Prominent Billionaire Investors Warn of Financial Crash, Quietly Position Themselves
Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2016 Jun 04, 2016 - 08:50 AM GMTWelcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason.
Coming up Michael Rivero of WhatReallyHappened.com updates us on some of the key developments in the ongoing attempt by the central planners to bring about a one world government, when and why we’re likely to see a massive inflationary uptick in the not too distant future, and how gold and silver may end up being the key beneficiaries as the masses discover them as the safe haven assets to own. Don’t miss our explosive interview with a man who pulls no punches, Michael Rivero, coming up after this week’s market update.
After suffering through a sharp pullback in May, gold and silver markets could be eyeing a bottom in the trading so far in June. Gold touched the $1,200 level on Tuesday and managed a small bounce off that key level. As of this Friday morning recording, gold is surging and is up close to $30 so far on the day with the spot price coming in at $1,241 an ounce now, up 2.2% for the week.
Turning to silver, prices dipped below $16.00 per ounce earlier in the week as that market appeared headed for a fifth straight week of losses. But silver closed Thursday back above the $16.00 level, though just barely. But, like gold, the white is rallying nicely today and now trades at $16.39 an ounce, now eking out a small 0.7% weekly advance.
Platinum and palladium prices had also been moving to the downside over the past month. As for this week platinum is now flat since last Friday’s close thanks to this morning’s advance to trade at $980 an ounce, while palladium shows a weekly gain of 1.5% to trade at $548.
The fortunes of the precious metals markets going forward will be tied to the direction of the U.S. dollar. The Dollar Index surged last month from a low of around 92 to a reading of nearly 96. This week the dollar is trading virtually flat versus a basket of foreign currencies.
Currency markets took the latest announcement from the European Central Bank in stride. On Thursday, the ECB left interest rates unchanged and vowed to stay the course on its bond buying campaign. No surprise there.
Eurozone economies continue to show moribund growth and stubbornly low inflation, despite a recent uptick in oil prices. The question for investors is whether the U.S. economy will increasingly look more European. If signs of a slowdown here at home grow, investors may come to realize that the stock market and the U.S. dollar are overpriced.
Several prominent billionaire investors are now warning that financial markets are at risk of suffering a crash. Globalist kingmaker George Soros recently slashed his equity exposure and loaded up on gold and gold mining shares.
Former George Soros associate and billionaire trader Stanley Druckenmiller says the Federal Reserve’s efforts since 2008 to keep the stock market propped up have created dangerous distortions. Druckenmiller is now hedging himself with a large position in gold.
Meanwhile, legendary investor Carl Icahn is so concerned about the stock market the he has taken out a massive 150% net short position in equities in hopes of profiting from a crash.
Bonds are normally seen as a safe haven from stock market volatility. But billionaire bond guru Bill Gross is worried that markets have mispriced credit risk across the board. In a recent interview he warned that the financial system is at risk.
Bill Gross: I'm an investor that ultimately does believe in the system, but believes that the system itself is at risk.
A lot of smart money sees trouble ahead. How far ahead is unknowable. No one knows exactly when the next financial crisis will hit. Perhaps it will be triggered by a Federal Reserve policy mishap this month or next. Or perhaps the powers that be will keep markets propped up until after the election.
Hillary Clinton is now trying to make political hay over the fact that her Republican rival Donald Trump sought to profit from the bursting of the housing bubble. Of course, Mrs. Clinton has been cozy with enough Wall Street fat cats over the years to know that successful investors look for ways to capitalize on bear markets. Anyone who understands the idea of “buy low, sell high,” as Mr. Trump surely does, knows that bear markets create the greatest buying opportunities in beaten-down assets.
Donald Trump: I hope that (a housing correction) happens because then people like me would go in and buy. If there is a bubble burst as they call it, you could make a lot of money.
He wanted to buy housing when it was at a low point. Who the hell doesn't? Who doesn't?
That was Trump first speaking before the housing collapse back in 2006, the statements recently pounced on by Hillary, followed by Trump’s response to her criticisms in one of his recent campaign speeches.
So with the housing market now well off its low point, the U.S. stock market at a very high point, and bond yields seemingly too low to compensate for inflation and credit risk, precious metals are a relatively attractive asset class. Gold is a premier safe haven from turmoil in financial markets, while silver offers superior upside potential during times of rising inflation fears. While there are no guarantees in any market, what is certain at this point in time is that there are few assets in the investment universe as historically cheap as silver now is.
Well now for more on what’s ahead for the economy and on the political scene, let’s get right to this week’s exclusive interview.
