Neil Oliver Emphasizes – Once You See the Weaponized Political Corruption, You Cannot Unsee It


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 26, 2022

In his weekly monologue [Transcript HERE], Neil Oliver takes the stories we have outlined on these pages over the past week and weaves them into a comprehensive context.  Once you see the manipulation and lies from government, you can never unsee them.

However, the opposite is also true; once you see the truth, you can never not see it – and that sets up a very specific situation.  Once you know the truth about a series of events or issues, you can easily see the people who pretend not to know it.

I think the reason I like Oliver is because he uses metaphors and analogies in his monologues to connect issues to a picture of what they really mean.  I try to do the same in writing.  Oliver takes the recent information and shows how it is all connected.  From COVID madness to the western govt lies, that drive us toward war with Russia, it’s all connected; and we can see it. WATCH:

[Transcript] – “If you didn’t laugh, you’d cry – so sometimes the only thing to do is laugh. These are difficult times, made more difficult by the manufactured fear and lies we are force fed around the clock.

There are issues that must be addressed with the utmost seriousness. But, as I say, sometimes you just have to laugh.

The way our leaders and their attendants are going about things – not just recently but for months and years now – reminds me of the behaviour of very young children, toddlers really. Sometimes a toddler will screw his eyes shut in the belief that since he can’t see you, it must follow that you can’t see him.

If our leaders weren’t applying this strategy in times where decisions make the difference between life and death, their antics would only be hilarious.

Peek-a-boo, presidents and prime ministers.

They spent two years on lockdowns – spraying money around like white foam in an ‘90s nightclub – all the while lavishing multi-million-pound contracts on friends and acquaintances, thinking we wouldn’t notice all the new millionaires, generating unimaginable, unthinkable mountains of radioactive debt that will be glowing red hot for generations to come. We saw you.

They ignored the alarm calls from all manner of reasonable people – from economists of the highest professional standing to just members of the public armed with no more than the experience of running their own households and bank accounts – and piled the debt mountains higher and higher. Some of us told them it was a disaster waiting to happen, and they told us we were cranks and conspiracy theorists who didn’t understand how money and economies work.

And what are they doing now? In the short term, they are attempting to launder the consequences of their lockdown idiocy through the tragedy in Ukraine. A shameful sleight of hand. The spiking cost of energy, inflation, the threat of shortages of food and all manner of necessities – apparently had nothing to do with the financial incontinence of the past two years, nothing at all to do with shutting down economies around the developed world. All of it, we are supposed to accept, now, is down to Putin’s hellish invasion of Ukraine.

Like that toddler screwing his eyes shut to make the approaching adult disappear, our leaders seem genuinely to think we can’t see them, can’t see what they’re doing, all that they’ve done these years past. Either that, of course, or they just don’t care that we can see them, because our seeing and knowing no longer matters – not when they think they’ve got us where they want us.

If you didn’t laugh, you might cry.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is a shareholder in her billionaire father’s IT and consultancy business Infosys, with a personal stake worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Infosys continues to do business in Moscow.

In the past two years alone the chancellor’s wife has apparently been enriched by nearly 12 million pounds of dividends from Infosys.

Mr Sunak has urged businesses to sever their ties to Russia – the better to strangle Mr Putin’s ability to wage war. This advice apparently does not apply to people in Mr Sunak’s own home. Exactly how stupid, and/or blind, does Mr Sunak think we are?

Mr Sunak is also among those of our leaders and senior politicians on both sides of the House of Commons who either genuinely do not know what a woman is – which is to say, an adult human female – or else cannot bring themselves to say as much when asked to define a woman. Here’s a starter for ten: if you’re a living human being, you were grown inside a woman.

This inability or self-preserving refusal to stand up with and for women – a little over half the population of the country – would be laughable, hilarious if it didn’t have tragic consequences, leading as it does to the erasure of women as the living, breathing reality that they are.

For me it’s increasingly hard to avoid drawing the conclusion that our leaders and their little wizards are laughing at us. I say it is high time we pointed out that they are the joke.

Remember when they said the Covid vaccines were a hundred per cent effective at stopping a person catching Covid, spreading Covid? Remember when they said those vaccines were absolutely safe for everyone from toddlers to centenarians? Remember when they said we had to wear masks when standing and walking inside a restaurant, but not when seated? Remember when they said we had to keep our distance from each other, even from loved ones?

