The next phase of the global information war

Friday, 15 July 2022 — Burradoo, Australia

[6 min read]

Dear Reader,

Most people aren’t aware that a world war has been raging for decades.

It has been raging inside our homes, our offices, shopping centres, and out in the streets.

You carry the weapons.

Your mind is the target.

Your wallet and liberty are the prizes.

It’s the Global Information War.

Some of you are aware of this. The government, big corporations, academia, and lobby groups have been shaping how we live and think.

They prey on the ignorance of the masses and people’s desire to fit in. Ultimately, they enact policies that divide people, steal your wealth, and reduce public safety. Then they offer their solutions aimed at perpetuating the problem.

It’s not easy to fight back. Hold a different opinion or say the wrong thing, and they may censor you or even destroy your reputation.

For many years, this system has prevailed.

But I wrote late last year about how the tide is turning. And right now, it’s gaining momentum, thanks to a monumental event that occurred last week.

But first, let me introduce you to the Establishment…

Understanding the Establishment machine that shapes your reality

You may have heard of the World Economic Forum and its plans to bring The Fourth Industrial Revolution to fruition. This agenda aims to transform our world into a governing class of technical or knowledge field experts aided by artificial intelligence. It funds and provides a platform for managing the global virus outbreak, rolling out a green energy economy, re-educating and reshaping society to remove cultural norms and traditions, and introducing surveillance and monitoring systems to track how people live and travel.

On the surface, this sounds great. Centrally planned decision-making to create a safer society. Experts from different fields coming together to decide what the rest of the world does. They’ll replace the politicians that we continually vote for to disappoint us.

Then there are the mainstream media comprising the large and established news outlets that many see as the official sources of information. For many years, the Establishment has dominated the airwaves by putting a thumb on the scales. It owned the major TV channels, radio stations, and billboards.

It’s a formidable force. They make the decisions, keep the score, and dictate your reality.

The challenger to the Establishment that grows stronger by the day

A growing force of alternative media companies, citizen journalists, and individuals have banded together to offer an alternative perspective to reality. They have gradually gained a significant readership and have scored political, legal, and cultural victories against the Establishment.

We’re seeing the public gradually becoming more proactive in seeking different sources to help them make decisions.

The internet played a part in breaking the Establishment’s stranglehold as dissenting views found a flatter playing field. The dam began to burst in 2016 with the Brexit vote in the UK and the US presidential election. This escalated the war further as the fight took to social media platforms.

Public opinion has turned against the Establishment and is gaining momentum, even causing governments and businesses to change direction when the voices get loud enough, and it eats into their coffers. Just look at how companies like Disney and Bed Bath & Beyond have bowed to wokeism and are shedding profits as consumers shop elsewhere in protest. Not to mention the resignation of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Sri Lankan president fleeing the country as people rose against their government.

Now we’re at the point where people have realised that the best way to spread their information is to seize the outlets that act as the gatekeepers.

What better place is there than Twitter, the de facto town square?

Twitter — an operation to expose and destroy

In April, Elon Musk bought a substantial stake in Twitter [NYSE:TWTR], then launched a bid a week later to buy it outright for US$43 billion.

He then spent more than two months investigating to what extent Twitter engages in questionable practices, informing the public of his progress via his Twitter account.

He expressed outrage at how the media deliberately gaslit the public on many news stories that were proven to be true, including the truth behind Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal. He also brought to light Twitter’s attempts at astroturfing by allowing bot accounts to create the illusion of a popular opinion or view. He requested the board provide him with vital information but found the board uncooperative.

And so, last Friday, Elon announced he was dropping his bid.

Personally, I think this was his plan all along. I believe Elon never really intended to buy Twitter. Rather, it was an elaborate strategy to blow up Twitter’s market value while exposing their nefarious practices to the world.

Check out his recent tweet:

The Twitter board is now suing Elon to force him to follow through with the deal. The problem is, doing so may force the directors to reveal the truth behind its deceptive strategy. What they sought to hide; they may end up revealing with their own hand.

Twitter shares have dropped since the announcement. Many analysts have downgraded their valuation of Twitter to less than US$30.

A great tech unbundling

I expect that other social media companies could face their day of reckoning via this strategy. This means Meta Platforms [NASDAQ:META] and Alphabet [NASDAQ:GOOGL], the parent companies of Facebook and YouTube, respectively, are now in the firing line.

That is why I believe technology stocks are going to facing a double-whammy, with a hawkish Federal Reserve on deck and the fallout of Elon walking out of the Twitter deal.

There are ways to play this to your advantage.

