Threat Matrix 2021

Threat Matrix is a thread where global and domestic threats and trends to America are noted and commented on. Goal it to peel back the BS and get to the root of things.

Wuhan virus -
Spring break is in full swing - so to the accompanying hand wringing of a super spreader event.

Fauci is already fear pandering of a new spike in infections/deaths. In a recent interview, he stated that the US runs roughly a month behind trends in Europe, which is facing another round of shutdowns. So much for all those vaccinations. . . .

French Prime Minister Jean Castex imposed a four-week lockdown on Paris as the country’s capital struggles with a faltering vaccine rollout and the spread of a highly contagious virus variant, Reuters reported. The lockdown will start Friday at midnight.

biden is looking at easing travel restrictions to / from Canada and Mexico in the middle of May. Ignores the unrestricted “travel’ of illegals.
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Globalism / Great Reset -
Bitcoin’s success is driving banks/nations to reevaluate digital currency and develop their own. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have yet to be launched on a large scale, but advocates envision a government-controlled cryptocurrency that replaces national currencies. CBDCs will use digital tokens on a computer network to represent a national currency. They’ll rely on blockchain, the same technology behind Bitcoin, Etherium, and other popular cryptocurrencies. These will evenuqtlly replace the dollar as the reserve currency. CBDCs are far different from Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is decentralized. No single authority controls it. In contrast, central banks will operate, regulate, and control CBDCs. Before CBDCs can become the standard, paper currency first needs to be eliminated. We’re moving toward that goal now. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend toward cashless payments. But even if people don’t voluntarily chose cashless payments, paper currency will disappear anyway. This will eventually result in a closed, government-controlled economic system where everyone is dependent on central bank digital currency to participate in society. The beta testing is being done with China’s social credit system even now.

This gives government the ability to control your behavior, down to the most minute details of daily life. If the government decides they don’t like you, they can cut off access to your account and freeze you out of the economic system.
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Economy -
I’ve noted the impending baconpocalypse. There is are shortages of piglets being reported, with those available running at as much as 10X what they normally run. Get your pork now because this will cause prices and availability to go way up in the coming months.

Further food concerns rising due to drought conditions in the greater western US. Snow levels are about 60% in Kalifornia and not much better here in the American Redoubt. The past couple years, weather has negatively impacted US crops, though there was a depth of a reserve aspect that mitigated some of the impact to consumers. Then wuhan which total threw a monkey wrench into agriculture. Poor crops and hight global demand (the rest of the world has had severe climate problems - see earlier posts) could lead to serious price increases.
RECOMMENDATION - stock up now.

New weekly jobless claims rose to 770,000 for the week that ended March 13, the Department of Labor said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by Econoday had forecast a decline to 700,000. The prior week was initially reported at 712,000 but was revised up to 725,000.

According to Forbes, biden is cancelling $1 billion of student loans.

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Invasion of Illegals -
biden is catching a lot more heat from progressive sources like NPR which negatively reports the situation at the border as a disaster. When your MSM mouth pieces won’t hold to the narrative, your are in serious trouble.
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Biden watch -
Yesterday, biden “misspoke” again during a speech announcing that his administration had reached its goal of 100 million vaccinations, referring to his vice president as “President Harris.”
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CW2/Domestic violence -
The left is still trying to include attacks against Asians as its latest front against Trump and the right. Yesterday, biden ordered the flags to half mast for the asian (and white women) killed by a sex pervert. In another publicized attack, Xiao Zhen Xie, 76, beat the living daylights out of her attacker. Little on the attacker other than it is apparent he is white (other attacks in the area have been by black/hispanics).
IMHO - Xie’s attacker was probably a druggie/homeless - a group that has skyrocketed in recent years. To other minorities, Asians are seen as privileged in that education and success are prized. Kalifornia for years have discriminated against them in college applications favoring other minorities even though they didn’t score as high.
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China -
Chinese officials are meeting with US officials in Alaska in the first high level talks of the administration. They got off to a very rocky start with both sides exchanging sharp comments towards the other. Chinese officials accused the US of inciting countries “to attack China”, while the US said China had “arrived intent on grandstanding”. When confronted about the treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, China replied that human rights in the US were at a low point, with black Americans being “slaughtered”.
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North Korea -
After biden threatened Putin, his administration has threatened NK. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday that U.S. forces are ready to fight - ““Our force remains ready to fight tonight and we continue to make progress toward the eventual transition of wartime operational control to a [Republic of Korea]-commanded future combined forces command,”
OBSERVATION - Between Russia, China and now NK, the biden administration is trying to pick a fight with just about anyone it can. The the use of fighting words are not constructive.

