Ralph Baker’s Shock Exchange: How Inner-City Kids From Brooklyn Predicted the Great Recession and the Pain Ahead predicted the fall out from the faux wealth effect from former president Barack Obama and the federal reserve would be social unrest. After terrorist attacks in Charlottesville last weekend led to 24 injuries and four deaths, the social unrest Shock Exchange predicted is here. Protests against the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue began Friday night with white nationalists marching with tiki torches, and chanting, “You will not replace us. Jews will not replace us … Blood and soil!”
First of all, I knew the removal or the Robert E. Lee statue would get a reaction from southerners. Many have relatives who fought and died in the civil war and know many of the battles by heart. Some even have their grandfathers’ civil war uniform stored away in the attack. The logic goes that Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and General P.G.T. Beauregard are as much a part of their history has Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Virginia governor Harry Byrd. They will not go quiet while the government attempts to erase their history.
Secondly, the alt-right movement has been gathering steam lately. It is practically another name for white supremacy, but followers feel more comfortable saying “alt-right” in public. It has been championed by breitbart.com – the conservative website founded by former Trump campaign advisor Steve Bannon. Bannon helped craft Trump’s populist message that led to his steamrolling of Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush in the Republican primaries; it later led to Trump’s improbable victory over Hiilary Clinton in the presidential election.
If Trump’s “Keep America Great Again” campaign slogan emboldened the alt-right. Bannon’s stature as President Trump’s number two in command gave the movement legitimacy, and an ally within the White House. After hogging too much of the spotlight and fighting internally with key White House staffers, Bannon was recently fired by Trump “Apprentice-style.” He will likely return to breitbart.com where he can do the President’s bidding from afar. An unhinged Bannon, chafing from public humiliation could help the alt-right unleash fire and fury upon the U.S. for years to come. Bannon could make Charlottesville look like a picnic.
The Face Of Terror In Charlottesville
Despite a major gathering of Tiki men Friday night, no one could have predicted what happened in Charlottesville Saturday. Thousands of protesters and anti-protesters embarked on the town where Thomas Jefferson built the University of Virginia and called home. There were the alt-right, neo-Nazis, KKK and paramilitary personnel. Though Virgina got a bad reputation for the clashes to follow, many participants came from out of town – I understand that Ohio and Missouri were well-represented.
The protesters were armed with bats, chains, poles knives and guns. The interactions were limited to shouting and shoving matches at first, but the clashes became so violent that governor Terry Mcauliffe called for a state of emergency. And then the unthinkable happened:
The Alt-Right rally in Charlottesville to protest the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue from Emancipation Park quickly turned deadly. One person was killed and 26 injured after a gray Dodge Charger rammed into the a crowd of anti-protesters at a high rate of speed. The person was taken into custody and was later identified as James Alex Fields, Jr. of Maumee, Ohio …
Fields is held on suspicion of malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death. Given the high rate of speed Fields was driving at and the large crowd he rammed into, many onlookers assumed the act was done on purpose. Similar incidences around the globe have been quickly condemned as acts of terrorisms, particularly by President Trump. However, the President’s words were more measured when condemning the Alt-Right or Fields’ act of cowardice.
The injuries from the clash now total 35. The driver, James Alex Fields, Jr. killed one person; Fields, Jr. had been earlier seen marching and chanting with white supremacists. The death toll would have been a lot higher had he not rammed into two other cars, stopping his momentum. A bystander said it looked like Fields was drive to plow over the entire crowd. That said, two state troopers were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Albermarle county woods. Another person later died of a stroke after being victimized by one the white nationalist attackers. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called for a Department of Justice investigation. However, the physical and psychological damage from the carnage has already been done.
Charlottesville – The Social Unrest “Shock Exchange” Predicted
Millions of Americans are still reeling from the faux wealth effect orchestrated by President Barack Obama and the federal reserve. While Wall Street and big business swim in trillions of bailout and stimulus from the government, others live from paycheck to paycheck. According to Shock Exchange Obama’s stimulus spending was pure economic folly and a natural fall out would be social unrest:
The U.S. has all but escaped the recent violent demonstrations that have occurred in China, Russia and North Africa. Thus far, anger at Wall Street has involved rhetoric and peaceful demonstrations. While some are emboldened by the country’s ability to avoid violent conflict, it may be the calm before the storm …
It would be naive to assume that if the economy goes into deep recession the populace won’t place the blame at Wall Street’s doorstep. Double-digit interest rates, debt-to-GDP ratios approaching 100%, untenable rates of unemployment, and deflation in the housing sector will big business swims in billions of taxpayer funds, will be more powerful than 500 pounds of iron sash weights.
On Shock Exchange
Shock Exchange: How Inner-City Kids From Brooklyn Predicted the Great Recession and the Pain Ahead explains the stock market and U.S. economy through the eyes of the New York Shock Exchange, a financial literacy program Ralph Baker started in 2006 to share his passion for investing and basketball with his 11-year-old son and other boys his age. The book predicts the “pain ahead” for the U.S. economy, the demise of China, the pending stock market crash and social unrest.
Shock Exchange has been trumpeted by President Obama, the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. However, they conveniently forgot to cite the source. Critics try to make and unmake authors, but the market always decides. The book was also recently added to Trump Syllabus K12, crafted by Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead of Loyola University Maryland. Shock Exchange is the best book on Wall Street in the past 20 years, and on economics, it may be the most important book since the Great Depression.
