Tag Archives: Big Government

Jun 12 2024

Hunter Biden Convicted of 3 Felony Gun Crimes, Jury Deliberated for Three Hours


Posted originally on the CTH on June 11, 2024 | Sundance 

We all knew this was going to happen, almost this exact way.

December, 2022 – ” Monaco will coordinate the timing of the arrest and indictment of Hunter Biden to coincide with the arrest and indictment of President Trump. This will provide the narrative of blind justice the DOJ will attempt to leverage to stop national reaction.” (LINK)

And, that’s exactly what Lisa Monaco and Main Justice did.  Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony gun charges, and will likely receive a very limited sentence (probation or similar) with no jail/prison time.

The major crimes of bribery, money laundering, public corruption, Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) violations, are all being ignored.   The Biden crime syndicate is being protected.

WASHINGTON – Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was found guilty Tuesday of three felony charges stemming from his purchase of a handgun in 2018.

Biden, 54, is the first child of a sitting U.S. president ever to be convicted in a criminal trial. The president said last week that he would not pardon his son.

The jury of six men and six women issued its unanimous verdict after three hours of deliberations.

Biden remained perfectly still as a court clerk read the verdict aloud. Before leaving the courtroom, he hugged his lawyers and kissed his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. He and his wife, along with first lady Jill Biden, departed from the courthouse a few minutes later in Secret Service SUVs. (read more)

The New York Times stenographers come along with a screenplay to protect the image of the Biden family.

Jun 10 2024

Why is Keynesian Economics Collapsing?


Posted originally on Jun 10, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Keynes 5

John Maynard Keynes in his 1936 book, ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money,” argued aggregate demand was too volatile to be stable and would lead to inflation or recessions. His theory honed in on spending as a means of price control. Low aggregate demand, Keynes argues, would lead to high unemployment and stagflation. Government could intervene through fiscal policies to increase aggregate demand, as an example, increased government spending could tame inflation. Interest rates, according to Keynes, could also be modified to encourage spending and stimulate demand. So why are these theories failing miserably today?

To begin, the United States had a balanced budget when Keynes presented his theory. The government is now the biggest borrower, acting in its own self interest under Adam Smith’s theory of the invisible hand that Keynes spent his career attempting to deny. According to Keynes, “there is no self-correcting mechanism in a free market economy that automatically restores full employment.” He believed that the government could change the business cycle but arguably regretted this notion on his deathbed.

Keynesian economics gave the government the green light to manipulate the economy, or at least make numerous failed attempted to do so. There is that old joke about communism that you can vote your way in but must shoot your way out, seemingly fitting to the utter disaster governments have created in regards to our economic situation.

Keynes quote on Invisible Hand

The government is by far the biggest borrower. Raising interest rates can have no impact on demand, as the government will simply borrow more, and the central banks simply have no say. During the Great Depression, for example, Washington forced the Federal Reserve to implement QE policies to artificially lower rates to increase demand. Yet, when Washington ordered the Federal Reserve to do the same during the Korean War in 1951, the central bank first broke with Washinton and refused to comply as it knew it would hurt the economy as America’s budget was no longer balanced.

Quantitative Easing destroyed the Keynesian model, and there is now no other alternative for central banks to control the economy. If they raise rates, the budget explodes. The Keynesians advocate manipulating demand and advocate fiscal spending that the central bank cannot control. However, the other part of Keynesianism is the manipulation of taxes. Keynes argued that to stimulate demand, you lower taxes. He saw this correctly, but again, it does not fit with government agendas.

There is no limit to what the government will spend with “money” that simply does not exist. Governments continue to borrow perpetually with no real intention of paying back their debts. This is one piece of the Sovereign Debt Crisis that will implode like a nuclear bomb the likes of which we have never witnessed. The business cycle cannot be manipulated, and what’s more, the Keynesian model cannot account for declining confidence in both government and the economy.

Jun 5 2024

Fed President Says Americans Would Prefer a Recession to Inflation


Posted originally on Jun 5, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Fed Ship in STorm

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari has advised against anticipating near-term rate cuts. While speaking to the Financial Times, the Fed president stated that people would simply prefer a recession to continued inflation.

