The Hidden Order behind the Mask of Chaos


COMMENT: Marty, The last few days I’ve been remotely attending the 2019 WEC Orlando. Lo and behold, now? three months hence and six days into the new wave?I am simply astounded at hearing how you describe your own amazement with the global confluence of events occurring absolutely everywhere while also curious whether there is merely one event telltale to the Jan. 18/19 hand-off. Then, the Wuhan coronavirus breaks out big today and market graphs everywhere all hop on the toboggan to end the week. How did you ever do it?! You’re truly a man of a thousand graces and I, for one, could not be more grateful.

Breaking the WEC to stay current with the latest today, it has been conspicuously absent for me to have yet encountered the term “Black Swan” regarding this Wuhan event. Then, it occurred to me: The term itself is a bit Johnny-come-lately and would not surprise me one bit it has flown the coop over maybe most could be seeking an oil of veracity through Socrates to throw on all these choppy waters.

It would be most interesting to see the traffic stats for AE and Socrates when such events as these take off.

In Gratitude!

D. D.

REPLY: What you have to understand and why I am often so critical of analysis, is that real analysis does NOT begin with a predetermined conclusion. What I am trying to reveal and why I put the very sources of what I have read into books like the Manipulating the World Economy, is because the proper way of analysis is exploration. I have sought perhaps like Leonardo DaVinci to figure out how things actually work without some predetermined agenda. DaVinci dug up dead bodies to try to discover how we function.

All the research I have done is in that vein. So it is me trying to show the world, hey look at this! My opinions and beliefs have been shaped by what I have encountered. I have never looked at research to prove a predetermined idea. That is where everyone goes wrong. Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand was hated by Keynes and so many others BECAUSE they do not like the way the world economy functions, and they seek to manipulate it to perform as they desire. That is why economics is no longer a science but has degenerated into a political propaganda machine.

People judge me by everyone else. This turn in the Economic Confidence Model is not about me being right, wrong, smarter than everyone else, or any other personal critique. This is about how the world truly functions and everything from weather to disease plays a role right down to this coronavirus which I am running our models to try to ascertain will this be a cyclical pandemic, or an epidemic – a big difference!

All of my research has been a quest to understand how the world truly functions. It has always been:

Hey, take a look at this! Here is order hidden behind the mask of chaos!

Every single action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is why I taught Socrates how to look for patterns and how to analyze those patterns. I have warned that the 2020 election will be notorious and will mark a rise in violence. People are unwilling to accept the vote of the people. If they lose, they blamed Russia for everything. Democracy is dying along with civility. I am not interested in being right, I wish I was wrong.

We are faced with the collapse in Democracy our model forecast back in 1985 would begin 2015.75. Politicians like Adam Schiff are the poster child for absolute corruption and dishonesty. This type of behavior has never been seen and is merely an attempt to put a Democrat in the White House who will raise taxes and devastate the business community in the spirit of “progressiveness” which is the new politically correct label for Marxism.

This is all part of the decline and fall of the West and the shift in the Financial Capital of the World back to Asia. It does not matter who wins in 2020, the other side will never accept the winner.

The Future & Analysis


QUESTION:  Hello Mr. Armstrong,
I just saw your interview on BNN, too bad you only had about 7 minutes to explain something that big, guess that’s the Limitation of TV Media I’m glad I bought the Repo Crisis Report. You would not have such limitations on your own platform like youtube. Can you see yourself doing a compilation of blog articles or updates in a video format like once or week or a month? You used to do this in 2015 for many Markets and also explained your reading on the arrays and reversals. I guess many people think of it as highly as I myself do.
all the best

ES

ANSWER: That is why the special reports are so important. You really have to support what you are saying or end up with just “I think” opinions that plague the analysis field. What I am doing is coding right now something to highlight everything that is taking place on a global scale with the ECM etc. I am trying to create systems that replace me and will keep going long after I am gone. We all do have expiration dates. I am trying to replace me. We even laugh internally for some have proposed we create a hologram of myself that could still appear long after I am gone

Edmonton & the 7th Century


QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong…HOW DARE YOU!!!!!????

