Has The “Big One” Commenced – And Can You Afford To Assume Otherwise?
By Andrew Hoffman
GoldSeek.com
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
It’s early Wednesday morning – and with oil down to $27.50/bbl; commodities; currencies, equities, and high-yield bonds crashing; and the 10-year Treasury yield – “rate hike” and all – back below 2%; only gold and silver are higher.
To that end, anyone who regularly reads or listens to me knows I never predict the exact timing of events – with good reason, given how unconscionably manipulated markets have become. That said, in the past week, on numerous podcasts, I have definitively stated my newfound belief that it is unfathomable that the world escapes 2016 without the “next 2008” swamping the political, geopolitical, economic, and social landscape. Only this time, there will be no Central banking backstop – although god knows, they’ll try; no bailouts (although they’ll certainly be bail-Ins); and no “fiscal stimulus,” from the most bankrupt nation in global history.
Let alone, the rest of the world – which care of two years of accelerating capital flight – faces not only the complete implosion of their respective economies (particularly, commodity-based ones); but disintegrating currencies, which are already at, near, or below their previous, all-time lows. In other words, the “Big One” I have long warned of; which, frankly, will not only redistribute the world’s wealth – much of it, to those prescient enough to have ditched fiat currency in lieu of real money; but change, for the worse, the quality of life of the vast majority of the world’s 7.3 billion denizens.
Today’s title is self-explanatory – but before I emphatically highlight it, I want to show you just how dire the situation has become, care of just a handful of “horrible headlines” from the past 24 hours alone. Each, in and of itself, a terrifying omen for the global financial markets; and cumulatively, indicative of a world on the brink of political, economic, and social chaos.
Freefalling Japanese equities, careening the Nikkei stock market into an official “bear market” – amidst a surging yen, following last week’s stunning Bank of Japan comment that Abenomics, for all intents and purposes, has run out of stocks and bonds to monetize.
Saudi Arabia, like China last week, launching capital controls to prevent “nasty speculators” from betting on a Riyal de-pegging from the dollar. Which of course it will, as described in last week’s Audioblog, “Fiat Ponzi history is being made, so protect yourself now”; in which, I described how one after another, manipulative Central banks are losing control of both their official and “offshore” (i.e., black) market exchange rates.
On the topic of desperate Central banks, the Bank of Canada may well launch negative interest rates at its regularly scheduled meeting this afternoon, following last week’s comment from BOC governor Stephen Poloz espoused “the effective lower bound for policy rates is around -0.5%.” And when it inevitably does – be it today, or later this year – it will be “no holds barred” on the “left side of the pond.” Or, for that matter, the depths the “Loonie” can plunge to.
A Zero Hedge article depicted an essentially 100% correlation between Chinese “offshore Yuan” outflows and high-end real estate in New York City, London, and other bubblicious markets. That said, now that the Chinese economy is crashing, the Chinese government is instilling capital controls, and the U.S. and other governments are starting to crack down on offshore money laundering, the mirage of prosperity in the world’s “most desirable” real estate markets may well be in for an extremely rude awakening.
The Rest…HERE
