Category Fascism

Feb 23 2022

Armstrong v Schwab


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re-Posted Feb 23, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

While Nigel Farage spoke at our 2019 WEC in Rome, he said he came because our events were the “alternative to Davos.” For years Schwab and I have been on opposite sides of the table. The stark difference between myself and that of Klaus Schwab boils down to the divergence in economics between Adam Smith and Karl Marx.

Smith approached the subject from the realization of not knowing how the economy functioned. He embarked upon a path of discovery and came upon his monumental revelation of the Invisible Hand. Innovation can only come from the frontlines, and that is the individual who witnesses an opportunity to create something to fill a need. That can never be the role of government and the movie “Mr. Jones” illustrated what happens under government central control. Communism could not produce enough food so Stalin stole it from the Ukrainians, causing 7 million to die of starvation all to pretend communism did not fail.

That came to a head with the famous 1959 Kitchen Debate where Nixon showed that private innovation raised the living standards of the people because it came only from those of the frontlines — the people. This idea of material “equality” and focusing only on that aspect dehumanized society and deprived it of innovation from the people. This became the stark difference between Smith and Marx, which to this day distinguishes even me from Klaus Schwab.

It was the academics who rejected the idea of laissez-faire and the Invisible Hand and took the idea that they could improve society by manipulating the people assuming the business cycle was not inevitable. They took the position that the government held the power to control the economy at will. This became the “New Economics” or Keynesian Economics, which even Keynes admitted he was wrong before he died. Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, said in his “Rediscovery of the Business Cycle”: “[T]he ‘New Economics’ had become orthodoxy. Its basic tenet, repeated in similar words in speech after speech, in article after article, was described by one of its leaders as “the conviction that business cycles were not inevitable, that government policy could and should keep the economy close to a path of steady real growth at a constant target rate of unemployment.”

Schwab is not evil. He is just an academic who believes that government has the power to alter the economy and the future. He has created his Young Global Leaders and his Global Shapers all to be indoctrinated with his philosophy that we are not individuals but mere worker bees in a hive destined to serve the queen or, in this case, the government.

These academics look down upon society with disgust – the great unwashed. They fail to see that all innovation comes only from the freedom to think. They are repulsed by the thought that we are of any value to society. They believe they are far more intelligent than the workers below, so why bother to even speak to us? Julian Huxley was part of the establishment of the United Nations setting out the goals of UNESCO where he outright stated that “unrestricted individualism is equally erroneous.” He saw the individual as meaningless.

This is the philosophy that individualism is evil because they need to make sure that nobody has more materially than anyone else. They fail to understand that all innovation comes from the individual, and some dream of owning their own business, while others want no responsibility and just to earn what they need to in order to go off with other pursuits. That is human nature. We are individuals, not worker bees.

I had written before that while I was doing my historical research at Princeton University, one professor with who I became friends said that I reminded him of Einstein. I was shocked. I did not see myself in the same category. Then he explained it did not matter what field; the key was curiosity. Leonardo Da Vinci dug up dead bodies because he was curious about how the body functioned.

Then I understood what the comparison was. It was not a level of intelligence of average v genius. The key was simply “curiosity” about what makes anything function. Einstein had that curiosity in physics. Adam Smith in economics and Da Vinci was interested in the human body.

I was curious about what made empires, nations, and city-states rise from nothing and fall into the dust of history. I saw the world evolve in cycles. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns and Paul Volcker also came to the realization that the business cycle was in fact unbeatable.

Hence, the difference between Klaus Schwab and me is that I believe that indeed the business cycle is inevitable. In contrast, Schwab believes, as do most academics, that it can be manipulated, tempered, controlled, and eliminated. But to do so, you must extinguish humanity, for it is collectively the individual spirit that results in the rise and fall of empires, nations, and city-states. It is impossible to defeat the business cycle for contained within it is not just the individual, but everything including climate change, which is cyclical and has also been a key factor that once again cannot be controlled by this nonsense of powerful state regulation. It is not fossil fuels that cause climate change, for CO2 was also released when society throughout the ages burned wood to stay warm in winter. In 535 AD, then Emperor Justinian I declared the first environmental law called the clean air act. As much as we think things change, they remain the same — history repeats.

