Posted originally on May 31, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Marty, There seems to be a growing trend with States approving gold and silver coins as acceptable payment methods. You have always said that it would be coins and not bars. However Florida now states that the silver must be 99% pure. How will this affect the pre 65 constitutional coins like dimes, quarters and half dollars generally referred to a junk silver? Junk silver coins will of course be worth more if the price of silver increases however it appears that one may not be able to use them for any daily transactions. Would one be better off selling their junk silver and converting it to silver rounds immediately? What does Socrates or Socrates Jr think on this topic as it is certainly a new wrinkle. Thanks ! JimJ
ANSWER: I understand the act, and it only illustrates my point that when it comes to a silver bar, 99% of the people out there would NEVER know the difference between that and a bar of Nickel. That’s what I said; I prefer the pre-1965 silver coins because the average person can easily identify the date. They are ALREADY legal tender. So they are not demonetizing the silver coins.
The Roll of 20 – 2025 $1 American Silver Eagles are 99.9% silver. However, they are denominated as $1. This may be more confusing to the average smuck on the street. Personally, I have bags of silver coins, and I have a hoard of $20 gold coins that came from a central bank, which found them tucked away in the basement vault. They are all uncirculated 1924 Saints. This was a private offering.
Posted originally on May 30, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Happening now: @GovRonDeSantis is in Apopka to sign HB 999 which “sets in motion #Florida’s full recognition of gold and silver as legal tender, giving Floridians the freedom to use precious metals for everyday transactions alongside traditional currency.”https://t.co/fRkQpDJE7Dpic.twitter.com/dOMajgwAsj
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared gold and silver legal tender. HB 999 maintains that these precious metals may be used in payments if they meet specific purity standards. The bill goes into effect on July 1, 2026, but many are confused as to what this will entail.
As stated in the legislation: “Legal Tender; Revising the sales and use tax exemption for certain coin or currency; specifying that a person who claims the sales tax exemption bears the burden for determining whether the gold coin or silver coin meets a specified definition; providing a presumption regarding the purity requirements of gold coin and silver coin, etc.”
“We are the first large state to step up and to get this done,” DeSantis said. “And this is right out of the Constitution of the United States. So this legislation will authorize money services business like check cashers or PayPal to transmit and accept payment in gold and silver.” State Rep. Bill Bankson sponsored the bill with the goal to “eliminate the tax burden and make it a functional means of transaction between willing parties.”
To begin, Florida is not the first state to declare gold and/or silver legal tender. Utah passed the Utah Legal Tender Act of 2011, which declared coins of either metal legal tender. Oklahoma passed Senate Bill 862 in 2014, recognizing U.S.-minted gold and silver coins as legal tender and exempting them from taxation. Kansas and West Virginia have similar policies. Texas has recognized these coins as legal tender and enacted legislation to protect them from state seizure. Wyoming treats gold and silver as currency and has exempted it from sales tax. South Carolina and Louisiana have similar policies.
Florida’s approach is a bit more structured. Gold coins must be at least 99.5% pure and silver coins at least 99.9% pure to qualify as legal tender. The weight and purity must be imprinted on the metal with the name or symbol of the mint refiner. Both will be exempt from sales tax. The state government may choose to accept silver and gold coins for payments on taxes, dues, charges, and debts. Yet, these transactions must be done electronically, and the coins will be held by a public depository while processing. A regulatory regime will be established to handle coinage, process insurance, record-keeping, licensing, and consumer disclosure agreements, which the Office of Financial Regulation will oversee.
Will Floridians see people using silver coins to check out at the grocery store? No. The law entails that payments in gold and silver coinage are entirely optional, and no person or business is required to accept them in payments. Merchants will not be required to attain knowledge on metal purity or have scales behind the cash register. The difference now is that businesses are allowed to accept them if they choose to do so. There are numerous tax benefits to choosing metal over cash.
If John Doe wants to purchase a boat from a dealership with gold, for example, the dealership must voluntarily accept the coinage but is in no way obligated to do so. Then the dealership has the burden of verifying the spot price of gold or silver rather than the state. However, if you go to a bank to cash a check, the bank will have the ability to offer clients payments in gold or silver coinage rather than cash. Another aspect to consider is that Florida will no longer add a sales tax on transactions in gold and silver, lowering the cost for businesses and consumers by around 6%.
