This story hits the wires today. I reference this artcile because this is another direct prediction/warning that Jim Rickards made earlier this year. He stated clearly that Russia was capable of cyber attacks on the US financial system and that they might use such attacks in response to sanctions.
Rickards went on to explain that he believes that Russia may have been behind one of the so called "flash crash" events that happened in the US stock market. He said no official explanation for why that happened was ever given.
We can also infer that Rickards has sources inside the US intelligence agencies that may have briefed him on this at some point.
There are so many issues that could impact stablility in the financial system happening it is somewhat overwhelming just trying to keep up with them. And yet, so far things still seem relatively calm (at least in the US). But here is just a partial list of things going on that could impact the sytem at any time and with little or no warning in many cases:
-sanctions against Russia, Iran, etc. (and the rebound impact on Europe)
-all the geo political hot spots (Ukraine, Middle East, now Hong Kong and China, etc)
-the still enormous sovereign debt that has not been resolved (including in the US)
-the gigantic derivatives market all over the world that could get triggered in a chain reaction
-recent threats by Russia to abandon the US dollar completely and the SWIFT system
-the BRICS threats to leave the US dollar based system
-worldwide epidemics like ebola or other diseases that become widespread and cause fear
-rising nationalist movements in Europe, the US, and the UK (talk of secession, etc)
-possible financial asset bubbles building per warnings from the IMF, BIS, and the G20
-the slowdown in global GDP - threat of deflation in the Eurozone, falling GDP in China
See what I mean. It is kind of a surreal world we live in. All of the above are ongoing issues and threats. Any of them could quickly escalate in a way that could impact global financial stability. But even with all this, things seem fairly calm for now. The US reported stronger labor numbers. The stock market is near all time highs. Some areas of the country seem to have a decent recovery going (while others seem to be lagging). There is no panic or major crisis happening right now.
All of this just illustrates why we say it is impossible for anyone to predict the future with certainty. We certainly make no such claim here. What we are trying to do here is track all of the above as best we can so readers will get a heads up if any of these things start to impact stability. And if things remain stable, we want readers to know that as well.
In the interconnected world we now live in, staying informed is probably the most important thing a person can do. We will try our best here to help with that as best we can. We do thank readers here who share information with us as anything that helps provide better understanding is valued here. We hope readers here find the blog helpful and will feel comfortable recommending it to their friends.
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