This week, seasoned financier, risk manager and author Jim Rickards returns to the program to share the predictions from his new book The Road To Ruin: The Global Elite's Secret Plan For The Next Financial Crisis.
Rickards warns of a coming confidence boundary in central bank omnipotence. Once breached, trust and belief in the central banking cartel quickly vaporizes. Rickards predicts that boundary will be crossed by 2018 or sooner; and when it is, the entire financial system will go into lockdown, freezing access to our money:
Here’s the point. In 1998, Wall Street bailed out a hedge fund (LTCM). In 2008, the central banks bailed out Wall Street. In 2018, if not sooner, who’s going to bail out the central banks? The central banks are at the point where they don’t have any dry powder left.
By way of example, the Fed took their balance from $800 billion to $4.2 trillion and cut interest rates to 0%. Now, if they had normalized things in the meantime, so let’s say they got their balance sheet back down to $800 billion or maybe one trillion dollars and raised interest rates up to 2 or 3%, I’d be the first one to congratulate them. I’d say, “Hey, nice going. You saved the world and you normalized your balance sheet and normalized interest rates.” But, that didn’t happen. The balance sheet is still at $4 trillion, interest rates are still close to 0%. What are they going to do in the next crisis? Take the balance to $8 trillion, $12 trillion? They can’t do it. There’s an invisible confidence boundary. No one knows exactly where it is -- you find out the hard way. And when you cross it, you destroy confidence in the dollar.
The only clean balance sheet left in the world is at the IMF, the International Monetary Fund. And, that’s where the liquidity will come from in the next crisis. They have a printing press. They can print this world money called a geeky name: the special drawing right, or the SDR. But just think of it as 'world money', because that’s what it is. So, the Fed has a printing press; they can print dollars. The European Central Bank has a printing press; they can print euros. The IMF has a printing press; they can print SDRs. An SDR is not backed by anything, it’s just this kind of world money. That’s where the liquidity will come from, with an important difference. The IMF is not that nimble. It will take six to eight months. Last time it took 11 months, maybe they can do it faster. But, it’ll take a few months to print this new world money.
In the meantime, if the central banks are tapped out and the IMF is taking six months or so to issue the SDRs to reliquify the system, what are the elites going to do in the meantime when they can’t print the money? They’re going to lock down the system. Money market funds are going to spend redemptions. Banks are going to be closed. ATMs will be reprogrammed so you can get max $300 a day for gas and groceries. Stock exchanges will close. By the way, all this has happened before. None of what I’m talking about is new. It has all happened before.
So, in 1998, the Fed printed the money and gave it to you. In 2008, they printed the money and gave it to you. In 2018, if not sooner, they’re not going to able to print the money, they’re not going to let you have your money. Instead, they’re going to lock down the system.
Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with Jim Rickards (35m:25s).
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://peakprosperity.com/jim-rickards-theyre-going-to-lock-down-the-system/