Monthly Archives: January 2018

Jan 24 2018

Adam Schiff and Dianne Feinstein Demand Twitter Investigate #ReleaseTheMemo…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 23, 2018 by

The desperation of democrats has crossed into ludicrous world.  Rep. Adam Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein have written a letter to Facebook and Twitter demanding an immediate investigation into the strong support of the #ReleaseTheMemo campaign.

If you thought CNN was absurd last year when they spent eight months investigating the 2016 election results and determined a conspiracy behind the mobile ap ‘Pokemon-Go’ was a factor in causing Hillary Clinton to lose, well, Shiff-for-brains and DiFi apparently have one-upped that conspiracy.

(Source)

 

Nice to know this is the type of insufferable stupidity Democrats in congress are focused on. Apparently, Mr. Shiff and Mrs. Feinstein cannot fathom an engaged American electorate that would be seeking transparency in government; therefore the scale of the social-media support must mean, Russians !

Echo-chambered moonbat logic thy name is…

Keep in mind these Democrats are the ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee (Schiff), and Senate Judiciary Committee (Feinstein).  Think about that.

Unfortunately for those who cling to left-wing conspiracy theories, according to early analysis from Twitter it turns out normal people just want to know what their government is doing.  The campaign is exclusive to America and U.S. accounts:

(Via Daily Beast) […] a knowledgeable source says that Twitter’s internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo. There are no preliminary indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is either predominantly Russian.

In short, according to this source, who would not speak to The Daily Beast for attribution, the retweets are coming from inside the country.  (read more)

 

Here’s the full letter:

Russians, gottabe !!

 

Jan 24 2018

Elizabeth I Two-Tier Monetary System


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong Economics 101

Re-Posted Jan 24, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: You have mentioned that the US maintained a two-tier monetary system with trade dollars during the 19th century. Did Britain ever do the same or was the fact that Britain was the financial capital so they were exempt?

Thank you for the help and education.

DL

ANSWER: When Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was on the throne, Spain was the financial capital. Therefore, we do see an attempt to employ a two-tier monetary system in England at that time. Elizabeth issued four denominations of Eight, Four, Two and One silver Testern as they were known. They were also called “Portcullis Money”, This was an attempt at producing a trade coinage sponsored by the newly formed East India Company to be used in overseas trade principally in the Far East. However, the competition against Spain and the Spanish Eight Reales (dollars) and its fractions was far too great. Eventually, the coinage did not succeed and thus the surviving coins are a rarity today. The surviving coins are most likely those that were retained in London as a novelty.

The abbreviated Latin legends translate as on the obverse “Elizabeth by the Grace of God, Queen of England France and Ireland; and on the reverse “I have made God my Helper” a Psalm from the Bible.

Jan 24 2018

Vertical Market are the Most Difficult to Trade Even With 30 Years Experience


Armstrong Economics Blog/Training Tools

Re-Posted Jan 24, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Dear Mr. Armstrong,
I want to thank you for the great advice some months back, “Do not short this market”, I took your advice. I day trade, and other experienced Traders, with over 30 years experience, recommended I shorting the DOW, Swing Trades, I did not short the markets. Their positions were eventually stopped out with big losses.

Thanks again

A. (from London)

REPLY: Keep in mind that even 30 years of trading experience does not stack up to the type of market we are involved in. VERTICAL MARKETS are different animals altogether. We are in the DENIAL STAGE and that means the market presses higher without a major bullish attitude. What will eventually happen is the more the Dow presses higher, we will reach that major line and when crossed, people will just throw in the towel and then say it will NEVER stop.

I restate that position once again – DO NOT SHORT THIS MARKET. You Must Wait for Socrates to give the signal. It picked the high in Bitcoin. It can do things even with the historical data because it is forecasting the entire world and everything has its place.

Categories: Training Tools
Jan 24 2018

Can We Stop the Government Borrowing & Just Print Without Inflation?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Jan 24, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

The conservatives are going nuts about raising the debt ceiling as if this really matters. They claim: “The United States is effectively bankrupt, but that doesn’t matter to the GOP. Once evangelists of fiscal responsibility and scourges of deficit spending, Republicans today glory in spilling red ink. The national debt is now $20.6 trillion, greater than the annual GDP of about $19.5 trillion. Alas, with Republicans at the helm, deficits are set to continue racing upwards, apparently without end.”

