By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Financial writer Andrew Hoffman says the Fed has a lousy track record for predicting the economy. Hoffman explains, “It’s not just the Fed, but all central bankers have been wrong on pretty much everything they have said. In the case of the Fed, in particular, which is by far the most important central bank in the world because what they . . . do destroys everyone else, it’s been three years, and they have been talking about economic recovery, and then they decide to raise rates just as the economy gets the absolute worst in our lifetimes. We are getting closer to the Yellen reversal when she is forced by markets to admit they have been wrong.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  (Early Sunday Release)

Macroeconomic analyst Rob Kirby’s predictions of a downward spiraling economy are coming true. Kirby contends, “I think the last time we spoke, it was in early December. I suggested that a window was opening where we were very likely to see some systemic breakdowns in our financial universe to likely start occurring. Low and behold, it looks like we are seeing the beginnings of exactly what we were speaking of. The reason why we are beginning to see these things start to unfold now is that everything we’ve been told by our financial elites . . . has basically been a lie or a false flag or fraudulent.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com WNW 221 1.8.15

A Saudi Prince is saying war is unlikely with Iran, but that doesn’t seem believable especially after Iran burned Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran. Iran burned the embassy after Saudi Arabia executed a Shia imam. Then, there are conflicting reports of Saudi bombing Iran’s embassy in Yemen. At its core, this is the age old problem of Sunni Muslims opposed to Shia Muslims. That is Saudi Arabia, Sunni, against Iran which is Shia. As predicted by yours truly back in July, the Iranian nuclear so-called deal has dramatically increased the chances for war. Of course, Iran has not and will not sign anything, and that means there is no real deal. There is just some empty promises and $150 billion coming from the Obama Administration. (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Public banking expert and attorney Ellen Brown says, “Your life savings could be wiped out in a derivatives collapse.” Brown explains, “Nobody anticipated what happened in 2008, and that was a $700 billion bailout. Even if the FDIC tapped its Treasury line, that’s only $500 billion. So, certainly things could go wrong. Also, why are they rushing to put these things into place? They’re expecting something.” Brown goes on to point out, “They think they have avoided too-big-to-fail, but what they have actually done is formalize too-big-to-fail. I mean it’s the end of capitalism. There is no such thing as too-big-to-fail in a capitalistic society where you say certain corporations can’t fail. If you have to take the people’s money to prop them up, it’s no longer capitalism.”

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Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (Early Sunday Release)

Financial writer David Morgan says the global economy is cracking. Things such as shipping, manufacturing, retail and real estate sales are all headed down. Morgan contends, “What you are starting to see is those little rumblings that happen before the big tremor. That’s an analogy, but that’s what we are starting to see. . . . Nothing is more important than the debt markets and what is going to happen in the future.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Happy New Year to the USAWatchdog community.  There will not be a Weekly News Wrap-Up this week as I am taking time off to recharge for the new year.  I do have a short New Year’s message on the next page.  Thank you for supporting USAWatchdog.com.  Enjoy!!

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Financial writer Bill Holter says all the talk of the so-called “recovery” and reaching “escape velocity is imminent” have been total lies. Holter explains, “We have heard the word ‘recovery’ for seven years . . . we’ve never gotten to the expansion phase. They keep talking about ‘escape velocity,’ and we have never gotten there in seven years. Now, the Fed has raised interest rates just before Christmas. This is the first time ever the Fed has raised rates right before Christmas, and they raised rates into a weak economy where credit is already tight. The only time they have done that is 1937, and we know how that worked out.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  (Early Sunday Release)

Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts has a dim view of the so-called “economic recovery.” Dr. Roberts contends, “There has been no recovery whatsoever. . . . If you look at the economy realistically, and that means you don’t use their phony numbers, there has been no recovery whatsoever and, in fact, it continues to worsen. We see that the “Labor Force Participation Rate” continues to sink. . . . When you consider the full measure of unemployment . . . we still have an unemployment rate of 23% after 7 years of an alleged recovery? I think this is the first so-called recovery where the labor force fell. Normally, when you have a recovery, people re-enter the labor force and the participation rate rises. . . . How do you have 5% unemployment when half of all 25 year old people have to live at home with their parents? What kind of a “recovery” is that? They say there is no inflation, but everyone that goes shopping knows that is a lie. . . . It’s all just a package of smoke, mirrors and lies.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

