I dimly see the contours of a never-ending and indeed malignent quest (dating back to the Roman Empire, the weaponization of Christendom under Constantine, the Venetian racket (if I may resort to such a phrase for brevity's sake...) for world domination at the expense of people's and individuals' sovereignty - it almost sends my head spinning; which of course is not your fault.
On the contrary, your writing is of commendable clarity. So thank you, Alex!
Wow, Alex. That reads like a thriller. I find it amazing that you can relate historical events in which similar situations occurred to our current situation.
Thank you Maria Eleni. I think this is mainly what awakened my interest in history - the idea that today's events are following the same logic and patterns of past events. So that's what I'm alert to when reading history. The scholarly, "one damn thing after another" with no context, no causal principles used to bore me to death...
Dear Alex, you speak from my heart. I feel exactly the same way. In 2014, when the coup took place in Kiev, I had a great epiphany. My life has changed since then. Most of the education that comes from our schools is distorted, half-truths or lies. We have been blinded by the system all our lives. I have also often wondered why I have to waste my precious time, in a dreary workplace when I could be spending my energy with finding the truth. Thank you for your great articles!
Henry Kissinger advised Richard Nixon to push American farmers to massively overproduce wheat and corn, to drive down global prices, and to control global grain markets from America's "fertile plains". "Control the food and you control the people." Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz said, "get big or get out", and made it not-optional with changes in the structure of farm subsidies. Since then, the US has effectively weaponized wheat, famously selling over a third of US production to the USSR in 1972-1973, when Soviet harvests were poor, to start the process off with a (short-lived) boost to American farmers. It has been austerity for farmers, and domination of global markets for Cargill since then. Russia may change that over the next couple of years. Red sends this article:
Russia pushing for BRICS grain exchange Russia is urging the BRICS, a trade alliance of nine emerging countries, to establish an inter-bloc grain exchange. The officially declared purpose of the alliance is to facilitate trade between member states, but analysts warn that the new structure will aim to become an analogue of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for the global grain market, with the goal of influencing free pricing.
The Russian Union of Grain Exporters (RUGE) first expressed the idea of establishing an inter-BRICS grain exchange in December 2023, in a run-up to the bloc’s historic expansion...
..The proposal didn’t draw much attention until March, when it was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During a meeting with Russian farmers, Putin said: “All benchmark (grain) prices are set in the US and Europe, for example, in Paris. How much grain do the French produce? I think less than we do. And still, according to tradition, benchmark prices are formed out there.” https://www.world-grain.com/articles/19823-russia-pushing-for-brics-grain-exchange
Brilliant! Thanks for 'filling-in the blanks' for specicific time-frame in France. I knew nothing about. Coincidently, from ca 1700 the Swedes began the Continuation Wars against Russia and the *borderland*/krainija know nowadays as 'The Ukraine'. Yeah. It's been the same MO-Modus Operandi, rinse and repeat since Solon. ps. the same 'Amsterdam Banksters' had already established themselves in their 'wealth extraction process' throughout the 1600's. How do I know this?. Well, I actually live in the ca 100-150 km northern radius of where the wealth-extraction began. And, Gustav Adolf II loved fighting Russians in the early 1600's. Regards Alex ;)
Extending the analysis and relating it in the context of the history of Western banking and finance and its role in the development of capitalism and imperialism is a necessary further study. Michael Hudson’s books would be an appropriate starting point.
The term "Bubbles" puts me in mind of the 17th century tulip craze in Holland, apparently called "Tulip Mania." According to this online piece, "Tulip Mania is often cited as the forerunner to other economic "bubbles," in which prices skyrocketed within a relatively short time and, eventually, plunged back." Hmmm, I wonder if this influenced John Law?
Alex, your Feb 2024 interview with Matt Ehret was very thought-provoking! One of your central questions is: Why is the "West" so pathological in its use of war and deceptively-contrived money systems and its desire to crush all humankind in its path? The pathology seems to stem, in large part, from the Romans. This article on the "Mississippi system" and Banque Royale is an excellent piece in understanding the (if you will) "pathological puzzle."
