One of the most virulent themes promoted by the mainstream media over the past two years has been ‘demonisation’. I have written about this a lot.
You think the UK should leave the EU? You are a racist, a bigot, an uneducated moron…you are ignorant of the issues involved, oblivious to the indisputable calamity that will follow, unqualified to make a choice…and for dessert, you are a selfish old fool, riddled with unjustifiable resentment…denying a future to the young.
You dare to question the agenda of globalisation, have the gall to suggest that Washington is a cesspit of special interests, or think we should stop setting fire to the Middle East? You agreed with any of the stated positions of Donald Trump, or heaven forbid voted for him? You are a Nazi, a fascist, a racist, a misogynist and an anti-Semite…you are an utterly contemptible low-life, riddled with unjustifiable resentment…denying a future to the whole of the western world.
This was and is, utterly predictable. I warned the ‘big beasts’ at the FT, as did a number of others, that it would be counter-productive; that the ‘journalists’ promoting these ideas, if they were truly the ‘liberals’ that they claim to be…should quit attacking the symptoms, should quit demonizing disaffected people, and concentrate on addressing the underlying causes of the inevitable backlash against the status quo: A backlash against governmental corruption, crony capitalism and socialism for the rich…AKA a revolt against the rule of oligarchy. The FT has ignored these warnings, electing instead to continue peddling propaganda disguised as ‘analysis’. The scribes at the NYT and the WaPo have ignored similar warnings from folks on the western shores of the pond.
Until recently – and believe it or not, out of a desire to ‘look on the bright side’ - I tried to convince myself that these commentators are merely blinkered, ignorant of human psychology, and not very good at ‘joining the dots’. After witnessing the recent coverage of events in Washington, I cannot maintain a shred of sanguinity on this question– they are totally complicit with an agenda to reverse the results of the US election; I.E. to remove a sitting president. They are, in effect, political operatives posing as journalists. Their role is to defend the vested interests that are most threatened by Brexit, by Trump, and by every counter movement across Europe - whether of the ‘left’ or the ‘right’. They do this consistently, and will continue to do so. But this will not affect the ultimate outcome…in the unlikely words of George W. Bush almost nine years ago: “This sucker’s coming down”.
Why? Because the level of sovereign debt across the world is unsustainable. At some point, the sovereign bond markets will realise that they have parked their capital in ‘assets’ that Jim Grant eloquently describes as ‘return free risk’, and they will flee to the private sector – high quality companies and real assets. Don’t take my word for it: read Jim Grant, read Jim Rickards, read Tim Price or Grant Williams or Pippa Malmgren or Danielle DeMartino Booth or Martin Armstrong - analysts who live and work in the ‘real world’. These are people who understand money…as opposed to currency units. These guys may not all agree on everything, a fact I personally find very reassuring, but they all see through the charade we are living through, and communicate what they see in simultaneously stark and vivid terms…a winning combination if ever there was one.
What is coming is the collapse of a complex dynamic system – an avalanche. It may start ‘small’, perhaps in Europe, maybe elsewhere…but it will catalyse a domino effect. When it does, there will not be enough paper in the world to prevent a total loss of confidence in the credit-worthiness of governments everywhere. Global capital flows are bigger than all the central banks combined, whatever IYIs like Draghi, Yellen, and Kuroda may say to the contrary.
This would have happened whichever way the UK voted in the Brexit referendum; it would have transpired whomsoever the US put in the White House. The ‘liberal establishment’, and their media functionaries will never admit this however. They will blame Brexit, and they will blame Trump. Again, this is completely predictable.
So…if I’m saying that this is inevitable, why am I also asserting that the media’s encouragement of ‘demonisation’ is even important? Because monetary and financial collapse will inevitably lead to increasing social unrest, intolerance of alternative views, and violence. ‘Liberalism’ is becoming a mockery of itself. This is already apparent in the largely unreported suppression of free speech on US campuses, and the ‘anti-Trump’ protests at Republican meetings across the US. This will accelerate. I issue this warning not to frighten people, but because less harm will befall those who are awake.
This will not be the first time in history that such a ‘breakdown’ has occurred, and given the level of intelligence we have failed to arrive at by the early 21st Century, it won’t be the last.
In the meantime, the ‘demonisation’ will continue, as will its evil twin - ‘guilt-tripping’. Due to the depressing nature of these subjects, and in order to protect the sanity of my fellow ‘black sheep’, I shall write about that in another piece next week.
Have a great weekend. I shall be walking along the beach with my little ‘pack’ – my wonderful wife and my heroic hound…we may be governed by crooks and charlatans…but that is no reason to be miserable…