Thread: Putin Has Nuclear Economic Bomb - "HELL OF A MESS"

H2 Note: Wonder why Obama has made it a priority to go to Saudi Arabia? Most know of Jim Sinclair’s spectacular success in trading precious metals. He fully understands the relationships between commodities, currencies, and world economic power. Comments below, on Crimean situation, are worth noting, as is his conclusion that US sanctions against Russia amount to shooting ourselves in the foot.

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“We’re in a hell of a mess. If the world drops the ‘Petrodollar,’ we’ll have a hot war in a week. We will go to war over the Petrodollar.”

Putin Has Nuclear Economic Bomb-Jim Sinclair

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (Early Sunday Release) World renowned gold expert Jim Sinclair is worried about the crisis in Ukraine. Sinclair says, “Welcome back to the cold war that can get hot overnight.” It appears President Obama has brought back the Cold War, and Sinclair contends, “He’s brought it back by changing to a new normal diplomacy, making outrageous threats on a continuing basis rather than seeking a solution.” The referendum vote in Crimea that is overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia, and yet, officials in the West say it is illegal or illegitimate.

Sinclair says, “To say that is to deny the reality the government in the Ukraine is a government created by a coup. To say that is to bring us to the brink of war. . . . Mistakes can happen. War can start anytime you have two entities together with weapons of war looking at each other with lots of hate. I am concerned about the mistake of aggressive machinery and aggressive people looking right at each other.”

On possible U.S. sanctions on Russia, such as excluding them out of the international payment system called the SWIFT system, Sinclair says, “The use of the SWIFT system (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) to create a difficulty, almost a prohibitive difficulty in doing business by preventing bank wires, that would be one of the possibilities. Already, the BRICS nations are developing their own SWIFT system. So, the mistake of using the SWIFT system, short of absolute war, is that it has created a competitor that all the BRICS will be using.” Sinclair also thinks, “To sanction Russia is to forget that Russia supplies Europe with its gas supplies.


To sanction Russia is to forget there are many U.S. and European corporations operating within Russia right now.

I honestly believe sanctioning Russia is the same as shooting yourself in the foot.” Sinclair goes on to say, “When you think you can push an ex-colonel of the KGB, you are not making a proper analysis of the personality of the person. The whole idea that Russia is only a regional power–where in the world did that come from? Anybody that is nuclear capable to the degree that Russia is with its delivery systems is a world power. We hear constantly Russia is only a regional power. We hear lies. We hear untruths. We don’t have a clear picture to what is taking place.”

On Russia countering Western sanctions, Sinclair says watch the “struggling dollar” and Russia accepting any currency for oil and natural gas. Sinclair explains, “It’s struggling . . . because it smells the real teeth of retaliation for sanctions being in the simple acceptance of any currency whatsoever for payment for gas to Europe. Believe me, they will settle in other currencies. . . . It makes energy cheaper. Why in the world would anyone want to pay in dollars if they can pay in their own currency? Russia could retaliate in a way that would have phenomenal impact on the U.S. dollar. . . . Russia has the upper hand. They have it in their ability to turn the U.S. economy upside down and into collapse. There is no question whatsoever. Putin doesn’t need a nuclear bomb. He has a nuclear economic bomb that he can set off at any time.”

What would the price of gold be this year? Sinclair predicts, “Gold has $2,000 an ounce in its sights in 2014.” On silver, Sinclair says, “Silver is gold on steroids. When gold takes off, silver goes up faster. . . . So, the idea you are going to get an old high on silver or better is a given.”

Last year, Sinclair, predicted gold will hit $50,000 an ounce sometime in the next several years. Is he still sticking with that prediction? Sinclair says, “I am still sticking by that, and the $50,000 per ounce is predicated on a shift in the mechanism on determining gold’s value from the paper markets to the physical markets. Should that emancipation take place, it is a possibility and could become a reality.” Sinclair goes on to explain, “Something has to happen. Emancipation of gold from the paper market will be a product of the drawdown of the inventories of the warehouses. I don’t believe for a moment that the COMEX is going to default, but I believe quite certainly that the COMEX will go from settling in gold to settling in cash.”

