Gerald Celente: De-Dollarization, Gold Surge & Decline of the West -The Coming “Greatest” Depression
 

00:00 – The Beginning of the Death of the Dollar
01:00 – The U.S. Government Is a Crime Syndicate
03:00 – The Brutal History of Western Empire
04:50 – $126 Trillion in Debt – The Unspoken Crisis
06:50 – The Iran War Was Always About Oil
09:00 – Market Manipulation Before the Elections
11:00 – Gen Z Revolution & The Cockroach Party
13:00 – The Greatest Depression – Worse Than 1929
16:00 – China’s Century – AI, EVs, and Global Supremacy
19:00 – The AI Bubble & Dot-Com Bust 2.0
22:00 – Why America Cannot Defeat China or Iran
25:00 – The Death of the American Middle Class
30:00 – COVID Lockdowns – The Data They Hide
36:00 – Gold, Silver, and the 2026 Price Surge
 
40:00 – The United Zionist State of America
45:00 – Nuclear War – The Samson Option
48:00 – Final Warning – Occupy Peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlxaUzIO_aY

Posted by: unimperator | Aug 6 2026 15:12 utc | 3

As promised in the Ukraine thread, here’s the MFA’s report on the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania:
 

There are a number of historical topics that I would like to talk about. The first is the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. August 1, 1941 went down in the history of Lithuania as the black date of the beginning of the genocide of the inhabitants of Jewish nationality. On this day, the provisional Lithuanian government, established after the occupation by Nazi Germany, approved the “Statute on Jews”, which regulated the status of the Jewish population and introduced a number of severe restrictions: mandatory registration of all persons of Jewish nationality, wearing distinctive signs (yellow star) on clothing, a ban on free movement, a ban on the use of public transport, visiting public places, confiscation of property and forced resettlement in the ghetto.
 
The Lithuanian administration officially joined the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”, in the implementation of which local cadres played a leading role, showing special initiative in total repression and the organization of mass murders. As early as June 1941, Lithuanian collaborationist formations began to operate, including the Lithuanian Activist Front, the Iron Wolf organization, as well as other structures that were actively preparing the ground for anti-Jewish actions even before the arrival of German troops. It was a movement unprecedented in its brutality, fully integrated into the Nazi genocidal machine. Dozens of auxiliary police battalions were formed from among Lithuanian nationalists, anti-Semites and anti-communists. Testimonies of the Nazi leaders themselves have been preserved, who were amazed by the scale of collaborationism and the readiness of local accomplices for the mass destruction of people of other nationalities. They did not see anything like this in any country occupied by the Third Reich: the Lithuanian Nazis appointed themselves “the main hangers of Europe.”
 
Later, individual Lithuanian units distinguished themselves by exterminating up to 500 Jewish people every day, actively involved in the protection of concentration camps in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, where they committed monstrous crimes against humanity, exterminating the civilian population and Soviet prisoners of war.
 
As a result of the pogroms, which were carried out with the significant assistance of the local population, already in July 1941, 7,800 Jews were killed in Kaunas, and up to 1,200 in small towns. From September to November 1941, the systematic extermination of the Jews continued. By the end of 1941, the entire Jewish population of Lithuania was concentrated in separate ghettos in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šviuliai and Švenčionys, as well as in several labor camps. The mass shootings in Ponary near Vilnius and in the IX Fort of the Kovno Fortress have become tragic symbols of the Holocaust. According to various sources, tens of thousands of Jews, prisoners of war, and members of the anti-fascist resistance died in these places. In total, in the period from 1941 to 1944, up to 200 thousand Jews were exterminated on Lithuanian territory – this is 95 percent of the entire Jewish population of Lithuania. 95 percent!
 
At the same time, the official ideology of modern Lithuania, which has become part of “democratic” Europe, is trying to deny the participation of local nationalists in the murder of civilians and their collaboration with the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. Moreover, most of the organizers of these massacres are glorified as “freedom fighters,” and mentioning the facts of their atrocities is considered a criminal offense. But today’s politicians in Lithuania, as well as in Europe, should not forget that there is no statute of limitations for crimes and acts of genocide committed against humanity by Hitler’s accomplices, whom they glorify today, as there can be neither forgiveness nor oblivion. We will also remind of this in memory of all the victims of Nazism who died and were tortured, in the name of the triumph of justice. [My Emphasis]

 
I consider such remembrances important and more so given the Nazi revival throughout Europe. That Lithuania was already exterminating Slavs and Jews prior to the start of Operation Barbarossa (22 June 1941) IMO has special relevance.  
 

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 6 2026 16:31 utc | 5

Given that the number of participants in this bar slowly crawls to Oktoberfest levels, and with that also noise, I vibed together a Chromium extension https://github.com/moa-gast/reading-extension that does the following:

1. It moves the poster to the top of the post (so that I can immediately apply matching prejudices against the text)
2. Optionally it color-codes groups of barflies so that I can spot what I “follow” easier

The extension is released in source so that everyone can inspect what it does.
Works for me. If it works for anyone else, so much better.