Civilization has expanded ONLY during warming periods. It always contracts during global cooling periods. One blunt reason for that has been simply that crops fail during winters and need the warmth of the sun to grow. Thus the food supply has declined during global cooling, and that has promoted the cycles in plagues as well. Even during the American Revolution, the ground would be frozen two feet deep. Pictures of Washington Crossing the ice-packed Delaware River was an example, for we were coming out of the Little Ice Age that bottomed in the mid-1600s. I never saw such ice in the Delaware River, and that is where I grew up.

There stark difference between Klaus Schwab and me boils down to the fact that the business cycle always wins. NEVER has anyone who has taken upon themselves to restructure the world economy based solely upon this belief that they can defeat and control the business cycle ever actually succeeded. All these theories of state control have ever caused is nothing but death, civil war, and international war.

Hence, I believe in humanity and that we are not all the same. Some are great physicians and others traders, and yet others are content to just spend time with their family and career is secondary. That is what the business cycle embraces. Those who are simply jealous of the material wealth of others and create theories to justify robbing others for their own personal gain have been around for a long time. I have always found it curious that it is one of the prohibitions in the Ten Commandments not to covet other people’s wealth implying that this has been the dark side of humanity that has always risen and fallen over the ages.

For this reason, my curiosity has led me to see that society is like a rainforest. It is so complex that academics will never see it from a lofty window looking down upon the people they regard as inferior to them mentally – the great unwashed. We cannot create a rainforest, for the complexity is far beyond our comprehension. Every species is a food source for another, and that includes plants. Remove just one, and the ripple effect unleashed is unpredictable. For example, importing cane toads to Australia or releasing Burmese pythons that were once pets into the Everglades that eat alligators altered the balance in nature as new preditors emerged without their own checks and balance.

This is the danger of the theories that Schwab has embraced. The arrogance of elitism without understanding how the business cycle truly works.

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Categories: ECM, Economics, Understanding Cycles
Tags: Adam Smith, Business Cycle, Communism, individualism, Invisible Hand, Keynes, Keynesian economics, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marx, Schwab

Feb 23 2022

Ottawa Mayor Suggests Selling Confiscated Trucks


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Feb 23, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Mayor Jim Watson of Ottawa is proposing using the powers granted by the Emergencies Act to sell off the confiscated trucks. Over 170 people have been arrested along with nearly 50 trucks. Watson said that he believes the funds should be used to pay for the costs the city incurred during the protest, but the real reason he wants to sell off the trucks is to further punish the protestors. “I want to see them sold. I don’t want the return to these people who’ve been causing such frustration and angst in our community,” Watson said. “You can’t come to Ottawa anymore and shut down our city for four weeks.”

They are taking away these protestors’ livelihoods and leaving them with nothing left to lose. Civil forfeiture permits the government to seize property and assets. All they need to do is claim that a crime was committed. This is a very common practice and governments are the greatest thieves. Countless police agencies factor in confiscated assets in their budget.

Trudeau has suspended all civil liberties. He is attempting to use the truckers as an example – do not disobey or else.

Government theft originated as an ancient law that the King of England adopted as a means to pretend he was God and entitled to confiscate everyone’s money on a whim. The United States Supreme Court in J.W. Goldsmith Jr., Grant Co. v. The United States, 254 U.S. 505 (1922), noted the origins of government forfeiture power in the historical practice of Deodand.

The court cited Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780) in his “Commentaries of the Laws of England,” which noted that this practice extended back to the times of ancient Greece. A Deodand is something forfeited or given to God, specifically, in law, an object or instrument that becomes forfeited because it has caused a person’s death. The English common law of Deodands traces back to the 11th century and was applied, on and off, until Parliament finally abolished it in 1846. Deodand is not technically practiced in the United States or Canada, yet it has transformed into the government’s right to seize your property even if you have done nothing wrong. The object commits the offense, not you.

Feb 23 2022

Evangeline Lilly Speaks Out Against Trudeau


Armstrong Economics Blog/Canada Re- Posted Feb 23, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Evangeline Lilly, who is Canadian, has come out and urged Justin Trudeau to speak with protesting Canadian truckers. She has impressed me in her address where she expressed her thoughts directly at Trudeau in a video shared on Bridge City News’ Instagram account.