Some analysts looking at NK’s recent comments directed at the US are the attempt to gain concessions from the US or at least place it in a more favorable bargaining position. Many expect NK to resume provocative weapons testing if the US doesn’t respond in the way they desire - going back to their previous form of attention getting.
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Russia -
After yesterday’s tit for tat, Putin has challenged biden to a live dialogue to be streamed globally. WH showed no interest in taking up the offer. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev indicate biden’s outburst was due to age and “state of health”.
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Iran -
Various sources indicate that Iran’s nuclear program hasn’t fully recovered from the July 2 explosion at an above-ground structure at the Natanz facility. Natanz is one of Iran’s key uranium enrichment facilities. Over the years, Iran has spent much time and effort moving the processes underground, but that has limits too. The building that blew up was reportedly the main assembly building for the advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges necessary for the further enrichment of uranium. Sources indicate that though Iran is proceeding with enrichment with these newer centrifuges, the numbers available are substantially less than if the facility wasn’t destroyed last year.

OBSERVATIONS - I reminded myself that even though Iran has renewed ties to the North Korean nuclear program that there are some serious differences and technical issues that separate NK’s plutonium bombs from the uranium bombs that Iran appears to be working towards. First is that plutonium is easier to obtain critical mass from, whereas uranium requires a higher starting ‘bang’ to reach critical mass. The plutonium bomb is an implosion device, where the spherical plutonium core was surrounded by a charge which when exploded produced a strong inward pressure on the core causing it to reach critical mass. Though implosion can be used for uranium, the preferred method is a gun-type, where an explosion like a cannon ball out of a cannon forced elements together to create a critical mass. Uranium bombs can also be constructed to be smaller, making them more usable in rockets where payload limits the size.
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Lebanon -
As i’ve noted in the past, the real ruler of Lebanon is Hezbollah. Late yesterday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech addressing the domestic unrest and protests in the country. He warns against factions pushing towards civil war as a line in the sand they will not tolerate. He directs the political groups to basically get over it and get the government put together. He railed against the protestors saying that they aren’t helping the matter. He also at the moment refuses to use Hezbollah’s “guns” to force the issue, though that still lurks in the background. In conclusion he stated “For now, Hezbollah will work through state apparatus to save Lebanon. But if Lebanon reaches the point of total collapse and real starvation, Hezbollah has options. I won’t discuss these options now, because I don’t want debate over them.”
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Syria -
Considerable amount of fighting between Turkish and a collective of units consisting of the Afrin Liberation forces, Kurdish and anti-assad forces in an area north of Aleppo, northern Syria.
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Afghanistan -
I heard of some reports of US airstrikes on Taliban targets, but I couldn’t get any details.
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Wuhan virus -
Poland has imposed new lock down measures.

CDC changes requirement for social distancing to 3 feet. NOTE - there is no science behind any distancing rule.
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Invasion of Illegals -
biden’s immigration policy has not only created a border crisis but neither he nor his aides have outlined the new approach to asylum or said when it will be unveiled, creating an information void and giving rise to rumors that migrants would be allowed in. Amid sharply higher migration flows, confusion and skepticism surround Biden’s insistence that it’s not the time to come to the border.

Sources within the BP indicate that they are encountering as many as 5000 illegals per day. This compares with the crisis of the 0bama administration of 1000 per day.
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Biden watch -
biden stumbled multiple times and fell one time going up the stair into AF1 yesterday. WH blamed the winds.