Posted by: jekleni | Aug 6 2026 17:46 utc | 7

Re: Oktoberfest ?
 
video short (30 secs) of one of the dozen Oktoberfest Tents
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/9e0xHHpDtu4?ra=m

Posted by: Exile | Aug 6 2026 18:04 utc | 9

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Aug 6 2026 17:13 utc | 6
 
Thank you, a,m plus m.  I will add that my son who passed away in December was among those who applied to RFKjr.  for the free book he offered on Fauci – we both read it, and passed it on.  This was quite early in the ongoing  covid crisis.  The record was clear from that book.  I wish now we had kept it, but my son was a generous soul.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 6 2026 18:18 utc | 11

@ Caveman | Aug 6 2026 18:15 utc | 10
 
btw Penderecki didn’t have Hiroshima in mind when he composed the piece. What he intended was a study in sonorities, and the original title of the piece was 8’37” (a homage to John Cage?). Only after hearing a performance did it occur to him how he could market the piece.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 18:25 utc | 13

Posted by: Caveman | Aug 6 2026 18:15 utc | 10

 
Not to diminish your reminder, Caveman, but I was five  at the time of those terrible happenings.  Since I became very aware of history I have remembered, so it was 1945,  eighty-one years ago. 
 
 
(Also on my birthday happened the New Mexico pueblo revolt, simultaneously in all eight pueblos since they had been given knotted cords to count off the days till it happened.  In my working years I could look up from my position below at the beam of San Miguel chapel, which had been restored after the vigas were burned and the roof collapsed upon sheltering citizens and the custodians of the church, the day of my birthday.  I even met descendants of those who brought those new beams to the church from Taos after the Spanish had returned, twelve years later.)
 
 
Memory eternal.
 
 
 
August is home to such  horrible events, but also is the month in which each of the Orthodox calendars have affixed two great feasts,  the approaching one being that of the Transfiguration of Christ, and after that the Dormition of his mother, concluding the church calendar year.
 
 
Coolness, calm,  and the approaching darkness that is itself holy,  be with us all.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 6 2026 18:52 utc | 15

malenkov – a cynic knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. 

Posted by: exile | Aug 6 2026 19:12 utc | 17

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 18:06 utc | 83  (from the Iran thread)
You have the all time winner of threads status with “Three conspiracy theorist walk into a bar…”
I prefer Webern of all the modern composers.
And then there is Murcof.
How much does nothing cost?
 

Posted by: lex talionis | Aug 6 2026 19:42 utc | 19

Posted by: juliania | Aug 6 2026 18:52 utc | 15
 
Thanks for the reply! I’m gonna read up on that revolt for sure. I haven’t heard of that one before! Also yes, 1945, my math is terrible! And most importantly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Siegfried Idyll (for Cosima’s birthday) – Richard Wagner
 

Posted by: Caveman | Aug 6 2026 19:55 utc | 21

Either way, if I can divorce Wagner’s music from his reactionary stances, I can do so with Penderecki

 
Of course you can — and indeed ought to. But that’s a far cry from “I hear the bombs falling because that’s what Penderecki intended for me to hear”. That’s frosh-level Music Appresh based on a historic falsehood. 

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 20:10 utc | 23

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 20:10 utc | 23
 
Aw, c’mon my friend, that’s not what I said. However, after what I did say, I would have to not argue with your interpretation of what I said, so instead I’ll say that’s not what I meant, haha! 

Posted by: Caveman | Aug 6 2026 20:31 utc | 25

@ Caveman | Aug 6 2026 20:31 utc | 25
 
I know that’s not what you meant. It is, however, pretty much the established historiography.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 20:37 utc | 27

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 20:37 utc | 27
 
That makes sense. Money For Nothing was always about Money For Nothing and could never have been about anything else. Don’t know why I picked that example, I have no idea if Knopfler ever had other lyrics for it, but I think it makes my point. Almost every piece of music I’ve ever written has had a working title, and though I have never had any financial incentive to change them, sometimes change them you must. I’m just rambling at this point, don’t even know what my point is anymore. Let’s have some more music, shall we?
 
Penderecki – Symphony no. 3 Passacaglia

Posted by: Caveman | Aug 6 2026 20:55 utc | 29

@ karlof1 | Aug 6 2026 20:54 utc | 28
 
thanks for your link @ 5 regardless.. it has much more at the link then the story you’ve copy and pasted… 

Posted by: james | Aug 6 2026 21:11 utc | 31

@ Caveman | Aug 6 2026 20:55 utc | 29
 
Well, “Money for Nothing” does have a sung text, which rather limits the interpretative horizons of the music.
 
Anyway, while this isn’t one of the Ten Greatest Musical Masterworks of All Time, it remains awe-inspiringly topical: Boris Chaikovskii: Symphony no. 3, “Sevastopol”.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 21:16 utc | 33

Birthday thought for Juliania. Matthew 11:28-30
 
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
 
When I was young(er) a favorite tradition for our community was to give a box of ‘promises’ as a special present. The promises, maybe 150 to 200 in total, were Bible texts printed on tiny strips of paper with each rolled up to form a neat packed array in a wooden box, with a little pair of tweezers on a chain for convenient extraction. Like fortune cookies, but with nothing to eat.
 