So, how can the gold market be manipulated up or down in price? Sinclair says, “I can tell you exactly how it’s done. You just offer or demand supply . . . that is beyond any capacity that can be met. We’ve already had one day where two and a half years production was offered for sale. It couldn’t be in a physical market that has to deliver within three days. It can only be in a paper market that doesn’t have to deliver.”

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Jim Sinclair of JSMinset.com.
(There is much more in the video interview)




After the interview:
Sinclair added, “We’re in a hell of a mess. If the world drops the ‘Petrodollar,’ we’ll have a hot war in a week. We will go to war over the Petrodollar.”

http://usawatchdog.com/putin-has-nuc...-jim-sinclair/

Russia has now amassed as many as 80,000 troops on the Eastern Ukraine border. Russia says they are conducting war games and training, but U.S. military sources openly worry about an invasion.

Russia already has trade deals with China, and now it is reportedly negotiating with India for trade. That business will, no doubt, be conducted without the U.S. dollar.

Oh, and guess who is going to start importing Russian natural gas? The UK–our ally.

Crimea may be part of Russia now, but the Ukraine crisis is far from over. Reports are Russia has now amassed as many as 80,000 troops on the Eastern Ukraine border. Russia says they are conducting war games and training, but U.S. military sources openly worry about an invasion. I do not understand why President Obama is saying that Russia is only a “regional power” and is “threatening its neighbors out of weakness.” So far, that has not been Russia’s MO. They took Crimea with hardly a scuffle.

The U.S. and the West have imposed some weak sanctions, and Russia is countering by increasingly moving away from the U.S. dollar in terms of trade. We have not seen a shooting war, but a financial war is fully underway. Russia announced this week a new credit card system that they say will be ready in a matter of months. They are doing this because Master Card and Visa shut their service off to Russian banks.

Russia already has trade deals with China, and now it is reportedly negotiating with India for trade. That business will, no doubt, be conducted without the U.S. dollar. Oh, and guess who is going to start importing Russian natural gas? The UK–our ally. This is part of a deal signed in 2012, but you don’t see anyone canceling that do you? None of the big players in the EU have any desire for stiff sanctions. Not France or Germany as their economies are struggling, and certainly not the rest of Europe as many other countries are in recession bordering on depression. There is no so-called recovery there same as here. This gets much worse before it gets better, and it could turn into a shooting war.

Another week, another delay to Obama Care. This time, it’s the deadline for folks to sign up for Obama Care on federal exchanges. It was March 31^st, but now that’s been moved by the Obama Administration to the middle of April. The mainstream media are touting that there are nearly “6 Million Health Enrollees in Sight.”

That’s not so great when you consider six million plans got flushed. That’s at least 10 or 12 million people who were paying premiums who lost their health insurance. Most people are not getting cheaper policies or saving $2,500 a year. They are paying more and getting much less. One of my sources who sell Obama Care policies says most people who are signing up are getting it free or it’s heavily subsidized. If they have to pay so much as $100 a month or so, my source says many don’t even want the coverage. My prediction: Wait until the end of the fiscal year, the federal deficit will balloon.

The Federal Reserve conducted bank stress tests and five big banks failed, including Citigroup. They are doing this to make everyone think the banks are “safe.” Here’s the farce of it all. Banks have been allowed phony accounting since 2009. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has allowed banks to “mark to fantasy” their assets instead of “mark to market.” That means assets such as mortgage securities, real estate and derivatives on their books can be valued at whatever they think they can get for them in the future and not what they are worth today. The accounting is phony, and until that is corrected, the so-called stress test, in my opinion, is also phony. The banks are not as “safe” as the Fed claims.

Finally, five more people were convicted in the Bernie Madoff fraud that prosecutors estimate to be a total of $65 billion. The prosecutor said that the Madoff Ponzi scheme “could not have been the work of one person.” He is correct, but it was much more than Madoff and his crew. JPMorgan reportedly paid big fines and restitution to avoid criminal prosecution over the Madoff scam. The bank coughed up $2.5 million in all to settle the case. Why has not a single JPMorgan banker been indicted under the RICO Act? Shareholders are currently suing Jamie Dimon and other senior management and are alleging they knew of the fraud and did nothing. Just this week, another top former banker at B of A, former CEO Ken Lewis, is settling a civil fraud lawsuit by paying a $10 million fine. Once again, no criminal prosecution and zero jail time for massive fraud connected to the B of A merger with Merrill Lynch. Where are the Justice Department and the FBI? This is an outrage, and they should be ashamed for NOT doing their jobs.

I’ll bet the five people just convicted in the Madoff case would like to bypass jail and pay a fine; but they are, no doubt, going to the slammer. The economy will never truly recover until the rampant fraud is punished and removed from the system. Professor William Black will be on Monday to tell us why no criminal prosecution for fraud represents a huge problem for all Americans. It is basically setting us up for an even bigger financial meltdown in the not-so-distant future.

Join Greg Hunter as he analyzes these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up.



http://usawatchdog.com/weekly-news-wrap-up-3-31-14/






http://usawatchdog.com/weekly-news-wrap-up-3-31-14/

Where did the European Central Bank get the dollars they needed to bail out their own banks? They got them from the Fed. They gave us euros and we gave them dollars. So, these dollar/euro swaps were in the tens of trillions of dollars. . . .

Fed Insolvent, Dollar Will Collapse 90% or More-James Rickards

By Greg Hunter On March 23, 2014

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (Early Sunday Release)

Financial expert and best-selling author James Rickards thinks the “international monetary system is headed for a collapse.” Rickards contends, “It’s really not meant to be a provocative statement. The international monetary system actually has collapsed three times in the past 100 years. It collapsed in 1914. It collapsed in 1939, and it collapsed in 1971. When it happens, it doesn’t mean the end of the world or we all go live in caves. We have a period of sort of economic confusion.”

Rickards new book “The Death of Money” is a road map for what is coming. Rickards contends, “What I do for the reader is explain why the collapse is coming and, secondly, describe what this new system might look like. That should be very helpful to investors in preparing to both survive the collapse and be well positioned in terms of wealth preservation under the new system that’s coming.”

What does the new system look like for the U.S. dollar? Rickards says, “Here we are, again, looking at another collapse. The problem today is we are on a global dollar standard. A paper money standard can work, but only if you maintain confidence in the money . . . and you do that by running a good economy and having a good business environment . . . we’re doing the opposite. We are printing a lot of money. We have a lousy business environment.

Taxes are too high. Growth is too low. So, a lot of things are combining to undermine confidence in the dollar. Rickards goes on to say, “The last time the system collapsed in 2008, the Fed rescued it. How did they do that? Well, we know the Fed printed over $3.5 trillion in new money in the last 5 years. The Fed’s balance sheet went from $800 billion to over $4 trillion. People understand that. What’s less well known is the swap lines with Europe . . . European banks had dollar liabilities because they borrowed money in dollars. . . .

Where did the European Central Bank get the dollars they needed to bail out their own banks? They got them from the Fed. They gave us euros and we gave them dollars. So, these dollar/euro swaps were in the tens of trillions of dollars. . . . In addition to that, the Fed guaranteed every money market fund in the United States . . . and they guaranteed every bank deposit in the United States. Here you have a massive $60-$100 trillion bailout, not the $4 trillion you were told.

Fast forward to today. When the next collapse comes, it is going to be bigger than the last one. It’s going to be exponentially bigger. The five biggest banks that were too big to fail in 2008, today they are bigger. They own a larger percentage of the total banking assets. . . . When you double or triple the scale of the system, you don’t double or triple the risk. You increase the risk by an exponent that could be 10 times or 100 times.”

On the Fed engineering another 2008 type bailout, Rickards claims, “The last crisis was barely enough for the Fed to contain. They have used up all their dry powder. They can’t take the balance sheet any higher. They are already insolvent. . . . The Fed is insolvent. If you mark their assets to market, they are leveraged 80 to 1, and interest rates have been going up. So, a very small decline in the market value of their assets and it wipes out their capital. It’s a very simple math. So, we have an insolvent central bank. The next crisis is going to be bigger. You can see it coming. It is going to be too big for the Fed. They have taken their balance sheet to $4 trillion. What are they going to do, take their balance sheet to $8 trillion and leverage 200 to 1? The game is up. This has become very apparent. They are insolvent on a mark to market basis today, not like next year or the year after. They are insolvent today.”