I’m pinning it here for record. biden’s administration has displayed to the US’s most significant enemies - China, Russia, Iran and N Korea - that we are VERY weak and the dumpster fires raging on the border, military (social justice and political purging) and attacking the US economy. It is frightening that they have gone from fear/respect to disrespect in just a matter of months. This unraveling of Trump’s foreign policy has significant potential of a serious military conflict in the very near term, most likely against Iran.
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CW2/Domestic violence -
In an effort to further attack the right, biden showed up on Atlanta to condemn anti-asian racism. Only problem is yesterday the FBI declared that there was no evidence of racism/hate crime associated with the shooting of 6 asian women and two white women. The shooter was an addicted porn freak. Of course the democrat answer was to pass another ‘hate crime bill’

It appears that Nancy’s “wall” will be coming down after Capitol Police admit there is no credible threat against congress.
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CYBER/CANCEL CULTURE FRONT -
Twitter has locked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene out of her Twitter account on the day that Democrats are introducing a resolution to overturn the will of voters and expel her from Congress. Expulsion is unlikely in that 2/3rds must vote to do so. That means a substantial number of republicans will have to cross the aisle to do so. Twitter restored access stating the move was a “mistake”.
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POLITICAL FRONT -
House Democrats are trying ta gain support for a long-shot bid to expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress. So far, no republicans have made any indication that they will will cross over and support the measure.
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China -
The summit with China yesterday was an unmitigated dumpster fire for the US. Senior diplomats Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi raked US diplomats over the coals with their counter charge of BLM / racism. The whole fiasco only furthered China’s perception of the biden administration being a paper tiger and totally inept.

As mentioned in previous posts, China has a food shortage issue. In part due to agriculture disasters from weather (floods and droughts) and disease (pork and poultry). In an article by Newsweek, China is importing record amounts of soybeans and other products from the US. Xi has instituted programs to stop food wastage and to have people reduce what they eat. The US is blissfully unaware of the hammer held against china that US grown food has.
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Lebanon -
It is reported that an official Hezbollah delegation, headed by Lebanese Parliament member Mohammad Ra’ad, arrived in Moscow on Monday for a three-day visit at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s invitation. Russia is seeking to find a solution to Lebanon’s political crisis, which is preventing the formation of a permanent government in Beirut and threatening the checks and balances underlying the sectarian government system that has existed in Lebanon since 1943. As I have pointed out, Hezbollah is the real power begin the Lebanese society, it operates an alternative governmental system, separate from the central government in Beirut. It includes an independent economic system, including Hezbollah banks with ATMs, as well as a health system that provides a partial solution to the state’s inability to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. It is funded exclusively by Iran for its purposes and not humanitarian. Hezbollah prefers to work in the shadows, avoiding the glare of actually and overtly running the govt, but this creates other problems for Iran, but may be unavoidable. If the Lebanese govt completely collapses, there is the potential for overt take over of the govt that will be resisted and potentially drive a civil conflict (though Hezbollah has all the superior weapons). This take - over would then permit Iran to park warships in Lebanese harbors as well as taking over Beirut International Airport to use it as a military airfield, while at the same time establishing a military airfield in Baalbek. Some of this may sound extreme but not by much. The complications of a Hezbollah/Iranian take over would hamper some of its readiness to attack Israel as resources, manpower and planning would have to be devoted to stabilization of the country and its economy. That may provide Israel some breathing room.
NOTE - In a related posting, yesterday the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech addressing the domestic unrest and protests in the country.
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Syria -
Rumors that RAF planes flying from Cyprus are having their GPS signals jammed by hostile action - thought to be from Syrian territory. Security sources believe Syrian forces may have been helped and trained by Russian military personnel. Israel reportedly has also faced GPS jamming from a site in Syria. The suspect location is the Khmeimim Air Base, built by the Russians in 2015. Such jamming is a danger to commercial aircraft passing through the region.
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Black Swans -
After watching the region for the past couple months, volcano has erupted south-west of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, the country’s meteorological office says. It says the fissure is about 500-700 metres long (1,640-2,300ft) at Fagradalsfjall on Reykjanes peninsula. The last eruption there was some 800 years ago. The event is effusive with little airborne ash that could impact UK or Europe. Just a cool eruption for geologists like me to follow.

Balzuo - chinese word for people who “only care about topics such as immigration minorities, LGBT and the environment, who have no sense of real problems in the real world, who advocate for peace and equality to satisfy their own feelings of moral superiority and who are obsessed with political correctness .
Our new word for “snowflake”.

Wuhan virus -
Oregon state health officials unveiled a new proposal in January which seeks to make temporary mask mandates permanent. This also includes social distancing requirements.
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Invasion of Illegals -
biden has lost the WaPO, which is calling the loss of control of the southern border a catastrophe. He is losing the leftist media by is gross mishandling of the situation.