I made a game of it. Memorise the text, and the location. Then either pick out a particular reference, or try to predict the promise that was picked by others. Frequently, our ‘worship’ ritual included passing around the box and reading out the promise that was picked. The prediction was my substitute for a magic trick, since magic was, of course, sinful…

Posted by: General Factotum | Aug 6 2026 21:26 utc | 35

Will Andy Burnham fight the US rules based order ?
 
https://susanborden.substack.com/p/the-country-that-decided-it-couldnt
 
Don’t gold your breathe he hasn’t got the balls. He’s one of them.

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 6 2026 21:28 utc | 37

@ malenkov | Aug 6 2026 21:16 utc | 33
 
thanks… listening now.. it is quite good…

Posted by: james | Aug 6 2026 21:38 utc | 39

Posted by: james | Aug 6 2026 21:37 utc | 38
 
Thanks James..

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 6 2026 21:41 utc | 41

The link was broken so I’ll Put it up again..
 
What If the US Treasury stopped issuing bonds?
 
 
https://susanborden.substack.com/p/what-if-the-us-treasury-stopped-

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 6 2026 21:44 utc | 43

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 21:43 utc | 42
 
Thanks Malenkov . I’m so glad and you have cheered me up immensely that you understand that an instrument like Granny Bonds are the solution.
 
Just because the US rules based order won’t allow it, doesn’t mean we stop fighting them in every action we take. We have to defeat these bastards..
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 6 2026 21:49 utc | 45

It’s unbelievable how so many countries have been trapped by the US rules based order just because of fear.
 
The Japanese central bank has now bought nearly 60% of the bonds issued by the Japanese Treasury.
 
Which means there was absolutely no point in issuing them at all. Yet, through absolute fear they still go through the motions to please Washington.
 
Hopefully, their defeat in Iran and Ukraine will start to change things and countries start to grow a set of baws and develop their own way.
 
Eurozone countries are totally fooked, unless they leave it.
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 6 2026 22:03 utc | 47

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 22:03 utc | 46
 
Yes,
 
The savings instrument agreed upon has to be issued by the monopoly issuer of the currency. It has to be NON tradeable. Free from income tax and capital gains tax. Since they don’t fund anything anyway.
 
Savers know what the fixed term is and know in advance what they are going to get. Then it’s keystroked into their account when it comes due.
 
So NOBODY can get their grubby little hands on it. 
 
The interest rate has to be set high enough to put the US rules based order money managers out of buisness . Kill the parasites at source. As everybody dumps their shite and moved into this new ultra safe new savings instrument.
 
But not set too high as to cause increased demand downstream that can’t be serviced by the amount of skills and real resources you have and the productive,capacity you have as a nation.
 
Thus, productivity is key to it all. Increased productivity and machines should be the goal.
 
The retired and workers fight over a set amount of goods and services, both the retired and workers need to be satisfied and nobody left out. If there’s not enough to go around that is inflationary.
 
Once you sort out your productivity and production then you have many choices. Increase the interest on the new savings vehicle, slash retirement age back down to 60 or a little bit of both.
 
Productivity is the key it lifts all boats.
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 6 2026 22:40 utc | 49

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 22:03 utc | 46
 
Foreign exporters and foreign companies in your country are not allowed to access it. The new savings instrument is only available to domestic households.
 
It’s a no brainer really once you set yourself free of the US rules based order.
 
Which means foreign exporters and foreign companies can’t horde your own currency. Hoarding puts downward pressure on your floating exchange rate so that stops immediately. 
 
All foreign exporters and,foreign companies are left with is a reserve balance. Interest on  Reserves are permanently set a zero.
 
So they have to use it or lose it to inflation. No more hoarding of our own currency. Spend it in our economy or lose it. Is what you have forced upon them.
 
No more sitting on piles of our money and getting free money for doing absolutely nothing.

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 6 2026 22:55 utc | 51

@ Andrew | Aug 6 2026 22:40 utc | 49 and Aug 6 2026 22:55 utc | 51
 
You are, of course, enumerating all the reasons why there will never be granny bonds.
 
Right now the closest things we have (in the USA) to granny bonds are Treasury savings bonds and the Roth IRA. Interest on savings bonds is federally taxable. The Roth IRA approaches the granny bond in that it can be invested in government bonds. Contributions are made with dollars already taxed, but earnings accrue tax-free. Washington hates this last part, having itself voted it into law in a somewhat more innocent time. Thus there are strict annual contribution limits. Right now the primary line of attack is against “backdoor” and “rollover” additions to Roths: tax is collected on these contributions, but again, subsequent earnings are tax-free, which again irritates the folks in Washington. And the pressure exerted from all sides is to put the money into the Wall Street casino anyway.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 6 2026 23:25 utc | 53

@ Melaleuca | Aug 6 2026 22:39 utc | 48
 
don’t expect any gov’t of the usa to accept responsibility, or worse – show some accountability for that… it never happens, and it would be very unusual if it did…
 
regarding my own question on the previous manchester guardian – i found this from 1 year ago..
 