Rickards foresees big inflation because the U.S. dollar’s buying power will shrink. Rickards predicts, “Imagine gas at $20 a gallon and bread at $10. That’s what we’re talking about.” So, if big inflation is coming, what about gold? Rickards says, “When I say the price of gold is going to $7,000 or $9,000 per ounce, which I expect it will, what I am really saying is the dollar is going to collapse 80% or 90% or more.” It did in the 1970’s. None of this is unprecedented, it all happened before.”



Rickards says, “When a collapse happens, it will happen quickly. You won’t see it coming. There won’t be time to run out and buy gold, and it probably will not even be available at that stage. You need to prepare now.”
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with James Rickards, author of the new book “The Death of Money.”

http://usawatchdog.com/fed-insolvent-dollar-will-collapse-90-or-more-james-rickards/

Why World War III Will Begin In Syria

March 28, 2014
Dave Hodges
March 28, 2014

It is possible to make a reasonable prediction about where World War III will break out based upon historical Russian military strategy. Putin is following a very predictable pattern that dates back to over a 100 years of Russian military history coupled with the present set of events.

The Present Situation

Russia is bleeding the Petrodollar dry by leading the BRIC nations in the purchase of Iranian oil for gold. The same situation is emerging in Europe as Russia is on the verge, either by invasion or by proxy control of Ukraine, of controlling a good portion of energy needs to Europe and being able to bypass the Petrodollar as a means of payment for Russian energy shipments into Europe. Further, Russia has just completed a deal which brings China into the Russian energy sphere of influence. This will eventually culminate in the weakening of NATO and the isolation of the United States both economically and militarily.

What does Russia want and what will be its eventual goal? Some believe that Russia wants to occupy the United States and perhaps Putin eventually does, but it is not practical at this particular point of time. Economic attrition and military isolation are Putin’s best friends at this time. After all, the US is in possession of over 2,000 nuclear weapons and 72 nuclear armed submarines which are virtually undetectable. Despite the presence of these American deterrents, do not be lulled into a false sense of security, this cold war will soon turn hot.

Putin’s Military Strategy



Putin is pursuing a military strategy that most Americans have never heard of and even fewer understand and it has to do with Russia’s geographic makeup and this holds the key to Russian military strategy Although Russia possesses one of the largest landmasses in the world, they possess an abhorrent lack of useable coastline. Historically, Russian economic growth has been severely impeded because of the lack of usable ports. Russia rues the day that they sold Alaska to the United States.

It also helps to explain why Syria has jumped to the forefront of world affairs. Russia is sitting on vast energy deposits and they are threatening to expand their energy based and mineral world dominance by exploiting the newly discovered riches at the North Pole and they have invested significant resources in beefing up their Arctic fighting forces towards this end. Russia may be able to acquire vast mineral resources, but without significant ports from which to trade, the Russian economy will always run in second gear. One does not need to have access to Putin’s war plans to understand what is going on, one needs to only be a student of history in order to predict where this coming conflict is headed.

The Heartland Theory

British geographer and military historian, Sir Halford MacKinder, in 1904, wrote an article that changed how politicians and military men viewed the world. The theory that had so influenced nearly five generations of strategists was called simply, the Heartland Theory. Basically, Mackinder’s Heartland Theory views geo-political military history as a struggle between land-based and sea-based powers. Mackinder believed the world had become a “closed” system, with virtually no new lands left for the European powers to discover, to conquer, and to fight over without creating chaos elsewhere. According to the theory, the common denominator for world conflict has been reduced to sea powers vs. land-based powers which would subsequently struggle for dominance of the world, and the ultimate victor would be in a position to set up a world empire. The determining factor in this struggle was physical geography; “Man and not nature initiates, but nature in large measure controls”.

From Mackinder’s perspective, Soviet Russia had to be contained within the heartland. Mackinder’s believed that whosoever controlled Eurasia, controlled the world, so long as the controller had access to useable ports. The problem for Russia is that they have so few usable ports thus impacting commerce and the movement of men and material in a time of war. So long as Russia could be prevented from being a major sea power, the forces of the United States and Western Europe were safe. However, if Russia should become a sea power in conjunction with its massive land-based power, Russia could rule the world. And now, through the release of Russian secret documents we are finding out that Stalin was willing to fight a war with the US over obtaining Alaskan seaports as predicted by the Heartland Theory.

