Category Economic Subjects

Feb 5 2022

Facebook – Down for the Count?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Technology Re-Posted Feb 4, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty you said that Facebook would peak in September 2021. Is this the high you were talking about? Has it entered a bear market?

WJ

ANSWER: This is the 19th year up for Facebook and this crash has already penetrated the 2021 low of 244.61 here in 2022. Zuckerberg is part of Schwab’s World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders along with Trudeau in Canada and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand. He has been aggressive in censoring anyone who has opposed the narrative of COVID and this is all collapsing around him. Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its history. This is a significant change in trend which has come right on target. In Canada, people are flooding the 911 system reporting that Trudeau is missing. We may see the same eventually with Zuckerberg. Perhaps he will fleet and hide under the coat of Schab at the WEF.

Allegations are surfacing claiming that ballot boxes put out there by Zuckerberg were being used to rig the election. It is still unknown how much fraud was carried out in the 2020 election. But the narrative needs to end that the answer is “none.” Despite the widespread blanket denials from the mainstream media, there are allegations bubbling up about ‘mules’ illicitly dumping ballots into Zuckerberg “drop boxes.” Unfortunately, with the Democrats in charge of the Senate and the House, there will be no investigation. But the whispers are getting louder that Zuckerberg allegedly had a hand in the election fraud perhaps at the direction of Schwab and associates. Zuckerberg spent $419 million to get out the Democratic votes to defeat Trump which was the clear agenda of Schwab and his World Economic Forum.

It is true that TikTok has emerged as a major threat to Facebook because it is not engaged in the political activism that Zuckerberg has been. People are leaving Facebook or using TikTok much more so because of Facebook’s censoring. Then there is Apple, and its privacy changes to iOS last year are starting to cost the company tons of ad revenue. The feature is called App Tracking Transparency and allows iPhone users to forbid companies from tracking them across third-party apps. As CNBC reports, on the financial call, Meta CFO Dave Wehner revealed, “We believe the impact of iOS overall is a headwind on our business in 2022. It’s on the order of $10 billion, so it’s a pretty significant headwind for our business.”

There is much more behind the headlines that are in the rumor mills. Zuckerberg has a lot to worry about by aligning with the World Economic Forum should the cycle change once again and the Republicans win in November. Zuckerberg may find himself in deep trouble and the survival of Facebook will hang in the balance. His loyalty to Schwab and his idea that corporations should disregard shareholders and be concerned with Stakeholder Economics may prove to be the death of Facebook. Any CEO who aligns himself with Schwab should be thrown out by the shareholders for that means they are using shareholder money to further a foreign agenda against their own self-interest.

A year-end closing below 244 will confirm that Facebook will enter a bear market and the crash will continue into 2023 for starters

Feb 5 2022

Biden-Obama Gas Prices Reach Highest Point Since 2014 When Obama-Biden Were in Office


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 4, 2022 | Sundance | 122 Comments

Gasoline prices have risen, on average, 40% in the past 11 months.  This leads to higher consumer costs across the board.  Oil, currently $90/barrel, is going to go even higher as a merge of Biden economic, regulatory, energy and foreign policies are going to make things worse.

As the Obama-Biden administration previously said when they achieved their last historic increase in gas prices, “U.S. energy prices will necessarily skyrocket“, in order to achieve their ideological climate change objectives.

(VIA CNBC) Gas prices rose to the highest level in more than seven years Friday, on the heels of the U.S. oil benchmark topping $90 per barrel for the first time since 2014. 

The national average for a gallon of gas stood at $3.423 on Friday, according to AAA, slightly surpassing the prior high-water mark of $3.422 from Nov. 8.  Friday’s price means consumers are now paying the most at the pump since Sept. 10, 2014, AAA data shows.

The national average stood at $2.44 a year ago.  The rapid rise in prices is contributing to inflationary fears across the economy and is creating a headache for the Biden administration. (read more)

Yes, a president can and does control the price of gasoline.  What can a U.S. President and administration specifically do?  We have abundant U.S. energy resources.  Quite literally the strongest in the entire world.

  • Permit the use of preexisting approved leases in ANWAR (Alaska) to put more volume into the Alaskan oil pipeline that is severely underutilized.
  • Finish the Dakota access pipeline.
  • Re-approve the preexisting energy leases in New Mexico, Arizona, NE Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
  • Retract the stoppage of the Keystone pipeline to permit efficient oil transport shipments from Canada.
  • Stop blocking the expansion of coastal oil refineries in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama (regulatory issue), as well as Northwest, Northeast and Southeast Seaboard.
  • Continue to develop natural gas as a clean burning fuel.
  • Drive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as an export.

.

Unfortunately, this would mean reversing the entire energy policy of the current administration.  The existing energy inflation and high prices of oil, natural gas and gasoline are a direct and intentional part of Joe Biden policy.  That policy is driven by the leftist demand for a “green new deal.”

