Tag Archives: Government run Ponzi Schemes

May 4 2018

The Pension Crisis and Economic Confidence with Martin Armstrong


Published on May 4, 2018

Q&A Discussion with Michael Campbell of “MoneyTalk” Radio from the 2017 World Economic Conference covering the pension crisis and it’s impact on real estate and economic growth.
May 4 2018

Douglas Murray & Nigel Farage On George Soros & Globalisation


Apr 30 2018

What is an Assault Rife?


I spent two months shy of 4 years in the army from 1965 to 1969 first as enlisted and then as an officer. I had one partial tour in Nam where I was wounded and sent home to recover after 4 months in combat. I was qualified with most infantry weapons and used a CAR-15 (Colt Automatic Rifle-15) in Vietnam which was a short barrel version of the M16 riffle. The more modern version of that rifle line is the M4 and a civilian look alike is commonly referred to as the AR-15 Assault rifle. The civilian AR-15 cannot fire full auto even with a “bump stock” add on, it still requires a separate trigger pull for each round fired. In Vietnam on patrol I never fired my CAR-15 on full auto; it’s a waste of ammo in most cases. In the jungle often with no communications you didn’t waste your ammo.

The following is a quick summary of the various kinds of guns or weapons made as simple as possible. Manufacturers and others give brand names and descriptions to models they make and there are all kind of fancy add-on’s most, if not all, are meaningless to the actual function of the weapon; which is feed a round into the chamber and fire it with a trigger pull. Not considered here, are the various kinds of bullets but it must be kept in mind that the bullets are designed to kill, there is no such thing as a safe bullet.

But first I have a test for you, below are the images of two weapons, what is the main functional difference between them, assume they are civilian weapons?  At the end of this post I will give you the answer.

Forgetting muzzle loaders there are really only two kinds of guns (including; hand guns, rifles, machine guns and shot guns) the first and most common kind is where one trigger pull fires one round. The other kind is when a trigger is pulled, and held, the weapon will continue to fire until either the supply of bullets is gone or the trigger is released. Some of the different common names are: machine gun, revolver, semi-automatic, rifle, carbine, long riffle, shot gun and derringer that refer to the means of feeding a bullet into the weapon and the length of the barrel.

Bullets can be placed in one at a time as in a derringer, or 6 in a cylinder that can be placed in the revolver, or a small number from 3 to 8 or more in a feed tube under the barrel of a lever action rifle, or a pump action shot gun, or in a clip of 5 bullets that can be pushed into the opening under the bolt as in the old M-1 Garand rifle of WW II, or in a magazine that holds 5 to 30 bullets or more like a AR-15 or M4 or AK-47, or a belt of bullets held together by small metal clip of 100 or more bullets as in a M-60 machine gun.

The next consideration is how the bullets get into the position to be fired; which can be a rotating cylinder, a hand operated bolt, a pump action, a lever action, a mechanism related to the energy contained in the detonated charge in the bullet that will directly or indirectly cause the bolt to move back into a position where the next bullet can be feed in (commonly referred to as a semi-automatic).

For all practical purposes, from a functional point of view, there are only 4 kinds of guns or weapons:

 

Civilian Weapons (some also used by the military):

1 Semi-automatic single pull and release trigger with a short barrel

2 Semi-automatic single pull and release trigger with a long barrel

Military Weapons: 

3 Full-automatic and single pull and hold trigger with a short barrel

4 Full-automatic and single pull and hold trigger with a long barrel

 

The problem that the people that don’t like the 2nd Amendment, and want to ban guns, have is that there is no way to actually ban “assault” rifles as it does not appear as a type of weapon: it’s a look, not a kind of weapon. It would be like trying banning Kleenex tissue. The closest actual type would be a scout rifle or a carbine which are short barreled rifles. Legislation that these people try to write, as to what constitutes an assault rifle, end up having a great many pages of descriptions as they try and describe something that does not actually exist.

The answer to the quiz is the biggest functional difference between those two weapons is the length of the barrel.

Apr 29 2018

Fully Automatic Assault Van!


Published on Apr 26, 2018

A man in Toronto drives a van into a crowd of people, killing 10. No one calls for banning vans. So why does the left call to ban guns when we all know its people who are the problem?
Apr 27 2018

Armenia Turning to Revolution?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest

Re-Posted Apr 27, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

The protests in Armenia are continuing. Now Al-Jazeera reports that the soldiers are joining the people. Back on April 23rd, Armenia celebrated the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan, the man who had ruled Armenia for ten years as president/dictator and then for a week changing his title to the Prime Minister. Everyone celebrated and shops ran out of champagne. However, the protesters are back on the streets now realizing that you can get rid of the head of state, but the bureaucracy remains. That is our problem in t6he USA where the bureaucracy is trying to overthrow Trump.

As most put it in Armenia, they overthrew the “tsar”, now they are protesting to overthrow Tsarism. The new acting Prime Minister, Karen Karapetyan, represents the status quo ruling Republican Party without standing for election as in the European Commission. Now we can add Armenia to the long list of countries where people are rising up against the establishment.

Apr 23 2018

Tennessee Waffle House Shooter, Travis Reinking, Captured…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on April 23, 2018 by

2:10 p.m. – Authorities say they have arrested a man suspected of storming a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville and fatally shooting four people with an assault rifle.

Authorities announced that 29-year-old Travis Reinking, was taken into custody Monday. Other details were not immediately available. (Via AP)

Apr 22 2018

Has Trump Poisoned the Well?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics

Re-Posted Apr 22, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: At first, I thought you were just pro-Trump. But I have seen you criticize him on a number of things from trade to Syria. Do you think Trump has poisoned the well with regard to politics? What comes after him?