What they fail completely to grasp here is until the system is completely revamped and we adopt the way the Roman Empire was funded from 280BC to 68AD, just creating the money to fund the government instead of borrowing it, there is no hope in solving this issue. In a recession, Keynes argued borrowing can be beneficial in creating economic stimulus and shortening the recession. Governments used that statement to then perpetually borrow year after year.

In 1940 a Cadillac sold for $1675. Currently, the low-end Cadillac is $35,000. This is almost 21 times the 1940 price level. The US national debt was $51 billion before the war and it is now $20 trillion. The debt has risen 392% compared to 20.89% for a Cadillac. The minimum wage in 1940 was 30 cents per hour. Today, the minimum wage is $10.10 per hour in 2018, which is a rise of 33.6%. However, if we look at collectibles, the famous 1804 silver dollar sold for $30,000 around 1940. In 1999, one sold for $4.14 million. Here we had an advance of 138%.

Then there was the Peter Paul Rubens which just sold for $58 million in 2016. The owners had tried to sell during the Great Depression. Nobody was interested. They then lent to a monastery where it hung in a hallway for 20 years. Other than that exception, nothing has advanced in proportion to the national debt. Therefore, the idea that increasing the money supply will automatically result in proportional inflation cannot be proven by any means of a statistical study. It is a nice theory, but it has never been proven to work. Hence, 10 years nearly of ECM quantitative easing failed to reverse the deflation.

If we had simply created the money instead of borrowing it, the national debt would be less than 50% of what it is today. The government borrowing competes with the private sector reducing economic growth and creating a bid for money that raises interest rates for the average person. Inflation did not go crazy in Rome until about 250AD onward.

The theory that it is less inflationary to borrow than create meant something when government debt was not collateral for loans. You could not borrow against TBills or bonds before 1971. Ever since borrowing is more inflationary because we then have to pay interest to keep it rolling when we have no intention of paying it off. The entire system will go crazy and as interest rates rise, the debt will explode.

Debt today is simply money that pays interest.

Jan 23 2018

Deep State, Via Washington Post, Fights Back and Defends Andrew “Andy” McCabe…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 23, 2018 by

By now everyone should be fully aware that the Washington Post is the media PR firm selling the position of the intelligence apparatus.  Tonight the WaPo rises in defense of Asst. FBI Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe by pushing a ridiculous -and anonymously sourced- story about President Trump asking McCabe who he voted for in 2016.

(WaPo) Shortly after President Trump fired his FBI director in May, he summoned to the Oval Office the bureau’s acting director for a get-to-know-you meeting.

The two men exchanged pleasantries, but before long, Trump, according to several current and former U.S. officials, asked Andrew McCabe a pointed question: Whom did he vote for in the 2016 election?

McCabe said he didn’t vote, according to the officials, who like others interviewed for this article requested anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive matter.

Trump, the officials said, also vented his anger at McCabe over the several hundred thousand dollars in donations his wife, a Democrat, received for her failed 2015 Virginia state Senate bid from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Hillary Clinton.

McCabe, 49, who had been FBI deputy director for a little more than a year when James B. Comey was fired, is at the center of much of the political jockeying surrounding the investigation into potential coordination between Trump associates and the Kremlin. He has for a number of months been the subject of Trump’s ire, prompting angrytweets suggesting that the Russia probe is politically motivated by Democrats sore about losing the election.  (read more)

 

The transparency of motive here is hilarious.  The Washington Post is desperate to try and get some kind of push back established while many of the current, and all of the former, FBI and DOJ leaders are coming under investigation.

The Washington Post has staked their journalistic reputation on the Russia Collusion story.  There’s no possibility of any successful exit from two years of completely false reporting through the use of corrupt anonymous sources; some of those FBI sources we now know were Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Comey and Andy McCabe.

Jan 23 2018

Senator Ron Johnson Claims FBI “Informant” Has Information About Secret DOJ/FBI Meetings…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 23, 2018 by

Senator Ron Johnson, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has been investigating FBI activity surrounding the Clinton email investigation.

Tonight during an appearance on Fox News, Senator Johnson claimed to have an FBI informant who has information about secret ‘off-site’ meetings between high-level FBI and DOJ officials. WATCH:

.

