Post by Wayne Hall on Feb 9, 2016 1:24:31 GMT -5
The Tide Is Turning in 2016. Profound Geopolitical and Economic Changes are Occurring
By Joachim Hagopian
Global Research, January 22, 2016
Though pessimistic news still dominates and controls the headlines in both mainstream and alternative media worlds, a closer look at what’s going on right now might reveal glimpses of profound changes occurring just below the surface echo chambers. This presentation will focus on the most visible signs reflecting the current underlying transformative metamorphosis the earth is undergoing at what appears to be the most tumultuous, dangerous and exciting time in human history.
All high seas shipping around the entire globe has come to a screeching halt. The Baltic Dry Index, the foremost economic mechanism responsible for tracking international trade of industrial commodities like grain, iron ore, coal, cement and fertilizer, has been in a state of freefall. On Monday it plummeted to an all-time low of just 369 points. On Tuesday it fell even lower, another 1.63% to 363 points, taking a nosedive in the first three weeks of 2016’s first month alone to a whopping 24% drop. A latest check of Vessel Finder shows absolutely no cargo ships are in transit anywhere on the planet, clearly a historic first in modern history. Shipping companies are lamenting about the rising costs of transporting goods eating up their profits and thus keeping all cargo vessels worldwide sitting in their port docks. Brace yourself for depleted empty store shelves to start showing up in the coming weeks and months.
But another far more plausible explanation as to why global shipping has suddenly come to a standstill is because China for the first time as the emerging Asian powerhouse giant is now demanding all trade payment be transacted in Chinese Yuan. Over the last six months China has been steadily dumping its massive dollar reserves and ordered its banks to stop buying in US dollars. And now suddenly dozens of Chinese billionaire bankers and executives have mysteriously gone missing without a trace. With the faltering Chinese economy, the question becomes whether this phenomenon is payback for China’s economic woes or whether it’s part of a larger cover-up of corruption that could implicate high government officials.
Combine this latest development with last Friday’s bombshell announcement that this year Walmart will be closing 269 of its stores globally, the majority of which will be in America at 154 outlets, and the rippling of major shockwaves to come are already being felt early on in 2016. Walmart shares have plunged 30% in the last 12 months, reflecting the sobering reality that American consumers can no longer afford to indulge themselves buying up cheap junk from China they don’t need. If you believe the Walmart CEO, the massive closures are but a drop in the bucket, accounting for less than 1% of both the world’s largest retailer’s revenue as well as its global square footage.
Though that assurance may appease Walmart shareholders somewhat, it offers no consolation at all to the swelling class of Americans struggling desperately to feed their families and make ends meet. US malls that haven’t already become ghost towns are near empty nowadays. The everyday masses that used to be a once thriving robust middle class and backbone of this nation are starting to really feel the hurt of chronic impoverishment and destitution. Under Obama’s leadership, the number of Americans living in poverty has skyrocketed from 37 million to 47 million people. The wealthiest nation on earth is offering no more jobs beyond minimum wage. Near 40% of working age Americansare not participating in the labor force with a growing segment that’s long given up and stopped looking for work. The Federal Reserve’s folly to simply print more money to prosperity has finally caught up, and as a consequence America is now facing the realization that the Feds’ longtime shortcut to cheating death has only hollowed out its doomed house of cards economy to the point of self-implosion.
For over a year oil has simultaneously plunged to a low of $20 a barrel with low grade Canadian at $8, undercutting the high-powered fossil fuel industry’s global dominance it’s racketeered for well over a century. Again, China is insisting that its enormous export trade for oil import be transacted through its Yuan, not the US petrodollar. India as part of the formidable BRICS alliance is also replacing the petrodollar… same with Russia and Iran and a host of other nations. There is an ongoing worldwide exodus abandoning the US dollar once and for all as the standard international currency.
Financially and geopolitically the Western economy has run out of gas. The current oil surplus glut will likely run its course supplying the global market’s diminishing demand as cleaner renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are finally able to viably compete and begin replacing the biggest single source of earthly pollution. The hand-in-hand destruction between oil and the usury Ponzi schemed, debt-based system of central banksters bleeding the planet and masses dry is now on the verge of total collapse. Every honest appraiser not part of the army of paid propaganda shills still spewing inflated faked optimism would agree that the Western oligarch run economy is hemorrhaging in its death throes.