Fascinating and cogent analysis. Energy is the currency of life and ultimately of the universe. Money in all its forms and manifestations is a proxy for energy. We have been enslaved and bamboozled by false and counterfeit proxies that have required and driven false and counterfeit systems, narratives and “truths”. This failure of these false proxies has been hundreds, if not thousands of years in the making and here we are. Alex, your analysis and optimism are spot on. Humanity will triumph. The despots and liars are desperate and failing. They are playing their only endgame of complete enslavement of the world and their demise is ordained at every level. Thank you for your humanity and wisdom Alex. We need it now to hold to a vision of our future. It’s always darkest before the dawn.
On that note, I would like to add that I can see the strategy beyond the practical logic of BRICS and Putin's handling of Ukraine (another project) and the West in general: One of the ways to stop a cancerous growth from growing (and thereby metastasizing) is to starve it.
I always enjoy a telling of the story of that rogue Scotsman John Law. I almost admire his bravado. A mad man no doubt.
All Ponzi schemes end in collapse, as this global one will. But here's the rub: I've been thinking this for decades but like the mirage of water in the desert the global debt-based financial scam always appears close to collapse but never happens. Just more pain for the us useless eaters. I dare not hope it will be any different this time round.
Agreed. But I've been saying that since the turn of the century. It's the time variable that is unknown.
Take the expression: 'kicking the can down the road', which means taking repeated action to delay an impending event. Our financial masters have been doing this for as long as I can remember, perhaps going back to the USA leaving the gold standard in 1971.
How much longer can this go on? Longer than I ever imagined. But perhaps the fact that USA debt is now accruing an extra 1,000,000,000,000 (trillion) in debt just in compounding interest on its previous borrowings every 100 or so days indicates the end is nigh.
But then again it's only numbers, which can be expanded infinitely. Interesting financial times indeed.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and listening on the Ottoman Empire. It’s fascinating. I wonder about Islam and the influence of the Ottoman Turks in the wider picture. They were such a huge influence- maybe a counteracting one - for such a long time. Now we see Islam rising, maybe also as a technocratic type state rises in Asia/China? Wondering about how it all fits together. I’m not judging good, bad or indifferent.
Thank you for your positive thoughts on the NIB. Because I have little understanding of the National Debt and know they are simply increasing it with no concern, I would hope that this might be an option for keeping our infrastructure from decaying exponentially as we pour more and more into war and whatever it takes to get Biden re-elected. At this moment in CO we are looking at local zoning issues being taken out of the hands of this reasonable municipal process that includes time for the locals to consider the ramifications--and being taken over by the State level where they are pushing through "transit oriented communities" that are requiring higher density housing staged along transit related corridors. There are 7 bills at our State Legislature that are aiming to make this dream happen--all moving toward 'smart 15-minute cities.' THEY are so busy herding us into these enclosures. It is hard to be aware of where the next threat is coming from. I am beginning to envy the citizens of Russia.
A better Wall St would be one in which you wouldn't loose any value. You put $10 in you get at least $10 back + some interest (the time value of money as we were taught in school). Imagine a place where Wall St couldn't short you out of your money.
A thoroughly fascinating piece, professor Kramer. 🙂 If not Law, then any number of scoundrels would have emerged and HAVE emerged. Now we truly live in the Golden Age of fraud in so many levels, but mostly from exponential growth unsound money, credit and finance.
Also abundant/affordable/cheap and highly energy-dense hydrocarbons have fueled an epic rise in population and wealth.
But nature abhors and never sustains exponential trends. The entire exponential world population growth since 1800 might just exponentially reverse and soon. I tend to think that it's started.
Excellent history lesson Mr. Krainer. I did not know the French had their very own 'South Seas' fraud (the usual suspects, one supposes) ... 1720 for the South Seas as immortalised by Swift... https://www.online-literature.com/swift/poems-of-swift/43/
Thank you! Indeed, there was a whole series of these colonial unicorns modeled on the Dutch East India Company (Law learned his craft in Amsterdam before he brought it to France).
Thanks for that interesting history lesson in "greed knows no bounds" and "humanity gets duped again and again." I would love to know your assessment of the NIB (National Infrastructure Bank) that is patterned after Hamilton's plan for pulling the newly formed United States out of debt after the Revolutionary war. According to what I'm being told by NIBcoalition.com, he simply used the national debt as a means to raise money to create a rail system across America and other needed infrastructure to unite the new nation. Roosevelt used a NIB to pull us out of the Great Depression and now there is a bill in Congress trying to drum up passion for passage. As I watch the streets of my city filling with potholes that never get filled and I see the Governor holding any repairs as a "carrot on a stick" to force cities to accept "transit oriented communities" and "smart city measures" and... I would like to believe a NIB could be a way to fund our decaying infrastructure across the country and help pull us out of the clutches of the WEF, and others, agenda.
