The Socialist Lie that We have Always had A Growth Economy Since Roosevelt


US GDP Annual Growth Rate 1947 - 2016

A comment by a reader with a philosopher was interesting and delusional at the same time. “Armstrong chose not to seek any compromise but to put all the blame on government. In principle, that’s got to be an absurd point of view. So it seems to me. One more thing, to his alleged factual correlation. Government really began to grow during the Roosevelt years, including the war years, and the economy has been growing ever since. Is your buddy playing fast and loose with history and, hence, with reality?”

Corporations only get influence because they buy government and that is possible only because we have career politicians. Corporations cannot run the world for they compete against each other. We do need government, but an honest one. The only way to achieve that is the shorter terms of office and one time only. It should be more of a citizen government and any conflict of interest is a bar to any office in any capacity. Cruz’s wife works at Goldman Sachs. Hillary will not release transcripts of her speeches for Goldman Sachs. They buy candidates and own Washington, DC. We deserve what we vote for and stupidly believe in. We are the fools who soak up all the lies each and every time and then the press is anything but independent and free.  Hillary has raised tens of millions from the very banks on Wall Street she claims she will stand against. Come on. If that was remotely true, they would not give her a dime. The call Sanders and Trump dangerous because they are not bought and paid for by the bankers.

2017-Budget Deficit

More over, the idea that we have lived in some fantastic socialist era with GDP always expanding is an outright LIE if not a delusional statement by someone who refuses to look at the trend. At the top, is a chart of the government’s own source, the Bureau of Economic Analysis. GDP growth has been declining steadily as taxes rise. Like China, its first blast of GDP growth came at the beginning. It was true for the West as well following World War II. GDP growth has steadily decline to where a good number is less than population growth. Social Security collapses in 2017 as illustrated by this second chart which is also prepared by government. This is the entire problem. People are clueless as to the trend and do not want to open their eyes to reality.

USIntAs%Total

Why do the NY bankers fund the bulk of the candidates? Well certainly to buy their get out of jail free card. There is no possible way they will ever criminally imprison the bankers who have destroyed our future because who would then FUND people like Hillary or Cruz? Secondly, if Socialism is not a bullshit story, then why have we reached at times 70% of the entire national debt is accumulated interest? That money created no schools, roads, fed children, or funded welfare. The bulk of the debt has been interest paid to the bondholders.

Youth Employment

Why is the youth going for Sanders and Trump? Why do we have a generational gap in voting that appeared first even in Scotland? Socialism is collapsing because the older generation have paid into a system they do not want to think about is falling apart when it is time to get their’s. So they live in a delusional world that ignores everything factual around them and cannot see they are robbing their own children of the very life they enjoyed.

 

Total-Government-Expenditure-as-a-Percent-of-GDP-vs-Growth-Rate

This is a chart from the OECD which clearly shows that higher the tax rate, the lower the economic growth. I for one hope the country splits in two and we can build a wall not between Mexico and USA, but between left and right. Let all the left socialists who want to steal from everyone else because they can so they do not have to earn in life, live on one side of the wall and chase each other in circles. The rest of us can live in peace. After all, it is one of the Ten Commandments – Thou shalt not covet their neighbor’s goods. The Pope says building a Wall is not being Christian. That is not one of the Ten Commandments. It is not being Christian or Jewish to drool over robbing other people’s money. Christ did not preach socialism by government force. It is no longer charity when it is involuntary.

In my mind, the legal challenge against Income Tax (which requires the surrender of privacy) is that such taxes violate the First Amendment, Freedom of Religion. Socialism and progressive taxation as well as the coveting and hatred of anyone who has more money violates the Ten Commandments. This is no different from Communism which preached the state is your parent, not your biological parents, and if they said anything against the State, the children were obligated to report them. Marx also said: “Religion is the opium of the people.” Socialists should admit the father of the beliefs and what he stood for – there is no God.

The Edelman Trust Barometer shows collapsing Trust in Government!


ECM-1970-2084

I have stated that Trump is the symptom and he is soaring because confidence in government is collapsing. The 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual global survey that assesses various levels of trust, reveals this shift from public to private as reported by Forbes.

The EU is now past the point of No Return and will began to implode in March


ECM-Euro

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; The World Economic Conference was outstanding. Your theme that Europe was the focal point for the coming chaos has been proven valid with each passing day. You have mentioned this is the time that will begin the collapse in public confidence within the EU even surviving. I must ask. Do you believe if they call you in and followed everything you have said, is it just too late to save Europe?

