Air Raid Siren! – Muni-Scam – Lone Voice – PartyGate Redux! – BoJo on the Rack – Bank Run! – Inflation Again – Failed State – 5th Gen Wars – Letter from Great Britain – [03-25-23]

People now entertain with images. They don’t swap ideas but argue with emotions not critical thinking. They promote celebrities, Ads & virtues. Is this why Western civilisation is dying?

PROTECT & SURVIVE

FUN TIDBIT:  This is one of the best scams I have ever seen and leaves American municipalities with very red faces!   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/city-newark-humiliated-sister-city-scam

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:  Does a ‘Lone Voice’ count?  Andrew Bridgen MP spoke to an empty House of Commons last week – but he’s not a lone voice.  Write to your MP and ask them what they think about mRNA vaccines: Jeffrey Peel has the story:  https://www.thenewera.uk/p/lone-voice

“Hard times create strong men; strong men create good times; good times create weak men; and weak men create hard times.” We are clearly in the last stage of that process: [Quoted by John Rubino]

BREAKING NEWS: PARTYGATE is back with a vengeance as BoJo is on the rack when our ‘Greased Piglet’ wriggles to avoid responsibility for jolly drunken lockdown parties whilst attempting and failing to govern Britain. He claims a defence in a 52 page, written submission (ridiculous says it all: “The dog has eaten my homework”) and said:

“I accept that I misled Parliament but it wasn’t me gov, it’s my advisers wot did it” This is his pathetic denial not acknowledging that it implies that the Establishment (Civil Service and Cummings-like advisers) are actually running the country! Dancing Puppets like BoJo are merely actors on the stage we call the ‘House of Commons’ as I have been asserting for decades.  This is a lightly parsed summary from ‘The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson:

“So the trial of Boris Johnson has finished its first act, and it comes across as theatrical nonsense. Boris Johnson has already admitted that he misled the Commons by falsely denying that parties took place in No. 10: his defence is that he thought he was telling the truth at the time.

He said: “…in 10 months the parliamentary investigation has seen nor heard no evidence to the contrary”. The seven-member committee, four of them Tories, need to work out, not what he did, but what was in his mind. It’s a hard task, especially without any evidence. And four hours of Johnson commentary is unlikely to change that.

I find this irritating because lying to parliament – which he did – would not even make the top 50 of his lockdown mistakes. We learn today that 140,000 kids never properly came back to school: how many minutes will that get on the BBC 6 O’clock News?   This is the Boris effect: he holds more interest than the fate of tens of thousands of children who ended up a casualty to his policies.

But Parliament is not dictated by ratings; so what’s to stop the MPs actually uncovering something new and important, rather than play lockdown Cluedo? Where’s the parliamentary inquiry into why the police were over-used in lockdown when voluntary guidance would suffice?

What about the way he collapsed our democratic architecture during lockdown? What about the rule by ‘WhatsApp’ that he allowed, as disclosed in such devastating detail by the Daily Telegraph’s investigation?  But these are hard questions: far easier to poke Boris’s political corpse – laying on a circus for the cameras.

But then again, there is one way the public is well served by this spectacle. He did draw up these laws; he did needlessly send the police after tens of thousands of people. So it’s not just right but important that politicians end up ensnared in the traps they set for others. So next time a Prime Minister intends to abridge the liberty of millions, they may remember the scenes of the Boris trial and pause.”

No. 10 had very little to lose by calling off the cops. I wonder if, by now, Johnson is starting to wish that he had done so.  Dan Wootton at GB News is a supporter of BoJo: “Boris wouldn’t be in this pickle if he hadn’t imposed these absolutely absurd rules in the first place.” https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1638680422941949952

HOW TO HANDLE A BANK RUN: The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insures deposits; examines and supervises financial institutions for safety, soundness, and consumer protection; makes large and complex financial institutions resolvable; manages receiverships, but doesn’t insure share accounts at credit unions.