None of the actions above require any approval from OPEC.  Strategically the ‘all of the above’ approach enhances U.S. national security and diminishes the influence of Russia, China and Iran.  Within six months of the above, gasoline will plummet.

Democrat policies are the driving force of inflation.  It’s not COVID-19.

Feb 5 2022

BLS Cooks Books to Generate January Jobs Report That no One Believes, For Good Reason


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 4, 2022 | Sundance | 199 Comments

There really isn’t an adequate way to encapsulate what the Bureau of Labor and Statistics has done with their reported January jobs result [Main Data Here].   If you want a deep weeds review of the actuarial scheme deployed READ THIS ARTICLE.

In my lifetime of reviewing data and analytics, I have never reviewed a level of statistical manipulation that even comes close to this.  Well, at least not since the 1980’s junk bond valuations used for corporate restructuring and asset removal.  What the BLS produced today will likely go down in the annals of actuarial history as one of the most comprehensively fraudulent manipulations of labor and statistics in history.

In order to get to a point of being able to claim 467,000 job gains last month, the BLS needed to revise four years’ worth of claimed jobs and population data. By subtracting over a million prior jobs from 2021, essentially wiping out the COVID pandemic monthly impact, and by changing the workforce population over the same number of years, the BLS was able to recalculate the current number of people in the workforce and claim 467,000 jobs were recently created.

Again, to unpack this effort would require a week of intensive education on statistics.  {Summary Here}

To avoid that complexity, just think of the big picture this way:

In order to claim a nonexistent gain today, you have to change what took place before.

Ex. Your home is worth $1.4 million as of this morning.  Your home is worth $400,000 more today alone. Why? Because your appreciation was stopped for the past year, and you are now comparing January 2022 to December 2020 when your home was worth $1 million.   You need to pretend the $33,000 your home was gaining in value each month never existed.  Instead, your home went from $1 million to 1.4 million in one day, today.

This is, essentially, the methodologic mindset behind the statistical manipulation.

Additionally, again using this actuary example, to justify your current home valuation to a quizzical audience (a potential buyer), the appraiser (BLS) would have to change every previously appraised value of the entire neighborhood – for every comparable that took place in the prior year.  This is akin to changing the population in the workforce statistics.

The problem becomes that once you set this numerical foundation (the number of people working), all subsequent job reports will have to reflect a new position against a higher base.   Without expanded economic activity to support it, future job gains will be lowered because they are going up against a higher baseline, because the entire population of workers has been changed.

We also know that U.S. economic activity is not expanding.

The value of this January BLS report is essentially nil.

All of that said, there is still a macro BLS data point that deserves emphasis.  Remember the timeline CTH shared previously about the economy and employment changing in May and June of 2021?   That date corresponded with the 2021 massive jump in inflation; yet, none of the data being assembled seemed to show it?

Look at the specific timeframe BLS used to drop the majority of their 2021 employment numbers:

It is not coincidental the BLS used the last half of the year to remove 2.5 million claimed workers (subsequently the jobs they held).   The COVID excuse, Delta and Omicron waves, are the cover story for this revision.  The BLS now position the workforce as 149.16 million in December – an increase of roughly 6 million workers from the revised 143.0 million in January.

As one person put it, “there’s cooking numbers, and then there’s cast iron skillet deep frying numbers.”

Yup, the BLS has compiled a burnt offering – upon the altar of sacrificing their credibility.

Feb 4 2022

New Interview: Down the Rabbit Hole to Dow 65,000


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Feb 4, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ADzNruSCWrs%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque

Click to watch Martin Armstrong’s latest interview with the Financial Survival Network.

Feb 4 2022

Armstrong Interview on Highwire Today


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Feb 3, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

WE ARE WINNING

Feb 4 2022

World War III Begins in the Financial Markets


Armstong Economics Blog/Central Banks Re-Posted Feb 3, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The Bank of England raised rates for a second time which is the first time they have responded in this manner to inflation since 2004 during the boom into 2007. While the Bank of England has choreographed its intent to raise rates as has the Federal Reserve, this meant that the markets were not surprised by the 25 basis point rate increase. The  Monetary Policy Committee voted for 5-4 and which takes the main Bank Rate to 0.5%, as the central bank struggles to contain soaring inflation unleashed by the COVID Plandemic. Four members voted to increase rates by 50 basis points to 0.75%.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has destroyed the European bond market with their NEGATIVE interest rates. This entire COVID Plandemic has been used for this Great Reset which was created at the World Economic Forum. Schwab has a death-grip around the throat of Europe. Aside from his Young Leaders Program where he has been training people and strategically placing that in governments around the world, he has boldly placed three of his board members of the WEF in the very top positions at the head of the EU, the head of the ECB, and the head of the International Monetary Fund.

The Bank of England and the Federal Reserve are defending their economies from the onslaught of the WEF. This leaves the European Central Bank standing along with negative interest rates defending Schwab’s darkest visions for our future – the end of Democratic forms of government pushing the world into World War III so he can Build Back Better.

