Thursday, 24 March 2022 — Albert Park

By Catherine Cashmore Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

[6 min read]

Dear Reader,

In 2020, NASA disclosed that it’s tapping Nokia to build the first cellular communications network on the Moon.

The aim:

‘“Reliable, resilient and high-capacity communications networks will be key to supporting sustainable human presence on the lunar surface,” Nokia’s chief technology officer Marcus Weldon said.’

What you won’t find much discussion of, however, is the motivation behind it. It’s all about securing access to land’s commodities.

This is the main reason why humans fight each other — and the reason our wars will eventually be taken into space.

The nations that monopolise the commodities of land, wield the greatest power and wealth.

Here’s one example…

Currently, 90% of the world’s rare earth metals (REM) are produced in China.

Between 2004 and 2017, China accounted for 80% of US rare earth imports.

It’s one reason the US Department of Defense worked to bolster domestic production. And why Australia recently announced an investment of $240 million to critical minerals projects.

All a bid to end reliance on China as global tensions intensify.

Both Russia and Ukraine are also rare earth mineral powerhouses — the war is hitting the global supply chain hard.

The Moon, however, is said to have a treasure trove of REMs.

Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth.

All waiting to be claimed…by force if necessary.

Helium, silicon, iron, magnesium, calcium, aluminium, manganese, and titanium are all in abundance on the Moon.

With a mass of 73sq tonnes, removal of one metric tonne of material each day would barely make a dent.

At that rate, it would take 220 million years to deplete 1% of the Moon’s mass.

Moon mining would be controversial, sure. But no more so than mines on Earth.

It could be argued as a safer ‘environmentally friendly’ option.

Further, Psyche — a giant asteroid three times farther away from the Sun than the Earth — is also abundant in minerals.

It’s one of the largest asteroids flying in the asteroid belt, and it’s a monster — some 200km (120 miles) in diameter.

Psyche is spruiked to be worth a potential US$700 quintillion and abundant in gold, iron, and nickel.

If you’re struggling to work out what a quintillion is (I know I am), US$700 quintillion can be divvied up between everyone alive on Earth today, and everyone would be US$93 billion richer.

In August 2022, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will start its long journey to Psyche. The estimated date of arrival is some time in 2026.

The spacecraft will map and study the asteroid to assess if the asteroid is the core of a planetesimal — (basically, the first building block of a planet).

But clearly the motivation is more akin to a 21^st century gold rush:

‘Mitch Hunter-Scullion, founder of the UK-based Asteroid Mining Company, tells the BBC that this is definitively the next industry “boom”.

‘“Once you set up the infrastructure then the possibilities are almost infinite,” he said.

“There’s an astronomical amount of money to be made by those bold enough to rise to the challenge of the asteroid rush.”’

In 1966 an outer space treaty was created, giving a basic framework on international space law. Evidently foreseeing future scenarios for war.

This included limits on any one country declaring ownership of a celestial body.

However, when Trump was in power, he signed an executive order stating the US has the right to explore and use resources from outer space.

The order also said the US did not see space as a common area for resources and didn’t need permission of international agreements to ‘get started’.

This fits with everything we know about the real estate cycle and the longer Kondratieff Wave (K-wave).

K-waves are long commodity cycles — technology waves. 

It’s all about raw materials that fall under increasing demand from innovation and population growth.

These cycles last 50–60 years (three real estate cycles).

Around 25 years of inflationary prices, and 25 years of deflation.

Think the Industrial Revolution of the 1770s.

Steam engine and railroads in the 1820s.

The birth of the steel industry and manufacturing in the 1870s.

The age of oil, electricity, and cars in the 1900s.

And the wave of computers, information technology, and robotics — which we are currently living with — is a move towards the future age of ‘technocracy’.

Securing the recourses for the rollout of the new technology brings rising prices, increased investment, and jobs. 

Once the technology has been completed, however, the deflationary part of the cycle kicks in.

Numerous studies have uncovered a correlation between the K-wave peaks and war.

We’re on the upswing of a K-wave currently — set to peak later this decade (between 2025 and 2027). 

This coincides with the peak of the current real estate cycle in 2026.

It also sets the stage for a spectacular build-up of global tensions and wealth creation.

If you have the knowledge, you can take advantage of it.

Find out more by clicking here.

Best wishes,

Catherine Cashmore,
Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

By Bill Bonner Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

Dear Reader,

‘There’s going to be a new world order out there and we have to lead it.’

Joe Biden

Stop the presses!