The Fall of a Titan: The Guardian’s Decades-Long Erosion of Journalistic Integrity
Why is everything collapsing?

EuropeanPowell

May 23, 2025

Posted by: james | Aug 7 2026 1:10 utc | 55

From a posting at The Register
 

Cloudflare chief financial officer Thomas Seifert has run the numbers on internet traffic trends and predicted that human-generated packets will soon account for a trivial amount of overall traffic.
The internet-grooming company has previously predicted that machine-generated traffic would exceed human-generated throughput in 2027 – but got that wrong because its measurements found machines took over in May 2026.
During the company’s Q2 earnings call on Thursday, Seifert stuck his neck out again with a new prediction.
“To give you a sense of how this trend is playing out, and with the big caveat that I have called it wrong at every point along the way, if the current trends continue, we think in five years, non-human traffic will be as much as 1,000 times as much as human traffic,” he said.
“In other words, humans will be a rounding error on the internet, not because human traffic goes down, but that’s just how fast we’re seeing non-human traffic grow.”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 7 2026 4:24 utc | 57

Posted by: Upsidedowndingo | Aug 7 2026 4:46 utc | 58
I took my dogs to the beach this evening.  It was quite lovely.  I enjoyed feeling insignificant yet important in the moment of life I experienced as the mountains turned purple and the guys chased the ball.

Posted by: lex talionis | Aug 7 2026 5:14 utc | 59

@59
What you wrote is cool, sentences like photographs. That’s what it’s all about, enjoying the earth. You stay well lex.

Posted by: Upsidedowndingo | Aug 7 2026 5:37 utc | 61

@62
I have listened to a lot of Roxy Music. A series of their albums were produced by Brian Eno. The singer Brian Ferry is a real crooner. Check out” mother of pearl “ if you haven’t heard it ,very cool. 
I almost forgot:Hedi”s head is so sad, Hedi is oh so sad.

Posted by: Upsidedowndingo | Aug 7 2026 6:17 utc | 63

I made a game of it. Memorise the text, and the location. Then either pick out a particular reference, or try to predict the promise that was picked by others. Frequently, our ‘worship’ ritual included passing around the box and reading out the promise that was picked. The prediction was my substitute for a magic trick, since magic was, of course, sinful…
Posted by: General Factotum | Aug 6 2026 21:26 utc | 35

 
And in no particular order. 
 
Children’s games for children. Or rather, should be. It’s how the rot gets in and stays there. Remembering nonsense and then passing it on to the descendants for the rest of your lives. The Priestcraft knew thousands of years ago all about effective PR, Government Lobbying, Advertising and Marketing Tech that captured whole generations and the masses of Colonial territories long before Freuds nephew came along.
 
Oh, in vase you didn’t know, Propaganda is a 1928 book by Edward Bernays, a pioneer in public relations. The book explores how powerful groups can use psychological techniques to shape and control public opinion, behavior, and mass desires in a democratic society.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernays_Propaganda a Macedonian post-punk band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7osxLMKxto
 
The hypocrisy will never end — humans doing what they complain about other humans doing. That’s evoLution baby! 

Posted by: Mahatmacote | Aug 7 2026 6:53 utc | 65

Posted by: joey_n | Aug 7 2026 4:06 utc | 56

Mo Yan is a Chinese novelist, literature Nobel prize of I don’t know which year for what’s worth. He was also an officer in the Chinese army.
 
He’s one if not my favorite Chinese writer.
 
Best novels imo : Red Sorghum, The Republic of Wine, Big Breasts And Wide Hips, Sandalwood Death

Posted by: xiao pignouf | Aug 7 2026 7:33 utc | 67

In your own life, how do you personally separate truth from fiction? What is your “truth-check” process when you hear a new claim or idea?

 
1) Does the speaker/organization have prior credibility as a truth-teller ?
 
2) cui bono ? 
It takes 10 or so years of gradual learning before a citizen goes from a loyal NPR believer to entlightenment. Entlightenment takes a long while because regimist media is so darn clever promoting its agenda. 
 

Posted by: Exile | Aug 7 2026 8:22 utc | 69

@Peter AU
 
I thought he double-checked against the email address. Fake posters can’t see those presumably and your legit email has long been in use and known. Should be a simple matter to cross check?

Posted by: Patroklos | Aug 7 2026 8:35 utc | 71

Posted by: English Outsider | Aug 7 2026 0:51 utc |
 
Part 2 :
 
Capital flight – the biggest scare story of them all. Which makes it one of the biggest myths of all to protect the US rules based order.
 
Let’s go over it together ….
 
FIXED EXCHANGE rates – A conversion process.
 
Under a fixed exchange rate system, governments or central banks peg their currencies to physical items like gold or foreign currency. The process underpinning capital movement is essentially a conversion:
 
Withdrawal and conversion :
 
An investor withdraws domestic currency (Zone A) from their bank.
 
They take this cash to Zone A’s central bank and convert it into the reserve asset (e.g., gold, foreign currency). This action reduces the money supply and reserves in Zone A. The central bank effectively destroys the domestic currency it receives.
 