This signals the ongoing loss of confidence in the federal government. States are rebelling against federal mismanagement and offering residents alternatives to move off the grid. People tend to hoard gold and spend paper. Gold and silver are not practical as daily commerce but are a symbolic store of wealth. We are entering a phase where sovereign debt will become toxic, and states will begin to prepare for the inevitable chaos coming from Washington.
Posted originally on May 30, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Women across Build Back Better nations with open border policies are on high alert. The majority of migrants are single men who came from cultures vastly different from the West, with a particular disparity in how men view the opposite sex. Crime has been multiplying across these nations as unvetted unknowns fail to adjust to their new settings. In France, 80% of women would like the military to protect them from migrant criminals.
There has also been an uptick in drug trafficking due to unvetted foreigners. A CSA poll found that 76% of French citizens would like the army to begin battling drug trafficking in “disadvantaged neighborhoods.”
When you import the third world, you become the third world. France has moved to a point system for residency whereby points are awarded for French language proficiency, education, work experience, skills in high-demand fields, and so forth. Migrants are now required to take a test to demonstrate knowledge of French culture, laws, and traditions. Citizenship is no longer a guarantee, and migrants must live in the nation for seven years in most instances before seeking permanent residency.
‘”Street rapes” are a minority; nationally, most sexual violence is by French nationals,” has been a common claim by the globalists on the left who are attempting to dismiss the horrific crimes against women perpetrated by migrants. Women across Europe are afraid to walk in their own neighborhoods. The government’s attempt to curb migration is far too little, too late. Ten percent of France’s population, and therefore culture and traditions, has been replaced by foreigners who were outright encouraged to invade.
originally on Posted May 30, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The US economy contracted by 0.2% from January through March of 2025. This is the second Q1 estimate provided by the US Commerce Department, with a third on the way on June 26.
Imports surged into the US during Q1 as corporations aimed to avoid incoming tariffs. The 42.6% uptick in imports marked the fastest pace of goods arriving in the US since Q3 2020. Business investment rose 24.4% in Q1, with business inventories adding 2.6 percentage points to overall GDP. Federal government spending fell by 4.6%, the largest drop in three years, but a deduction from overall GDP calculations.
Real consumer spending rose by 1.2%, albeit far less than the 4% posted during Q4 2024 and revised down from the first reading of 1.8%. Other reports indicate that Americans are spending far more on the essentials like utilities, health care, and housing. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure (PCE price index) rose 3.6%. Persistent inflation has led to cautious consumer behavior and a decline in demand for goods, contributing to the overall weakened reading for Q1.
Discretionary retail fell by 3% this quarter to 23% as consumers are less likely to purchase items like clothing, furniture, and electronics. Durable goods experienced a significant decline of 19%. The University of Michigan’s survey noted that decreased confidence has caused the demand for big-ticket items to decline. A lot of the demand we did see in Q1 was spending to offset anticipated tariffs. Autos, for example, rose by 11% YoY in March alone, and Q1 saw an overall 4.8% in auto purchases. That trend is not expected to continue as consumer sentiment is low.
April’s 2.3% CPI reading was the smallest annual increase since 2021, yet still above the 2% target set by the Fed years ago. The Fed isn’t fighting inflation. That phase is over. What they’re really fighting now is a collapse in confidence in the bond market, the dollar, and in the entire public sector. There will be no soft landing as once anticipated, as we are currently in a stage of stagflation.
Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell met Trump at the White House on Thursday to declare that rate decisions would be based on “careful, objective, and non-political analysis.” “I’ve never asked for a meeting with any president, and I never will,” Powell said. “I wouldn’t do that. There’s never a reason for me to ask for a meeting. It’s always been the other way.” Trump invited Powell to the White House to encourage him to cut rates at the June meeting. The markets were pricing in a rate cut in June but now that does not seem as likely.
Trump fails to realize that the Fed is attempting to preserve confidence in the US, primarily in the debt market. We are witnessing cash deficits of over $1 trillion per quarter. Moody’s recently downgraded the US and no longer believes that Treasuries are a certain bet. The government is broke and the Fed must maintain the illusion of solvency.
Posted originally on May 29, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Think-tank the Lowly Institute found that the poorest 75 nations in the world are highly indebted to China, and the bill is almost past due. “Now, and for the rest of this decade, China will be more debt collector than banker to the developing world,” the report said. Of the $35 billion owed to China, around $22 billion must be repaid from the 75 poorest countries.