Check out Jim Rickards’ Fat Tail Portfolio. Not only can you position yourself to gain from the fall of Twitter and social media companies, but you can also prepare yourself amidst rising living costs, a crippled supply chain, and increasing global uncertainty.

God bless,

Brian Chu,
Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

Dear Reader,

The Fed has walked off the job. It’s no longer spiking the punch and inflating the economy. But the music is still playing; once underway, inflation can be hard to stop. Here’s the latest from the Washington Post: ‘Inflation in June soared 9.1 percent higher than last year, hitting a new peak amid rising gas prices’:

‘The Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation report for June reveals how American households and businesses continue to feel the weight of higher prices for housing, food and energy.’

Meanwhile, Mr Market is trying to clean up.

The Street: ‘Oil Plummets on Recession Fears, U.S. Gas Prices on Longest Weekly Decline Since 2020’.

Americans are saving around US$140 million a day as gas prices extend their longest losing streak in two years amid a sharp pullback in global crude markets.

Forbes: ‘Mortgage Giant Cuts Thousands of Jobs — Warns Of “Accelerated” Downturn As Housing Market Abruptly Collapses’:

‘Mortgage originator loanDepot on Tuesday unveiled a plan to cut thousands of jobs and reduce costs “significantly” as higher interest rates sink mortgage demand—becoming the latest company to warn the housing market is due for a steeper turnaround after the pandemic-era home-buying frenzy.’

How to understand what is going on?

A market midden

There are bull markets and there are bear markets; this is a bear market.

There are up-swings in the long credit cycle and there are down-swings; this is a down-swing (rising yields).

Trillions of new dollars were born in the post-1971 free love, free money era. Now, those dollars — old and grumpy — are dying off.

Millions of Chinese peasants joined the modern world, worked for peanuts, and helped keep consumer prices low; now, China is out of cheap peasants, labour costs are rising, and the Fed must learn to fight inflation.

There are many ways to understand what is going on. It’s like digging down into a midden of market history. We come across gnawed bones and broken pots — each offers a little more insight.

And sometimes we find something, right there on the surface.

We don’t read The New York Times for news. We read it to find out where the deciders are going. Like the Soviet press, the NYT tells us only the part of the story it wants us to have. But it sends winks and nudges to the legions of deciders, insiders, the elite, the Deep State, and the Establishment. It signals important policy shifts. And in the last few days, the old grey lady gave us a heads up: Biden will not run again in 2024.

From the weekend:

‘Mr. Biden looks older than just a few years ago, a political liability that cannot be solved by traditional White House stratagems like staff shake-ups…Some aides quietly watch out for him. He often shuffles when he walks, and aides worry he will trip on a wire. He stumbles over words during public events, and they hold their breath to see if he makes it to the end without a gaffe.’

And then, on Monday:

‘Widespread concerns about the economy and inflation have helped turn the national mood decidedly dark, both on Mr. Biden and the trajectory of the nation… a pervasive sense of pessimism that spans every corner of the country...’

And here’s Yahoo! News piling on: ‘President Biden’s Approval Rating Drops to 33% as Overwhelming Majority of Democrats Seek New 2024 Candidate’:

‘According to a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted last week, only 1 in 3 Americans approves of Biden's job performance. Perhaps more daunting for Biden's political future, though, is that only 26% of registered Democrats wish to see him secure the Democratic Party nomination during the next presidential election.’

A crisis of faith

This is only important to us in that it points to yet another way to understand today’s economic and political malaise. And we begin by noting that widespread disapproval is not unique to Mr Biden. Donald Trump’s approval rating sank below 30% at the end of his term. During the 2008 financial crisis, even fewer people expressed confidence in George W Bush.

Nor is it limited to the US. Boris Johnson was just asked to clean out his desk. Emmanuel Macron is widely despised; 62% of the French public disapprove of him. German President Scholz is not far ahead, with a 36% approval rating. And this just in from Italy: ‘Italy’s govt faces collapse’.

What’s going on? Why do people have so little faith in the leaders they elect? What’s wrong with the Western democracies?

(Vladimir Putin, by contrast, is said to have an 83% approval rating.)

And how is this connected to our search for answers…why are markets in one of their worst sell-offs in history? Does the problem go beyond just money?

This may be the end of the long wave of falling interest rates. It may be the end of the Bubble Epoch, caused by the Fed’s ultra-low lending rates and money-printing. It may be the end of the bull market that began in March of 2009.

But it may also be the end of the line for modern, welfare democracies.

Stay tuned...

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia