OCTOBER 2018 Get out your long johns! Thirty years ago, NASA scientist James Hansen told the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that he had a “high degree of confidence” that Earth would be significantly warmer by 2018. It isn’t. And in that regard, what just happened over the past two years is especially interesting: global average temperatures dropped 0.56 C degrees—the most dramatic cooling event of the last century! [Incidentally, “high degree of confidence” was the same phrase government operatives used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq to seize alleged weapons of mass destruction.] Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” and “hockey stick” sham creations were then seized upon by globalists—who proposed to attack “global warming” with $90 trillion in new tax revenues on manmade carbon emissions and cow farts. Cooler heads thankfully prevailed in the U.S., but not in Canada—which hit Canadian households with up to $1000 per year each in “carbon taxes.” (However, $1000 was obviously not enough because Canada has just been hit by record snowfall…) And oh golly, new taxes must also be needed in Italy and Africa! Yes, some high temperatures were recorded this past summer but in most parts of the U.S. temperatures were lower than those recorded before 1940. And in East Antarctica, researchers measured the lowest (-89.2 C) air temperature ever recorded on the Earth’s surface. So, what’s REALLY happening? Solar activity has always been the primary driver of Earth’s climate, with volcanic activity in second place. One measure of the Sun’s affect on our planet is the number of sunspots that appear on its surface. This year through September the number of days with no sunspots totaled 158, meaning that the Sun’s surface has been blank 58% of the time. Solar cycles record the increase and decrease in sunspots over an average cycle of 11 years. The current cycle (Solar Cycle 24) is likely to record 70% or more spotless days in 2019, as it approaches its 2020-21 end. But look closer at the graph: it shows a radical decrease in sunspot frequency and solar activity—with SC 24 being the weakest cycle in 100 years. There is a lot more to understand here, but the important point is that the Sun’s influence on Earth is weakening. Where might our weather be heading? Weakened solar magnetic fields translate into reduced cloud cover and lower temperatures. Martin Armstrong’s Socrates program is predicting that along with
continued record summer temperatures above 100 F, we are headed for bitterly cold winters. The program is also calling for “perhaps one of the deepest Solar Minima in thousands of years.” NASA’s Langley Research Center relies on an instrument aboard a NASA satellite to measure energy in our atmosphere. Scientist Martin Mlynczak conceded that “high above Earth’s surface, near the edge of space, our atmosphere is losing heat energy.” Although that’s a normal process as we approach solar minimum, “if current trends continue we are likely to see a Space Age record for cold.” Futurist John Petersen recorded a compelling detailed explanation for an unfolding freeze in Climate Change Truth, a free 1.5 hour video. He noted that we currently have the “quietest Sun since the Dalton Minimum, 190 years ago.” At 1:19:00 in the presentation, John summarizes his findings. That’s not all: since fewer clouds mean less rain, we should also expect decreasing rainfall … and drought. We are already seeing drought—which can also bring crop failures—in numerous places, including Russia, Australia and Las Vegas. In the 1950’s, drought resulted in 244 of 254 Texas counties being declared federal disaster areas. If famine results, millions could die due to failure to prepare. Integrating the worldwide rise in volcanic activity (including UNDER the ice caps at both the North and South Poles) into the picture, plus the fact that Earth’s magnetic field has been losing about 5% of its strength every decade—and a new ice age or even a pole shift is not out of the question. In the end, climate change is the product of changes in the energy output of the sun, the wobble of the earth and the amount of volcanic activity. The evidence is compelling. My takeaway: I plan to monitor temperatures this winter and if it DOES become noticeably colder, I’ll begin serious preparation. We’ve already moved a little further south and will begin to think about growing our own produce; perhaps we will set up a greenhouse. Just one political comment: Kavanaugh’s hearing exposed Congress’ inability to govern. Are we witnessing the U.S. sliding down the same slope as the Greek and Roman Republics – with something other than a free America waiting at the bottom?... Socrates: “Kavanaugh is the tipping point for the decline and fall of America.”
