Category The decline & Fall of the United States
Moderna Never Had a Sample of the Virus
Armstrong Economics Blog/Vaccine Re-Posted Mar 11, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
This video clip shows that Moderna never even has a sample of the virus to make a vaccine. It was all just theoretical computer science.
Why Most Americans Cannot Afford a Home – A Price Breakdown
Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted Mar 9, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
Are you too poor for the basic human necessity of shelter in Biden’s America? The average home price in Q4 of 2022 was $535,800, according to the St. Louis Fed. If you live in a highly desirable area, expect to pay more. To simplify the math, let’s say that you are looking to purchase a $500,000 property. To heighten the fantasy, let us also pretend you are one of the rare Americans with zero monthly debt. This means that you do not have student loans, car payments, childcare expenses, medical bills, credit card debt, or any major outstanding bill. Fewer than 25% of American households are debt free and this number is rapidly dwindling.
Ok, so you decide to put 5% down on the house or $25,000 for a loan of $475,000. You manage to lock in a 6.7% interest rate for a 30-year mortgage under a conventional loan. Nationwide averages in real estate drastically undercut true averages due to the outliers, but the average annual property tax in America is around $3,000. I personally have not seen a property tax this low between FL or NJ, but I’ll attempt some optimism. After all, this should be a simple price breakdown that does not lead to a mental one.
We will average the PMI payment of 0.5% at $197.92 for 125 months. We will also incorporate the low home insurance average estimate of $1,000 annually. To be most forgiving in my calculations, I will also assume that your monthly HOA fee is $0. This is utterly impossible for anyone seeking to purchase a condo. In my area, the average HOA fee is $600 per month, and a $500,000 property will not afford you a single-family house. At best, you’d be lucky to find a two-bedroom property at that price point in my area. In contrast, home prices here were about 40% to 60% lower in 2019.
Therefore, the overall total monthly payment for a $500K home is $3,596.32. This home can be yours by 2053 if you close this year. Forget “starter homes” as once you are locked into a good rate, you will likely not leave. So how much income do you need to afford this monthly payment? The MAXIMUM debt that the bank will allow you to qualify for is around 50% of your total gross income if you have good credit. If you choose this method, you will be “house poor” and unable to afford other basic human needs. So based on these calculations, you would need to make at least $7,192.64 GROSS per month to afford this property and live “house poor.” This would equate to a salary of $86,311.68 per year BEFORE TAXES.
I did not factor in closing costs, inspections, maintenance, moving, or even furniture. So should you continue renting while establishing zero equity? The median rental price in America as of February 2023 was $1,978. Inventory is low, and landlords are compensating for the money lost during COVID moratoriums. Most leasing offices require tenants to earn 3X the monthly rental price, equating to a monthly gross income of $5,934. This has left countless Americans stuck on the rental carousel of paying the majority of their monthly income to the landlord and being unable to save for a future that includes home ownership. Landlords can raise rental costs yearly at whim, and there is no guarantee that you will comfortably be situated in your rental unit from one contract to the next. Rental properties have also begun charging fees for everything under the sun, such as repairs and parking, which was one of the reasons people chose this method.
Gone are the days when Americans comfortably paid ¼ of their monthly salary toward living expenses. We have not even touched on the astronomically cost of other basic living necessities such as food or energy. You must make a decent income if you want to buy a home in 2023. The bank does not care if you are unable to pay because they will simply take your house. Some are lucky enough to secure an interest-free loan from the central bank of mom and dad. Others, the majority of the Great Unwashed, are scraping by—YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY!
Colonel Douglas MacGregor & Sources
Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Mar 7, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT #1: I have been watching Colonel Douglas MacGregor (ret), on alt news sites. He is a former tank commander in the Gulf war and has worked extensively with NATO, before retiring. I love his direct commentary – so in a nutshell he says the following:
1. Ukraine has lost up to 250k troops and they are in dire straits. They will lose the war badly.
2. The US military is in dire straits too and if push, comes to shove, could only provide 50k troops within weeks. They are down on ammunition (all gone to Ukraine) and the recruitment targets for all 4 branches are lower than what the DoD is telling us.