Now we can take refugees of war into our homes. This is a fine and noble act, of course it is, but why could we not invite our loved ones into our homes then, if it is safe to welcome strangers from thousands of miles away now? A person might be tempted to think it was a fiction all along, a nonsense circulated to make us behave.

That question is, anyway, redundant, because Covid no longer matters, apparently. Not as far as I can see. Covid is yesterday’s cause of fear, and therefore no longer required – not now that there’s a war on. It seems safe to predict that once the war is over, the next thing to fear, and for which sacrifices will have to be made upon the public altar, will be along as promptly as an efficiently run bus. My money’s on Lockdown for the Climate. The outriders for that stunt are already there, of course, with yet more calls to work from home rather than driving into work, and leaving the car parked all day Sunday – for the good of the planet.

War in Ukraine is not the only cause of the mess we’re in, but it will bite us all soon enough. I can tell you something to fear soon, and that may already be unavoidable, and that’s a shortage of food, if not for us then for millions of others. Russia and Ukraine grow 30 percent of the world’s wheat and 20 percent of the world’s corn.

Developing countries already face shortages on account of sanctions. The developed world might have tried to compensate for the short fall – grown more food elsewhere – except for the double whammy provided by the West’s dependence on Russia as a key source of fertilizer. Western sanctions on Russia’s exports of potash, ammonia and urea, along with other nutrients needed for fertile soil, threatens the growth of wheat, corn, rice and soy around the world.

The price of fertilizer is spiking. Fewer fields may be planted, meaning smaller harvests. And that’s on top of the dizzying hikes in the price of diesel. By the other end of the year, farmers may not even be able to afford the fuel necessary to bring in their crops. As the cost of commodities continues to rise in the months ahead, as hunger bites, there can only be more unrest and suffering to come.

Of course, those comedians running our country insist we don’t need carbon fuels anymore, anyway – all that filthy, dirty gas and oil. And yet European countries have bought 19 billion dollars’ worth of Russian oil and gas since the 24th of February alone. We see you. Out of one side of their faces they talk about the need for sanctions to throttle Mr Putin and his henchmen, the need for us all to make sacrifices. Out of the other side of their faces they say, “Thank you, kindly, Mr Putin, for keeping the lights on.”

The upshot of it all is that Mr Putin’s war is paying for itself. He’s even demanding the bills be paid in Russian Roubles instead of American Dollars. Other currencies are on the rise for dealing in crude oil, so that the sun may be setting on the petro-dollar after all this time.

There’s tragic comedy all over the place. Once you see it, as they say, you can’t not see it.

Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum talk about happy plebs owning nothing – while the richest of the rich hoover up everything of value in the world. I think I know who’s planning to be happiest. They plan to take away our money as well and replace it with food stamps – what they call Central Bank Digital Currency. Once that’s in place, it’s up to the banks what you spend, when you spend, what you spend it on, and where. If the bank has reason to think you shouldn’t buy that bottle of wine, or book that train ticket, then you won’t be able to.

Then there’s the little things, like French president Emmanuel Macron.

Ukrainian president Volodimyr Zelensky appeared on tv in a workman-like green t-shirt and khakis and, quick as flash, Mr Macron had shed his bespoke suits and sent someone to buy some jeans and a hoodie from the boy’s section of his local haberdashery. Then he had a photographer follow him around at work all day, looking butch and mean. Such antics, such pantomime designed to attract attention to self, while real women and real children are dying, is nothing less than pitiful.

Misinformation and manipulation of the truth has been going on for years now. In 2016 the Clinton campaign said Donald Trump had colluded with Russia in order to secure his election.

The FBI duly investigated and found nothing – and yet the story of Mr Trump buddying up to the Russians persisted throughout his presidency courtesy of the Democrat-fawning MSM in the States. This week, Mr Trump announced he was taking legal action against the Clintons and their allies.

Before the 2020 election the NY Post broke the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop – the one left in a Delaware repair shop allegedly containing emails linking Biden junior to bungs of money from a Shanghai-based company linked to China. It’s claimed there was mention of 10 percent of the profits for, “the big guy”. Hunter was already in receipt of 50k dollars a month from a Ukrainian energy company for doing … well no one is quite sure what Hunter was doing.

And what did the compliant US media do? They rubbished the report. Big Tech shut down the NY Post’s Twitter account and banned anyone from sharing the story. More than 50 US security “experts” stood up to say it was all Russian disinformation.

