Caitlin Johnstone on the Iran war narrative falling apart

What we are watching with Iran is a war propaganda narrative failing to get airborne. It was all set up and ready to go, they had the whole marketing team working on it, and then it faceplanted right on the linoleum. This is what a failed narrative management campaign looks like. It is possible for us to see this more and more.

Today I have a lot more hope. It’s becoming clear that the manipulations of the US war machine are becoming more and more obvious to more and more people and that everyday, regular Americans are reacting with a healthy amount of horror and revulsion. There was always the risk that the US population would already be sufficiently paced ahead of these revelations and there would be little to no reaction, but that didn’t happen. Americans are seeing what they’re doing, and they don’t like it, and they don’t want it.

~ Caitlin Johnstone, "The Fact That Americans Need to be Deceived Into War Shows Their Underlying Goodness," LewRockwell.com, June 24, 2019

Caitlin Johnstone on propaganda and intelligence

Being susceptible to propaganda has very little to do with intelligence. You will notice that some of the smartest people you know not only fervently believe the propaganda, they are able to gaslight themselves and others more effectively than most with their own clever arguments. A high IQ does not inoculate you against propaganda, in fact it can work against you because agile minds are able to create the most convincing kinds of reframes.

~ Caitlin Johnstone, "The Fact That Americans Need to be Deceived Into War Shows Their Underlying Goodness," LewRockwell.com, June 24, 2019

Senator Hiram Johnson on war and truth

Truth is the first casualty of war.

~ Senator Hiram Johnson, 1918

(This quote is attributed to Johnson, but without any confirmed citations of original source.)

Harold Ickes on provoking Japan towards war (1941)

There might develop from the embargoing of oil to Japan such a situation as would make it, not only possible but easy, to get into this war in an effective way.

~ Harold Ickes, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, June 23, 1941

James Grant: negatively-yielding bonds at record $12.5 trillion

Accommodative signals from the European Central Bank on Tuesday pushed the yield on a host of securities below zero, including the not-quite blue-chip Bulgarian government three-year notes.  Some $12.5 trillion of securities worldwide are priced to yield less than nothing, an all-time record.

~ James Grant, "Bad Actors: Hamilton Pans Central Bankers," Barron's, June 24, 2019

David Hale on BoJ's role in stabilizing the '87 Crash

Japan played a major role in 1987-88 stabilizing our financial markets.  There was central bank intervention, $60 billion worth.  They kept their monetary policy under control through credit controls, not interest rates.  They used moral suasion over the insurance companies when (the U.S.) couldn't sell (Treasury) bonds.  They directly focused on stabilization of the American economy and financial markets.

~ David Hale, chief economist, Kemper Financial Services, "Hale Believes Economic Thinkers Will Supercede Arms Strategists," Investor's Daily, February 1, 1990

David Hale sees Japan ahead of the U.S. and Europe (per capita income) in 5 years (1990)

The projected annual growth rate of American productivity in the next five years is 1% to 1.5%.  The projection for Europe is 2% to 3%, excluding Eastern Europe.  For Japan, it's 4%.  At these rates, by the turn of the century, U.S. per-capita income will be $25,000 a year while Japan will be at $32,000 and Europe will be in the low 20s.  The gap with Japan is very big, and it reflects the low level of saving and investment in the United States.

~ David Hale, chief economist, Kemper Financial Services, "A Top Economist Frets About '80s Hangover," Investor's Daily, February 1, 1990