Free Yourself From the Regime
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ROCKWELL: Good morning. This is the Lew Rockwell Show. And how great it is to have as our guest this morning, Mr. Gerald Celente. Gerald is the founder and director of the Trends Research Institute. He's the publisher of the Trends Journal. He's a prognosticator in economic and political and military areas of amazing prescience. We'll link, of course, to his archive on LRC, to his site, directdemocracynow.org, to his YouTube channel, his Facebook page. Follow Gerald on Twitter, too, of course.
Gerald, before we get talking about the impending political and military and economic disasters, tell us what's happened in your battle with MF Global.
CELENTE: Everyone should understand that this battle, by the way, is not mine. It's everybody's battle. The criminality of what the money changers, the political and financial mob can get away with is in front of everyone's eyes. Here's something that comes under the category, Lew, of "you can't make this up."
One of the trustees, Louis Freeh, former FBI director –
ROCKWELL: Oh, yes. And a creep.
CELENTE: Yes. I call him Louis Freeh-loader.
(Laughter)
You know, another one of these guys that gets these jobs because he's a member of the club. Well, he decided, Louie did, that the COO, the CFO and the general counsel of MF Global, for doing such a wonderful job in cleaning up this mess, should get a bonus. In other words, they didn't steal enough of my money and everybody else's; they've got to get whatever's left. And I'm saying that it's not only MF Global. You know, pick up any day's paper and read about the banking frauds that continue to go on, and the schemes undreamed of that they come up with to make it seem as though the banks are being punished when we're paying the freight.
I'm going to make this really clear, Lew. Unless you have your money in your pocket, you don't own it. I don't care if you have it with MF Global, Raymond James, Charles Schwab, you have it with Mickey Mouse, because it ain't your dough. And they're going to change the laws any time they want to make sure that you don't have it.
And there's no criminality involved in this. I mean, you saw what's his name over there, Jon Corzine, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, former governor of New Jersey and Senator of New Jersey, when he went before that rinky dink committee over there, the House committee, to answer question. What was the word in front of his name? "Honorable" Jon Corzine. Honorable? How about Jon "the Slime" Corzine? Can anybody say that?
The point being, Lew, there's no indictment. There's no criminal charges. Justice, the word "justice" – everybody out there understand this, it's J-U-S-T U-S, just us.
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So that's how it's going with MF Global. It's business as usual. The merger of state and corporate powers, Fascism. We're getting raped in broad daylight by the money changers, the loan sharks or, as they like to call themselves today, bankers.
ROCKWELL: Gerald, they, of course, stole your money for a significant period of time. Have you gotten some of it back, all of it back?
CELENTE: I got two-thirds of it back.
ROCKWELL: Two – unbelievable. So they stole a third of your resources?
CELENTE: They stole a third of my resources, and then they're cutting up what's left over to give to their buddies! You know, let's call this what it is. I've said this many times before. You know, if the names on Wall Street were called Celente, Caruso, Mondavi, Pacini, Rossini, they'd call it the Mafia. But now you've got Louis Freeh in there; he's a former FBI guy. Hey, it's OK. You know, come on! This is a criminal operation. And it's going on in front of everyone's face.
And whether it's in the U.S. or the E.U. – look at the scheme that they came up with over there, Lew, just before Christmas and continuing on now to keep the ponzi scheme going on over there. Oh, the head of the ECB, Mario Draghi. Mario Draghi? You mean the former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs gang over there in Europe? Yes, that Mario. Well, he says, "I'll tell you what, you guys, the money changers and the banks, I'm going to give you all the money you need. Take as much as you need. Don't worry about it. You can pay me back in three years. Just keep the ponzi scheme going. I'll charge you 1% interest rate but put it back with us, put it back in the bank. We'll hold it. You can use it as much as you want. We'll give you 25% back." It's one big scheme and everybody's paying for it. They're paying for it out of their pockets and they're paying it with their lives.
ROCKWELL: Gerald, what's going to happen in Europe? Of course, the governments and the banks working together are willing to give every dime of the people's money to the banks and to the governments. But can they actually get away with it or is the crisis even beyond their control?
CELENTE: It's beyond their control. And that's why they're cracking down like they're doing right here in the good ol' USA. You know, when the money stops flowing down to the man on the street, the blood starts flowing in the streets. This is as old as history. And that's what's going on right now. The people have nothing. And for what? Because the banks made bad bets. That's all it is. They made bad bets and they want the people to cover the losses.
