Economics, Finance and Our Life, as It Starts to Unfold in 2024


Posted originally on the CTH on January 1, 2024 | Sundance

In this outline I am going to expand on the details previously discussed {HERE}.  You won’t find this in any financial media discussion, and there’s only a handful of people I know in the west who really understand the ramifications.  Fortunately, one of them is running for President.

First some non-pretending context.  If you are a Friedman-ite, finance major from any traditional academic institute – including Wharton, and/or a person who uses data models to frame analysis about economics and finance, without the capacity to put all of your traditional reference points in the trash heap of irrelevance, then just move along.  We ain’t got time for that.

Consider Austan Goolsbee and Bill Ayers having dinner talking about what would happen if they successfully de-dollarized the globe.  Austan comes at it from one perspective, Bill from another. Bernardine Dohrn smiles, because neither of the Chicago dinner guests has any idea what would really happen in this ideological landscape; no one really does.

I first sounded the alarm on this on March 2, 2022, almost two years ago {SEE HERE}.

In the ideological DoS/CIA/WEF/Western banking frenzy to punish the horrible Russia, I took a different approach. I overlaid the human factor with the geopolitical reality of financial control mechanisms.  I predicted a cleaving outcome, because I carry no assumptions.  That’s the context.

Additionally, I’m not coming at this situational analysis having relied on charts, graphs, trade analysis, Western finance systems or actuarial constructs of monetary manipulation by central bankers.  Nope.  I sat quietly inside small to medium-sized regional banks in Western Europe and listened to the reality of what businesspeople are doing, actually doing, in their operation of their enterprise as it relates to finance and Russia. {Go Deep}

This is where the razor’s edge outcome of the cleaving, the “yellow zone” -vs- “grey zone” construct, meets reality.

What we will witness this year will be one of the biggest stories of 2024 that will impact every American.  However, few people will understand the information that will slowly trickle toward us, because too few people analyze information without historic assumptions.

When the “West” (yellow zone) triggered the sanction regime against Russia, almost no one took a big picture overlay and asked, “What about those nations who do not align with the Western intent; what will they do?”

Russia is not an enemy of the world; in fact, they have good relationships with China, Iran, India, multiple Middle East nations including Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and several Eastern European as well as African countries.

When the USA was walking away from the Arab Spring crisis Obama created, it was Russia who stepped in to help stop radicalization; just ask President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Even NATO ally Turkey has an ongoing diplomatic and strategic friendship with Russia; that’s why Turkish Airlines operates as the best transportation company for travel into and out of Russia.

In fact, when the proverbial West triggered the sanctions against Russia, approximately one-third of the global GDP was not in alignment.  A trade system that represents roughly 40% of all global production and trade (grey) can sustain a targeted enemy, while the 60% (yellow) allows complacency, hubris and delusions of grandeur to create an echo-chamber.

In essence, the “West” targeted Russia, but Russia had friends.

Those friendships expanded when the international fence-sitters saw how extreme and hateful the USA was going to be.  How long before they, country xxxx  might upset a USA administration? Who wants to be blackmailed by a similar targeted financial control system that the USA/EU and West triggered.

You might not think this Western sanction ‘shock value’ was a factor of importance, but two years later evidence suggests it was a much bigger deal than anyone was willing to admit.

De-dollarization is underway; failing to admit or accept this reality is akin to retaining a great pretense.  The outcomes are only just now beginning to surface, and when we are trapped inside the Western zone, we cannot see, quantify or fully appreciate it.

India is trading with Russia in national currencies, not dollars.  Iran and Russia are trading in national currencies, not dollars.  China is trading with Russia in national currencies, not dollars.  This process is expanding not shrinking, and it has huge outcomes.

If trades between nations are not contingent upon dollars, then less dollars need to be purchased.  Less U.S. treasuries are purchased to back up the trade.  Less dollar demand means lower dollar value.   This process is only just beginning, and we cannot see it.   The only way to see it is to step out of the yellow zone and look at the costs of goods and services in the grey zone.

Dollars are still in demand for anyone who wants access to the USA or EU market, so this de-dollarization process is limited in scale right now.  But again, it’s expanding – meaning the demand for dollars is less.

Inside the Yellow Zone we cannot see the shift, but we can see the signs of a less demanded dollar in the prices of goods and services in the yellow zone.  Inflation runs high in the Western zone as this devalued dollar begins to become more of an issue.

When we talk about “inflation” it is critical to keep in mind we are not ONLY talking about the price of goods.  Yes, goods are one component to increased costs of living; however, financial service products like insurance costs (health, life, auto, homeowners etc.) are part of the equation where we see the inflationary impact of de-dollarization running amok.  The financial services are closely related to the overall finance sector (think banking), so those skyrocketing costs hit first and become the precursor.

