Tag Archives: BREXIT

Jul 11 2017

The Pension Crisis – & – The Crash & Burn


Armstrong Economics Blog/Pension Crisis

Re-Posted Jul 11, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: 

Hi Marty –

Question:

You have blogged about the pension crisis

and how Illinois and California on the brink of bamkruptcy.

Does this mean that other states which you don’t
mention, like Florida, Texas, and New York, are financially
sound and are going to be able to pay out pensions to their
retirees for the next 20 -30 years?

Thanks for being the main source of “real” information.

Sincerely….Paul

ANSWER: By no means are other states safe. The problem has been that government pretends that socialism is to take care of the poor when in fact they have their hand in the cookie jar before anyone else. The crisis stems from the fact that they have been giving themselves pensions with outrageous benefits like healthcare for life in many states which often includes their family.

The way states have operated (internationally) is that they simply assumed that there was a never-ending bucket of taxpayers to squeeze for money. The problem is that the population growth has declined, the pensions systems have been a Ponzi schemes from day-one, and they are running out of other people’s money.

All the studies show that the Baby Boomers counted upon government and do not have enough saved for retirement. The average person has just $300,000 tucked away. The low interest rates have killed their profits and most have not yet returned to the stock market after losses from 2007-2009. Everything has been destroyed by low interest rates to save banks at the expense of pension funds and private investment. The public has been brainwashed to think that government debt is “safe” when it is the most risky in the field. They have not invested wisely because most remain ignorant of how markets even function. Nothing can be sustained going forward under this model. Even Draghi in Europe now realizez that there is a pension crisis and he is really to blame for 10 years of low to zero interest rates that have utterly failed to save the economy.

This is the Sovereign Debt Crisis. It is inevitable and irreversible. The Solution I have put forth is really the only way out to prevent complete civil meltdown.  But it is unlikely that any such Solution will be adopted until we actually experience the Crash and Burn. That seems to be starting in 2018.

The Best advice is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Under no circumstances ASSUME that any government pension will actually be paid

Jul 11 2017

France Agrees to Pay All Costs for Turkey to Sign Paris Climate Accord


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate

Re-Posted Jul 11, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would not ratify the Paris Climate Accord unless Europe paid all costs to Turkey. France agreed to pay Turkey compensation for the cost of implementation when signing the agreement. If Erdogan does not receive any financial funds, he said that his Parliament will not ratify the treaty.  Erdogan is demanding money from Europe for anything these days including to stop allowing refugees to travel to Greece.

Jul 10 2017

Germany Pensions System Crisis


Armstrong Economics Blog/Germany

Re-Posted Jul 10, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

The pension system in Germany has serious shortcomings. (Photo: dpa)

The German publication DWN has come out and warned that the German Pensions system is collapsing. They wrote:

The core problem of the German economy and society is miserable demography. A positive development, namely the increasing longevity of the population, is an extremely negative groundbreaking, namely a small number of children. This is reflected in one of the lowest birth rates in the world – and this has been the case for decades. The record-breaking birth rate is by no means rooted in a biological, but in deeper social causes and inadequate policies at different stages. One consequence is a pension system that is not sustainably financed , because the ratio of contributors and receivers will drastically deteriorate. 

The very design of pensions has been universal. They assumed that population would always increase and thus pensions would be funded by taxing the current generation to pay for the previous. The declining birthrate and the increase in longevity has blown out the pensions systems on a global scale. In the case of Germany, this is a primary reason behind accepting refugees with hopes of making up the decline in the birth rate. The problem has been the lack of a desire to assimilate when we are looking at 70% of refugees are males and are really just economic migrants lacking skills and language.

Jul 10 2017

Merkel’s Failed G20 Summit


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics

Re-Posted Jul 10, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Merkel chaired the G20 summit and she completely and utterly failed to lead G20 to a successful conclusion. Well of course, Merkel lost control of the streets of Hamburg, which looked more like a civil war challenging even her authority. However, Merkel thought she could score a major diplomatic triumph be getting everyone together to gang-up on Trump over the climate accord. Her own industries are yelling she will cost a tremendous amount of jobs pushing her climate agenda forward. What took place was that not merely was she unable to intimidate Trump, but China also insisted on being able to expand its carbon energy use agreeing with Trump.

Merkel has been unable to win an election ever reaching a majority of the popular vote. She has been Chancellor only by forming a coalition government with the agreement pf the SPD. The upcoming election shows that Merkel will once again fail to win a majority vote.