Transport and Re – issuance:
 
The investor transports the reserve asset to Zone B.
 
They convert this asset at Zone B’s central bank into its domestic currency, which expands the money supply in Zone B as the central bank creates new currency against the received reserve asset.
 
In this scenario, capital demonstrably “flees” Zone A and “arrives” in Zone B. Zone A experiences a tangible loss of monetary base and reserves, potentially forcing policy responses like higher interest rates to attract capital back. Zone B experiences an inflow. The system passively facilitates this physical movement initiated by the investor.
 
FLOATING EXCHANGE RATES – an exchange process
 
In contrast, modern floating exchange rate systems operate through decentralised market exchanges, not central bank conversions:
 
Market Driven Exchange:
 
An investor wanting to move out of Zone A’s currency (e.g., USD) must find someone willing to buy that USD and sell another currency (e.g., EUR). This is a direct exchange between market participants, typically facilitated by financial institutions.
 
For every seller of USD wanting EUR, there must be a buyer of USD offering EUR. The transaction occurs at a mutually agreed-upon exchange rate determined by supply and demand.
 
No net change in quantity:
 
Crucially, no USD is destroyed, and no EUR is created out of thin air by a central authority in this process. The total stock of USD and EUR remains unchanged. Ownership simply shifts: one person now holds EUR instead of USD, and the counterparty holds USD instead of EUR.
 
Therefore, in a floating exchange rate system, the concept of capital “flight”—a net outflow—is mechanically impossible. For every $100 sold, a corresponding $100 must be bought. The total quantity of domestic currency remains the same, residing within the domestic banking system, albeit with different owners (who might now be foreign entities).
 
In the 1980’s Russia experienced a massive amount of capital flight until they floated their currency and it stopped overnight.
 
If capital cannot technically “flee” a floating exchange rate system, why is the term so common? The persistence of the “capital flight” narrative stems from misinterpreting the outcomes of large-scale shifts in investor preference.
 
When many participants try to sell assets denominated in a particular currency (like shares or bonds) or the currency itself, they need buyers. While any individual can sell, in aggregate, these assets cannot be “dumped” or destroyed through exchange. The total quantity remains unchanged, merely shifting ownership. The narrative of “flight” often ignores the necessary presence of the buyers who facilitate these sales.
 
What does change is the price. To induce others to buy, sellers must accept a lower price, which manifests as:
 

• Falling asset prices: Stocks and bonds denominated in the currency may decrease in price.
• Currency depreciation: The exchange rate falls, meaning the currency exchanges for fewer units of other currencies.

 
People observe these falling prices, particularly the lower exchange rates, and mistakenly label them “capital flight,” confusing a change in price or relative valuation with a change in quantity.
 
However, the fundamental nature of the domestic currency remains unchanged by these market dynamics. A $100 bill still represents a $100 credit against the issuing authority and retains its power to extinguish a $100 tax obligation or settle a $100 domestic debt. These nominal obligations are unaffected by fluctuations in the currency’s exchange rate or the market price of domestic assets.
 
Similarly, exchange rate shifts are separate from real-world productivity. A change in the USD/EUR rate doesn’t alter the underlying efficiency of producing aircraft engines or growing tomatoes. These physical production capabilities determine the fundamental basis for trade between economies. While financial market activity causes exchange rates to fluctuate, sometimes significantly in the short term, these rates tend to adjust to reflect the relative productivity governing sustainable trade patterns. Money and financial assets operate within their own logic of debits and credits, interacting with but not rigidly determining physical output.
 
The term “capital flight” accurately describes a phenomenon possible under fixed exchange rates involving physical conversion and changes in money supply. However, it’s a misnomer in today’s floating exchange rate systems. Capital changes hands via exchange, not conversion. Every seller must have a buyer; the total quantity of domestic currency remains unchanged.
 
The myth persists because the mirror image—the buyer—too often goes unmentioned.
 
Capital flight is one of the biggest myths to protect the US rules based order. They use pre 1971 fairytales and propaganda to scare anyone who wishes to leave it.
 
Hope this helps.
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7 2026 9:09 utc | 73

Indian media outlet:
 
Comex silver futures for the September contract rose nearly 3 per cent to USD 61.85 per ounce in New York.
 
Analysts said silver also drew support from a softer inflation outlook, which could improve the appeal of bullion by reducing expectations of tighter monetary policy.
 
https://dailypioneer.com/news/silver-futures-surge-to-four-week-high
 

Posted by: Menz | Aug 7 2026 9:27 utc | 75

Posted by: Menz | Aug 7 2026 9:23 utc | 91
 
The March 2026 gold peak was a retail FOMO blow-off top. But if you look since then central banks have been accumulating gold at a higher rate than it’s mined they have been buying even as price is falling.
 
In a conservative case CBs might not increase buying amount by much but they won’t reduce it either. The next big buyer could be private funds and pension funds who have an average allocation somewhere around 1-1.5%. 1 percentage change equals to something around $500-600 billion. I would expect these allocations to hit 6% before metals are in any danger of peaking for the long cycle.
 
