Sunshine Britain! – Race Result – Sri Lanka Chaos – Resist Davos – Wartime Economy? – Letter from Great Britain [07-23-22]

My book “The Financial Jigsaw” has now been accepted and published at my academic network.  Scroll down and Hit:  ‘View Full Text’ button for the complete book:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358117070_THE_FINANCIAL_JIGSAW_-_PART_1_-_4th_Edition_2020   I will be pleased to email a free PDF on request to: [email protected].

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:  Would you buy a second hand car from this man?  “The policy makers (or central controllers) are embarrassed to confess the inflationary consequences of their absurd money printing, and nothing reveals those consequences more than a naturally rising gold price. Solution? Easy: Lie about inflation and rig the paper gold price with leverage, derivatives and a greenlight from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), aka: “Big Brother.” In Rigged to Fail, revealed is how central bankers rig the bond and hence stock markets: https://goldswitzerland.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/paper-gold-price-2-600×417.png  Hat Tip: by Matthew Piepenburg on Gold Switzerland:  Now you know who runs the world; rogues’ gallery: https://group30.org/members

BREAKING NEWS:  Shock horror! It was sunny in Britain this week – WOW – well, for a couple of days anyway. Our nanny, HMG, declared a RED EMERGENCY – yet another crisis for Britain to bear. Beware the crisis of crises. “We live in a crisis culture”, says Tim Dawson in the ‘Critic’. “Everything, we are told, is in crisis: Climate crisis; Covid crisis; NHS in crisis; economic crisis; cost-of-living crisis; obesity crisis; housing crisis; education crisis; energy crisis; population crisis; foreign war crisis; crime crisis; migration crisis; constitutional crisis; No wonder there’s a mental health crisis. The alcohol crisis is just people trying to stay sane.”

AND now the temperate crisis – everyone is gonna die crisis. “Many of us will have been enjoying the good weather over the past few weeks. But few have been enjoying it as much as Britain’s bureaucracy of fear. The UK Health Security Agency, the Met Office, BBC and assorted worrywart policymakers have been basking in the really hot temperatures crisis; NO, a spell of hot weather is not a ‘national emergency”: https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/07/16/heatwaves-and-the-climate-of-fear/

I remember a time when Britain got mega-tons of Sahara sand dumped on us. I wonder what the hysterical fear-mongering press today would have made of it?  We live in a fantasy drama with all the trappings of farce; a medieval world of spooks, demons, Covidian high-priest fanatics and anti-Vaxx heretics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU

INFLATION WATCH: Shock release this week saw CPI rise to 9.4% YoY.  But this is a lagging indicator. Producer Price Inflation (PPI) is an indicator of future price increases. Producer input prices rose by an eye-popping 24.0% in the year to June 2022, up from 22.4% in the year to May 2022; this is the highest the rate has been since records began in January 1985.  Hold on to your hat and prepare accordingly.

For example: my car battery is 6 years old – appears OK but I will replace is shortly.  It is these types of decisions that can save you money further down the line. Note that RPI (11.8%) is higher because it factors in mortgage interest payments.  Here are the full details explained: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor/article/rpi-versus-cpi/#What-is-the-main-difference-between-CPI-and-RPI?

LEADERSHIP RACE RESULT:  More drama emerged this week as our aspiring leaders ripped into each other whilst pretending to be the best horse in the glue factory.  The rest of the field fell way back and retired leaving just the two favourites, Sunak, the mighty stallion and the grey mare, Truss, having slowly captured and overtaken the injured Mordaunt.

Don’t be fooled – whoever gets the top job – they are sure to screw up. I have suffered 70+ years of continual crisis, voted most of the time, but nothing changed.  Now I observe that we have finally descended to the bottom of the abyss where nothing actually works anymore, hence all the crises listed above.  It’s the typical Fourth Turning outcome when faith and trust in corrupt, established institutions fails pending the potential emergence of a better world – cyclical history rhymes; it has done so many times in the past.

Boris Johnson’s passing quip in his final words to Parliament: “Mission Accomplished, Hasta La Vista Baby!” as he left the despatch box in the Houses of Parliament for the last time. Perhaps ‘Arnie’s Terminator 2 has something to do with his future plans?

Now we can look forward to the steward’s  (Tory Membership) final enquiry on 5^th September to decide who wins the treasured PM Cup, Sunak or Truss. Here is a status assessment from across the pond by Mike Shedlock (avoiding the bias in the British press and hopefully getting a more neutral report): https://mishtalk.com/politics/boris-johnsons-final-words-to-uk-mission-accomplished-hasta-la-vista-baby

SIDEBAR: RIP Boris Johnson. He’s MIA, having missed the third COBRA ‘crisis’ briefing in a row after he spent the morning at Farnborough Air Show; so on a passing note, here is a letter from one of my inscrutable Chinese readers addressed to our ‘former’ Prime Minister this week:

“For Boris Johnson: A Chinese saying dated back to Wu-Yue war for hegemony 510s~463BCE:

• The flying birds disappeared completely, and the good bows and arrows were hidden
• When the cunning rabbit dies, the hound will be killed and cooked
• When the hostile country is eliminated, the important ministers that participate in planning should flee or be killed

Now that he had done what “they” thought he should do, he was kicked out.  Devouring so much money, someone should be called out” it’s his fault”!

