British Pound Falls to 37-Year Low


Armstrong Economics Blog/BRITAIN Re-Posted Sep 8, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The Bank of England has admitted defeat, admitting they cannot prevent a recession. The pound fell to the lowest level against the USD on Wednesday afternoon after declining 0.64% to $1.145. When asked if the central bank could prevent the next recession, Governor Andrew Bailey was blunt in his answer. “Insofar as the war is having this huge effect, the answer to that would be no.”

I touched more on the decline and fall of Britain on the private blog last week. Socrates agrees with Bailey’s pessimistic stance. Inflation has surpassed 10% in the UK, and food and energy costs are expected to rise continually. The Bank of England now projects that the economy will shrink during Q4 2022, and the decline will continue until the end of 2023. Our models state that the decline will last longer than they expect.

If the new PM Truss is any indication of where policy is heading, Britain is in big trouble. Central banks do not like to admit defeat either. Look how Powell carefully changed his stance over the course of the year in terms of inflation. He did not want to create a panic by telling the public that they were screwed. The BoE has no other choice but to be brutally honest. The heads of central banks are now coming forward to offer their condolences for an issue they helped to create with artificially low rates. The BoE is still in better shape than the ECB, but that is not saying much.

The Real IRS Hunt


Armstrong Economics Blog/Gov’t Incompetence Re-Posted Aug 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

There is NOTHING that the politicians EVER say that is the truth. Hiring 87,000 new IRS agents is NOT to go after billionaires as they claim. There are ONLY 614 billionaires in the United States. Clearly, you do not need 87,000 new agents to hunt down billionaires – they are coming after you!

There is no loose change in taxes the higher you go up in income. You then need professionals to handle the taxes and they cross every “t” and dot all the “i”s. They are targeting anyone with an LLC and will challenge all expenses. Don’t forget, if you go to dinner with a client, you can only write off 50% of the expense. Of course with COVID, we have a whole new crisis in taxes. The commuting costs evaporated working from home. What about writing off a portion of the home now if you no longer go to the office? Suddenly, COVID really complicated things over the past two years. Even if your house burns down, the IRS denies a tax deduction for the loss. Protesters against the IRS are just coincidently targeted for audits – purely coincidental. Obama used the IRS to target the Tea Party. The DOJ waited two years and then quietly dismissed any criminal charges against IRS agents. This is what we will expect for now they will target also protesters in climate change.

They do not need 87,000 new agents, armed to the teeth, to hunt down just 614 billionaires. It made good press, the same as when they introduced the income tax back in 1913 as SWORE on the soul of the dead mother and all their relatives, it would not apply to the rich. Small business and climate protesters will be the people targeted by the IRS.

Remember the cops raided the wrong house, killed the guy, and then they claimed he was an UNDOCUMENTED alien who had no Constitutional Rights, and thus it was OK to kill him. How about the wrong house raid where they kill the man and his dog but then kill a cop responding to a break-in – remember that one? There are so many where the cops storm the wrong house, the resident this it’s a break-in and defends himself only to be shot dead. I’m sure we will all sleep well knowing 87,000 IRS agents, armed to the teeth, are being trained to storm houses and released on society after 3 months worth of training.

In Canada, Trudeau is arming climate change police to do the same thing. Let’s face the facts. We the people are now the enemy – not Putin! This is the consequence of Marxism. We are nothing more than economic slaves.

The Solution


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Aug 24, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Coinbase Crackdown


Armstrong Economics Blog/Cryptocurrency Re-Posted Aug 24, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Comment: I use Coinbase to hold some crypto. They sent me an email saying that my account that I had for years would be limited to withdrawals only if I do not give them updated government ID and download the latest version of the application. I use this on my PC and do not have the application. I worry they’ll take what is left of my failing cryptos. Luckily I only put “play money” into these holdings but I imagine others will experience losses and frozen accounts in the near future. The deadline they gave me was October – not sure if that is for all. I messaged out to Coinbase for help updating my account but cannot fully verify it after many tries.

