Category Gresham’s Law, “Bad money drives out good Money”

Apr 6 2023

Why Trump’s Indictment is an Absurd Abuse of Power


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law Re-Posted Apr 6, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Bragg has seriously exposed the core of real immoral prosecution practices that really have to stop. Let’s say you made one phone call and defrauded someone out of $100,000. You will be charged with (1) count of wire fraud. However, let’s say you had to call the person 34 times to get the same $100,000. The prosecutor will then charge you with 34 counts of wire fraud. Now let’s say the penalty is 5 years in prison. So if you called 34 times for the same amount of money,  the judge could then sentence you to 170 years claiming it is his “discretion” to run them all consecutively.

Bragg charged Trump with 34 criminal counts connected to the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 as part of a nondisclosure agreement that was intended to keep Daniels from exposing their 2006 affair. Those charges are all various counts of filing false business records in the first degree, which could carry a sentence of up to four years in prison per count. That’s a crime that is normally a misdemeanor that can ONLY be upgraded to a felony if the alleged fraud is meant to cover up another crime.

This is where the ABUSE of power becomes self-evident. The other crime, in this case, is a federal campaign finance violation for which Trump has NOT been charged and Bragg would have no jurisdiction to charge. The indictment claims that Trump allegedly committed the underlying fraud as part of an effort to boost his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election.

So, to put this in plain layman’s terms, he is effectively charging you for something like buying a bullet in NYC, that you used in Paris in some attempt to kill someone but you are not being charged with that because you cannot be in the United States.

It is an ABUSE of power to take a single incident and turn it into multiple crimes all because of multiple emails and phone calls. This is standard abuse that all prosecutors engage in to try to force people to plea for a reduced sentence or risk going to jail for life. The legal system in the United States is in NO WAY fair, equitable, or even constitutional. Our legal system is so corrupt, we make a Banana Republic look like the leader of freedom and liberty in the world.

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This was our Forecast back for the 2016 election. Out of 4 models, 3 of the computer models forecast that Trump would win and one was tied. Our computer had also forecast that BREXIT would win against all odds. Trump would have won and just as the Democrats swear the 2020 elections were NOT rigged, then neither was 2016.

Apr 3 2023

Sunday Talks – Jim Jordan on Trump Indictment, “The Scariest Thing of All, this Is a Much Bigger Issue.”


Posted originally on the CTH on April 2, 2023 | Sundance

Jim Jordan appeared on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his perspective on the indictment of President Donald Trump by a politically motivated Manhattan District Attorney, and the potential for the House Judiciary Committee to question DA Alvin Bragg.  WATCH:

The only way these radical leftists are going to slow down is if Republican State AG’s and local DA’s start prosecuting Democrats for similar issues.  Match them one-for-one on every attempted case.  Bring the system to its knees and show the political opposition that there’s no benefit to this political targeting.

Now is not the time for words, letters and half-measures.  We are on a war footing now.  The GOP state and local officials need to act like it!

Mar 31 2023

Earn Six Figures Without Working


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 31, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The US government has been on a spending spree over the past few years and there is absolutely no way they can ever pay the bill. Federal spending hit $4.45 trillion in 2019 in the wake of the pandemic, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That figure hit $6.21 trillion as of the latest report, marking a 40% uptick in four years. What has changed?  

 This goes far beyond the Ukraine fiasco. While defense spending rose 18% over the past four years, nondefense spending shot up 43% to $941 billion. Spending on Social Security and retirement increased 33% from 2019 to 2023 as the Baby Boomer generation began to exit the workforce. Retirement has become a luxury with the current cost of living and many are opting to continue working rather than retire. Yet, the mentality of hard work paying off is dwindling. The effects of the pandemic can still be felt as the workforce dynamic has changed. The supplemental unemployment income distributed freely during the pandemic has had disastrous consequences. 

Spending on food stamps has increased by 102% from $63 billion in 2019 to $127 billion in 2023. Welfare support rose 50% as well from $32 billion to $48 billion. Unemployment costs have increased 32% over the past four years, despite the record-low unemployment rate. The US spent $53 billion on educational pandemic aid and $71 billion to help failing PBGC plans. The CBO now foresees a federal budget deficit of $1.4 trillion in 2023, and this number is expected to rise. 

Biden’s Build Back Better Act pushed for the largest welfare spending in US history. It pays NOT to work in Biden’s America. According to the Heritage Foundation: 

"Total government spending on the average poor family will rise from $65,200 per year to more than $76,400. When limited private earnings are added to this massive government spending, combined total resources will reach nearly $94,600 per year for the average poor family."