And guess what – the story about Hunter’s laptop and those emails? Last week the NY Times admitted the emails had been verified.

The technocrats of Silicon Valley just didn’t think American voters should know such things in the run up to an election that their man Joe Biden simply had to win. They call such tactics the Noble Lie. They’re lying, but it’s for our own good. But as I say, once you see it, you can’t not see it.

The truth came out about how Trump had not colluded with the Russians. The truth came out about Hunter Biden’s laptop. The truth came out about the Wuhan lab leak. The truth is coming out about vaccine safety and efficacy.

What are they telling us this week, that will be overtaken by the truth, sooner or later?

The truth seems to be moving faster and faster.

As I say, if you didn’t laugh at their audacity – at their seeming conviction that we can’t see them – you’d have to cry.

So laugh, I say, but pay attention to the truth. There’s more truth every day. And the truth, as they say, will set us free. (LINK)

An Interview with Martin Armstrong


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Forecaster Re-Posted Mar 24, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Should we Cheer for Putin to Lose?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Russia Re-Posted Mar 24, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

While the Neocon strategy of DEMONIZING an adversary as they have done to Putin, the very same strategy was used to get people to absolutely hate Donald Trump. The more someone hates Trump still, the more susceptible they are to simple techniques of mind manipulation. This has led many to cheer for the Ukrainians to defeat Russians and we have the White House calling Putin a War Criminal when you could say the same thing about the US leaders that started the endless saga of wars on false pretenses or took out civils with drones when they wrongly thought they were terrorists.

The White House appears to be under the influence of the Neocons who just always advocate war. Make no mistake about it, these Neocons are not confined to just the Democrats or Republicans. They share a love for war and the hatred of everyone they perceive to be an enemy. It’s tempting to think that Putin will suffer a defeat and democracy could revive in Russia, but a more likely scenario is total world chaos. Russia is also comprised of Muslims who number about 14 million or roughly 10% of the total population. Then there are different cultures and you will see internal chaos and separatist movements armed with nukes.

Putin is not a fool and he is actually honoring his word. He is not trying to conquer Ukraine. His column of tanks had stopped as a show of force and intimidation. He has not ordered just total annihilation. The US strategy is we go in and flatten everything targeting water and power grid. Put took the power station but did not turn off the power. The West portrays this as Putin is stalled and the Ukrainians could defeat the Russians. But this seems to be propaganda all designed to wear down the moral of the Russian troops and sway public opinion for Ukraine.

While the press also portrays that Putin’s nation has now been subjected to an isolation greater than any nation has ever experienced by any major power in history, it was US sanctions to cut off the fuel to Japan that caused them to attack Pearl Harbor. There were later even Congressional investigations into FDR and did he deliberately try to create a situation to get the USA into World War II. Congress simply said the allegations were inconclusive.

Since late February, Russia has been hit with punishing economic, trade and financial sanctions. Putin struck back and said all energy sales to unfriendly nations will now be in Rubles. Saudi Arabia also agreed with China to sell oil in Yuan. These are historically critical events that have torn the world economy asunder. There will NEVER BE A RETURN TO NORMAL.

So while the Western Press cheers and reports that Russia is careering toward a debt default, they forget that the default will be on the West. A very rapid technological decoupling is also underway dividing the world economy and that will threaten free trade and the end of economic growth. Indeed, US GDP Growth rate peaked in real terms.

The mass withdrawal of American firms from Russia will have a profoundly negative impact moving forward and the world economy is shrinking rapidly. Russia isn’t some weak power like Iraq. Russia is a major power whose population was, until recently, deeply connected to its larger global environment. The White House thinks that Russians will blame Putin rather than Biden. Eastern European states like Serbia and in the Middle East are looking at the United States as the problem being arrogant and interfering in everyone else’s affairs. It is without question that the United States has declare war on Russia. This is how World War II began with countries attacking one another in the financial markets.

So while the Neocons lick their lips at the thought of overturning Putin and controlling Russia before they turn on China, they are clearly not looking long-term. They took out Saddam Hussein who kept the religious zealots in their place. Once he was removed, the Middle East saw the rise of ISIS. The US has been covertly funding the Ukrainian Nazis to keep up their fight against Donbass.

