by James Corbett
corbettreport.com
June 1, 2019
The US-China trade war continues to simmer, with Uncle Sam once again talking tough and China, for its part, producing propaganda video after propaganda video promising that hellfire will descend on Washington unless America backs off. Oh, and there's Beijing's whole "we'll deny you rare earth metals" thing, which may be more of a realistic threat.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields have dropped to 19-month lows and even the phony baloney stock market is slumping globally. Oil prices are down, too.
China's economy is notoriously difficult to measure, but it's getting harder and harder for the ChiComs to hide the fact that their industrial output is flagging. And, since we live in a globally-connected economy, that means that global trade has fallen to lows not seen since the depths of the Lehman crisis.
So, are you feeling the squeeze? After all, we are now stuck in this globalist system where the pronouncements of (mis)leaders in far away capitals can have immediate—and, all too often, negative—effects on our lives.
So how do we get out of this mess?
Well, let's looks at some of the solutions on offer and see if they really work.
Malaysia, for one, is raising the old clarion call of sound money advocates everywhere: "Go back to gold!" Specifically, previous Corbett Report guest Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed—speaking at the Nikkei Future of Asia conference in Tokyo this past Thursday—has proposed that East Asia create a common trading currency pegged to gold. "In the Far East, if you want to come together, we should start with a common trading currency, not to be used locally but for the purpose of settling of trade," he was quoted as saying, adding: "The currency that we propose should be based on gold because gold is much more stable."
This is no doubt true as far as it goes. Gold-backed currency is more stable than a system of floating exchange rates "backed" by petrodollars which are themselves backed up with the barrel of Uncle Sam's gun. But although it's aiming in the right direction (and is probably about the best that a national "leader" could propose from within the current system), it doesn't get at the heart of the matter. What exactly is a "common trading currency?" Is he talking about a euro for Asia? Would the establishment of a European Central Bank-style institution in East Asia solve any problems? Just ask the Europeans.
Or maybe Mahathir means a trading currency as in a reserve currency held exclusively by central banks. You know, a "currency" that is just used to settle accounts when there's a trade surplus or a deficit. The type of "currency" that will never be handled by Joe Q. Public, who will still be buying sticks of gum at the convenience store in their national currency.
But if that's the case, then the whole "gold-backed trading currency" proposal is just a question of making the current global system more convenient for the national governments that want to rule over their people. It is not really about you or me at all.
No, in order for a solution to the problem of economic centralization to be an actual solution it must provide an actual alternative. In this case, that alternative would be economic decentralization. If it doesn't bring power back down to the individual then it's just a way for politicians to better manage the livestock on their national plantation. In any centralized system (whether pegged to gold or not), the game will be the same: the politicians will continue to subsidize their friends' businesses, raise tariffs against their enemies, and generally direct the system wherever their banking paymasters tell them.
So how about this for a decentralized clarion call: "Drop gold. Buy bitcoin!" Well, that's the message of the new (and straightforwardly named) "Drop Gold" campaign from Grayscale Investments. The campaign has been receiving some attention as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies emerge from the "crypto winter" of the last 18 months. The idea is simple: Gold is your great-grandfather's sound money. Bitcoin is the 21st century sound money!
. . . But hold on a second. What is "Grayscale Investments," anyway? Oh, it's a "digital currency asset manager" which operates the "Grayscale Bitcoin Trust" that is "created for investors seeking exposure to bitcoin through a traditional investment vehicle." Yeah, no thanks.
OK, then, excluding Grayscale and investment vehicles from the picture, how about the idea itself? Should we all "drop gold" and "buy bitcoin" instead?
As followers of my work will know, I'm not opposed to cryptocurrency in principle. It is potentially another way to disinvest from the globalist system and side step the central banks (although, as always, the devil is in the details). But that's just it, it's another way to disinvest from the globalist system, not the way.
People are often looking for the (pardon the pun) "silver bullet" to solve all our economic woes. "Put all your money in gold!" "Put all your money in land!" "Put all your money in bitcoin!"
