Brandon Smith Warns The System Is Crashing: “Prepare For Bank Confiscations, Shortages, Insurgency”

Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

us-army-riot

Military, police and homeland security units have all long been preparing for riots and widespread civil unrest during a prolonged collapse.

What is the anatomy of a breakdown?

The past eight years have been extremely difficult for the real economy. Central bank intervention has propped up the stock market at the expense of the main street economy, at the expense of middle class security, at the expense of jobs.

And everyone knows that game can’t continue. The question is how it will play out, and how long the game will be.

The Federal Reserve finally announced rate hikes – planning one incremental increase after another throughout the coming Trump Administration.

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Close to a decade of stimulus, quantitative easing, zero interest rates and easy money for those on top is coming to an end. For all those who have borrowed, it means that the burden of debt is coming due – and the biggest borrower of all, the U.S. government, will face huge new costs in the form of increased interest on $14 trillion in debt:

Rising interest rates help savers and hurt borrowers. As the biggest borrower on the planet, the U.S. government will soon begin paying more to investors holding roughly $14 trillion in Treasury debt.  “As debt continues to grow and interest rates return toward more normal levels, interest spending is slated to be the fastest growing part of the budget.” (source)

This crunch could impact state, businesses, municipalities and individual households in a big way as well. Meanwhile, the presidency of Donald Trump has changed the surface of the political landscape entirely, and no one is quite sure what will happen – though plenty on the left have been casting Trump as a neo-Hitlerian figure.

Brandon Smith, who runs Alt-Market.com, may not know the future either, but he has developed a very strong track record for predicting the “surprise” victories for Brexit in the UK, and for Trump in the U.S.

But he didn’t just predict their win at the polls, but that these new signposts of the conservative, populist uprising would be used by the elite – who allowed these electoral changes – in order to scapegoat the coming financial collapse.

As things continue to play out, he has been so far proven stunningly accurate, and should not be readily ignored.

Will Trump’s presidency be better understood in hindsight as what has already been dubbed: ‘Operation Shift Blame’?

Here’s what Brandon Smith said a couple of weeks ago in a focused interview with the X22 Report:

The Elite Already Have The Collapse Planned, ‘Operation Shift Blame’ Is A Go: Brandon Smith

As Brandon Smith argues in the interview, the Trump presidency, if he is right, is all about having a scapegoat for the crash of the economy during his watch.

If the populists, nationalists, and conservatives are blamed, then their views are discredited, and momentum to control the aftermath – and restore order to the system – falls back to the establishment that has, until now, been the target of growing disdain by a population over-run by the status quo and its series of disasters.

But with Trump – undeniably a spectacle to all Americans – the elite have a narrative that will keep people fighting among themselves, divided by race, gender, politics and ideology.

Though President Obama and the circles in Washington keep insisting the economy is recovering, improving and providing, nothing could be further from the truth.

The economy has been “kept on life support” since 2008, when there should have been a bigger crash… but that, too, will come due. They’ve been artificially propping up the system with stimulus measures, and simply stopping that intervention will usher in a collapse. According to Brandon Smith:

“They’re setting it up to where a crash occurs during a Trump presidency, and Trump and conservatives are blamed in the process.”

It won’t happen overnight. The economic collapse is a “process, not an event” – one that takes place over the course of several years, even a decade. According to Brandon Smith, 2017 will likely see a major acceleration of that collapse.

As the fiscal situation becomes more and more untenable, and the government more desperate to pay the bills, we will likely see government pensions confiscated, promises benefits reduced or delayed, and other measures to pay debts.

On the pretext of sustaining the financial stability of the system, banks may end up “locking out” accounts, seizing funds and account holders and investors could face severe haircuts.

America may well see credit freezes, shortages on the shelves, deliveries could stop, and people could lose their minds as ordinary life is interrupted. As Smith argues,

“Removing stimulus and ‘turning off the spigot’ will initiate collapse on its own…. and end up being worse than the Great Depression

 

Smith: “Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen between now and early 2018, because that’s their window of time to create enough chaos and desperation in order to convince people, to rationalize the idea of switching to a global currency system. After that, I would expect there would be a process of acclimating the public to this new system, and I would expect that a lot of countries would be in third world conditions for a while after that.”