U.S. ECONOMIC HEALTH U.S. GDP (gross domestic product) rose 4.2% in the second quarter, the strongest increase since the summer of 2016. Household wealth hit a record $107 trillion. However almost ALL of the increased net worth went into the hands of the wealthiest Americans. The top 0.1% now owns as many assets as the bottom 90%! August payrolls came in at 201K, vs 191K expected, with unemployment at 3.9%. Activity was impacted by east coast storms, driving service employment downward, even as manufacturing continued to grow. Initial jobless claims plunged to the lowest level since 1969 and continued claims also fell, to the lowest since 1973. Small business optimism surged to its highest level ever (108.8 on the NFIB’s Index), topping the previous record under Ronald Reagan. Small business ownership among black Americans has jumped 400% since Trump’s election. And a record 37%
of small business owners are raising wages in what is increasingly cited as the tightest labor market in decades. But the booming economy is not rescuing shopping malls, where vacancies have risen to 2012 levels. More than 3800 stores are expected to close across the country this year. Housing starts fell nearly 13% year-over-year in June and pending home sales plunged in August, led by a west coast collapse. Higher mortgage rates are beginning to bite: the average 30-year rate hit a seven year peak of 4.72%. The U.S. monthly trade deficit surged to a near record high near $76 billion—emphasizing the importance of trade negotiations being carried out by the administration. Europe, Mexico and Canada have fallen in line. But not China, who Steve Bannon says is about to face an “unprecedentedly large and unbearably painful” experience. Mid-term elections promise to deliver almost-unprecedented consequences to the economy. The GOP is calling for further tax cuts, while the Demos vow to rollback the cuts and plunge full-speed ahead into a $33 trillion single-payer healthcare system.
STOCK and BOND MARKETS U.S. stocks continued their upward march in September: the Dow Industrial and S&P 500 Indexes closed at 26792 and 2925, up 3.2% and 0.8% respectively for the month … with the Dow finally taking out the January record high. Socrates classifies the DJI as in a “cycle inversion,” with critical support at 24000 and the potential for a change in trend in February 2019. Conventional market pundits are noting that the U.S. market is now at valuation levels that were in the past followed by crashes – and they are correct. But what they aren’t factoring in is the degree of panic large, informed foreign institutions have as to the state of the world and hence the likely continued safehaven movement of foreign capital into major U.S. stocks (~ Dow Industrials). This development is likely to continue until the DJI breaks above 40,000, and perhaps higher. We are at the moment preparing to add further to our U.S. large stock holdings. Treasury bonds crashed: 10-year and 30-year T-bond yields shot 19 and 18 basis points higher to 3.05% and 3.20%, respectively. The dollar (USD Index) slid 0.5% to 94.60, but remains in a major bull market as a result of the U.S. economy being the global safe haven. The Fed announced the 8th hike since 2015 in its federal funds rate, to 2.25%. Meanwhile, the Fed’s shrinking balance sheet is producing a shortage of dollars. Finally, as the dollar strengthens, emerging market currencies are imploding.
PRECIOUS METALS and COMMODITIES Precious metals. Gold continued sliding in September, finishing at 1191/ounce, down $16. Silver rose 5cents to 14.69/oz. Gold is trading neutral in an 1184 – 1218 range, after making an 1163 low on 8/13. November is shaping up as a turning point and might provide a temporary high. Gold futures traders have largely reversed roles, with speculators on the short side and commercial interests betting long. This unusual alignment has observers anticipating a “short squeeze,” driving gold higher as short-selling speculators capitulate – or – we may be seeing a “new normal,” to which
participants will have to adapt. It appears that gold still has a couple years of bear market left before economic conditions worsen enough to increase the safe-haven capital flow. Mining stocks (measured by the XAU Index) slid another 1.6% to 65.15. Commodities (GCC Index) were flat, closing at 18.04. Energy. Crude oil (WTIC Index) advanced, closing up $3.40/barrel at 73.20. Outages from Iran are impacting the price more than expected and, coupled with bottlenecks in U.S. shale production, are driving prices higher. Responding to the President’s request, Saudi Arabia stated a willingness to pump as many as 550,000 additional barrels of oil per day if merited by demand. Production from the Permian Basin in Texas now constitutes 1/3rd of U.S. supply—which at 11 million barrels a day is greater than that of both Saudi Arabia and Russia.