President Xi Jinping signed the majority of these loans under the Belt and Road Investment Program (BRI). China became the largest supplier of bilateral loans back in 2016, with a high of $50 billion in loans, surmounting to more than all creditors in the West combined. This was intentional as the BRI sought to gain influence in developing nations. Some estimates believe that China is owed a “hidden debt” of $385 billion through BRI initiatives, but China denies creating debt traps for nations it knew would likely be unable to repay their loans.
Argentina, Brazil, Congo DR, Mongolia, Indonesia, and others all have one major common factor—they are rich in natural resources. They also have limited access to international private capital and were more likely to turn to China for aid. In 2005, China held less than 5% of external debt, but that figure rose to 40% once the BRI was introduced.
The World Bank found that China is the largest supplier of bilateral debt for developing nations, accounting for over 30% of all loans in 2025. Out of 120 developing nations, 54 are indebted to China, with repayments exceeding the combined amount owed to the Paris Club bloc that factors in all major Western bilateral lenders. In 2023, 26% of all bilateral debt in developing nations was owed to China.
China offered these nations a >5-year grace period on repayments that would mature in 15-20 years, and since the bulk of these loans were granted in the mid-2010s, the bill is now due. The International Monetary Fund found that over 50% of the poorest and most vulnerable nations are debt-distressed. Servicing these massive debts has become unsustainable. As noted by the Lowly Institute, 3.3 billion people live in nations that spend more on servicing debt than on education or health care.
China is engaged in “debt-trap diplomacy,” whereby its loans have pushed nations into such severe debt that China now has significant influence over their geopolitical affairs. If nations cannot repay with cash, they can repay with military bases, access to valuable infrastructure such as ports and railways, minerals and mines, trade deals, and more. All of these nations will accept and adopt the One China policy. Pakistan has defaulted on debt numerous times, but China gave them money for strategic purpose. Debt is leverage and power, and China now has immense influence over most of the developing world.
California routinely selects groups of minimum wage workers and decides that their skill set is now worth tenfold. The state in general increased the minimum wage to $16.50 per hour on January 1, 2025, while certain cities have raised the minimum to $19 per hour. Lobbying efforts have prevented certain groups from seeing a drastic spike in minimum wage, but California has now decided that hotel and airport workers must be paid more than others.
Hotel and airport workers will receive a $2.50 per hour raise to $22.50 per hour at minimum, but that amount will rise to $30 per hour by July 2028. Additionally, employers must provide a $8.35 per hour health care stipend by June 2026. This means that payroll will increase by 69% in a two-month period. Low-skilled positions will now cost employers $38 per hour. The proposal will only give employers 60 days to adopt the new policy. “No industry can afford that financial uptick in such a short period of time,” the Hotel Association of Los Angeles stated.
Hotels are already struggling, experiencing only 79% of the traffic that they once enjoyed prior to the pandemic. The city shed 11,000 hotel jobs last year, and this proposal nearly ensures more jobs will be cut. This comes ahead of the 2028 Olympics that will be hosted in Los Angeles. Hotels have already agreed to room block agreements for the event prior to the announcement that minimum wages were to increase. “We agreed to certain rates at the hotels at that time, and it’s not viable for us to be able to agree to charge the same rates that we calculated based upon a $17 minimum wage that’s now going to be almost double that,” said Mitchell Hochberg, president of real estate investment firm Lightstone Group, which operates the Moxy and AC hotels in downtown Los Angeles—one of the properties withdrawing from the agreement.
Perhaps someone in the hotel industry should have donated to Newsom’s campaign. A fast-food bill was passed in September 2022 that set the minimum wage to $22 per hour for select chains with over 100 locations, later expanding to a $20 minimum pay for restaurants with 60 locations. California specifically exempts fast food establishments that contain bakeries, such as Panera Bread. Glenn Flynn is the largest fast food franchise owner in America with an empire of 2,600 restaurant locations that produce around $.45 billion in sales. Flynn, estimated to be worth around $1.1 billion, has strongly supported Gavin Newsom publicly since 2014, when Newsom was a lieutenant governor. Both men attended the same high school and have longstanding ties.
Bloomberg reported that Flynn donated $64,800 to Newsom’s personal re-election campaign and an additional $100,000 for conservative-led recall efforts. Flynn’s holdings in California only include two establishments – Applebee’s and Panera Bread. Applebee’s is exempt from the law despite its pre-frozen dishes since it is a sit-down restaurant chain. Panera Bread, on the other hand, is exempt due to this specific loophole that only excludes establishments that bake bread. This is what happens when lobbying is permitted and politicians are for sale.