AFP reports:

‘The US central bank is prepared to raise interest rates by bigger steps than the quarter-point hike announced last week if that is what’s needed to contain “much too high” inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday.

‘“If we conclude that it is appropriate to move more aggressively by raising the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at a meeting or meetings, we will do so,” Powell said in a speech to an economics conference.’

The Fed is stuck in a pudding of its own making. It held interest rates to the floor…where speculators, consumers, businesses, and the government got used to gliding along on ultra-cheap money.

Now, if it were serious about fighting inflation, it would have to boost rates by as much as 1,000 basis points — 10% — to get ahead of rising prices. But even a smallish move in that direction will almost certainly crash the stock market and the economy.

What to do? Pretend to do battle with inflation…and change the subject as soon as possible! That’s where the obsession with Russia comes in.

Jen Psaki said last week: ‘We destroyed the Russian economy.’

Why did we do that? Russia has never done anything to harm the US. Nor had we a mutual defence alliance with Ukraine.

But we gave up trying to figure out the ‘why’…and switched to wondering about the ‘who’. Yes, dear reader, we’re digging a deep hole…hoping to get down the bedrock, where we might finally understand what is going on. Following the money, we already noted that there were some — the military and related industries — with an obvious interest in keeping the pot boiling. But the anti-Russian hysteria is far wider…involving many people who have no obvious reason to support a dangerous and costly sanctions war. What’s their story?

Chelsea Clinton, for example.

Illiberal elite

She is one of a whole class — or caste — of ‘Western’, globally-minded, well educated, privileged people — many of whom have never worked for a real business or made a payroll or satisfied a customer. That is, they have never actually ‘given’ anything to anyone that would entitle them to receive anything in return.

They may have no idea how the real world works…and yet, they think they know what is best for everyone.

Which is to say, they think all nations should fall into line with the ‘new world order’. All should worship the same god (mammon)…vote for the same politicians (Democratic…or Republican)…drive the same cars (electric)…foreswear the use of fossil fuels…describe husbands and wives as ‘partners’…undergo anti-racist training…believe the same Keynesian macroeconomic claptrap…and speak the same language…business English.;

But wait. There’s more to the formula.

Not only do all of the members of the ‘democratic alliance’ stand four-square for vaccines…and against Russia…they also depend on debt finance and artificially low interest rates to keep themselves in business. All use the dollar as a reserve currency. And all now face more or less the same ‘inflate-or-die’ trap. Either they keep inflating…or they have to reckon with debts that can’t be paid and promises that can’t be met.

And all are now engaged in a synchronised rip-off…in Europe as well as the US. The inflation machine is what keeps the elite furnished with power and money. They must keep inflating…robbing consumers and savers with a vicious inflation tax so as to keep themselves flush.

In other words…our beat here is money. And we think money plays the lead role in this whole, sordid story.

Sticking with Ms Clinton, as a specimen of her ‘caste’…

She posted on Twitter:

Why would she think so? And why would anyone care what she thought? But there she was in the headlines. Her co-caste members throughout the media elite broadcast it far and wide. After all, they thought so too!  

This was not just a silly, privileged White woman blah-blahing. She was speaking ex-cathedra on behalf of the ‘liberal world order’. Of course, there is nothing ‘liberal’ about trying to prevent free speech. It’s what dictators do. And totalitarians. Communists and crackpot führers. People who think only they have the truth…or who don’t want others to get it.

Internet vigilantes

The ‘liberal’ order that arose in the 18^th-century enlightenment recognised that no one has a monopoly on the truth. Instead, day by day, ideas — good and bad — collide. The truth is found in the wreckage. The First Amendment to the US Constitution is supposed to guarantee that accidents continue.

But everywhere you look, the vigilantes are patrolling the internet…stopping traffic and trying to make sure that no ‘bad’ ideas get onto the streets, even in jest. At a recent film festival, John Cleese joked to a Black comedian that her ancestors had gotten ‘free passage’ to the US.

Oops. Taboo. No can say. Not in the land of the free. Newsweek reports that the star was immediately hit by a ‘backlash’.

In the US, supposedly ‘free enterprise’, private companies have been goaded to absurdity by citizens, such as Ms Clinton. They are marshalling not just the power of the Biden administration, or the US government, or the defence industry and its lobbyists at work, but of the Entire Elite Establishment, which reaches far beyond matters of war and peace…and far beyond US borders.

And where did Ms Clinton get the idea that free speech should be limited to what she thought was correct, stifling all further discussion?

She got it in school!

Stay tuned tomorrow as we continue following this thread. We’re not sure where it leads…but we’ll find out!

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia