Tag Archives: Chikungunya virus

Mar 23 2020

Why Confiscate Gold if it is Such a Small Part of the Financial System?


Armstrong Economics Blog/European Union

Re-Posted Mar 22, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hello,

Daily reader with coronavirus, in the ER waiting.
If gold market is a low percentage of the whole market, what does this measure allow to collect significant capital? Any comment will be appreciated

Keep up the excellent work!!!
Best regards

AK

ANSWER: This is not about how much it would collect. They are seeking to eliminate ANY means of circumventing their negative interest rate policy. They believe that the only reason their Quantitative Easing has failed is that people were hoarding cash and gold outside the banking system. Instead of looking at the problem with Keynesian Economics, they NEVER assume they are the problem – it is always the people.

People have been hoarding gold jewelry. Italy began to weigh the gold jewelry you were wearing when you left the country. I do not believe this will be successful. That is not the point. It is solely intended to force everyone into government digital currencies. Then they can just tax whatever they desire.

The excuse for this quarantine is that there will not be enough hospital beds for everyone. The answer is what the Chinese did, constructed emergency hospitals in days. You dod NOT shut down the entire economy like this. People are losing jobs and small businesses will close forever. The damage is far greater than what they pretend to be preventing. Either they are sublimely STUPID, or there is another agenda here.

Europe was on the edge of collapse. They have has negative interest rates since 2014. The central bank could do NOTHING. I explained that there had to be political reform. They are actually doing what I said would have to happen, but sheer force. Europe is losing its freedoms and they will NEVERreturn.

Meanwhile, we have a major deleveraging process underway. Many Hedge Funds have traded with a fundamental view that defeats the very purpose of a hedge fund if it is based upon just opinion. As the Hedge Funds puke all over the street, the margins rise which have a tendency of not just deleveraging the system but forcing further liquidations. This is the stark reality we are facing this coming week further liquidations. Some funds may be forced to shut down based upon withdrawals by the end of the quarter.

There is no question we will be looking at the economic numbers that will reflect depression-like economic data because this is a contrived economic collapse which is totally unjustified. Jobless claims are going to skyrocket for people MUST be fired in order to collect unemployment. I have been recommending this to our business clients to help their employees. The economic damage inflicted on the economy is going to be massive. Any recovery will be hard to imagine if this lasts another two weeks.

 

Mar 23 2020

Sanity in the Middle of Chaos – Why Italy Has More Deaths than China


Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease

Posted Mar 22, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT:  Marty,
I am a physician in Ohio. Long time blog reader and pro subscriber since WEC in Orlando 2019. I am amazed at the groupthink that has “infected” medicine just like it has destroyed social science, climate change discussions, politics, etc. It is very destructive. I want to share with your readers some real science around Italy and infectious disease. Thank you for all you do. You have given me peace of mind and protected my family’s nest egg.
PL

REPLY: We have a lot of doctors attending WEC and reading the blog. I have been getting a lot of emails questioning the level of hysteria that has been created among the medical profession. My personal opinion is this has been created by the herd mentality and is the same as Stanley Milgram’s study in his Obiendence to Authority. I highly recommend this book if you now have nowhere to go.

We instinctively have the same herd instincts. One zebra thinks it sees a lion and starts to run. The entire herd begins to run because everybody else is running. There may have been a threat, and then again there may have been nothing.

Thank you for your contribution. The study showed that 68,000 Italians die from the flu over four seasons (17,000 per year on average) and it attacks the excessive elderly, of which Italy has an abundance. For those who are unaware, the further south you go in Italy and it is very common to see people in their mid 90s+. Italy has the oldest population in Europe, with about 23% of residents 65 or older, according to The New York Times. The median age in the country is 47.3, compared with 38.3 in the United States, the Times reported. Many of Italy’s deaths have been among people in their 80s, and 90s, a population known to be more susceptible to severe complications from COVID-19 and the general annual influenza.

This is why the death toll in Italy exceeded that of China. They have one of the oldest populations in the world

Mar 23 2020

Legislation to Force Testing or Bar you From the Public


Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease

Re-Posted Mar 22, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

MEHPA stands for Model State Emergency Health Powers Act. It is a draft of model legislation to increase state powers to respond to bio-terrorism or other outbreaks of disease that the Centers for Disease Control and others want the states to pass into law. Although such legislation is needed, the current draft of the Model Act, unfortunately, is written in a way that doesn’t adequately protect citizens against the misuse of the tremendous powers that it would grant in an emergency.

Denmark rushed through a bill that allows them to enlist the police in forced testing, treatment, and punishment relating to the coronavirus. You can be punished for refusing to be tested, and you can be forcibly vaccinated. You can be refused access to supermarkets, shops, public transport, etc. unless you are tested.

Mar 23 2020

Is This a Plot To Cover-up Collapse of Keynesian Economics?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease

Re-Posted Mar 21, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Hi Marty!

Hope you’re doing well (or as well as can be expected in this total insanity).

I’ve been reading your blog posts and just wanted to say you’re absolutely correct in that this is obviously an orchestrated shut down of the global economy, for no reason at all – or rather, they have a reason but it’s nothing to do with this silly virus.

I’m now stuck in Spain… was going to be here until late April anyway, but now have no choice, since all countries closed their borders. I was going to go to Slovakia next month but they (Slovakia) closed all flights, buses and trains coming from abroad, and only Slovak citizens are allowed to cross the border – by car only (border controls are now back, like before 2004) – but then need to go into mandatory 14-day quarantine. Well, screw that!

The Slovak govt also closed all shops, events, places of gathering, restaurants, govt offices, etc – everything except supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations. The newspapers are reassuring people that by law employers are bound to keep paying their full wages even when they have been forcibly shut down by the govt. Meanwhile, no aid or relief to companies has been offered (nor promised, so far). The only thing is a concession to pay the 2019 taxes at the end of June instead of the end of March. Won’t be long before 90%+ of businesses are bankrupt (the ones like VW will likely end up being bailed out eventually with ECB printed money, but not the vast majority of the rest). So, if this goes on for longer than a few weeks, 95% of the population can look forward to spending the next decade or so living on bread and water (and sharing an apartment with 3-4 other families, or being homeless).

Worse still, the police “with the help of medical professionals” are now developing/testing an app that people are to download, which will track all movements of anyone who has or had the virus as well as anyone who came into any sort of contact with such a person. The app will then instantly alert all other users that such a person is in their vicinity (as well as the police, so that, I assume, they can come and grab this “criminal” and forcefully intern them somewhere). Btw, the comments in the major Slovak newspaper where I read this news were 100% supportive (and even enthusiastic) or such an app.

So much for that B.S. about people who have lived in communist/totalitarian regimes being wary of any police state measures. Not true… people are the same indoctrinated idiots everywhere.

The same thing all over South America. I was just there until the end of February. About a week ago country after country closed all their shops, businesses, govt offices, and now also borders (no flights in/out, etc). Again, much like in Slovakia, they did all this before even having any signs of an “epidemic”. Slovakia had 11 (!) cases (all mild) when they shut down the entire economy; countries like Paraguay did the same when they had 5 (!) cases, etc etc.

Spain, of course, has been shut for a while now. Police patrol the streets (i.e. one needs to behave like a criminal when wanting/needing to go out to do anything). Even worse is the reaction of the people here – they are clamoring for even more severe “measures” and want the police to actually jail anyone who happens to be on the street! It’s totally insane. The MSM had driven everyone insane with fear, thanks to the non-stop “end of the world” and “millions to die in every country” headlines they’ve been running everywhere for many weeks now. So now the people turn on anyone who is not wearing masks and gloves when in public or in the supermarket! Insane.

I went to Mass on Sunday (there’s now only one place that still has public Masses) and the priest said that every day the neighbors call cops on them (so the cops come in during Mass, see that the few people present are sitting with the required space between them as per govt decree, and leave; the govt has not prohibited public Masses as long as the “safe distance” is kept). Not only do people call the cops every day to denounce that a Mass is being celebrated, the priest also said a good number of people have told him that he is a “murderer” because by celebrating public Mass he’s killing people (i.e. facilitating infections)!! That’s a level of insanity I have never seen before… and I have seen my fair share.

I’d not be surprised if, any day now, people started stoning anyone they see outside without a mask (and gloves)!