Thank you so much

PB

ANSWER: Unfortunately, I know how to restructure Europe so it would function, but I do not believe that would even be sufficient at this stage in the game. We have probably reached the point of no return. All that is now left is the crash and burn. Only then will society reform. I simply believe we crossed that line last year. We began a new declining cycle in 2008 and that was the peak in the Euro as well. The start of the real decline in the Euro where mainstream capital begins to question when negative rates can really reverse or stimulate the economy unfolds after 2016.202. This comes into play March 13/14, 2016. This is not my personal opinion. This is just the modeling.

This seems to be so important we will try to put together a video on this matter.

Almost all Income Inequality is caused by Government Taxes!


Social Inequality

QUESTION:

Dear Martin Armstrong,

I appreciate very much your economic analysis and read your blog nearly daily although I disagree with some of your political statements.

In your last blog about Schengen you mention that “Everything is connected and nothing takes place in some isolated vacuum”.  Obvious.

According to me, and many others re-known economists like Joseph Stiglizt or Paul Krugman, one of the problems in the current world is the exponential increase of social inequality and  massive collection of wealth in few hands.

How is it possible that barely the 60 richest people can have the same wealth as half of the population (3.6 billion)? Is this acceptable? What would be the solution in your opinion? Because just free markets will reinforce not decrease the actual trend and you seem to be “socialist”-averse although some sort of redistribution of wealth should be done, I suppose, but how?.

Thanks for your great work

BR

ANSWER: This is a Marxist diversion. It focuses only on the “rich” and ignores the fact that government continues to expand and consume wealth. The “wealth” that everyone points to for the richest people is by no means a product of WAGES, rather it is created on paper valuations of investment. At the same time, that “wealth” dropped $1 trillion just in the January decline this year. It is NOT actual “money” in that sense. It is no different than your home being worth $500,000 one day and then $200,000 a month later.

Total-Government-Expenditure-as-a-Percent-of-GDP-vs-Growth-Rate

“Social inequality” remains the headline grabber, yet the larger government becomes, the lower the economic growth. The OECD itself illustrates this. Higher taxes reduce economic growth, plain and simple. Then we have the average person who is robbed by about 50%+ between income taxes (federal and state), property taxes, fees, tools, and sales taxes. All of this goes to sustain government; it does NOT raise the living standard of the average person. Europe is even worse.

I tried to save Social Security on Capitol Hill. I argued to convert it to a wealth fund and allow it to invest exactly as the “rich” employ their money rather than stuffing it with depreciating government bonds. When I DONATED my time on Capitol Hill, the Dow was 1,000. That would now be 17 times more and amply enough to retired on. Social Security goes bust next year, and with interest rates manipulated lower you will get nothing.

Then the government charges payroll taxes on the average worker. Sure, they hand you a refund check at year-end. So they are borrowing from the average person and NOT paying them any interest. The government robs your ability to save and grow “rich” by stuffing your money in government bonds under Social Security.

Government creates “social inequality” by robbing the poor and middle classes while pretending to care. If we eliminated government federal income taxes, most people would take home at least 30% more.

Tax RobberyThe problem is NOT that the “rich” make money from investment; it is that the rest of society is DENIED the right to invest to get ahead because the government is bleeding everyone dry. Take all the money from the “rich” and we end up with communism, which will not improve your life in the least. So you do not stand a chance of surviving the future unless we start looking at the real culprit here. This is like a baseball game: the pitcher only focuses on the batter while those on base are stealing the next one unnoticed. We need to pay attention before there is no future for our posterity. Thank God I am not 18. I really do not want to live in a world run in this manner. This is not like Star Trek: “Scotty. Beam me up PLEASE!

Monopoly Goes Cashless — The Coming New World Totalitarian Order


Monopoly-Cashless

Well, Monopoly is going cashless. It looks like the game company sees the writing on the wall and are preparing the kids for the new world order — a cashless society.

Is The Pending Euro Collapse on Target From Our 2011 Forecast of March 13/14 2016?


Draghai Euro Crisis

The euro crisis appears to be unfolding right on target rather amazingly. Our target was published in “The Rise and Fall of the Euro” back in 2011. The target for the collapse in confidence was 2016.202. This comes into play March 13/14, 2016. It is rather amazing that we can target a specific event within time, years in advance, and watch these things unfold. This illustrates that TIME remains everything and humanity repeats a process that results in the same response over and over again throughout history. This also demonstrates that our forecasting is not based upon OPINION. With the euro unable to reach 116 of a rebound, this does not look very good in the next few weeks.

