The super powers in the West are doing what they can to provoke Russia and indirectly China and Iran into a world war. Most people alive today were not adults when WWII started and therefore did not follow the lead up to the war. But today the whole world can watch how the West has chosen to attack a country which has no major significance geopolitically and does not threaten any other country. Still the West clearly knows that bombing of Syria can start a global conflict with potentially horrendous consequences.

As the world is standing on the precipice of a total breakdown, both economically and geopolitically, an obvious question is: “Where is the money coming from” to save the world from perdition. The same question was asked to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1970s when he was starting a global spiritual project. Maharishi was the founder of Transcendental Meditation and known as the Guru of groups like the Beatles and Beach Boys. When asked “Where is the money coming from”, he replied “from wherever it is now.”

Between today and 2025, the world will be a very different place. We can learn nothing about the next 4 to 7 years from government, central bank or media propaganda as they neither understand what will happen nor tell the truth. But we can learn a lot from history. Most people rely on the internet for information or news but most of it is either indigestible, misleading, fake or just too overwhelming to comprehend.

Is this it? Is the bull market finished and the good times over? Well, they could very well be. We are looking at a world which is rotten to the core, a world which is built on debt which will never be repaid. And a debt which is artificially supporting $100s of trillions of assets and quadrillions if we include derivatives. The supposedly most powerful economy in the world (the US of course) is now so indebted that it needs to fight the whole world in all kinds of different wars for its survival, with the latest being a trade war.

In the US, fake gold is now a growing problem that is not being tackled. Congressman Alex Mooney (not Money!) has just written to the US Mint of the growing problem of high-quality counterfeits. He also wrote a letter to the Mint in November 2017 but the Mint responded that the problem was not significant. But the US Secret Service has since briefed the office of Congressman Mooney about the extent of the problem and the lack of supportive actions of other agencies. There we have it – a complacent Mint on the one hand and a Secret Service which is involved in fake gold on the other hand. So this is clearly a major problem.

Gambling is according to Wikipedia the wagering of money (or something of value) on an event with an uncertain outcome. Three elements are required for gambling, Consideration, chance, and prize. Thus, you make a bet and if you are lucky you win a prize but you can also lose it all. Gambling has been around for thousands of years and maybe longer. The first 6-sided dice dates back 3000 years. Eventually gambling became more organised as casinos were established. The first well known casino was set up in Venice in the early 1600s.

Central bank heads have been at it again last week. And they have clearly all been singing from the same hymn sheet. The messages have been very similar from the bosses of the Fed, ECB and BOJ. The head of the Swedish Riksbank had a different and much more interesting message. More about that later.

In the old Greek mythology, the opening of Pandora’s box unleashed many evils on the world. Within the next few years, we will see a modern Pandora’s box being opened that will lead to events in the world which will be as devastating as when the ancient box was opened. The very big difference is that this time the consequences will not be part of historical mythology. Instead they will be real and catastrophic for the whole world on a scale never experienced in history.

Virtually no investor studies history and the few who do always think it is different today. The most important lesson is that people never learn. If they did, they wouldn’t be invested in a stock market that on any criteria is now at a bubble extreme. And they wouldn’t be invested in a global debt market which has grown exponentially in recent decades and which will become worthless in the next few years as debtors default. Nor would anyone hold paper money which is down 97-99% in the last 100 years and which is guaranteed to soon fall the final bit to take the value to zero.

During the 2006-9 financial crisis, a collapse of the global financial system was avoided by massive money printing, guarantees and allowing banks to value assets at cost rather than market, as well as a panic lowering of interest rates from as high as 6% in the US to zero or negative. Bonds issued by eight major countries currently have negative interest rates from 1 & 2 year debt for Italy up to 15 & 30 year debt for Japan, Germany and Switzerland.

What is absolutely certain is that global wealth will be totally decimated in the next 4-8 years. It doesn’t matter if you are very rich or “just own a house” with some equity left. Most of it will come down in value by 75-95% in the next few years as the debt and asset bubbles implode. But what very few people realise or plan for, is the confiscation of wealth that will take place in coming years. There will be confiscation on many levels.

What will happen between now and 2025? Nobody knows of course but I will later in this article have a little peek into the next 4-8 years. The concentration of wealth in the world has now reached dangerous proportions. The three richest people in the world have a greater wealth than the bottom 50%. The top 1% have a wealth of $33 trillion whilst the bottom 1% have a debt $196 billion.