Stalin’s Secret Plans to Invade Alaska In 1951



In 1999, at a conference held at Yale University, previously-secret Russian documents revealed that Russian Dictator Joseph Stalin had undergone extensive planning in preparation to invade North America as early as 1951. The event was one of a series of programs sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), which monitors new documents pertaining to the Cold War. The Yale conference centered on Stalin’s relationship with the United States.

These documents, from the Cold War, revealed that Stalin had a definitive plan to attack Alaska in 1951-52 and had undergone major military preparations in anticipation of the invasion. Russia has always considered itself to be landlocked and this served as the major motivation for Russia’s planned incursion which would have given Russia access to good sea ports. Stalin subsequently died and the plans were abandoned, at least temporarily, mostly due to American dominance in nuclear weapons. In 2014, we see the importance of the Heartland Theory in guiding Russian foreign policy with regard to Syria and to some degree, China. The Chinese-Russian energy deal allows Russia access to Chinese ports. Russia is steadfast in its protection of Syria because of the Russian need to use the ports of Tartus and Aleppo. And it is highly likely that once the energy pipelines in Ukraine are secured by Putin, Europe will soon be making seaport concessions to Russia in exchange for Russian based energy shipments. At the beginning of the crisis in Crimea, the first objective of the Russian military was to secure the naval base in Sevastopol.

The Russians desire the fleet to grow in support of a new Mediterranean task force created by Russia last year as a move to counter an increase in US naval presence in the Mediterranean. If Ukraine had been allowed to be wooed by Western banksters to join the European Union, Russia’s most important naval force would have been effectively neutered because of the potential loss of Sevastopol as a naval base. The G7 nations may view Putin’s actions in Crimea as being offensive, Putin, no doubt, views the action as a matter of military survival. Again, the Heartland Theory comes into play. The Heartland Theory also came into play during last year’s Syrian crisis as Putin threatened to nuke the United States if it invaded Syria in violation of international law. Syria is critical to the Russians on a number of fronts including the prevalence of Syria’s warm water ports. Syria’s importance to Russia can be condensed to five essential factors:

1. Russia has a naval installation in Syria. The base is vitally important because it is Russia’s last foreign military base outside of the former Soviet Union. Putin is playing a bit of a slight of hand approach by stating they are closing the facility. However, the Russians are maintaining navy technicians and they service their permanent flotilla in the area.
2. Russia utilizes the port at Aleppo and Tartus to facilitate its sea trade.
3. Fortifying Syria provides protection for Iran who is undermining the Petrodollar by selling its oil for gold. This allows Putin to be engaged in an economic war against the dollar and the Federal Reserve.
4. Syria is a military satellite of Russia as Assad continues to buy a high quantity of Russian military exports, which aids the Russian economy.

America’s Options

Control of Ukraine and its gas shipments through the country are the key to swinging the balance of power on the planet. If Ukraine comes under the complete control of the Russians, energy blackmail and the eventual disintegration of NATO will occur. If Russia moves to take over Ukraine, what options does the United States have? It is not likely that at this point in time that NATO has the ability to keep Russia out of Ukraine. Where is Russia most vulnerable?

The clear answer is in Syria. Syria has both economic and military significance to Russia. If Syria were to fall to the United States, the military and economic loss would be catastrophic, not the least, would be the loss of Syrian ports. Russia’s prudent course of action would be to continue to erode the US economy by its relentless attacks upon the Federal Reserve and the Petrodollar. However I do not foresee the Federal Reserve banksters are going to continue to let this happen as the dollar erodes.

Subsequently, when Ukraine falls, Syria and possibly Iran will be attacked by the United States. The provocation will likely be a false flag event within the United States in which the Syrians are falsely implicated. Remember the Heartland Theory, it also predict the second front of the coming World War III. Along these lines, Putin will attack Alaska if the United States attacks Syria. This is how a cold war can turn hot in a hurry.

If you do not believe me, just ask the Polish as they have begun mobilizing for war. DHS just began a martial law lock down drill yesterday which will last for nearly a month. Ask yourself, what do these people know that you do not? Again, I want to caution people to stock up on supplies. If a false flag event does occur, your ability to resupply could be seriously imperiled.

http://thecommonsenseshow.com/2014/0...egin-in-syria/