Here is what we published in that report:

27th

 

From a timing perspective, the Bretton Woods System actually began with the operational start of the IMF on March 1, 1947 (1947.164). The euro began officially on January 1, 1999 (1999.002). The birth of the euro essentially completed the 51.6-year cycle between 1947 and 1999. The collapse of the euro appears to be due no later than 17.2 years from its birth, making the ideal target 2016.202, just 23.5 weeks ideally AFTER the peak on this current Economic Confidence Model wave 2015.75.

Larry Summers Calls to End $100 Billis — Here Comes the Totalitarian State


Summers Larry

 

$100 2013Larry Summers, the father of NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES, is so against a free society and looks upon us as dumb cattle to be herded and corralled for his pleasure. His ideas are just beyond belief. Now Mr. Pro-Government-Anti-Democracy is advocating killing the $100 bill. He is moving to electronic money so that government can get all the taxes it ever dreamed of. We are rapidly being converted from milk cows to just beef cows. This is creating a completely totalitarian future. With people like this who never had a real job but knows how to dictate to the world, our future looks very bleak.

Summers actually reveals this is really about taxes by arguing that the U.S. government should stop issuing new $100 bills and recall the old ones out of circulation. Keep in mind the government will comply because this is the balloon he is floating at their direction and the press cheers our demise. There is nobody in the press willing to call him out. They prefer to lick the ground he walks on. They give him air-time because that is their role.

Summers went further and suggested that even the $50 bill should be examined. In support of the ECB ending the €500 note, he slandered Luxembourg who objects to ending the €500 note by saying that this minuscule country has a “long and unsavory tradition of giving comfort to tax evaders, money launderers, and other proponents of bank secrecy.”

This proves that withdrawing the €500 note in Europe and the $100 and $50 bills in the U.S. is all about taxes — not crime or terrorism. They are moving to end money as we know it. The problem is that the $100 bill circulates predominantly OUTSIDE the USA. They will take a step closer to eliminating the dollar as the reserve currency, and eventually we will end up with a new one-world currency as early as 2018 but probably by 2020. This is really part of the 2017 G20 accord to tax everyone everywhere.

Thank you Mr. Summers for your persistent dedication to eliminating our freedom and converting the world into a giant totalitarian state, despite admitting the government is incapable of forecasting the business cycle. That means that they are too blind to even comprehend the consequences of their actions today.

$10000-100 - R

Glass-Steagall Signing-Repeal ClintonTIP: Swap your $100 notes in the sock-drawer for $20s. We went from $10,000 to $100 without terrorists or money laundering laws (which now means hiding money from government). Summers will take us down to $1 at best and he wants that gone as well. This guy should be in prison for what he has done to society. He was the cheerleader to get rid of Glass Steagall under the Clintons.

Summers is in the top 10 people who have created the destruction of all our rights and the world economy. The press treat him as royalty. In my book, he is in the class of Adolf Hitler within the Financial arena. Hitler actually began terminating the handicapped because they were a burden to the state. They happened to be veterans from WWI. This is the same attitude of Summers. Eliminate all our rights for his efficient mind to be at peace. What happens when he controls everything, and government is still unable to survive? He will be first among the elite to advocate sending in troops to hunt anyone who dissents from his will. Yes I am being harsh. But this guy has ZERO respect for that cattle he sees out his window any more than Germany terminating veterans because it was a burden to take care of them. Our society which he cannot figure out how it works because he admits it is too “complex” for his mind, never prevents him from trying to manipulate us to his desire. He seems more like a two-year old who get mad they cannot play with a toy and do not like to share. If the economy is too complex to forecast, it is too complex for his manipulation games.

Plagues & Changes in Economics — The Hunt for Taxes


Justinian

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I assume you have studied this hunt for money government goes through. Has it always ended in the collapse of government?

Thank you

PD

ANSWER: No. It really depends upon the economic system in place. There are two comparable plagues that devastated the world population. One ended in oppression and the other gave birth to capitalism. It is like the battle between public and private. It depends on what side you reside when it hits. In a public wave, taxes rise to compensate for the decline in population, whereas in the latter we find the birth of taxation applied to individuals who suddenly are free to earn money.