Eligible bank accounts were insured up to $250,000 for principal and interest but that’s changed now to include ALL depositors when the Fed bailed out SVB et al. Has this set a precedent?  We can only speculate until the next shoes drops.

In Britain your bank account or money in most financial institutions are covered if they are authorised by the ‘Prudential Regulation Authority’ (PRA) which is protected by the ‘Financial Services Compensation Scheme’ (FSCS). The FSCS deposit protection limit is £85,000 per eligible person.

Your money is generally safe in Britain and in practice, at least in SVB-UK, the BoE followed the Fed’s action and ensured all depositors were made whole even if they exceeded the insured limit; obviously to maintain public confidence.

I looked to the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, an economist who held a term as Fed chair, to clarify her policy and restore confidence in the US (aka, global banking system):

I am familiar with transatlantic English but Janet’s performance left me baffled. This is important because these regional banks are responsible for a large proportion of lending in the real economy supporting a wide range of services. Banks with <$250bn in assets account for:

• 50% of US commercial and industrial lending
• 60% of residential real estate lending
• 80% of commercial real estate lending
• 45% of consumer lending

In Britain we are assured by the Chancellor that our banking system is sound and is nothing to be concerned about.  But I do know that what happens in America has a habit of arriving on our shores in short order – we are tied at the hip in many ways.

In Europe there was a parallel bank run occurring in the TBTF banks with Credit Suisse finally hitting the buffers after more than 10 years of chugging along a rickety set of rails. UBS rode to the rescue in conjunction with the Swiss National Bank (SNB).  But something unprecedented happened here too.  Banks are regulated by reference to what is known as Tier 1 capital. It’s fiendishly complicated but suffice to say that there are several layers and ‘Additional Tier 1’ bonds (AT1s) are part of this family of bank capital securities known as Contingent Convertibles (CoCos).

These AT1 investors usually take priority in distribution of residual funds in an insolvency ahead of shareholders.  But the Swiss decided to change this: “This just makes no sense” said Patrik Kauffmann, a fixed-income portfolio manager at Aquila Asset Management, who holds Credit Suisse CoCos. Shareholders should get zero because it’s crystal clear that AT1s are senior to stocks

Much of the mini-crisis was caused by prices of fixed interest securities (eg bonds) falling (bond prices fall as the ‘Fed Funds Rate’ moves up); central banks have driven interest rates higher and faster than at any time in recent memory in the dubious mission of reducing inflation.  The 2-year US Treasury yield has fallen from 5% to 3.7% and associated bond prices are therefore below the required bank regulatory collateral requirement.

One could say that banks are tending towards insolvency but only if they are forced to sell ‘out-of-the money’ bonds at distressed prices, thus incurring losses, in order to stem deposit withdrawals. These bonds are normally ‘held-to-maturity’ and prudent risk management would ‘hedge’ against these affects as do many banks.

In essence this is what caused the SVB debacle and it is affecting other banks too, especially regional ones, who appear to have abandoned prudent risk management in favour of wokerism. The banking crisis stems from banks not being able to fund at 0% anymore. Banks can’t compete with 2-year Treasuries even though I do believe this crisis likely will be contained.

I believe in the resilience of localised economies and regional public banks (N. Dakota is a shining example having escaped 2008 effects). In 2017, the Inclusive Growth Commission  published its final report outlining practical ways to make local economies across Britain more inclusive and prosperous. One core argument was the need to put inclusive growth at the heart of public investment and the commission recommended exploring the role of regional banks as a big part of the solution.

THE ANSWER FOR BRITAIN is Regional banks, such as the diverse public-driven banking system in Germany, which thrive around the world and are an important player in creating more resilient economies and driving inclusive growth – yet we don’t have these banks in the UK.  