My brother lives in Edmonton, AB where the surface air temperature is a refreshing -23F as of 6:30 pm MST this evening. I am in the coastal northeast where if that temperature were to occur, there would probably be a societal breakdown with tens of thousands frozen to death overnight along with power outage, looting, and rioting. But in Edmonton, things just roll along like another day.

In the case of medieval Europe, would you say that the Huns may have been motivated in the 5th century AD to move east out of the steppe lands into western Europe due to the colder climate? Also, in the 6th century during the intensified cold, the Gothic wars erupted which led to a major depopulation of the Italian peninsula. Then in the 7th century, there seems to have been so little history documented that the misery taking place there may have been at an extreme degree at that time. Were there any coins minted during the 7th century in western Europe? The ones you showed of Peppin the Short and Charles the Great from the 8th century are fascinating! Also, did Charles Martel have any minted for him in the early 8th century?

JD

REPLY: I have been to Edmonton. Gave a lecture there back in the ’90s. Hundreds of people showed up, and I assumed it was just to get together to huddle for warmth. It was -40F. Not sure anyone was really listening to what I said. They were looking for hot air if I recall. The next day was only -20F and there were people in short-sleeve shirts calling it a beautiful spring day. All I remember is I could not open my mouth outside it was so cold my teeth would hurt. I also remember it was so cold they couldn’t even turn off their cars. They would never start again.

Yes, Charles Martel and Peppin the Short issued silver deniers. It was Charlemagne who was the first to apply his portrait to the coinage. So there was coinage during this 7th century, but something changed dramatically at that time. Peppin the Short was the son of Charles Martel who halted the Arab invasion of Europe in 732. The Carolingians, therefore, take their name from Peppin’s father Charles Martel.

Martel was really the last of the Merovingian dynasty which ruled the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751 AD. They first appear as “Kings of the Franks” in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 AD, they had united all the Franks and northern Gaulish Romans under their rule as the Roman Empire which had broken apart in 476 AD. The coinage of the Merovingians was gold, not silver.

The Merovingian rulers began imitating the gold solidus issued by the Eastern surviving portion of the Roman Empire, which we call the Byzantine Empire. They issued gold tremissis from about 473 AD under Gundobald and then imitated the Byzantine coinage from about 500 AD forward.

Therefore, it was the 8th century when we find gold vanish from coinage in the Western portion of the old Roman Empire which appears to be coinciding with the rise of the Arab world and their attempt to invade Europe.

There is no doubt that the migrations were driven by climate change. Climate change has always caused massive migrations which have historically been movements from North to South. Even the Mayans of Mexico appear to have DNA links to Asia and were migrants perhaps 15,000 years ago who crossed the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of sea level during the Last Glacial Maximum. It turned warmer back then without CO2 from fossil fuels and then the Ice Age change the sea leve

The ECM & Who to Blame


COMMENT: You are dangerous. The stock market peaked on your model again but nobody’s models work like that so it is just more proof you don’t advertise because you are way too influential. So what are you up to now? You are against the progressive movement and you will undermine what we work for to unseat people like you.

SB

REPLY: Well I was in contempt when the 2007 target hit. They called it Armstrong’s Revenge. Granted, it was even the very day that Goldman Sachs sold their notorious portfolio right at the top for which they were charged with fraud. Did they use the model or did the model forecast when they would sell?

Sure, people like you can always blame me, but just perhaps this is a model that exposes the hidden order in the appearance of chaos. You can choose to dismiss it and claim it is all just me and my influence. No matter what they have done to me, the model still worked even when I never said a word.

That’s your loss. Your closed mind prevents you from ever seeing the real world. Keep believing you can suppress the rest of us because you want a life where everything comes free. Sorry, the government is not your parent. I have no problem moving to Asia and let you and your friends tax each other until death.

Don’t worry, when I am dead, the model will keep going. Even Athens fell in 404BC to Sparta right on time. I don’t think I was around then to influence that, or the climates changes, or the rise and fall of just about every empire throughout history.

So blame me if that really makes you feel better. But there is something much more important influencing everything besides me

Davos Today


QUESTION: Marty, you are not in Davos?

