Michael Krieger

My name is Michael Krieger, and I am the creator and editor of Liberty Blitzkrieg. I'm originally from New York City.

As far as my academic and professional background, I attended college at Duke University where I earned a double major in Economics and Spanish. After completing my studies in 2000, I took a job at Lehman Brothers where I worked with the Oil analyst in the Equity Research Department.  In 2005, I joined Sanford C. Bernstein where I served as the Commodities Analyst on the trading floor. About halfway through my time there, I started to branch out and write opinions on bigger picture "macro" topics that no one else at the firm was covering. These opinion pieces were extremely popular throughout the global investment community, and I traveled around providing advice to some of the largest mutual funds, pension funds and hedge funds in the world.

I loved my job, but as time passed I started to educate myself about how the monetary and financial system functions and what I discovered disgusted me. I no longer felt satisfied working within the industry, and I resigned in January 2010.  At that point, I started a family investment office and continued to write macro pieces on economic, social and geopolitical topics. That summer, I drove cross country for six weeks and ultimately decided to leave the crowded streets of Manhattan for the open spaces of Boulder, Colorado, where I currently reside.

In the years that followed, I gradually recognized that my true passion centers upon writing on issues of significant societal importance given the extremely challenging times we live in. This realization culminated with me losing interest in financial markets and eventually launching this website in early 2012.

If you are interested in a more detailed description, replete with colorful anecdotes, of how I ended up making this bizarre professional transition, take the time to watch the video below.

https//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DcqMN-FXCIE?rel=0

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

Inside Donald Trump’s Relationship with Alleged Pyramid Scheme Company ACN Inc.

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In a small apartment in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, I sat with my notepad and watched three hardworking single moms watch a video of Donald Trump. “The Trump name and success have really become one and the same,” he said, looking straight out from the screen, shaking his famous finger. “The two things I’ve mastered over the years is understanding the importance of timing in business and the ability to recognize great opportunities. So, I’m here to tell you about a company that provides these two essential components for success.”

The company was ACN, an investment opportunity that, in his words, is “probably even better than real estate.” He added with a shrug: “I like real estate, but this is probably better.”

Before Trump appeared, the video had shown dollar signs circling the screen, diving into bank accounts to show how that as you build an ACN customer base, and your customers, in turn, bring in even more customers, money will flow your way, as much as $8,000 a month. “Now, imagine if you could have half of that, or even a tenth of that,” the narrator said. “Would you like that?”

From the Salon article: The Donald Trump Scandal He Wants You to Forget

Have you ever heard of ACN Inc.? It’s a North Carolina based “multi-level marketing” company, and alleged pyramid scheme, which Donald Trump has had a relationship with since 2006. If not, it’s time to get up to speed.

This is for all you Trump fans.

From the Daily Caller:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was paid $1.35 million since last May for three speaking engagements for a network marketing company that has been accused of being nothing more than a pyramid scheme.

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Census Data Proves It – There Was No Economic Recovery Unless You Were Already Rich

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This is the perfect post for Fed day, where once again America’s Banana Republic central planning statists were too petrified to raise interest rates. The Fed has now missed the entire economic cycle without raising rates once. All you can do now is sit back, relax and wait for all hell to break loose.

Recently released data from the Census Bureau is nothing short of devastating to anyone who has been pushing the absurd meme of a strong U.S. economy.

There is simply no way one can look at this data and not conclude that the last seven years has been nothing more than an upward redistribution of wealth crafted by the Federal Reserve. As I’ve said many, many times before, central bankers should be tried for crimes against humanity for what they have done.

From Bloomberg:

U.S. Census Bureau data out Wednesday underscore just how lousy the recovery has been if you aren’t rich.

Looking at eight groups of household income selected by Census, only those whose incomes are already high to begin with have seen improvement since 2006, the last full year of expansion before the recession. Households at the 95th and 90th percentiles had larger earnings through 2014, the latest year for which data are available.

Want to see a chart of how bad this really is? Here you go:

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Video of the Day – Brawl Breaks Out in Japanese Parliament Over “War Bill”

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What do you get when you cross a collapsing economy with a government determined to pass a bill to make overseas military conflicts easier? You get this:

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Yep, this is what transpired overnight as tensions flared over the controversial “War Bill,” which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is determined to pass in the face of public opposition. I covered this story last month in the post, Unusually Massive Protests Erupt in Japan Against Forthcoming “War Legislation.” Here’s an excerpt:

This story is very important. Not only will this action increase the likelihood of World War III in the Far East, but it’s another important example of a government acting against the will of the people.