3. The European military is not ready at all and would be ineffective.
4. Which leads to him saying that the USA/NATO will not enter the war, because sane heads in the military will not allow it. I hope he is right, but he does not rule out false flags or Biden’s ineptitude.
You should watch him, he’s great, a man with genuine battle experience and knows the political machinations of DC, yet strongly anti war.
NC
COMMENT #2: Colonel Douglas MacGregor has often come out and confirmed what you have said weeks or months before. It looks like he has similar sources. He went to West Point. Did they also teach your War Model as did the Citadel? A lot of generals graduated from the Citadel.
Keep up the great work
HB
REPLY: Perhaps we both have similar contacts. As far as West Point, I do not know if they ever taught our models. What I do know, is that there is a serious risk that Uktaine loses and all the fake news that keeps putting out the propaganda has not considered what happens if Ukraine loses.
Is the US Following Ancient Athens?
Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Mar 7, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: Marty,
Zelinsky has tried to portray himself as a military leader, cloaked in the symbolism of a military strongman. Gaddafi, Hussein, Stalin, and even Hitler come to mind. All were seen as ardent nationalists. Zelinsky did this to attract enormous weapons and capital to this country, ensuring that his face becomes the symbol of the military leader.
In truth, Zelinsky is a figurehead whose survival depends on outside assistance. Ukraine continues to bleed out citizens, while its military gets eviscerated. Even with the weapons provided by the West, Ukraine’s military was never of the caliber of Russia’s. A Heroic figure he is not.
The West probably bet the sanctions and outside pressures would force Putin to withdraw. No one counted on Putin to stand his ground. Putin’s determination to crush Zelinsky means his tenure is linked with his war record and battlefield performance. Panic is now setting in. Zelinsky is as much a puppet regime as we saw in South Vietnam. It lacks broad support and like the one in Saigon, Kiev will collapse sooner or later from outside pressure.
Once collapse happens, military defeat means political defeat. Therefore, the West is panicked to raise the stakes and step in to bolster a puppet regime. The US entered Vietnam slowly, then suddenly. It now appears NATO is following this same process, first indirectly, now perhaps directly. They have turned Ukraine’s future into some kind of existential life-or-death battle. For NATO, that is certainly the case. Having squandered untold billions, their military readiness is now on the line.
Kennedy tried to block the expansion of the US presence in Vietnam and was assassinated for it. Johnson enthusiastically took over and then realized his generals, Westmoreland to be precise, had no real plan. Johnson lost by blindly following the military. Trump tried to keep the US out of wars and was ousted by a fraudulent election. Biden enthusiastically took over echoing Johnson. As with Vietnam, an unpopular regime with no support, Ukraine is likely even more corrupt and ripe for destruction. Pumping in billions won’t stop the eventual collapse. Zelinsky’s failures on the battlefield are synonymous with Vietnam.
The US congress has disgraced itself. As with Vietnam, there was no declaration of war. It became incremental and it took nearly 15 years to extricate ourselves from this mess. The blank check spending then is now in overdrive in Ukraine. That country will disappear but unlike Vietnam, from which we would eventually retreat, the US now is so deep inside Ukraine. Retreat would mean the collapse of Nato and the withdrawal of the US.
Who today is the Republican version of Nixon who will get us out of this mess? And who is the next Henry Kissinger to negotiate out of this modern disgrace? No, this is not like Vietnam. This is much worse. We have no leadership, just as is now evident with the puppet in Kiev. We, too, have a puppet in Washington. So two puppets trying to pretend they have each other’s backs ensures that what unfolds has no coda ending like Vietnam. Rather, it looks more like some roll of dice all-or-nothing gamble, echoing the epic debacle of Hitler’s Germany. It’s really the end of the US hegemony now in play.
MS
REPLY: We have followed the same exact path as Athens following the Defeat of the Persian Invasion. They became arrogant and compelled other Greek city-states to pay tribute to them for protection against another possible Persian invasion which never came. The various city-states began to rebel and a coalition was formed led by Sparta ushering in the Peloponnesian War. In the end, Athen lost if status as the financial capital of the known world.