We are witnessing a Financial war Fed & Bank of England v Schwab’s Build Back Better agenda

Feb 4 2022

Ottawa Freedom Protest Leadership Hold a Press Briefing


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 3, 2022 | Sundance | 288 Comments

Earlier this afternoon, the people who organized the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa held a press conference to describe the current status of the trucker protest.  At 12:50 of the full interview below the lawyer for the group also discusses the status of the GoFundMe account, which is under review.

Feb 4 2022

Fearful of Protest Trucks Arriving, Quebec City Officials Block Streets with City Trucks


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 3, 2022 | Sundance | 496 Comments

As the Ottawa police chief ponders the deployment of the Canadian military to remove protestors and is concerned that more protest groups are likely to arrive in support of the existing convoy, city officials in Quebec have deployed a proactive strategy – block the streets with city trucks.

A Radio Canada journalist in Quebec shares the following picture:

Quebec City officials have moved municipal trucks into place to block the streets from protest trucks.  Yes Alice, Canadian officials are blocking the streets with trucks in order to stop trucks from blocking the streets.  Brilliant!

Meanwhile, as many of the locals join in celebration and merriment with the protest groups, some of the more leftist Ottawans are now protesting at the police department for not removing the protestors.  They accuse the Freedom protestors of “running amok.”

(Via CBC) – […] Rhys McGaw, a downtown resident, and others gathered for a second night on Wednesday to object to what they view as inaction by police.  “In my neighbourhood, on my street, down the street, in the stores of Centretown or Lowertown — that’s where people are just running amok,” McGaw said.” (more)

Despite earlier requests by city officials for the Canadian military to get involved, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says -from his secret bunker- that’s “not in the cards.”  Trudeau also doubled down on his position that he will not negotiate with the Freedom Convoy protestors.

However, the prime minister did affirm that RCMP officials will be present in Ottawa to provide safe space emotional counseling for residents experiencing trauma and psychological violence committed by the scruffy and unmasked working-class horde now occupying Parliament Hill.

(Via CBC) – […] When asked if he’d ever consider negotiating directly with the protesters to get them to leave, Trudeau said that vaccine mandates were debated in detail during the September federal election.

“That is the decision Canadians took in the last election, by voting for parties that were supporting those mandates,” he told a virtual news conference Thursday.

“So having a group of people who disagree with the outcome of an election, who want to go a different way and bring in an alternative government, is a non-starter in a responsible democracy.”  (read more)

Feb 3 2022

The Convoy to DC 2022


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest Re-Posted Feb 3, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

In an act of solidarity with their northern neighbors, US truckers are amassing to form the Convoy to DC. The Facebook page, which is currently inaccessible at the time of this writing, hosted over 131,000 followers. The dates have not been set yet, but the group is aiming to start a convoy that will begin in California and end in front of Washington, DC. The group is urging everyone, regardless of occupation, to join them in an act of civil disobedience.

“We’re done with the mandates, we’re done with the government telling us what to do, we will continue, and we will follow just like the rest of the world on these trucker protests, and they will be 100 percent legal, they will abide by the law,” Brian Von D, a trucker a group organizer, said. “The government overreach is coming to an end, and this is how we do it.” Facebook may be censoring the group for now, but if people feel passionate about the cause then they will find a way to organize effectively.

Various Canadian provinces have begun repealing their ridiculous mandates. The protest in Canada has been effective.

The agenda must be clear in order for the protest to be effective — repeal all mandates! The protestors would like to have a peaceful ride to DC but should be wary of false flags and people infiltrating their protest (see: Ray Epps). Resistance is not futile.

Feb 3 2022

Quebec Scraps Unvaccinated Tax


Armstrong Economics Blog/Canada RE-Posted Feb 3, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Quebec Premier François Legault realized that the mandates are dividing Canadians in a profound way. In order to protect “social cohesion,” Legault is eliminating plans to tax the unvaccinated. Legault initially stated that he wanted the tax to be “significant” in order to force nearly 10% of unvaccinated Quebecers to take the shot. After seeing the persistence of the Freedom Convoy that is certainly not a “small fringe minority” as Trudeau suggested, the plan to tax the unvaccinated has been scrapped. Politicians do not want to face the wrath of the people as Trudeau is currently experiencing. “I understand that this divides Quebecers and right now we need to build bridges,” stated Legault. “My role is to try to bring Quebecers together to stay united as a people.”

Quebec Liberal leader Dominique Anglade declared that Legault “came up with this idea that was not only irresponsible, that was not thought through, that didn’t have any legal support to it.” This comes on the tail of public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, stepping down from his 12-year career amid controversy. Some accuse Legault of attempting to implement the tax as a way to distract the public from the scandal. He never presented a clear plan to implement the tax and failed to say exactly how much the tax would cost otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Regardless, politicians are beginning to learn that they do not have unlimited authority. The people will not allow that to happen. The “do this or else” fear tactics are fading along with Fascist dreams to create a new world that no one agreed to participate in.