Let us may no mistake here. The Neocons pushed and funded through the CIS the Taliban for then they were the anti-Soviet resistance. The CIA Special Activities Division sent paramilitary officers to equip the Mujihadeen forces against the Soviet Army. The US therefore funded Taliban mainly to assist in ending the Soviet’s occupation in Afghanistan. However, the Neocons can never think past the end of their nose. They have no long-term strategies, only win what is immediately in front of them. The taliban benefited from expanded foreign military support from the United States. They then used that training against US troops who were in search of terrorists from 911.

The foolish view among the Neocons is they think bringing Democracy to the Middle East or now to Russia and China will somehow make them friends or stable is an absolute joke. The idea of creating a “Moscow Spring” by punishing the Russian people until they do what the CIS and Neocons demand does not make the costs of conflict lead worth it. Marx brought his ideas and it cost over 200 million lives to install communism. America is hated for its interference by the Neocons in many circles.

Both China and Russia have American arrogance as a common enemy and the Russian or Chinese people will not send them flowers and Xmas cards thanking them for destroy everything they have built since 1989. However, RELIABLE sources in the Middle East, the UAE, Egypt and even Israel are angry over Biden’s sanctions. Yet the Neocons claim that total isolation forced regime change in South Africa. However, they also had no military power to fight back. That is like claiming a fight is fair with one kid has a rubber band and the other a baseball bat.

Somebody in Washington needs to start thinking strategically and realistically about this endeavor to isolate Russia for all that is unfolding at a rapid rate is the disintegration of the world economy. In 1989, then President George H.W. Bush understood there were serious risks with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Communism. Russia is big and powerful enough that its role in the world economy is vital to the overall health of the international order . The US NEEDS Russia as an economic friend not and adversary for nobody will win with that result.

The Western propaganda is that Russia and China represent authoritarian rule. However, Western governments are no better. Sure, we have elections but then the candidate arrives in Washington and they are told they will vote according to the Party Agenda rendering the image of free elections only just that. In Europe, the people do not vote for the Commission which makes the laws nor for the head of state. We do not live in a Democracy for the people never are allowed to vote on an issue like war or peace.

The likelihood of Putin being overthrown and Democracy is sudden born has less than a zero change of ever being correct.

Neocon Plot to Overthrow Putin & Xi


Armstrong Economics Blog/Reports and DVDs Re-Posted Mar 21, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

This war has really nothing to do with Ukraine for this country has been used as cannon fodder to overthrow Putin – the second target in this New World Order. The first was the removal of Trump and the last will be the removal of Xi Jinping. This is a major effort to cause regime change in Russia. The sanction has been so outrageous that they are indeed an act of outright war. The strategy to remove all three has been in play and you can tell the very same tactics are used. They DEMONIZE the leader in order to defeat him and to cause people to hate him.

In the case of Putin, they have been doing that in the United States when Hillary, a Neocon herself, manufactured the entire Russia Conspiracy that Putin interfered in the 2016 election.  It was Hillary who allowed the bankers to intervene in the Russian 2000 election which backfired and Yeltsin turned to Putin once he discovered the plot.

Lindsey Graham is also a Neocon who has outright called for Russians to assassinate Putin. All we are getting now is propaganda pushing the agenda of regime change in Russia. The story being put out by Ukrainian Intelligence is that a group of Russian elites are allegedly now conspiring to overthrow Putin and “restore economic ties” with the West. They are posting this on Facebook post from the Chief Directorate of Intelligence for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. This is clearly propaganda for if there was truly a plot, they would not be warning Putin. Instead, they are creating an imaginary plot in hope for forming one and to create discord in the politics of Russia. It is a ploy as old as history.

Facebook has changed its guidelines to allow for the posting of violence against Russia and calling for the death of Putin. Zuckerberg is also one of these Young Global Leaders of the WEF. As many are praying, his stock should keep going down for the plots that have been hatched in Facebook.

The Ukrainians are even naming Alexander Bortnikov, the Russian Director of the Federal Security Service and a member of Putin’s inner circle, as a successor to the president. They are seeking the conquest of Russia but forcing the people to rise up and overthrow their government because of the sanctions. Biden even threatened China according to the White House stating that serious “implications and consequences” will follow if Beijing decides to give material aid to Russia to support its war in Ukraine. The White House claimed that Biden laid out for Mr. Xi the punishments the United States will inflict upon China and it too would pay a similarly heavy price if it supported Putin.

