By Brandon Smith
After the implosion of the FTX crypto exchange run by Sam Bankman Fried, questions of due diligence and competency immediately arose, suggesting that perhaps the company mishandled assets “accidentally” and that Fried was naive and “in over his head.” Numerous central bank officials and globalist organizations jumped into the debate almost immediately, arguing that FTX was a perfect example of why centralized regulation of crypto and digital currencies was necessary. They claimed that without oversight by banking elites, disaster was inevitable.
Of course, what they did not mention was that FTX and Sam Fried already had extensive connections with globalist groups including the World Economic Forum. In fact, the very basis of Fried’s business model was the WEF’s “Stakeholder Capitalism” theory, which he often referred to as “Effective Altruism.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPM6rf0-e6M
Stakeholder Capitalism is essentially the opposite of free markets – It is a socialist/globalist framework which uses corporations as a kind of economic enforcement tool. Corporations are already highly socialistic in their operations, and their existence is completely dependent on their special relationship with government. Corporations are created through government charter, enjoy special protections under “corporate personhood” laws and avoid direct consequences for criminal activities through limited liability.
Many corporations are not even allowed to fail because governments backstop their operations. That’s socialism, not free markets. However, “stakeholder capitalism” expands on this dynamic a hundred-fold.
Where free markets assert that businesses must make profit their primary objective for the overall economy to function, the WEF asserts that companies including banking institutions have a social obligation that goes beyond making money. To the typical leftist this probably sounds like a Utopian vision filled with promise, but to anyone that actually understands economics it sounds like a recipe for the collapse of civilization.
The WEF paints stakeholder capitalism an effort to reign in the power of the corporate system in favor of social causes. In reality, it’s a way to give corporations ultimate power over everything, including ultimate influence over public behavior.
We have seen extensive evidence of this through widespread corporate ESG investment programs implemented in the past several years. It is no coincidence that the invasion of woke ideology into the mainstream happened at the exact same time that ESG-based lending accelerated.
The institutions lending to various companies were able to set social rules for access to credit, and these rules required businesses to adopt far-left politics in their marketing and policies as a result. Stakeholder capitalism is about homogenizing all business into a single ideological entity – Instead of competing with each other for market share through innovation, companies have been abandoning merit based competition and are colluding to saturate the mainstream with social justice cultism, climate change propaganda and globalist rhetoric.
By making corporate elites “responsible” for society, we give them the power to engineer society.
However, the WEF’s model of false altruism is turning out to be a disaster for corporate survival. I have to wonder now if this was the intent all along – To create a kind of ESG fueled woke financial bubble that was always intended to come crashing down, leaving the western world in ruins.
Ever since the fall of FTX, the WEF has been quietly erasing all traces of their involvement with the company and with Fried from their website and YouTube channel. However, the WEF’s influence is widely evident in the operations of FTX and Fried’s philosophy.
There were multiple reasons for FTX capital losses, from plunging crypto prices to embezzlement. That said, the root cause was stakeholder capitalism ideology and it’s reliance on cheap liquidity to support ESG policies. And, we are seeing the exact same dynamic within other institutions like Silicon Valley Bank.
Surprisingly, even the International Monetary Fund (like many of us in the alternative economic media) warned about the potential frailty of ESG related lending in an environment where central banks are tightening liquidity and raising interest rates. The IMF stated in 2022:
“Financial stability risks include the different investor base relative to more traditional investors and a potentially higher sensitivity to global financial conditions, given the technology-heavy composition of many ESG indices. That’s an important consideration in the current policy environment, with central banks in advanced economies raising interest rates and reducing policy accommodation put in place during the pandemic—a development that is starting to tighten financial conditions around the world.”
Looking into SVB’s operational history, the company was a woke nightmare. Take a gander at their 66 page ESG report compiled in 2021 to get a sense of how far to the extreme political left the bank was. SVB is the pinnacle example of why “Get Woke, Go Broke” is more than a mantra, it’s a rule.