As well as poor access to financial tools, many Brits feel economically insecure with 16 million people having less than £100 in savings. Most of these people would be unable to support themselves for a month if they were to experience a small cut in income – something that is a daily concern for the millions of people in insecure work.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg. While the impact of bank closures is felt by individual customers across Britain, the picture is equally bleak for the self-employed, small, and micro businesses which account for over 90% of UK Businesses.

At a time of growing economic insecurity, financial institutions that look after our money are changing. Our banks and building societies have been consolidating over the past twenty years (the ‘big five’ banks have nearly 90% market share), we trust them less, and bank branches are disappearing from our high streets and over 5 million adults in the UK who don’t have access to the internet.

Recently the Community Savings Bank Association (CSBA), have been developing their ‘bank-in-a-box’ model, making it easier and cheaper to set up a regional bank.  By using local savings to provide loans to local business, money will be increasingly retained in the local economy driving inclusive growth.  The vision is for 18 independent co-operative banks, covering the whole of the UK to serve local people and business.  But will the City of London’s ‘Big Banking Boys’ allow it?

SO WHAT DOES THIS TELL US about ‘The West’ in general (led by an increasingly manic America) and the ‘Global Financial System’ in particular?  Is it now too dysfunctional and weak to fight on multiple fronts? Yet there can be no retreat without some de-legitimising humiliation.  In retrospect the ‘Lockdown Files’ tell us much about the failing, toxic and Woke Western liberalism.

The ‘Lockdown Files’, as published in Britain by The Telegraph, expose a toxic culture where any minister or civil servant asking “awkward” questions knew they were liable to be briefed against, side-lined or ostracised.  But the Files reveal something even more chilling. What was the overall public response to the publication of the files?

The sad truth is that most Brits were so numbed, passive, and in lockstep with the state when it eased them through a series of repeating emergencies towards a new kind of authoritarianism without a fuss or even much notice. The surveillance-based, neo-liberal managerial state has, as Arta Moeini has written, ballooned into a totalitarian, globe-spanning Leviathan but surreptitiously camouflaged with a feel-good casing of apparent liberal democracy.  It is its lack of any deeper guiding principles and moral code which has created a purely sociopathic State working the 2010 Rockefeller Lockstep Plan Covid PsychoOP.

‘The Rest of the World’ sees the ‘liberal’ elitist order as an-all-too obvious device to prolong western power. They refuse its ‘missionary’ cloak claiming that the West determines the values under which we must all live; the ruling elite’s arrogance is mind-blowing and yet they can’t or won’t see it.

The Rest of the World (almost 90% of humanity) observes a weakened West and no longer feels the need to offer fealty to a global ‘overlord’. The meta-cycle of enforced ‘Westernisation’ of Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Libya, and much of S.America et al is over, it (being the adoption of the practices and culture of western Europe by societies and countries in other parts of the world).

Its mystique and bondage are gone and, though lockdown compliance in Britain, US and Europe was indeed achieved through ‘Project Fear’ for a while, its success came at the expense of public trust.  The cry is heard loud and clear: “Never again!”

INFLATION WATCH:  Shock horror – inflation rose in February! Inflation is up 0.3% and underlying it, a massive 18.2% in food prices! Because of these results the BoE had no option but to follow the Fed with a 0.25% hike in interest rates on Thursday.  Those with debt and mortgages will be stung further by yet more pressure on their purse as we could be careering blindly into a chaotic global banking crisis which may well impact financial markets in Q2.

This might mark the last of these interest rate increases which have been unprecedented over such a short period of 12 months.  Homeowners with mortgages are being squeezed to death. On a £150,000 property, the equivalent calculation reveals a £345 cumulative increase in monthly repayments over the last year.  On a higher valued property (£400,000), this would mean a £919 respective hike since December 2021.  Regrettably I see a rise in defaults coming this year combined with energy cost increases due to the removal of HMG £67/mth energy grant from April.