Polling has indicated the Japanese public is against a pivot toward militarization and war, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe  is pushing forward nonetheless. In fact, the current legislation to allow overseas military intervention has already passed the lower house of government. This prompted many Japanese to emerge from their decades long political apathy and get out into the streets. It’s estimated these protests were the largest in recent memory.

Now here’s the latest. From the Guardian:

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Eye in the Sky – 60 U.S. Police Departments Have Asked for Drone Certification

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Are drones coming to a police department near you? Possibly.

Next thing you know, they’ll be pepper spraying you from 10,000 feet.

From Yahoo News:

Los Angeles (AFP) – Drones are increasingly making their mark in the arsenal of US police forces, operating in a legal gray area and sparking concerns of constant surveillance of civilians.

Since 2012, government agencies can use small drones — weighing less than 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms — under certain conditions and after obtaining a certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration.

But the FAA, which is preparing small drone regulations, does not have authority on privacy protection and there is no specific framework on the issue on a national level.

Up to two dozen police forces are currently fully equipped with drones and trained to use them, including pioneers Grand Forks in North Dakota; Arlington, Texas; Mesa County, Colorado and the Utah Highway Patrol.

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Welcome to America – 14-Year-Old Texas Student Arrested for Building a Homemade Clock

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Police detained a 14-year-old Muslim boy after a teacher at his North Texas high school decided that a homemade clock he proudly brought to class looked like a bomb, according to school and police officials.

The family of Ahmed Mohamed said the boy was suspended for three days from MacArthur High School in the Dallas suburb of Irving after taking the clock to class on Monday.

The boy makes his own radios, repairs his own go-kart and on Sunday spent about 20 minutes before bedtime assembling a clock using a circuit board, power supply wired to a digital display and other items, The Dallas Morning News reported.

– From the ABC News article: Muslim Boy, 14, Detained for Making Clock Mistaken for Bomb

America is a deeply fallen nation. I don’t know how obvious it has to become before people come to grips and start to do something about it.

We haven’t decayed into this tepid abyss of immorality and decadence because of illegal immigrants, no matter what a two-bit demagogue preaching to desperate hordes infected with what Huxley referred to as herd-poisoning tells you. It’s entirely own our fault. We’ve allowed criminals and professional crony capitalists to take total control of the reins of power, and rather than fight against them, we aspire to become them. We have allowed them to scare us into submission by exploiting the tragic events of 9/11 to consolidate the world’s wealth into an increasingly small number of hands. Immigrants didn’t do this. We did, or at the very least, we allowed it to happen.

I harbor nostalgia for the days when Americans were merely ridiculed as being obese, McDonalds eating slobs ignorant of world affairs. We aren’t viewed with this combination of amusement and endearment any longer. Rather, the world now shudders with a mixture of disgust and horror in contemplation of what we have become. A decadent, clownish, wealth obsessed, corrupt, aggressive, war-mongering multitude of brainwashed imperial subjects. Worse yet, it’s not just ignorance anymore. There appears to be a idolization of anti-intellectualism running rampant, something on full display as of late with the ascendence of Donald Trump as a uniquely American strongman-savior. Not only is this stupid, it’s pathetic and dangerous.

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United Airlines CEO Walks Away with $21 Million Exit Package After Resigning Due to Corruption Probe

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Crime and corruption pay in America; you just have to be a corporate CEO, Wall Street executive, senior member of the military-industrial-intelligence complex or a politician. These so-called “elites” have perverted American justice to such a degree that not only are they now entirely above the law, they’re actually rewarded for unethical and crony behavior even after they get caught.

Nothing sums up how completely fraudulent and corrupt the U.S. economy has become than the following story, which describes how the United Airlines CEO who stepped down in the midst of a corruption probe is rewarded with a $21 million exit package, “free flights for life,” and free parking in downtown Chicago forever. No, I’m not making this up.

From the Omaha World-Herald:

When Jeff Smisek stepped down as United Airlines’ chief executive last week amid a federal corruption probe, he didn’t walk away empty-handed. He will receive at least $21 million in cash and stock, fly free for the rest of his life and keep his company car.

Then there is the parking.

He can park free in downtown Chicago and at airports in Houston and Chicago for the rest of his life.

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Does the Migrant Crisis Represent the End of the European Union?

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An emergency effort led by Germany to force European Union member states to accept mandatory quotas of refugees collapsed in discord.

Berlin called for EU financial penalties against countries that refused to accommodate their share of migrants. A Czech official said such threats were empty but nonetheless “damaging”. Slovakia said they would bring the “end of the EU”.