“He made clear what the implications and consequences would be if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Friday afternoon. She declined to say how Mr. Xi responded or give details on the costs the United States has threatened to impose on Beijing, as reported in the New York Times.

China released the transcript of the phone call between Biden and Xi on Chinese state media. Xi expressed opposition to the broad sanctions the United States, European and Asian nations have imposed on Russia, warning they could trigger crises in the global economy. In this score, he is absolutely right. These very same tactics will be turned on China after they are finished with regime change in Russia. Xi referenced a Chinese saying, “Let he who tied the bell on the tiger take it off,” which is an idiom that the responsibility for solving a problem should fall on the person who created it. The transcript does not indicate that Xi would play a role in ending the war.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “turning point for the world,” arguing that a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces would herald “a new age of intimidation.”

We are looking at the beginning of World War III. In order to pull off this Great Reset, they needed to remove Trump, Putin, and Xi in hopes of then subordinating both China and Russia to the New World Order with the United Nations in control.

We live in very interesting and dangerous times. The Climate Change people have pushed that the world has only 7 years left and the Neocons have usurped this agenda to make their dreams come true. We will be issuing two important reports. The first is now ready – The ECM March 14th, 2022. (Attendees of the last World Economic Conference will receive this report for FREE. It is available for download in the 2021 WEC Documents Portal. Please check your emails and spam for our notification). Otherwise, this report is priced at $95 given its wide range and the seriousness of what we face.

Tucker Carlson Asks, Is Ukraine the Representative Autocracy Washington DC Hopes To Achieve Here?


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 21, 2022 | Sundance

Tucker Carlson used his monologue tonight to note something we have discussed at length here.  Western government leaders continue to make statements about “representative democracy” in comparison to “autocratic non-western government”, yet they make these public statements while personifying autocracy itself.

An example was Joe Biden making statements to the media during a 9-11 commemoration visit to Shanksville Pennsylvania. In his remarks, Joe Biden decried Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladmir Putin as autocrats, yet Biden had just announced forced mandatory medical procedures for all U.S. workers a mere 36 hours before. It is a fact that throughout the last two years – the leaders of Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States have used declarations of emergency to position themselves with massive power.  This is not debatable.

As a consequence, the prior definition of “western representative democracy” collapsed under the weight of COVID-19 and was replaced with unilateral authoritarian emergency power.   When you look around, every single government in the west is still trying to extend those COVID powers by extending the emergency declarations that provide them.   Again, none of this is up for debate; it is empirically true.

Tucker asks a really good question.  Is the autocratic system of government that existed in Ukraine before the Russian invasion – which is (not coincidentally) identical in many ways to the COVID-19 inspired system of government created by Western leaders – actually, the real motive for those western leaders to unite in their support and current propaganda campaign on behalf of Ukraine?  I think he might be onto something.  WATCH:

.

Is western autocracy the real objective, and is modern fascism (i.e. corporatism) the technique to get there?

There is a massive synergy visible if you think about the WEF selecting leaders in this process.  The problem for western leaders, who want to be dictators, has always been the voice of the people.   Replace traditional democracy by merging modern corporatism with a new version of western autocracy, and we end up with a never-ending system of oppressive government just like we have been dealing with for the past two years throughout the pandemic.

“They are starting to notice the quiet part”…

Ukraine the Key to WWIII


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Mar 20, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, I remember you had a Ukrainian girlfriend who attended the WEC in Berlin back in 2015. Obviously, you have ties to Ukraine and have an inside view of their feelings and culture. Is this why you have little respect for Zelensky when the world calls him a hero?

HS

ANSWER: Thanks for the picture. I have known a number of Ukrainians on both sides from Kyiv and Donestk. Nevertheless, back in 2013, I warned that our model had highlighted Ukraine as the region to focus on for war. So yes, when our computer had targeted Ukraine, I naturally sought to understand its history and culture. Even learning the spoken language gives you tremendous insight into the thinking process.

My father was a colonel under General Patton from North Africa into Berlin. He told me how Patton read Romel’s book on tactical warfare and beat him. It is NEVER what you think, it is always what your opponent thinks. This nonsense that Ukraine can defeat Putin is propaganda and it seems to cheer every death of a Ukrainian to justify hating Putin and all Russians even more. This is not just reckless, but highly dangerous for the world. It ensures that you will lose. Read Putin’s biography, “Vladimir Putin. Life History” where he states: “I just understood that if you want to win, then you have to fight to the finish in every fight, as if it was the last and decisive battle…you need to assume that there is no retreat.”