Thank you, Dariel. For sure, NIB would be a good idea - a way to direct credit toward infrastructure improves society, adds to its tangible wealth to everyone's benefit and ultimately lowers the cost of economic activity. Of course, what infrastructure should be built should be based on a healthy political process and determined by the communities affected by such infrastructure (as opposed to pet projects of politicians and their donors)..
The trouble is that I have no head for finances--though I don't think I'm so different that other here. The only thing that makes me suspicious of the NIB is that the guiding voice is a woman who was employed by the World Bank for years??? I don't have much trust in them...
I knew the name John Law. That is it. The rest I just learned from you on this article. Awesome. Thank you
A couple months ago I also learned of another French twist to our shared history. Supposedly the son of Maria and Louis XVI was smuggled out of France, educated by the British crown, and was the money portal that created America's original Oligarchy whose names everyone knows. That family supposedly has massive property, mineral, and water rights in N.America and underpinned the Louisiana Purchase and the 1883 Statue of Liberty, which might be giving the finger to mother England.
A French twist, to the British Empire. And of course, they are all literally, cousins.
I will not post the last name as this will be deleted from the internet. I will post a codified version if you want.
I dimly see the contours of a never-ending and indeed malignent quest (dating back to the Roman Empire, the weaponization of Christendom under Constantine, the Venetian racket (if I may resort to such a phrase for brevity's sake...) for world domination at the expense of people's and individuals' sovereignty - it almost sends my head spinning; which of course is not your fault.
On the contrary, your writing is of commendable clarity. So thank you, Alex!
Thank you, Pim. Indeed, it's the same contours I'm seeing as well, including, as you say, the weaponization of christendom.
Wow, Alex. That reads like a thriller. I find it amazing that you can relate historical events in which similar situations occurred to our current situation.
Thank you Maria Eleni. I think this is mainly what awakened my interest in history - the idea that today's events are following the same logic and patterns of past events. So that's what I'm alert to when reading history. The scholarly, "one damn thing after another" with no context, no causal principles used to bore me to death...
Exactly. 'Who, what, where, when' without ever considering 'why' is the bane of history education.
But that is for a reason -- [they] do not want us proles to understand 'why.' It would mean their end.
Dear Alex, you speak from my heart. I feel exactly the same way. In 2014, when the coup took place in Kiev, I had a great epiphany. My life has changed since then. Most of the education that comes from our schools is distorted, half-truths or lies. We have been blinded by the system all our lives. I have also often wondered why I have to waste my precious time, in a dreary workplace when I could be spending my energy with finding the truth. Thank you for your great articles!
A heartfelt thank you, Eleni!
Amen!
Thank You, again, Alex.
Henry Kissinger advised Richard Nixon to push American farmers to massively overproduce wheat and corn, to drive down global prices, and to control global grain markets from America's "fertile plains". "Control the food and you control the people." Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz said, "get big or get out", and made it not-optional with changes in the structure of farm subsidies. Since then, the US has effectively weaponized wheat, famously selling over a third of US production to the USSR in 1972-1973, when Soviet harvests were poor, to start the process off with a (short-lived) boost to American farmers. It has been austerity for farmers, and domination of global markets for Cargill since then. Russia may change that over the next couple of years. Red sends this article:
Russia pushing for BRICS grain exchange Russia is urging the BRICS, a trade alliance of nine emerging countries, to establish an inter-bloc grain exchange. The officially declared purpose of the alliance is to facilitate trade between member states, but analysts warn that the new structure will aim to become an analogue of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for the global grain market, with the goal of influencing free pricing.
The Russian Union of Grain Exporters (RUGE) first expressed the idea of establishing an inter-BRICS grain exchange in December 2023, in a run-up to the bloc’s historic expansion...
..The proposal didn’t draw much attention until March, when it was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During a meeting with Russian farmers, Putin said: “All benchmark (grain) prices are set in the US and Europe, for example, in Paris. How much grain do the French produce? I think less than we do. And still, according to tradition, benchmark prices are formed out there.” https://www.world-grain.com/articles/19823-russia-pushing-for-brics-grain-exchange
Thank you, John - the formation of a grain OPEC is a very interesting development, good to know!