The United States has lost every war contrived by the Neocons ever since World War II. There have been no overwhelming victories. Even the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Jamie Dimon, has come out and said that his top concerns include Ukraine and China. Only a fool does not look at the geopolitical events unfolding. The Biden administration is firmly in the hands of the Neocons. God help us!
We Need to Question Who Authorized This Act of War
Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law Re- Posted Mar 6, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
(Download this in PDF to forward to your Politican Wherever you are: Impach 3-6-23 )
Everyone needs to write to their Congressman and Senator demanding an investigation NOW! The acts of Victoria Nuland, most likely the leader of the pack, Antony Blinken, and Jake Sullivan actually rise to the level of Treason, – engaging in using the Executive Branch to instigate war against Russia when that is ONLY the power Constitutionally held by Congress. Meanwhile, Russian oligarchs who have direct ties to Biden and Hunter, are always exempt from his illegal confiscation of private Russian assets that are a flagrant violation of international law. That, many now question, might be tied to bribes for the “big guy” once again.
We need to call Biden to account. He is too out of it and easily manipulated taking orders from the Neocons (Victoria Nuland), to blow up the Nord Stream pipeline – the Neocon goal since the 1960s. This was an Unconstitutional Act of War, for such authority only resides in Congress under Article One of the US Constitution, the Authority of Congress to make war. This is why the press was immediately told to eat their own, Seymour Hersh, by their puppet masters – the Neocons. The mainstream press has been the cheerleaders to send your children to war to be slaughtered on the 21st killing fields to put a smile on the face of Victoria Nuland and friends.
President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and especially Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland as well as National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, should all be called before Congress and interrogated as to their acts. This is an impeachable offense. Victoria Nuland was in Kiev in 2014 pushing for the revolution telling the protester the US could not get involved unless 100 were killed. Nuland was there handing out sandwiches. She probably wanted to hand out warm milk and cookies to show US support for the revolution. It was the US who installed an unelected interim government that then sent the army to invade the Donbas which began this entire war. Nuland should be interrogated for abusing her position to further war that ONLY Congress can authorize.
Was she also involved in the fake negotiation of the Minsk Agreement to buy time to raise an army to wage war against Russia? Did Nuland tell Zelensky to say Ukraine would rearm with nuclear weapons on February 23rd to force Putin to respond that night in his national speech and then the next day, 24th, move to occupy the Donbas since he also refused to honor the Minsk Agreement? Has Putin really been the aggressor, or has this all been choreographed to support war as was the case with Vietnam and Johnson’s famous line that for all he knew they were shooting at whales that night, and we were never attacked?
Biden Administration Controls Britain & the EU
Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine re-Posted Mar 6, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
The Biden Administration is control the EU and Britain. They cannot independently expand the supply of arms to Ukraine, since the main decisions in this regard are still being made in Washington, as the former British Foreign Secretary William Hague has admitted. The Biden Administration has been completely usurped by the Neocons. They are writing the cue cards. This came out in discussions in Russia. Hague has been a cheerleader for this war against Russia. He too should be questioned with regard to the behind-the-curtain shenanigans to create World War III.
Biden – Wokeness over Experience
Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Feb 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: Marty; You said in passing that a Congressman asked you to “get back in the game” because they had nobody with your experience in Washington from the Cold War era. I know you laughed at that and said that was just 1991. Perhaps this clip explains why just maybe we need you more than ever. This “woke” Administration is taking us to World War III because as you have said, they are making you look like a diplomatic prophet. This is why. Wokeness over experience. This is what she actually says:
“The Cabinet is majority people of color for the first time in history. The Cabinet is majority female for the first time in history. A majority of White House senior staff identify is female and a record 7 assistants to the president are LGBTQ+.”