Should a hotel maid earn more than a teacher in Los Angeles? Do the people constructing the hotel deserve less than those paid to book rooms? Does replacing towels and bedsheets or checking a boarding pass warrant an $80K salary? Pay grades are no longer based on skill and experience but on industry pandering. Businesses do not have the capital to provide every employee, regardless of their contribution to the company’s success, with large pay-outs, and many in Los Angeles are already discussing cutting their workforce, turning to automation, or simply closing their LA-based locations.
“We are seriously considering converting one of our hotel’s restaurants to a self-service breakfast model and closing at least one restaurant space at another property. The wage increase makes it difficult to sustain full-service operations,” Jon Bortz, CEO of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, told reporters. The Hotel Angeleno plans to eliminate valet parking and close its restaurant as well, eliminating dozens of jobs.
The latest move by California to arbitrarily raise the minimum wage only for specific sectors such as fast food and healthcare is yet another blatant act of economic discrimination driven by politics, not sound economics. When you rig wages by legislative decree and apply those rules inconsistently across industries, you are manufacturing instability.
California is specifically targeting industries with low-skilled labor and deliberately forcing them to slim down their workforces in the name of “equality.” A minimum wage increase that outpaces productivity growth is inflationary. California is forcing small and mid-sized businesses to raise prices, cut hours, or automate, which ultimately harms the working class.
Posted originally on May 29, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Mark Carney’s call for aligning with the EU in a war against Russia reveals more about his ideological alignment than any strategic necessity. As a former central banker turned World Economic Forum alumnus, Carney has long abandoned the notion of free markets in favor of globalist control. He is keen to support the EU’s Marxist-style top-down approach, which has economically gutted Europe and driven capital flight, and is extremely eager to distance Canada from the United States in every possible way.
“Seventy-five cents of every dollar of capital spending for defence goes to the United States. That’s not smart,” Carney stated about his nation’s former top ally. He does not want the United States to remain the world’s superpower, per WEF protocol, as this sentiment was felt long before Trump. Carney would like to spend at least $1.25 trillion on defense over the next five years. “We’re making great progress on that, and by Canada Day, we’d like to see something concrete there,” Carney said, noting that Canada will be penning a deal with the European Union in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, US President Trump has offered Canada protection under his proposed “golden dome.” As he continues to pressure Canada to become a state, Canada runs further into the arms of the EU. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is also keen to find a way to support his plans for war without the support of the United States. Rutte is expected to ask the 32-member alliance to up current spending to around 3.5% of GDP.
Canada currently spends 1.37% of its GDP on defense, below the current 2% NATO target. Carney believes Canada can meet NATO standards by 2030, but NATO is increasingly requesting more. “We are going to have to spend more, sooner,” the prime minister said. “That’s one of the reasons why we will have a fall budget, not a budget tomorrow, because we’re part of deeper discussions on the defence side.”
Canada has already stationed troops in the Arctic on a near-permanent basis. Operation Nanook in the Far North has expanded as Canada attempts to secure its place in the Arctic region. Canada and Greenland are both in strong opposition of the current US administration as Trump continues to pressure both to abandon sovereignty. But the true nature of Arctic operations is to intimidate Russia.
“We want to be in the Arctic on a near permanent basis,” Lt.-Gen. Steve Boivin stated. “The current approach to Operation Nanook puts us in the Arctic for five to six months a year. We’re looking at being there 10 plus months per year.” The federal government has already spent an additional C$420 million on the operation.
In a way, Trump is receiving everything he once requester,d from increased NATO spending to forcing nations to defend their own lands without the support of the US. On the other hand, nations are now eager to begin offloading their increased defense budgets outside the US. The capital expended on war would funnel back into the US. NATO was not entirely a charity case for the US as it did receive those funds recycled back into the US economy.
It is clear that Carney is eager to join the alliance of nations taking their arms up against Russia. Russia poses no threat to Canada. Carney’s eagerness to join EU efforts has nothing to do with Ukraine and everything to do with consolidating power by forcing the West into a global war.
COMMENT: Marty, I respect that you do not want a Nobel Prize. But this is not about you. Putin just warned Germany that if it allows Zelensky to use NATO weapons to attack Moscow, he will attack Berlin. They said this is plain and simple. Everyone should be writing to nominate you for a Nobel Peace Prize for your model has called every turn in this debacle, and perhaps world leaders will listen to you if you get that Nobel Prize. I know you do not do this for notoriety or money. Hell, you don’t even sell advertising. Yield on this point. Please!
