Armstrong Economics Blog/Ancient Economies Re-Posted Jun 3, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

A lot of people have been asking if I still have some ancient coins available. I will put together what I have from some hoards I have purchased for study. According to one of the ancient coin dealer auction houses, CNG, prices at their auctions have risen 35% in the past year and at the same time, the number of people bidding has risen by 30%. Likewise, stamp dealers are reporting a rise in the number of people buying rare stamps. Athenian Owls are generally selling for $2,000 to $3,000 for well centered nice quality while off-centered specimens with noticeable wear are bringing $1,500-$1,700.

With COVID, people have been unable to travel. The number of hoards coming to the market has dropped considerably. Despite the fact that many coins like Widow Mites are found in large quantities, we have people in universities demanding nothing be allowed to enter the free markets anymore in some places like Israel and Italy. These people are real morons. I bought my first ancient coin when I was perhaps 10 or 11 for $10. The fact I could actually hold an ancient coin sparked my love of history. What these people in universities are doing is their hatred of the free market is depriving people who holding an ancient coin creates their interest in history and may become a major donor in their adult years.

I was also asked 25 years ago to step forward and fund the excavation of a remaining 2,800 m² that remains buried still since 2012 in the Villa Suburbana also known as the Villa of the Papyri. The Italian government just never has the money to fund such projects with all the social demands. In Los Angeles, the famous Getty Villa in Santa Monica County was designed based on the ancient Villa of the Papyrus. Indeed, the Villa of the Papyri was a private house in Herculaneum which was owned by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. The Villa was buried in nearly 100 feet (30m) of ash from the 79AD eruption of Mt Vesuvius which also covered Pompeii.

It is known as the Villa of the Papyrus because the house contained 1,785 carbonized papyrus scrolls. The collection included many lost books of Greek philosophical texts and it was clearly the greatest single personal library ever discovered which included the rare works of Philodemus. With the help of modern technology, the scrolls began to yield what was written thousands of years ago.

I will try to put together a list of what I can gather for readers. It is getting harder by the year for just like the cancel culture, these academics want all ancient coin finds from here on out to be just dumped in their drawers where nobody but them will ever see them again. They have no idea they are depriving the next generation of even knowing such things exist or caring about history. The academics will stamp out history while they think they are preserving it.

Armstrong Economic Blog/Economics Re-Posted Jun 3, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: With over 1 million millionaires and billionaires fleeing the north to the south, why do these people not see the handwriting on the wall? Willful ignorance? Or are they planning to try to prevent non vaccinated people from even engaging in any commerce?

PG

ANSWER: This reminds me of how Spain fell. Indeed, Spain was once the richest nation in Europe. It had America and the gold kept piling in. Spain was the Financial Capital of the Western World at that time. Even the main currency in the United States prior to the Revolution as Spanish dollars. Here is a private note from the Exchange Office in Mississippi. Note that they picture a US dollar as well as Spanish dollars. The US adopted the Spanish monetary system because it was the Financial Capital of the Western World at that time.

The Spanish Inquisition was even rejected by the Pope. It was being used for political purposes not unlike how they are using COVID today. They would torture and confiscate the property of especially Jews and Muslims. What they too succeeded in doing was driving the jews out of Spain. Where did they go? They migrated to Amsterdam and in the process, they began banking and the first insurance companies. It was the English who copied the “Dutch” which were really the Jews at that time who even created the first stock exchange – the bourse.

It was the Sephardi Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 after the fall of Muslim Granada. There were some who first migrated to Portugal. However, they too were forced to leave in 1497. The crown was using religion for-profit and the Jews were given the choice between conversion to Catholicism or suffer the death penalty on the grounds of heresy. By expelling the Jews, they set in motion the fall of Spain. The country became a serial defaulter and wiped out both the Italian and German bankers in the process. It was because of their defaults that the banking also migrated north to Amsterdam.

I see the very same process unfolding. The government is seeking to punish those who are not vaccinated. They are using COVID as the excuse to tear society apart to further their own power by maintaining the division between people. Nobody really knows what these vaccines are. People I know who have been vaccinated are handed a long legal document which states they are consenting to an experimental vaccine that has “not been approved” counting on the fact that people just sign such papers and have no clue what they really say.Video Player00:0400:06

The real question is WHY are governments involved in such an effort when the death toll is no worse than the flu? Now we have Canada bluntly proposing to suspend all elections using the pandemic as justification. It simply means we have arrived at the end of socialism. They know that. Europe has destroyed its bond markets. Pension funds are insolvent for they need 8% annual returns to break even. They must change the monetary system for they can no longer borrow endlessly to fund their wildest dreams. Welcome to the New Age of Authoritarianism.

