minded politicians as we are for insightful diplomats, and honestly, I don’t think folks like Linseed Graham and Mittens Romney are up to the task.
You mentioned the other day that when this mess starts to shake out, things could get dicey domestically, today’s post certainly provided some scale to that statement.
Also, looks like Powell was the right guy at the right time. Kinda like the guy that nominated him for the job.
Not only are Graham and Romney not up to the task of fixing the problem, they are a big part of the problem. Sundance (over at Last Refuge) calls them DeceptiCons and it is an apt term.
I hope Luongo is right about Powell. I knew him many years ago as a decent, likeable, bright and fundamentally honest guy. But he went along with the Bernanke/Yellen game plan (which Luongo would call the Davos game plan) for quite a while. Now he is facing an enormously difficult task which either (or any) way he goes will result in great pain. Let's keep our fingers crossed for him.
Yeh, I hope he’s right about Powell too.
This is “ONE” high stakes that’s for all the marbles, so we need all the breaks we can get. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and, as Mark said, wait and see.
Luongo's claim is that Powell was forced to go along with Bernanke/Yellen and that that was before the New York Boys had fully caught on to what it all meant for commercial banks. He cites SOFR, in a way, as proof that they get it now. We'll see.
Luongo vouches for Powell in similar terms--as fundamentally honest and decent.
The problem comes when you have a SCOTUS majority that thinks the US Constitution still actually controls the US. That's a major development.
Yes, you are correct. The current SCOTUS seems willing to take back our Constitutional state. The problem, however, is that federal agencies execute decisions daily that reflect the anti-constitutional power of the Administrative State. There is no one to stop them from doing this...day in and day out...until a plaintiff is found for a specific case and an expensive and lengthy litigation process wends its way through the courts until a final and binding decision...hopefully upholding the Constitution...is finally reached. In the meantime the Administrative State has made hundreds and thousands more decisions in the exercise of its powers. The scales are tilted.
True, but by shifting power back to the states in the cases that they handled this term they may be pointing to a way out of this. Sort of. In the meantime, advocacy groups may be able to bring more of those suits and get temp injunctions from Trump judges. It's better than it was.
FWIW, Mark, I think the ultimate solution lies in Congress' hands. They have got to stop writing barebones, skeleton laws which basically cede legislative authority to the agencies. That's how we got the Administrative State in the first place and that's how to take it down.
You can actually lay a lot of the blame for where we are at the feet of Congress which quite a while ago stopped doing its job.
That's actually the problem--we never would have wound up in this position if Congress hadn't decided to go there and the SCOTUS hadn't bowed to the pressure during the New Deal. And they won't change without a degree of political pressure that I'm hard put to imagine where enough would come from. The SCOTUS is doing what it can, but I've had experience trying to put cats into bags. It's a pretty thankless task. A revolution on the needed scale is hard.
I can't imagine where enough pressure would come from either...but I have a radical idea...
I was reading the Constitution the other day and I made an astounding discovery. It turns out that the People elect Congress! This truly amazed me because I had gotten used to the idea that Lobbyists, and PACs, and Big Media, and Party Hacks and Billionaires elect Congress, but I guess I was wrong.
Seems like the People actually do it.
I guess the People could just begin to vote for candidates who will do what the People want them to do.
;-)
There is another Israeli election coming up.
Kissinger commented Israeli foreign policy was all based on domestic politics
…
As is ours as well. No less an authority on American domestic politics than Vladimir Putin also agrees.