“I have learned that the American people—and maybe people in Europe equally—really hate high inflation. I mean, really viscerally hate high inflation,” he told the Financial Times’ The Economics Show podcast. Kashkari is speaking as if we are not already in a recession. It is not difficult to understand the “visceral” hatred people around the world feel toward rising prices. The effects of inflation are felt with every purchase, causing the average person to adjust their entire lifestyle.

3 faces of Inflation Dragon

Vague issues such as rising unemployment or declining wages do not impact everyone. “I lose my job, I lean on my sister or my parents or my friends, and they help me through it. But high inflation affects everybody. There’s no one I can lean on for help because everyone in my network is experiencing the same thing I’m experiencing,” Kashkari explained. Mass layoffs, for example, would only impact a fragment of the overall population, and people would feel lucky simply to keep their jobs.

“In the US, GDP has been remarkably strong, very strong,” he noted. “The labor market has been resilient. Wage growth has been mostly resilient. And we’re seeing even the housing market has shown signs of resilience. So if I look at this resilience and economic activity, that does not look like an economy that is under pressure of very high, very tight monetary policy.” Yet, inflation is outpacing wage increases and people are watching their savings dwindle while spending less. The average person cares not of the health of the overall economy as they simply want to be able to continue maintaining or improving their standard of living. Most Americans, for example, do not invest and live paycheck to paycheck.

CPI Formula

Real prices have far surpassed anything they calculate in CPI. Everyone understands that prices have risen far more than the arbitrary number the Fed provides us. Taxes are continually increasing for everyone in every tax bracket. The government not only adds to inflationary issues with their spending but then expects their citizens to foot a portion of the bill with taxes, which will simply never be enough.

Then we have Washington telling the masses to blame corporations for price gouging while raising their taxes and making it increasingly difficult to conduct business and maintain a large workforce. It is not that the people would prefer to be in a recession, the real issue is that countless people are entering survival mode. People everywhere want to hold onto whatever they may have out of fear for the future, but they are unable even to hoard as real prices now demand they hand over whatever they have to maintain their lives.

Jun 3 2024

Hillary: If Trump Wins it Will Be the End of All Elections


Posted originally on Jun 3, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

Hillary Red

Hillary Clinton has a new scapegoat for her failed presidential elections – women. Women, or the 50% of the population, that many Democrats refuse even to define or acknowledge. While promoting her book, “The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America,” Clinton vocalized that losing the female vote potentially cost her the election.

Hillary stated that women voters expected her to be “perfect,” and that was simply the only reason they chose to vote for a different candidate. “They left me because they just couldn’t take a risk on me, because as a woman, I’m supposed to be perfect. They were willing to take a risk on Trump — who had a long list of, let’s call them flaws, to illustrate his imperfection — because he was a man, and they could envision a man as president and commander in chief,” Times reported.

Then, Hillary claimed that she would have protected abortion rights if elected. Clinton simply does not realize that not all female voters support that measure, which is often a one-issue voter stance that can cause voters to switch parties. She has gone as far as to claim a Donald Trump presidency would lead to the loss of all female reproductive rights. Does she recall that we had him as president for four years, and none of this happened?

Abortion Protests

Clinton has become hysterical in her hatred for Donald Trump. Combining Roe and Trump, Hillary is telling anyone willing to listen that this will lead to the demise of democracy.

“This election is existential. I mean, if we don’t make the right decision in this election in our country, we may never have another actual election. I will put that out there because I believe it,” she said. “And if we no longer have another actual election, we will be governed by a small minority of right-wing forces that are well organized and well funded and are getting exactly what they want in terms of turning the clock back on women.”

MAGA, Conservatives, Independents, and anyone who does not agree with the left is considered the “small minority” of extremists by the media and current establishment. Personally this feels as if it is a threat from the left – vote for me or risk never voting again because we cannot trust the Great Unwashed to promote our chosen candidates.

The media has long forgotten the violence that unfolded in 2020 that was primarily carried out by the left. They were permitted to burn US cities with no consequences. Left-leaning philanthropists who admit to meddling in politics funded these activities openly. Yet, the non-violent protest on the capitol on January 6 has become the paramount issue and everyone involved has been prosecuted to the fullest degree of the law.

“One thing I give the right credit for is they never give up,” Clinton said. “They are relentless. You know, they take a loss, they get back up, they regroup, they raise more money…It’s tremendously impressive the way that they operate. And we have nothing like it on our side.” The media is gas lighting the public to believe that the “small minority” who oppose war, open borders, and an destroyed economy are threatening the very existence of the United States.