Digging even deeper we then find that SVB’s leadership was highly involved in the WEF and their Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics (SCM), along with corporate governance. SVB was not only implementing every single policy the WEF outlines in its agenda, they were reporting back to the WEF on their progress.
SVB’s capital exposure was heavily tied up in securities, but also venture capital for woke tech startups, climate change related projects and leftist activist groups which qualified for ESG loans; everything from BLM to Buzzfeed. In other words, they were investing aggressively into money-pit projects that devoured cash and gave nothing back. The real question is, how many US banks are involved in ESG and WEF operations at the same level as SVB? Dozens? Hundreds?
As I have noted in recent articles, the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes have made ESG liquidity untenable. It is much too expensive now for banks to lend (or borrow) to finance losing ventures such as woke tech companies and climate change non-profits. All “too big to fail banks” are involved, this is well known, but do they have the capital and the protection to stay afloat despite the central bank’s liquidity noose? Clearly, mid-tier banks like SVB are highly vulnerable.
Was the main goal of ESG lending NOT to lure corporations into promoting woke causes, but to trick them into ignoring competent profit models and innovation, making them weak and easy to topple?
The woke invasion within the US business world is starting to die anyway. You can already see the shift back to a search for profits and an abandonment of social justice virtue signaling. Peak woke happened over the course of the covid lockdowns, and now it is fading. It was never going to have staying power because it is far too unhinged and cultish to be widely accepted in American society.
Beyond that, the WEF’s “Great Reset” concept will require a substantial economic crisis in order to be achieved. There’s no way they will ever get Americans to embrace stakeholder capitalism or the “I own nothing and I’m happy” sharing economy under normal economic conditions. So, they need a crisis event to create desperation within the populace.
Look at it this way: In order for globalists to get the total corporate governance they want, they might be using woke ESG to destroy the existing system, so that they can then replace it with an even more pervasive woke structure. All while blaming free market capitalism in the meantime. It’s a very similar idea to the globalist strategy of blaming “nationalism” for the very geopolitical crisis events that globalism is triggering.
Given the sheer scale of woke saturation within the current corporate world, I can’t help but wonder if the entire economy is utterly rotted from within due to ESG and WEF related financial cancers, and is simply waiting to crumble just like SVB did.
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Another excellent article!
Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate you keeping us informed.
Remember also TIES between FTX, Democratic establishment(Biden family and co), Ukraine, etc.
As we know, globalists like using or take advantage on this method or situation: “Ordo Ab Chaos”, in order to realize their evil agenda.
Without surprise, the economic situation is getting worse in US, but not only.
2023 could be a key year for globalists.
Excellent Brandon, as always. However, you made no mention of Klaus Scchwab’s remark in February of this year. Around the 19th or so. He spoke of a black swan event. Just a few short weeks later we have this bank crisis. Do you think this is “his black swan”? Given that you bring out the heavy influence/control the WEF had with SVB. Or do you think Schwab’s “black swan” is something bigger. Just too much coincidence. Same as the war room exercise about “a world wide” pandemic and weeks later Covid 19 surfaced. Yeah right… Wouls appreciate your take. Thanks!
Something bigger. A “Black Swan” is usually associated with an abrupt geopolitical shock or something along those lines. My suspicion – A false flag event is likely what Schwab is hinting at. If I were to guess, an attack blamed on Russia or China.
“Something bigger” or a “Black Swan” like major cyberattack(cf CyberPolygone) or Credit Suisse(2nd swiss bank) which could collapse.
Today, in the Swiss media, the huge difficulties of Credit Suisse are making headlines.
Credit Suisse is “too big to fail”! Really? Wait and see.
Like 911?
Dimitri,
You are thinking of a singular event. You could envision these matching events as a “9-11”.
Thanks for the prompt reply and sorry for the typo 🙂 (Would not wouls)
Been reading your article for years now. Following your insight has always helped. We think alike, only that you are more informed and educated in these things that I am. I serve a PJ sandwich with a glass of water, you a complete banquet with fine wine. A little humor never hurts.