The Federal Reserve Board as America’s private central bank, its mother Bank of London and its big four – Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup – as criminal gamble-holics since their housing bubble debacle have now racked up an unfathomable 2 quadrillion dollars worth of a derivative debt bubble. But the criminal banksters have secretly prepared for this day of reckoning having already manipulated the passing of draconian laws that this time is bailing them out with so called “bail-ins,” outright stealing your money directly from your private bank accounts. Meanwhile, the Washington crime cabal is bankrupt, unable any longer to kick the proverbial can down the road. The long term consequence of the Federal Reserve pumping fiat money out of thin air has produced an insurmountable debt that’s pushing our nation off a fiscal cliff. The jig is up for US Empire hegemony that protects and enriches only the ruling elite’s continued global theft and destruction.
A week doesn’t go by when the West isn’t caught up in another humiliating defeat that ultimately uncovers its deceitful malaise consistently lined up on the wrong side of history. The latest embarrassment was the two US Navy gunboats armed with mounted .50 caliber machine guns and a crew of 10 that were detected by Iran to be violating its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It turns out the Navy boats were on a covert spy mission transporting a top level ISIS commander from Saudi Arabia replacing a recently killed terrorist leader in Syria, proving once again that the US is the world’s largest state sponsor of both terrorists and terrorism. Iran had to fire warning shot missiles at the intervening US aircraft carrier the USS Truman as Tehran authorities were in process of detaining the US crew. With the terrorist and US sailors safely in tow, the Obama regime quickly caved in, giving in to Iran’s demand for a prisoner swap arranging the release of seven Iranian prisoners for four Americans.
With the UN finally lifting the economic sanctions from Iran, Tehran immediately announced its deal to buy airbuses from Europe. These latest developments only demonstrate that Iran refuses to be intimidated by US Empire and much to the chagrin of the real axis of evil – the US-Israel-Saudi Arabia, like it or not Iran is emerging as a formidable regional power in the Middle East. The recent US hijinks also reflects the ongoing power shift moving squarely from a weakened West to an empowered East.
Accepting defeat in Syria with Putin helping Assad destroy the Islamic State terrorists, John Kerry with tail between his legs is no longer doggedly pursuing regime change but now desperately trying to negotiate a peace settlement before his demon child the terrorists are completely wiped out. Like rats jumping from a sinking ship, they will be running for cover to every corner of the globe, like the half-ass attempt at terrorism last week in Jakarta. With its foothold now established in Southeast Asia, this way the US created Islamic State terrorist ally can hype up the mythical fear and paranoia amongst the global masses that its cancerous spread is unstoppable. In reality, if you cut off the head that feeds the beast, as Putin has achieved by drastically reducing ISIS’ pirated oil revenue generated from the likes of Israel and Turkey’s Erdogan and son, both bigtime peddlers of terrorism, you can stop international terrorism. Of course that’s the last thing the US neocons and their crime cabal allies want, without their endless war on terror, the military industrial complex might go broke. Be prepared for more waves of unrelenting MSM propaganda demonizing Russia, China and Iran as the Western elite attempts a last ditch effort to plunge the planet into all-out World War III.
The balance of world power is currently in a state of unstable flux. More citizens of the world are becoming informed and motivated toward activism, or as the feds would describe “radicalized.” The wicked Western psychopaths sense they are losing their power and are desperately attempting to bring down the entire planet before it wakes up, causing as much death, destruction and mayhem as their waning power still commands. The globalist designed wars in the Middle East and North Africa have manufactured the migration crisis tearing Europe apart right now. The people of the United States and Europe stand to suffer the most as a new global system amidst all the turmoil is in process of birthing. Meanwhile during this interim crisis, expect some cataclysmic growing pains. But the New World Disorder as both shaped and promised by the likes of such evil men as Bush, Brezhenski, Kissinger and David Rockefeller is already here, it’s what we are now experiencing. The tyranny of a one world government that the ruling elite has been meticulously scheming for centuries may not materialize after all with the present behind-the-scenes restructuring rapidly unfolding. The defeat of TTP and TTIP will be the rallying cry delivering a crushing blow to their sinister agenda.
So instead of buying into the doom and gloom endgame giving us humans little hope or strength to alter or change any outcome, if anything, inadvertently contributing to a negative self-fulfilling prophecy, the promise of free energy discovered more than a century ago by Tesla may literally give power and wisdom back to the people. An era of cooperation and peace may eventually emerge after the transformative changeover is complete. Granted, many cynics might be singing the “same as the old boss” blues. But opportunity for an emerging focus on building life anew from the local ground level up to global and beyond would enrich the surviving human population to unlimited heights and accomplishment. A restored sense of vested interest and creative empowerment to achieve the impossible may yet await humanity on the other side of the dark clouds of chaos and destruction now forming – definitely worth sticking around for if humanly possible. It’s precisely what we citizens of the world do right now to fight for truth, peace and justice that will determine the fate and kind of world we leave our children and grandchildren.
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field with abused youth and adolescents for more than a quarter century. In recent years he has focused on his writing, becoming an alternative media journalist. His blog site is athttp://empireexposed.blogspot.co.id/.