Reply: Government hates cryptocurrency. They have always been concerned about their ability to squeeze out every last penny in taxes from crypto. I am not surprised that Coinbase is emailing users for additional documentation days after the Inflation Reduction Act was passed. With nearly 88,000 new IRS agents, there will certainly be teams of hundreds or thousands of accountants who will analyze all crypto holdings.

The initial idea behind the creation of crypto has been lost. I warned in March on our private blog on Socrates that cryptocurrencies may be suspended altogether one day. Biden could sign an Executive Order to regulate cryptos because countries like Russia can use it to circumvent sanctions. Not only is Biden authorizing the regulation of digital currencies, but he is also instructing to move forward with a central bank cryptocurrency. Once that is done, all other cryptocurrencies will be seized and folded into the government’s crypto. There will be no competition.

The Outlier of the West, Japan Core Inflation Rises 2.4% Year Over Year


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 19, 2022 | Sundance 

If you have been following along, you might remember the note we made in July about not every country willing to go along with the western agenda on energy reduction, climate change, and raising interest rates to shrink their economy down to the scale of diminished energy development {Go Deep}.

In addition to Russia, China, Iran, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina and India vociferously retaining their own economic and monetary independence, Mexican President AMLO literally blasted the program while visiting the White House and the Bank of Japan refused to join the mantra to raise interest rates.   Essentially, all of the aforementioned nations see the collective Build Back Better program for what it is, a path to poverty.

As a result of their non-compliance with the global bankers, which, not coincidentally I would point out, coincided with the assassination of Shinzo Abe, the government of Japan has been getting blasted by the proverbial ‘west’ (U.S, Canada, U.K, Europe and Australia).

Japan is attempting to deal with inflation by focusing on increasing energy production and security (the supply side); while the rest of the western group have been chasing the false promise of decreased inflation by lowering the demand side, ie. pretending not to know their energy policy is creating the increases in costs.

As a result of the distinctly different monetary approaches, the financial system has been trying to punish Japan and the financial media have been trying to point out every flaw in the Japanese economy as a result of their noncompliance.   However, as you will see in this Reuters article, the July inflation within Japan is moderating.  Inflation in Japan is 2.4% for July (year over year).

TOKYO, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Japan’s core consumer inflation accelerated in July to its fastest in seven-and-a-half years, driven by fuel and raw material prices and adding to the costs of living for households yet to see significant wage gains.

In a sign of broadening price pressure, the so-called “core core” index that strips away not just the impact of volatile fresh food but energy prices, also rose in July at the fastest annual pace in more than six years.

While inflation exceeded its 2% target for four straight months, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is likely to remain an outlier in keeping monetary conditions ultra-loose with price rises still modest compared with other major economies.

“Food prices and a weak yen were the main culprits behind accelerating inflation,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities, adding that he expects core consumer inflation to reach 3% this year. (read more)

It is funny to see Reuters put out a *shock* styled article for 2.4% core inflation.   In the U.S. Joe Biden would be celebrating 2.4% inflation right now; however, his energy policy is driving that CORE inflation number well beyond 6%.

Japan is still in a tough place with increasing prices for their citizens, but it is nowhere near the scale of Europe and North America.

While their currency is suffering from not following the western agenda, they have several upsides.  First, exports from Japan to the United States and the EU now become even cheaper. With a higher dollar value, Japanese imports into the United States come at a discount.  This will help Japan export goods and retain a strong export economy.

Second, with Japan already a massive investor inside the United States, the dollars that are generated in profit from their operations are delivered back to Japan at a higher value.  A higher dollar value, the outcome of their breaking from the western central bank decision to raise rates, does not hurt Japan.  They bring back high valued dollars from their decades in investment into North America, and they continue exporting to the U.S. at a discount.

So, the nationalist outlooks of Japan, Brazil and even our Mexican neighbors are reflecting a pragmatic self-interest that so far has withstood the pressures from the western alliance to fall into line.  This is how those three countries are positioned to push back against the insufferable BBB agenda.

We can use the example of those western industrialized nations to show that not everyone is in alignment with this globalist multinational finance and corporate takeover.