People I know in South America are telling me it’s similar there…everyone wants the govt to do even more to stop the spread of this “deadly” virus. Never mind that they’ll soon be out of money because most employers are not able to keep paying wages when their businesses have been shut. All that the people seem to care is the fake “pandemic” that will “kill millions”.
(Btw, it’s the same as what has been happening in Europe for several years now – people don’t have a problem with the millions of invaders, and their rampant crime, etc, but are happy to chastise and even denounce a fellow European for “hate speech”. Everyone is believing and doing precisely what the MSM and govts tell them. And the few who don’t believe it act as if they did anyway.)

Humanity is really a hopeless case nowadays. There’s not one sane place left anywhere. 🙁

Not sure whether you’ll get a chance to read this email. It would be nice to hear from you and see how you’ve been doing, but I’m sure you’re now extremely busy with the markets and all.
(The markets… ouch! All the stocks that I thought were cheap and good value have been hammered even more than the main indexes. Oh well… the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. :))

Hope the US won’t go as insane and full-blown totalitarian and destructive with these supposed anti-virus measures…. but seeing what they’ve done everywhere else, the odds aren’t that good.

Hope you’re well. Keep safe & sane! 🙂

Take care.
P (Old trusted friend)

REPLY: There is clearly some agenda, but it has originated in Europe from what I have been able to track. It is perhaps a convenient event to cover-up the collapse of Keynesianism for there is absolutely NOTHING the ECB can do. As I laid out in Manipulating the World Economy, this was going to take a political solution. The real issue here is perhaps this has been whipped up into a panic in order to bring in that political change and to push Europe into the federalized state. It just begins to smell like a very convenient outcome

Mar 23 2020

Is it Even Possible to Predict a 10-Year Plan?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Mar 21, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Mr Armstrong,
I have been following your blog since I saw The Forecaster four years ago. Last fall, I was fortunate enough to attend the WEC in Orlando. I did my best to keep up with the information presented, but it was a lot, fast. Nonetheless, I am a more informed person for attending. I have come to really respect and appreciate your perspective and practical approach. As such, I have two things that I wanted to share (one comment, one question).

First, I am in the military, stationed in Maryland. However, I still retain my Nebraska residency. I am working from home, teleworking during the COVID-19 event, which has given me time to read, reflect and consider the magnitude of the fallout stemming from actions taken to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. As a result, I forwarded your Letter to President Trump to Senator Sasse, Senator Fischer, and to my Congressman Jeff Fortenberry. I don’t know what is afoot in all of this, but something smells extremely fishy. I was supposed to get married next Saturday in the Philippines, but this whole debacle changed that. Yet, I digress. I just wanted you to know that I agree with what you proposed and took action.

Second, I am part of the team responsible for writing a 10-year strategic plan for the Air National Guard. I keep trying to wrap my brain around the cycle trends creating the environment in which we will be living in 2030. Do you have any recommendations you could pass along regarding how to craft a strategic vision for the next 10 years so that we can be postured to best serve our local communities and our National Defense as we navigate through the tremendous changes that lie ahead?

Thank you so much for your heart to serve others and for the tremendous information, you make available to those of us trying to make sense of the world.
Sincerely,
D

ANSWER: I would never have imagined even if I was a fiction novelist that something like this absurd could undermine the world economy without (1) ever firing a shot and (2) less than 20,000 people have died from a flu-like virus. If I had written such a novel using this plot, I doubt anyone would have published it. It just sounds too stupid. Rest assured. I am running every model. It will take Socrates to call this one. Anything else is just human opinion, which at this stage in the game, is highly dangerous for I have been in this game for about 50 years and I have never witnessed a crash with no fundamental logic at all.

The 1987 Crash, at least the rumors were that the president was assassinated or Russia just invaded Europe and communications were down. But those were panic events that lasted a day. This is different. This is being orchestrated as if it were a plot to destroy the economy and most heads of state are not in the loop.

This is very strange. There is no evidence that this is even a major threat. It is a pandemic but nowhere near a far more serious epidemic (proportion of population v only geographic) It has subsided in China and we have staff there on the ground. We have staff strategically placed around the world so we have our own boots on the ground to rely on for eye-witness accounts – not media. It’s going crazy in Berlin where we also have staff. The panic level is absurd. They have people thinking if they contract it, they die.

There is a grab for power here which is disproportionate to the evidence. We are cascading toward a virtual dictatorship in Europe particularly. Even austerity has been abandoned which would have been impossible without this type of panic. That may be one covert objective.

