War Drums Beating Ever Louder, Consequences ...

by Larry Edelson

Do you believe me yet? After all, I have been warning you over and over again that the new dynamic you need to be aware of is the rising tide of WAR. About the great battle — between the public sector (government) and the private sector ... and how it would lead to uprisings all over the world, to civil wars, and even to international wars. Few of you believed me. Many thought I was crazy, or simply a fear-mongerer. And yet, here we are, only two years into my warnings of a rising cycle of social unrest that will not peak until 2020 ... And nearly everywhere you turn, geopolitical unrest is exploding off the charts, threatening to destroy the portfolios of almost all investors, catching the majority of them on the wrong side of the markets. Just consider ...  Israel and Gaza, in a war that could easily spread throughout the entire Middle East.  Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, likely brought down by a surface-to-air missile shot by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's bloody civil war.  Vladimir Putin, bullying his way through Eastern Europe and now even attempting to reopen a Russian base in Cuba.  Boko Haram, murdering and kidnapping hundreds of innocent people, crusading to create an Islamic state.  ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known for its harsh Wahhabist interpretation of Islam, and brutal violence directed at Shia Muslims and Christians in particular. Terrorizing the Middle East, killing thousands.  Ukraine's civil war, thousands dead.  Syria's civil war, 170,000 now dead.  All of Africa, where there are now fully 24 countries engaged in wars, involving 146 different militias-guerrillas, separatist and anarchic groups.  Asia, where 15 countries involving 129 different radical and separatist groups are waging wars and uprisings.  Europe, where nine countries are under siege via 70 different militias-guerrillas, separatist groups and anarchic groups.  The Middle East, where eight countries involving 169 different rebel and separatist groups are now engaged in conflict.  The Americas, where five countries are either at war or experiencing massive domestic unrest, involving 25 different rebel and separatist groups and drug cartels. An uprising coming to America will cause gold to soar to more than $5,000 an ounce over the next few years. And these are just the "official" wars. They do not include other hot spots around the world that are almost certain to lead to either civil or international war. Chief among those: China versus Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei ... over the Spratly and Senkaku Islands, the East and South China Seas. Europe, nearly all of it, where recent elections have seen substantial gains for parties ranging from the populist to the neo-Nazi groups: Where France's right-wing Marine Le Pen's Front National group topped a nationwide poll for the first time in its history ... And where a backlash in many struggling euro-zone nations decimated by unemployment and austerity measures catapulted parties like Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn to the forefront, winning enough votes to send a representative to Brussels for the first time. As I've also stated before, you may think all these conflicts are unrelated ... or the result of religious extremists ... or that they have no impact on you. But mark my words: Look closely, as I have done, at all of the above conflicts — whether they are religiously inspired or not — and you will see two common threads: 1. Private sector groups rising up against authoritarian, unjust and corrupt governments. 2. Private-sector groups rising up against governments that want to increase taxes or even confiscate wealth while, at the same time, levying austerity measures on its people to slash previously promised benefits. In lesser developed countries, it's the result of government corruption, imperialistic actions taken by developed countries, pillaging of natural resources, and more. Yes, they are shrouded in religious, especially Islamic extremism ... But when distilled down to the truth, the forces driving them are no different than the forces that are driving the civil and international unrest you are now seeing in developed countries. It's merely a matter of degree. Yet an impartial and objective study of the forces that are driving the war cycles higher — wherever in the world they are playing themselves out ... Can all be distilled down to a great battle between the public and the private sectors ... And a battle that will soon come to main street USA. How so? Naturally, it will take a different form, and allege different reasons when it strikes Main Street USA. But its essence will be the same: A backlash of the private sector against the public sector ... against loss of privacy ... against rising taxation ... against Washington's fiscal irresponsibility ... against a bankrupt Social Security system ... Against an ineptly run Veterans Affairs Department ... against student loans that Washington underwrote and that are now bankrupting scores of college and post graduate students ... Against an insane Internal Revenue Gestapo Service that wants to, and will, monitor everything you do, every penny you save, every penny you spend, every item you buy — all in the name of making sure you are paying every penny of tax you should. Not to mention the Internal Revenue Service's massive bullying of other countries, which has now forced some 77,000 foreign financial institutions to cow-tow to Washington and report the financial activities of every American with an overseas financial account. An uprising coming to America? You bet it is. And I suspect it will be one that will make the Vietnam era protests and our own version of Tiananmen Square, the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970, look like a walk in the park. And the consequences for investors and the financial markets will be simply astounding:  They will cause gold to soar to more than $5,000 an ounce over the next few years. Silver to more than $125.  Oil to soar to $200 a barrel and then even higher.  Mining shares, perhaps the most undervalued sector of all, to at least QUINTUPLE.  Food prices, now in the final throes of their bear markets, to suddenly reverse and explode higher.  And the U.S. stock market? Other than a healthy pullback now and then, it will ironically explode higher ... As not a soul will want to touch U.S. or European sovereign debt and as capital from every corner of the globe crowds into U.S. equities as it becomes the last beacon of hope for capitalism ... The last, confiscatory-free place to invest your capital and get a decent return to boot. As I have said for over two years now, you have to think differently to financially survive today. The war cycles — the rhythms of historical, cyclical mass human behavior that are almost as predictable as the seasons of the year — are here now ...