One of the worst such events coincided with the Justinian Plague (541-542AD) and was a pandemic involving Yersinia pestis, the organism responsible for bubonic plague. This hit the population on a monumental scale, creating a wave of devastation comparable to the Black Death that came about 600+ years later (2 x 309.6), which created capitalism by killing about 50% of the people and ended serfdom by reintroducing wages during the 14th century. It is estimated that about 25 million were impacted on its first wave but recurrences struck, bringing the total death toll to perhaps 50 million. The primary source describing this as a worldwide event in history has come to us from the noted contemporary historian during the 6th century, Procopius of Caesarea (Procopius Caesarensis; c. 500-560 AD).

Justinian-I-solidus follis - r

The Justinian Plague (541–542 AD) resulted in 5,000 deaths per day in Constantinople, but the Emperor responded with massive taxation as the pestilence swept through the known world; notably the Roman Empire. Justinian is remembered for his legal code reforms, but also for massive taxation for trying to restore the fallen glory of ancient Rome by waging a series of military campaigns to retake lands that had been overrun by barbarian tribes. The plague wiped out most of the farming community and impacted the tax revenue of the government. It was taxation that was different from the Black Death. Here taxation was applied to individuals, whereas latter taxes were minimal and applied only to landlords. Justinian showed no mercy whatsoever when it came to the collapse in his tax revenue. Despite the human desolation, Justinian hunted the ruined freeholders. He not only demanded they pay his annual tax even if they had no income, but he increased the tax on those living to compensate for the amount of taxation their deceased neighbors were liable to pay.

Justinian I was rather ruthless when it came to taxation. There was a tax revolt that boiled over on January 13, 532 AD, known as the Nika Revolt, which emerged when an angry populace arrived at the Hippodrome in Constantinople to watch the chariot races. The Hippodrome was next to the palace complex where Justinian could watch from the safety of the palace. The spectators were hurling insults at Justinian for his taxes. Initially, it was a contest between two opposing teams known as the “Blue” and “Green.” After race 22, the chants began to change to Nίκα (“Nika”, meaning “Win!” or “Conquer!”). The crowds became violent, and for the next five days the palace was under siege. They set fires that destroyed most of the city including the church, the Hagia Sophia, which Justinian would impose harsh taxes to later rebuild.

Therefore, in this instance, Justinian I raised taxes on the 50% who survived so his revenue would not decline. Since this was a period of capitalism where individuals earned money for their labor (in socialism/communism the state earns the profit from the labor of the population), taxes were raised on the people. The Black Death ended serfdom as labor became scarce and landlords had to offer more than 20% of the food and a free housing to work their land.

Draghi Lied; Claims the ECB Is Withdrawing the €500 Note for Crime and Not Taxes


500_Euro_Banknotes - R

Mario Draghi has claimed that the European Central Bank would withdraw its €500 highest-denomination banknote only to combat crime— not to curb the use of paper money — but you really cannot expect him to tell the truth. If he really told the truth, he would set off a panic withdraw from banks.

$10000-100 - R

The USA use to print $10,000 notes in 1934. That stopped with Roosevelt and the birth of socialism to prevent people from storing cash to escape taxes. There was no excuse of terrorism or crime. Crime has actually declined. Draghi is simply engaging in political bullshit by denying the truth so he can quietly remove cash from society. Teddy Roosevelt even used recorded speeches for people to listen to during the election of 1912 to press the socialist agenda under the Progressive Party. The night of the election in 1932, there were rumors that Roosevelt would close the banks and devalue the dollar. Hoover begged him to come out and say he would not for the rumor set in motion a banking panic. Those with money withdrew it. Roosevelt came out of the high of the election and lied to the public by saying he would never do such a thing. In fact, if he told the truth, people would have poured into the banks and withdrew their deposits in gold. So he lied, and then demanded all gold be turned over to the Treasury, and then he devalued the dollar in 1934.

So never pay attention to the words of politicians or central bankers. They can never say what they will do for the public will act in a counter-trend move. Draghi is withdrawing the €500 notes for the same reason FDR stopped the Treasury from issuing high denomination notes — taxes; not crime nor terrorism. It has always been about money.

A Generation of Politically Economic Re-education: Wall Street -vs- Main Street….


When I was in college getting my degree in economics I wrote my thesis on a variation of this off shore manufacturing problem that we have today. Moving production out of the country for cheap goods doesn’t work because that was the place the middle class got their jobs. Everyone can’t be a doctor or an attorney and you don’t need many engineers if you don’t make things. The service industry has two components to it i.e. food service and financial service or low skill and high skill with not much in between. The other problem was the services can also be taken over seas so we are left with no jobs but those in government so the bottom line is that the service economic model is based on false assumption and does not work in the long run as we are finding out. The “services” model MUST be replaced and goods production brought back or the country will cease to exist in a few decades.