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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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Macroeconomic analyst Rob Kirby says the U.S. dollar is constantly manipulated by the Treasury. Kirby contends, “I think we are palpably close to major dislocations in the market. . . . China has been selling U.S. securities on an all-out basis. So, the U.S. Treasury market is weak. So, when the Treasury sees this, it runs counter-intuitive to the strong U.S. dollar which has been a rig job from the get go. . . . The strong dollar and swap spreads trading negative are absolutely in opposition to each other. It exposes that something is tragically wrong, and it is something that doesn’t make sense. It’s like shining light on cockroaches.”

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

Top trends forecaster Gerald Celente says 2016 is going to be very rough. What’s coming right at us? Celente says, “Global recession, and it’s already happening, all they have to do is open their eyes and open their ears. Iron ore, copper, aluminum, nickel, zinc, one after another from wheat to dairy products to corn. When you look at the Bloomberg Index, it’s down to 1999 levels on average. What is that telling us? There is too much product and not enough demand. It’s the same thing with oil. There’s too much production and not enough demand. . . . What we are looking at is a global slowdown because commodities are the canary in the mine shaft.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com WNW 218 12.4.15

As terrible as the terror attack in San Bernardino, California, is it’s not really the big story. I know you have been seeing wall to wall coverage of this attack. I am sure some Democrats and the President would like this to be workplace violence, but let’s face it, it was a terror attack carried out by violent Islamic extremists.   I am equally sure the President and some Democrats would like to use this as a way to have anti-gun legislation. Both of these views are delusional and out of touch with most Americans. Look no further than Black Friday gun sales. They broke records, and that was before this awful attack. Not all Muslims are bad, but the population is so big globally that if just 10% were radicalized, it would be 160 or 170 million people. This is the new asymmetrical warfare, and it will increase because conflict in the Middle East is increasing.

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Analyst/trader Karl Denninger predicted years ago that Obama Care would “kill the economy” and “eventually implode.” That is exactly what’s happening now. Denninger contends, “The majority of the money we spend in healthcare is jacked up due to these monopolist policies which raise the cost four or five times where it ought to be. On top of that, we are being forced to pay for people who have made lifestyle choices that dramatically raise their cost of healthcare. . . . The health insurance people are faced with an untenable problem because if the only people who buy car insurance wreck one car a year, the cost of car insurance is $20,000 a year because that is the cost of the car.” Denninger goes on to point out, “The rate increases that are coming down this year are astronomical. I am seeing rate increases as high as 50% for inferior coverage. . . . Benefits come off your top line as an employer. So, all of this means much slower growth if any at all because all this money is being siphoned into the health insurance and healthcare system.”

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

Co-founder of Peak Prosperity and economic researcher Dr. Chris Martenson warns the next financial collapse will start with a default in the credit markets. Dr. Martenson explains, “Demand is down. Supply is down. That’s the underlying story. We think the first part of this story is these credit instruments will get wiped out. It could be a sovereign default. Who’s first? That is the question in the world. Is it going to Venezuela? Is it going to be Brazil? Could it be Turkey? Interesting story about Turkey with the downed Russian jet. We just don’t know. If we have a big sovereign default in one of these countries, that could be the trigger. Maybe it’s a company like Glencore that would be a repeat of Lehman. We just don’t know, but we do know there is going to be a collapse in the credit, and then we will have the next stage of this where the central banks freak out one more time and pour more money into the markets. We believe, this time, money will be given to people like you and me. . . . Once the Federal Reserve sends you and me money, whether it’s a tax rebate or check, it doesn’t matter. You should run, not walk, and buy anything you possibly can with that because that is the next stage of this story. Stage one is collapse.”

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

There is not going to be a Weekly News Wrap-Up this week.  I am taking some time off for the holiday.  That said, I do have a short message for supporters of USAWatchdog.com.  Happy Thanksgiving, my message is on the next page.

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Trader and analyst Gregory Mannarino says the governments and bankers want war. Mannarino explains, “War is the goal. People need to understand here the goal of the world central banks is to bring us to war. So, they have a big, big reason to borrow cash into existence. This is it. The debt based economic model has got to be the most corrupt, evil and dastardly mechanism to be pushed down the throats of the entire world. They are going to do what they need to do and that means bring us to a full blown war, nuclear or whatever they need to do to keep this going. If they do not find the reasons to borrow cash into existence, creating refugee problems, leaving all the borders open, war, you name it. . . . The world central banks have created a situation where they have to borrow cash into existence in perpetuity. They can never stop. If they do stop, it will cause a loss of human life greater than a nuclear exchange. So, they are stuck here. The lessor of the two evils here is to bring us to war. As horrible as that sounds, that is where we’re at.”

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

Financial expert Catherine Austin Fitts has long said before there is another big financial crash, there will be a big war.  Fitts explains, “If you look at how fragile the geopolitics are, the danger, as I have always said, is that we go to violence, and then things really come unhinged.  So, I’m worried about violence and war and kind of situation getting out of hand.  That’s when you get the really dangerous scenarios.”

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