And yes, I never believed his use of “black swan” was truly that. Nothing is a “surprise” or an “unexpected” event to these people. They cause the event. If there were to be a black swan, it was because they took a white one and painted it black. No surprise there! So yes, you are correct. Black Swan=False Flag
Thanks!
Brandon, can you speak to Biden’s executive order on gun background checks? Toothless and symbolic to please the base in the aftershocks of Bruen case last July. Or some enforceable gun registration BS we should be worried about? (e.g., “oh, I lost my guns in a tragic boating accident…”)
After the implosion of the FTX crypto exchange run by Sam Bankman Fried, questions of due diligence and competency immediately arose…
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There is NO due diligence and competency in an entire System that runs solely on fraud and cronyism.
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‘The Greatest Economic System in the World’ has been fueled by such embedded and institutionalized fraud and malfeasance and the conjuring of endless fake ‘money’ for a very long time. It’s all a grand game of pretend. We all pretend that the ‘money’ we use has actual value… and They pretend to us that it actually does. But it remains nothing but ink on a piece of paper issued by a private banking cabal that exists above and beyond the reach of Law and oversight.
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“Many corporations are not even allowed to fail because governments backstop their operations. That’s socialism…”
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And a guy came up with a word for when the Corporations ARE in fact the actual Government. And that name today is misused for a lot of things but it sounds something like… ‘Faaassshhhhii..’
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“By making corporate elites ‘responsible’ for society, we give them the power to engineer society.”
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Corporate elitists… like all elitists… all suffer from serious delusions of misplaced godhood.
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“Given the sheer scale of woke saturation within the current corporate world, I can’t help but wonder if the entire economy is utterly rotted from within…”
You don’t have to wonder. Because the entire ‘economy’ IS utterly rotted from within and without. It’s a dark magic miracle parlor trick that the Dark State Conjurers have been able to keep this ‘System and Economy of Rampant Fraud and Slight-of-Hand’ afloat as long as They have.
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On the order of like trying to keep a Goodyear Blimp made totally of concrete and hauling rocks floating in the air for decades. How’d They ever do that!?
Fascism = Just another form of socialism
Great article Brandon.
..
Sam Bankman Fried is a puppet. All the drama surrounding him was simply theater for the masses. And I further believe that all the regional, national, and international banks and financial institutions are puppets and that the entire system was engineered to fail. The majors will take on the debts of the regionals, which will cause them to fail, then the Fed will take on the debts of the TBTF which will cause the US dollar to fail. Check out Rafi Farber on YT.
In other words, expect the liabilities of financial institutions to be nationalized not just by the US Federal Reserve, but by all the major central banks, crashing all the world’s major currencies at the same time, leading to the attempted imposition of digital currencies — likely one by the NATO countries and another by the BRICs, and likely by individual, smaller nations.
It looks like the Fed pivot has arrived: the total assets of the Fed have made a recent spike, with the banking crisis. When you zoom in at the end of the official graph, it’s clear to see.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL
The ECB just raised interest rates 50 bps. Fed will likely raise again also or at least keep them static. They are tightening into the crash, just as I predicted. Time to let it go, Nigel.
Further greasing the wheels for ‘The Collapse Of The Old’ and then the rollout of our new and exciting ‘Digital Enslavement-Forever Currency’!
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‘Oh, my dear sweet Global Government Elitist Faux-god Masters… will you pretty-please allow me to buy a small sack of flour… TODAY?! Please!?’
Thank you for this pearl of an article, Brandon. In order to cover up there earlier fuckups they have to keep on creating more chaos ad fuckups. But everyone who has more than 2 brain cells, sees the overall global picture. When the SHTF the ceiling goes brown.
Thanks for another important article.
I have a question.
armstrongeconomics.com and alt-market.us seem to stand on the same ground.
However, neither you nor Martin Armstrong never mention each other.
Coincidence?
Omission?
Or on purpose for reasons unknown to me but perhaps important?
All the best wishes.