A combination of hyperinflation, and deflationary pressures could further wreck the economy, and even decimate the value of the dollar. Further consequences could spiral out of control from there.

Already, there are plans on the books for government to use its nearly-unlimited powers to seize private assets at a personal or institutional level in order to meet the needs, perceived or real, of society. Numerous executive orders give fiat authority to the executive branch to wield dictatorial control and violate private property and personal assets – not the least of which will be private holdings in gold and silver.

The elites have long suggested that the rise of a truly global currency will replace the crash of the dollar system, and the severe economic decline of the United States.  This has been in the works for a long, long time.

The system is going to crash regardless… so, arguably, this is how they are planning for it to play out.

The only question left, is: how will you prepare?

For those who want to survive, and be as unscathed as possible, that means building up a supply of food, water, guns, gold, alternative heating and power, medicine, barter items and other essential supplies. It also means preparing psychologically to deal with the loss of income, the breakdown of groceries, supplies and easily-available goods; and it means to distancing oneself from the most vulnerable – and potentially unstable – segments of society.

In particular, it may be wise to leave major urban centers, or have a viable exit strategy to a place that is both rural and self-sustaining. Of course, these are major preparations that have to be made according to the individual needs of each family.

However, the time is past to pretend that these things are not happening; it is time to make some very serious plans for what you will do during what happens next.

Just look to Venezuela or India for a glimpse of how raw things can become once the fiat paper currency ceases to flow freely, or provide for the life that most have become accustomed to living.

As Brandon Smith argues:

“I think the plan is to kill the dollar’s world reserve status, and that will severely limit the dollar’s value on the global market. We’ll still have our green dollars, with the presidents, but the value will no longer be controlled by the Federal Reserve… I think the Federal Reserve will step aside for the IMF, and the IMF will become the new global mediator of currency values.”

 

The United States will be hit the hardest, with the reliance upon the dollar’s reserve currency status…. “and an extreme shift from first world down to third world living conditions. It will be a disaster, there will be people who will die during this process, [just as people did] during the Great Depression. It’s going to be a disaster.”

Because people in the general public aren’t prepared even to sustain a few days without power, food and water, people will be pushed into extremes – desperate, rioting, looting, violence, and other destructive behaviors that are hallmarks of a breakdown.

In short, the United States will see a debased situation that is unprecedented in its more than 200 year history. Even the Great Depression could be eclipsed by the extreme events to come – but again, it won’t happen overnight.

“Some will react violently, but I think the elites have staged the situation in such a way that a lot of people will be confused as to who to blame. And that’s the great advantage that they have, is that they’ve staged the situation to where, especially people on the left, they have an automatically built-in bias to blame either Donald Trump, or Republicans, or conservatives in general. On the right, I think you’re going to have a lot of conservatives blaming the left as [for] sabotaging Trump and ruining his chances of fixing things.”

 

“You’re also going to have all kinds of different, I think, events in between – black swan events, terrorist attacks – that really keep people confused and looking every other direction, except at the global bankers. That’s what they want… they don’t want anyone focused on them. They’re going to create as much gas as possible during all this to keep people at each other’s throats. They’re going to be sitting on the Riviera… and watching.”

 

“Because we are getting to a point in history where the globalists are more exposed than ever before – their schemes, who they are, the organizations they’ve built. If the general public becomes aware of who they are, and the fact that they’re behind this crash, it would be all over for them. You’re talking torches and pitchforks – so they need to keep mass confusion, and keep everyone focused on each other, and not them, or the entire apparatus falls apart.”

 

“If we can get enough people aware of, and focused on the bankers first… then we might be able to, at least, remove them from the picture and rebuild in a proper manner. What this is really all about is who is going to rebuild. The system is going to crash regardless, but we still can determine who rebuilds afterwards. If it’s them rebuilding, then we’re kind of done for, because they’re going to use the crisis as a rationale for centralizing everything into their one world system. If we can remove them from the picture, then we might have the chance to rebuild a freer system.”

If things get bad enough, there could be an actual civil war again in America – in fact, it may become unavoidable.

People are at extremes right now, and the divisions between the left and right are, in many respects, deeper than they have ever been.

Those who are addicted to government assistance are in for a rude awakening, and those who work for a living face the very real possibility of seeing the American Dream crushed once and for all, in an era from which there will be no turning back.

