White House Brags July 4th Groceries Cheaper This Year, We Will Save 16 Cents on Our Cookouts


Posted originally o the conservative tree house on July 2, 2021 | Sundance | 479 Comments

This is not a spoof.   This is an actual broadcast from the White House Twitter account.  Apparently the Biden administration has hired the same public relations firm used by North Korea to manage their messaging:

Yes comrades, pay no attention to the actual receipts you receive from the local grocery store. Please ignore massive price increases in food you might be experiencing at the supermarket.  These things are simply illusions.  Despite the official inflation records on food pricing provided by the U.S. government, Bureau of Labor and Statistics [SEE HERE, Table 7], according to those who control the oval office our food is actually cheaper this year.

Comrades, we must appreciate the efforts of the Democrat People’s Republic of Krazy (DPRK) and congratulate the Biden administration for achieving a record-breaking new level of absurdity in the distribution of propaganda.  Smiles everyone, smiles…. you saved 16 cents.

On a serious note, this extreme level of gaslighting only highlights how the White House must be very concerned about what is about to happen to them in the next election cycle.  Even the most devout leftists are calling out the Biden administration in response to this tweet.  [Go Look At The Comments]

Even Baghdad Blitzer cannot pull this con off….

Rarest Roman Coin of All Time


Armstrong Economics Blog/Collectibles Re-Posted Jun 29, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty; What is the rarest Roman coin? I figure nobody really knows that answer better than you.

PH

ANSWER: There are there major coins of which only one exists in private hands. They are the champion of all Roman coins – Saturninus. There is one other in existence, and that is in the Louvre. Then there is a gold coin of Leontius, the Isaurian Usurper (484-488 AD). Only four coins exist, but three are in museums.

The third rarest coin of which only one is known is that of a denarius with the portrait of Caracalla on one side and Plautilla on the other. Caracalla was a deranged and hateful emperor. As soon as his father died, he had a brother who killed him while in his mother’s arms. He then had portraits of Geta removed.

Plautilla was the daughter of the powerful Praetorian Prefect Plautianus, a close friend of Septimus Severus. Plautilla was married to Caracalla in 202 AD against his will. Caracalla literally hated his wife and vowed to have her killed when he became emperor, a promise which he would most certainly keep. In 205 AD, Caracalla first had to remove her father on the grounds of treason, which Caracalla arranged.

Caracalla then sent Plautilla to be banished to the Lipari Islands. Later, Plautilla was murdered on the orders of Caracalla in 212 AD during the purge which followed the murder of his brother Geta.

We can see surviving portraits of his family where he erased the image of his brother. Likewise, his hatred for Plautilla was so renowned that the extreme rarity of this lone surviving coin stands as a testament to Caracalla was also eradicating existing coins that show him with his most hated wife.

Therefore, while individual coins of Plautilla are fairly common, Caracalla appears to have recalled those showing him with his wife on the same coin. Other dynastic coin issues showed his brother was not recalled with as much fervor. Even the coinage of Geta is also fairly common. The number of individual coins of Geta and Plautilla most likely made such a recall impossible.

Therefore, each of these coins is unique. However, that does not mean they are of equal value. The Plautilla issue is probably worth $50,000 to $100,000. The Leontius aureus would bring probably $500,000 to $1 million. The Saturninus is far more important for this is the coin that changed history. Academic declared the book Historia Augusta was a fraud because it listed over 20 emperors during the short span of the early years of the 3rd century, which they never heard of. When the two gold coins of Saturninus were discovered in a dig in Egypt, that proved that Historica Augusta was real.

This coin today would most likely bring even $5 million. If ancient coins reach the level of American, then we should be looking at $18.8 million for this coin by comparison to the 1933 $20 gold coin, which is also unique.

Thousands Protesting in London – It’s All for Nothing without Freedom!


Armstrong Economics Blog/BRITAIN Re-Posted Jun 27, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

Thousands are marching in protest once more in London and as usual, you have to turn to RT of the Russians to get the truth. Sources have been warning that Johnson wants to use the variants arising to impose lockdowns into the Spring of 2022 and it is really for the Great Reset and a climate lockdown pretending it is COVID. For once, the BBC has reported there even was a protest.  I suspect that this ONLY took place because protesters began to chase a BBC journalist who allegedly betrayed his own people. The London Mirror called it “Terrifying scenes as BBC journalist chased by anti-lockdown ‘mob’ during protest – Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the actions of anti-lockdown protesters who harassed BBC journalist Nick Watt and called the footage ‘deeply disturbing’.” If it were not for that “terrifying” act, the BBC would never report the protest. These journalists clearly do not know their history for it will become terrifying when they start dragging journalists out and hanging them as they did during the Russian Revolution

The real question is simple. When will the journalists STOP the fake news are actually report the truth instead of putting the lives of everyone at risk and our economic future? The view that mainstream media is all FAKE NEWS is not confined to Donald Trump. This is a worldwide crisis in the media and free speech.