Next in the inflationary scale of impact comes the energy costs, which – as a direct and consequential outcome – transfer into the increased costs of goods, via packaging, processing, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, etc.  The overall business costs for insurance and financial services then aggregate with the energy cost impact and amplify the issue.

You can argue whether the current cost drivers or inflationary reality was a feature (intent) or a flaw (short-sighted outcome) of the western sanction regime, in combination with the intentional Build Back Better energy shift.

Austan Goolsbee might say it’s an accidental outcome, while a more radical communist like Bill Ayers says it was intended.

Personally, I think it was absolutely an intended feature, created to pave the way for a digital Western currency; that’s what it looked like in March 2022, and that’s what it still looks like today.

Regardless of intent, the reality is here…. barely visible right now, but here, and the de-dollarization is growing.

That opaque visibility is what I am talking about becoming much clearer in 2024.  Eventually, people will start to ask questions about why the cost of products inside the yellow zone is so far out of sync with identical products and services inside the grey zone. {GO DEEP}  The only way to see it, is to travel to both.

Now bring back the traditional Goolsbee economist thinking.  If domestic prices continue rising (de-dollarization outcome), then domestic wage rates will need to rise in order for people inside the yellow zone to cope.   Unfortunately, as Austan would lament, this dynamic becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for even higher prices….

True… But why is Bernardine smiling?

Maybe,” she says from the kitchen, as Austan squints and tilts his head with curiosity.

Bill smiles and replies, “I think she says ‘maybe’, because the surest way to avoid that dynamic is to import mass volumes of cheap low-skilled migrants as an offset.”

Austan looks even more curious as Bernardine says, “Yup, if ‘Western govt’ wants to align favorably with WEF corporate needs, then let the government give the corporations the means to avoid higher wages by allowing mass migration.”

Austan sits with jaw agape as Bill finishes the discussion and drops the mic. “If, for the sake of argument, that was indeed the plan, then specifically due to the nature of the USA dollar being the most severely impacted, it would be the borders of the USA that would need the highest rise in migrant crossings.”

Huh.

Go figure!

A.R ROBERTS …”I come here to the treehouse to get my morning dose of doom and gloom, lol. Everything I hear from SD and other alt-media people paints a very bleak picture. It’s like watching an 18-wheeler going down a steep grade with no brakes and no way to stop it. What you’re talking about SD is our imminent death at the hands of these insane inbred billionaire genocidal whackos. There seems to be no political solution to our situation. They will either terrorize us if we resist their death by a thousand cuts or drag us off to a Gulag or an extermination camp.

Tell me, please, what options do we have left? They have us boxed in and control an absolute police state. How about giving us some hope, some solutions?

I feel alone. Almost every “conservative” around me has their heads in the sand with bread and circuses. They think the stock market is doing great. They think everything is going back to normal. The libs in my family think anything is better than Trump in office. They are oblivious. They think I’m being a Chicken Little. It’s pretty damn depressing. Why should I stick my neck out to fight for any of these morons? It would almost be satisfying to watch them suffer from their ignorance if it wasn’t so tragic for the rest of us.”… 

Instead of writing another article, I will show you the solution.  At least what the solution should look like, albeit in a USA version.  Let’s call it America First.

Economic nationalism.  Make America Great Again, economically.

Stop the de-dollarization by Making Dollars Great Again!

Make dollars valuable.

Make the USA more valuable.

Tell me if you see value in this video.

Tell me if you understand.

READ: Transcript, March 10, 2007 ~ Vladimir Putin

Central Banks & Complexity


Posted originally on Dec 21, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Federal Reserve Text

QUESTION: Why do you seem to be the only analyst who understands central banking? My son got an internship at one of the major banks in New York during the summer. I won’t say which bank, but he asked a senior-level guy there about you and the interest rates, explaining I had been following you for years. He said you were the only one with international experience and who has ever advised multiple central banks. Is that the answer?

PK

ANSWER: Perhaps in part. But there is a massive gap between the experience of those of us who have dealt at high levels internationally and domestic analysts who always seem wrong calling the shots based on the headlines they read.

Understanding Currency capital flows

The number one problem is this fiction that the dollar is a fiat currency when, in fact, currency from the beginning of time has ALWAYS been valued NOT by its pure metal content but by who issued it. There has historically always been a premium to the currency of the dominant economy.

Lydia Debasement
Tiberius Aureus Genuine India Imitation

When Cyrus the Great conquered Lydia, he continued to strike coins of their design because they were highly regarded in international trade. We see the same with Roman coinage imitated in India when they, too, could have issued their own designs, but the Roman coinage carried a premium.