HY

ANSWER: Actually, your question is constructed upon a political fallacy. You assume that ANY politician can really change the game. Many conservatives credit Reagan for bringing down Communism. True, he talked hard and confronted Russia and applied pressure militarily. However, communism was failing. True, he yelled to tear down the Berlin Wall. But proof that this was just coincidence was the fact that China collapsed FIRST – then the Berlin Wall. Economically, you need free markets to further society. It is human ingenuity that creates progress allowing individuals to have ideas and act on them like Facebook. Centralize control by government fails in the creativity department and this is also why big corporations buy startups to get creativity they lost.

To say that Trump has poisoned the nation is a similar fallacy. The nation is HIGHLY divided and it did not matter who stood up against the career politicians – the economy is pushing the change. To blame Trump for the chaos in politics and the nation is the same mistake of attributing the fall of Communism to Reagan.

Socialism is collapsing because the system was never designed properly and politicians will always pursue their own self-interest. As pensions collapse so will socialism.

To blame Trump for the discontent is rather strange. This has been building up for decades. He is the symptom, not the cause. Reagan was also the symptom and not the cause. We have to stop throwing all the blame or credit to a head of state. Nobody can change the global trend. They are simply going to be driven by it. Merkel let the refugees in because she was criticized over her hardline position on Greece. She acted in her own self-interest to try to improve her image. She responded to the failure of the Eurozone by adding to it with the refugee crisis and then tried to force all other members to take their share of her mistake. Merkel responded simply because of the failed design of the Eurozone.

The real crisis is that people think that if they can just get rid of Trump, somehow everything will go back to the way it was. THAT will never happen. We are in a trend that will not conclude under 2032. Trump is a reaction to people getting fed-up with the endless lies of career politicians. This is by no means just in America. I am in Europe and it is getting really bad here as well. The Democrats have embattled Trump over a failed theory that Hillary lost because Putin released emails from a hack that revealed the dishonesty within the party. Nobody ever said that the emails were fake

Apr 19 2018

GUNS FOR CHILDREN


Mr. Rogers has solved the gun violence issue: let’s take away everyone’s guns! It’s only fair, right? WRONG. In his latest FIREWALL, host Bill Whittle takes down the childish naivete behind the gun control movement. Want even more Bill Whittle each week? Become a member at BillWhittle.com! https://www.billwhittle.com/subscribe

Apr 19 2018

Unleash the Dogs of War


Armstrong Economics Blog/War

Re-Posted Apr 19, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, regarding your recent post about War, does this topic also relate to some hidden agenda about decreasing the world population?
Thank you as always for your insight!

Yours, JL

ANSWER: There does not appear to be such a coordinated agenda. This is a few agencies who fear they are becoming redundant like NATO and need to create a situation to justify their existence.  Furthermore, it also involves intelligence and military agencies in a few countries that need to also show their importance. There is no grand scheme to create World War III. This is unfolding as a series of events that are being justified for separate distinct reasons.

Trump needs to appear hardline against Putin to demonstrate that he is NOT beholding to Putin for rigging the elect6ion as Hillary has told the world. Trump is misguided on Trade, as every other politician has been since World War II. That has awakened the sleeping giant of China, whose debt to GDP exceeded 250% going into the end of 2017 compared to 103.7% for the USA going into the end of 2017. It was stupid to attack China for an international trade deficit before anyone took the chance to actually investigate the numbers,

Apr 18 2018

West v Russia


Armstrong Economics Blog/War

Re-Posted Apr 18, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

When government attempt to persuade the people to their side, the rhetoric becomes so blatant it is stunning that so many people just believe what they are told. The typical tactic is always to paint your enemy as some “monster” as Trump just called Assad. You must always demean an opponent and the simple fact that they engage in that tactic exposes the sad fact that this is a deliberate manipulation. When it comes to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the West portrays him as a dictator, strongman, bad person, and some sort of crazed Russian patriot who wants to dominate the world somehow. All this rhetoric is what we call phase ONE, laying the seeds to justify engaging in war.
Here is a Japanese War poster demonizing Roosevelt. You will find that every side issues the same propaganda. This is indeed Phase ONE. You must get the people on your side to support the war effort. To do so, you must absolutely demonize your opponent.
Ther point is not to defend Putin and try to show what is exaggerated propaganda. This is simply a standard method of raising support among your people.  neither going to dispute nor support that characterization. Despite the West’s portrayal that Putin is some sort of “strongman”  seeking to dominate the world, Putin’s popularity at home has only been increased. The sanctions the West imposed on Russia are his badge of honor just as the excessive reparation payments from people into the open arms of Hitler.
The trade sanctions against China are doing the same thing. They create the reverse image that America is the evil power.
These tactics are what lays the seeds for war. Phase ONE is so vital to creating the justification for war. Calling Assad a “monster” with no direct evidence that he even used chemical weapons has been a real joke. There is a pre-disposed agenda to invade Syria. That objective will be nurtured and propaganda is being used to move public opinion against Russia and Syria to justify yet another war for monetary reasons. However, the trade war against China is stirring a sleeping giant. China has never sent an army against another nation in modern times. Attacking China, which will see a recession, means that the people will blame an external enemy rather than internal. That will justify the support for entering the Middle East war.
Ironically, Hillary’s manufactured charged that Putin cost her the election had come back to impose pressure on Trump to demonstrate that he is NOT beholding to Russia. If he takes a hard line, then it would be illogical that he conspired with Russia to win the election. Trump needs to be tough because of Hillary’s false accusations.