The left only has Roe to run on at this point, and not every woman (undefined) does not support the measure. This may very well be the last US Presidential Election we see, but rest assured it will not be solely due to the right. Absolutely no one will accept the outcome this November regardless of who secures the vote. The people no longer trust the election process and have become so extremely divided that they cannot imagine another four years with either candidate.

Jun 3 2024

Sunday Talks – ABC George Stephanopoulos Claims Trump Prosecution Not Motivated by Politics


Posted originally on the CTH on June 2, 2024 | Sundance

Some of the commentary made by MSM political pundits is so over-the-top biased and fraught with manipulative intent the light from the place where narrative engineering emanates could not reach their bias for a year.  It is infuriating in the extreme.

Entering the game of gaslighting comes one of the most politically conniving narrative engineers in media, George Stephanopoulos.   Today, during an interview with President Trump attorney Will Scharf, Stephanopoulos attempts to claim the Biden administration was not involved in the Alvin Bragg case against President Trump.

Speaking on “ABC’s This Week,” Stephanopoulos claimed, “of course, the attorney general of Manhattan has nothing to do with the Department of Justice.”  Scharf replied: “I vehemently disagree that the district attorney in New York was not politically motivated here, and I vehemently disagree that President Biden and his political allies aren’t up to their necks in this prosecution.”  WATCH:

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Jun 2 2024

Mills: Biden Admin Trying To Get Israel Peace Deal Before Netanyahu Gov’t Collapse


Posted originally on Rumble By Bannons War Room on: June 1, 2024 at 07:00 pm EST

Jun 2 2024

Good: House Majority Has Surrendered To Democrats For The Last Year And A Half


Posted originally on Rumble By Bannons War Room on: JUNE 1, 2024 at 07:00 pm EST

Jun 1 2024

Senator Joe Manchin (WV) Quits Democrat Party, Registers as Independent – Will Likely Caucus With Democrats, So No Change


Posted originally on the CTH on May 31, 2024 | Sundance

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia is the modern version of Bill Clinton.  A lying liar who lies and works hard to retain the impression of being ‘aw shucks’ reasonable and affable; but it’s all an illusion targeting a certain West Virginia demographic.

In reality, beyond the mask Joe Manchin belongs to the party of self-importance and DeceptCon politics.  He always ends up supporting the leftist policy he pretends to try and mitigate. {GO DEEP}

With the national spotlight on judicial corruption, weaponized government and the overwhelming majority of the American people outraged at the events in New York City courts, Senator Manchin sees the opportunity to exploit the sentiment for his own interests.  Here’s the audio/visual:

[SOURCE – Via Twitter]

WASHINGTON DC – West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, officially filed as an independent Friday.

“My commitment to do everything I can to bring out country together has led me to register as an independent with no party affiliation,” Manchin posted on the social platform X.

Manchin announced in November that he wouldn’t be running for reelection this year, after serving in the Senate since 2010. Before coming to Congress, he served as the governor of West Virginia from 2005-10.

“Throughout my days in elected office, I have always been proud of my commitment to common sense, bipartisanship and my desire to bring people together. It’s who I am,” Manchin said in a statement released Friday. “It’s who I will always be.”

He signaled Wednesday that he would not enter the governor’s race this year, shooting down rumors that he may campaign again for the office.

In a statement Friday, Manchin said partisanship on both sides has jeopardized democracy. National politics in America is broken, and neither side is willing to compromise, he said.

“To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority,” he said. (read more)

As long as you vote with us, we don’t care how you manipulate the optics of Trump in your favor. You do you. We cool?….

{ Go Deep }

Jun 1 2024

My Letter to President Trump – March 2020 – Dawn of COVID Lockdowns


Posted originally on May 31, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

ArmstrongEconomicsLogo.AEGlobalLogo

President Donald Trump                                                                                     March 19, 2020

White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

As an economist with a proven track record, I have been called in by former presidents, world leaders, and central banks around the world during crises since 1985. I was summoned for help during the 1987 Crash. I was perhaps the first American analyst to be invited by the central bank of China and flew to Beijing during the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis. I have testified before the House Ways & Means Committee. Major political leaders have been guest speakers at our World Economic Conferences, not merely Margaret Thatcher, but your friend Nigel Farage spoke at our Rome Conference in May 2019.

