Global News: A Potpourri of Current Events
Inflation, drones, BRICS, Dubai and more
The Financial Times has a nice tool to track inflation internationally. But be careful reading the spin in the accompanying article. Inflation rates are not as “geographically broad-based”, as suggested.
Click on this link to search the inflation rates of nations around the world - the results might surprise you.
Expert Predicts Looming Economic Collapse as BRICS Nations Unite Against the Dollar
Bitcoin.com, February 2023
Andy Schectman, CEO of Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments, explained in a recent interview that the five leading emerging economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, collectively known as BRICS nations—are “coalescing against the dollar.” Schectman believes that since 2022, de-dollarization “seems to be spinning much, much faster.”
De-Dollarization and CBDCs: Monetary Historian Suggests a Great Reset Is Imminent
In an interview published on Feb. 16, 2023, Miles Franklin executive Andy Schectman discussed his economic predictions with Michelle Makori, the lead anchor and editor-in-chief at Kitco News.
Schectman expects a large portion of the world to abandon the U.S. dollar and he also predicts a “tsunami of inflation.” With rising inflation, Schectman suggests that the interest rate set by the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue to rise and a “collapse” in asset prices will soon follow.
Schectman’s opinion is similar to that of Lynette Zang, chief market analyst at ITM Trading, in a recent interview with Kitco’s Makori. Like Zang, Schectman expects an economic collapse and suggests that it will be the time for a Great Reset to take place, with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) being ushered in. Schectman says that the U.S. dollar was weaponized in 2022, and as a result, de-dollarization “seems to be spinning much, much faster.” The Miles Franklin executive and monetary historian believes that the BRICS nations are “coalescing against the dollar.”
“All it would take,” Schectman said. “Would be for Saudi Arabia to stand up on the stage [and declare] we’re now going to consider taking up other currencies for oil. And all of a sudden, bang, all of the countries that had to hold dollars for the last fifty years, no longer have an interest in holding them. And if they all start to dump dollars, and I think it would happen quickly, you would have a tsunami of inflation hitting the shores of the West.” Schectman told Makori that when asset prices collapse, CBDCs would be deployed. Schectman insisted:
“That’s when they would come in and roll out their new CBDC. This gives them cover to roll it in.”
Recently, Saudi Arabia has shown interest in joining the BRICS nations, and the kingdom’s finance minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, said at the recent World Economic Forum event that Saudi Arabia is open to trading in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. In June of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of a new international reserve currency at the 14th BRICS Summit. Amid this news, tensions between Russia and China, and the United States continue to escalate.
BRICS is getting real and the implications of that for the USA economy are not good…
If the above analysis is correct, we are in for a bumpy ride in 2023!
The imperial State is preparing for the next war
Pentagon Secretly Working to unleash Massive Swarms of Autonomous Multi-Domain Drones to Dominate Enemy Defenses
The Debrief, February 3, 2023
The U.S. Department of Defense has quietly launched a new program to develop the ability to unleash thousands of autonomous land, sea, and air drones capable of overwhelming and dominating an enemy’s area defenses. …
And while DARPA has yet to formally announce the new program, DARPA confirmed to The Debrief that the project will be operating under the moniker “Autonomous Multi-Domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms” program, or “AMASS.
“Central to the AMASS program is the ability to plan and execute missions that utilize thousands of autonomous entities in the degradation or defeat of adversary A2/AD capabilities.”
Documents show that the goal of AMASS is to develop the capability to launch and command thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of autonomous drones, working together to destroy a multitude of an enemy’s defenses, including air defense, indirect and precision weapons, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms…
“The DARPA AMASS program is exploring the use of swarms-of-swarms to conduct military operations in highly contested environments” with “low-cost swarms with diverse sensors and kinetic and non-kinetic effectors would primarily be pre-positioned forward and launched remotely, providing rapid response and adaptability to overcome the adversary’s time-distance-mass advantage,” said a DARPA spokesperson quoted by The Debrief.
The Debrief notes that while details of the project are highly classified, pre-solicitation contract documents imply that autonomous drone swarms are most likely to focus on deterring or defeating a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Drones swarms are weapons of mass destruction and we are aiming it at our enemies.
The only problem there is no treaty that stops development of drone swarms. Heck, this is something that even a well funded militia could put together. This technology is extremely dangerous, compatible with Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning and is going to replace many of the “traditional” weapons currently deployed.
Get ready- our future is going to be all about mixed warfare, the likes of which we can not imagine.
I just spent the last thirty minutes watching drone swarm videos. The potential for harm to the human populations by drone attacks is beyond what you or I could imagine. Combine drones with robots, AI, Gorgon stare - all mixed up with traditional warfare technologies (and fifth gen warfare), and that is powerful stuff.
For those that want a more technical understanding about drone swarms, I recommend this video.
Dubai Booms
I was speaking with a woman in London last week, who runs with a much more hip and wealthier crowd than I (or I would ever want to), who told me about how her foreign friends, particularly Russian friends, were leaving England in droves and settling in Dubai.