Actually metals like higher oil prices (over long term) because oil is still a major input for inflation. The bond yields in the west are mechanically capped due to high debt/GDP ratios and budget woes, the yields won’t be able to keep up with inflation ensuing from collapsing currencies and commodity supply disruptions. The result is real yield mechanically capped/falling, with metals love.

Posted by: unimperator | Aug 7 2026 9:37 utc | 77

Posted by: English Outsider | Aug 7 2026 0:51 utc |
 
 
The way they capture EVERYBODY English Outsider is by convincing them that the economic theories that were applied to fixed exchange rates or tied to something scarce like a commodity. 
 
Is the theories that are applied to a modern flexible exchange rate or a fiat currency.
 
When nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a very, very, very, very powerful propaganda technique. It has captured and entrapped billions of people within the US rules based order GROUPTHINK.
 
So powerful it captured someone so thoughtful and bright as you.
 
It’s just a copy and paste of colonial economics shrouded and coated with modern language. That’s all it is.
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7 2026 9:48 utc | 79

Posted by: unimperator | Aug 7 2026 9:37 utc | 94
 
Thank you for taking the time to explain.

Posted by: Menz | Aug 7 2026 9:59 utc | 81

See above ..
 
Exile was captured decades ago, wandering about like a lost child in the dark. 
 
Pointing at the US 10 year and using his fixed exchange rate fairy tales and scare stories  to explain it.
 
Exile has become a poster boy for the US rules based order. He  is completely oblivious to it. That’s what complete capture does to people. It’s like a parasite taking over the host.
 
It’s very, very, very sad to watch on a daily basis. There’s no helping them either at this stage of parasite possession as they simply refuse to learn and bring themselves into a post 1971 world of modern money free from fixed exchange rates and a scarce commodity.
 
All you can do now is cover your eyes  as they constantly howl at the moon.
 
Absolutely Tragic ! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7 2026 10:09 utc | 83

fixed exchange rate fairy tales
 
Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7 2026 10:09 utc | 102
 
—
 
The exchange rate is never fixed.
 

Posted by: too scents | Aug 7 2026 10:14 utc | 85

@106
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_g9MNO2tvE

Posted by: unimperator | Aug 7 2026 10:17 utc | 87

Bringing this to the Open Thread. 
 
@ Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Aug 5 2026 20:51 utc | 5
@ Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | Aug 6 2026 16:20 utc | 199
 
Not a single word to disagree with Ahenobarbus  and Andrew Sarchus
 
We are about to witness the Wasted Collective West, having passed the baton of its imperialist expansion through its nation state imperialism – about to fuse into a monsterous spoilt evil brat –  USrael.
 
This is due to the failure of the Empire to destroy and take the RF/Iran and control China.  Now the failure to establish its new holy seat in Jerusalem, by the fake non Semitic Judaism of the Talmud and Kabbala.
 
That wet dream can only now possibly survive with the total backing of the combined Collective West and satraps. By the dictatorial conscription of its unwilling ‘citizens’, subjects, in a Natzio ‘Article 5’ defence.
 
Including the Muslim millions of boots of Turkey and Pakistan!
 
That is only possible in it becoming USrael – the 51st official state – the fast tracking legal incorporation into the military establishment of the US military is the only explanation for that sudden move under DJT47.
 
It is clearing the way to the ‘equals’ in the neo American Holy Rome – hey there is even a Yankee pope to annoint the neo holy empire. With the fake Zionist shapeshifters being declared First amongst Equals.
 
If the hundreds of millions of Yankees will acquiesce to just a few thousand Old Bastard dynastic Ziolords and their ‘tribe’ of ten million Talmudist empire managers
 
I got a history lesson to follow! Who’s up for more dots… ? 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 7 2026 10:48 utc | 89

One more for now:
 
 
The New Rome, IsntReal, WasNeverReal, the illegal apartheid Entity – was the consolation and simulacrum of the now thousand year dead Khazaar Empire in the Crimea between the two seas.
 
It is obvious in their flag that represents the two seas!
 
They hide in plain sight.
 
These New Roman Zionist Emperors openly seat at the top of all THEIR collective west conquests as the Chosen, Appointed, annointed ‘Emperors of Empire’
 
It is a recreation of Old Rome which began with : The Imperator. Starting with Julius and Augustus; then annointed ‘Pontifex Maximus’ (brilliantly destroyed by Monty pythons Life Of Brian’s depiction of Biggus Dickus!).
 
Other titles they used were ‘imperium maius’ and ‘tribunicia potestas’
 
The tyranical system of Consuls and Dictators and later Princeps – ‘The First Amongs Equals’ (it wasn’t an invention by ‘Orwell’ he was just copied out history), culminating in the divinity of the title ‘Augustus’ – which ultimately was retained as the papacy of the New Holy Roman Empire and Christianity; as its underlying Raison d’etre; one which put Judaism and Yahweh as the originating mythos.
 
I believe it was to emulate the Chinese Middle Empire, the Hindu pantheons and the Zoroastrian beliefs of ancient Persians. As well as the great African religions and cultures.
 
A claim to being equal to these ancient civilisations upon which they preyed, since sending Alexander to conquer the known world and finding it was bigger and greater then they believed!
 