Zelensky is a fool who is too caught up in his own celebrity to make rational decisions for his own people. This has become a media blitz for him and you can see he is enjoying it. This is not the quality you want in a leader. But we seem to be plagued with the worst crop of world leaders in human history.

There was much hope when he was elected that the inherent corruption would come to an end. The leadership was either the puppet of Russia or the United States and both sides had an interest in playing. The people did not share this entrenched idea that the Donbas had to remain Ukrainian. There was a deep resentment toward Russia from the days of Stalin who starved Ukraine to pretend Communism was succeeding. I suggest you watch the film, Mr. Jones.

Most Ukrainian were raised and knew how to speak Russian as well as Ukrainian. When Yanukovich became President, he was corrupt and his sons were running protection rackets. But he was Russian ethnically and could only speak Ukrainian with an accent. He pushed the language law to make the official language both Russian and Ukrainian. Zelensky push the opposite view and passed the Ukrainian ONLY law which was a slap in the face to Donbas.

Zelensky is a puppet. He has done NOTHING to avoid war. All he has done is poke the bear intentionally. He knew well that the Belgrade Agreement required Ukraine was to remain neutral. It gave up its nuclear weapons when it was the 3rd most powerful nuclear power for it had more nukes than even China. The deal was that it would neither join NATO and for the first time, it would become an independent nation free of Russia. By pushing to join NATO Zelensky KNEW that it was breaking the Belgrade agreement of 1991 and he was refusing to allow the Donbas to vote to seek its own independence since that region was Russian. So Zelensky was playing empire claiming to hold that territory which was created by Kruchev in the first place along with Crimea which was always Russian territory.

Clearly, Zelensky has not done what he was elected for and he has constantly been trying to create World War III demanding NATO action. He is more concerned about his image than his people. Some feel that if enough Ukrainian blood is spilled, then perhaps NATO will respond and all of this for what purpose? To keep the Donbas when he has even outlawed Russian as an official language? He is either a puppet taking orders or a complete egotistical fool enjoying the world stage and not thinking about the end game. There is no defeating Putin. Putin does not believe in retreat. If he retreats it is only leading to a trap. There must be negotiation and the surrender of Donbas and Crimea and the Belgrade Agreement must be maintained – UKRAINIAN NEUTRALITY.

Many in Ukraine feel that he is taking orders from some master. Is it the World Economic Forum, the EU, NATO, or the CIA? There are plenty of rumors flying around. In the end, the truth will surface. Until then, all we are left with are our opinions. We must be careful that we are not driven to conclusions that are being fed to us by the media to achieve a particular goal determine those who pull the strings behind the curtail. What I can say is this demonizing Putin is highly dangerous and it is a physiological war tactic that is necessary to get the people hating the opposition so they will rush in to kill them without remorse.

Planet Lockdown Interview (Full Interview)


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Mar 19, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Watch Martin Armstrong’s full interview with Planet Lockdown.

The Crisis in Europe – Robbing Pension Funds to Replace QE


Armstrong Economics Blog/European Union Re-Posted Mar 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

While in Britain Johnson was pushing for a law that allows the government to confiscate private assets of those who resist the government under the pretense of Russian Sanctions, the EU Superfund is robbing people pensions for (1) climate, (2) energy, and (3) defense which is to be funded by private pensions. This move is being defended as necessary to protect politicians against the rise of populism (anti-career politicians), deepening the commitment to slowing climate change, and now defending its borders as the US security umbrella recedes.

The EU will launch a bold $3 trillion Superfund to be funded by pension allocations rather than new taxes. So they will rob the future of people, especially over 40 who have been working all their lives for political objectives to save the careers of politicians. They argue that the security umbrella provided by the US during the Cold War is declining rapidly and this introduces new threats as they continue to agitate Russia and constantly push NATO eastward. The argument is that the US will be more concerned with China than Russia. That does not seem to be the case given all the rhetoric concerning Ukraine, but it is a handy excuse to rob the pensions in the face of a collapsing bond market.

The AUKUS submarine deal brought France’s attempt to sell new submarines to Australia in confrontation with the US. This has been argued that the US became very cold toward Western Europe. In the face of Ukraine, the EU knows it needs to move rapidly on all fronts to bolster its defenses.