The original source of this article is Global Research
By Joachim Hagopian
Global Research, January 22, 2016
Though pessimistic news still dominates and controls the headlines in both mainstream and alternative media worlds, a closer look at what’s going on right now might reveal glimpses of profound changes occurring just below the surface echo chambers. This presentation will focus on the most visible signs reflecting the current underlying transformative metamorphosis the earth is undergoing at what appears to be the most tumultuous, dangerous and exciting time in human history.
All high seas shipping around the entire globe has come to a screeching halt. The Baltic Dry Index, the foremost economic mechanism responsible for tracking international trade of industrial commodities like grain, iron ore, coal, cement and fertilizer, has been in a state of freefall. On Monday it plummeted to an all-time low of just 369 points. On Tuesday it fell even lower, another 1.63% to 363 points, taking a nosedive in the first three weeks of 2016’s first month alone to a whopping 24% drop. A latest check of Vessel Finder shows absolutely no cargo ships are in transit anywhere on the planet, clearly a historic first in modern history. Shipping companies are lamenting about the rising costs of transporting goods eating up their profits and thus keeping all cargo vessels worldwide sitting in their port docks. Brace yourself for depleted empty store shelves to start showing up in the coming weeks and months.
But another far more plausible explanation as to why global shipping has suddenly come to a standstill is because China for the first time as the emerging Asian powerhouse giant is now demanding all trade payment be transacted in Chinese Yuan. Over the last six months China has been steadily dumping its massive dollar reserves and ordered its banks to stop buying in US dollars. And now suddenly dozens of Chinese billionaire bankers and executives have mysteriously gone missing without a trace. With the faltering Chinese economy, the question becomes whether this phenomenon is payback for China’s economic woes or whether it’s part of a larger cover-up of corruption that could implicate high government officials.
Combine this latest development with last Friday’s bombshell announcement that this year Walmart will be closing 269 of its stores globally, the majority of which will be in America at 154 outlets, and the rippling of major shockwaves to come are already being felt early on in 2016. Walmart shares have plunged 30% in the last 12 months, reflecting the sobering reality that American consumers can no longer afford to indulge themselves buying up cheap junk from China they don’t need. If you believe the Walmart CEO, the massive closures are but a drop in the bucket, accounting for less than 1% of both the world’s largest retailer’s revenue as well as its global square footage.
Though that assurance may appease Walmart shareholders somewhat, it offers no consolation at all to the swelling class of Americans struggling desperately to feed their families and make ends meet. US malls that haven’t already become ghost towns are near empty nowadays. The everyday masses that used to be a once thriving robust middle class and backbone of this nation are starting to really feel the hurt of chronic impoverishment and destitution. Under Obama’s leadership, the number of Americans living in poverty has skyrocketed from 37 million to 47 million people. The wealthiest nation on earth is offering no more jobs beyond minimum wage. Near 40% of working age Americansare not participating in the labor force with a growing segment that’s long given up and stopped looking for work. The Federal Reserve’s folly to simply print more money to prosperity has finally caught up, and as a consequence America is now facing the realization that the Feds’ longtime shortcut to cheating death has only hollowed out its doomed house of cards economy to the point of self-implosion.
For over a year oil has simultaneously plunged to a low of $20 a barrel with low grade Canadian at $8, undercutting the high-powered fossil fuel industry’s global dominance it’s racketeered for well over a century. Again, China is insisting that its enormous export trade for oil import be transacted through its Yuan, not the US petrodollar. India as part of the formidable BRICS alliance is also replacing the petrodollar… same with Russia and Iran and a host of other nations. There is an ongoing worldwide exodus abandoning the US dollar once and for all as the standard international currency.
Financially and geopolitically the Western economy has run out of gas. The current oil surplus glut will likely run its course supplying the global market’s diminishing demand as cleaner renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are finally able to viably compete and begin replacing the biggest single source of earthly pollution. The hand-in-hand destruction between oil and the usury Ponzi schemed, debt-based system of central banksters bleeding the planet and masses dry is now on the verge of total collapse. Every honest appraiser not part of the army of paid propaganda shills still spewing inflated faked optimism would agree that the Western oligarch run economy is hemorrhaging in its death throes.
The Federal Reserve Board as America’s private central bank, its mother Bank of London and its big four – Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup – as criminal gamble-holics since their housing bubble debacle have now racked up an unfathomable 2 quadrillion dollars worth of a derivative debt bubble. But the criminal banksters have secretly prepared for this day of reckoning having already manipulated the passing of draconian laws that this time is bailing them out with so called “bail-ins,” outright stealing your money directly from your private bank accounts. Meanwhile, the Washington crime cabal is bankrupt, unable any longer to kick the proverbial can down the road. The long term consequence of the Federal Reserve pumping fiat money out of thin air has produced an insurmountable debt that’s pushing our nation off a fiscal cliff. The jig is up for US Empire hegemony that protects and enriches only the ruling elite’s continued global theft and destruction.