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 25, 2021 | Sundance | 69 Comments

Every economic policy of the JoeBama administration benefits other nations at the cost of the U.S. middle class.  If you look at the Biden policy from a position of America’s interests they get everything wrong.  However, if you look at Biden economic policy from a goal to weaken the U.S. and benefit other nations, they get everything right.

This is the exact same big picture dynamic that was present during the Obama era.  The Chicago crew of policy advisors simply hate America and everything she/we stand for.  That element of Obama’s network hates ‘colonialism’, despises the industrial revolution, and abhors free market capitalism.

When Obama said “share the wealth” he wasn’t speaking exclusively toward domestic socioeconomic policy; he was also pointing out that America needed to share wealth with other nations.  This is the ideological alignment between Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden.  Above all other issues Osama Bin Laden despised the wealth the U.S. carried as a result of the dollar being the international trade currency.  Thus the 9/11 attack was directed at the World Trade Center first, then DC second.

If you accept Biden is an avatar for Obama’s third term, then everything in the economic policy makes sense.   Including this:

“U.S. President Joe Biden will rely on ally countries to supply the bulk of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and focus on processing them domestically into battery parts, part of a strategy designed to placate environmentalists, two administration officials with direct knowledge told Reuters.” (link)

Beyond the hypocrisy of ‘global’ climate change being irrelevant to where the mining takes place (duh), what the administration is doing is letting our mining operations close while importing the same product. This is a continuation of what policies created the “rust belt”.  Then there’s the pesky problem of the cars actually being built in Mexico, not the U.S…. but we need to ignore that part.

♦Example #2 of JoeBama policy comes from the Emerald Isle laughing at the U.S.A. as Biden kicks out U.S. companies by raising corporate taxes.

“Ireland has no plans to increase its corporate tax rate – one of the lowest in the developed world – the country’s finance minister has told Sky News, which could scupper Joe Biden’s radical scheme for a global minimum rate.”

[…] “He predicted that Ireland will maintain its 12.5% corporate tax rate for many years to come.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Mr Donohoe said: “We do have really significant reservations regarding a global minimum effective tax rate status at such a level that it means only certain countries, and certain size economies can benefit from that base – we have a really significant concern about that.” (read more)

Every element of Biden economic policy is exactly the wrong thing to do if you want the United States to thrive.  However, every element of Biden economic policy is exactly the right thing to do if you want the United States to suffer.

Creating a “service driven economy” is a feature, not a flaw, of Obama and Biden’s network of economic advisors and policy-makers.  That is the origin of the self fulfilling prophecy…. a series of policies that create massive wealth disparity…. that the base of the Democrats love to rail against…. in order to elect globalist elites… in order to continue the same export of U.S. wealth….. that creates the wealth disparity they rail against.

Wash – Rinse – Repeat.

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 25, 2021 | Sundance | 153 Comments

As we have watched the economic conditions for Main Street businesses and blue-collar workers continue to worsen, the horizon grows ever more dark.  Last month when we reviewed the inflation data we noted as follows:

“The rapid increases in the price of food and gasoline are hitting the middle-class hard. This will have a downstream effect on more luxury items and durable goods. Spend more on food/gas and you might not be able to purchase that new table you wanted. Durable good inventories increase and layoffs in those sectors begin.

It will be very interesting to watch how the housing market responds over the next few months. If the trendline continues we should see a considerable softening in home sales, again depending on region, as the inflation hits the working class” (link)

Today we get the first set of housing data to accompany the inflation forecast: “New home sales dropped 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 863,000 units last month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. March’s sales pace was revised lower to 917,000 units from the previously reported 1.021 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for a small share of U.S. home sales, at a rate of 970,000 units in April.”

[…] “The median new house price soared 20.1% from a year earlier to $372,400 in April. Sales were concentrated in the $200,000-$399,000 price range. Sales below the $200,000 price bracket, the sought-after segment of the market, accounted for a mere 2% of transactions last month.” (link)

Some of the drop is likely attributable to low inventory in hot markets like Florida. However, that said, inflation, high unemployment and lower wage rates are hampering the ability of blue collar workers to afford entry level homes (as noted above).  Financial security is now a concern as real wages continue to drop and inflation bites hard into working class incomes.