QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong,
President Trump is claiming that he has come up with health care programs for employees that have lowered the cost below Obamacare. Do you think this is a true statement? Trump also claims he is coming up with even lower health care costs. Amazon, JPMorgan and Warren Buffet are creating healthcare services for their companies that will lower their company costs. Do you see that health care costs are being disrupted and will go down overall in the future?

Thank you for your comment.

ANSWER: Obamacare was done for the hospitals so they would not have to hand out free care to illegal aliens. The Clintons made student loans not dischargeable for banks. It just seems like the socialists can always ben bought. That is probably why the HATE Trump so much.

There is no question that healthcare costs can be reduced by 50% or more. They have risen far more than anyt5hing else in the economy. During the 1980s, we provided health care to employees and their entire family. The cost was perhaps $3,000 a year. It is nothing more than a giant money-laundering machine. My insurance doubled under Obamacare laws and my coverage declined. If we stop the corruption of buying politicians, we could actually be so much better off. This is one reason they are so intent upon getting rid of Trump. They do not like it when they dod not own the politicians. Trump says some things that are off-color, but at the same time, you at least know how he thinks. That is still better than someone who lies to your face and then stabs you in the back

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, you obviously have a database on Italy that is without comparison. Nobody else even had a chart on the Italian lira you recently published on the blog. I know you are well aware of the revolutions in Italy and the history. I was wondering do you have any forecast for the next revolution? It seems that the five-star movement may perhaps be the beginning. Any hint about the future?

VDM

ANSWER: Well to give you a target year where it can begin will be 2021. The Five-Star Movement is indeed the prelude. However, the attempt to stay in the Eurozone will be the undoing of Italy. The most threatening issue in Italy that will lead to revolution is most likely an attempt to raise inheritance taxes as being suggested by Brussels.

Culturally, Italy has the lowest inheritance tax in all of Europe. The German inheritance tax rates range from 17% to 50%, depending on your relationship to the decedent. In Italy, the Italian Inheritance Tax (Imposta sulle Successioni) is applied to all the assets worldwide belonging to the deceased if the person is a resident of Italy ONLY. If the person lives outside of Italy, then the tax is applied ONLY to assets in Italy. Where everyone else has generally inheritance taxes of 15% or higher for the immediate family, Italy that rate is just 4%. Here is the breakdown:

• 4% to be paid for transfers to the surviving spouse and children, with an exemption of Euro 1,000,000 for each beneficiary
• 6% to be paid for transfers to brother and sisters of the deceased, with an exemption of Euro 100,000 for each beneficiary
• 6% to be paid for transfers to relatives within the fourth degree of relationship to the Deceased, and other relatives on the spouse side up to the third degree (no exempt amount is available)
• 8% to be paid for transfers to any other (unrelated) parties.

So why do I say that inheritance taxes are the greatest threat to Italy? Rental income in Italy is extremely low. People have plowed their savings into real estate BECAUSE of the inheritance tax. Many have numerous properties and rental income just pays for the taxes and maintenance. If the inheritance tax is tripled, as Brussels suggests, what you will see in Italy is the biggest crash in real estate in modern history. This will be like taxing your bank account by 50%+. Many people use real estate, as they do in China, as their savings. In 2017, part of the very reason why the Five-Star Movement won was also the drastic imposition of property taxes in Italy. If it is your primary home, there was a 2% stamp duty to buy it. A second home was hit with a 9% stamp duty tax. However, if you say it is your primary residence to pay only the 2%, the government will check you for the first 5 years and if they determined you do not live there for the minimum 6 months, the penalty imposed will be 20% of the value of the property. Effectively, that is the imposition of a sales tax when you buy the home. You then have an annual property tax between 0.4% and 0.7% of a property’s fiscal value (valore catastale), the rate being decided by the local municipality according to a property’s size.

The tax reforms that have begun post-2016 are already creating political unrest. A change in the inheritance tax on top of the changes in 2017 to the property tax threatens to undermine the real estate market and that will come back and further bankrupt the banks. It is simply beyond the contemplation of how these people in power only look at their theories and are so desperate for taxes, they are blind to the consequences they are setting in motion.

Unfortunately, 2021 will be 3 waves of 51.6 years from when in 1866 Victor Emmanuel allied himself with Prussia in the Third Italian War of Independence. He eventually entered Rome on September 20th, 1870 and set up the new capital there on July 2nd, 1871. The next wave brings us to 1918 which is the final unification of Italy when the Terre irredenta joined the Kingdom of Italy. Going into the next wave is when you had the National Front (Fronte Nazionale, FN) form which was a neo-fascist political party in Italy during 1967. The peak of that wave was 1970, which marked the National Front’s failed coup attempt launched in December 1970, with the group disappearing soon afterward. This brings us to 2021 for the peak of the next wave. Each wave has brought political change so we are more likely to see a crisis unfold in Italy and this may lead to the crisis in the Euro

QUESTION: Hi Martin,
in reference to the mailing of 500k in bank drafts to the US by a Canadian in Canada – I am wondering what your thoughts are in wiring > 50,000 (CAD) to a US brokerage account, as a Canadian citizen? Do you think there may be potential confiscation or holding of wired funds on either end ( to or from the brokerage account back to Canada) being a Canadian citizen?

A

ANSWER: When wiring money internationally, if it is going to an institution or business, then there is no problem. If you try to send money to an individual, that is when all rules are off. What I would do is ALWAYS test the method first. Sen like $1,000 and make sure it goes through OK.

They do not seem to mess with wires to businesses yet. Everything seems to turn on individual

An Ottawa man, David Saikaley,  acting as executor of a will obtained a bank draft for $500,000 and mailed it to family members in the United States to settle an estate. Bank checks are regarded as “cash” and the money was seized by customs. Almost a year later, the money is still stuck at the border. This is highlighting the Hunt for Money which has simply gone totally insane. Governments now assume ALL money is illegal gains and they will confiscate 100% forcing the burden to you to PROVE it is yours and was obtained legally. If you are ever going to send money to someone overseas, you can mail a check from your account, but NEVER get a bank check/draft. If you are in the USA and try to wire money to an individual overseas, you will quickly discover the limit is not $10,000, but $3,000.

NEVER send anything of value internationally using FedEx. They will be extremely difficult to deal with, to say the least in trying to get things through customs. Even when the valuable item is not subject to tax, they want you to still fill out all sorts of forms to receive it plus give them your Tax ID number so the government will know you just received something worth whatever.

As if that is not bad enough internationally, now they want a PHOTO ID just to mail something domestically. What comes next? A DNA sample because the PHOTO ID is a possible fake? Where does all this insanity end? The only way to end this confiscation of money from innocent people is to ELIMINATE income taxes and customs duties.

The various governments are becoming so desperate for cash, we are losing ALL our liberty just for the privilege of being born. Whatever happened to the rights to that were articulated by Thomas Jefferson:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”