Poor Kids (documentary)


Armstrong Economics Blog/North America Re-Posted Apr 10, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

This documentary is extremely hard to watch but accurately depicts the hardships millions face in the modern industrialized world. We cannot turn a blind eye to the pain and suffering that poverty creates. This is happening today in the wealthiest country in the world.

Below is an update from the documentary that aired in 2012. There was a slight glimpse of hope when Obama left office and the economy improved under Trump. Still, the funds we send overseas are needed at home. Those with the least suffer the most when the economy turns down.

This a raw reminder to count your blessing on this Easter Monday.

Who is Funding Ukraine? 


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Apr 7, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Every week, there is a new announcement of the US pledging additional aid to Ukraine. Biden has provided Zelensky with a blank check to fund this war while his own country’s infrastructure crumbles. The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative led by the Department of Defense is providing Ukraine with another $2.1 billion for funding. The announcement came the same day that Finland joined NATO, and Russia promised retaliation. This means Zelensky will have both hands out begging for more at your expense.

“Russia alone could end its war today,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement. “Until Russia does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes.” Longtime warmonger Blinken knows that Russia will never retreat. The war will go on until something catastrophic occurs. It is hard to determine how much the US has spent on Ukraine but the CBO estimated the amount was around $113 in 2022. If there are 131.2 million households in America, that means each household paid around $861 to fund a war that does not involve America or any of America’s allegiances. Obviously some pay more and some pay less based on the constantly changing tax brackets. Those who read this blog understand, but for those who think the money is coming out of the politicians’ pockets…

YOU ARE FUNDING UKRAINE! Your name is on the blank check! When you file your taxes this year, know that a portion of what the government withheld went directly to a foreign war. In fact, every day you work, you’re giving a piece to Zelensky. There is no account of exactly how they are using these funds. Meanwhile, American infrastructure is crumbling. Our schools are underfunded, homelessness is rampant, shelter costs have soared, poverty rates are rising, our medical system bankrupts families daily, millions of unaccounted aliens are crossing into our country, and your taxes are rising to pay for it all!

You will pay more money every year that this senseless war wages on. So if someone with no personal connections to Ukraine waves their yellow and blue flag and claims Biden is defeating big bad Russia, ask them if they’d like to pay your portion of the proxy war effort. The people never voted for these measures that have gone far beyond any aid we have sent to a foreign war effort.

Japan Secures Oil Deal with Russia


Armstrong Economics Blog/World Trade Re-Posted Apr 5, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Japan is an energy-dependent nation that relies on imports to function. Despite being a G7 member, Japan has remained largely silent on the Russia-Ukraine war and is the only member to deny Zelensky’s pleas for weapons. The prime minister was the last in the alliance to visit Ukraine amid the war. The G7 nations set a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian crude but granted Japan a pass.

Japan has purchased nearly 748,000 barrels of Russian oil for $70 a piece in the first two months of the year alone. All of the MSM headlines read: “JAPAN BREAKS ALLIANCE WITH WESTERN ALLIES,” as if there were an alternative. Even conservative outlets are saying that Japan has broken ties with the West. Japan is unwilling to deliberately allow its nation to crumble from an energy shortage, unlike the “Build Back Better” nations.

Oil prices surged on Monday after OPEC+ announced plans to limit production, which will lead to a rise in global prices. Energy costs affect the cost of everything from the supply chain to food. Yet, the countries that have the ability to drill, such as the US and Canada, are refusing to do so despite energy prices significantly contributing to overall inflation and economic instability.

The West chastised India and China for purchasing Russian oil. They don’t want to lose their Japanese ally and are attempting to give them a “free pass,” but only until September. What happens then? Will Japan be forced to break its alliance with the G7? The West was hoping that longstanding tensions between China and Japan would push them into this proxy war, but the Japanese government is not willing to implode its economy. Let us also remember that Japan was forced to close numerous nuclear power plants after the earthquake hit in 2011. They are completely reliant on imports. It seems that only nations willing to surrender their economies in the name of abandoning fossil fuels, with no alternative, are ousted from the West’s good graces.

NATO Promotes WW3 with Finland’s Membership


Blog/War

Posted Apr 5, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

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Finland has officially become the 31st member of NATO. “Finland has today become a member of the defense alliance NATO. The era of military non-alignment in our history has come to an end. A new era begins,” Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö mistakenly celebrated. It is clear that Finland does not understand Russia’s motives for the war in Ukraine.