But the pages of history have not been written, and if they have, they still stand to be edited by real world events. If people get their heads wrapped around what is really happening, perhaps the true villains can be addressed, and power can be kept out of the hands in whom it is most dangerous.

Perhaps, there is a chance that liberty could one day be restored, but first, people must prepare to endure a long, hard fight.

 

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26 Comments
starfcker
starfcker
December 21, 2016 6:37 am

Sounds pretty rough.
I don’t know, maybe we could just make america great again?

Card802
Card802
December 21, 2016 7:39 am

Banks charged $11.6 Billion in overdraft and insufficient fund fees last year. People are already riding the line of losing it all and when you have nothing left to lose, they will eventually lose it and riot.

P
P
  Card802
December 21, 2016 12:13 pm

Fun fact: if your bank acount sits inactive for three months, uncle sam taxes it down. They just took 33 bucks from our 15k savings account this month. The transaction is labelled ‘withholding’ . Wife flipped. It earns a dollar or so monthly, yet they are now withold 33 bucks. And you cant get it back says key bank.

james the deplorable wanderer
james the deplorable wanderer
  P
December 22, 2016 12:13 pm

Don’t think my credit union has ever done this. Investigate with a lawyer; you may have the makings of a fine class-action lawsuit here.

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 21, 2016 7:47 am

“If people get their heads wrapped around what is really happening, perhaps the true villains can be addressed, and power can be kept out of the hands in whom it is most dangerous.”

Dream on. This country has had plenty of opportunities to do so while times have been relatively good and look where we are at. Its going to be a real cluster when things go down. And the worst part:

Micah 7:6 New International Version (NIV)

6 For a son dishonors his father,
a daughter rises up against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.

MJH1963
MJH1963
  Anonymous
December 21, 2016 8:20 am

I respectfully disagree with a lot in this piece (but not all). First, things in the US are ugly – we can all agree on that and it does pay to prepare. But things are much worse in nearly every other country on the planet. All we’ve heard about for years were the BRIC nations and how great they were. Flash forward to today and each of them are complete basket cases. Toss Europe, Africa, all of South and Central America into the mix and we find that each is a complete mess. So we’re supposed to believe now that the US dollar is going to lose its reserve currency status when the value of it compared to the rest of the world’s currencies is screaming upwards? There were plenty of opinion pieces in 2009 that stated it was over, the new depression is here and the great unraveling was at hand. Funny but I noticed a lot of people investing and buying at that darkest hour have been well rewarded for their foresight while folks who unplugged are probably much worse off. I don’t think it’s unwise to prepare and I do. But I do think it’s unwise to panic. The US is not Venezuela and it is not India and to use them as examples as to what might happen here is silly.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  MJH1963
December 21, 2016 9:02 am

FWIW, India just pushed past the UK to become the world’s 6th largest economy.

Still a basket case, but less one now than in the past.

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 21, 2016 8:59 am

The current and future difficulties are just preparing the way for something else yet to come, and they have to occur in this way because most people don’t want that something else to arrive and have to be forced into it by the events of the world around them.

Events are now controlling men, men no longer control events.

Bea Lever
Bea Lever
December 21, 2016 9:12 am

There is a new sheriff in town…..remember? He will save us from all of this tribulation.

He has a plan and that is why he is appointing numerous Goldman banksters and a slew of billionaires, and his kids to help “Make America Great Again”. Makes sense to me (cough).

Stupid is as stupid does——–Forrest Gump

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Bea Lever
December 21, 2016 10:54 am

Yep, and to think we could have had Hildabeast. She would have made things right with her appointees. Oh well, we screwed up and missed our chance at greatness. Yeah right. I don’t care if Trump doesn’t do one thing that he promised, it’s still far and away better than Hillary.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Anonymous
December 21, 2016 9:29 pm

Well some of us do care if Trump doesn’t do not one thing he promised. Just today Trump said it was “cute” when he said he was going to “drain the swamp”, but he really didn’t mean it. Is lying “cute”? Fuck Hillary, she is no longer an issue and nobody here wanted the harpy. Trump should be held accountable from the get-go or it’s just more of the same.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Anonymous
December 22, 2016 8:50 am

I do “care” if he does what he said that he would. I was being sarcastic. If you thought that Trump was going to actually accomplish all the things that he said, especially with the media, liberals, democrats and his own backstabbing party against him then I’m sorry that you are going to get your bubble burst. I do expect him to at least make an effort. Do you think you could let him actually get into office before you start cutting him down? Anything is an improvement over the last 8 years.

