When I was a kid, most police were kind, respectful, and actually there to protect society. Sure, there was some towns that were just greedy. My father took a local post as a judge in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. It was the politicians who told him they want the maximum fine for everything. My father refused and quit. It is not even the police who are ticketing people just for fun. There are quotas and pressure to raise money for the politicians. Governments are just going broke. Many of the police they bring in today are not like they use to be. They are much more nasty and aggressive.

All of these trends are alarming from civil asset forfeitures and tickets for everything in Europe where speeding tickets are fined a proportion of your net worth. All of this is seriously wrong and when government turned against the people, this identifies the trend at hand. This is part of the shift from Public to Private and with only 52% of Americans who now trust the police, this reflects how serious this shift on confidence has become. Gallup Polls have been asking this confidence question about trusting the police and the response has ranged fairly narrowly between 52% and 64% since 1993. Now, it is at historic lows of 1993.

The attempt to raise revenue with red light cameras has exposed unbelievable corruption. Private companies pay to install the cameras for a cut of the fines. Florida Supreme Court ruled that it is NOT legal for the cities to continue to issue Red Light Camera Tickets in the manner in which they have been issuing them. In the Ohio hamlet of New Miami, the town was ordered to pay back $3 million in automated traffic fines levied against drivers along the stretch of highway the town straddles.

The former chief executive of Chicago’s first red-light camera vendor was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and over $2 million in restitution for paying bribes to a city official to help procure the contracts.

New Jersey has the strictest yellow timing provisions in the country as a result of concerns that cameras would be used to generate revenue; they have a statute specifying that the yellow time for an intersection that has a red light camera must be based on the speed at which 85% of the road’s traffic moves rather than be based on the road’s actual speed limit.

Fremont, California is proposing to reimburse drivers who collectively received more than 1,000 red-light camera tickets during a period when it inadvertently shortened the time they could cross on yellow signal lights through a couple of  intersections.

The list of states going after red-light cameras is indicative of the entire problem that as government go broke, they fine people, raise taxes, and confiscate property. This is all part of the shift from Public to Private Confidence

QUESTION: Hi Martin, I am a long time reader and so appreciate your daily blogs, You have taught me so much about the global interconnectivity of markets and human nature of the “herd”.Thank you for your life dedication to the pursuit of Truth and justice. You are appreciated more than you know.

My question is that many other economists disagree with you, in particularly —– —-, who believes fervently that Gold is something that will wipe all of us small people out in the coming crash. Can you please explain to us small people who have nothing to hang onto but your words of wisdom and your life long experience of what we need to do as this all reveals itself, with the EU et al, and Debt servicing unwinding worldwide.

Thank you, so much Martin for all your knowledge and your life’s dedication to life, liberty, and justice. I hope to attend your next seminar for the first time ever. I am saving to attend as I like others cannot afford to be caught on the wrong side of what is unfolding and must learn from the ONLY person in the world I trust that is telling us the truth about what is unfolding and how we small people must protect ourselves.

I wish you the best in Health peace and happiness

A

ANSWER: I really do not see where such analysis comes from. If the stock market crash, gold crashes, and everything turns to dust, what goes up? Dollars?

The problem lies in the fact that they are all following Karl Marx. Not that they are communists or even socialists. Marx changed economics. He fought against Laissez–faire and won. It is like putting someone on the witness stand. You then ask the question: “So when was the last time did you beat your wife?” That now sets the agenda. You will respond swearing you never beat your wife and your wife will say no he never did. The cunning lawyer will tell the jury she is not to be believed because she would lie fearing she will only be beaten again.

This is what Marx did. He said government has the right and the power to control the economy to eliminate the Business Cycle. Every economic theory ever since including Keynesian Economics, has all continued down that path. Government is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. It can be omnipotent and rule the world.

I have produced a major report, which traces how gold responded through all sorts of events. Sometimes it has rallied, and other times it has failed. The underlying facts are important. During the Civil War, year gold rallied sharply into 1864. However, when the war was over, gold fell, but the stock market then took off big time.

I can find no instance in history where the combination of events of the stock market and gold crashing within everything turning to dust ever existed for a brief time, but that is when cash rises in value and you get deflation – money up assets down. But given the Sovereign Debt Crisis we face, I really see nothing like that on the horizon.

This will be put online next week. It was included in the Hong Kong Conference.

QUESTION: Cyberattacks vs. Cash elimination – an argument against eliminating cash. Hello Mr. Armstrong, it is quite apparent that no government, no financial institution, Anti-virus software developer, or either ‘whatever’ is is really capable to stop cyberattacks. Now these people want to eliminate cash, make larger cash amounts illegal. So theoretically these cyber attackers could/ maybe will, eventually just stop the whole economy. Nobody may even be able to buy food. So instead of eliminating cash, should it not be policy people carry at least a month’s worth of expenses in cash? Your reply should be quite interesting to us, your readership!

Best,

AP

ANSWER: The WannaCry ransom attack is actually variant from a February 2015 sample attributed to the Lazarus Group, a Kaspersky-tracked actor tied to the North Korean government. Parts of the code go beyond shared code. It appears to be written by the same programmer.

Let’s get something straight here. At the core of those responsible is really the NSA and Microsoft itself. The attack exploited a Windows networking protocol to spread within networks, and while Microsoft released a patch nearly two months ago, it’s become very clear that patch didn’t reach all users particularly because institutions often do not install patches fearing that proprietary software may not function.

If behind the curtain we have government demanding back-doors into iPhones and computer so they can listen to everything everywhere, well guess what – so can everyone else. Patches will work for individual users, but not major institutions. Trying to upgrade their operations is a real effort. They are slow to act and thus vulnerable.

The NSA was well aware of this little trick. The real answer is the NSA and FBI must do investigation the old fashion way. Stop asking for secret back-doors that never remain secret very long. The entire world will become vulnerable and they use to counterfeit an adversary’s currency to undermine their economy. Today, if we keep this nonsense up, they will hack into the entire thing and shut it down.

The idea of moving to a cashless society is just insane. Somebody has to give up something here. Trust me – the intelligence community will not take responsibility.

QUESTION: Dear Marty, could the current ongoing deleveraging in China cause Gold and Silver to fall beneath 1000$ (Silver under ?) or is this currently no big deal what`s going on in China? Keep up the good work!

Best regards,

B

ANSWER: There are so many fundamentals out there is hard to predict which one causes what. Combined, they are all a nightmare. What is essential, is if we are going to really rocket up in a major phase transition, you MUST always have the false move first. These are just minor swings creating the false move which is always counter to the ultimate trend. To swing down under the December 2015 low will cause people to capitulate and then you will make a run and swing out to new highs.

With the stock market crash into 2009, this was the PERFECT storm, which was a FALSE MOVE. Even Barrons as last of 2011 ran a story saying tongue in cheek how I was forecasting new highs. They thought it was a joke. That’s because these people have never been traders or students of the market. The chart patterns are always the same regardless of the instrument because you are plotting human emotion – not really that instrument.

The most powerful move up for gold requires a false move of a slingshot proportion.