“I want to speak to you today about your current approach to and current treatment of our fellow Canadians who are protesting your federal vaccine mandates,” the actress said in the video. “They have asked to meet with you, prime minister, medical experts, top scientists, doctors, nurses, parents, grandparents, intelligent, loving, concerned citizens.”

I am so glad to see that she is articulate and not a blind follower. Her words are very profound and the mere fact that she was compelled to speak out speaks volumes. What people must know is that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have all the same agenda, and this ties back to Schwab and his World Economic Forum. Trudeau has dug in his heels mainly because if he yields, then so will Australia and New Zealand and Schwab’s dream of imposing his economic theories upon the entire world will begin to collapse.

Let me make it very clear. I do not see Schwab as evil. He truly believes that his ideas are correct. My problem is that there is a long historical track record of these attempts to create societies based upon material equality. They have ALWAYS failed and he has been able to indoctrinate his Young Global Leaders to believe that his way is the right way. They cannot see that to achieve material equality means we must surrender our human individuality. Some people are the creators and others are content to be followers. We earn based upon our skillset and on that score, we are not all equal stamped from some cookie cutter.

I have never met Evangeline Lilly. But obviously, I would be able to have a far more intelligent discussion with her than I could ever have with any of Schwab’s Young Global Leaders.

Feb 23 2022

Biden Speaks – Nothing but Lies Again to Start WWIII


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Feb 22, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Biden has delivered a propaganda justification for launching World War III. I have reported in the various previous reports that every war we have entered has been justified on nothing but lies. He makes no mention that these provinces have been the issue under the Minsk Agreements since 2014 where the people wanted to be independent because they were Russian ethnically – not Ukrainian.

From World War I when they claimed that the Germans sunk a passenger ship when they had taken an advertisement in the New York Newspaper warning people not to sail on that ship because the US was covertly using it to supply arms to Britain. Additionally, Japan had issued a Declaration of War, but it was better to pretend it was a surprise when they really knew there would be an attack.

The Vietnam War never involved the Vietnamese firing on a US ship. It was reported that Johnson lied. Johnson commented privately: “For all I know, our navy was shooting at whales out there.”

Of course, most of us remember the Gulf War and how we had to invade Iraq because there were Weapons of Mass Destruction. That too was a lie and the cost of that war was outrageous.

Now we hear the very same words over two provinces in Ukraine that have been seeking independence since 2014 and the West has utterly failed to allow those people any right to Democracy or Freedom from oppression that has been waged against them by a comedian who is head of Ukraine – Volodymyr Zelensky.

The solution would have been so simple. Let those two provinces decide their own fate rather than politicians claiming the old territorial rights of imperialism. Is this worth another bullshit loss of life on a global scale? Do you want your children to die for another lie?

Feb 23 2022

Odd Little Note on the Puppet Handler of Trudeau


Posted on the conservative tree house on February 23, 2022 | Sundance | 96 Comments

Everyone knows Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is an empty vessel.  He carries himself as a generally unintelligent fellow with a sub-par IQ and a childish demeanor that is often inappropriate.   However, recently due to the increased attention upon Canada as they descend into lunatic leftism, the role of Trudeau as a puppet has become more evident.

His Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, is well known to people here for her prior key role in the creation of the USMCA trade agreement, her busybody demeanor and her snarky ideological annoyances.  However, Chrystia is also the person who puts the words in Justin’s mouth, literally.

Watch a few seconds of this video from Trudeau’s statements about Ukraine yesterday and pay attention to the mannerisms of Freeland as the Canadian Prime Minister reads his prepared remarks.  Watch her closely and what you will notice is that Freeland wrote the remarks.  She is visibly saying them in her head while physically mirroring the exact cadence Trudeau uses as he delivers her script.  WATCH:

Once you see it, it’s impossible not to see it.

The same thing happens once you see the strings on the marionettes; it is impossible to keep watching the puppet show and not see them.  In this example it’s a little funny.

