06.14.17 The Real World of Money, June 14, 2017 TWO

One Radio Network

Oliver Stone 4-part series on Showtime about Putin. Putin understand the US better than most Americans do. Russia doesn’t care who the US president is, they know who has the power. Russia has to be the bogeyman for NATO to exist. Putin wants to tie blockchain technology to the ruble. Did Trump collude with the Russians? FBI offered US citizenship, immunity, and a home to a Russian if he would falsely admit to being a hacker. Andy predicts we will eliminate the $100 and $50 from our currency in our lifetime. $100,000 bill and smaller denominations existed at one time. Zimbabwe, Venezuela – we and other governments corrupt the institution that is government, then buy into the favors they’re willing to give out. Boys in the US and CIA tried to tip election away form Hugo Chavez. We mobilized private forces, funded them, and had them do what the government can’t legally do. See the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War”. Zimbabwe – legendary inflation, worse in the history of man. Liquidity crisis – too much debt, too many derivatives, insolvent balance sheet. Solvency crisis – when there aren’t assets to trade. We’ve already monetized all the liquid assets there are. Only fictitious assets left. Trump’s proposed rollback of Dodd-Frank. Glass-Steagall repealed in 1998 as Clinton was on his way out. Repeal allowed commercial and investment banks to merge. Commercial banks could use depositors’ money to invest in worthless assets. TARP bailed out the banks and investors. New legislation would go back to pre-Dodd-Frank but post Glass-Steagall. Many protections will be dissolved, considered to be too cumbersome. Mr. Jim Rogers predicts a big crash later this year or next. 3 big banks were recently given a 3 yr. extension of their requirement to divest bad legacy funds, e.g. MBS and CDOs that are ill-liquid but on the balance sheet. They’re ill-liquid already, but if the regulations the banks are violating are abolished , there’s no requirement to divest themselves of these funds. Andy agrees with a pending fall crash, when fiscal years end. Wage-price disparity. We are seeing higher prices; wages have been stagnant but may raise to accommodate. People at the bottom of economic spectrum may benefit from more social programs, such as Zuckerberg is advocating. People in the middle, with stocks, bonds, assets, should be be prepared for erosion in stocks and especially bonds. If Fed raises interest again today, that will immediately send bond prices down. Read prospectus of your funds to know if you are unknowingly funding someone else’s debt, such as corporate paper or junk bonds. Karen asks about an Austin credit union charging fees for an IRA. Bank realizes they’re losing money for every IRA they offer. Lucretia wonders if China’s selling of bonds will affect housing prices. China is very ill-liquid. 20% of their assets have no value at all. One of the world’s largest creditors, but also one of the world’s largest debtors. They use money as a tool for political reasons. E.g. offer Zimbabwe a bunch of money. China is now a net seller of US debt. $800 billion in their reserves are spread among Chinese state-owned enterprises, which may have better returns but China can’t sell them. China would like to recreate the Silk Road and has invested in infrastructure, which left them highly indebted. Did Jeff Sessions talk to the Russians? Yes. Did Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort work for Russia. Yes. Just the usual political operations; the Russian thing is a non-deal. Andy doesn’t believe Comey for a minute, nor Jeff Sessions. We’re not mad about the collusion to reveal behavior, we’re mad about the underlying behavior. Did Hillary talk to the Russians while arrangements were made to sell US uranium reserves to the Russians? You think?