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is considering releasing illegal border crossers who claim asylum without issuing a Notice to Appear (NTA) — meaning they will depart custody without a court date, according to news reports early Sunday morning. Such a decision would be unprecedented if enacted.

Biden is also considering flying detainees to ‘northern’ states bordering Canada to ease the border crisis. There is currently no indication as to whether United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has determined which northern and coastal states could receive the reported flights. Representatives from potentially affected states are demanding clarification.
NOTE - Too bad we are entering spring here in the American Redoubt - nothing like a brisk -20 to cause folk to reassess their desire to illegally immigrate.

Now biden admin has thrown $86 million to hotels to house illegals as well.

On Saturday morning, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took to social media and appeared to question whether Joe Biden had revealed plans “to create a crisis” at the border while pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination more than 18 months ago. Details at link.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-leader-suggests-biden-revealed-plans-to-create-border-crisis-in-2019

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Biden watch -
This tweet nails it
Lauren Boebert@LaurenBoebert
12h
·
Vladimir Putin is basically calling Biden a senile old man, China rebuffed Anthony Blinken to his face & Kim Jong Un refuses to talk to anyone from the Biden regime... but it’s good to know that America is ReSpEcTeD AgAiN.

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CW2/Domestic violence -
MY OBSERVATION - I know that some may disagree with me, but then they are allowed to. My observation of the events of the last three months indicate that Patriots are keeping their powder dry at least to the extent that they are influencing their Red States to enact laws to negate unconstitutional edicts from DC. This tends to be the way of the right - work the system as a counter. However, this is IMHO the last fire wall. Should the feds/left try to crash that firewall with police state might, the right may have no other choice than to resist tyranny. These laws and edict are still working their way through congress and we may know more the future by early summer to see if the forecast is going to be hot. Remember too, things have been going crazy fast and it could hit the fan far sooner.

There are a number of announced BLM/Antifa protests across the nation this weekend. Will probably have a better breakdown of the action come Monday morning.
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Saudi Arabia -
SA was busy last night hitting a half dozen Houthis munitions facilities. This follows more drone attacks against the Aramco facility yesterday. SA also said that they conducted airstrikes on an armored Houthis offensive in Marib, the Yemeni government’s last remaining stronghold in the north.
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Afghanistan -
Unusual number (5) of USAF air refueling tankers transiting to Afghanistan from Gulf bases. They are going to put go juice into a lot of somethings. Can’t find any other info at this time to see just what may be afoot.
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Wuhan virus -
Though still banned in most of Europe, AstraZeneca announced a 79% effectiveness rate in US trials.
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Invasion of Illegals -
Over the weekend, more news and photos come out documenting just how screwed up the situation at the border has become due to the biden administrations bungling and virtue signaling.

The 60 day pause in the construction of the border fence ordered by biden is costing the US up to 6 million per day as part of expenses contractors are legally allowed to receive due to equipment rentals, etc. Additional costs will hit if biden chooses to cancel the projects all together.
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Biden watch -
biden’s road trip to sell the latest stimulus package has ended with him calling a “lid” for the weekend and punting all the campaigning to his wife. This has raised more flags on his fineness to be president.
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CW2/Domestic violence -
Saturday night in Portland’s Pearl district, Antifa showed up to share “love” with angry residents who’s neighborhood they had trashed days earlier, by staging a “clean up” march while, in another part of town, others were massing to trash the ICE headquarters.
OBSERVATION - This served a combination of efforts. One was to draw police from the ICE facility. Second was a PSYOPS event to be in the face of the residents to cement the terror, masquerading as a community aid event.

At the Washington State capitol, a peaceful rally was assaulted by BLM/Antifa and the police, as usual. refused to arrest any of the assailants.