I’ve heard of him but don’t really come across his stuff that often. To be honest, I’m generally too busy with my own research to look at other theories within alternative economic circles. If I see something that stands out as high level research I’ll make a note because everyone tends to have a niche and can sometimes pick up on some data or evidence that the rest of us missed. The great danger when you get too much cross pollination of research is everyone starts to sound and think exactly the same and then you risk creating an echo chamber. For example, almost every liberty economist has been saying for the past few years that the Fed would “never raise interest rates” and “never create another banking crisis”, and yet that is exactly what they have done. It’s that kind of echo chamber I seek to avoid and only look at the hard evidence in front of me. So, it’s nothing personal with any other liberty writer, just a matter of keeping other influences out of my work.
If I use a piece of evidence that someone else found then I’ll cite them in an article, but beyond that, I’m not going to engage too much in the theories of others.
Thank you so much for the reply.
I know you are a busy guy, but time spent on armstrongeconomics pays.
And it is not so much theory, quite a practical approach.
It is up to you to judge/assess anyway.
Keep up man, we need you.
Armstrong is a veteran WARRIOR in this war. I especially like his well-reasoned contrarian position on gold as “our savior”. A real nuts and bolts guy who has personally fought the system to a truce.
Marty Armstrong literally spent years in prison without being convicted because he had the nerve to try to stop the Fiat Banking Cartel from stealing his business…Back in the day Marty was one of the largest Traders/Managers and he has testified in front of Congress and advised many Governments at the highest levels – was also a friend & advisor to Margaret Thatcher…
And that’s why you’re such a brilliant and outstanding analyst.
Thanks, but I’ve just been working in the liberty movement for nearly 20 years so I’ve learned all the pitfalls. Experience can sometimes seem like “brilliance” but it’s merely people learning from their own mistakes (and the mistakes of others). I do the best I can. The most important thing I’ve learned is that when everyone says an event is going to happen a certain way, it usually does not go that way. A recent example – A LOT of people in the movement were saying Elon Musk was “never” going to buy Twitter, which made me realize, along with the available evidence, that he was definitely going to buy Twitter. Group organization is vital, but group-think is poison.
–Its a good point and what better place to start implementing ESG than banks? They control the loans and at some point the businesses they loan to will be forced to behave a certain way should they need credit. Hell I could envision the banks require the people the businesses serve to be woke as well. Could have been the process to eventually prepare the masses of the West for CBDC and then we are truly ensnared. I don’t think they have the wherewithal to pull it off for a couple years now. Unless they backdoor another one like ETH. Heard that get floated my Mark Jeftovic.
–Naturally reality doesn’t jive well with wokeness, and Natural Law will have its say. Myself, have decided not to give these elites too much credit. I think much of their behavior is best defined by their lifestyles. They live in a bubble of self delusion and grandeur. Most likely they have ex-communicated anyone in their inner circle with a contrarian view. They control the media (All of it) aside from places like this. They have vast amounts of wealth and control. They hang out with the same sorts of people. In short, they are used to getting their way.
–That also conflicts with reality. Sanctions were supposed to be killing Russia by now. I can see why someone would think “They literally can’t be that stupid” but I think these elites just might be. I remember Lavrov circa 2021 (I think) warned Americans to reject this Communist buffoonery because it doesn’t work and they are witness. At the time I agreed but thought it might be propaganda. Honestly, I don’t think it was now. In fact, I have started to read statements from Russia pretty closely. Although some of it may be lost in translation I believe the Russians to be blunt and honest. They tell you who the enemy is what they are up to. I assume that they probably know just about more than anybody. Obviously, one needs to be able to separate out the BS/propaganda from the Ruskies as well.
–Final Point, notice how neither Russia or China wanted anything to do with our vaccines. It seems ominous to me. I know China dodged mRNA technology twice. I think this accumulation of crazed commie wokeness has reached it peak. The financial can has been kicked and now its out of road. SVB obviously caught them off guard. All these things they have set in motion are getting ready to bite them square in the ass. Unfortunately we are all going to feel it too.
Thank you for all you do Brandon.