Mike Gleason: It is my privilege now to welcome in Michael Rivero, founder and editor of WhatReallyHappened.com. Michael is a talk radio host and prolific commentator on geopolitics, financial markets, and many other topics. It's great to have him back with us today. Michael, thanks again for joining us. How are you?
Michael Rivero: I'm doing just fine and thank you for having me back.
Mike Gleason: I wanted to start off by asking you about the presidential election which has been a free-for-all since the beginning. One headline in the past week has been about a recent poll that revealed a full 70% of Democrats think that Hillary should still run if she is federally indicted. On the other hand, a prominent Democrat pollster said this week that Hillary could lose California's primary on Tuesday and that, if she does, Sanders can actually win the Democratic nomination. Who do you think will be the Democrat nominee?
Michael Rivero: Well, Hillary is just facing an uphill battle now trying to hold off the email scandal. Now there are further allegations of racketeering and fraud in the Clinton Charitable Foundation. To be very honest, that poll that claims 70% of Democrats still want her to run even if she's indicted, it says something very telling about Democrats, or they manufactured that poll to justify Hillary staying in the race if, in fact, an indictment is recommended.
Now we know that the FBI has found a lot of very telling evidence. We know that they're talking about bringing a racketeering charge against her. They want to stay away from that email server because behind that there may be an even bigger scandal, one that could actually bring the entire government down. And that would be a repeat of the 1996 China Gate scandal.
For people who don't remember this, there was a situation where Bill Clinton was running for re-election where he was authorizing the transfer of militarily sensitive technology to China, over the objections of the intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. And Chinese money was pouring into his re-election campaign through Chinese American citizens.
There was an investigation and it turned out much of that money had actually originated with Chinese intelligence and the scandal was called China Gate. It was one of many scandals that were dogging the Clintons, all of which were being investigated in 1999. And all of a sudden, the email server in the White House had a glitch, and over a million subpoenaed emails simply disappeared. Golly-gee shuckies.
The investigation went nowhere, but is shows there is a pattern of corruption. There's a pattern of selling U.S. secrets in exchange for money. Now we have this private email server, which the inspector general of the State Department is saying, "Was not legal, was not permitted. Hillary did not ask permission. Had she done so, she would've been turned down." And it had very, very weak security, weaker than the Ashley Madison website. And parked on this server were a lot of the nation's top secrets.
Guccifer, the hacker who is currently in jail for cybercrimes, has said that when he got into Hillary's private email server, he saw 10 foreign IPs also logged in prowling through the material that was on that computer. So it raises the possibility that Hillary Clinton was repeating the China Gate scandal. She was actually selling secrets to foreign governments while serving as Secretary of State, using her email server as the delivery mechanism and her charitable foundation to collect and launder the payments.
Because the charitable foundation can actually receive money directly from foreign sources. 40% of the money that is coming to the Clinton Foundation is from foreign sources, many of which are obscured by the use of multiple cutouts. And there are new allegations that this foundation has taken in literally hundreds of billions of dollars, most of which cannot be accounted for.
Mike Gleason: Wow. That might be something. That might take the cake when it comes to scandals on the Clintons.
Michael Rivero: The Clintons are untouchable because they know all the dirt from the last quarter of a century. They know where all the dead bodies are buried. They know how they got to be dead bodies. And the Clintons are in a position to blackmail some of the most powerful people in the U.S. government threatening the destruction of their career plus there's that long list of dead bodies that dot the landscape of the Clinton history.
And what is really very interesting is the IT expert who set up Hillary's private email server is to be deposed next week in this civil action regarding a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. And yet, he has declared he is going to take the 5th amendment. He is not going to answer any questions about how that email server was set up.
Mike Gleason: Looks like Donald has the GOP nomination locked up and the “Never Trump” movement seems to be fading a bit. Trump has really come out swinging against Hillary in the past two weeks. He alluded to a new twist in the Vince Foster death, speaking of all those dead bodies. He brought up White Water. He trotted out Juanita Broaddrick who has accused Bill Clinton of rape. How do you think things are going for Trump? Also, do you have any predictions for who will win, or who he will pick as his running mate?
Michael Rivero: Well, I have recommendations about who he should pick. I know it's down to a list of five names. He may wait until the actual GOP convention and lock in the nomination. Because that vice presidential pick may be part of the deal making that he needs to secure that nomination.
Officially, he has enough pledged delegates to secure a first ballot victory, but we know that the people who are just terrified of Donald Trump in the White House are still trying to find some way they can bribe, or blackmail some of those delegates into changing their votes. The goal is to throw it into a brokered convention, at which point the Republican party leadership can show Donald Trump the door and just put in whoever it is they want to put on in, which is basically going to amount to giving the White House to Hillary Clinton.
They've been trying the Ron Paul treatment on Donald Trump. It hasn't worked because we remember that's what we saw against Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012. Obviously, a tremendous concern that there's going to actually be a serious attempt on Donald Trump's life. He's got his own private security that's operating inside the Secret Service detail. He knows that there are people who are so afraid of how he might shake up the status quo that they might shoot him right off the podium if they get the chance.
Mike Gleason: This summer figures to be interesting. Over in Europe, once again, the Greeks have a large loan payment due, which they may not be able to pay. We could be looking at a renewal of the crisis in Greece after it's been pretty quiet on that front for the last 8 or 10 months now. And then we've got the Brexit vote coming up later this month as the Brits decide if they want to leave the EU. First off, why are they considering leaving the European Union? And then also, what effect might that have on the markets?
Michael Rivero: The European Union has turned out to be a raw deal for pretty much every one of the member states. From Great Britain and Germany's point of view, they have borne the brunt of trying to keep the other EU member nations out of economic trouble. And it's causing a lot of hardship. Right now one third of all children in Germany are requiring some kind of state assistance for food, and housing, and care. And that's not how Germany was set up before the EU.
Also, there's been some revealing information coming on out about exactly how the European Union is structured. And that European Union Parliament has absolutely no real authority. It's just put out there to make it look like there's some kind of a Democratic process, but all the decisions and all of the laws are made by these unelected European commissioned members who are answerable to nobody but themselves. Plus the European Central Bank, like all private central banks, has been engaged in tremendous economic predation on all the member nations, especially Greece.
And Great Britain is not the only nation that's talking about leaving. One third of Germans are saying they're ready to get out of the European Union. Denmark is talking about having an independence referendum. France, with all the problems they're dealing with with the EU mandated austerity, they're having huge riots and protests all over France. It's the greatest public uprising since the French Revolution.
And so the whole EU may be breaking apart. They're trying to hold it together because the original plan was to form a European Union and a North American Union, then merge those together working toward that New World Order, single global government and a world population enslaved to a single, privately owned central bank. And one of the reasons for all this refugee and illegal immigration that's going on, they're trying to blur the populations of all these nations in order to undermine their sense of a cultural, regional, or historic identity.
Because if we don't have a strong sense of self, it's easier for us to be controlled by these politicians. But they understand that the people of the world are on to this little game of the New World Order. That's why they're rushing, and rushing, and rushing trying to get this thing through before opposition builds any more.
But by going as fast as they are, they’ve just attracted more attention to their games. And we're rapidly seeing a lot of people come on out and say, "These large unions and imperial governments really aren't good for ordinary people. Let's go back to a planet with lots and lots of little small nations, each taking care of their own people, crops, border, trade, tourism, and peace through commerce." Because if you have this idea of a single global government, a throne for planet Earth, people are going to want that, they'll do anything to get it. Once they get it, they'll be willing to do anything with it.
When you look at some of the horribly corrupted people that are seeking power just here in the United States of America, Hillary. And then you understand a person like that literally in control of the entire planet where there's no alternative political system, nobody to stand up to that kind of tyranny. You can understand this means literally the enslavement of the human population to debt. Because that's what private central banks do. By design they create more debt than money with which to pay the debt in order to control the people and the nation.
Because that's what the bankers are after. They know those pieces of paper and the ink aren't worth anything. The item of value are human beings that feel they have a debt obligation to the bankers and will do as they're told. And it's a system of governance ruled by compound interest. And it's no more legitimate a system of governance than rule by divine right, or rule by slavery. And like those former failed systems, it only works as long as people allow themselves to be brainwashed into thinking this is the way the world is supposed to be.
Mike Gleason: Very troubling movement indeed. You alluded to the refugee crisis there that's alive and well in Europe. Do you think America is going to go unscathed on that front, or will we eventually find ourselves in the midst of the same chaos here that they're dealing with in Europe?
Up to this point, it appears we've been able to sidestep the fallout of the destabilization in the Middle East, which many people say that we're mostly responsible for creating? So how do you see this playing out from a national perspective here in the U.S., Michael?
Michael Rivero: Well, they're trying to hold off the chaos in the streets of America because the New World Order needs America's military to deal with those troublesome holdouts who don't want to be part of the single global government and especially to deal with Russia and China, who are basically going on out and conducting global commerce without going to the U.S. dollar so that they can evade that system of control.
