Posted originally on Jul 8, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
I have written about how Rome fell, and just by mapping the population of Rome, you can see the fate of many current nations and states operating under poor fiscal policies – people sell and just leave. It is different this time because, under socialism, the government has become abusive. When it came to integration, they sought to implement it by sheer force.
You can’t legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. Jobs are created by the wealthy who become wealthy because of their innovative vision – i.e., Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and so on. Henry Ford’s vision created the auto industry. Bill Gates, in bringing DOS to life, created the personal computer industry, as did Steve Jobs. How much employment did just those three men create? Far more than government.
Government creates nothing to advance society or to increase GDP in any positive manner. It is a natural human response not to pay taxes and this is why taxes have been the number one reason for civil war and revolution. It is always resentful to pay taxes, whereas giving money to help someone is rewarding. Taxes tend to support politicians and their pensions. If they must sell some assets to take a government job, it is tax-free. Few leave government without growing their net worth far beyond what one could typically earn through income or investments.
The great welfare state has produced a large segment of fraud and kept many people down since they would rather be taken care of than work to take care of themselves. Even in prison, many people are sentenced to 10 or 20 years, and the first thing they do is commit a crime to get back in, where they do not have to pay taxes, and they are taken care of. You destroy people’s lives for such a long period for non-violent crimes, and then expect them to have a fulfilling life thereafter?
In the United States, we have witnessed a significant shift in the population since the COVID-19 pandemic. People are continuing to flee authoritarian states with high taxes like California, New Jersey, and New York in favor of financially friendly states like Arizona, Texas, and Florida.
New Zealand once had a program where if a woman was pregnant and she had no idea who the father was, the government provided everything right down to a free home. They ended up with the highest percentage of women who had no idea who the father of their child was. Naturally, they did know the identity of the biological father, and he would jump out the back window when the social worker visited. They got everything for free then.
Any of these types of programs employ a divide-and-conquer strategy. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government doesn’t first take from somebody else. When you reach a state where 50% of the people depend upon the other 50% to pay their bills, you end up with class warfare and bitterness. This is the cycle where civilization rises, peaks, and then crashes when government becomes the enemy of the people.
Posted originally on Jul 8, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Banking has existed from the earliest of times and has taken many forms, from safe deposit storage, money changers, merchants with the ability to move money internationally, to money lenders. Some people wrongly assume that they can eliminate the business cycle by eliminating fractional banking. They assume that it will be possible to match lenders and borrowers to maturity contracts. They do not comprehend that this is the line of thinking that always leads to authoritarianism, all the way to communism.
The problem that will emerge from matching lenders and borrowers to a maturity contract is that the boom-bust cycle will still exist. There will always be the perpetual rise and fall in asset values caused by other factors (including human nature), not least of which will be changes in technology, civil unrest, and war that can alter capital flows. History offers a catalogue of solutions. All we need to test such an idea is to open the books.
People assume the cause of the business cycle is the fractional banking issue, as if that were eliminated, then you would flat-line the business cycle, creating utopia. Be very careful. This was the goal of Karl Marx as well. So the starting point is a basic question. Has fractional banking always existed? NO! Since the answer is no, then did the boom and bust cycle in banking exist even without fractional banking? The stark answer – YES.
In ancient times, financial panics also occurred without fractional banking. In Athens during 354BC, people borrowed money from the Temple unbeknownst to everyone else. They were speculating in real estate. The real estate market collapsed without fractional banking, and then it was exposed that the money was borrowed behind the curtain, so to speak, from the temple. Corrupt priests had all this money donated to Athena. She obviously was very frugal since she never seemed to go on a spending spree to buy shoes, owls, or spears. She wore a helmet so she didn’t need a hairdresser. So the priests could keep their hands out of the treasury. Oops – they were caught lending it out to their buddies for spare change. There was no fractional banking involved. They had the money and lent it to their buddies. The assets collapse because, as always, the mood of people changes with the seasons.