There were numerous other protests/riots scheduled over the weekend, but the news sources are not picking them up on their radar screens. Indicator that they were minor in extent.
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CANCEL CULTURE FRONT -
The Huffington Post reports:
A former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, has launched a campaign to press American businesses to openly reject the core assertion that former President Donald Trump and many in his party continue to make, that the 2020 election was somehow illegitimate.
“The 2020 presidential election was free and fair, and produced accurate, reliable results,” reads the explanation behind the “Democracy Pledge” that Kirschner hopes to put before “every company in the country” in the coming months. “Those who sought to undermine or otherwise refused to acknowledge these results, share responsibility for the civil unrest after the election, culminating in violence at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
The pledge includes a declaration of “valuing, affirming and supporting democracy,” and of affirming “that the election of Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris was free, fair and legitimate.”
The final piece asks companies to “not support, donate to or endorse politicians, political campaigns or political action committees that promoted false conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential elections (or otherwise acted in ways contrary to a representative democracy).”
Presumably, companies that don’t comply will be exposed to the cancel mob.
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POLITICAL FRONT -
Monitoring democrat attempt to remove Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene from congress. Pelosi has reportedly removed her support even though 1/3 of the democrats in the caucus support it.
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Domestic Terror -
See Iran for alleged Iranian threat to US
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Iran -
Now just coming out, Iran threatened to attack Fort McNair, which sits alongside Washington’s bustling newly developed Waterfront District. The Army has been wanting to add a buffer zone of about 250 feet to 500 feet (75 meters to 150 meters) from the shore of the Washington Channel for security reasons for several years now but has faced resistance from the DC government. The claim is that intercepted chatter from the current ‘threat’ was among members of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and centered on potential military options to avenge the U.S. killing of the former Quds leader, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad in January 2020, the two intelligence officials said.
MY OPINION - Sounds like something one of these generals would make up in order to leverage against the city’s resistance. For a “Cole style attack” an under protected military base in the DC area may sound tempting, but provide little bang for the buck with so many other potential targets.
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Saudi Arabia -
Saudi airstrikes apparently hit a significant Houthis rocket production facility near the Yemeni capitol of Sana. Videos of massive secondary explosions. Saudi actions are in response to a significant increase in Houthis attacks following biden’s removal from the terrorist list. MY OPINION - Removal of the houthis was to placate Iran as the Saudi’s are their chief arab opponent, second only to Israel, for dominance in the region.
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Afghanistan -
US has a May 1 deadline to remove troops from Afghanistan per its agreement with the Taliban and Afghan govt. biden administration has announce that it will be difficult to meet that deadline and wants to see a ‘responsible end’. indicators from the biden administration point to US forces staying there a “lot longer”. The Taliban on Friday warned of consequences if the United States doesn’t meet the deadline. Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban negotiation team, told reporters that if American troops were to stay beyond May 1, “it will be a kind of violation of the agreement. That violation would not be from our side. “Their violation will have a reaction.”
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Turkey -
President Erdogan is once again practicing disruptive diplomacy. During a recent visit to Azerbaijan, he not so subtly expressed regret that Azerbaijani territory is divided. It was a shot at Iran’s religious dictatorship. What was once southern Azerbaijan is now under Iranian control and Iran wants to keep it that way. The area has many ethnic Azeris and the Azeris that are a Turkic people/descent, so Erdogan could be polishing his pan-Turkic credentials. Some analysts believe that these actions may indicate that Turkey is going to confront Iran in the near future. Iran supports Turkish separatist PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) militias who have been fighting against Turkey since the early 1980s. Turkish and Iranian proxy groups most recently butted heads in northwestern Syria (Idilb) area.
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Venezuela -
The country is literally running out of physical cash as hyperinflation rocks the nation. Banks allow withdrawals of a max 400,000 Bolivars - the US equivalent of twenty cents. Earlier in March Venezuela’s central bank announced it was introducing a new 1-million-bolivar bill to facilitate transactions. The problem is Venezuela’s printing presses can no longer keep up with the hyperinflation. Inflation was 3,000 percent as of January, according to the state’s central bank, following years of hyperinflation that peaked at 10 million percent in 2018. Making matters worse, part of the problem also appears to stem from the fact that Venezuela can’t even obtain enough paper to print new banknotes. Venezuela’s woes have made American investors very nervous because they see many of the precursors in the US system that drove venezuela’s crash.
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Black Swans -
Food Shortages are one of the big issues that can cause global instability. Australia is the epicenter for the latests outbreak of issues - largely food related as it supplies a lot of food to the asian region. A massive mice infestation in Queensland and New South Wales has caused some farmers to lose their entire crops. In New South Wales (NSW), massive flooding has hit, destroying even more crops.

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