In scenes with echoes of the Cold War, families with small children sat in fields beneath the former communist country’s new 3.5-metre (10 foot) high fence, which runs almost the length of the border, topped with razor wire.

The greatest migration to Western Europe since World War Two has also created an institutional crisis for the 28-member EU, with one of the bloc’s signature achievements, its Schengen system of border-free travel across much of the continent, unraveling this week under the strain.

– From the Reuters article: Hungary Shuts EU Border, Taking Migrant Crisis into its Own Hands

Although everyone watching has been convinced that Europe’s disastrous economy and related debt crisis would be the spark to unravel the European Union project, it appears history has its own plans.

While EU technocrats have demonstrated an uncanny ability to scheme, threaten, kick the can and lie their way around the debt crisis, the migrant crisis will prove to be a much graver threat to the project. Strikingly, all it took was a few weeks of unrelenting migrants crossing into EU borders to put an end what is essentially the only achievement of the European Union — the Schengen system of borderless travel.

Without that, what is the EU really? A collection of nation-states forced by bureaucrats to pretend they are part of an artificial fantasy superstate called Europe? An amalgamation of debt serfs and technocratic overlords? See what I’m getting at?

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How the Department of Justice is Actively Trying to Prevent Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform

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Civil asset forfeiture is one of the most unethical and barbaric practices routinely performed by law enforcement in these United States today. Naturally, the Department of Justice is doing everything it can to protect the practice.

When I say that the rule of law is dead in America, I am not exaggerating. In fact, with each passing day it becomes increasingly obvious that the Justice Department not only has no interest in justice, it appears to view its primary role as coddling and protecting lawlessness amongst the so-called “elite” and their minions.

Today’s post proves the point once again. The state of California is in the process of passing a civil asset forfeiture bill, and in response, the DOJ is providing talking points to the California District Attorneys’ Association so that it can more effectively fight the bill. All of this after the DOJ had previously expressed faux support for civil asset forfeiture reform.

TechDirt reports:

At the beginning of this year, Attorney General Eric Holder attempted to close an exploitable loophole in asset forfeiture laws. State and local law enforcement agencies often sought federal “adoption” of seizures in order to route around statutes that dumped assets into general funds or otherwise limited them from directly profiting from these seizures. By partnering with federal agencies, local law enforcement often saw bigger payouts than with strictly local forfeitures.

The loophole closure still had its own loopholes (seizures for “public safety,” various criminal acts), but it did make a small attempt to straighten out some really perverted incentives. But deep down inside, it appears the DOJ isn’t really behind true forfeiture reform. In fact, it seems to be urging local law enforcement to fight these efforts by pointing out just how much money these agencies will “lose” if they can’t buddy up with Uncle Sam.

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Video of the Day – Ralph Nader Blasts Harvard Law School for Serving “Corporate Crooks on Wall Street”

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Would you be proud of representing the corporate crooks in Wall Street? What is the purpose of the Harvard Law School? Well, you know who knows what the purpose is? The corporate giants. They know exactly what the purpose of the Harvard Law School is. It’s to provide endless relays of lawyers who service their interests.

Harvard Law is not an institution that provokes any kind of consternation or fear among the power structure, just the opposite. It’s an institution, and I’ll get around to the exceptions. On the whole, it’s an institution that rationalizes corporate power brilliantly, services corporate power brilliantly with its graduates and some of its departments here.

– Ralph Nader during a recent speech at Harvard Law School

Ralph Nader is a Harvard Law School graduate. Here’s what he had to say about the institution’s shameless decay into the worship of greed and cronyism.

Two words: Banana Republic.

For related articles, see:

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Video of the Day – Bernie Sanders Speaks at Liberty University

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I came here today, because I believe from the bottom of my heart that it is vitally important for those of us who hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse. It is easy to go out and talk to people who agree with you…that’s not hard to do. That’s what politicians by and large do. We go out and talk to people who agree with us. But it is harder, but not less important, for us to try and communicate with those who do not agree with us on every issue.

– Bernie Sanders at Liberty University

As much as I disagree with Bernie Sanders on many important issues (mostly economic), I have a lot of respect for the man. I cannot really say the same about any other presidential candidate in the race at the moment.

The fact that Sanders chose to take time off from his campaign to speak to students of a private, Christian university founded by Jerry Falwell tells you a lot about the type of man he is. While Trump is busying hurling insults, and doing his best to appeal to the darker, more hateful aspects of the human condition, Sanders is out there trying to build bridges.

Take the time to watch the video and decide for yourself:

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