And the big lie becomes – I'll tell you why – what we have to do to fix this. We have to cut pensions, benefits. We're going to raise the retirement age until after you die. You don't deserve anything. Oh, by the way, we're going to put tax on top of tax on top of tax. We're going to tax you every way you can look. Oh, and if you break the law in the most minor way, we're going to clamp down on you to get more money. And that's going to fix the system.
With all of this talk, you never hear of – you hear about the people's irresponsibility but you never hear about, oh, those exotic financial instruments, those derivatives, those collateralized debt obligations, those synthetic collateralized debt obligations. All of this leverage, privatization, hedge funds, buy-outs, you name it, none of that's talked about.
So there's going to be riots in the streets. Lew, it's the beginning of World War III. The first great war of the 21st century has begun. How many countries do you have to add up? Let's go down the list real quick: Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Greece. Riots everywhere. U.K. – oh, no, it wasn't – no, the riots last year in the U.K., those were hooligans.
(Laughter)
That's right, hooligans. You know, oh, and the ones over there in Greece, those are anarchists. You could see it all over their face, behind the masks. The war is going on. And the top is totally out of touch with the rest of society.
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ROCKWELL: Gerald, speaking of war, are we facing, in your view, a war with Iran? A war "on" Iran, I should say.
CELENTE: Well, the war on Iran has already begun. An act of war has been declared. When President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year's Eve, which also robbed us of our rights, they effectively declared economic war against Iran. They're shutting Iran out of the oil market. It's nearly impossible for banks to do business and to do trading to clear the money to buy the oil. And even if they can, as Iran is accepting gold in exchange for oil, they can't get insurance on the tankers. So the war has already been declared.
But this is very important, Lew, and I'm glad you brought this up. Because we just saw the meeting between Netanyahu and Obama in Washington and all of the press and all of the concern it's generating. What it has effectively done now is give Netanyahu, with everybody's focus on Iran, free will once again to start killing the Palestinians, as they did last week, under the guise that they uncovered a plot of a militant that was going to launch an attack against Israel. So they preemptively struck. And as we're speaking, they've probably killed about 30 Palestinians in the last couple of days. And then the propaganda is, oh, yes, well, they're firing them rockets into Israel. Oh, rockets, sure. We could call them rockets. I mean, these are crudely made things that cost maybe 100 bucks to make. And they've been landing everywhere and nowhere and they haven't killed anybody. So the propaganda you see has worked perfectly. We've put everybody's focus on attention, and Israel can continue to do what they're doing, stealing land and killing Palestinians without anybody condemning them.
And here's the hypocrisy, Lew, that Israel could thumb their nose at international law anytime they want, but if Assad or Ahmadinejad step out of line, or Gadhafi, in the least way at snubbing their nose at international law, the full force of the United States and NATO comes down on them.
ROCKWELL: Well, that's right. And, of course, actually, the U.S. has been persecuting Iran in economic terms for decades, and has never forgiven, of course, the fact that the U.S. representative in the Middle East, the Shah of Iran, the murderous police-state, corrupt son of a gun, who was ruling Iran for the U.S. and for the British and for various oil interests, that he was tossed out by the people. They've never forgiven the Iranian people. So they've been punishing them, lowering their standard of living drastically for decades. And as you say, however, this most recent one is the worst yet in an attempt to destroy all international trade. These are the people, of course, who talk about – (laughing) – wanting free trade, but they don't believe in free trade. They believe in sanctions. And they're trying to crush the Iranians.
Do you think that it will actually be – I mean, India, so far, is saying they are going to deal in gold with Iran for Iranian oil. Do you think that will be allowed or will the U.S. be bombing India next?
CELENTE: No, what's happened is – yes, India said that they would be able to do it but they cancelled the last shipment because they couldn't get insurance on the tankers.
ROCKWELL: So the U.S. pressures the insurance companies not to insure the tankers?
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CELENTE: Exactly. The U.S. and the U.K.; that other little chicken hawk over there, Cameron. You know, I hate all these little guys, you know, that talk tough and they have the cajones the size of a moth. You know, they've never gotten in a school-yard brawl, let alone in a real fight, and here they're ready to go talk tough and kill other people.