SPOTLIGHT ON SRI LANKA:  Since achieving independence from British colonial governance in 1948, Sri Lanka’s government has been structured with both a prime minister and a president. The prime minister is the head of government and the most senior Member of Parliament. But the real power lies with the president.

One family – the Rajapaksas – has dominated the Sri Lankan political sphere, concentrating power in the hands of a few senior officials – who all happen to be related. Unsurprisingly, this has led to problems over the past two decades, including political violence against minorities and accusations of rampant corruption.

The problems in Sri Lanka are systemic and longstanding. “Through a series of terrible financial decisions and mismanagement of the economy, most of the foreign currency reserves at the Sri Lankan central bank have evaporated. This is a problem for the Sri Lankan government because it relies heavily on imports. With little reserves left, importing basic necessities like food, fuel and medicines has become difficult – there are some product prices that have increased fivefold.

After defaulting on its foreign debt for the first time since achieving independence, the Sri Lankan government halted the sale of fuel for non-essential vehicles for two weeks. It is the first time a country has restricted fuel sales since the 1970s. Citizens have also been faced with daily power outages, schools have closed and people are forced to work from home in an attempt to conserve energy.  It’s not just Covid or the war in Ukraine, or global inflation, although these external factors have exacerbated the problems, Sri Lanka’s difficulties are largely the consequence of reckless spending and endemic corruption – sound familiar?

At the heart of it all is the Rajapaksa family. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president, was a popular figure when elected in 2019. At that stage it was genuinely unfathomable to think that the Rajapaksas would ever fall; they seemed untouchable. Before a few resignations in April, Gotabaya and his brothers, Mahinda and Basil, were running the country with an iron fist. They appointed sons and other family members into government positions, and this nepotism created the perfect conditions for corruption to fester.

Basil, until recently the country’s finance minister, has been accused of lining his own pockets through huge infrastructure projects which are said to be completely useless; and in 2016 Gotabaya was charged in a corruption case. (The charges were eventually dropped on the grounds of immunity after he was elected president.) In only three years, the Rajapaksas have shifted greater political power to the president, further limiting his accountability for political or economic decisions.

But the protests have created a “political awakening. People don’t just want Rajapaksa to go or even for his family to go – they want the whole damned political system to be overhauled. Could this be the canary-in-the-coal mine?  Is it possible that people all over the world will follow suit and take up the baton of resistance?

The people of Sri Lanka aren’t only complaining about their conditions – they have clear demands too but lack a strong leader. They want all the ruling elites out and a unity government that includes all political parties to help solve the economic crisis and eventually a transparent general election.

The protesters will not fade away; when resignation looked unlikely, protesters set the prime minister’s residence on fire. This mounting pressure and constant threat of escalation have led to Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official resignation.

This is a positive sign however the country is nowhere near out of the woods. The now acting president, Ranil Wickremesinghe – also the current prime minister, who has been involved in government for more than two decades himself – has given the military free rein to “restore order and peace”. Such a directive would be concerning anywhere, but under a government that already stands accused of human rights abuses and war crimes, it is ominous. And Sri Lanka is not alone; the Netherlands are already under attack from the government wholly committed to the WEF Great Reset Agenda.

“Phillip called Sri Lanka’s crop failures and food shortages, “the canary in the coal mine,” warning the world about what could end up happening if they don’t change the direction their governments are taking them in terms of nitrogen reduction standards and fertilizer use; [with all the trappings of the climate change crisis.]

Baudet is not optimistic about the farmers’ impact on stopping this globalist agenda but said there is a chance if there is true solidarity amongst the farmers and they hold out for a few days or weeks and refuse to do any food distribution, then they might be able to wake up the Dutch public and hence change government policies.

“A radical agenda is being pushed, which is called the Sustainable Development Goals, which is all the climate hysteria of which scientifically [is] bonkers,” Baudet said.

The globalists (World Economic Forum) set 2030 as the year to meet their economic goals and take over, but Baudet said that citizens around the world have to work to make sure their agenda is not realized.