SURVIVAL MONITOR:  Here’s a cry from a failing state and maybe coming to a town near you. “South Africa’s ANC-led administration is a sham and an epic failure of leadership and government. The country’s failing leaders [need to be made] accountable, therefore the voters must do the work in the 2024 elections.”  Sounds like the road that Britain is driving on, into the crash-barrier that is Net Zero.  We all know that voting is useless in this parody of a ‘democracy’ – the new boss is always the same as the old boss – nothing changes.  Is it the peoples time to rise and throw out these useless parasites?

NARRATIVE BATTLE:  I’M GETTING SICK of all the lies about “Covid escaping a Wuhan Lab”, says Sasha Latypova and goes on to propose that Covid was developed by the Pentagon and released near Fort Detrick, Maryland. [For illustration only]. The first people who got the non-mutated real-deal had their lungs “fill up with glass” and it all got blamed on e-cigarettes. Anyone remember that?  How e-cigs got blamed?

That happened in August 2019, well before there was any mention of a lab in Wuhan, and when it was mentioned, there were 7 total variants in the U.S. with only 3 variants in China. That again indicates the virus was released in the US, and the Pentagon had a ‘Vaxx’ ready to go. Only it wasn’t a traditional vaccine, it was the second kill-wave shot.  Fort Detrick was closed down in August 2019 – I don’t believe in ‘coincidences’ – but they love to spin fairy tales!

It’s obvious to me that America’s government wanted whatever it was to spread by blaming e-cigarettes at first, and at ‘the right time’ they were going to suddenly announce it was in fact a new virus, to scare the hell out of the public, with which people were supposed to be dying in droves everywhere and create a scamdemic. But several mutations castrated the virus, especially Omicron, and it failed early on; that saved everyone who was smart enough to realise not enough people were dying to justify a shot.

Now they have a problem, enter stage left, Dr Malone,  Tereza Coraggio has the story   – I’m asking whether Robert Malone is a covert PsyOp agent (controlled opposition) charged, with many others, to control the narrative now that deaths, injuries and the lack of births have become only too evident for the MSM to ignore, and thus he is asking some narrow leading questions perhaps by way of distraction:

• Was the vaccine stored incorrectly, making it more toxic?
• Was Pfizer corrupt because they pursue the Woke Agenda?
• Did they pull the wool over Fauci’s eyes?
• Is the FDA/CDC bureaucracy incompetent?
• Is this an attack from China to which we should respond militarily?

In an interview between Malone and Aubrey Marcus, they talked about 5th Generation Warfare, and Aubrey suggested that conflicts used to be really dangerous, with killings and torture but now people are just throwing a bunch of pixels in text or pictures.

5th-Generation Warfare is conducted primarily through non-kinetic military action, such as censorship, social engineering, disinformation, and cyberattacks; along with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and fully autonomous systems; thus we have Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars . Here’s an illustration; is this an orange or an apple?

So, what’s the TRUTH?

FINALLY: The last nail in the coffin?: @RobertKennedyJr: “If Tony Fauci or anybody had admitted that Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin were effective against COVID, it would have been illegal for them to give the ‘Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the vaccines, and they could have never got them approved.” pic.twitter.com/jhPaMvgIxv

UNTIL NEXT WEEK:  For more, read: “The Financial Jigsaw”: Scroll:   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358117070_THE_FINANCIAL_JIGSAW_-_PART_1_-_4th_Edition_2020   including regular updates.  For a  free PDF copy e-Books, Parts 1 & 2,  email; [email protected]

AUSTRIAN’S NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE: https://www.theburningplatform.com/author/austrian-peter/

COVID & FINANCE LINKS: [I will not be commenting specifically on Covid in future because my colleague covers daily updates at his websites]:  YOUR DAILY COVID NEWS (cmnnews.org) and BOOM Finance & Economics (boomfinanceandeconomics.com) plus BOOM Finance and Economics | Designed for Critical Thinkers — UPDATED WEEKLY (wordpress.com)

MAKE A DONATION: Itwill spread knowledge and understanding far and wide and empower humanity to keep the peace: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fnahvp-free-book

Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise

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