But I think the U.S. is, in fact, headed for some very, very troubling times. Because of globalism, all of these private central banks are now linked together. And they share each other's fate. In the past, and you need to understand this private central bank scam has been around for 300 years. It's made the owners of these private banks incredibly rich. They don't even allow themselves to show up on these lists of the top millionaires, or billionaires because they don't want the people of planet Earth to realize just how badly they've been robbed through the centuries.
But because of linkages among all these banks, they all share each other's fate. In the past when one nation with a private central bank collapsed, all the other nations enslaved to private central banks would step on in and restart the system and get them going again. But today, with derivatives and all the rest of that, when one goes down it's going to pull the entire system down with it. And you need to be looking at what's going on down in Venezuela right now, in the streets there.
Yes, Venezuela was a victim of the botched oil price war against Russia. Venezuela's been the victim of economic and political war by the United States going all the way back to Hugo Chavez, who dared to sell Venezuela's oil for currencies other than the dollar. But the net result to the people who live there, we're going to see the same thing here when the U.S. economy implodes. And there's an important point to keep in mind.
During the Depression of the 1930s, most Americans were still distributed pretty much across the entire country, either the rural areas when the corporate supply chains began to fall apart. There was still land to have farms and garden and grow your own food. Today, we've all been herded into these giant human ranches called cities.
And we're totally dependent on corporate supplied water, corporate supplied food. When that supply chain breaks down, we don't have an easy alternative. This is one of the things that motivates the prepper movement to have food on hand and be prepared to take care of yourself when this whole system starts to come apart.
The model that I like to use to forecast what's going to happen here in the U.S. is the former Soviet Union where the government of the Soviet Union reached a point where the people had lost all trust and faith. They knew that government was lying to them about everything. And it imploded. There was about four months where people had some serious hardships to deal with while the new Russian republics were forming.
Today, of course, in Russia life is a lot better than it was under the Soviet Union. I think we're going to same thing here in the United States. Our economic and political system is on the verge of collapse. We're going to have about four months where we're going to have to be looking out for ourselves, looking out for our neighbors in our local communities. And you should start building those networks now.
Then we're going to form a whole new nation in this land. Go back to those original constitutional principles to which I would add one, carved in stone, no more private central banks. This nation prospered when the public currency was handled as a public utility. And when the public currency became a privatized for profit operation, the nation and its people suffered greatly.
Mike Gleason: In the financial world, one of the major topics, as usual and unfortunately has been the Federal Reserve and their rhetoric, the on again, off again interest rate raising program is it barely back on for now, or at least that's what they're telling us. And now the prevailing thought is that we'll see them raise the fed funds rate later this month when they meet next.
One has to wonder just how much longer they're going to be able to cry wolf on interest rates and then come up with a reason to not do it at the last minute like they've been doing for the past 18 months. It's only been a tiny 25 basis point increase at last December's meeting and that's it. That was the first interest rate hike in a decade. So what are your thoughts there on the Fed? Where do they go from here and how much longer can they maintain credibility here, Michael?
Michael Rivero: Well they've lost credibility pretty much around the world. That's one of the reasons they're in a bit of a corner. The low interest, or 0 interest money being loaned to Wall Street is being used to prop up the stock market and make things look like they're still working for this election year.
But the longer they hold those rates down, the less valuable and trustworthy the dollar is seen around the world, especially now that China is introducing a trade currency backed by gold. And Russia is going to be following suit. People don't see the dollar as really being worth that much. So the only way they can make the dollar look more attractive is to have that interest rate go up.
But at that point, all of these Wall Street firms stop borrowing to buy stocks and bonds and keep the market propped up. So they're in a heck of a corner. And they made it for themselves. They're not victims. They were taking all these shortcuts to make the economy look good without really thinking on the long term how it was all going to end.
Mike Gleason: ZeroHedge is reporting that U.S. stocks are in uncharted territory with the price to sales ratio at an all-time high. We saw stocks selling off early in the year when the Fed was talking about raising interest rates. Once the Fed back off, they rallied right back. Here we are again knocking on the door of 18,000 in the DOW. The S&P is right around 2,100. So what are the odds of another stock market correction at some point in the not too distant future?
Michael Rivero:Well, we would have already had that correction long before now except that the market is being propped up with all this instantly created money coming out of the Federal Reserve. Along with that very high ratio of sales volume to stock price, you also have to look at the valuation of the stocks, the price of the stock versus its return. And the stock market, because of all this manipulation, is hideously over valued right now.