This is better than any plot for a James Bond movie because nobody would have believed that you could scare the hell out of the world so easily.

 

Mar 23 2020

President Trump Tweets 15 Day Deadline To Restart U.S. Economy….


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on March 23, 2020 by 

Nancy Pelosi’s legislative stunt has revealed that the coronavirus panic is likely a well coordinated political stunt.  If it were as real as claimed, Pelosi wouldn’t have the time to organize a political spending scheme…. ergo, it’s more likely a planned hoax to bring the economy to a standstill and create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yes, people are unfortunately sick, but the reality is shutting the U.S. economy for a prolonged period of time will likely kill more people than any virus.  With that in mind, President Trump takes a bold step and puts a deadline for a decision.  All Caps:

 

Mar 23 2020

Oh Snap – McConnell Gives Pelosi Another Chance to Stop U.S. Market Collapse – Will ReFloor Emergency Funding Bill at 9:45am Monday…


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House  on March 22, 2020 by 

Man-o-man, this is some high-stakes poker playing, and it’s the United States economy on the table.   Mitch McConnell is going to put S.3548 The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, back on the senate floor at 9:45am ET tomorrow, 15 minutes after the stock market starts collapsing.

[Read Bill Here]

[Link To Tweet]

Sweet Baby Jesus… I can’t remember ever seeing anything like this.  A $20 trillion U.S. economy, and tens-of-millions of American jobs and businesses on the line….  And McConnell is calling Pelosi’s bluff.    P.U.B.L.I.C.L.Y!

Talk about seriously high stakes politics.   Yikes.  McConnell is going to make every democrat senator vote again to close debate and advance the bill; putting them on record for negotiating a deal and then walking away from the deal they assembled.

I would imagine Senator McConnell has talked to President Trump about this….

Mar 23 2020

Pelosi and Schumer Block $1.6 Trillion Emergency Economic Bill – DOW Futures Collapse…


Posted from The Conservative Tree House on March 22, 2020 by 

Over the past three days a bipartisan group of senators, not leadership, constructed a $1.6 Trillion emergency aid package to rescue the U.S. economy and American workers.  The package had the support of Mitch McConnell. It is called The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or “CARE Act“. [READ BILL S.548 HERE]

However, at the last minute House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, having returned from her House recess vacation sipping cocktails poolside, instructed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to crush the senate effort.

Power hungry Pelosi sees an opportunity to use the looming economic crisis as leverage for selecting winners & losers amid the K-Street lobbying community.  Donors for Democrats will be rewarded; supporters of Republicans, not-so-much.  This is DC at it’s worst and Pelosi isn’t going to lose another opportunity.  It’s the same process she used in ’08/’09.

“Twice in one lifetime… How blessed am I?”

Senator Schumer did as he was instructed.  The relief bill did not pass cloture (60 votes needed), and the three-day effort collapsed.  Immediately the DOW futures dropped 5%.

WASHINGTON DC – “I want everybody to fully understand if we aren’t able to act tomorrow, it will be because of our colleagues on the other side continuing to dicker when the country expects us to come together and address the problem,” McConnell said on the floor. He added that over the last 48 hours there were bipartisan discussions among “regular members of the Senate, not in the Leadership office, not in the speaker’s office for goodness sakes.”

“She’s the Speaker of the House, not the Speaker of the Senate,” McConnell added. “We were doing just fine until that intervention.”  (more)

There are two main points Pelosi is targeting.  First, because COVID-19 creates a MASSIVE SPENDING opportunity, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to include the elimination of college debt, literally wipe out student loans – which ironically and intentionally were created under Obamacare, in the coronavirus bill.

This move has nothing to do with the economic impacts of coronavirus, but it allows: (a) a political win to get the Bernie AOC crowd behind the Democrat candidate; and (b) will allow more government funding to ideological college interests by wiping out the debt problem.

Secondly, Speaker Pelosi wants unilateral control over which companies will receive any financial assistance or loans to survive the crisis.

As was the case with the 2008 Bank Bailouts, 2009 ARRA (stimulus plan) and Auto-Bailout, Pelosi wants control to select companies for assistance that are owned and operated by Democrat donors; and to scuttle any businesses or corporations who are led by republican donors.   This was a big part of Obama’s stimulus program and GM bailout scheme.  You might remember the dealerships helped were based on party registration.