KS

ANSWER: No, too cold right now. I have people there who provide anything critical from behind the curtain. There is nothing I can say that would be important that anyone would actually do more than listen. I have said many times, there is NOTHING we can do to prevent what is coming. World leaders will ONLY take action when the economy begins to Crash & Burn. The climate activists there will ensure they will destroy the economy and they are socialists who want people to be punished for driving cars and heating their homes.

Here is the face of Global Warming in Newfoundland. Just a small snowstorm.

Agriculture Yield Elected Yearly Bearish Reversal


At the end of 2019, we obtained Yearly Bearish Reversals on crop production in many areas. This is lining up with the ECM and it is warning that weather is turning against us for food production. The market tends to focus only on year/year numbers and ignore the trend on a broader perspective.

The USDA 2019 corn harvest had a total production of 13.692 billion bushels, with average yields of 168.0 bushels per acre across 81.5 million acres. This was slightly higher than analysts expected which was about 13.513 billion bushels, based on average yields of 166.2 bushels per acre across 81.350 million harvested acres. USDA’s prior tally was for 13.661 billion bushels, based on yields of 167.0 billion bushels across 81.815 million acres. Nevertheless, the broader trend elected a Yearly Bearish Reversal warning that we may indeed see lower yielding crops as we head into this new Solar Cycle which begins here in 2020 and appears to be poised to be the lowest sun cycle in more than 200 years.

We never elected a Yearly Bearish Reversal in wheat prices. Nevertheless, from the 2016 low, we have elected two Yearly Bullish Reversals. This perspective combined with our models on weather are pointing to higher prices in the years ahead

ECM & the Rise in Intensity into 2032


COMMENT: A suggestion.
I really think the annual Lobby Day in Virginia, scheduled for January 20, should be considered when discussing the turning point in the ECM. The potential for confrontational violence between the state of Virginia and the federal government on one side, and the Second Amendment supporters on the other, is high. This could be bigger than Charlottesville.

JV

REPLY: A lot of people have written in about Virginia and West Virginia has invited the regions in Virginia to separate and join West Virginia. This clash over gun rights as well as the rising separatist movement to join West Virginia is also taking place on the ECM. There appears to be a tremendous issue involving political change coming due all aligned with this ECM turning point, not the least is the Trump Impeachment. Then we have the Russian constitutional crisis. On top of that, we have bubble tops forming in many different markets.

We are experiencing as we move closer to the peak of this 51.6-year wave in 2032, the number of events that are taking place on these turning points will increase. The 1968 turning point marked the second crash in the stock market from the 1000 level in the Dow and the break in the Bretton Woods where they moved to a two-tier gold market – official v free market as gold began trading in London.

The 1972.75 turning point, which was the equivalent to the peak of the next 8.6-year wave in 2024 marked the political turning point in the career of Richard Nixon. The Watergate break-in took place on June 17, 1972, and Woodward first spoke to his contact who became known as Deep Throat the following day – FBI Associate Director Mark Felt.

Felt had been providing leaks from the FBI to Woodward concerning the assassination event of George Wallace running for President in May 1972. The turning point also marked the infamous re-election of Richard Nixon on November 7, 1972. Of course, halfway into that cycle came the impeachment proceedings against Nixon followed by his resignation.

 

January 1977 marked the inauguration of Jimmy Carter which set the stage for the political reaction that led to the entire rise of “Conservatism” in politics that resulted in Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory in 1980. But 1977 also marked the low in the stock market in terms of book value from the previous wave which had peaked in 1929. It was because of this 1977 change in trend that our computer began to project that Dow would rise to 6,000 in just a few years which became the Takeover Boom.

It was also on that turning point in January 1977 when there was the coldest weather which dipped so far south it remains the only recorded snowfall in Miami Florida. That resulted also in the presumption that there was significant climate change unfolding. But the experts warned we were headed into an Ice Age, not global warming.

The peak of that wave was 1981.35 which market the high in interest rates. Thereafter, rates declined into 1985 but the capital inflows to the dollar sent it to record highs driving even the British pound down to $1.03. That led to the Plaza Accord to try to manipulate the dollar down after it had been driven up by interest rates.