Earlier today Senator Johnson released copies of text messages (full pdf below) between DOJ/FBI attorney Lisa Page and FBI Lead Investigator Peter Strzok which indicated the FBI agent saw no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion and was reluctant to join the Special Counsel Robert Mueller team because “there’s no big there there.”

(Via Chuck Ross) […] In an interview with WISN-Milwaukee radio host Jay Weber, Johnson read aloud a May 19, 2017 text that Strzok sent to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress.

Strzok wrote: “You and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern that there’s no big there there.”

“In other words, Peter Strzok, who was the FBI deputy assistant director of the counterintelligence division, the man who had a plan to do something because he just couldn’t abide Donald Trump being president, is saying that his gut sense is that there’s no big there there when it comes to the Mueller special counsel investigation,” he said.

The text message was included in 400 pages of text messages exchanged between Strzok and Page. Lawmakers have started reviewing the trove of documents for evidence of anti-Trump and pro-Clinton bias. (link)

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/369815742/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-QkCQyo4Tg0mzTH2nm7sm

.

Jan 23 2018

Alaska Hit by 7.9 Earthquake – The Start of a more Active Period lies Ahead


Armstrong Economics Blog/Nature

Re-Posted Jan 23, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

A 7.9 earthquake just struck off the coast of Alaska. There have been 12 major earthquakes greater than 7.0 since 1906. The 1964 earthquake was one of the biggest ever in North America measuring 9.2. The real significance of this event today is the fact that the Ring of Fire in the Pacific has 10 volcanoes now erupting all around. This is clearly from a cyclical standpoint rising in volatility to put this in market terms.

The other significant factor is this spans the course of 112 years which is also half the cycle duration of a 224-year wave that led to the discovery of the 8.6 year Economic Confidence Model.  We seem to be following the Pi cycle in nature as well. The disturbing fact here is the activity is rising around the Pacific Rim.

We should now expect the volatility to rise. After the 1964 earthquake, 1965 became an extremely active year with 18 magnitude 7.0+ events. Two of these were above magnitude 8 and struck within 10 days of each other.

So grab on to something if you live on the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire

Jan 23 2018

FBI “Small Group” Key Figure, James Rybicki, Quits – Here Comes The Lois Lerner Manuever…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 23, 2018 by

James Rybicki [Hi, Jim] was former FBI Director James Comey’s chief-of-staff and retained that position under current FBI Director Christopher Wray (more on that later).

Rybicki was the key figure in circulating and coordinating the “Clinton Exoneration Statement” read by Director Comey.  For Clinton endeavor Rybicki was the hub collecting and dispatching communication as the ‘talking points’ were constructed, edited, refined and ultimately finalized.

Additionally, Rybicki was the communication hub surrounding the Clinton-Lynch ‘Tarmac Meeting’ discussion points that led to public statements therein by the FBI and ultimately Loretta Lynch’s public statements about distancing herself from the investigation.

Also, James Rybicki was listed as one of the key witnesses requested by Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes as outlined in the letter of agreement between Nunes and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.   James Rybicki was/is being questioned by Nunes et al.

So today, James Rybicki quits.

WASHINGTON DC – FBI Director Chris Wray announced Tuesday that his chief of staff, James Rybicki, is leaving the bureau.

Rybicki, who served in the same position under former FBI Director James Comey, had come under scrutiny from Republicans in recent months about his role in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Rybicki was not fired. His departure, they said, has “been in the works for awhile.”

“Jim Rybicki notified me last month that he will be leaving the FBI to accept an opportunity in the corporate sector,” Wray said in a statement. “While this is an exciting move for the whole Rybicki family, Jim will be dearly missed by the FBI family – and by me personally.”

Wray added: “His many years of dedication to the bureau and DOJ, his level-headed judgement and earnest professionalism, and his steady good cheer have been an asset to us all and have contributed greatly to the safety and security of our nation.”

The FBI director said he tapped attorney Zachary Harmon to replace Rybicki.  (read more)

Some people are needlessly defrosted over the way Christopher Wray presented the exit of Rybicki, looking to cast aspersions against Director Wray for not kicking Rybicki in the teeth now, or prior.  Don’t buy into that nonsense. THINK.