Finland shares an 832-mile border with Russia, doubling the size of NATO’s borders with Russia. Russia is now surrounded, backed into a corner. Russia’s national security is in jeopardy, and will not choose flight over fight. This is precisely what Russia had been arguing against for years. Finland was not under threat of attack from Russia and did not need global military protection, nor did it need to spend a portion of its GDP to push forward the war effort.

“Finland’s membership is not targeted against anyone. Nor does it change the foundations or objectives of Finland’s foreign and security policy. Finland is a stable and predictable Nordic country that seeks peaceful resolution of disputes,” the new president also stated. Russia certainly did not see this as a neutral act. “We will strengthen our military capabilities in the west and northwest if NATO members deploy forces and equipment on Finnish territory,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow will prepare “counter-measures to ensure our own security, both tactically and strategically.”

Finland has not aligned with other military powers in nearly 80 years. US Neocon Anthony Blinken was foaming at the mouth for this partnership to take place. Finland’s people were safe and uninvolved in this proxy war before Tuesday. Everyone cheering that Finland has joined “the good guys” fails to realize this directly escalates the conflict to new proportions. What started as a land dispute between two neighboring countries has overtaken the world, and all leaders are willing to risk the lives of their people to “win” this war. Ukraine is now loudly voicing its desire to join NATO, which would guarantee a full-scale world war. The chess players are aligning their players, and it is only a matter of time before mass destruction takes place that changes the world as we know it.

“Saving Private Ryan” is Now…


Armstrong Economics Blog/Humor Re-Posted Apr 1, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

This remake looks horrible.

The Decline & Fall of the United States


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption re-Posted Mar 20, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Hi Marty,

Seems to me the Democrats are following the time honored practice South American governments have resorted to in recent years when one party displaces another in a national election. In Brasil, the current president, Lula, spent 3 years in jail for charges of corruption. His successor was later removed from office. Now Bolsonaro has fled the country and is living in South Florida. In Ecuador, a past president, Moreno ,is under indictment and it appears he too will end up being arrested on trumped up corruption charges. In Bolivia, two term ex-president Evo Morales, after trying to run for an unprecedented third term, fled the country in 2019 when it appeared opposition to his run would potentially result in his being jailed. He fled to Argentina, then later got asylum in Mexico. The woman who replaced him was subsequently arrested on trumped up charges of conspiracy. IN Peru, which has gone through more presidents in recent years than most countries have experienced in a half century, has arrested the past 5 presidents. In Chile, the last president who served in office was run out of office for using the military to suppress protests. This was back in 2019.  The revolution that led to the country abandoning their old constitution has put the country in chaos.. The current president is extremely unpopular and one can imagine he won’t last another year in office. In Colombia, the country now is run by a communist/socialist who is now flirting with an ambitious spending program designed to buy time and slow down the opposition building against him. In Argentina, the former president, Christina Fernandez Kirchner, is dodging charges of corruption(and just avoided being assassinated by a lone gunman) after presiding over another series of IMF sponsored funding that has left the country in a perpetual state of default. The socialist in office today, Fernandez, is one of a long line of failed presidents who is destined to be pulled under by the corruption so deeply embedded in this country.

Now the Democrats appear to have imported South America’s tradition of imprisoning opposition leaders.It’s hard to imagine a party as corrupt as that of the Democrats. But nothing happens in a vacuum. With Republican support in Congress during Trump’s term when they opposed him and did everything they could to undermine him, the uni-party now operates without even the slightest effort to disguise their true intentions. An outsider like Trump is anathema to both parties. It reminds me of the PRI in Mexico. which put forth its candidate every year pretending people there actually had a choice, It took AMLO to break this tradition. Only because the drug cartels today are so powerful, the central government is virtually impotent to extend its reach outside of the capital.

We are watching the dying days of this republic. Biden’s “election” has assured that no serious challenger can ever emerge.Locking up your opponent now has become part of their playbook.  This is the tradition of the Sandinistas, the Peronists in Argentina, and now the Biden dictatorship.

MS

REPLY: People do not realize that Zelensky wants to imprison the former president indefinitely pending a rigged trial for corruption. This is the one man who could probably run against Zelensky and beat him with his high heel shoes. Zelinsky is so perverse and a disgrace to Ukraine when in fact it has been clearly established there is NO accountability for any money handed to Zelensky and any American politician who votes for this money for Ukraine should be removed from office for they are probably tainted as well.

It has been established that Zelensky has been stashing money offshore. When the last Ukrainian fall on the battlefield, the US will have him airlifted in style and he will flee to his mansion in Miami after destroying his own country. Zelensky has been caught. Who will prosecute him? Not the Biden Administration which owed him the Midterm elections for being the 2nd largest donor under the money laundering scheme of FTX which will also be swept under the rug to protect the corruption that has consumed governments.