 

ECM Day is Here


 

The Economic Confidence Model has marked specific highs and lows in markets to the very day at times depending upon the shifts in capital flows. Why has the business cycle been masked in complexity that has prevented many from comprehending how it functions? I believe this is the result of the average person always attempts to reduce everything to a single cause and effect. What they fail to grasp is the level of complexity involved which incorporates weather, war, innovation, population changes, the migration of people and economies over the face of the earth.

Many people who are against cycles fail to even comprehend that the rise and fall of civilizations have followed the business cycle itself for thousands of years. We are not all-powerful and cannot by our sheer will create a utopia and a perfect future.

The financial capital of the world has migrated which is why all empires, nations, and city-states are buried in a common grave. We all may believe that we are the exception to history, but human nature ensures that corruption will always rise and defeat the best-laid plans of any group.

Even the 911 famous attack on the World Trade Center took place on the specific turning point in 2001.695 to the very day. Not all wars begin precisely on this model, it may reflect when the combination of trends forms to create the decision to go to war which may predate the event by months or years. It is difficult to determine that instant of a decision, but clearly war unfolds as the result of some trend set in motion previously.

The very day that Greece applied to the IMF beginning the European debt crisis took place on a precise day in the ECM. This was the very same position one which the 911 attack took place which resulted in not only the invasion of Iraq, but it altered our way of life forever having to be X-rayed to get on a plane.

The turning point in 1934.05 marked the confiscation of gold whereas the 1985 turning point marked the birth of the G5 and the organized attempt to manipulate the dollar lower. We have the last three waves of that 51.6-year sequences mark the new adoption of socialism following Karl Marx in the USA. This was the beginning of the “progressive” movement which led to the birth of the income tax by 1913.

For example, the Economic Confidence Model also marked the very day of the high on July 20th, 1998 in the US share market from which the Long-Term Capital Management crash began in September. The 1987 turning point picked the very day of the crash and confirmed the low and the capital flow shift which resulted in selling US assets repatriating cash to Japan creating the Bubble on the peak of that wave in 1989.95.

However, sometimes these turning points have been the opposite whereas the geopolitical or economic event comes first and the markets respond secondly to those events in the aftermath.

There have been many events both economically and geopolitically which have aligned with the Economic Confidence Model. There are people who just hate it and try desperately to dismiss this model out of hand because it confirms that any attempt to manipulate the economy by socialists will always fail.

Anyone who attempts to argue against the existence of any business cycle is typically someone who supports the government against the people in true Marxist fashion. Even Paul Volcker’s rare book from 1977 entitled The Rediscovery of the Business Cycle bluntly confirmed that Keynesian economics failed because it was supposed to eliminate recessions and depressions.

While the peak of the wave 2015.75 marked the peak in government and the start of Big Bang, that was certainly reflected by the peak in bond markets and the start of negative interest rates. It marked the very day of Russia troops arriving in Syria which began the refugee crisis into Europe. Merkel’s unilateral decision to allow in the refugees set in motion the rising separatist movements in Europe. The Washington Times wrote on September 10, 2015, “Angela Merkel welcomes refugees to Germany despite rising anti-immigrant movement.” Her decision illustrated that a single leader could alter the course of Europe denying everyone else the right to even vote on her policy.

Then the following year 2016 brought BREXIT and the election of Donald Trump which most people still fail to understand why he was elected. Trump beat all career politicians fulfilling what our model projected back in 1985 that the 2016 election would be the first time a potential third party would take the White House.

We have witnessed the sovereign debt crisis infect states and set in motion the great migration from the highest taxed states to the states with no income taxes like Texas and Florida.

The pension crisis has undermined Illinois and this has spread everywhere. Even in Europe, about 50% of municipalities are in need of bailouts from the federal government. Pensions for government employees have generally been just grants which never required them to contribute anything.

We have witnessed the healthcare costs rise astronomically with Obamacare and Clinton’s handing student to the bankers excluding them from the bankruptcy laws that have devastated the long-term economic prospects as this debt-burdened generation are living with parents into their 30s and are unable to qualify to even buy a home.

