DISTANT SHORE
Gerald Celente top trends researchers
His top trends in 2014 start with the Middle East. Iran, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Yemen and Turkey are just a few of the countries facing big problems.
Celente exclaims, “You just keep going around the Middle East, it’s total turmoil.” Will there be war in the Middle East in 2014? Celente says, “I thought it would have happened last year; but, then again, there are wild cards.”
On the economy, Celente predicts, “Interest rates are going to go up. . . . When interest rates go up, the economy is going down—period.” Celente goes on to say, “I think they are going to institute more tapering, and it’s going to create a financial crisis worldwide.”
On gold, Celente predicts, “Then they’re going to dump more dough into the system. When that happens, that’s when you’re going to see the real panic start to happen. . . . You’re going to see a rise in gold prices that’s going to eclipse the last one.”
In Asia, Celente points out, “Things are heating up between China and Japan. If that thing goes into a war, it’s a whole new game.” Celente predicts, “Absent the war card, I think we will see a financial crisis before the end of the second quarter of 2014.”Celente sums up what he sees in 2014 as “a year of extremes.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
was replaced by Janet Yellen, leaving the Federal Reserve with an unprecedented $4,102,138,000,000 in total assets on its balance sheet, up 391 percent from the $834,663,000,000 in total assets the Fed showed on its balance sheet when Bernanke took over as chairman in February 2006.
Much of the increase in the Fed’s assets has come in the form of U.S. Treasury securities and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities that the Fed purchased over the last five years in its attempts to stimulate the economy.
As of Feb. 1, 2006, when Bernanke took over as chairman, the Fed’s balance sheet it owned $748,840,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities. At that time, the balance sheet listed no mortgage-backed securities. As of Jan. 29, 2013, the balance sheet indicated the Fed owned $2,243,176,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities and $1,532,224,000,000 in mortgag
e-backed securities.