WASHINGTON DC – Two ugly truths about any epic economic crisis are that not all businesses will survive, and government interventions help determine which businesses will survive.

As coronavirus crushes the economy, Washington policymakers are scrambling to figure out who to bail out, a responsibility that one veteran of the 2008 financial rescue morbidly but accurately compared to the frantic triage work that doctors are currently doing in overcrowded Italian hospitals.

[…] As Congress rushes to assemble an enormous stimulus package to try to slow the freefall or at least pad the landing, it’s becoming clear that a lot of federal dollars will be sent straight to American taxpayers, but also that a lot of federal dollars will go straight to the companies that employ them. Washington’s last epic bailout, the $700 billion Wall Street rescue of 2008, was wildly unpopular but ultimately quite successful—and while a financial panic is a different kind of crisis than a viral pandemic, it has some lessons for today about when companies should get help and how that help should be delivered. (read more)

The difference between Nancy’s prior exploits (in 2008 /2009) and today is that previously she had President Obama to support all of her political schemes.  Now she could be up against President Trump who might use his considerable platform to call attention to the partisan spending….  Key words “could” and “might”.

However, don’t hold your breath; I doubt President Trump will take on Pelosi.  He’ll more than likely sign anything she gives him because she controls the media, and the media is fueling the direction of the panic narrative and blame-casting.  Together with corporate lobbyists, the reality is, corporate media controls congress.

Yup.  We’re going back to the future and it’s politics.

Democrats don’t give a damn about what happens with the economy because Donald Trump is George Bush and will be forced to own the economic collapse he self-created.   So there’s no pressure based on the severity of the collapse… Also given the political damage being inflicted on the White House, there’s no urgency for Nancy…   There is only upside for Pelosi in choosing the winners while she knows the media will never call her out on it.

If all this seems painfully familiar to you…. yes, we’ve been here and done all this a little more than a decade ago.  Here we go again….  Again, here’s the BILL

Mar 23 2020

Eight States Now – Ohio, Delaware and Louisiana Become Latest States With Mandatory “Stay At Home” Orders…


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on March 22, 2020 by 

Today Ohio, Delaware and Louisiana joined California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Illinois by issuing mandatory stay at home orders for their citizens.  A total of eight states now have total coronavirus compliance orders restricting movement.

(Via Reuters) […] “Every piece of evidence that I can lay my hands on indicates that we’re at an absolutely crucial time in this war and what we do now will make all the difference in the world,” said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. “What we do now will slow this invader. It will slow this invader so our health care system … will have time to treat casualties.”

Ohio has 351 cases and three deaths while Louisiana has 837 cases and 20 deaths, several in a senior care facility. Louisiana has the third highest number of cases per capita and saw a 10-fold increase in cases in the past week, Governor John Bel Edwards said.

Ohio’s order will go into effect at midnight on Monday and stay in effect until April 6. Louisiana’s order goes into effect 5 p.m. CT Monday (2000 GMT) and lasts through April 12. Delaware’s order starts 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The lockdown affecting large segments of the American public is likely to last 10 to 12 weeks, or until early June, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.  (read more)

Protect your community comrades.  Report any non-compliant citizen behavior to the Directorate of Coronavirus Compliance.

 

Mar 23 2020

Angela Merkel Now Quarantined After Doctor Tests Positive for Chinese Coronavirus….


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on March 22, 2020 by 

The leader of the most powerful nation in the EU, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is now in quarantine after her personal physician tests positive for the Wuhan Virus.

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone into quarantine after being informed that a doctor who administered a vaccine to her has tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Merkel, 65, was informed about the doctor’s test shortly after holding a news conference Sunday announcing new measures to curb the spread of the virus, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said.  He said that Merkel had received a precautionary vaccine Friday against pneumococcal infection.

[…] Merkel on Sunday thanked “the overwhelming majority” of Germans who were following rules on social distancing to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“I know that it means sacrifice,” she said, citing the economic and social costs that the lockdown is having. “I’m moved by the fact that so many are abiding by these rules. This way we show care for older and sick people, because the virus is most dangerous to them. In short: we are saving lives with this.”

Merkel said the lockdown had already affected her profoudly, too.

“My life has also fundamentally changed and now consists largely of phone calls and video conferences,” she said.  (read more)