CH
REPLY: This is incredible. Maybe you are right. This is why the Neocons have been able to seize control. There is nobody with even common sense left in this Administration. This just confirms what I have been saying. This is historically the worst crop of world leaders I have ever seen in my 40+ years. When color and gender are more important than qualification, how can society survive? Obviously, being black and a female she ticks off two boxes and is more qualified than just a black male or a white female. Biden is proud of his statistics?
Everyone who has ever eaten a carrot has died. So, obviously, carrots must be lethal. Just Washington logic these days.
The Biden Administration is Just Insane & Should Be Removed At Once
Armstrong Economics Blog/Russia Re-Posted Feb 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
The threats from Biden that all the Russian Assets he has confiscated illegally from private Russians that he will hand to Ukraine is another example that demonstrates that there is nobody in the Biden Administration that understands anything about the world. The United States and Europe have countless private businesses that have assets around the world. Russia has announced if Biden and the EU do that, then they will confiscate all foreign assets.
All of this is because our world leaders have been bought and paid for by the Neocons where the dream has been to conquer Russia and the bankers are licking their lips all over again to get their hands on all the wealth of Russia. These Neocons are leading the world to its doom. They have already destroyed the world economy ending globalization. Our children will NEVER know the freedoms we grew up in. That is all gone. We are leaving our posterity nothing but memories of what used to be unless things radically change at the political level and that is not my opinion. There is not a single world leader who has bothered to question the narrative or to seek peace on any level. They are told this is a war to conquer Russia – period!
Interview: Neocons Need War Because Monetary System Collapsing
Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Feb 26, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
Watch the video above or click here for the latest interview with USAWatchdog.
Commentary from Greg Hunter:
Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong said at the end of last year the U.S. is being set up for a “nightmare fall.” Train derailments and political problems are spinning out of control, but the biggest threat is war. Armstrong explains, “They want a war, but they also need it because the monetary system is collapsing. . . . You have had interest rates at negative since 2014. So, suddenly interest rates are rising. Any bond owned by any institution in Europe is a loser. They have lost so much money, it’s incredible. What happens? Nobody is interested in long term debt – period. . . . If you have interest rates rising, and rates are going to be going up because the Fed cannot stop this kind of inflation. Then, you got war. You have untold billions of dollars being shipped into Ukraine which is absurd. This is what you have. . . . You also have to look at what Janet Yellen said, and she was concerned with the tons of new debt coming out. You are exceeding the balance sheets of the Primary Dealers. To be a Primary dealer you have to be able to guarantee you will be able to buy X amount of debt. If you can’t sell it, what happens? The bank is stuck with the debt, and then, they go bust. So, we have a real problem here. They cannot continue to issue this kind of debt in perpetuity. They have been borrowing money since WWII with no intention of paying anything off. . . . The Fed is independent, and they don’t want the long term debt. They have been moving towards the short end of the curve. How do you continue to fund a government if there are no buyers for the debt? This is on a global scale.”
So, war checks all the boxes? Armstrong says, “Absolutely. They get to default on all this debt which is the real objective. That’s why (Klaus) Schwab is out there saying you’ll own nothing and be happy. He’s trying to make it sound like they are doing this for you. We are going to default on all debt and relive you of all your debt. This is because they are going to wipe out everything. Pension funds will be all gone. That’s why they are coming out with guaranteed basic income to replace your pension. They’ve got this all worked out. That’s what the end goal is here because they cannot continue to function this way. They cannot continue to borrow whatever they need with no intention of ever paying it back.”
Armstrong reveals why the 2024 elections may not happen. Can the Deep State commit enough voter fraud to keep Biden and the rest of the Neocons in power? Armstrong says most of what is happening today is the fault of the Neocons, and they have control of both parties. Armstrong points out Democrat Hillary Clinton paid for the phony Trump/Russia dossier, and Republican John McCain delivered it to the FBI. Armstrong calls it the “Uni-party,” and goes deep on the problems the Neocons are causing on purpose.
Armstrong also talks about the dollar, gold, civil unrest, tangible assets and the Ukraine war. Armstrong’s sources say the real number of casualties of Ukraine Army stands at a whopping 250,000 dead. Armstrong says Russia is NOT losing the war. It is winning.
Centinel2012 