A week doesn’t go by when the West isn’t caught up in another humiliating defeat that ultimately uncovers its deceitful malaise consistently lined up on the wrong side of history. The latest embarrassment was the two US Navy gunboats armed with mounted .50 caliber machine guns and a crew of 10 that were detected by Iran to be violating its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It turns out the Navy boats were on a covert spy mission transporting a top level ISIS commander from Saudi Arabia replacing a recently killed terrorist leader in Syria, proving once again that the US is the world’s largest state sponsor of both terrorists and terrorism. Iran had to fire warning shot missiles at the intervening US aircraft carrier the USS Truman as Tehran authorities were in process of detaining the US crew. With the terrorist and US sailors safely in tow, the Obama regime quickly caved in, giving in to Iran’s demand for a prisoner swap arranging the release of seven Iranian prisoners for four Americans.
With the UN finally lifting the economic sanctions from Iran, Tehran immediately announced its deal to buy airbuses from Europe. These latest developments only demonstrate that Iran refuses to be intimidated by US Empire and much to the chagrin of the real axis of evil – the US-Israel-Saudi Arabia, like it or not Iran is emerging as a formidable regional power in the Middle East. The recent US hijinks also reflects the ongoing power shift moving squarely from a weakened West to an empowered East.
Accepting defeat in Syria with Putin helping Assad destroy the Islamic State terrorists, John Kerry with tail between his legs is no longer doggedly pursuing regime change but now desperately trying to negotiate a peace settlement before his demon child the terrorists are completely wiped out. Like rats jumping from a sinking ship, they will be running for cover to every corner of the globe, like the half-ass attempt at terrorism last week in Jakarta. With its foothold now established in Southeast Asia, this way the US created Islamic State terrorist ally can hype up the mythical fear and paranoia amongst the global masses that its cancerous spread is unstoppable. In reality, if you cut off the head that feeds the beast, as Putin has achieved by drastically reducing ISIS’ pirated oil revenue generated from the likes of Israel and Turkey’s Erdogan and son, both bigtime peddlers of terrorism, you can stop international terrorism. Of course that’s the last thing the US neocons and their crime cabal allies want, without their endless war on terror, the military industrial complex might go broke. Be prepared for more waves of unrelenting MSM propaganda demonizing Russia, China and Iran as the Western elite attempts a last ditch effort to plunge the planet into all-out World War III.
The balance of world power is currently in a state of unstable flux. More citizens of the world are becoming informed and motivated toward activism, or as the feds would describe “radicalized.” The wicked Western psychopaths sense they are losing their power and are desperately attempting to bring down the entire planet before it wakes up, causing as much death, destruction and mayhem as their waning power still commands. The globalist designed wars in the Middle East and North Africa have manufactured the migration crisis tearing Europe apart right now. The people of the United States and Europe stand to suffer the most as a new global system amidst all the turmoil is in process of birthing. Meanwhile during this interim crisis, expect some cataclysmic growing pains. But the New World Disorder as both shaped and promised by the likes of such evil men as Bush, Brezhenski, Kissinger and David Rockefeller is already here, it’s what we are now experiencing. The tyranny of a one world government that the ruling elite has been meticulously scheming for centuries may not materialize after all with the present behind-the-scenes restructuring rapidly unfolding. The defeat of TTP and TTIP will be the rallying cry delivering a crushing blow to their sinister agenda.
So instead of buying into the doom and gloom endgame giving us humans little hope or strength to alter or change any outcome, if anything, inadvertently contributing to a negative self-fulfilling prophecy, the promise of free energy discovered more than a century ago by Tesla may literally give power and wisdom back to the people. An era of cooperation and peace may eventually emerge after the transformative changeover is complete. Granted, many cynics might be singing the “same as the old boss” blues. But opportunity for an emerging focus on building life anew from the local ground level up to global and beyond would enrich the surviving human population to unlimited heights and accomplishment. A restored sense of vested interest and creative empowerment to achieve the impossible may yet await humanity on the other side of the dark clouds of chaos and destruction now forming – definitely worth sticking around for if humanly possible. It’s precisely what we citizens of the world do right now to fight for truth, peace and justice that will determine the fate and kind of world we leave our children and grandchildren.
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field with abused youth and adolescents for more than a quarter century. In recent years he has focused on his writing, becoming an alternative media journalist. His blog site is athttp://empireexposed.blogspot.co.id/.
The original source of this article is Global Research