The Preservation Of Perks, Privileges And Power: The PPPP

The picture is clear: The Powers-That-Be in Wall Street and Washington, the “Deep State,” military contractors, Big Pharma, Big Ag, The Federal Reserve, Mainstream Media, the DNC and RNC and others want to maintain the transfer game…because the following will continue:

1. The transfer of wealth to the political and financial elite
2. Payoffs to the President, Congress, and lobbyists
3. Military adventures – very costly adventures – must be maintained to feed the massive military-industrial-security complex
4. Ever increasing debt
5. Power and influence over institutions and other countries

But if the Powers-That-Be had managed well and created a healthy global financial system, would the following exist?

• Over $13 trillion in global sovereign debt “yielding” negative interest rates.
• Official US national debt approaching $20 trillion and rapidly increasing. Pick your poison – default or hyperinflation!
• Student loan debt over $1.4 trillion and much of it delinquent.
• Over 45 million individuals in the US on SNAP – food stamps.
• Wall Street bonuses are substantial while over 90 million in the US are not working.
• Social Security cost of living adjustments at or near zero when we all know better, based on the increasing costs of groceries, beer, rent, medical care, college tuition etc.
• A stock market crash every 7 – 8 years, and due any time…

Regardless of which candidate the voting machines select in the US election in November 2016, the above are important concerns that most likely will not be addressed. A few thoughts:

From ZeroHedge: “Yes, The System is Rigged”

“If 2016 has taught us anything, it is that if the establishment’s hegemony is imperiled, it will come together in ferocious solidarity – for the preservation of their perks, privileges and power.” (the P.P.P.P.)

From Pam Martens: Here’s Why Americans Are Mad as Hell

“Yesterday we published our 1,007th article here at Wall Street On Parade on the insidiously corrupt financial system in the United States known as Wall Street. It’s a system that now operates as an institutionalized wealth transfer mechanism that is hollowing out the middle class, leaving one of every five children in our nation living in poverty, while funneling the plunder to the top one-tenth of one percent.”

“The actual role of Wall Street is to fairly and efficiently allocate capital to maximize positive economic outcomes for the nation. Under the current model, Wall Street is focused solely on maximizing profits in any manner possible, including fraud and collusion, to maximize personal enrichment. When Senator Bernie Sanders said during his campaign stops and a presidential debate that “the business model of Wall Street is fraud,” there was a long, substantive archive of facts to back up that assertion.”

“After the 2001 collapse of Nasdaq, nothing materially changed to stop the systemic corruption model. In fact, corruption accelerated. Instead of allocating capital to build new industries and new jobs to ensure America’s future, Wall Street allocated capital to unsound derivatives and to subprime borrowers, whom it knew from its own internal reports, did not have the ability to repay the loans. Wall Street then offloaded its derivatives risk to AIG and suckered Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into buying its toxic subprime debt. All three institutions collapsed under the weight of this Wall Street corruption and, jointly, received over $367 billion in taxpayer bailouts.”

From David Stockman: Why Social Security Will Be Bankrupt in 10 Years

“On a cash basis, the OASDI (retirement and disability) funds spent $859 billion during 2014 but took in only $786 billion in taxes, thereby generating $73 billion in red ink.  And by the trustees’ own reckoning, the OASDI funds will spew a cumulative cash deficit of $1.6 trillion during the 12-years covering 2015-2026.”

“So measured by the only thing that matters—hard cash income and outgo—the social security system has already gone bust.” 

In essence, the Social Security funds have already been spent and the supposed $2.7 trillion fund balance is nothing but a phantom debt issued by the Treasury. Further, the Social Security system assumes that phantom debt will accrue phantom interest earnings, but since neither exists, the US government must borrow even more to cover the deficit between Social Security taxes and payouts. Which will it be – default or hyperinflation?

From ZeroHedge: 96% of Clinton Donations Went to the Clinton Foundation

According to the report, the Clintons took a $1 million donation to charity as a deduction on their tax return for 2015. The $1 million went to the Clinton Family Foundation. It maintains the P.P.P.P.

CONCLUSIONS:

• The elite will maintain the system “for the Preservation of their Perks, Privileges and Power,” (the P.P.P.P.).
• Debt and excessive government expenditures will increase because they facilitate the transfer of wealth from the lower 95%.
• We, the lower 95% in the economic food chain, need protection from currency devaluations, counter-party default risk, loss of purchasing power, and hyperinflation.
• Given that the “endgame” is either default or hyperinflation, what protects from both? Easy! What is discouraged by both Wall Street and the Fed?

Physical gold and silver protect from the devastation of paper debt defaults and from the ravages of hyperinflation.

Safely store them outside the banking system.

• A world dominated by either paper debt defaults, hyperinflation, or both will be an ugly world, but we will survive better when protected and insured via physical gold and silver.
• Read: “The Dollar Index and Helicopter Money”

Gary Christenson

The Deviant Investor