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rose in sympathy with a one week doubling in Ripple’s price and peaked at 7362, before sliding back to close the month at 6604, down 5.5%. BTC is trading in a wedge pattern, with support at 6117 and resistance at 7404. Bottoms have been rising since its June 5800 low – to 6050 in August and 6250 in September. The wedge converges in November, when Socrates is calling for a Turning Point—potentially a final low before resuming a new advance. Before then, we might be convinced if we saw something like strong buying driving the price toward 7000. Dollar Vigilante’s Jeff Berwick commented that he will be buying when cryptos market cap hits $190 billion and “mortgaging everything if it goes below $150 billion.” (The current value of all cryptos is $215B.) Blockchain investment firm Sustany Capital surveyed American investors and found that 88% had an interest in adding cryptocurrencies to their investments, with 42% claiming they would consider using cryptos as a form of savings. But the vast majority of these people are still on the sidelines. Blockchain-free cryptos are composed of distributed databases that use different tools to achieve the same objectives as blockchains. Top contenders in the realm of blockchain-free cryptos are DAGs (Directed Acyclic graphs) such as Swirlds’ Hashgraph, ByteBall’s DAG and IOTA’s Tangle. These third generation crypto developments promise to be faster, cheaper and more efficient than existing blockchain cryptocurrencies. Significant coin developments have become too numerous to describe here, but I will be incorporating many of them in the update of our Crypto Handbook, which will be released later this month. Monero is the only anonymous and private cryptocurrency—thereby meriting consideration as a crypto investor’s main savings account. Bitcoin is experimenting with the use of Mimblewimble to evolve into a privacy coin. EOS has in two months become the fastest growing, highest performing, most efficient and most aligned blockchain ecosystem in the world. Alerts are published whenever we make allocation changes, and occasionally on important news. To be added to our Alert email list, send an email to wayne@waynepeterson.net. At present we remain 100% out of the market, waiting for lower prices.
WINDOWS into the FUTURE A new internet? 29 years after inventing the concept of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee is nearing design completion of a replacement for the internet. His motivation for doing this is that “for all the good we’ve achieved, the web has evolved into an engine of inequity and division, swayed by powerful forces who use it for their agendas.” Working with individuals at MIT and elsewhere, he’s developed an opensource engine called Solid. Its capabilities would exceed those of the internet while re-orienting the web to its original version—presumably free of big tech centralized domination. We’re dubious… “Auras” are real. Stanford geneticist Michael Snyder engineered an experiment in which small puffs of air surrounding the arms of volunteers were ingested and analyzed. Bacteria, viruses, chemicals, fungi and all manner of other particulates were then extracted for DNA and RNA sequencing and chemically profiles. Thus began an effort to understand and perhaps transform our thriving personal clouds. Blunt advice for U.S. tech. Taiwan-born Kai-Fu Lee’s book “AI Superpowers and the New World Order” summarized a challenge to western technology companies. While successful U.S. tech companies such as You Tube or Instagram look a lot like they did five years ago, Chinese companies continue to adapt and refine their products after reaching success. As a result, American tech companies are falling behind… Shipping container apartments are popping up in unaffordable-rent areas like D.C., taking advantage of the huge inventory of empty containers sitting in America after delivering Chinese goods. From Gerald Celente’s Trends Journal—September 2018: Demand for plastics that decompose into environmentally benign components will grow by as much as $100 million a year through 2023. Companies potentially benefitting from this development include NatureWorks, Novamont, PTT MCC Biochem and Crown Poly. Social Entrepreneurship (SE) is the practice of starting a business to make money, while simultaneously addressing social problems. Areas predicted for success by Celente include (1) marijuana and hemp, which is gaining wide support for medical, recreational and industrial (as a replacement for plastics) use; (2) main street shopping at local boutiques and niche SE ventures; (3) longevity centers, promoting “artful aging; and (4) industry-specific opportunities—arts, entertainment, fitness, niche-foods, information technology, even robotics. Other items of possible interest
The GOP’s tax package would allow taxpayers to use tax-free 529 savings to fund homeschooling. A county judge sided with the NRA against a Washington State gun-control ballot initiative. Louisiana banned a joint BofA and Citigroup bond sale due to their “restrictive gun policies.” A Swiss study concluded that brain damage is lessened if cell phones are held over the left ear. A European court ruled that U.K. GCHQ spying violates the European Convention on Human Rights. EU rules for European carmakers effectively mandate electric cars by 2020. Amazon plans to open 3,000 cashierless “Amazon Go” convenience stores by 2021. “Astroturfing” is corporate sponsorship of fake grassroots movements, including paid protestors. Google told lawmakers it allows other companies to scan and share data from Gmail accounts. Apple tracks your calls and emails to “prevent fraud.” The “Presidential alert” you may have received on 10/3 was from FEMA, verifying its access to the E911 chip in your cell phone! Travelers arriving in New Zealand are fined $5,000 if they refuse to disclose cellphone passwords.