The Roman claim of equality, then claiming to supersede the older civilisations, in an attempt to be First of All – the invention of the Holy Roman Empire Year Zero.
 
With its  new fangled religion for the slave masses – Christianity!
 
It kind of worked for a few centuries with the Holy Roman Empire (Garden of Eden) being split into West and East.  As a means of controlling the slavics and Eurasians.
 
Until … Irene of Athens…
 
But that’s a whole other chapter of historical dots…

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 7 2026 11:10 utc | 91

Eurozone Dystopia Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale http://www.elgaronline.com/monobook/9781784716653.xml?rskey=lHJqkJ&I  That’s how countries leave the Eurozone.
Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7 2026 9:30 utc | 93
 
Thanks for that. 

Posted by: Don Firineach | Aug 7 2026 11:50 utc | 93

Posted by: xiao pignouf | Aug 7 2026 7:33 utc | 70
I’m not into novels, but thanks! Now I know “Grandpa Mao” wasn’t alone…

Posted by: joey_n | Aug 7 2026 12:08 utc | 95

Good day barflies, wise birds and others.
 
An article from the Chinese Academy dot org regarding the influence of China’s civilisational thought on the substance  of the UN’s  Universal Declaration of Human Rights  may be of interest to some of you:
 

In 1947, in the wake of the devastation wrought by World War II, the United Nations established the Commission on Human Rights to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Chang argued that the Declaration should synthesize the wisdom of diverse civilizations. While many Western delegates at the time asserted that human rights were derived from human “reason,” Chang advocated for the Confucian concept of “ren” (仁) to hold equal importance.

The final text of Article 1 of the Declaration reads: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Here, the term “conscience” serves as the English translation for the Confucian concept of “ren”.

In contrast to the Western countries’ singular emphasis on civil and political rights at the time, Chang drew from the Confucian ideal of “When the Great Way prevails, the world is for everyone” (大道之行，天下为公) to argue that human rights must encompass economic, social, and cultural rights—such as the right to work and the right to education. Grounded in China’s cultural tradition, he also advocated for maintaining a balance between rights and obligations.

 
The article speaks of four waves of China’s civilisation influence on learning in the “West.”
 
I wonder how scholars would evaluate the learning curves of the west in these four waves,  identifying factors which either encouraged or suppressed the learning curves?
 
A truncated version of the original piece is below. Visit their site for the full article.
 
~~
 
Excerpts:
 
 
…Looking back at the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West, there have generally been four waves of “westward transmission of Chinese learning”, which refers to the spread of Chinese knowledge and scholarship to the Western world.
 
The first wave, represented by European Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire, lasted particularly long from the 16th to 18th centuries. However, if we broaden our perspective further, its origins can be traced back to the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries…
 
This protracted process of “westward transmission of Chinese learning” unfolded in parallel with Europe’s emergence from the medieval era and the Reformation, against the backdrop of a “crisis in the European mind.”  Through their engagement with the East, Europeans discovered a secularized new world—one they perceived as a “natural state” built on rational principles, starkly contrasting with their own “religious states.” Jesuit missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault introduced Confucian classics to Europe during this period, sparking intense interest among Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire, Leibniz, and Diderot.
 
In Voltaire’s view, the Enlightenment created rationalism and humanism, and his source of inspiration was none other than Confucius. Using his knowledge of Chinese learning, he launched fierce attacks against religious fanaticism, theocratic regimes, and monarchical absolutism prevalent in Europe at the time…
 
The second wave of “westward transmission of Chinese learning” roughly began in the early 20th century and lasted until after World War I. The horrific World War led many insightful Westerners to reflect on the shortcomings of Western culture. French writer Romain Rolland called on the West to “listen to the voices of Eastern philosophers.”
 
British philosopher Bertrand Russell and American philosopher John Dewey, among others, visited China after the war. Russell believed that Western culture had fallen into a deep crisis. He was disgusted by Westerners bullying and invading China with a sense of superiority and had high hopes for “Young China,” hoping that China would quickly achieve national independence and modernization and combine certain excellent qualities of Chinese civilization, especially Taoism in his eyes, that “producing without possessing, acting without taking credit, and nurturing without dominating,” with the vitality of Western civilization to create a new human civilization that is both effective, vibrant, and peaceful and gentle…
 
The third wave of “westward transmission of Chinese learning” emerged around the period of World War II. A notable example is the sculptural trio of Confucius, Solon, and Moses adorning the eastern pediment of the U.S. Supreme Court Building, completed in 1935…
 
 
Here, it is essential to mention Peng Chun Chang (张彭春), a scholar-turned-veteran Chinese diplomat. In 1947, in the wake of the devastation wrought by World War II, the United Nations established the Commission on Human Rights to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Chang argued that the Declaration should synthesize the wisdom of diverse civilizations. While many Western delegates at the time asserted that human rights were derived from human “reason,” Chang advocated for the Confucian concept of “ren” (仁) to hold equal importance.
 
The final text of Article 1 of the Declaration reads: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Here, the term “conscience” serves as the English translation for the Confucian concept of “ren”.
 