Brilliant! Thanks for 'filling-in the blanks' for specicific time-frame in France. I knew nothing about. Coincidently, from ca 1700 the Swedes began the Continuation Wars against Russia and the *borderland*/krainija know nowadays as 'The Ukraine'. Yeah. It's been the same MO-Modus Operandi, rinse and repeat since Solon. ps. the same 'Amsterdam Banksters' had already established themselves in their 'wealth extraction process' throughout the 1600's. How do I know this?. Well, I actually live in the ca 100-150 km northern radius of where the wealth-extraction began. And, Gustav Adolf II loved fighting Russians in the early 1600's. Regards Alex ;)
Sources: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_XII#Ryska_f%C3%A4ltt%C3%A5get https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XII_of_Sweden#Early_campaigns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Adolphus#Military_commander
Extending the analysis and relating it in the context of the history of Western banking and finance and its role in the development of capitalism and imperialism is a necessary further study. Michael Hudson’s books would be an appropriate starting point.
I have the Book ;)
The term "Bubbles" puts me in mind of the 17th century tulip craze in Holland, apparently called "Tulip Mania." According to this online piece, "Tulip Mania is often cited as the forerunner to other economic "bubbles," in which prices skyrocketed within a relatively short time and, eventually, plunged back." Hmmm, I wonder if this influenced John Law?
Alex, your Feb 2024 interview with Matt Ehret was very thought-provoking! One of your central questions is: Why is the "West" so pathological in its use of war and deceptively-contrived money systems and its desire to crush all humankind in its path? The pathology seems to stem, in large part, from the Romans. This article on the "Mississippi system" and Banque Royale is an excellent piece in understanding the (if you will) "pathological puzzle."
Thank you Natalie!
Fascinating and cogent analysis. Energy is the currency of life and ultimately of the universe. Money in all its forms and manifestations is a proxy for energy. We have been enslaved and bamboozled by false and counterfeit proxies that have required and driven false and counterfeit systems, narratives and “truths”. This failure of these false proxies has been hundreds, if not thousands of years in the making and here we are. Alex, your analysis and optimism are spot on. Humanity will triumph. The despots and liars are desperate and failing. They are playing their only endgame of complete enslavement of the world and their demise is ordained at every level. Thank you for your humanity and wisdom Alex. We need it now to hold to a vision of our future. It’s always darkest before the dawn.
Thank you! =)
On that note, I would like to add that I can see the strategy beyond the practical logic of BRICS and Putin's handling of Ukraine (another project) and the West in general: One of the ways to stop a cancerous growth from growing (and thereby metastasizing) is to starve it.
I always enjoy a telling of the story of that rogue Scotsman John Law. I almost admire his bravado. A mad man no doubt.
All Ponzi schemes end in collapse, as this global one will. But here's the rub: I've been thinking this for decades but like the mirage of water in the desert the global debt-based financial scam always appears close to collapse but never happens. Just more pain for the us useless eaters. I dare not hope it will be any different this time round.
The collapse is a mathematical certainty - only a matter of time.
Agreed. But I've been saying that since the turn of the century. It's the time variable that is unknown.
Take the expression: 'kicking the can down the road', which means taking repeated action to delay an impending event. Our financial masters have been doing this for as long as I can remember, perhaps going back to the USA leaving the gold standard in 1971.
How much longer can this go on? Longer than I ever imagined. But perhaps the fact that USA debt is now accruing an extra 1,000,000,000,000 (trillion) in debt just in compounding interest on its previous borrowings every 100 or so days indicates the end is nigh.
But then again it's only numbers, which can be expanded infinitely. Interesting financial times indeed.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and listening on the Ottoman Empire. It’s fascinating. I wonder about Islam and the influence of the Ottoman Turks in the wider picture. They were such a huge influence- maybe a counteracting one - for such a long time. Now we see Islam rising, maybe also as a technocratic type state rises in Asia/China? Wondering about how it all fits together. I’m not judging good, bad or indifferent.