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Every single person reading this either knows a Chrystia Freeland or has encountered a Chrystia Freeland at some point in their life.

Feb 23 2022

Steve Cortes Hits the Target, Team Biden Using Russia to Hide Outcomes of Their Economic Agenda


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 22, 2022 | Sundance | 139 Comments

Former Trump campaign advisor Steve Cortes hits the center bullseye with this explanation of what is currently taking place. {Direct Rumble Link}

As Cortes outlines, the massive inflation, massive gas prices, massive economic pain for the middle class are all directly an outcome of Joe Biden energy policy, economic policy and congressional spending/mismanagement.  WATCH:

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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.
  • Continue fracking.

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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.

Feb 23 2022

Meanwhile, Under the Radar, Congress Is Going to Vote on Biden Extending COVID-19 National Emergency


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 22, 2022 | Sundance | 223 Comments

Last Friday night, the White House quietly submitted their notification to congress that Joe Biden intends to extend the national state of emergency around COVID-19.  [LINK HERE]  The extension provides the U.S. government with more unilateral authority and emergency power.

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) has introduced legislation seeking an end to the national emergency declaration.

TODAY – The bill would revoke many of the federal government’s extended powers regarding the pandemic, Fox News reported, adding that Congress has the duty to determine whether an emergency under the National Emergencies Act should be extended, but, to date, has mostly abdicated its role to the executive branch.

Marshall told Fox News Digital:

With COVID cases and hospitalizations on the decline, 94 percent of Americans having immunity to COVID, mask mandates falling by the wayside, and 70 percent of Americans agreeing ‘it’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay’ and that ‘we just need to get on with our lives,’ it’s clear we need a new approach to COVID as we learn to live with it.

“That new approach starts with putting an end to the COVID national state of emergency,” the senator added. (read more)

Feb 23 2022

Western Leaders Blame Russia-Ukraine Conflict for Energy Prices, Deflecting From G7 Build Back Better and Climate Change Agenda


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 22, 2022 | Sundance | 328 Comments

The agenda really is quite transparent when you stop and look at it overall.  Riddle me this…

Why would the Biden administration announce yesterday they were cancelling new oil and gas leases if they were worried about the Russia-Ukraine impact on oil and gas prices?

The short answer is, they wouldn’t.

If the Biden team were worried about gas prices, they would be doing everything possible to lower gas prices as the Russia-Ukraine crisis unfolds…. but they are not.  They are doing the exact opposite.  Why? Because the Biden administration wants high gas prices as part of the Green New Deal as executed within their energy and regulatory policy.

High gas prices and high energy prices are a feature, not a flaw of Biden policy.  The goal is to achieve approximately $10/gal gasoline at which point the economics of the climate change agenda find parity over fossil fuels for the average person.

So far, it looks like gasoline will easily reach $10/gal in Biden’s term as the disposable front man for the larger agenda.  By the end of this year, we are on track to see the first $7/gal rate for gasoline in the U.S.  From there they only need increases of $1/gal per year for a few years.

In the U.S. it was previously called “The Green New Deal.”  However, the wording was shifted to “Build Back Better” upon the instructions of the global leaders who engineer the narratives.  Both plans are versions of climate change policy as deployed by the World Economic Forum.   Build Back Better is the program to push climate change policy in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Overall, the global climate change agenda is a system of new economics.  Climate change gets us to the global carbon trading system that is the holy grail of the World Economic Forum.  Carbon trading, when triggered, would automatically supersede financial market trading in scope and scale.  Again, we repeat the baseline, there are trillions at stake, and everything is about the economics.

The Biden administration and western leaders of the G7 are all chasing the same objective.  However, they do not want their citizens to realize the pain they feel is an intentional construct of their political leadership.  That’s where Vladimir Putin and the Russia-Ukraine crisis come into play as a useful tool for blame-casting.

Check out this article from today:  “Ukraine-Russia crisis could lead to highest gas prices in California history, expert says.”