All of the economic stimulus packages will not save the day as long as the people have lost confidence in the future. There must be serious out-of-box solutions, for the catastrophic economic damage the health organizations and media have created is unimaginable.

It is true that if we all stay home every day and just watch TV we can beat the common cold. The damage these people have done when there are less than 200 deaths compared to over 1 million people who die in car accidents each year makes one wonder why we do not prohibit cars. Nearly 500,000 die of smoking each year, why do we allow tobacco companies to continue operating? There are costs that must be weighed and the losses these people have created by yelling fire in a theater is staggering.

The damage that has been done by the CDC in sacrificing the entire economy for a virus, which is minimal compared to the flu, and has already peaked in China and South Korea, amounts to yelling fire in a crowded theater. They have undermined the world economy and the amount of people who have lost jobs worldwide is staggering.

Students and young voters work in restaurants as servers. They have lost their jobs by closing restaurants unnecessarily. They are excluded from the bankruptcy laws and are saddled with worthless degrees that do not guarantee jobs. Most students end up in professions that have nothing to do with their degrees. There is no degree to be President, a Senator, or a Congressman. Student loans should be forgiven if they cannot find a job in which they have a degree. This will force reform in the education system to only offer worthwhile degrees. All student loan payments should also be suspended for the balance of the year.

You should now look at imposing a 9-month moratorium on mortgage and business loan payments, and suspend all interest accrues during this period. There will be a risk of a flood of foreclosures unless we look realistically at the damage this has created. Negative interest rates only destroy the bond market as evidenced in Europe since 2014.

The economy must be supported, but not by handouts that the average person will not spend because they have no confidence in the future. We must look at the small businesses and the average person. They account for 70% of the economy, not big business.

All you need to look at is the Excess Reserves at the Federal Reserve. The banks will not lend money, for they have no confidence in the future. The banks will only park the money at the Fed. There is no amount of money you can throw at the bankers that will ever reverse the economic decline.

I am asking you to request Senate Hearings on this crisis. You will find there are plenty of researchers around the world who are seriously questioning what has been taking place and the advice you have received from the CDC who seek authoritarian powers.

Sincerely,

Martin Armstrong

CC/Tomas Philipson Chief Economic Advisor

CC/ Steven Mnuchin Secretary of the Treasury

CC/Jerome Powell Chairman Federal Reserve

CC/ Mitch McConnell Senator

CC/ Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise House of Representatives

May 29 2024

The Problem with K-Waves


Posted originally on May 29, 2024 By Martin Armstrong 

K Wave MAA

All those investigating cycles within the economy made a simple mistake. Kondratieff followed agriculture/commodity prices when agriculture accounted for 70% of the GDP pre-19th century. That only began to decline from 1850 forward, dropping to 40% by 1900 as the Industrial Revolution emerged with the invention of the steam engine. Moreover, aside from climate impacting the food supply, there were also wars. So the Kondratieff Wave failed to take into account all of the external forces.

If we extend the K-Wave 54 years from the commodity high in 1919, that brings us to 1973, which was close to the end of Bretton Woods in 1971 and the OPEC Oil crisis. Another 54 years from there will bring us to 2027. Therefore, this may be based entirely on commodities, but they were impacted by weather and war. Note that 2027 is the ideal target on our model for war derived from entirely different sources.

KONDRATF

There is a cycle of industrialization as well. Rome began as an agrarian society and moved toward trade, which brought them into conflict with Carthage. Rome itself became more like New York and grain was imported from Egypt. As agriculture became more of an import, Rome blossomed like New York into the arts and culture. The shift toward industrialization also resulted in a decline in birth rates for children. Large families were needed in an agrarian society but not so much in a developed society – hence the family laws of Augustus.

The first known Clean Air Act occurred in 535 AD by Emperor Justinian in Constantinople. He proclaimed the importance of clean air as a birthright. “By the law of nature these things are common to mankind—the air, running water, the sea.” Even Cicero wrote about pollution in the ancient city of Rome. This went hand and hand with developed societies and urbanization.

Consequently, when looking at long-term cycles, a few hundred years is not enough data. If Kondratieff were alive today and based his study on the current system, he would focus on services rather than commodity-based economies. Agriculture has fallen to just 1.2% of the civil workforce, so we cannot follow K-Waves as the innovator intended.