If you look at the large picture, “You see this trend towards bureaucratic dictatorship that is being imposed on all of us, and only if we unite and if we surpass all these differences that have divided us for so many years, and we fight this together, can we succeed, and we must do it,” said Baudet.  “It’s the single most existential fight in the history of civilization,” he added”  https://www.theepochtimes.com/dutch-government-accused-of-following-globalist-policies-which-will-lead-to-food-shortages

AND LEADING ON:  this wonderful nugget says much about Hanlon’s Razor (never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.) Mary Harrington has written a must-read essay; she takes several swipes at the World Economic Forum and includes this damning observation: “Last year, the Sri Lankan government was awarded an “Oscar for best policy” by the WEF, for a decision to ban nitrogen fertiliser.” Yes, that’s right; the WEF thought the forced switch to organic farming overnight was a good idea!” The resulting food shortages, economic crisis and loss of life led to a chaotic coup:  Perhaps the Netherlands should take notice: https://unherd.com/2022/07/why-we-need-the-apocalypse/

ONE OF MY CONTACTS IN CHINA sent this history of Sri Lanka asking China to help – maybe they will? Maybe China could buy Sri Lanka outright? Because it doesn’t look like the IMF are too keen. (The author’s identity has been anonymised)

“Observing events in Sri Lanka, our traditional vassal state: In the “stone tablet of Zhenghe” in the Sri Lanka National Museum in Colombo, the inscription records that Zhenghe and others were sent by the Ming emperor to Sri Lanka to patrol the holy relics during their voyages to the West and give incense to Buddhist temples to mark it. A list of offerings is listed behind. The inscription is signed in February of the seventh year of Yongle, that is, February 1409. [It is not well known that the Chinese explored the West long before Columbus and Vasco da Gama only to return having found that it had nothing to offer them.]

The uniqueness of this monument is that it is carved in three languages. In addition to Chinese, there are Tamil and Persian, which were the common languages among merchants in the Indian Ocean at that time.

In 1411, King vijayabahu VI of Ceylon coveted the wealth of Zheng He’s caravan. On his return trip, Zheng He visited the country with intent to rob, and finally received the usual treatment of repeatedly robbing Han envoys for countless times in history. The capital was broken and the king was captured. Zheng He escorted vijayabahu VI’s family back to Daming and presented these captives to Emperor Zhu Di.

At that time, the ministers believed that vijayabahu VI was humiliating to the national prestige of China, and hoped to execute him as an example.  However, after several conversations with vijayabahu VI, Zhu Di believed that he was just ignorant, ignorant of Daming dynasty and very greedy for money. Zhu Di didn’t embarrass him either, and released his family after a year of house arrest. By this time, however, a new king had been established in Ceylon. Now, China should help the country in their disaster.”

COLLAPSE MONITOR:  Is a wartime economy coming?  “Now, if we step out of the world of central planners who live in ivory towers, out there in the real world, the West is at war with Russia and Ukraine who produce collectively startlingly large amounts of both food and fuel.  No solution exists to end this war. If anything, the central planners are encouraging it. But it is food, fuel, and shelter that sit at the foundation of must-haves. They are far more inelastic than iPhones, soy lattes, and definitely monkey-image JPeg NFLs.

What will the governments do?  They’ll send out money in some form. The Brits are already doing it. How are they getting the funding to do this? Good question. By taxing the energy companies an additional 25%. Genius!

 Stagflation is global and especially in emerging markets they’re struggling against a rising dollar while revenues are generated in local currency.  Are we about to experience a “wartime” economy? – [you know: rationing, extreme controls, black markets, deprivation?] Will the central planners play on this narrative?

And in a wartime economy central banks lose their independence and become merged with the government, which means they merge with the treasury department. This is about to happen. When? Not sure, but I’d be surprised if it takes more than 12 months. [This is the Blackrock ‘Going Direct’ policy: https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/insights/going-direct]

Result? Financial market collapse, together with rampant stagflation, with an implosion of the fiat money system turned credit system laboring under the grandest credit creation and money printing in human history”. https://internationalman.com/articles/a-wartime-economy-coming-here-are-two-things-that-could-happen-as-a-result/

THE NARRATIVE BATTLE:  “An NBC journalist embraced a rare moment of self-awareness when she admitted, “people don’t trust us; they don’t believe us.”  The comments were made by Katy Tur during an interview with ‘The Hill’ to promote her new book. “The trust in media, in newspapers and television, is hitting an all-time low,” said Tur as she looked forlorn. “People don’t trust us. They don’t believe us, and it makes me wonder if this job —as I’m currently doing it– is effective, but if it’s doing more harm than good,” she added. Wow, finally a journalist who has accepted the horrific state of her industry.” Surprise, surprise: https://summit.news/2022/07/19/nbc-journalist-laments-people-dont-trust-us-they-dont-believe-us/

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Author: Austrian Peter

Peter J. Underwood is a retired international accountant and qualified humanistic counsellor living in Bruton, UK, with his wife, Yvonne. He pursued a career as an entrepreneur and business consultant, having founded several successful businesses in the UK and South Africa His latest Substack blog describes the African concept of Ubuntu - a system of localised community support using a gift economy model. View all posts by Austrian Peter