Fast forward to the 17th century, and we find the very same scheme played out by politicians. There was the collapse of Wisselbank in Amsterdam, where people had deposited their money and assumed the bank was strictly a safekeeping facility. They offered no loans and paid no interest. Little did they know, the government was using their deposits to fund its own trading.
The Wisselbank was founded in 1609. Upon first opening an account, a depositor paid a fee of ten guilders, three guilders, and three stuivers for each additional account. Two stuivers were paid for each transaction, except those of less than three hundred guilders, for which six stuivers were paid, in order to discourage the multiplicity of small transactions. A person who neglected to balance his account twice in the year forfeited 25 guilders. A person who ordered a transfer for more than what was upon his account, was obliged to pay three per cent for the sum overdrawn. The bank made further profit by selling foreign coin and bullion, which fell to it by the expiration of receipts, and by selling bank money at five percent and buying it at four percent. These sources of revenue were more than enough to pay for the wages of bank officers and defray the expense of management. (Adam Smith)
In 1602, the United East India Company (VOC) was formed from six trading companies in the Netherlands and granted a trade monopoly over the Indies. The bank was administered by a committee of city government officials concerned to keep its affairs secret. It initially operated on a deposit-only basis, but by 1657, it was allowing depositors to overdraw their accounts, and lending large sums to the Municipality of Amsterdam and the United East Indies Company (Dutch East India Company). Initially, this was kept confidential, but it had become public knowledge by 1790. The City of Amsterdam took over direct control in 1791 as a bailout, before finally closing it in 1819.
There is plenty of history of banking BEFORE fractional banking. Sorry, but that did not stop banking panics nor did it stop the business cycle with the boom and bust events. The Tulip Bubble was not leveraged with fractional banking. No matter what, the boom and bust cycle is driven by human nature. We do have a tendency to change our minds about everything from fashion to money.
The idea of matching lenders and borrowers sounds appealing. However, that will not eliminate the cycle. I can find no instance of such a flat line except during a Dark Age where there was no banking, private ownership, or any real economy. Coinage during the period is rare and is typically confined to the region where it was struck, demonstrating the lack of an economy or circulation due to trade.
Posted originally on Jul 5, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: You said that the German Nazi Party was raising money selling bonds in the United States before they invaded Poland in 1939. When I asked AI, if the Nazis sold bonds in the US it said “No, the Nazi regime did not sell sovereign bonds in the United States after coming to power in 1933 and before the outbreak of WWII in 1939.” So, who is correct? You or AI?
ANSWER: From what I am being told, a problem is surfacing with ChatGPT-generated content, which often contains factual inaccuracies. The development of language models to engage in AI is presenting a problem. They are learning from the WEB, correct. However, they are not necessarily capable of verifying what is true or false. Here is a Conversion Office for German Foreign Debts $100 Bond (Nazi Government sold in the United States) into the New York 1936. I have the physical evidence that suggests that the answer you received was incorrect.
British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) recently explained that “no research has yet examined how epistemic beliefs and metacognitive accuracy affect students’ actual use of ChatGPT-generated content, which often contains factual inaccuracies. ” For those unfamiliar with this arcane term of philosophy, linguistics, and rhetoric, epistemic, it traces back to the knowledge of the Greeks. That Greek word is from the verb epistanai, meaning “to know or understand.”
I try to be accurate, and if I state something as fact, I have generally verified it versus making a statement of just an “opinion,” perhaps derived from a belief. Nobody is perfect – not even ChatGPT.
Posted originally on Jul 5, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received a standing ovation on Thursday after denouncing the Trump administration’s “relentless attacks” on federal judges, calling them a threat to the rule of law. “ Across the nation, judges are facing increased threats of not only physical violence, but also professional retaliation just for doing our jobs,” Jackson told a conference of judges in Puerto Rico. “And the attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity.”