Think strategically.

Chris Wray is an expert in prosecuting ‘white collar’ crime.  He is a ‘Machiavelli Tracker‘, a pro wolf hunter.  A very smart man.  Hence, his nomination and his role.

Director Chris Wray knows the key to capturing the fish is to keep them within the distance of the casting net.  Keeping the “small group” participants within government, yet under full control, is a part of the strategy.  [ See James Baker for example ]

Each of the co-conspirators is much easier to handle, control, monitor etc. if they are within ‘the system’.  It is much harder to plead the fifth when you are required by your official duty to be accountable to government investigation(s).

Director Wray knows it’s easier to monitor the entire network if the actors within the network are retained within the organization while the investigation continues to gather evidence against them.

Do not assign illicit motives to Director Wray or buy into media narratives that are intended to create confusion and chaos amid the team of White Hats.  Remember, corporate media have a vested interest in hiding the overall scheme; they helped to create it….

Jan 23 2018

President Trump and USTR Lighthizer Levy Tariffs on China (Solar Cells) and South Korea (Samsung Washing Machines)…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 22, 2018 by

President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer followed through on the trade commission study from last year showing evidence of dumping in the U.S. market.  Samsung anticipated this final outcome and is almost finished with their plans to manufacture washing machines in South Carolina.

Washington, DC – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced today that President Trump has approved recommendations to impose safeguard tariffs on imported large residential washing machines and imported solar cells and modules.

USTR made the recommendations to the President based on consultations with the interagency Trade Policy Committee (TPC) in response to findings by the independent, bipartisan U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that increased foreign imports of washers and solar cells and modules are a substantial cause of serious injury to domestic manufacturers.

“These cases were filed by American businesses and thoroughly litigated at the International Trade Commission over a period of several months,” said Ambassador Lighthizer. “The ITC found that U.S. producers had been seriously injured by imports and made several recommendations to the President. Upon receiving these recommendations, my staff and I conducted an exhaustive process which included opportunities to brief in person and through public comments, public hearings, and meetings with senior representatives.

Based on this information, the Trade Policy Committee developed recommendations, which the President has accepted. The President’s action makes clear again that the Trump Administration will always defend American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses in this regard.”

For imports of large residential washers, the President approved applying a safeguard tariff-rate quota for three years with the following terms (read more)

Suniva, SolarWorld and Whirlpool were helped by a 1974 trade law that lets companies seek trade protection if they can show damage from a rise in imports.  Prior administrations’ stopped using the law in the mid 1990’s, President Trump reconstituted the process in 2017 as part of his overall overall trade-plan.

Up to certain levels, imports of solar cells will be exempt from the tariff, while the first 1.2 million imported large washing machines will get a lower tariff, peaking at 20 percent.

Congress has no authority to change or veto Trump’s decision. Countries affected by the decision can appeal to the World Trade Organization.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their purchased DC politicians are apoplectic:

Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Republicans need to understand that tariffs are a tax on consumers. “Moms and dads shopping on a budget for a new washing machine will pay for this — not big companies,” Sasse said in a statement.

Jan 23 2018

Rep. Trey Gowdy and Rep. John Ratcliffe Discuss Missing FBI Text Messages…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 22, 2018 by

Representative Trey Gowdy (U-DC), and Representative John Ratcliff (R-TX) appeared on Fox News with Martha MacCallum to discuss the five months of missing FBI text messages between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI Attorney Lisa Page.

[05:12] “It makes it harder and harder for Chairman Gowdy and I to explain away one strange coincidence after another”.

Hmmm?  Now, why would Roosterhead want to “explain away“?  LOLOL. These UniParty knuckleheads are so transparent.  THIS is why they are not part of the current team.

Moving on…  Timing of missing Strzok-Page texts:

♦Start date: 12/14/16: same date WaPo cites unnamed intel officials stating… wait for it… Russians tried to hack election for Trump.
♦End date: 5/17/17: same date Mueller is named Special Counsel. (Timeline)

Also, the mention of a DOJ “Secret Society” reminds me of: …”One small group calls itself “Dumbledore’s Army,” according to two of the people who were familiar with their discussions. The name is a reference to a secret resistance force in the “Harry Potter” books.”… from the CFPB crew.