In fact, it's more over valued now than it was in 1929. And they're just trying to keep it looking good because going back actually to the Bill Clinton presidency, those stock market numbers are the primary propaganda tool to assure America that the economy is still doing okay. But it's all a fraud and a hoax. Most small investors have already gotten out of the stock market. And what we're seeing is primarily institutional trading of stocks among themselves to churn the market and make it look good.
But in an overvalued market, when there is a sell-off, only the first people out are actually going to get their money. Everybody else is going to be left with their last broker's report with a really impressive looking number on the bottom of the paper. That's all it's going to be, an impressive looking number on the bottom of that paper.
Mike Gleason: Do you see precious metals potentially being the beneficiary of a stock market sell-off? Will more investors recognize it as a potential safe haven?
Michael Rivero: I think more and more investors actually are. They're trying to move into gold. This is presenting a major problem for the New York Federal Reserve and for JP Morgan and other bullion centers because there is a big scandal out there that a lot of people don't know about. We actually talked about this on an episode of the History Channel's America's Book of Secrets. It was called the Gold Conspiracy.
And what's been going on is the New York Federal Reserve and JP Morgan and these other bullion banks, were selling services to store gold, like a safety deposit box. But at the same time, they were leasing that gold out the back door, hypothecation, I think is the term that they use for that.
But it was okay because on paper the gold was still there. All of a sudden you started getting countries saying, "We'd be more comfortable with our gold back in our own hands." There was a big stink when Germany wanted their gold and the New York Federal Reserve said, "It's going to take us 15 years to do that." And then the following week, they invaded a nation in Africa, which just happened to be the third most productive gold mine in the entire continent.
And they're trying to get the gold back. What gold has already been returned to Germany is not the same bullion bars that were sent over. It's not even as pure. And there's another big stink where a lot of these gold businesses in other countries are finding these gold bars bearing the hallmarks of Fort Knox and the New York Fed. And they're discovering they've got tungsten cores inside.
Then you have the paper gold contracts. If you're going to invest in physical metals, and it's a good idea, it's not an investment, but it's a supportable store of wealth that nobody can tinker with from outside. But if you're going to buy silver and gold, buy the physical metal and take possession of it.
Because right now the price of gold and sliver are being kept down by an over issuance of paper contracts. In the case of gold, these are leveraged to hundreds to one, which means for every one real ounce of gold, there are paper contracts promising the delivery of 200 ounces. And they simply can't do that. At some point there's going to be a gold run and the prices will go right through the roof.
Mike Gleason: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Take physical possession. That's not somebody else's liability at that point. Very good advice there. As we begin to wrap up, what should investors be watching for over the summer, leading up to this fall's election? It feels like maybe the calm before the storm right now perhaps. What are your thoughts there as we begin to close?
Michael Rivero: Well you're absolutely correct. It's an election year. The Federal Reserve and all the powers that be are trying to make the economy look, if it's not in total meltdown, that we're at the bottom. The recovery is just around the corner. This is a pattern we have seen in past election years. Once the election over and we're into the new administration, that's when all the chickens are going to come home to roost and we're going to see sky high inflation. They're already talking about a 60% increase in Obamacare premiums next year.
Yeah, every dirty little trick that they have done to manipulate the economy to make it look good for the incumbent leadership, there's a price to pay for it, a snap back. And that's all going to hit first part of next year.
Mike Gleason: Well Michael, thanks for your enlightening insights. We always enjoy talking to you and appreciate how you just cut through all the bull out there and explain away the nonsense. Now before we let you go, please tell people how they can get more of your commentary on a regular basis through the website, also the radio show and so forth.
Michael Rivero: The website is WhatReallyHappened.com. I do a three-hour a day radio show on the Republic Broadcasting Network from 3PM to 6PM Central U.S. time. If you go to my website, there are player links that open up when the show starts, or you can go to RepublicBroadcasting.org and there's a little player button there as well.
Mike Gleason: Well it's truly great stuff. Thanks again, Michael. We look forward to talking with you again before long. And hope you have a great weekend.
Michael Rivero: Thank you very much. Same to you.
Mike Gleason: That will do it for this week. Thanks again to Michael Rivero, founder and editor of WhatReallyHappened.com. Be sure to check that out.
Check back next Friday for our next Weekly Market Wrap Podcast. Until then, this has been Mike Gleason with Money Metals Exchange. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend everybody.
By Mike Gleason
Mike Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 "Dealer of the Year" in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC, and his writings have appeared in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Detroit News, Washington Times, and National Review.
© 2016 Mike Gleason - All Rights Reserved
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