Now we head into the bottom of this ECM wave and incredible we see the Trump Impeachment trial begin on the turning point and a constitutional crisis in Russia that will allow Putin to stay in office indefinitely.

We have watched the US stock market rise as the Euro has declined since its 2008 high and capital flows had turned to the dollar.

The questions we must now address are has the stock market reached a temporary high? Will we face the abolishment of money in favor of electronic to prevent bank runs? Will governments seize cryptocurrencies and force the money to be transferred to their own cryptocurrency?

Will climate now turn bittering cold as the next solar cycle which also begins here in 2020 results in food shortages and a rise in commodities?

Welcome to ECM Wave #935. We should expect a very important turning point in 2022 which will market a serious Monetary Crisis. From here on out, the confrontation in government between left and right will intensify and the violence will rise with the rhetoric. Any hope of a responsible government is now extinguished.

The Democrats are facing the collapse of their party. They know they really cannot beat Trump in a fair election, so they have adopted the policy that if you cannot beat him, impeach him. Yet there may be another conspiracy they are up to behind the curtain, and that is to prolong the Impeachment Trial to force the competition against Biden to remain in the Senate for months. There may be an even darker plot at work involving Hillary.

US Banks v Foreign Branches of US Banks


QUESTION: Marty, finally we decided to open a bank account in the USA which is not part of the CRS. But now we do not know which US-bank is safe enough and where to go! You mentioned that Goldmann Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase have derivative exposure linked back to Deutsche Bank. So those banks are not safe enough. The can fail in a contagion. You said also that Wells Fargo has the least derivative exposure.

In another article you said that the BANK of NEW YORK would be good as a custodian. Would the Bank of New York be safe enough in a contagion? The Bank of New York has a branch in Frankfurt. Could we open an USD-account in Frankfurt and still be outside the CRS? Or would this be a major fault.

Would you please give us a hint how to proceed as this choice is way over our head. Which bank is safe and outside of the CRS at the same time.

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and knowledge with us!
GB

ANSWER: Wells Fargo is a bank that is perhaps more accessible. Bank of New York has a big custodian business. Wells Fargo does not have offices outside of the US that provide services to retail or small business customers. Remember that any branches of US banks outside the United States are not part of the Fed system and are not FDIC insured. If you want a retail type of arrangement then Wells Fargo may be better. Bank of America has probably the best facilities for wiring money internationally online.

If you are dealing with a US branch of any bank, it must be FDIC insured and that is per person, not per account or banks. You do not want any account with a US bank’s branch outside the USA for they would be under the control of the local central bank.


NOTE: I do not receive any referral fees from either Wells Fargo or Bank of New York. We do notaccept any commission from banks or brokers for any referrals whatsoever. We maintain our strict policy of no conflicts or interest.

Banks – Interest Rates – Mortgages


COMMENT: Martin, as an avid follower, I took your advice to heart to try to fix our interest rate for the loan we have on our house. This was the answer I got from our direct advisor: “Have looked at your file, you can still enjoy your low-interest rate until 01/12/2020, in other words refinancing is only recommended at the earliest in November 2020. Your capital will then fall to 37,000 euros outstanding, the interest may already rise to 3 % (then you still benefit in November compared to refinance now!) ? Repocrisis is in the USA, Europe is supported by the ECB, which keeps interest rates low? Or am i wrong?” Isn’t this the perfect example of how well people are informed, even those working at the banks? Or do we already see some intended lingering of banks, trying not to get caught on the wrong side of the risk? Thanks for answering or using this in your private blog as a perfect example…

BL

ANSWER: They may have been instructed from above to keep loans floating because the Repo Crisis is demonstrating that rates are under pressure to rise, not fall!

If you have a mortgage that is floating, lock it in with a fixed rate.

Those looking to buy have a dilemma. On the one hand, real estate prices are high in many regions and you can wait for prices to come down before buying. On the other hand, when prices start to tumble it will be the result of an inability to get long-term fixed loans so prices will fall to where people will be able to get loans or pay cash. The solution may be to buy when you can get a long-term fixed mortgage and then hedge it with eventually shorting rates where there will be a liquid marke