I have a few odds and ends in the news, but I am not doing a Weekly News Wrap-Up.  I am taking off for Christmas.  I really appreciate your cards and letters, but above all I appreciate all the comments that add to the content of USAWatchdog.com.  As I always brag, I have some of the smartest folks on the Internet commenting here.  Please keep doing it!!  The message video is after the break, so MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Trader/analyst Gregory Mannarino says the overall trend in the stock market is down, and he is anticipating more central bank intervention to keep propping up the sinking economy. Mannarino contends, “Without any doubt, they are going to keep doing this. They are going to keep trying to intervene in any way possible with things we can’t even think of yet. In my opinion, the main goal of all of this is to bring us to war. Bring us to war as this whole thing begins to meltdown, so they can blame it on that. They are going to look for a scapegoat . . . because it’s so distorted and so twisted it has to correct to fair market value at one point. They can keep twisting it and distorting it and manipulating it and faking data, but at one point, they are going to have to pay the piper. Everyone is going to have to pay the piper, and that’s going to be a terrible moment.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  (Early Sunday Release)

Financial expert Egon von Greyerz says the recent Fed rate hike will not help the financial markets. Greyerz predicts, “I think we will have one disaster after another, first in the junk bond market, then in emerging markets and, after that, the subprime markets. Subprime car loans and student loans I see as another massive problem area. It is going to be one thing after another that will unravel. Since 2008, when the world almost went under, we have printed or increased credit by 50% or by $70 trillion, and the world economy is still struggling to survive. I think the real change in confidence will come down when markets come down. . . . I think things will come down very quickly.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (WNW 220, 12.18.15)

The Fed finally did it. It raised a key short term rate by a quarter of a point. That is not the real story. The real story is how the non-functioning mainstream press swallowed the economic recovery story hook, line and sinker. Fed Head Janet Yellen boasted “The economic recovery has come a long way . . . .” Not a single reporter brought up new data that the Baltic Dry Index (released just a few days earlier) had hit record lows clearly signaling a downward spiraling global economy. What we just got was a real rate hike going into a phony recovery. What could go wrong?

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Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Analyst/money manager Michael Pento says the Fed plans on raising interest rates multiple times. Pento explains, “The Fed isn’t going to do a one-and-done rate hike scenario like Wall Street would like you to believe. The Fed publishes . . . where they think the Fed Funds Rate . . . will be at a certain point in time. . . . At the end of next year, the median ‘dot plot’ is 1.5% on the overnight lending rate. So, the Fed is not going to raise one time and retire and go home, and that is not even the most important point. The most important point is we have reached a point where we are entering into a global recession, and this global recession is going to occur even if the Fed did not raise interest rates more than one time. It’s happening now.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (Early Sunday Release)

Former CIA Officer Scott Uehlinger says what is going on with ISIS and oil sales was known at the Obama Administration because the CIA told them. Uehlinger says, “That’s right, and this is the big frustration with being an intelligence officer, especially in today’s world. There is always a problem with your intelligence falling on deaf ears, or your intelligence is deliberately ignored. . . . In the bigger picture, and you’re working your butt off, meeting people at midnight, getting information, maybe at the risk of his life or yours, and it’s given to the policymakers . . . and they take your intelligence and roll it up into a ball, throw it in the waste basket, then what is the whole point of this exercise?”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (WNW 219 12.11.15)

Russia continues to attack ISIS and continues to ramp up the rhetoric. Vladimir Putin said that the new missiles fired from subs in the Mediterranean Sea were “highly effective, high-precision weapons that can be equipped either with conventional or special nuclear warheads.” Putin added, “I hope we will never need it.” Is he serious or playing a mind game with the west? Who knows, but it is certainly a veiled threat of nuclear war in the Middle East.

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