Can a Single Market Change Course & Nothing Else Happens?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Understanding Cycles Re-Posted Jun 25, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I believe as professors have taught Keynesian Economics, so too will we one day have Armstrongian Economic theory. My question to you sir is this, “Have you ever seen Socrates react to a singular event that made your computer model actually do a complete 180? Thanks for all you do! Your blog is the single most important source we have in the world today, BAR NONE!

RB

ANSWER: No, I have never seen that. Even when you look at the famous Buffett Silver Manipulation, note how gold did not follow. That was showing the market was manipulated and it was simply being pushed to the Monthly Reversals, all for a quick buck. Everything is connected. It is impossible to have one market that moves completely opposite, changing its trend, and nothing else happens. You can push a market between the Reversals. That I have seen. But you cannot change the trend.

The dollar, stocks market, gold, real estate, and commodities are all in sync. They are playing out a dance, and you need to step back to look at the whole rather than a single market. Only then will you see the connections.

Parallels in Bankers 1930s – 2020s


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re-Posted Jun 24, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty,

You have written much about the period 1927-1929 dominated by the relationship between Monatgue Norman and Benjamin Strong; how pressure from Britain to keep rates in the US lower was intended to relieve pressure from Europeans fleeing for the US, attracted by our faster growth.

It seems eerily similar today, the conditions now with the US, first to restart after the lockdown, and Europe, which can’t get out of its own way. Stuck.

You remarked on the blog money is positioning now ready to make a move….as you have stated, higher rates are bullish…confirming strength in the economy, demand increasing, all bullish for stocks. What is missing is the Fed raising rates, or rather this time, the Fed having to follow, or worse, lose control of rates, which seems implied today…

Marty, if this is a replay, are we in 1927, 28…I assume 1929 is a long way off….

MS

REPLY: It seems to be close to the same timing of about two years, which would bring us to 2023. We can easily see that rates moved up from 3.5% to 6% at the Fed in hopes of stopping inflation. They have NEVER understood the markets or economy because they have relied on academics who only read books and have never traded.

My biggest problem here is that everything is upside down. To get such a crash in the stock market this time requires capital controls or a complete collapse in government and the financial system. During the Great Depression, sovereign defaults began in Europe. This pushed the dollar higher but not the US share market.  Note that the dollar rose in value during World War I, the 1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis, and again for World War II. During those waves of capital flows, the bulk of that capital always moved into government bonds.

We are facing a collapse in public confidence in government. How will capital move this time around when capital is moving away from governments? Will we see it move into the private sector exclusively, or will there be a capital flight to China as it becomes the USA of the 1930s?

The Confusing Labor Market


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Jun 21, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

There have been very unusual trends unfolding in the labor market. US workers have been quitting their jobs in record numbers all because the government was paying extra free money for unemployment. The $300 bonus, on top of everything else, has led to many people just staying home. One neighbor of a friend in an apartment was yelling that Governor DeSantis was horrible because he canceled the $300 bonus, and she can’t afford to stay home anymore — OMG. So far, 23 states ended the benefits, and 8 states are also terminating this extra $300-a-week-benefit.

These bonuses have really distorted the labor market. One local businessman I know says he gets 20 to 30 calls about jobs per day. Maybe one person actually shows up. All they have to do is claim they looked for a job to keep the benefits rolling in. This has created high unemployment, while simultaneously preventing small businesses from reopening to full capacity. This really hit in NYC.

The recovery from the pandemic has been exceptionally strange, for not only has the economy had to deal with the insanity of Fauci constantly changing positions, but this collision between public health measures and economic relief has unleashed social changes that have been inspired by the experience of this enduring coronavirus mismanagement. This has resulted in a labor market that seems, on the one hand, to be very hot, yet at the same time very cold for jobs that use to be salary. Even the oil industry has laid off thousands of workers with no intention of re-hiring.

The high number of long-term unemployed implies a very loose labor market, while the number of firms who say they can’t fill jobs suggests a tight one. But the tight market is the lower end, particularly restaurants. Nearly 4 million kids dropped out of college. Those jobs are typically filled by college students earning money while in school. With schools virtual, this also added to the shortage of labor in that category. Therefore, we are witnessing a conflict between these two sectors in the labor market that is creating tremendous confusion about the fate of the economy.

Unemployment: To be or Not To Be?