And by the way, here's another – we're talking about Iran and what the United States has done to them, as you well point out – the SAVAK, the secret police under the Shah, the brutality – and how the CIA and the U.K.'s – was it MI6 or 5 or zero – overthrew the democratically elected government of Mossadegh in 1953 in Iran because he had the nerve to throw out Standard Oil and Anglo Iranian Oil, better known today as B.P. So people don't know that history and they think it's just maybe there are a bunch of lunatics running Iran. But what happens is, because they radicalize the situation by not letting the revolution happen, then it happens the way it is.
But I hear people like Obama and all these phony presidential candidates always using Christianity and the name of Christ to make their point. So, for example, at a recent prayer breakfast, President Obama said, "As good Christians, we should all embrace the words of our Creator and, quote, 'love they neighbor'." Oh, yes –
(Laughter)
– except if it's Iran.
ROCKWELL: Yes.
CELENTE: Or how about Pakistan or sending Predator drones into Yemen? Not those neighbors. How about Afghanistan? Bombs away, Obama. I mean, the hypocrisy of this. And nobody calls them out. Love thy neighbor!
ROCKWELL: Is it that Americans are just blood thirsty? Are we a blood-thirsty people?
CELENTE: America has lost its morality. These wars are going on all around us. How many more atrocities have to happen in front of us before people stand up and speak out?
And I'll tell you, Lew, people ask me, when are things going to change. They're not going to change until the people change. It's about the individual. What are you doing in your life emotionally and spiritually and physically to be in the best shape that you can? How are you dealing with people every day? Are you doing honest business? Are you living an honest life? Nothing is going – you know that great saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears"? Anybody that has really studied at anything knows what I'm talking about. You know, you could be going on something a long time, a great teacher comes in, everything changes because you were ready to accept it. When the people change morally, then the leadership, I believe, will appear.
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This word of "American exceptionalism"? Exceptional in what? Waging wars against innocent people for fake reasons? Exceptional for what? Being drug addicted on pharmaceutical drugs that have people's minds wasted? Exceptional at what? Eating more junk food and becoming the most obese nation on earth? No. Until we regain or morality, then nothing will change.
ROCKWELL: Gerald, what's ahead for us here economically? Do you think we face the sort of social unrest here that we've seen in Europe?
CELENTE: Yes, but it's going to be clamped down upon very hard. And you can see with the police what they're doing, the weaponry that they have, and the actions they're taking to bring down the smallest provocation.
And the other thing, Lew, is that they're going to continue to dump money into the system to keep it going. As you well know, the inflation numbers mean absolutely nothing. They're cooked numbers. So it's kind of like the frog in the boiling water. You know, you just keep turning the heat up a little bit, a little bit, a little bit until its dead – that's what's going on. I don't think there's going to be a big shock unless – and, again, you can't predict the future – unless the shock comes through a false flag or a real war or real terror, and that will bring the economy down.
And Obama has done a wonderful job in bringing it into a crash mode by putting these sanctions on Iran, having driven up the price of oil in the last three months, by how many percentages, 10%, 15%, because of the sanctions. So if oil prices continue to go high, we go into an economic decline.
If there's war against Iran, it is going to be the beginning of World War III. And we will go into a depression the likes of which people have never seen. This will reverberate worldwide.
These are the Persians. There's 70 million of them. They are not Iraq. They're not Libya. They're not Syria. And they're not going away.
ROCKWELL: Gerald, if we start that war and, of course, have all the economic troubles we're having, and having massive inflation, do we face an inflationary depression? More to the point, do we face such an economic crisis where they'll put price and wage controls on as well?
CELENTE: Yes. They'll put wage and price and controls on. It'll be totally – Lew, just close your eyes for a moment and imagine you're living in war-torn Europe in World War II. That's what it's going to feel like here. The government is going to take measures that we could never, ever have imagined that would occur in the United States of America. All our freedoms will be lost. There will be complete control.
The merger of state and corporate powers, by definition, is called Fascism. And Fascism has already come to America. It's come with the too-big-to-fail bailouts. It's come with the rescues of G.M. and other companies. It's come with the people that are running the government, coming from Wall Street, and the revolving door. It came with the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act. And it's here now. So all of those things that you mentioned will be amplified even more if we go to war against Iran.
ROCKWELL: Well, you know, in addition to, I thought, the magnificent moral advice that you gave to everyone, what can one do? Is it too late to prepare? Is it too late to help yourself and your family preserve something of what you've got for the future against the problems that we face?