I’ve been waiting for this article. No one out there seems to want to touch the FTX connection to the banksters, crypto, SEC and the U.N. city state of New York. It’s a lot like the Epstein “affair” that was rapidly buried (alive?) We seem to have an extremely incestuous financial oligarchy.
Thanks for this piece…
United Nations – A Brief History
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_un01.htm
Seems like as Archegos was to tech unicorns and certain investment banks/etc., so FTX, and SVB and its ilk, were to ESG and ‘woke.com’ (also perhaps, crypto…) (ie: – Deliberately placed time-bombs)?…
Duped by two Russian comedians, Christine Lagarde “reveals” that the decision concerning the digital euro will be taken next Fall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtrNk2jHyVM&t=854s
For this year: the “real” October surprise…
Brandon, what do you think about Credit Suisse case – a Lehman Bros 3.0?
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/ubs-credit-suisse-banking-crisis-markets-economy-inflation-recession-rates-2023-3
Ps: Axel P. Lehmann is currently Credit Suisse CEO, and Blythe Masters(a former executive at JPMorgan Chase during 2008 financial crisis) is a member of the Board of Director at Credit Suisse.
Swiss Bank Fails! Bail-ins Implemented as Seniors’ Pensions Raided – Chaos in Europe as France Burns
https://healthimpactnews.com/2023/swiss-bank-fails-bail-ins-implemented-as-seniors-pensions-raided-chaos-in-europe-as-france-burns/
25 basis point increase! For the last week there was a barrage of mainstream press trying to psych us into thinking the FED would pivot. No dice, we’re apparently riding this train to the end of the line. Small banks to be bled of depositors and liquidated, depositors to fed to big banks, big banks to be sucked dry and depositors to be fed to FED, FED to roll out CBDC–while inflation goes out of control. Am I missing anything?
As predicted here at Alt-Market, the central banks in the West are actively tightening policy into the crash. This is the beginning of the end of the financial system as we know it, and they know EXACTLY what they are doing.
So what’s their plan if people resist CBDC’s. I see just like the vaccine mandates that they only get CBDC’s in blue states and just like with the vaccine mandates all going away the blue states will be forced to ditch them.
In that event, since China and Russia are on course to adopt anyways, leading the other BRICS and the RotW with them, expect to see the USA frozen out of the emergent CBDC-based international financial system (sorta like an Uno-reverse move of the current Russia situation, only *actually* effective…) once the Dollar’s ouster from global reserve status is complete.
– We all know where this CBDC thing is ultimately headed, right? – *Universal* adoption *everywhere*, both for *domestic* as well as international transactions, but notice how they’re emphasizing the international aspect at the moment, talking up a storm about CBDC’s utility in facilitating streamlined *cross-border* payments… – So the above scenario is a near certainty, I’d say.
…- Anyways, fear not: – #PrisonCurrenciesFTW…
Without “surprise”, in the very recent “Economic Report of the President” transmitted to US Congress, this is what it says:
“Certain innovations, such as FedNow and a potential U.S. CBDC,
could help bring the U.S. financial infrastructure into the digital era in a clear
and simple way, without the risks or irrational exuberance brought by crypto
assets. Hence, continued investments in the Nation’s financial infrastructure
have the potential to offer significant benefits to consumers and businesses,
but regulators must apply the lessons that civilization has learned, and thus
rely on economic principles, in regulating crypto assets. “, “Economic Report of the President”, March 2023, p.272, in https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ERP-2023.pdf
Another “interesting news” – but wait and see – : Senate Ted Cruz has just proposed a bill to prevent the Fed from implementing the CBDC.
Clearly, a banking coup is underway and should hit Western countries, in particular, very hard and very soon(2nd half of 2023?!).
You have written in some of your articles this: “Fed will not capitulate.”
This seems obvious from the facts and the economic situation in the US today at this time.
…
PS: As you know, in Europe, at present: the economic, financial and political issues are explosive.
I continue to believe or think that the artificial currency of the Euro will collapse before the USD.
Conspiracy Theories Become Conspiracy Facts
https://brownstone.org/articles/conspiracy-theories-become-conspiracy-facts/