But why? It is always comforting to have a single, stock answer to any problem, but that does not comport with the reality we find ourselves living in. The challenges that we face are multifaceted. Why limit our ability to meet those challenges to a single bullet? Why not have an entire arsenal at our disposal?
If I'm looking to have something that I can hold in my hand and bury in my yard for 30 years and dig up when I need to retire, precious metals might fit the bill. If I'm looking for something I can use instantaneously and electronically to conduct a transaction with a stranger on the other side of the world, cryptocurrency might be just the ticket. If I'm going to buy something from someone in my local community that I'm on a first-name basis with, perhaps there's a local community currency or LETS program or other way to facilitate that transaction. Refusing to use any option at our disposal because it isn't the single "silver bullet" to all life's problems is like owning a Swiss Army knife but refusing to use any of the tools except the corkscrew. Why limit yourself?
So we already have two of our principles in place: We don't need to limit ourselves to a single, one-size-fits-all "solution" to all our problems, but our solutions do need to be decentralized.
Now there's one other principle to keep in mind: We don't have to fix the world overnight.
The perfect is the enemy of the good. If we all wait around until the perfect, 100%, all-in-one solution arrives like a divine delivery on our doorstep then we'll be stuck waiting in vain for the rest of our lives. Perhaps we will never be able to 100% detach ourselves from the global economic system that has been woven around us. Does that mean we shouldn't make efforts to detach ourselves from that system as best we can? Of course we should make those efforts.
So with those principles in place, what types of solutions are we looking at?
Well, first and foremost we have to stop feeding the beast as much as possible. We know that the chemically-engineered monstrosities produced by Big Ag and Big Food are killing us. Why do we keep paying those very companies for the privilege of putting their crap in our bodies? We know that Big Tech is just another name for Big Brother, a mere extension of the Five Eyes surveillance grid that is using slick gadgets and shiny fondleslabs to colonize our minds and harvest our data. So why do we line up to buy the FondleSlab 8 or whatever the latest googad is? We know that the mainstream media is worthless mind rot designed to manipulate us into supporting the twisted agendas of the ruling psychopaths and pop culture is similarly there to sell us crap we don't need and predictively program us to accept the dictates of the would-be social engineers. Then why do so many continue to pay for cable (or Netflix) and consume MSM news (on TV or online)?
It's a simple point to make, but it's one worth making again: Boycotts and buycotts can be an exceptionally effective way of weaning us off of the globalist system of control and simultaneously building up the alternatives that we wish to foster into existence.
And while bitcoin and bullion can both be effective tools for circumventing the inflation tax and the capital controls and the arbitrary confiscation that define the globalist economy, we shouldn't neglect the other solutions that are available to us. Solutions like "complementary currencies," which takes the magic power that the government currently gives to the banks—the power to create money out of debt—and empowers the people to create their own money on the back of their own promise to pay. These community-based currencies help to facilitate the flow of goods through the local economy even when the flow of Federal Reserve notes (or your national equivalent) has long since dried up. And here's the best part: Far from being a pie-in-the-sky fantasy, many such complementary currencies already exist and are already thriving in numerous localities around the globe.
In fact, thanks to the connections that are being formed in the new Gutenberg revolution (aka the internet era), many new peer-to-peer platforms are popping up to help people to exchange goods, services and ideas without money entering the picture at all. From sites that connect people to free food growing in their local area to ride-sharing, book sharing and, well, everything else sharing, there are fewer and fewer items that are not being passed around the community thanks to the explosion of the sharing economy.
Solutions can take any number of forms, depending on the community and its need. It might involve joining (or even creating) a community organization that fosters interaction and helps neighbors in times of need. It might mean rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty in a DIY garden (urban or otherwise). It might be contributing code to the open source software community, helping to build technology that improves our lives and protects our privacy rather than software that rots our brain and steals our data.
But whatever it is that you find yourself drawn to, and wherever your talents lie, remember:
- The solution to a centralized globalist system involves decentralized, grassroots action.
- And the perfect is the enemy of the good. Just do what you can, when you can, and resolve to continue doing it.