Rdawg
Rdawg
  Bea Lever
December 21, 2016 12:22 pm

Give it a rest already, we get it. Come up with something else to say. Maybe some more juicy links to websites that look like they were coded by a 12 year old containing “Secrets of the Illuminati/NWO/Masons/Joos/Fill-in-the-blank.”

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Rdawg
December 21, 2016 9:36 pm

Rdawg loves him some bankers and billionaires and maybe loves being fleeced by these crooks. Why give this a pass dawg, can’t wait for them to lift your 401k out from under you?

Montefrío
Montefrío
December 21, 2016 9:36 am

Mac and Brandon are talking their book, just like Cramer does, albeit less offensively.

Is Trump a chump? I think not. Will he be another Andrew Jackson and take on the bankers? I think not, but if push were to come to shove, creating a “greenback” equivalent and allowing the masters-of-the-universe to slip quietly away with the spoils they can keep after massive debt default might be on the cards. The m-o-t-u aren’t stupid, so they’re unlikely to stand idly by while the US and the rest of the Western world collapse into chaos and the pitchforks actually come out. Maybe they don’t listen to Kenny Rogers’ songs, but they know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em and know when to run. MJH is right: the US ain’t Venezuela or India, or anyplace else other than the US. When Argentina had its meltdown, Buenos Aires had some chaos as described a while back by FerFal, an Argentine blogger, but outside of the biggest cities, life went on pretty much as usual without supply chain collapses, power outages, etc. Granted, 3rd world folk are more accustomed to dealing with internal economic crises, but it’s difficult for me to imagine the US collapsing, though I haven’t been there in nearly 20 years, so perhaps my imagination is inadequate for 2017 in Anytown, USA.

In closing, I’d say that prepping in whatever way makes sense to you is never a bad idea, nor for that matter is worst-case-planning, but extremes should be avoided. Besides, adequate prepping for self-sufficiency takes years unless you have a great deal of wealth with which to do it in a hurry, a circumstance not readily available for all but a few.

DRUD
DRUD
  Montefrío
December 21, 2016 11:42 am

Here is where I experience tremendous cognitive dissonance. When I look at the world at the street level, collapse seems absolutely ludicrous. The system is just so big and so well ingrained in everybody’s collective unconscious that it is bound to continue indefinitely–and more it has, and every day it just keeps going. And shortages? Fucheddaboudit! We are practically drowning in crap everywhere you look…every shelf at every store is over-fucking-flowing.
However, when I take a 30000 ft view of the system from a perspective of history and mathematics, it seems nearly miraculous that it hasn’t collapsed already. It’s akin to rolling a hundred straight passes on a craps table.

So what to do with this? Well, it’s simple (which is NOT synonymous with easy): prepare as best you can for an unknown future (such has it ever been) and enjoy each day you get to the best of your ability (such has it ever been).

Homer
Homer
  DRUD
December 21, 2016 5:46 pm

You have no idea how fast exuberance can turn to fear. Collective Unconscious??? Phooey!

Tommy
Tommy
December 21, 2016 10:01 am

Guaranteed the fine people of Venezuela, Greece, India, and more NEVER thought what’s happened could ever happen either. But it did. ‘Murica isn’t immune to what’s ailing every nation – it’s patient fucking zero. Anybody who thinks ‘yeah but it can’t happen here’ is a fool. And to whoever above was throwing out ‘Smith is talking his book’…..what book? Look at that dudes record and prepare to be impressed – it syncs with admin’s fourth turning timeline as well. Give Smith, Jones, and others a chance – you’ll learn more for just considering their views than gunning for them.