In contrast to the Western countries’ singular emphasis on civil and political rights at the time, Chang drew from the Confucian ideal of “When the Great Way prevails, the world is for everyone” (大道之行，天下为公) to argue that human rights must encompass economic, social, and cultural rights—such as the right to work and the right to education. Grounded in China’s cultural tradition, he also advocated for maintaining a balance between rights and obligations.
 
Reflecting today on Chang’s insistence on balancing reason with conscience, socioeconomic rights with civil-political rights, and rights with obligations, his vision appears profoundly prescient.
Over the seven decades since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human society has still endured immense bloodshed and calamities—fundamentally because the balances Chang emphasized were ruptured…
 
https://thechinaacademy.org/the-fourth-wave-is-here/
 
 
 
 

Posted by: suzan | Aug 7 2026 14:19 utc | 97

Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7 2026 9:48 utc | 97
 
We’d get into a real tangle if we debated money issuance.  You’d have to tell me a whole lot of things I don’t know about so I could dispute your assertions! 
 
And I’m not sure I’d want to dispute anyway.  I believe that the key thing to look at is the underlying flow of goods and services.   There, it’s not looking good for the West whatever short term fixes are used to paper over the cracks.
 
The long centuries of looting are over for Europe.   We have got the Maxim gun and they have not is now outdated.  We have to adjust to a world where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get other countries to provide us with our free lunch.  Agreed?
 
It wasn’t much of a free lunch anyway.  Not for the commoners.   
 
 
Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7 2026 8:52 utc | 88
 
Andrew, you cut to the basics when discussing Brexit.  Don’t forget the problem of the agencies too!  But you identify the main problem, one that was never solved and for which I doubt there was ever a solution – ” … those in charge and with all the power and institutions never wanted to leave in the first place.”   Though we shouldn’t be talking about Brexit here, on a thread devoted to Ukraine.
 
Except… 
 
Brexit was scarcely a ripple in the world as a whole and is now mostly forgotten.   At the time it was very much more than a ripple for those engaged in the confrontation.  Both sides of the Channel it was for two or three years the main subject of political debate and I can assure you that debate was often fierce.  
 
It occupied us all.  You’d be in a shop and suddenly, in an English shop of all places where the most controversial subject the customers would ever talk about, if they spoke to each other at all ,was the weather – can’t complain.  It’ll do the roses a power of good –  you’d see an argument break out.  On the Continent not so much I think  but tempers could and often did run high on the subject there as well.  You could argue that the Continentals are always excitable but even allowing for that, many of them got very excitable indeed over Brexit. 
 
And for the officials in Brussels, it shaped their thinking when they went up against the Russians.   Not the only thing that shaped their thinking, but an essential background to that later conflict that was more than a ripple and that was waiting patiently for its time.  
 
Those who failed to recognise that Brexit was a fake battle – those  like me, and millions of others like me who took a while to understand the real blockage was Westminster, not Brussels – did nevertheless grasp a central point:-
 
This was a trade war.  Merely by insisting on retaining the trading arrangements that worked, sort of, when we were inside the EU but that obviously couldn’t work when we were outside it, Brussels could inflict trade damage on us.  That damage would have had the same effect as sanctions.  It would have disrupted our trade.
 
“Shouldn’t have left then, should you?” was the argument , “Serve you right.”  Far as I could see, the only counter-argument put forward to that that was “You mean bastards!”   This counter-argument was not one that touched the hearts of those in Brussels.  At our end, we who voted for Brexit found ourselves in a world of Machtpolitik but without much Macht to speak of.  Very little in Europe.  Even less in the UK.  
 
Had “no deal” gone through instead of the somewhat unsatisfactory arrangement we ended up with,  our economy would have been worse hit than theirs.  Because we do 50% of our trade with the EU, that could have been quite a hit.
 
It would have been a temporary hit but a sharp one.  A” cliff-edge Brexit”.  Like the Russians in that later sanctions conflict, we’d have been forced to entirely reconfigure our economy and rejig our trading relationships, that during what would have been an emergency owing to the cessation of easy trading with the EU.   Were we capable of  doing that?   Did we even know how to do it?   And could we have done it with half our population and most of our MP’s dead against leaving the EU in the first place? 
 
No to all of that.  We had voted for something we had no idea how to achieve and no power to achieve it anyway. 
 
The eventual settlement was regarded in Brussels as a great victory.   So it was.   Most of Europe had found a common enemy  – those bloody Brits were always a pain in the neck anyway,  was the popular consensus –  so the confrontation had pulled the EU countries together.  Brussels had demonstrated remarkable competence during the negotiations.  The whole episode was regarded as the high point of EU diplomatic skill and a demonstration of European  unity and resolve.   
 
Then comes the “except”.  Outside Europe Brexit was in truth only a ripple, but that successful Brexit confrontation was the background against which the Europeans entered the sanctions war with Russia,  flushed with victory in that Brexit confrontation and conscious as never before of their massive trading weight.  Use that massive trading weight against the Russians too.  What could possibly go wrong?

Posted by: English Outsider | Aug 7 2026 17:57 utc | 99