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Trump’s Plan to Control Businesses and Ditch the Dollar
by David Haggith
GoldSeek
I’m going to keep it short because all-day training at work prevented any of the usual time my position has built in for writing. So, I’ll just point out four stories that back up what I wrote about Trump changing the way the US does business and the way the US functions in the world.
Buying up businesses left and right, US gov’t becomes the stockholder of first resort
In the first article on the subject (in boldface in the headlines below), Trump advisor Kevin Hassett calls Trump’s deal to take partial ownership of companies the “downpayment on a sovereign wealth fund,” revealing just how serious they are about building the American Treasury up with ownership in corporations (and crypto-currencies).
Large Companies in the U.S. Are Going Bankrupt at the Fastest Pace That We Have Seen Since the Global Financial Crisis
by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
Is the fact that large companies are filing for bankruptcy at the fastest pace in 15 years a good sign for the economy or a bad sign for the economy? I don’t even have to answer that question because all of you already know the answer. And as you will see below, other types of bankruptcies are soaring as well. We are a nation that is absolutely drowning in debt, and now bubbles are bursting all around us. I hope that you have positioned yourself for what is about to happen, because the months ahead are going to be rough.
According to Newsweek, 446 large companies filed for bankruptcy during the first seven months of this year. That is the highest total that we have seen since 2010…
Functionally-Correct Monetary Policy
by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org
Its really not very difficult.
The Fed should be constrained to this by Congress, which is the only entity that can. Of course they won’t want to, which means we as citizens have difficult choices to make. There are lawful and peaceful ways to enforce this, one of which would be an absolute shunning in all respects of anyone who won’t in our personal and professional lives — including family members. But that seems unlikely to be something people will do.
Nonetheless this is the only defensible formula.
Here ‘ya go:
Fed Funds (overnight money) rate = ((Federal deficit percentage of GDP, 12 month trailing) – (12mo productivity change percentage / 2)) + ~50 basis points.
Foreign Central Banks Now Hold More Gold Than U.S. Treasuries!
from King World News
Foreign central banks now hold more gold than US Treasuries. This is part of a much bigger global rebalance.
August 28 (King World News) – Otavio Costa: Foreign central banks now officially hold more gold than US Treasuries — for the first time since 1996.
Let that sink in.
James Turk: The Money of the American Constitution
by James Turk
GATA.org
The U.S. dollar is not what most people think it is. There are a constitutional dollar (C$) and a Federal Reserve dollar (F$). The former is money; the latter is a money substitute circulating in place of money. They are fundamentally distinct with different definitions.
Many modern economists struggle to define money. Often beginning with an historical overview of the concept of moneyness, they generally end by describing the functions of money. What money “does” is not a definition of what money “is.”
Throughout history money has always been defined as a specific weight of gold or silver. In colonial America a silver coin called the “dollar” circulated widely, and after the War for Independence, “he ‘dollar” as the then prevailing common currency was used in the Constitution.
Trump’s War With the Fed Heats Up
by Adam Sharp
Daily Reckoning
In August of 2019, former NY Federal Reserve President Bill Dudley launched an attack on President Trump.
The attack came in the form of an opinion piece in Bloomberg.
In it, he argued that Trump’s trade war with China threatened to crash the U.S. economy.
So Dudley wrote that the Fed should consider punishing Trump for his bad policies.
Here’s an excerpt from that 2019 Bloomberg editorial by Dudley (via Zerohedge):
COVID Vaccine EUA Rescinded, Central Bank Gold Holdings Now Surpass U.S. Treasuries
Today’s Daily Digest covers COVID-19 vaccine policy, pharmaceutical research ethics, solar storm AI predictions, interstellar object speculation, ChatGPT lawsuit, housing crises, UK economic stability, German welfare reforms, and gold reserve shifts.
by Ivor
Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity
Health
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 vaccines, as announced by HHS Secretary RFK, Jr. The announcement comes with the support of the Independent Medical Alliance, a group of independent doctors, viewing it as a step toward reassessing pandemic-era policies. Critics, such as Public Health Watchdog, warn that this decision could undermine trust in vaccines and increase hesitancy, highlighting the ongoing debate over vaccine safety and efficacy.
On another front, a lawsuit against ChatGPT alleges that the platform provided a teenage boy with detailed suicide instructions, which the plaintiffs claim contributed to his death despite the presence of safeguards. OpenAI has acknowledged the lawsuit, expressing commitment to safety improvements while defending existing safeguards, as noted in their official statement.
The Real Threat to Fed Independence Isn’t Trump. It’s Congress’ Debt Addiction.
The president’s clear attempt to interfere in the Federal Reserve is not a one-off crisis.
by Veronique de Rugy
Reason.com
Concerns about the Federal Reserve’s independence have grown following repeated attacks by President Donald Trump, including this week’s decision to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook based on questionable allegations. But this debate is too narrowly focused on the president’s political pressure, ignoring a growing danger in our system.
It is true that since the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord of 1951, the Fed has had operational independence—the ability to set interest rates day to day—without any obligation to make government borrowing cheap. But it never had true economic independence because the bank’s monetary policy cannot be insulated from the effect of fiscal policy, and vice versa.
As public debt grows, the link becomes more visible and fiscal dominance—which occurs when a central bank like the Fed becomes subordinate to the government’s fiscal policy—looms larger.
Powell Cares More About Fed “Independence” Than Inflation and the Economy
by Jon Wolfenbarger
Mises.org
Wall Street cheered Fed Chair Jay Powell’s annual Jackson Hole speech on Friday with a stock market rally that erased the losses seen earlier in the week. Wall Street interpreted his speech as signaling that the Fed will shift to a more “dovish” stance and likely cut rates at their September 17 meeting.
Did that really happen? Did Powell really cave in to Trump’s incessant demands for more money printing?
Let’s see what this economic central planner actually said.
Powell Can Do No Wrong…Just Ask Him
Like all good bureaucrats, Jay Powell is all about taking credit when things go right and blaming others when things go wrong. He started his Jackson Hole speech by saying that the “the balance of risks appears to be shifting” between inflation, which had been the bigger Fed concern in recent years, and unemployment, which has become more of a concern after last month’s terrible employment report.
The Point of No Return Has Been Reached
from King World News
It appears that the point of no return has been reached.
August 27 (King World News) – Greggory Mannarino, writing for the Trends Journal: Let’s just start off with this… The debt spiral can’t be undone. With that, “the system” can only live by devouring itself faster.
The last trick is played and now comes the reckoning.
This is what’s happening:
We now have a rapidly worsening, circular, financing Doom Loop in progress.
The Treasury issues new debt, the Fed backstops the funding. The Treasury then buys back older debt to smooth the market… and repeat.