“Dubai” I thought to myself… “why Dubai?” …
Dubai housing boom buoys buyers, burdens tenants
AFP Economic Times/India Times, Feb 23, 2023
Dubai, renowned for its towering skyscrapers and ultra-luxury villas, saw record real estate transactions in 2022, largely due to the influx of wealthy investors -- especially from Russia.
While it may not be as rich in oil as the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, Dubai lures expatriates with tax incentives, a lush lifestyle and cheap services provided by low-wage labourers from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
In upscale Dubai neighbourhoods, where properties sell for more than $10 million, the 219 sales recorded in 2022 were "more than the total recorded between 2010 and 2020"…The city is now a magnet for ultra-rich investors, including Russians fleeing the impact of sanctions after their country's invasion of Ukraine.
Russians were the biggest foreign buyers on Dubai's property market last year, according to Betterhomes.
British, Indian, Italian and French nationals are also among the top investors, the brokerage firm says."We're seeing a lot of customers from Europe, who are wanting to move here and who are wanting to send their kids to school here, start business here," said Farhad Azizi, who heads property development firm Azizi Developments.
My analysis is that that the international wealthy elites see a changing of the guard, with new world powers emerging. These people can go anywhere in the world and do. They are looking for safe havens to raise their families, for schools that provide a real education, for pro-business governments who will not tax their wealth to oblivion and a place where their lavish lifestyles are encouraged, not frowned upon. Dubai fits the bill for many wanting to escape the wokeness and instability of the EU and the UK and, of course, from the war (and conscription) in Russia.
This may have been the most interesting photo on Twitter.
Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
A note: there are drawbacks to living in Dubai As there are a “few rules” that one must follow But it is their country, their rules…
That is the thing about national sovereignty - live and let live.
To conclude - inflation is not under control world wide and won’t be until we aren’t in a world- war. The bitcoin boys think BRICS is going to rule the world. But the military-industrial complex continues to rule the world at present, and the wealthy elites of the world like to escape to warm countries with great infrastructure that encourage spending and tax shelters.
In the meantime, main-stream media wants to you read and watch more about Biden in Ukraine “winning the war” (evidently this helps with his polling numbers).
Finally, I was involved in filming a docu-series last year and it is finally out.
Moderna's Admission of Influenza Vaccine Failure Sparks Doubts about mRNA Vaccines as a Treatment Option
It wouldn’t be long before information on these vaccine failures came to light.
Moderna's recent admission of their influenza vaccine failure has sparked concerns among their investors about the viability of mRNA vaccines as a treatment option for infectious diseases.
Who would have thought?
According to Moderna, the vaccine trial, which involved 6,100 people across several southern hemisphere countries, was initiated in June 2022. The company has now stated that it’s revising the vaccine in light of the clinical trial's failure and will test it again in another clinical trial.
The company's share prices dropped significantly after this reporting, indicating that investors are skeptical of the revised vaccine's prospects. The primary reason for the stock decline is that the mRNA vaccine showed less ability to stimulate the immune system than the older flu vaccines, and it resulted in more side effects than the older vaccines.
The results are of concern because influenza vaccines are known to have limited efficacy in real-world scenarios. Fauci even admitted the vaccine's efficacy is only around 40 to 60% in the general population. Considering his many lies, these numbers are overly generous - the numbers are more typically around 15 - 30% effectiveness in preventing influenza infection these days. This means that many (most?) people won’t be protected from the flu even if they did receive the vaccine.
Moderna is now frantically searching to use mRNA vaccines for other infectious diseases. But because the Covid-19 vaccine creation process was fast tracked, it won’t be as easy a task for Moderna. Creating vaccines for other illnesses will require a more traditional development pathway.
As I’ve discussed, the government suspension of the standard development and approval processes for Covid vaccines in Operation Warp Speed was irresponsible and unfathomable.
This failure underscores the difficulties that mRNA vaccines face in gaining regulatory approval in a more typical regulatory environment, particularly if they must be compared to existing treatments instead of placebo injections, which may slow their advancement… A win (albeit a small one) for the health of the general population.
Sources:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/10/22828042/moderna-mrna-flu-shot
Many years ago the president of Toyota said there are only 3 sources of wealth for a country, Mining, Manufacturing and Farming. I have gone into countless abandoned factory buildings over the past 40 years to convert them to residential, commercial and services uses. Yes the Western economies are in trouble. This has been coming for a long time. In addition the beaurocratic red tape in Canada is strangling construction of new buildings and Environmental laws require enormous amounts of paperwork to permit something as simple as a spray paint line that ultimately they are going to permit. Sad for me to stand witness to the decline of the western civilization. I hope the governments have some hidden plan to avoid the possible impending meltdown of government finances.
I love your Global News Substack!! It’s always informative, on point and helpful. A great guide through the jungle of wake and woke media news. Thank you for this!