French President Macron, backed by Italian Prime Minister Draghi who created the negative interest rates nightmare, argued to move swiftly to defend against Italy’s own rise of populism. Hence, they argue to push this “EU Superfund” will address all of these three-fold priorities that are urgent. The European civil unrest is rising in the fact of total fiscal mismanagement.

It appears that the politicians WANT war with Russia as a diversion. They desperately need an excuse in the face of a crumbling monetary system where especially the EU is in trouble unable to sell bonds to fund itself or the future. The solution is to rob the pension funds and that will eliminate the need to issue bonds to cover expenses. That move will only undermine the confidence in the EU and result in further civil unrest. The negative interest rates have robbed savers of income since 2014.

The EU is struggling with declining birth rates and an aging population that is enduring already very heavy tax burdens. They cannot throw the cost of climate change and defense on top of the current levels of taxation without a popular uprising to overthrow the present governments. They cannot possibly finance the Superfund with higher taxes even on the claimed higher incomes. They have threatened tax havens and hunted the rich worldwide. They are now using Ukraine as the excuse to confiscate private Russian assets that will NEVER be returned.

France is moving to overhaul its pension system and is looking at Europe’s enormous pensions as the source of revenue. The scheme is that all pensions for all workers above the age of 40 must allocate a progressively larger portion of their pension assets into Superfund bonds as they age. This is how they will create new levels of fiscal stimulus in the EU when negative interest rates have failed. The pensions will now be replacing Quantitative Easing as the entire system is collapsing. With rising inflation thanks to the mismanagement of COVID and now promoting a much-needed war against Russia the hope to keep just conventional, this level of spending everyone else’ savings they hope will replace the impossibility of selling negative interest rate bonds that NY banks now view as junk.

Welcome to the collapse of Keynesian Economics. As I have been warning – the European Central Banks is trapped and QE no longer works.

Saudi Arabia Considers Accepting Yuan for Oil


Armstrong Economics Blog/Energy Re-Posted Mar 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Russia is not the only country turning to the yuan. Beijing is in talks with Saudi Arabia to begin purchasing oil with their own currency opposed to the USD. Saudi Arabia has long had a volatile relationship with the US, and seeing the harsh sanctions imposed on Russia is only making the yuan more appealing.

Around 80% of global oil sales are exchanged in dollars, with Saudi Arabia using the USD exclusively for oil sales since the 1970s per agreement with the US government. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was unable to have diplomatic relationships with President Biden after the publicized 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “We were going to make them the pariah that they are,” Biden stated in 2019. Add to this America’s nuclear negotiations with Iran and dismissal of Saudi Arabia’s request for support with military operations in Yemen.

The illusion of the dollar being an impenetrable safe haven has shattered due to Biden’s policies. Countries now know that their dollar reserves could be confiscated or frozen at any time and deemed utterly useless. The Saudis have been toying with the idea of accepting the yuan for oil payments for the past six years, but recent events just may be the final straw.

Americans Want Energy Independence


Armstrong Economics Blog/Energy Re-Posted Mar 17, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Americans want President Biden to “green light the restart of the building of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada’s oil sands region through the Midwest to refineries in Texas.” Maru Public Opinion for Postmedia noted in a poll that 71% of Americans support the idea. Around 39% state they favor the idea very much, while another 32% reported somewhat favoring the idea. Around 16% somewhat oppose the idea, and 13% remain very opposed. “It would appear that the public, given the current circumstance, has decided that this is a bipartisan solution to what is now an unprecedented circumstance,” John Wright, Maru Public Opinion’s executive vice-president, stated.

If Joe Biden didn’t kill the project the moment he took office, it would be ready for operation in Q1 of 2023. Experts say it would now take much longer to complete the pipeline amid supply shortages. Last week, Democrats blocked a motion put forward by Republicans called the American Energy Independence from Russia Act to once again prevent America from becoming energy independent.

“This week our president — our American president — asked Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, asked them to boost their output so that American consumers wouldn’t see a spike in gas prices,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said. “Surely, [Biden] knows we can also boost domestic production right here at home. Surely he knows that domestic production supports American jobs, and surely he knows that domestic production is cleaner, by far, than foreign production.”

That’s right — Biden turned to hostile dictators for help instead of tapping into the numerous options he has available at home. His policies are disingenuous and do not represent the wishes of the people who allegedly elected him.