Biden repealed some of the reforms issued by the Clintons to boost reliance on government aid. People who choose not to work are eligible for unconditional cash grants funded by working taxpaying citizens. “Taxpayers would be required to pay larger sums to support welfare recipients, but recipients would have no reciprocal obligations,” the Heritage Foundation continued. Those who decide to marry receive less funding. Mothers who have children by multiple fathers receive more funding. Traditional values are punished. Why rely on family when you have the government? 

Some states pay six figures to “low-income” families through benefits and subsidiaries. A family earning nearly a quarter million per year could still qualify for ObamaCare subsidies, and in some states, families earning $300,000 annually still qualify. Unemployment benefits plus ObamaCare subsidies for a family of four are equivalent to the national median income in 24 states. Some states offer more than others. In New Jersey, a family of four can receive benefits up to $108,000 even if no one is working.  

Welfare was supposed to be a tool to help people during times of need. It should incentivize people to get back to work. Biden is giving your money to foreign countries. He is giving your money to US citizens who chose not to work. This is clearly socialism at play, as it does not pay to work in Biden’s crumbling America. 

Mar 28 2023

Full Sean Hannity Interview With President Donald Trump – Video


Posted originally on the CTH on March 27, 2023 | Sundance

With a myriad of key and important issues facing the nation, including the fraudulent indictments being presented against President Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity invites Trump onto his show so the President can listen to Hannity talk about them. {Direct Rumble Link}  WATCH:

Mar 27 2023

Are Markets Irrational or Analysts?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Forecasts Re-Posted Mar 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Who is being irrational? The markets or the analysts?

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ANSWER: That’s simple. It is the analysts. The markets are ALWAYS correct. When you have bank failures unfolding, people will withdraw money out of caution. It is the very same reason there are ancient hoards of coins. You find coins in times of economic stress and uncertainty. This is a purely RATIONAL human response to uncertainty. It consistent for thousands of years. For any analyst to claim the markets are acting “irrationally” only proves they should look for another profession.

Sir Thomas Gresham began his career in 1543 working at Mercers’ Company at the age of 24 years old. He left England for Antwerp/Amsterdam which was the financial center of the day much like Wall Street. That was where he became a merchant businessman which was where banking existed in those days. He became an agent for King Henry VIII in the Antwerp/Amsterdam market. He became a trader and in so doing, he began to observe how capital moved.

The interesting aspect was that he was called in as a sort of crisis manager as I have been during financial upheavals. In 1551, Sir William Dansell, who was King’s Merchant there in the markets, ended up putting the English Government into a financial crisis thanks to his mismanagement.  The English turned to Gresham for advice since he became quite astute at trading. They adopted his proposals. It was then that Gresham proposed a very ingenious tact. He advocated a FOREX intervention to push the pound higher on the Antwerp change. His intervention proved so successful that in just a few years King Edward VI had discharged almost all of his debts. By pushing the pound higher, he was able to repay the previous debts by devaluing them.

Therefore, the English Crown sought Gresham’s advice in all their finances until Mary came to the throne in 1553. Gresham was instantly pushed aside for  Alderman William Dauntsey, who lacked trading experience and quickly sent the Crown into financial stress. Gresham was called back to deal with the mess once again.

Under Queen Elizabeth’s reign (1558–1603), he continued as a financial agent of the Crown and also became the Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Governor of the Netherlands. This was the period of civil unrest in Antwerp which compelled him to return to England in 1567. This is also when the English had the founding of the Royal Exchange to compete with the Netherlands. It was Gresham who made the proposal to build, at his own expense, a bourse or exchange. This demonstrated that Gresham was a trader and understood how capital flowed.
Apart from some small sums to various charities, Gresham bequeathed the bulk of his property (consisting of estates in London and around England giving an income of more than 2,300 pounds a year) to his widow and her heirs, with the stipulation that after her death his own house in Bishopsgate Street and the rents from the Royal Exchange should be vested in the Corporation of London and the Mercers Company, for the purpose of instituting a college in which seven professors should read lectures, one each day of the week, in astronomy, geometry, physic, law, divinity, rhetoric and music.[1] Thus, Gresham College, the first institution of higher learning in London, came to be established in 1597.

Gresham’s Law (stated simply as: “Bad money drives out good“). He concluded this from his observations that foreign exchange back then was based on the metal content and weight of the coinage. Therefore, as debasement took place, people would hoard the old coinage of higher quality and spend the debased.  Thus, the bad money drove out the good and actually shrunk the money supply in circulation.

He urged Queen Elizabeth to restore the debased currency of England. In so doing, you got to repay old debts with debased currency. Governments to this day practice that same trick. Repaying a 30-year bond today the bondholder cannot buy what the money was once worth 30 years ago. The interest does not really compensate for the loss of purchasing power over long periods of time.