Montefrío
Montefrío
  Tommy
December 21, 2016 12:20 pm

Smith’s “record” is one I share as far as Brexit and Trump go. He and Mac make money by frightening folks into buying stuff that they advertise, getting them to speak, etc. “Talking your book” (in case the phrase is unfamiliar) means promoting that which brings you an income. When collapse predictions play out, I’ll be the first to agree that I’m a fool. Note: I’m not saying it CAN’T happen there (US), simply that I don’t believe it’s inevitable or even probable. I’ve spent years considering the views of Smith, Jones, Karl D, Prechter, Kunstler, the King of Y2K Doom Gary North, on and on, and as of today, they have yet to be proven correct. Meanwhile, I like to believe I’ve insulated myself and my kids from any collapse as best I could and can; the rest is out of my hands. I’m with Drud on this one: keep your powder dry and carpe diem.

Cartersville Critter
Cartersville Critter
December 21, 2016 10:35 am

I stopped voting after Reagan left office. He was the most libertarian sounding candidate up to that point and he talked about actually reducing the size of gov’t. Instead he added 2 cabinet positions and substantially grew gov’t spending putting it on the national tab. Debt was about 55% of GNP then. Now it’s over 100% (not factoring in contingent liabilities). I figured then that if he couldn’t stop this cancerous growth then no one would and we’d just have to ride this sucker into the ground. It’s bound to be painful as hell but it’s the only way to rid ourselves of this horrible federal monster. So I say frig it. Bring it on.

Anon
Anon
December 21, 2016 10:38 am

Seems to me that if things do collapse in the markets, that is a good opportunity for savers and prudent people to invest in things again. For the past 9 years, all of the prudent among us have had to sit by and watch as money is worth nothing, credit is everything, debt is favored over savings etc. When there is blood in the streets, that is the best time to invest. I would love to see another housing crash, market crash, etc. Then it would be time to start deploying cash in to productive assets from those that have had a free ride for far too long.
Do I think there will be trouble – oh yes. I would not want to be a hipster millennial in a big city when the food stamps run out – they are going to find true religion. However, those of us that are handy, don’t live in big cities, and are not totally beholden to the system will find it will truly be a bountiful harvest.
I say, BRING IT ON….

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Anon
December 21, 2016 10:56 am

Just before the crash of ’29 the smartest of the smart money got out of both stocks and real estate and went cash.

After the market and real estate crash they went back in bought back everything they’d sold to go cash along with a lot more of it at lower prices, great fortunes were born this way.

Homer
Homer
  Anon
December 21, 2016 6:14 pm

Considering the carnage that will ensue, I can’t be cavalier about “BRING IT ON….”. We are all going to suffer, except for the Elite who have secured their hideaways and the fish in the deep blue sea.

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 21, 2016 11:11 am

I read Alt-Market, and while I must admit that Brandon has made some very accurate calls in regards to political movements, and mass psychology, this is one call that he has been harping on for the last 8 years.

Look at Japan, their debt to GDP ratio is twice as large as the US, and they have to import everything, they have minimal natural resources, and the same aging demographics as we do, yet the BOJ continues to print, and now they are the major buyers of Japans equities, having already bought all of their own sovereign debt. Japan is on its way to nationalizing all if it’s industries, in an effort to maintain the illusion of a stable currency.

I don’t see our FED as weak, compared to the BOJ.

So, we will continue to kick the can, like all the other western economies.

I do not see the US giving up on petro dollar and global hegemony, without a fight.

Does anybody think the US will bend over to some libtards at the IMF?
The IMF is a nation-less entity with no military, only the illusion of a global currency, also backed by nothing but faith.

Homer
Homer
  Anonymous
December 21, 2016 6:23 pm

I’m not so delusional. The IMF is backed by a lot of counties that do have a military and a lot of guns. Do I think that the USA will bend over to some libtards? It already has. The IMF is a USA bona fide’ NGO.

Homer
Homer
December 21, 2016 6:01 pm

I’ve been saying the same thing on this site for so long, I look at it as old hat!

Is Trump the reincarnation of Hoover? Hoover, the designated fall guy for the great depression. Anybody is just fine for the slot as long as it isn’t the BANKSTERS and their ‘pipe dream’, fiat currency that is the cause of all that besets you.

What Trump must do is use the alternate media that’s not bought and paid for by the BANKSTERS and go directly to the American people and level with them and tell the TRUTH when the economy fails. They may not like the truth, but they can handle it and I believe they will back Trump and not the Elite who robbed them and was the cause their misery. That’s Trump’s only hope. He won’t be able to do it alone. He will need your backing and support.

He must tell the TRUTH and let the chips fall where they may.