Sorry – just being a judge does not make them honorable. A Pennsylvania judge was taking kickbacks to send kids to jail to fill up a prison.
The American Justice System is as Corrupt as ANY Banana Republic – Worse!
We need a Complete Revamp of the Entire System.
The two judges they gave me were former prosecutors with ruthless reputations for pro-government rulings: Judge Richard Owen and his replacement, Judge Castle, both committed felonies by altering the transcripts. I confronted Judge Owen, and so many people showed up that day that he got scared, for he did not know if I would start calling witnesses to testify about what he was altering.
He admitted that he was changing the transcripts, which is a felony with 5 years in prison. The most insane corruption in New York is the acknowledged alteration to the transcripts that the New York Federal Court judges claim the power to change the very words you speak in court. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged the practice as being “unique” to New York, but on page 97 of their decision in UNITED STATES v. ZICHETTELLO, they claimed they lacked the power to order judges to obey the law.
Under 18 U.S.Code § 1506, “Whoever feloniously steals, takes away, alters, falsifies, or avoids any record, writ, process, or other proceedings, in any United States court, whereby any judgment is reversed, made void or does not take effect; or whoever acknowledges, or procures, in any such court, any recognizance, bail, or judgment, in the name of someone, not privy or consenting to the same, shall be fined or imprisoned up to five years, or both.”
I filed an appeal, and the Second Circuit claimed they never got it. They claimed they never received my appeal three times, and then claimed I was out of time. This is how judges protect judges. The system is outright corrupt. The Court of Appeals was well aware of the criminal activity taking place, which is itself a felony punishable by 5 years in prison for any judge who alters the transcript.
“Courts do not have power to alter transcripts in camera and to conceal the alterations from the parties.11 … Nevertheless, whether we have the power to order a change in such a practice is unclear.12 We review judgments, and our review of the convictions and sentences here may not be an appropriate vehicle for the fine tuning of this practice. However, we invite the judges of the Southern District to consider revision.”
US v. Zichettello,208 F3d 72,97 (2d Cir 2000)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is from New York. I personally wrote to him about what was taking place in his district, and he NEVER responded. I can only assumed he knows the corruption taking place in his district and supports it. He is a lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School. No wonder Harvard should lose its tax-free status.
Schummer openly admitted on live TV that the Democrats intentionally stuffed the courts with judges in a direct attempt to beat Donald Trump. “There are those who believe that we are, in real-time, living through an assault on the constitutional order. Do you believe that we are in a constitutional crisis right now?” the host asked.
“Yes,” Schumer responded, adding, “Our democracy is at risk because Donald Trump shows that he wishes to violate the laws in many, many different ways. Then Schumer said what we all suspected out loud: “The good news here is, we did put 235 judges—progressive judges, judges not under the control of Trump—last year on the bench, and they are ruling against Trump time after time after time.”
It is beyond hypocritical for these corrupt lawmakers to claim Trump is the one putting our democracy at risk. The new democrats of today cannot stand US democracy because they have no authoritative power when the people have a voice. The EU was designed to intentionally deny the people any right to vote for those who make the laws in Brussels or who should lead Europe, the same as in Canada. The politicians selected Carney – there was no primary election where the people voted for Carney.
Schumer said he hopes these judges will overturn Trump’s rulings again and again. Progressive judges have already forced funds to continue flowing to the National Institute of Health, they pushed back against defunding USAID, and attempted to prevent migrants from being deported. At every turn, Democrat-installed political activists posing as judges are overruling the president.
These people have no respect for US democracy or law and order. These partisan, dishonorable judges are incapable of ruling impartially. They gained their position by playing dirty for the Dems, and now there are over 100 cases open against the people, and not directly against Trump, as the people of the United States voted for Trump and the policies he represents. All 235 judges are attempting to block Trump at every turn because they’d rather see the nation burn to the ground than a successful Trump presidency, especially since many of these rulings are undoing the damage caused by the former autopen president’s administration.