(VIA ABC) – SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — California’s already record-high gas prices are expected to get even more expensive in the coming months, according to experts, and it’s all being fueled by the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

[…] “If Western countries come after Russia with sanctions, Russia could just say, ‘Hey, we’re just going to cut off oil,’” explained Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy. “And that could cause oil prices to spike at a time that gasoline demand is continuing to recover as COVID numbers decline.” (read more)

None of the current gas price increases have anything to do with Russia or Ukraine.   The U.S. government has completely shut down our own oil and gas industry development as intended by Joe Biden policy.  It was the very first executive order signed on the very first day in office.

YESTERDAY – “Biden revived the social cost of carbon on his first day in office, setting it at $51 per ton of CO2 emissions — the same level as set by the Obama administration. The administration was expected to release an updated figure this February”  (LINK)

The climate change agenda is at the heart of the collective world order push for a global carbon trading system.   That system is what the Paris Climate Treaty was intended to facilitate.

However, when you chase climate change policy to its logical conclusion, there was always going to be a time when the financial pain felt by the citizens was considered a major hurdle to achieve the carbon trade exchanges.   Gas prices and energy prices are going to hurt people, working families especially.  That’s why they need Vladimir Putin portrayed in the role of the bad guy who the G7 can blame for gas price increases.

Global oil demand about to surge, U.S. shale development and growth is over (Biden policy), and OPEC’s spare capacity is set to be exhausted.

All of the western leaders just need to keep the average person blaming the Russia-Ukraine crisis for the rising cost of gasoline, and all will be well.

Gas will reach $7/gal.

Putin will be blamed.

Watch:

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Prepare your affairs accordingly.

Feb 23 2022

Biden Delivers Remarks on Ukraine, Video and Transcript


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 22, 2022 | Sundance | 148 Comments

The installed occupant of the White House took his turn at the lectern today to read words prepared for him by others.  He took no questions. The transcript of the remarks is HERE and the nine-minute video is below.

Within the speech Biden waxed philosophically about the financial impact to Americans from his actions against Russia for their support of the eastern Ukraine breakaway effort.  “I want to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump,” Biden said, “This is critical to me.”

In the bigger picture I don’t think many Americans outside the DC beltway give a flip about internal Ukrainian squabbles and Russia’s support for the Eastern Ukrainian independence effort.  However, inside the DC beltway Ukraine is very important, stunningly important, because Ukraine functions as the corrupt money laundry operation for DC politicians to receive taxpayer kickbacks from their financial support into Ukraine.

Outline of Newest Sanctions HERE

Feb 23 2022

Ottawa Judge Denies Bail for Convoy Organizer Tamara Lich Charged With Mischief, Trudeau Government Seek Gag Order Forbidding Her Speech From Prison, Canadian Truckers Are ISIS


Posted originally of the conservative tree house on February 22, 2022 | Sundance | 816 Comments

And so it begins… An Ottawa Judge has denied bail for convoy organizer Tamara Lich citing the severe threat she poses to the Canadian government and the destabilization of democracy in Canada.

From the 30,000-ft level, the timed delay of the judicial determination appears connected to last night’s parliamentary approval of the Emergency War Measures Act. The Crown stalled the judicial appearance until Parliament affirmed authorization of the EA.  The Act provides increased legal measures for the Crown to keep Lich in the bowels of the dungeon as punishment for her high crimes and heinous mischief.

Despite the government and judicial framing of her actions, Mrs. Lich remains only charged with “counseling to create mischief,” interpreted by the communists in the Canadian judiciary as a grievous offense so serious in nature that her incarceration status must remain higher than all former terrorists encountered by the Canadian state.

“You have had plenty of opportunity to remove yourself and even others from this criminal activity but obstinately chose not to, and persistently counselled others not to either,” the judge said, adding that “this community has already been impacted enough.” (link)

Additionally, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has requested a gag order against Mrs. Lich, which would forbid her speaking to any of the accused co-conspirator dissidents; “A non-communication order that would bar Lich from any communications with three fellow convoy organizers and leaders: Chris Barber, Pat King and B.J. Dichter.”

Following the J6 playbook to a tee, the government of Canada will likely transfer Mrs Lich to a detainment and isolation facility for re-education.  As expressed by actions of the Crown, Tamara Lich is considered more dangerous to the Canadian government than ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Now, let’s talk about Vladimir Putin in context.