Merkel’s primary policy of promoting an attack upon Global Warming is to eliminate carbon fuels altogether. Meanwhile, Europe is unable to achieve a trade deal with the USA while Trump is on fast track to cut a trade deal with the UK. All thinks considered, Merkel’s G20 has been a complete failure on every level.

Jul 10 2017

German Secretary Economics Warns Low Interest Rates Have Failed


Armstrong Economics Blog/Banking Crisis

Re-Posted Jul 10, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

The German Secretary General of the Economic Council of the CDU, Wolfgang Steiger,  has highlighted the growing economic crisis in Europe. The negative interest rates of Draghi and the ECB have totally failed. He has pointed out that despite various EU stress tests for banks, time and again they continue to fail. He has stress himself that this does not strengthen the confidence in the rules or Europe. He has come out and bluntly states that ONLY reforms will work, not low interest rates.

We are looking at a very serious crisis unfolding in 2018. So get ready to rock-and-roll. We will be addressing this upcoming crisis in the EU at the July 22nd, 2017 German Seminar.

Jul 9 2017

G20 Hamburg Protest was Closer to the Start of Civil War


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest

Re-Posted Jul 9, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

 

There is a rumor going around that the extreme violent protests in Hamburg, which resembled a Civil War, were funded allegedly  by Soros. It is just a rumor with no proof as of yet. It may in fact be true that his organization funded in part these protests but did not direct them to be violent.

On Saturday, more than 70,000 came out to protest to demonstrate that they could be peaceful after the carnage of two days before. Clearly, there is rising discontent targeting capitalism and supporting a totalitarian state. This in itself is very distressful.

Jul 7 2017

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Provide G20 Debrief of Putin Meeting…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Three House on July 7, 2017 by

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hold an off camera press conference to debrief media on the sideline discussions within the G20 meetings.   T-Rex outlines the content of the Trump/Putin meeting at length.

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for 2 hours and 15 minutes extending their conversation by four times the length anticipated.  Both leaders covered a lot of geopolitical ground. The length of the meeting has U.S. media in meltdown mode.

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*Note* Until today virtually no-one was emphasizing the important role of Secretary Mnuchin amid all of the international issues. Again, we remind everyone, against international finance issues -including economics- Mnuchin plays the largest national security role in the cabinet. Tillerson, Mnuchin, Ross, Mattis, Kelly et al are all in sync with the larger President Trump approach toward ‘America-First’ policy and security.

Jul 7 2017

Weasel Boy Being Weasel Boy – Embarrassingly Juvenile Behavior By Emanuel Macron on World Stage….


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on July 7, 2017 by

French President Emmanuel Macron left his position during the G20 group picture in an effort to place himself next to US President Donald Trump and make himself more important on the international stage.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel watches as Emmanuel Macron abandons his position in the rear right and weasels his way down to the front row so that he can be pictured next to U.S. President Donald Trump.  Leaving a hole in the picture where he should have been standing.   Too funny…. weasel boy.

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It did not go unnoticed by U.S. Media:

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Jul 7 2017

G20 Leftist Protesters Turning Violent


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest

Re-Posted Jul 7, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

The left is engaging in violent protests at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. Both the police and G20 opponents were mutually responsible for the escalation of violence, as politicians are demanding harsh punishments for the violent protests with many arguing for prison time.

The protesters blocked the routes of the delegations in several places. Other places attacked the police and they erected barricades. The protesters have been smashing windows in the city as well. A police helicopter was attacked with laser pointer nearly blinding the pilot. The heavy riots had begun on Thursday evening and so far some nearly 160 police officers have been injured. This morning, some 60 mobs in the Altona district attacked police officers with bombs and stones. The protesters are throwing Molotov cocktails setting cars on fire.

The G20 opponents made a statement: “We have reached our goal and set a clear signal against the madness of the G20.” Most are wearing masks to hide their faces. We should expect to see increasing civil unrest especially in Europe going forward.

Jul 7 2017

EU Commission & Parliament Clash of Words


Armstrong Economics Blog/European Union

Re-Posted Jul 7, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Ministers elected to the European Parliament have now actual power. They get paid extra if they actually show up. What you see are MPs swiping their cards to get that extra pay and then turn around and leave. Well the EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker criticized the Parliament MPs for not showing up to listen to a speech by the Maltese president. Only 30 of the 751 elected members bothered to show up at all. What emerged was a lot of name calling back and forth and Parliament members argued that the Commission was not empowered to watch over Parliament. They are supposed to monitor themselve