All 235 judges are not abiding by the Constitution they have sworn to uphold, and should be impeached as they are unable and unwilling to rule unbiasedly. The left is openly manipulating public policy and committing crimes in plain sight. So far, according to Schume,r who cannot keep his foot out of his mouth, the Democrats have “won” 87% of cases against Trump. He admitted that the Democrats have paid off thousands of activists to work on “defeating the president.” They certainly do not want to reduce government or give power to the states because progressive policies are not popular with the American people. The Democrats are especially offended by DOGE because they did not want the people to see how recklessly they have spent our tax dollars on useless programs and NGOs that funnel back into their personal wallets.
The media says Trump is a dictator for demanding that these judges vacate their positions immediately. The Supreme Court needs to get involved here. Not only should the judges be impeached, but the swamp characters like Schumer, who have discarded the rule of law, do not belong in office. When judges are immune and above the law, impossible to impeach, and they cannot be fired for life like a monarch, there can be no actual rule of law. Judges will interpret the law as they like to support their political agenda. Our American legal system has to be just scrapped. These are jobs that could and should be lost to AI.
Anti-Democracy at the Constitutional Convention
While our politicians in the US, Canada, and Europe all lie to us, pretending we live in a Democracy, if you simply read the accounts of the American Constitutional Convention, you will see that we have been lied to all the time.
Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) of Massachusetts declared, “The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy.”
Roger Sherman (1721-1793) of Connecticut agreed, stating, “should have little to do as may be possible about government.”
Ben Franklin stood on the opposite side of the anti-democratic groups. While Franklin recognized the dangers of rabble rule, he distinctly favored direct elections and trusted the average citizen in contrast to elitism, which dominated the Parliamentary systems. Despite being considered the greatest philosopher of his time, his knowledge was also enhanced by the fact that he was also the most travelled among all of those at the Constitutional Convention. He had traveled to all of the colonies and Europe. Nobody else had his experience.
William Leigh Pierce (1753–1789) of Georgia wrote:
“Dr. Franklin is well known to be the greatest philosopher of the present age; all the operations of nature he seems to understand, the very heavens obey him, and the clouds yield up their lightning to be imprisoned in his rod. But what claim he has to be a politician, posterity must determine. It is certain that he does not shine much in public council. He is no speaker, nor does he seem to let politics engage his attention. He is, however, a most extraordinary man, and tells a story in a style more engaging than anything I ever heard.”
With all of that said, it was Franklin who we have to thank for the president being elected rather than appointed by some elites. Yet, Franklin wanted judges also to be elected. The anti-democratic elitists managed to have the judiciary in their control, just as Schummer admitted. Franklin drafted the Constitution of Pennsylvania, establishing a single legislative body that was directly elected. Pennsylvania also uses a hybrid system in which judges are primarily elected in partisan elections. Gubernatorial appointments, followed by elections, fill mid-term vacancies. Subsequent terms require retention elections. This system blends democratic election processes with appointments to ensure continuity.
The US will never be able to reform by 2032 without a complete overhaul of our legal system!
Any motion to recuse a judge should NEVER be decided by fellow judges who know each other. There MUST be a panel in Washington where all recusal motions should be heard. In my case, after the judge admitted publicly to altering the transcripts in my case, he became a witness in my case whom I could not cross-examine. That disqualified him to be the judge, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals protects judges FIRST. So they lost my appeal three times conveniently.
I then wrote the SEC prosecutor Dorothy Heyl and said: Why don’t you people just make up a transcript and claim I confessed to whatever you want, and let’s get this over with. She did not reply.
Thrasymachus wrote over 2,000 years ago that “justice” is the same no matter what form of government – it is simply the will of those in power. Nothing has changed in over 2,000 years.
The courts have flipped the Constitution, where you have no rights. It was intended to be a RESTRAINT upon government. Yet, the courts have held that you can waive any right so that removes all restraint upon government, and they can torture you because you waived your 5th Amendment.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 