TWILITE ZONE The next “world.” Arlington Institute futurist John Peterson holds workshops in Berkeley Springs, WV, in which he entertains perspectives of various participants in the metaphysical arena. In this 10-minute video, Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurologist who caught a brain disease, “died” and experienced the afterlife, talks about his experience. He’s written the New York Times best-selling book “Proof of Heaven.”
Alexander reported a “profound experience,” an existence with “multiple layers, much more real than this world,” and an experience “completely beyond any description in our earthly language” within a “fabric of binding unconditional love.” UFO’s on parade? On September 6, the National Solar Observatory facility in Sunspot, NM was raided and shut down by the FBI for a period of ten days. The observatory was evacuated and the local post office was also shut down, as were cameras at six other observatory locations. Although the shutdown was accompanied by a Blackhawk helicopter and a crew of people who went to work on the observatory tower, the FBI eventually attributed the closure to a janitor who was dealing in child pornography at the site. But when the NSO reopened, the janitor was still working there. We expect to eventually learn what really happened but in the meantime are left to deal with a myriad of conspiracy theories: my favorite is that a huge spacecraft arrived at the sun to protect earth from a massive solar flare (or perhaps it was just recharging its batteries)! Goosebumps from the cosmos. Piano virtuoso Van Cliburn plays Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor for an enraptured audience which included Nikita Khrushchev, to win the first international Tchaikovsky piano competition in 1958 in Moscow. And so a Texan melted enough Russian hearts that the cold war might have ended right there… “The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” – Nikola Tesla “Trump is the false move or counter-trend against the swamp (corruption) but the trend in motion will revert back and conclude with the destruction of the West as we have known it.”– Martin Armstrong/Socrates
FUNNIES True story of the Chicken Gun NASA scientists built a gun specifically to launch standard 4 pound dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea was to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl and test the strength of the windshields. British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the British engineers. WHEN THE GUN WAS FIRED, THE ENGINEERS STOOD SHOCKED AS THE CHICKEN HURLED OUT OF THE BARREL, CRASHED INTO THE SHATTERPROOF SHIELD, SMASHING IT TO SMITHEREENS, BLASTED THROUGH THE CONTROL CONSOLE, SNAPPED THE ENGINEER'S BACK-REST IN TWO, AND EMBEDDED ITSELF IN THE BACK WALL OF THE CABIN, LIKE AN ARROW SHOT FROM A BOW. THE HORRIFIED BRITS SENT NASA THE DISASTROUS RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT, ALONG WITH THE DESIGNS OF THE WINDSHIELD AND ASKED FOR SUGGESTIONS. NASA RESPONDED WITH A ONE-LINE MEMO:
"DEFROST THE CHICKEN."
Real Statistics Number of physicians in the US: 700,000. - Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year: 120,000. - Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171 (U. S. Dept. of Health & Human Services) Number of gun owners in the US: 80,000,000. - Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups): 1,500. - Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188 Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners. FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but everyone has at least one Doctor. Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets out of hand. As a Public Health Measure, I have withheld the statistic on Lawyers for fear that the shock could cause people to seek medical aid. Global warming conspirators awaken! Ok, it’s time to all hold hands and jump up and down a few times to set the Earth back in line. The latest is that since 1899, humans are now also causing the Earth’s axis of spin to shift about 34 feet (10.5 meters). Research is quantifying the reasons why and finds that a third is due to melting ice and rising sea levels, particularly in Greenland—placing the blame on the doorstep of anthropogenic climate change. Another third of the wobble is due to land masses expanding upward as the glaciers retreat and lighten their load. The final portion is the fault of the slow churn of the mantle, the viscous middle layer of the planet. An obvious solution is that we are all to blame and we should begin a program of gradual suicide to save the planet. Those who discovered all this harm humans are doing should set a good example and lead the way for the rest of us to follow. Does anyone want to second that vote? Thanks for reading. We wish you another happy, healthy and successful month! Copyright © 2018 by Wayne Framework 2 LLC. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given. Purchase “But What If I’m Right?” at https://www.waynepeterson.net.