The United States is NO LONGER the beacon of liberty to the world. We have descended to the lowest possible level of absolute duplicity and corruption. People are bearish about the dollar because of the quantity of money? Get real! The collapse in the dollar will not be because of such petty nonsense. it will collapse because these people are destroying the very foundation of confidence and respect the United States once had.

Tucker Carlson Outlines the Biden Plan to Support Ukraine for “As Long as It Takes”


The Biden administration and UniParty congress continues announcing additional tranches in tens-of-billions in U.S. taxpayer funds to support Ukraine.  The total spent or committed now exceeds $100 billion in just one year alone, with no end in sight.  We are funding almost all military operations and the government expenses of Ukraine to include pensions, pay and benefits for Ukrainian officials.

During his opening monologue Thursday, Tucker Carlson outlines the Joe Biden “as long as it takes” policy.  WATCH: 

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February 24, 2023 | Sundance

Corruption inside the Deep State


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ancient History Re-Posted Feb 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

History repeats because human nature never changes. During the Roman Republic, the name of the moneyer would appear on the coinage just as today the Secretary of the Treasury’s signature appears on our paper currency – i.e. Steven T. Munchin.  To this day, our coins are denoted by which mint produced them – Philadelphia, Denver, or San Francisco.

The collapse of the monetary system following the capture of Emperor Valerian I in 260AD by the Persians, set off a collapse in public confidence whereby the people suddenly saw Rome as vulnerable. What is fascinating is that the “hyperinflation” of Rome which took place in just 8.6 years,  was aided by the corruption within the Deep State of the Roman Empire. This raises the question: We will see the same thing take place during our final 8.6 years into 2032 which begins by May 2024. The debasement of the coinage was NOT on the decree of the Emperor. This was the greed of those in the Deep State.

Following the assassination of Emperor Gallienus, that is when Claudius II came to power and the debasement reached it lowest point during his reign. The Goths invaded Rome and brought the plague with them from the East. Emperor Claudius II died of the plague. Claudius’s brother, Quintillus tried to succeed him, but Aurelian and his troops marched against him. His troops deserted him and he committed suicide.

Therefore, Aurelian became emperor in 270 AD and he returned to Rome in 271 AD, where he had to pacify a terrified city. He immediately halted the rioting and restored order to the capital. The controller of the mint in Rome began a rebellion over the monetary reforms laid out by Aurelian. He ordered that all the debased currency be purchased back and replaced with a new currency of higher content in silver. The rebellion was led by Felicissimus. It appears that those who had been running the mint were embezzling the intended silver and issuing the debased coinage at least in part on their own authority.

Obviously, any reform to the monetary system that called for an increase in silver content would have been unprofitable for those running the mint for personal gain. In the rebellion, as many as 7,000 soldiers died when Aurelian was forced to trap and execute them and their allies, some of the senatorial ranks, in a terrible battle on the Caelian Hills. Thereafter, Aurelian then introduced mintmarks to identify if any mint was cheating the silver content.

When Diocletian (284-305AD) reorganized the coinage when he came to power as well as the political structure of the Roman Empire. With respect to politics, he divided the empire in two creating two emperors with their eventual successors given the rank of Caesar. This became the Tetrarchy.

The monetary reform introduced the new bronze coinage silver plated known as the follis terminating the radiate antoninianus which had begun as a double denarius during the reign of Caracalla (198-217AD). Diocletian required each mint to engrave their coins with an identifiable mint mark, and also letters or marks to indicate the individual workshops (officina) within the mints. Thereby, any collusion to debase the coinage would be identifiable to a specific group within each mint.

Each mint mark from Diocletian onwards consists of a group of letters identifying the mint (normally in the exergue) and usually (but not always) letter(s) and/or mark(s), sometimes in the exergue, sometimes in the field, These identified the individual workshop within the mint. In the West, workshops were numbered either in Latin numerals I, II, III or in the initial letters of Latin ordinals such as P(rimus), S(ecundus), T(ertius). The problem with Latin surfaced when trying to distinguish between S(ecunda) and S(exta) or between Q(uarta) and Q(uinta). They had to develop in the West a mixed system of Greek and Latin to give P(rima), B, T(ertia), Q(uarta), E, and S(exta) valid meanings. Western mints sometimes used the Greek system at varying times.

Here we can see a silver Argentius (2.87 grams) with the “R” Roman mint mark. Lugdunum used “PL” for their mint mark as illustrated by this follis of Maximianus – Diocletiuan’s co-emperor.

History repeats because

HUMAN NATURE NEVER CHANGES