PY
ANSWER: I understand. But I think the Neocons would never allow them to nominate me. Go ahead. Flood them with letters. I bet it will have no impact. The Neocons are in complete control of Europe.
Posted originally on May 28, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
German troops have been permanently deployed for the first time since World War II. A brigade of 4,800 German soldiers is now positioned in Lithuania on NATO’s eastern flank. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is eager to wage war on Russia, stating, “The security of our Baltic allies is also our security.”
“Anyone who threatens an ally must know that the entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory,” Merz said. The 45 Armored Brigade, headquartered in Rudninkai, will also include hundreds of civilian staff members and is expected to operate at full capacity by the end of 2027 with over 5,000 soldiers. Lithuania announced earlier this month that it is increasing its military spending to 6% of GDP, or approximately $1.2 billion.
Germany firmly believes it has unlimited funds to spend on the war. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced that Germany will spend 5% of its GDP on NATO, claiming the nation was offering “the five percent that President Trump demanded.” Merz, who served in the Bundeswehr, declared that “the government will in the future provide all the financing the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe.”
Germany has already allocated a billion to the war in Ukraine. Two-thirds of the Bundestag Parliament voted to remove military spending from the Constitutional debt brake. The AfD opposed this plan, as did their opposite, Linke. The nation had implemented strict spending guidelines in its Constitution. They have been fearful of accumulating debt and previously had a fixed debt brake at 0.35% of GDP. Now, any amount over 1% of GDP will not face a borrowing cap. Therefore, Germany can now spend any amount on defense with no concern for the future.
History repeats because the desires of man never change. Unfortunately ,the models indicate that the third time will NOT be a charm.
Posted originally on May 28, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Questioning the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was illegal until now. The dawn of Make America Healthy Again has pulled back the curtain on the insidious Big Pharma industry’s human experiments on the general population during the pandemic. The FDA notified Pfizer and Moderna that they must expand warning labels to note the side effects of the vaccine.
Not only was it incomprehensible to the establishment to question the validity of the vaccine, but one could not mention the blatant side effects that were occurring worldwide after the untested vaccine was pushed onto the masses. The FDA, the same industry that mocked people for looking into holistic alternatives, has been forced to admit that people are dying as a result of the largest bio experiment in human history.
Vaccine manufacturers must now reveal the risks of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the sac-like lining surrounding the heart. Specifically, males aged 16-25 are at risk of serious complications. Insurance claims found that myocarditis and pericarditis occurred in 1 in 125,000 doses from 2023-2024 in children and adults under 65. For males under 25, one in 250 recipients experienced complications.
These are merely the insurance claims, and rest assured, insurance will attempt to cite any other factor besides the COVID-19 vaccine. The “experts” still believe that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risk of heart failure, which is only one of numerous reported side effects.
The Department of Health and Human Services will no longer recommend the vaccine to children, teens, and pregnant women. Unbelievable that we permitted the “science” and government to force the global population to undergo this dangerous experiment. Those of us who refused to accept the vaccine were banished from society.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified information that found the Biden Administration had officially labeled vaccine skeptics “domestic violent extremists.” “Prominent narratives include,” the report stated, “the belief that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe, especially for children, are part of a government or global conspiracy to deprive individuals of their civil liberties and livelihoods, or are designed to start a new social or political order.” Those who did not blindly follow the narrative were thought to be aligned with “QAnon” and a danger to national security. Free speech, especially online, was to be censored to protect the narrative, as the Biden Administration insisted that skeptics would become violent.
“Some of the examples that are focused on here have to do with those who oppose the COVID vaccine mandates, those who oppose the mask mandates, and parents who were concerned that their children going to school may be forcibly vaccinated with the COVID vaccine without the consent or awareness of parents,” Gabbard stated, as all independent thought surrounding COVID was considered dangerous.
The FDA will no longer automatically approve vaccines without clinical safety trials. We were told that we were endangering the public, conspiracy theorist right-wing extremist anti-vaxxers, and yet, those at the top deliberately misled the world and coerced them to put this unknown substance in their bodies. Biden pardoned Fauci, and the pharmaceutical companies were granted immunity. No one has been charged with a crime.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