Thank you for your positive thoughts on the NIB. Because I have little understanding of the National Debt and know they are simply increasing it with no concern, I would hope that this might be an option for keeping our infrastructure from decaying exponentially as we pour more and more into war and whatever it takes to get Biden re-elected. At this moment in CO we are looking at local zoning issues being taken out of the hands of this reasonable municipal process that includes time for the locals to consider the ramifications--and being taken over by the State level where they are pushing through "transit oriented communities" that are requiring higher density housing staged along transit related corridors. There are 7 bills at our State Legislature that are aiming to make this dream happen--all moving toward 'smart 15-minute cities.' THEY are so busy herding us into these enclosures. It is hard to be aware of where the next threat is coming from. I am beginning to envy the citizens of Russia.
A better Wall St would be one in which you wouldn't loose any value. You put $10 in you get at least $10 back + some interest (the time value of money as we were taught in school). Imagine a place where Wall St couldn't short you out of your money.
A thoroughly fascinating piece, professor Kramer. 🙂 If not Law, then any number of scoundrels would have emerged and HAVE emerged. Now we truly live in the Golden Age of fraud in so many levels, but mostly from exponential growth unsound money, credit and finance.
Also abundant/affordable/cheap and highly energy-dense hydrocarbons have fueled an epic rise in population and wealth.
But nature abhors and never sustains exponential trends. The entire exponential world population growth since 1800 might just exponentially reverse and soon. I tend to think that it's started.
Thank you, Doug! Yes, agreed.
Excellent history lesson Mr. Krainer. I did not know the French had their very own 'South Seas' fraud (the usual suspects, one supposes) ... 1720 for the South Seas as immortalised by Swift... https://www.online-literature.com/swift/poems-of-swift/43/
Pan-European fraud operation. Was there a European Commission of some sort? 😜
Thank you! Indeed, there was a whole series of these colonial unicorns modeled on the Dutch East India Company (Law learned his craft in Amsterdam before he brought it to France).
Thanks for that interesting history lesson in "greed knows no bounds" and "humanity gets duped again and again." I would love to know your assessment of the NIB (National Infrastructure Bank) that is patterned after Hamilton's plan for pulling the newly formed United States out of debt after the Revolutionary war. According to what I'm being told by NIBcoalition.com, he simply used the national debt as a means to raise money to create a rail system across America and other needed infrastructure to unite the new nation. Roosevelt used a NIB to pull us out of the Great Depression and now there is a bill in Congress trying to drum up passion for passage. As I watch the streets of my city filling with potholes that never get filled and I see the Governor holding any repairs as a "carrot on a stick" to force cities to accept "transit oriented communities" and "smart city measures" and... I would like to believe a NIB could be a way to fund our decaying infrastructure across the country and help pull us out of the clutches of the WEF, and others, agenda.
Thank you, Dariel. For sure, NIB would be a good idea - a way to direct credit toward infrastructure improves society, adds to its tangible wealth to everyone's benefit and ultimately lowers the cost of economic activity. Of course, what infrastructure should be built should be based on a healthy political process and determined by the communities affected by such infrastructure (as opposed to pet projects of politicians and their donors)..
The trouble is that I have no head for finances--though I don't think I'm so different that other here. The only thing that makes me suspicious of the NIB is that the guiding voice is a woman who was employed by the World Bank for years??? I don't have much trust in them...
I knew the name John Law. That is it. The rest I just learned from you on this article. Awesome. Thank you
A couple months ago I also learned of another French twist to our shared history. Supposedly the son of Maria and Louis XVI was smuggled out of France, educated by the British crown, and was the money portal that created America's original Oligarchy whose names everyone knows. That family supposedly has massive property, mineral, and water rights in N.America and underpinned the Louisiana Purchase and the 1883 Statue of Liberty, which might be giving the finger to mother England.
A French twist, to the British Empire. And of course, they are all literally, cousins.
I will not post the last name as this will be deleted from the internet. I will post a codified version if you want.
Amazing what a simple internet search produces:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/identification-son-louis-xvi-and-marie-antoinette
https://duckduckgo.com/?va=k&t=ha&q=the+son+of+Maria+and+Louis+XVI+was+smuggled+out+of+France%2C+educated+by+the+British+crown&ia=web
Indeed.
We have the privilege of knowing what has happened 600 years ago. We are radical
Nice to see how Wars are spoken about being horribly destructive to prosperity and culture.
Beautiful article.
John Law must still be around creating the “ Rules based order” !
Vampires live forever in the mythic world so this must be a mythic age we live in.
The Venetian Black Nobility and their fondi lives on forever….