CELENTE: Oh, not at all. You know – (laughing) – the real solution – (laughing) – it's the individual. It's every individual to look within themselves, to reach the greatness that they have, and start making your life more and more fulfilling by doing more in a way that's going to prepare you to live independent, without corporate rule over you.
You
know, one of my slogans is "break the chains." I don't eat corporate
food. Olive Garden is not Italian food for the record, you know
(laughing). I don't do everything I can – I do everything I
can with local. I have a fellow right over here – I can look
out my window – Hudson Valley Traders, a wonderful coffee shop.
You know what he's doing? He's buying these cattle. He's getting
them from Wyoming. You know, we live in the Hudson Valley over here.
There's farm land. And he's raising beef now, enough for him and
his family and also to sell locally because of the high quality.
People are moving off the grid. It's become possible now with the
technology.
Oh, no, you don't have to go down with the ship. It's kind of like standing on the Costa Concordia and waiting for the captain to tell you to abandon ship as he's already off the ship with some chiquita, you know, sipping martinis. And you're waiting for them? No, the future is in your hands. "The fire in the North Tower is under control; go back to your offices," they said to the people on 9/11. So the people that follow the authorities are the people that are going to go under in these times.
There's plenty of time to prepare. You know, my three basics: guns, gold and a getaway plan, but a real prepper in a proper sense, not an Armageddonite sense. But, hey, I’m going to live my life. I'm going to create my future on my own, using my own God-given skills that they drain from us by putting us into the system, so to retain those and to get those back.
I was thinking, Lew, most adults act like children. They don't think they're ever going to die and they obey authority.
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ROCKWELL: Well, of course, the authority also seeks to make us all children. I mean, they seek to make us dependent and they seek to – I mean, this is the public school systems and the media, so much else. Yes, it does seek to make us stupid children. We're supposed to think that the government is our parents. And one of Hitler's favorite analogies, he always said, that honor thy father and thy mother, that commandment applied to the state – (laughing) – we should treat the state like our parents. Well, they seem to have the same view in this country.
CELENTE: Yes. You know, and also, you know, I'm really thinking about this upcoming election. Any self-respecting person that votes in this election deserves what they get. No, I mean, let me rephrase that. No self-respecting person would vote in this election. How could anybody look at themselves in the mirror and say, I voted for a lesser of two evils? What kind of person would do that?
My solution for this upcoming election, if we have a choice between Romney and Obama, is not to vote at all. You know, you're going to get screwed. It's only going to be, you're going to get screwed differently. A lesser of two evils, that's what they do. So here we are going into the final months of the presidential reality show and people are going to vote for this Republican and Democratic mafia to run their lives, to tell them what to do, how to behave?
So this is really, to me, a very key election, because I believe that if less than 40% of the people go out to the polls, we could then declare this election illegitimate.
ROCKWELL: Gerald, there was a remark by a Spanish man a few months ago, preparatory to their election, and he said, "We're going to be boiled in oil." He said, "But we do have a choice as to the flavor of the oil." So that's, of course, about the size of the American election. And I think your advice is exactly right. In fact, when people don't vote, it very much bothers the regime. I mean, that's why there's so much propaganda about voting. We still have the right not to vote. We should exercise it.
CELENTE: Oh, in this election, anybody that votes for Obama or Romney should be ashamed of themselves if they're a self-respecting human being with courage, dignity, integrity and respect. That's my personal opinion of having looked at their track records, who they are, what they have delivered in the past, and what they promise to deliver in the future. It's more of the same. One comes out of the behind of an elephant; the other one comes on you from the donkey.
(Laughter)
ROCKWELL: Gerald Celente, you're a prophet, both in the moral sense and politically and economically. And thanks so much for joining us today and giving us the benefit of your wisdom.
CELENTE: Oh, Lew, it's an honor to be on your show.
ROCKWELL: Thank you, sir.
CELENTE: Thank you.
ROCKWELL: Bye-bye.
Well, thanks so much for listening to the Lew Rockwell Show today. Take a look at all the podcasts. There have been hundreds of them. There's a link on the upper right-hand corner of the LRC front page. Thank you.
December 27, 2012
Gerald Celente is founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking (Warner Books), and publisher of The Trends Journal. He has been forecasting trends since 1980, and recently called “The Collapse of ’09.”