War Drums Beating Ever Louder, Consequences …

7/21/14
 
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by Larry Edelson,

from Money & Markets,
7/21/14:

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.

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.

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 …

And they are ramping up with an intensity that even I underestimated.

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