Celente predicts more protests and stock market trouble ahead

The anti-establishment movements such as what we have seen in France and Italy are growing and will continue into the New Year says Gerald Celente from the TrendsJournal.com. In a wide ranging interview with Jim Goddard on This Week in Money, Celente also suggests weakness in the housing market is a bad omen for the entire economy.

Celente explains that wealth inequality is the driving factor behind protests and populist movements around the world:

The equity market boom that began following the great recession after the panic of '08 has only enriched the 1%. In the United States we have three people, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who have more money than 160 million people in this country, half the nation. According to Oxfam eight people have more money than half the world's population combined. So, what you are seeing with these yellow vest movements and others, people are not making ends meet and they are going down hard. So, we are going to see more protests.

But Celente doesn't see wealth redistribution coming to America because the population is distracted with identity politics.

We have the divided states of America. It's identity politics. All you have to do is look at the midterm elections. It was identity issues, no major issues.

In Europe it is a different story where he suggests we have seen the beginning of end of the eurozone, including the euro currency.

When will it end? Maybe 5 years or 10 years, but it's coming.

While Celente expects the Fed to raise rates this week, next year is a different story.

Fed funds futures are now pricing in a nearly 40% chance the central banks does not touch rates next year and a 33% possibility it lifts rates only once. Markets are only pricing in a mere 2% chance the Fed raises rates by the three times it indicated in September.

With respect to the arrest of Huawei executive Sabrina Meng at the request of the U.S. in connection to sanctions against Iran, Celente suggests that Iran is the key driver of her detention.

It's not the trade war so much, you mentioned the word Iran. And that's the one we should all be watching.

Celente believes there is a wild card risk that war could break out eventually in the Middle East which would push up oil process and crash equity markets globally.

In terms of globalism versus nationalism, he believes nationalism and populisms are movements, but they are not returning power to the people in most instances. On Trump, Celente says,

For example, Trump came in on a populist movement because people were tired of the two-party establishment. But he is certainly not president of the people. Look at his track record. Look at the tax breaks he gave to the big corporations, they used most of the money in stock buybacks not capital improvements. According to the Tax Policy Center, 82% of those tax cuts went to the 1%.

Celente suggests most populist movements have leaders that are for major businesses and the military. In terms of democratic reforms, Celente believes direct democracy is the only solution for a brighter future. He says if Switzerland can do it, any country can do it:

You can have blockchain democracy. If you can transfer trillions of dollars in milliseconds, you can vote online. Look at the stupid, moronic, disgusting, imbecilic voting system that was in front of everybody's eyes in America's 2018 midterm elections, you mean you can't improve that?

For the New Year, stock markets look bearish to Celente because there are more negatives than positive.

We don't see a bullish scenario that pushes the market up...now that the cheap money flow is stopping, now that Trump's tax cuts are wearing off...you are going to start seeing a slowdown next year.

Celente believes the US is in a stage one recession. He points to weak housing as the first stage.

The stage one recession is real estate, when real estate goes you start seeing collapses following it.

Celente believes gold is the ultimate safe haven and is near a bottom.

When you are looking at these populist movements and what's going on now, and now we believe we are in stage we are in recession, go back to the great depression in the 1930s you had the same kind of elements starting to happen: strong populist movements, nationalist movements followed by the 1940s, World War Two. We're in that kind of environment. People have lost trust in their governments, and they are going to be losing trust in the equity markets shortly. So, we believe gold will be again that ultimate safe haven asset that it has always been.

In terms of electronic vehicles, Celente suggests they are not really going to progress until a new technology is developed to increase mileage.

Finally, when it comes to the Trudeau subsidies for the mainstream media in Canada, Celente does not pull any punches:

You don't have a free press, it's a joke, when you are getting money from the government.