Valens AR Siliqua Genuine Gothic Imitation

Even when the Barbarians were on the Northern frontier of Rome, they too took silver and struck imitations of Roman coins because they were worth more than the metal content. In 260AD, when emperor Valerian the Persians captured me,  there was a Financial Panic of 260AD where bankers suddenly did not know if Roman coins would still be worth anything when there was no emperor.

QE MMT
Rain Money QE

While everyone claimed hyperinflation would engulf the world because of Quantitative Easing (QE), I warned there would be no such inflation. Indeed, with QE, there was no inflation, and people then developed the Modern Monetary Theory, claiming that they could increase the money supply and it would not result in inflation.

The entire problem rests with the fact that these people not only did not understand the role of money but also failed to grasp international capital flows and how they play into the world economy. Because you can now buy US TBills and place them as collateral to trade with at a brokerage house, the debt is simply money that pays interest. BEFORE 1971, it was illegal to borrow against government bonds. For you see, if you could borrow against the bonds, that meant the bonds were part of the REAL money supply.

Once debt became cash that paid interest, that changed economics forever. I have said over and over again the Fed is NOT the problem, and it can not stop inflation with interest rates. The REAL money supply if the national debt, so if the Fed buys-in 30-year bonds and creates cash to do so, it is NOT increasing the money supply; it is increasing the liquidity – that is all. Swapping cash for bonds does not change the balance sheet. If you buy a house for $100,000 and pay cash, then you have merely converted your cash into an asset.

Now, it all depends upon the buyer. If I have a building and sell it to a fellow American for $10 million, it does NOT alter the domestic money supply. However, if I sell it to Brit, he brings in cash to buy the property, and that DOES INCREASE the money supply BECAUSE he has imported $10 million that did not previously exist within the domestic system.

This is a very complex topic that only those of us in international finance ever encountered. I helped the Japanese reduce their trade surplus for political reasons. I had them buy gold in New York, export it to London, and sell it there. The trade statistics only count dollars in and dollars out – not the product. Buying gold and exporting it reduced the trade deficit, and nobody understood anything.

Dow Jones Earnings Book Value 1937 1982
Martin Armstrong Margaret Thatcher

I handled a lot of the takeover boys during the 1980s when they made the move about Wall Street. They never understood what I was doing. The stocker was way undervalued when you could buy a company, sell its assets, and double your money. I took it to another level. I ran the model on currencies, and we would then buy like all the Courage Pubs in England but borrow in Swiss in a currency that would decline against the asset. We were making 20% on the currency moves besides the asset values. I was restructuring companies selling assets in one currency to buy assets in another to create balance hedge portfolios. That’s how I became friends with Maggie Thatcher. She wanted to know who this guy was sending companies into Britain.

Maggie was one of the few world leaders who grasped what I was doing. She kept Britain out of the EU because she understood what and how I was restructuring multinational companies. They staged a coup against here to take the pound into the Euro, then Soros attacked the overvalued pound in the ERM, and John Major had to reverse the entire mess, making Soros very rich in the process.

I will get around to doing my memoirs. I understand what I was doing set the stage for the world economy post-1971 Bretton Woods. That’s why Milton Friedman bothered to listen to my lecture about currencies in Chicago.

Financial Literacy Courses Coming to US Schools


Posted originally on Dec 20, 2023 By Martin Armstrong |

Education

Public schools in America are not required to teach financial literacy. We have seen the repercussions of America’s financial illiteracy over the decades and it will be absolutely crucial to understand basic personal finance during this volatile time. A new Pennsylvania law ensures that 53% of high school students in the US will have guaranteed access to a mandatory financial education course. Currently, eight states guarantee that students will take a personal finance course, and 17 states are in the process of implementing similar policies. This initiative is aimed at equipping students with essential financial knowledge before graduation.

A study by Walden University found that 4 in 7 Americans are financially illiterate and cannot manage their personal finances. The study believes finance should be introduced in schools at a kindergarten level, no different from math, reading, or other pillars. The National Financial Educators Council estimates that 254 million Americans were financially illiterate as of 2022, costing Americans $436 billion.

Education

The majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. I reported in 2022 that even one-third of high-income citizens earning over $250,000 annually were also living paycheck to paycheck, as inflation does not discriminate based on income. We have seen hardship 401K withdrawals increase this year. Credit card debt is the highest it has ever been. A survey by Clever Real Estate found that 64% of Gen Xers have stopped saving for retirement as they are either paying off past debt or simply cannot afford to save.

The US government also knows that the next generation will NEVER see Social Security. Retirement is now viewed as an unobtainable luxury to most. Social Security is not enough to live on alone, and a good portion of the nation simply does not have the savings to exit the workforce. Financial literacy is crucial to our nation’s success and this one piece of government funding I believe could pay off in the long-term.